Let's talk about this

He's said please and thank you! Said them! With his mouth! Earlier this morning we were in the car and I had just put in Metallica's Master Of Puppets and he instantly raised his hand in the air and pumped his index finger like he was shooting the metal up to the sky! He's never been able to rock the horns, he's always used his pointer finger. But today he watched my hand pound the air and he studied it for a second and then he tried really hard to get his pinky up and keep his other fingers down. But....he....just......couldn't....quite..do...it... He could get his middle finger tucked but that darned ol' ring finger just kept popping out and snugglin up to that kinky pinky. He started to get frustrated. I told him we'd work on it later and everything was going to be okay, he'd rock the horns like a metal monster in no time 'tall. I could tell he knew what he wanted his fingers to do, he just doesn't have control of them completely. Yet. It's moments like that, when I can see his gears grinding and turning and see him figure something out (or not), I find so fascinating and unbelievable rewarding. And most times humbling, but a smiling kind of humbling! He's just so fun. Each day is a new word or problem solved or area explored. He watched Mickey's Clubhouse for the first time and he liked it so we watched a couple of episodes and this morning it was on when we all got up REAL early and he knew which mouseketool to use at the right time and all that stuff. Really interactind with the program in a positive way and actually getting something out of it for his betterment. We both saw it and looked at each other like, 'I'll be damned, did he really just do that?'. His lion roar with hands clawing at the air is priceless. Him thinking that everything is MINE, MINE, MINE? nnnnot so much. Boxes of food at Safeway, toys at Target, Ollies Elmo, my food, EVERYTHING is 'MINE'!! His least attractive characteristic at the moment. Oh, and throwing things. Not really in a protest, tantrum type of way but more in a mischeivious, playful way and the kid has an amazing arm. He can really throw! He's gonna make his parents rich someday.

The wonders of speech therapy

Sarah, a speech therapist through Early Intervention, has visited us four times now and the benefits of her expertise are already becoming evident. She stays for about a half hour and just shows us a few things in sign language and plays/works with Baron. He LOVES her. He wants to show her everything as soon as she walks in the door and really wants to take her into his room so Daddy and Mommy aren't interfering with their time. He now knows the signs for 'please','more','go','hungry' and can understand quite a few others. Sarah said that he's taking to signing faster than any toddler she's worked with. Not only that, but signing is helping him understand words and their meanings and that understanding is helping him speak more. He says quite a few words now and he says a new one every couple of days. It's so exciting. He and I almost had a short conversation on Thursday. Our first!
Boy loves to dance. He has a couple of favorite kids shows and all of them are music based. Wow Wow Wubbzy, Fresh Beat Band, Yo Gabba Gabba, and live concert footage make him MOVE! The other day he busted out The Disco Roll dance that Jack Black performed on Yo Gabba Gabba. Killed me!!!! The other day he let me watch John Legend and The Roots on Austin City Limits and he actually liked it. I couldn't believe it. He sat through a few Pantera videos on Youtube. But, as much as he loves to listen to Pantera I think the visual of the band was a bit much for his impressionable little brain to handle.
And a slightly funny development; he's afraid of monkeys. It's because of the monkeys in Toy Story 3. The only things in this world he's afraid of (other than not getting his way). Whenever he sees a monkey on TV he runs to us and buries his face so the evil monkeys can't see him. Precious.

He's just self concsious of his personal odor.

He demonstrated his gift for mimicry today by opening 'my' drawer in the bathroom, grabbing my deodorant, unzipping his sleeper and applying my deodorant to his underarms. He is just so cute. And now he smells pretty good too.
He babbles all of the time now. He has an actual vocabulary that is growing, finally. He says 'shake' when we make his bottle because we always make it a game, building the anticipation of each part of the process until we screw the cap on aaaaannnnnnddd shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shake etc..... and he just loves it. He says 'kitty', or at least an understandable variation.

He just walked up to me and pulled up my shirt and stuck hid finger in my belly button, which he KNOWS I cannot stand. Then he unzipped his sleeper and pushed his own belly button and said 'OWWW!' in perfect mockery and mimicry of his over exaggerated father. Cute kid. Can't wait for him to get a job.

An appetite like a shark!!

He has been eating so much the last few days! It's so unlike him. Today Papa took us out to breakfast at Elmers and he all but devoured Mommy's steak. Then for lunch he consumed a good portion of MY cold pizza. Cold!! And he's had pizza several times in the last four or so days. But cold pizza? I still can't believe it. I mean, I don't know why I like cold pizza. Weird. He feels heavier. I'm not going to be able to hold him much longer. I'm expecting a big 'ol growth spurt in the next few days.
Great.

Where did Spider Man's head go?

