We spent two weeks at my mother and stepfather's farm with the baby and a change of scene brought lots of new leaps forward.
First of all, me and my husband went out for lunch, twice, without the baby - for the first time in 9 months. Admittedly, we spent most of our time out talking about how sweet our (absent) baby is - it's true what they say, absence does make the heart grow fonder. But to just be the two of us with no baby in tow was a novel feeling and very pleasant. As with our childminder, leaving the baby with someone else gives you confidence to do it again - nothing dreadful happens and really they have a pretty good time! We're setting up a babysitting club with our NCT group shortly (poker chips give you hours to trade) so we hope to make it a more regular occurrence.
Meanwhile, the baby learnt to 'see' animals. I often point out cats and dogs we come across round London but he used to blank them. A trip to the zoo resulted in the same treatment of giraffes - even though they were right there in front of him, towering several metres above us. But on the farm he met horses, donkeys, sheep, dogs and puppies, cats and kittens, chickens and chicks, ducks and ducklings. He did his best to avoid his toes being nibbled by the donkeys while the cats did their best to avoid being nibbled by him. Yesterday, sitting on our front step waiting for his Daddy to come home, a dog walked by on the other side of the road with its owner. "Dog" I said, as I've been doing for months. He stared at it, grinned broadly, and frantically tried to stand up so that he could watch it as it walked further away.
Another baby staying at the house, one month older, inspired him to try new things. She ate new things, he looked at her and ate them too. She could pull herself to standing via the furniture and he promptly headed for the furniture and tugged at it, trying to hoist himself up. She could crawl, and he redoubled his efforts. His foot still seems to get in the way and he has resorted to Commando-style crawling (arms only, dragging his legs behind him) to get where he wants to get to, but having a role model made a difference. A new baby is starting at our childminder's, who is just four months older, I think he will continue to provide inspiration for new adventures.
These experiences make sense. He saw things another baby could do, he had time to experience animals up close for a prolonged period and he spent time with his grandparents before he was left with them so he was comfortable with them, so none of these events are really surprising.
But while we were away we missed two swimming classes. One of the skills they are being taught is to 'hold on' to the side of the pool, a safety measure should they ever fall in. Before we left he would place his hands on the edge and hold on, but he had to have a knee under him to hold him up and he was doing nothing to support his own body in that position. The day after we flew back was swimming class. "Hold on" we said, and he gripped the side firmly, put his feet against the side of the pool and hoisted himself forward. The teacher told me to let go and there he was, holding onto the edge of the pool, head clear of the water, keeping himself safe all alone. I was astonished. I had expected him to perhaps not remember some of the exercises, even maybe to be a bit scared by the regular dunking underwater. But he had moved on leaps and bounds. The change of scene must have been building up some new pathways in his mind.
