I love that Dylan is active, that he surprised us and continues to do so by hitting most of his phsyical milestones early considering he arrived early. I honestly expected him to be a bit behind.

My issue is what to do with him. He's crawling, rolling, and pulling to a stand and is into everything. He doesn't like to be constrained for long (ie. pack-n-play or exersaucer) I'm lucky if I can get the dishwasher unloaded while I have him in one of these.

I'm not sure what I'm not sure what I'm looking for from this thread, maybe some words of wisdom on how it will get better once he is more stable and I don't have to worry about him hitting his head on the wood floors etc. Or maybe some ways to get him to play on his own for longer & in his exersaucer or PnP.

Usually, if he is awake, I try to give him my undivided attention and play with him on the floor, really chase him all over. :lol: So I don't think he is trying to get attention because I know he gets attention. ( Can they even manipulate you like that at 7 months? )

I don't believe so, Erica. He is just a very normal, active boy, which is great! Nikita is the same way, I call him Terminator now. Have you tried the Jumpster? You know, the ones you put on any door frame? he might like that :) Another suggestion would be to separate one room with baby gates, if you have that ability, house structure-wise, and let him go to town with the toys and stuff......

When we went through this (with both kids at different ages) it meant no house work got done at all during the day when it was just me home with the kids...cause they just have this need to explore and don't want to be contained, but it's really not safe to just let them have full run of the house that young. Janelle walked at 8 1/2 months and Kincaid sometimes between 10 and 12 months (dh claims it was 10 months, I say it was 11 1/2 months and I'm the worlds worst mother and didn't write it down in his baby book!). However the stage of getting into everything and such lasted till about 18 months with both of them...

Thanks Lena & Jillian! :biggrin:

We don't have a jumper but I've been thinking of getting one. He's tried one at a friends house and sat in it for 10 minutes or so with all of us staring at him. :lol: Who knows if he'll entertain himself without four adults watching him.

I'm trying to figure out a way to make our basement a very Dylan friendly zone. We really don't have much down here, just the computer and some bookshelves and a futon. I worry about the fireplace though since it has a brick surround that I swear his head is going to meet the coner of one of these days.

I hate to constrain him because I know how much he'd rather wiggle and move but it is really starting to wear on me. Pathetic, I know!

We went to lunch on Friday and met some of my old co-workers and it was pretty much a disaster. :( He just wanted to move. I barely got to eat my lunch and he was whining/screeching almost the whole time. I could hardly wait to get out of there.

Going out to eat has been an issue. It's hard to plan because all the varibles have to be right, fed, napped, and happy. Even then it's still a crapshoot. I know it is unreasonable for him to sit still for 45 minutes or so but he's not even happy in Mama's lap clapping or playing with toys.

erica, do you keep him in the infant carrier? Have you tried putting him in the high chair? I remember we put N in the high chair on Father's Day, so he was 6 mo then...he just LOVED it... I also started putting him in the shopping carts at 5.5 months and he was the happiest baby....

Erica, welcome to the world of first time parenting!!!! :lol: I read your posts and it immediately took me back to when I had Rayna. It is so hard to deal w/, isn't it? Don't worry, you are doing great. :hug99: It is not pathetic at all that you are worn out!!! It would be very hard on anyone, period.

If it makes you feel any better, we went out to eat a few times and then we were done w/ that. It was totally stressful, so we scrapped doing that and said we would just do it later.

As far as getting stuff done, housework had to slide for us. Just had to. When the kids were awake, it is impossible to do it. When they are asleep, I am just too exhausted to pick up the house everytime they went down.

Making a room as child proof as you can is a great idea. There are lots of things out there that you can put around the fireplace. I will look to see what I can find. But being able to put him there w/out any real dangers, w/ his toys/videos, is a very good thing for Mommy. :nod:

I know people may differ on this, but imo an infant at the age of Dylan and Harper is much too young to manipulate. They are just exploring their exciting world every day! This is a very natural part of the first year of parenting. These are the reasons they say that the child's first birthday party isn't for the child at all, but as a congratulations to the parents for surviving it!!!! Hang in there!!!