Kids: Ephraim

Ephraim is nearly one year old! He will turn one a week from tomorrow.

He hasn't grown much in a few months. He's been in 6-9 month clothing since about 4 or 5 months! He has maybe gotten a bit longer, but that's about it. He’s extremely strong and “scrappy” you might say. We’ve always been impressed at his strength. Developmentally, he is on target for his age, especially considering his prematurity at birth.

Last week we started Ephraim on solids. For a week or two I began to feel like he needed a bit more than I could give him. He was fussier than normal- unbearably so, and seemed no longer contended most of the time. So I gave him some banana. I can't say that I noticed it did a whole lot of good as far as the fussiness goes and it definitely irritated his digestion, but I can say that he loves it!!

Since starting on food he has had avocado, pear, carrot, sweet potato, a bite of a cookie (Steven did that out of extreme desperation at church), little bites of oat bread, and green beans. Now he's doing pretty well with it and he loves to eat. When I'm holding any kind of food he will practically throw down his paci and open his mouth wide and grab for it. It's hysterical! I'm comfortable enough now to let him have little bites of other foods and he seems to enjoy that. I don't think we'll be in the baby food/purees stage for very long!

I half-expected starting solids to decrease our nursing sessions a little bit but so far that hasn't really happened. If anything, he has increased- especially at night (He had previously been sleeping through the night for the most part!). For some reason he seems to need the added comfort of frequent nursing. His favorite thing to do is "boob hop." He switches sides about every two seconds unless he starts really getting some milk. He does this both before and after he gets the bulk of his feeding. It drives me CRAZY, but I can't really keep him from doing it.

Ephraim only has 2 teeth, but I keep thinking more will start poking through any day, especially with how fussy and clingy he has been lately! I've never had a child be as clingy to Mama as Ephraim is. Even Daddy isn't always good enough for him. He wants MOMMY and no one else. It's nuts! I'm hoping this is a phase because just a few weeks ago he wasn’t clingy. It was like a switch turned off (or on?) when he hit about 10 months and now he no longer tolerates the very act of my putting him down to play or handing him to anyone else. So most of the time he is on me.

He's a good little sleeper and sleeps in his own bed (in the room he shares with Will) and sleeps well. He moved out of our room at about 9 months and immediately started sleeping better. Ephraim just wasn't cut out for co-sleeping as much as the others. He does not like to be disturbed at night and when Steven and I would get into bed or dare to move or breathe in Ephraim's direction during the night he would wake up and fuss. In his own bed he sleeps almost all night except to get up to nurse. (Once or twice.)

Ephraim doesn't like to play in the floor much because… well… that would require me to put him down; but when he does, he's a pretty decent crawler. He has pulled up some also. He likes to play with toys and watch his older siblings play and run around like the silly monkeys that they are.

He's a very sweet and very cuddly baby, but he's also a Mama's boy and doesn't like to be too far from me. I think now that he's getting food and will hopefully start putting on a bit more weight and growing some more, he'll get a little less clingy and a bit more independent. Let me just say that babywearing has come in very handy with this one!