Wednesday, August 28, 2002

Early to bed...

Having now been to a couple of Mom's group meetings, my Mommy is slowly coming to the realization that thenight-owl lifestyle to which I am accustomed is odd. Apparently, most other mommies at these groups try to get their kids to go to bed relatively early, some as early as 7 o'clock. That would be awful for me, since I'm at my peak energy level about that time. Anyway, Mommy made me go to bed at 10 o'clock last night, which is much earlier than my usual midnight time. At first, I was really annoyed about the whole thing and let Mommy and Daddy know my displeasure. Then, Mommy turned on my soothing symphony toy. It has lotsof neat lights and music and buttons to push. I especially like this toy when my room is dark. The lights really glow. Anyway, I played with this for a while and fially went to sleep.

Now, the flip side to the other mommies success in getting their babies to go to bed at 7 is that they complain their children don't sleep through the night. Gee, I wonder why.

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Mobility

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this whole mobility thing. While I still don't have the coordination completely down for crawling, I can, with a combination of rolling and crablike skittering, make my way all around the family room. If my Mommy has left a piece of paper (ideally a newspaper) anywhere on the floor of the room, I can now almost always make my way to it for "processing'' (crumpling and eating).

Sunday, August 25, 2002

Picture Time

Yesterday, my Daddy took some more pictures of me in my new house and yard. They can be found here. Enjoy!
Voracious Reader

My Mommy and Daddy sure do read a lot. Lately, when my Daddy is watching me in the living room, he oftn has open a big book about Lyndon Johnson. I'm totally fascinated by books, and I like to scoot over to where the book is so that I can "help" with reading. While Daddy seems to get a lot out of the book simply by staring at it and occasionally touching it to turn a page, he's missing the best part of a book--its crumpliness. The way I like to read a book is to touch the pages and try to grab them. When I succeed in getting a page, I like to try to crumple it up and put it in my mouth. Daddy says I'm a voracious reader.

Friday, August 23, 2002

Social Caterpillar?

Well, I got my first taste at socializing with other people my own age and it was a decidedly mixed experience. Thankfully, my Mommy brought along some of my best toys including my chime ball and, my all-time favorite, Mr. Smiley. The other children who were there liked my toys a lot. In fact, they liked them so much that they played with them. I discovered, at that moment, an important fact about toys. If other children are playing with your toys, it means YOU yourself cannot play with them. (I played with and tasted the other babies' toys too, though!) The other odd thing I discovered was that I was not the center of attention. Other Mommys seemed to want to pay more attention to their own babies than to me. This lack of attention left me not feeling like my usual smiling and laughing self. In fact, when my Daddy came home and my Mommy was discussing the outing, she said I was actually a bit shy in this group. Daddy, knowing my winning ways, was skeptical. I'll just have to get used to socializing with other babies.

Thursday, August 22, 2002

Play Group

Today, I'm going to my first play group. My Mommy found this group, called the P-nuts, on the Internet and decided that it's time for me to work my considerable charms on people closer to my own age, rather than merely adults. Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting all the new people.

Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Bumps and Bruises

Yesterday was a hard day for me. See, in recent weeks, I've become much better at sitting up on my own. Still, sometimes I get too excited over a toy or a sound and I forget to keep my balance and topple over. Usually, this is no big deal. Mommy or Daddy puts me back in a sitting position and I get on with my day. Yesterday, though, was not so lucky. Three times yesterday, I had the bad fortune to topple in such a way that I banged my head on the coffee table. This really hurt! After witnessing this, Mommy quickly evicted the nasty old coffee table from the room. Hooray. Unfortunately, I discovered there are other hard things in the room--like the fireplace. Later in the day I toppled over and banged my head on that. Ouch! It's made of brick, so it's even harder than the coffee table. I tried to communicate to Mommy to kick the fireplace out of the room too, but she wouldn't listen to me.

Amazingly though, for all my falls yesterday, I don't have a single bruise.

Monday, August 19, 2002

It's been a busy weekend. Saturday was my Mommy and Daddy's wedding anniversary. They've been married for 11 years. This seems like an impossibly long time to me. Heck, I haven't even been on this Earth for 11 months. To celebrate, they went to a restaurant called Il Fornaio, which means the baker in Italian. It was a very nice place with linen tablecloths and such. I was sorely tempted by the tablecloth. It looked fun to grab and pull and eat. Still, I got a pretty good consolation prize---the waiter supplied my with a good helping of cloth napkins, which are also fun to grip and chew. Eventually the conversation became boring for me, and I went to sleep throughout much of the meal.

Earlier that afternoon, I got to spend some more outside time with my Daddy. Since it is so sunny here and my skin is sensitive, Daddy has to erect shady areas of various sorts. In this case, he found our beach umbrella and kind of rested it on the ground to form a shady sopt for me to play in. I like to play outside. I got to play outside again on Sunday.

My Daddy also decided to try to feed me solid food. Now, thus far, I really don't see much point in switching to this kind of food in lieu of the tried and true bottle. Still, Daddy did make it fun and he was nice enough to heat the little bowl of oatmeal up so it was palatable for me. While we ate inside on Saturday, we ate outside on Sunday and made a BIG MESS. That was fun.

I also got to go in my pool for the first time on Sunday. It's a bigger pool than the one in my Nain's yard. I love to kick and splash around.

