Stripes

He's half naked, in just his new BabyLegs from Baby Loves Disco, so he could cool off a bit from his fever last night, poor little guy.

Snake Charmer

He got this snake from the Hilberts last week and carried it around for hours on end. Here he is at the park, crawling around with it firmly in one fist. Unfortunately, we've already lost it.

Moose

Nonnie is visiting (thus the lack of posts, lately) and moussed his hair.

In and out

He's been exploring putting toys into and taking them out of containers.

He's also turning into a serial toy monogamist. After picking up a particular toy, he'll carry it around with him for hours, even if crawling with it is awkward. Yesterday is was a bright green plastic ruler. Today a slotted wooden spatula, which accompanied him to his morning nap, and was firmly in his fist when I went in to pick him up.

Cruising

He was charming the staff and customers at the corner coffee house today. I was worried going there just the two of us without our mom posse would be too boring for him and he'd act up, but everyone was so into him that he had plenty of people to interact with. When he wasn't talking to someone, he was walking along the low bench in the sun room.

Weeeee!

Meanie

The way his face presses against the plexiglass makes it look like he's growling.

New eating ritual

Pick up one Oatio (or Joe-O) between forefinger and thumb, bring it carefully up to his mouth, bite it in half with his front teeth, and hold the remaining half out for examination.

Cripes!

In other news, Xander is climbing stairs now. Last week, I rounded the corner at Maria's house to see him standing on the first step giggling and on his way up the second. He proceeded to climb the whole flight, laughing all the way.

Quote from yesterday

"You look very nerdy, sitting there in your atom ray gun t-shirt holding that mug of equations."

"Thank you."

D'oh!

Threadless is having a sale, where most of their shirts are $10 AND they've just come out with several new kids shirt designs. That would be great, except I just used my birthday gift certificate a few days ago. I could have got another shirt or two, damn it!

Wild Child

Bill let him play on the bed the other night and within moments he had trashed the neat piles of laundry I had folded and was crawling around with my panties in his mouth. There is no turning your back on him.

Plotting

CIMG1275
Originally uploaded by blahdiblog.

Hmm, how best to bend the parental units to my will?

Star

Xan Stuff

1. He's always been easy to dress and months ago started helpfully pushing his arms through his sleeves when you put his hands near their openings. Now when you're putting on his coat, after the first arm goes in its sleeve, he holds his other arm behind him in anticipation of that sleeve. He does something similar when being strapped into his hook-on chair.

2. I've started taking him in the shower with me. It keeps him in my sight and contained, while rinsing any mess the night or morning produced. He really has a great time crawling around and doesn't seem to mind the water falling on his head. He is particularly fascinated by the shiny silver drain cover and water faucet. I think one of those protective covers is in our future, as well as a toilet paper lock. Maybe put on his birthday list, or is that too boring for a present?

3. I haven't been able to get it on video, but often when crawling he raises his right arm very high and dramatically smacks the ground with every lurch forward. The left hand not so much. If he gets to excited, he tries to go faster than his arms will carry him and does a face plant.

4. I brought home some Duplos from the Clothing Exchange this week. You should have seen Bill's face light up when he saw them. I knew he would be excited and was surprised and a little disappointed at his lack of reaction when I phoned him to tell him I found them. Turns out he wasn't really paying attention and just thought I was talking about a brand of clothes. When he got home and saw the treasure, he immediately set to making a fort. A rather shoddy fort, due to a very high proportion of single blocks so the walls were not actually snapped together for most of their length. But that was fine, because it was cute to see Xan smash it to bits by crawling through it later. After the fort construction, Bill began a catapult assault on Xan by launching unused blocks at him. The catapult was in a somewhat unorthodox location outside of the fort, opposite from Xan, with the missiles launched completely over the fort and occasionally landing in it. It couldn't be helped, as the fort was somewhat too small to accommodate any weaponry. Direct shots were met with peals of laughter, Xan being relatively impervious to lightweight plastic projectiles hitting his legs at a low speed. It was hysterical, and was the first time it felt like we were having a great time playing together as a family.