My son is a little over 9 months old now. My wife asked me earlier today what has been my favorite stage he’s been in so far. My initial answer was all of them, which is the truth. I’ve loved every second of my son being born.
As little sleep, as I got during his few days at the hospital when he was born I loved every second. During the first few months over the summer when I worried about him nonstop and would wake up overnight more than him to check on him sleeping in the bassinet next to our bed, I still loved every second.
However, the time I keep thinking about and missing the most right now is from October – December. This was when he started to be not so fragile and was also much more aware of everything and everyone. I made sure to decorate for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas this year more than I ever have before in my life. He loved it.
He loved looking at all the lights and decorations. Every night I’d walk him around our house and show him everything. Any days or nights when it was warm enough I’d take him outside to look at all the outside decorations. If I was holding him and walking around he’d look at lights and decorations with me for hours.
I put window decals on our front screen door, back door, and kitchen window for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and we’d walk over to the windows together and he’d pat down all of the window decals. He liked touching them. We’d do this every day.
In October, he didn’t always nap well in his crib yet so I would hold him a lot of the time for his naps. I would recline on the couch, turn on a Halloween movie, and watch it while he napped on me. I loved it.
In December, we had this activity table thing where you put him in the seat and it has 2 wheels and he could walk around the table. I’d put him in it right next to the tree and he’d reach for the tree and try to grab anything he could. He was successful quite a few times!
He also started to roll well in December. He could roll across the floor and get to whatever he wanted to. I have a few pictures and videos of him rolling to grab my decorations that he could get to from the floor including some of my blow molds, the candelabras in the window, and the artificial tree I set up in our dining room. I loved watching him do this.
I think the combination of it being my favorite time of the year, my first time experiencing the holidays with my son and him being at a stage in his life where for the first time he could interact with me and his environment made this a time of his life and mine that I wish I could relive again.