Avery is crawling very quickly these days. We have to keep a close eye on him downstairs as he gets into mischief. One of his favorite spots is the pantry. Anytime the door is open he’ll charge towards it with a big grin on his face and if we don’t close it before he gets there he’ll start splashing around in Commodus’ water bowl. The toilets will be next.
He’s also taken an interest in the kitchen cabinets and drawers. We gave him his own drawer to play with and for the most part he focuses on it.
Commodus is being a good sport and lets Avery chase him around. Commodus is very tolerant of Avery, in part because Avery likes to throw Cheerios at Commodus from his high chair.
In between outfits.


Dancing with Mama.

On Thursday night Avery got sick. He threw up a number of times and had some diarrhea. Eventually he got to sleep around 2:00 AM after four mini-bathes to get cleaned up. Lindsey and I felt horrible and even after Avery fell asleep, we spent most of the early morning hours listening to the baby monitor in case he got sick again.
In the morning he still wasn’t able to keep any pedialyte down so I called the doctor and got an appointment for lunch time. Our biggest fear was that he was getting dehydrated which can happen pretty quickly in little babies. It turned out he was only mildly dehydrated. Lindsey and I were relieved.
The doc told us to keep Avery on a mixture of pedialyte and gatorade (to make the pedialyte yummy tasting) for a couple days. He also said to completely avoid breast milk because the fat in it makes diarrhea worse since it has to be broken down by the GI tract. This was interesting advice, because most of the websites we looked at said to keep breast feeding. We’ve been following the doctors advice for the most part. The antibodies in the breast milk are good, but if it just makes the baby more dehydrated then it’s not solving the problem. Avery is getting plenty of fluids now and has energy to play.
[Update:] This morning Lindsey was sick when she woke up so we’re going to delay our trip to Texas for a day or so. I’m hoping I can avoid catching the bug.
Back on his feet last night.

Playing with Commodus earlier on Thursday.

Over the past few weeks Avery has been working on pulling himself up the bottom two stairs, reaching the bottom landing. He finally had success in a grand way.
Earlier this afternoon he climbed up the bottom two stairs to reach Lindsey. Then just a few minutes before bedtime, he started climbing in pursuit of one of Commodus’ toys. Each time Avery got a step closer to his target, Lindsey moved it up a couple more steps. Several minutes later, Avery summited the stairs and sat proudly with Mommy!

On Sunday we took Avery to Washington Park in Seattle. He went on a swing for the first time. He was also kind enough to pose for some eight-month pictures with his parents. Here are our faves.

Naps usually start with a few minutes of fussing before Avery settles into a slumber. This afternoon the crying persisted. When we went to peek in on him we found an unhappy little boy sitting up on his knees, clinging to the crib rail. After the photo-op Lindsey plucked him out of the crib, and I proceeded to lower the mattress. The top rail will be a little harder to reach for a while.
I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised to find Avery in such a predicament. He’s also been trying to climb up the stairs. He reaches with his arms and pulls himself up, but hasn’t figured out how to boost himself onto the first step yet. Instead he bounces on his knees in an effort to propel himself. It’s very entertaining to watch.
Help! I’m up and I can’t get down!