National SYODT week!

Welcome to National "Suck Your Own Damn Thumb" Week. Nate is so used to chewing on our thumbs that he hasn't mastered his own yet. So I have cut off his supply of thumbs. I know he can stop anytime he wants to, but he hasn't wanted to, so I have to bring the hammer down.

Yes, I can hear you all: why do you want him to suck his thumb? The orthodonture! The embarassment! The issues! Blah! Blah!

I. Don't. Care. The kid needs a way to soothe himself, and he won't take a pacifier (see my previous 117 posts), so the thumb it is. And with my new policy of only taking parenting advice from people whose children turned out well (Hi Bess!), I'm doing what I think is right for him. You show me a 15 year-old who still sucks his own thumb (in public, anyway) and I'll go ahead and just cut Nate's off now.

Other things going on here:

Nate can now grab his toes and play with them. He tried to pull his foot to his mouth tonight and it sprang back down - looks like he inherited our inflexibility. Stewart can't even cross his legs (really!) and I haven't been able to touch my toes since, well, ever. You can see why my figure-skating career never went too far.

He's rolling over pretty easily now - back to front. Evidentally this is harder than front to back, but he can't seem to pull that one off. When he's on his belly, and unhappy about it, he puts both legs and arms in the air - he looks like a very unhappy baby parachuting from a plane.

He had his first taste of sweet potatoes tonight, mixed into his rice gruel. Did I mention we'd started him on cereal last week? He didn't seem particularly put off, or particularly ecstatic. I can't suppose that anything masks the taste of that rice gruel. It's like concrete. It takes me 5 minutes to un-cake it from his face in the bath. I've started feeding him naked - it's just easier.

Sleeping is still pretty lousy, but getting better. The cereal may or may not be helping. This whole parenting thing is pretty nebulous, so I'm never sure if what I'm doing is having any effect. But he's still alive, and all extremities are still attached, so I can't be doing too badly.

Wow, I've already turned into one of those realistic parents! I shrug my shoulders in the face of criticism! I chart my own course! Go me.