And here is the fake sneeze we were actually trying to capture. Isn’t he
a sweetheart?
Last week, David was fake sneezing. We thought it was so funny that we
decided to videotape it. While going through the footage we took, we saw
this little scene where David’s trying to pull the broken, green leg of
a toy and struggling really hard with it. When Jake laughs at him, David
notices that we’re noticing him and gives this fantastic nervous laugh.
It makes me laugh each time I watch it so I wanted to share it. Maybe
you have to be his mom, but even if it’s just for my enjoyment, I wanted
to preserve this moment.
I’ll post the actual fake sneezing video next.
When David stopped waking up every 35 minutes, we made a pact never to
go into his room in the middle of the night and with few exceptions
we’ve stuck to the rule. Lately, our little boy picked up two
interesting habits that make us wander what he does behind closed doors.
First of all, he randomly wakes up at all hours and shrieks like his
eyeballs are being plucked right out. The sounds are so scary that
you’re convinced he must be bleeding. However, two seconds after I walk
in, he’s in great humors and pointing to the door and making the
enthusiastic sounds of “please let me out so I can play.”
Secondly, he has managed to master zippers, pants, diapers and any
other forms of clothing such that he can go from fully dressed to stark
naked within seconds. He loves doing this during naps and in the morning
before we even know he’s awake. For all we know, he does it in the
middle of the night. What we do know is that we come in and he’s naked.
The bed holds what would usually be so well covered by the diaper. Add
to that, the fact that David loves pooping first thing in the morning
and you should have a good visual of our morning surprises.
To get a better sense of exactly what’s going on behind the dark, closed
doors, we just bought a baby video monitor. This lets me watch David all
night long and it has quickly become my favorite channel.
The trip to Turkey has been quite the growing experience for David. He’s
learned to go up and down staircases. He’s learned to play pee-a-boo. He
learned that when you run up and down a room with a metal grate, if you
fall, you hurt yourself pretty badly. He discovered playgrounds and slides.
He’s also started to exhibit a lot more toddler behavior. When you don’t
give him something he wants, he covers his face and turns his back to
you. He crunches up his eyebrows and gives you a look that defines
“That’s not fair!” He stomps his feet. He throws himself on the floor
and complains. He has adopted a variety of faces from “Oh, Come On!” to
“You’re Mean.”
Despite the recent behavior, he’s still pure joy to be with and poses
quite well.
When I was pregnant, I was determined to use Sign Language with David
when he was born. Jake and I went to a book reading on Baby Sign and
I was all gung-ho about it. Somewhere along the line, I was told it’s
best not to start until babies are six months old. So I didn’t start
right away. By the time he turned six month old, we had serious sleep
problems, we started introducing solids and there was way too much
going on for me to think about Sign Language.
A few months ago, I decided to stop feeling so disappointed in myself
and start signing little by little. As opposed to the typical fist
signs like “more”, “change”, and “food,” I picked “show me.” David
often walked into the kitchen and screamed and when I didn’t go see,
he’d come to the living room and scream until I got up and walked
with him back to the kitchen. Each time, he came into the living
room, I’d sign “show me” and I walked back with him. He didn’t seem
to pay much attention, but I kept doing it anyhow. It wasn’t out of
determination as much as boredom. Gave me something to do on the way
to the kitchen and distracted him slightly so he wouldn’t scream as
much.
Two weeks ago, he did the same screaming for something routine but
this time he signed. I thought I was hallucinating and he didn’t do
it again that day. But he did the next day. This time, it was so
clear, I was sure he was actually signing it. Over the last week, he
has become proficient in signing “show me” and uses it constantly. He
also started using “milk” which is a welcome replacement to the
previous “let me pull your shirt enough for you to lift it.”
Signing with David is so much fun. Now, when he wakes up grouchy from
his nap, I sign “show me” which makes him stop and think about what’s
on his mind. Such joy. Now that we’ve started communicating, I have
moved on to “help me”, “please” and “thank you.” Let’s see if we make
progress.
David has a little, yellow fabric cube that we bought when he was
born. It came in a set of four and this yellow one has a duck on one
of its faces. If you press hard on this face, it makes the duck quack
three times. No matter what kind of mood he’s in, this sound makes
David laugh out loud.
We should all have such a thing.
At a swap meet a few weeks ago, I bought David a plastic guitar. It
has buttons on it that play classical or pop music depending on its
mode. David carries this guitar all over the house and puts it down
wherever he rests. He then presses the buttons and dances while the
plastic guitar sings. I have never ever danced in front of this
little boy. I haven’t danced in over ten years. There’s no way he
observed this. I am wondering if moving to music might be a genetic
or inherent thing. Any ideas?
I used to be a scared, lonely little girl who cried a lot. I hung to
my mom’s skirt often. David, on the other hand, is an independent and
happy little boy. Making him giggle takes two seconds. Last weekend,
on the plane to St. Louis, he made friends with the stewardess and
ran up and down the aisle to hug her. When she pointed at me and told
him to come to me, he ignored me and went back to hugging her. He
smiles at everyone, especially girls and women. I am not sure how he
can tell the difference but he seems to ignore men for the most part.