Thursday, August 15, 2002

Au Natural

Yesterday evening, I had a real treat. I got to lounge around in the backyard naked with my Daddy (who wasn't naked) and watch the sunset. Despite the fact that I'm a baby and am not the least bit embarassed about being naked anytime or anyplace, I get few opportunities to be wild and free. Well, our big backyard is perfect for this activity. The highlight was watching the big, bright moon as it came up.

Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Loneliness

My Mommy and Daddy are simply too busy right now, and they're not paying enough attention to me. At first, I thought the unpacking box thing was just a fad that would pass quickly. But here it is, almost two weeks later, and they still seem fascinated with unpacking those darn boxes. Sure, they bring me in the room to watch them unpack, but this is not the kind of high-quality, broadway-style entertainment to which I am accustomed. Even worse, they both spent last night reading the California driver's manual! How could they find this a better passtime than playing with me? It's inconceivable! My Mommy says that she needs to read the book so she can drive in California. Well, she can already drive, and quite well. I've seen it, I've been with her. I'll be glad when all this moving stuff is done and they have more time for me.

Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Bumps and bruises

I've noticed a key difference between our new house and all the places I've lived before this---the floors are hard. While my Mommy was working in the office, I was sitting on my play mat and playing with my Pooh dice (Daddy says they will help me earn a living as a gambler). Anyway, I sort of lost my balance and landed face first on the hardwood floor. Ouch. They don't call is HARDwood for nothing. My Mommy quickly came to the rescue and got me some ice to put on my face. The ice was actually really interesting in and of itself. It's cold, it comes in a swell washcloth, and the whole package is fun to chew on. Thankfully, while my face is a little red, I didn't get a big bruise. This is good because I always want to look my best for the ever-present camera.

Monday, August 12, 2002

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

On the theory that you're never too young to benefit from an education, my Mommy signed me up for my first class this past weekend. It seems that in September I'll be attending a music and movement for babies class. Supposedly, I'll be able to play Moonlight Sonata and dance all the latest Swing steps by the time the class is complete. (Or maybe not.) I was dancing to Sinatra with my Daddy this weekend. I think part of the class is simply to counteract the effects of dancing with him (since he dances like the Elaine Benes character on Seinfeld). Still trying to master the intricacies of solid food. My Mommy made me a thicker mixture of the rice cereal on the theory that since I didn't like the thinner version, there was nowhere to go but thicker. I ate a few mouthfuls just to please her, but I still prefer to eat the efficient way--via bottle.

Friday, August 09, 2002

Frustration

I've led a pretty stationary life as long as I can remember. Sure, I get to move around when Mommy or Daddy picks me up or when I'm in a car or a plane, but I want to move when I feel like moving. I have this idea that moving requires that I get up off the floor and propel myself, but I haven't exactly worked out the details. So far, my method is to push out with my arms and legs all at once. This lifts me way high up in the air, my body suspended above the ground. Now for the tricky part: Somehow, from this position I want to be able to move. I feel like I should be able to move, but it never seems to work. I've tried kicking outward with my legs while my arms remain in a locked position. No luck. I've tried reaching forward with my arms while my legs remain locked. This is even worse because it often results in my faceplanting in the carpet. I just can't seem to figure it out. It's frustrating!

Thursday, August 08, 2002

Inchworm

I've learned a new trick, how to be an inchworm. To move forward (a little), I stand on the tips of my feet with my head and arms firmly planted on the ground. Then I push hard with my feet and voila! I move forward a tiny bit. Much like my backwards motion, this way of moving does suffer from the drawback that I cannot see where I am going (since my head is in the ground), but it sure is fun.

Lately I've also been enjoying the sound of my own voice. Yesterday afternoon I stood in my ultrasaucer occasionally looking up at the ceiling fan (these are endlessly fascinating) and had a shriek-fest. I was having a high old time with high pitched squeaks, gurgles, and lots of other sounds. My Mommy would occasionally come in to check that I was okay after hearing these sounds. I was more than okay, I was great!

Wednesday, August 07, 2002

Picture Time
I've posted a lot of new pictures to the net. This album contains pictures of me with my Mommy and Daddy's friends Kim and Doug along with their two kids Amanda and Harry. Harry and I are about the same age. This batch are all the other pictures my Mommy and Daddy took of me (using the digital camera) when I was back east.

Tuesday, August 06, 2002

It's been very busy around here these last several days, so I didn't have time to get my Daddy to help me with my weblog. Happily, things are starting to settle down. First, I've gotten to try several new things. First, I graduated to sleeping in my own room in my crib. No more sleeping in the same room as Mommy and Daddy in the pack and play. I'm a big boy and need my independence. Of course, they have a baby monitor on, so they keep close tabs on me even when I'm out of sight. Second, I had my first attempt at eating solid food. My Mommy put me in my highchair and fed me something called rice cereal. While biting on the spoon was interesting, I don't really know what to do with the stuff that's surrounding the spoon. My Mommy keeps asking me to eat the stuff surrounding the spoon, but it seems so inefficient compared to enjoying a nice bottle. So while I've found this eating stuff an amusing exercise, I"m still a bottle man. Another milestone---I rolled from my front to my back for the first time about three days ago. I might have been assisted by the close proximity of a box (boxes are everywhere!) to enable me to flip over, but still I did it. I have not managed to repeat the feat though. Well, that's about it. I'm enjoying the new house and the nice weather even if it is filled with boxes.