1) The single most important happening of the month was Fuzzy's tooth breakthrough. On December 8th, we attended my boss's holiday party, where the baby charmed all assembled by sucking on any jewelry, shiny object, or beer bottled that happened to be offered to him...or even those thoughtlessly waved in his general vicinity. When one of the ladies he was flirting with tried to disengage him from her necklace, she found a hard little nubbin on his lower gum that had gone unnoticed by his stellar parents. Or I should say, unnoticed by me - apparently The Pit had spotted it several days before, but didn't think it warranted mentioning.
Anyway, two weeks later, when we arrived in California for our winter vacation, that nubbin had expanded to a full one and a half teeth, which the Fuzz promptly utilized to chomp me while nursing. I was taken rather aback, and in fact screamed quite loudly both times he did it. Each time I screamed, his expression progressed from surprised to offended to full-on crying in a matter of seconds. I gathered him up and apologized for scaring him, but apparently as a behavioral therapy it was quite effective - I haven't been bitten since.
2) In other mouth-related developments, Fuzz also learned to make two new noises - a sort of clicking sound and a lip smacking noise. I haven't noticed any pattern with the clicking, but he definitely makes the lip smacking sound after eating, which is particularly humorous when he's just finished nursing from the boob.
3) I think I mentioned previously that Fuzzy likes to be lifted high on our shoulders, where he can survey the room from a different angle. Well, now that he seems sturdy enough, The Pit has also taken to tossing him up in the air and then catching him under the arms - and judging by the squeals of delight, Fuzz loves this activity very very much. He's actually too heavy now for me to toss him, so the two of them have a fun father-son bonding game.
4) Another recent game Fuzzy enjoys is hiding under a blanket. We cover up his face, pretend to lose him, and then either uncover him ourselves, or wait for him to sweep the blanket aside. Each time he is revealed, Fuzzy smiles hugely, clearly incredibly proud of himself for being found.
5) In less fun milestones, there's definitely been in an uptick in clinginess and separation anxiety. As Maya likes to say, "his biggest enemy now is loneliness " And oh, how quickly does his enemy strike. Fuzz used to be okay playing in his crib unattended for upwards of 20 or 30 minutes - but starting shortly after his six month birthday, he began having trouble being alone. After 30 seconds we hear crying, and if somebody does not return to the room to pick him up, the crying quickly escalates to heart-breaking wailing, followed by full-on clawing at his face in tantrum within a minute or two.
And after that one great party outing where he took being handed around the room completely in stride, he also began to exhibit stranger anxiety - which was a wonderful development for our vacation, where we had ever so many volunteers willing to hold him, if only he could be induced to let go of mom or dad.
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