Maybe it’s the makeup or the hair.
I am regularly amazed at David’s sweet nature. Not that he doesn’t have his moments but he’s such a joy. If they all turn out like him, maybe having a few more is not such a crazy idea after all.
 Well the
little boy is getting more mischievous by the hour. He now likes to
open drawers that he cannot even see into. He pulls the handle,
reaches into the drawer and just picks an item at random. Whatever
comes his way. He then dutifully brings it to me to show his new
finding.
He is completely obsessed with screwing and unscrewing water bottles.
He cannot unscrew them all the way though and once he closes them, he
comes to me and whines and whines until I open it back up. Same for
the little bowls we feed him from. He can close them but cannot open
them. Every day, he finds a new item for me to open so he can close
it. Today, during music class, he was very upset that the little
bells on a shaker wouldn’t come off. He kept brining it to me,
thinking I could do it for him. I tried to explain to him that they
just don’t come off but he wasn’t very pleased with my answer.
He has also made the correlation between the water bottles we drink
from and his sippy cup. If he can’t find his cup and he’s thirsty, he
finds and empty or full water bottle somewhere in the house and
brings it to me. I then find his cup and he, happily, drinks in big
gulps. Who says babies can’t communicate? He has started to sign the
sign for milk, but tends to do it at random times, not necessarily
correlating with nursing. He does, however, come over throughout the
day and try to lift my shirt up so he can have some milk. Getting too
clever, David.
After several months of no more teeth, one little one left of the
middle bottom one is now peeking out. Maybe there’s more to come
soon. He’s completely mastered walking and even walks sideways now.
He also has mastered picking up an object by just bending down a bit.
He eats at least one meal a day completely on his own (veggie burger
+ turkey meatballs + peas or some other vegetable and fruits). He’s
gotten pickier about the food and likes to bang his body back and
forth in the seat if I don’t listen to him. Mother always wins in the
end though and David learns that veggies have to be finished before
he can have his grapes. He loves, loves, LOVES grapes and
blueberries. And bread. I never give him bread at home so he follows
people around for bread whenever we go out.
Throughout the day, he comes over to my desk and puts his head on my
lap. Just to say he loves me. Still as smiley as ever and funny and
sweet. Takes all his toys and comes to sit by my desk to play.
I love you, little boy.
Anyone who’s seen David and Jake quickly exclaims that David is an
exact replica and then proceeds to ask whether I’m sure I’m the mom.
David really does look exactly like Jake and given that Jake was the
cutest baby ever, I have no complaints. As he continues to grow, I am
curious which one of our non-physical genes ended up in the little boy.
He’s one of the happiest kids I’ve ever seen. All you have to do to
get him to laugh is to laugh in his general vicinity and he breaks
into a guffaw. If you follow behind him as he walks around the house,
he quickly falls in to a game of chase and starts giggling. Loudly.
The joyous and constantly amused personality trait is definitely
inherited from Jake as well. I was a very quiet child with lots of
sticking to my mom’s skirt and crying.
Lest you think he hasn’t got any of my genes, I was sitting at my
table a few days ago when I could no longer see or hear David. My
work area is open to the living room and I can often see him playing.
When he goes out of sight, I can still hear the conversation between
him and the toys. If he disappears for over a minute, I generally
call him and he comes back to the living room or kitchen (which is
also fully visible from my work area) and laughs at me. On this
occasion, he had been completely out of my sight for a minute or two
and I couldn’t hear him talk at all. I yelled for him and he didn’t
come back. Worried, I leapt from my chair and ran towards the bedroom
thinking he was eating some crazy bathroom stuff he pulled out of the
drawers. On my way through the living room, I spotted him right by
the bookcases, quietly reading his book (well, maybe not reading but
looking through). He looked up at me with a quizzical expression and
went back to his reading.
That he got from me.
Almost a month ago, David turned one. While it was relatively
uneventful for him, despite the birthday party we threw on his honor,
it was a rather huge deal for me. I always knew I wanted to have
children but I never really felt ready to have them. When Jake and I
decided to start trying, it was mostly because we knew we both wanted
kids and we knew it might be a bad idea to wait much longer in case
we had problems. It all happened very quickly and next thing we knew
we were actually pregnant. Not that I am complaining but it was
sooner than we expected, that’s all.
I spent the first few months of my pregnancy worrying about the well
being of the baby and throwing up. Once I started feeling better, I
concentrated fully on worrying about the baby’s well-being. I worried
about it so much that I barely had enough energy left to worry about
the birth. David did me two favors and came out relatively quickly
and quite perfect-looking.
I spent the last year also worrying. What did I know about being a
mother? Was I feeding him enough? Was I eating right? Was he warm
enough? Was he too warm? David was and is a perfect child. He eats
like a champ, he now sleeps like a champ, he walks around like he’s
been doing it all his life and he laughs more than I’ve ever seen
anyone laugh.
There are no words for the amount of joy he has brought into our
lives. Even though it’s almost a whole month late, congrats of
turning a whole finger, my son, I am so proud of you.
|
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
|
