Where developmental progress is concerned, it’s usually difficult to see what Baby is doing differently from one day to another or from one week to the next. You notice, of course, that he eventually learns to shake a rattle, or sit up on his own, or feed himself. But looking back, it’s hard to say how long it took him to learn the new skill. It’s also hard to say exactly how he’s changed and progressed in the last weeks or months. The daily changes are subtle, and taking time to notice them usually takes second place to the daily business of feeding, bathing, napping, and entertaining.

Traveling to France was a big upheaval in our daily routine, which somehow resulted in my taking much greater notice of where Loulou was developmentally at the beginning of that 2 week period, and where he was at the end. The difference is remarkable:

• He went from being able to either push himself up on his arms or stick his butt in the air when lying on his stomach to heaving himself up into a quadruped position. He also began a backwards, non-directed crawl. This, despite that I could never put him down on any floors in France. The only time I tried, he promptly fell over backward and cracked his head on the tile.
• He began the separation anxiety phase. Whenever he saw me, he would insist that I be the one holding him. If I didn’t take him, he would do that high pitched whine which I have determined to be the most annoying sound ever. Even his father was no consolation. This clinginess was (still is) very exhausting. Cedric has already learned to use it to his advantage (“but he needs his mommy, the poor child!”). How I relish the day when Baby will go through the I want only dad phase.
• He figured out that rattles, well, rattle
• He started eating with appetite. Before we left, he was eating barely half a jar of baby-food a day. In France, he began demanding three-course meals with an espresso to cap it off. Oddly, his appetite seems to be waning again now that we are home. Is the superiority of French cuisine already evident in the baby food?
• He memorized his multiplication tables up to the sixes, and got a good grounding in long division with single-digit numerators.

Ha ha ha ! La supériorité de la cuisine française est indubitable !
En maths en tout cas, il est plus doué qu'Iris, félicitations !
:-D