Baron woke me up at six this morning, fully armed and ready for action. We started watching some cartoons while I tried to get my eyes to open and after my lids finally parted I looked down and saw Baron playing with a headless Spider Man. The first thought to penetrate the morning fog in my mind was that he had swallowed Spider man's head, which gave me a little panic at first but then I remembered that he swallows most of his food without chewing so worst case scenario would be me finding a very unhappy Spider man head in his next diaper. Uhm.... ick. But then he was whining a bit and limping a little. Hhmmm... So, I picked him up and felt his foot through his sleeper, checking for anything that could be the culprit and sure enough, lodged between his big toe and the next toe was a very Spider Man-head-like ball. I unzipped his sleeper and dug out the head and sent him on his destructive way, none the worse for wear. He does this quite often now, taking Mommy's keys, name tag or various plastic cards from her purse and stuffing them into his sleeper. Sometimes it's the snack that I THOUGHT he had eaten (no wonder it's hard to get him to gain weight!), or maybe a small toy of some kind. He's like a box of Cracker Jacks; always a prize inside!! I can't wait for the day when he tries to stuff the cat into his sleeper. THAT'LL be a hoot.

Spider Man saves the day!

I am such a proud Daddy. Last week Baron fell in love with Spider Man. Elmo? Elmo who? I thought I'd never be rid of that little red monster. But wait, it gets better. He loves Wolverine, too! Seriously! Is he or is he not my son? Papa joined us at Toys R Us and we played there for an hour or so and Papa wanted to treat the little man to a new toy (or two) and Baron chose the three pack of Spider Man and His Amazing Friends! Shame on you if you don't know that Spider Man's Amazing Friends are Firestar and Iceman, from the early eightied cartoon show. I was blown away to see these three figures in one package. I loved this cartoon as a kid. LOVED IT!! So, that night I went through the DVR menu and found, you guessed it, episodes of Spider Man and His Amazing Friends! I can't believe they still play this cartoon, it is sooooo dated! But Baron loves it and we've watched the same two episodes a dozen times already. And I recorded a few different X-Men and Wolverine cartoons and he's cycling his way through those now. I do realize that these cartoons may not have the educational value of Sesame Street, but Baron plans on being a super hero when he gets older so this really is best for him at this point. Besides, Daddy's right there beside him when he watches these shows and I make my own sound effects and tell him what's going on and who's who and try to impress upon his little mind the values inherent in what the heroes are trying to do. Seriously, anything can be educational if you explain it to your child from the proper point of view. And we play with his action figures when we watch the programs, mimicking their exploits and adventures. And, if that isn't enough, I put a few Spider Man and Wolverine stickers on our table that the tv sits on and he'll point to them and I'll exuberantly call out their names or I'll call out their names and he'll point to the right one every time. So proud.
And he's getting smarter and smarter every day. He stills doesn't talk much but if we're looking through one of his many, many books and I call out a shape, color or character, he'll point to the proper one every time. He knows his stuff and it's just further proof that when he does finally start to talk it's not going to be a word here or there but whole sentences and paragraphs. So proud.

What an awesome little guy!

. I was worried a month or so ago that he was going to be a real bratty kid. The signs were there and I was preparing myself for dealing with him in a state of near constant tantrum (his tantrums, not mine!). But he's really come around this month and has started doing things and helping out in ways that make me so much more than proud. Mommy has taught him to throw away his dirty diapers in the trash can after each changing and he's so happy to do it. Whenever he drops his bottle and we ask him to pick it up he'll promptly pick it up and set it on the table, right side up. When we say it's time for bed he'll grab his blanket and head for the room, usually before we are actually ready for him to do so. However, getting him to STAY in bed can be a different story but I'm trying to sing his praises here so we won't go into that at the moment. He pets the kitty very nicely. He's never really been very rough with her, hasn't grabbed hand fulls of hair or things like that. But I believe that he's aware of her ferocity and recognizes her as something not to be trifled with. He does like to test his boundaries and do things that he darn well KNOWS he's not supposed to do, but he will stop when told to and that makes me very happy. It's little things like these that he continues to do on a daily basis that give me so much hope that our son is going to be a good kid.
But, I'm no fool. Time will reveal the truth.
And we'll love him either way.
We had an early morning play session at Clackamas Mall yesterday morning. He usually needs a major diaper change after the long drive from dropping Mommy off at work in Hillsboro to the Mall in Clackamas and I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoy throwing that first nasty diaper of the day into the Mall's trash can instead of ours here at home. Yesterday I let him play with my phone while I did the deed and it took less than thirty seconds for him to activate the camera on my phone and he started taking pictures of me while I was changing his diaper. Gah, I love this kid!! He already exhibits far more technical proficiency than his old man has ever possessed.
Yesterday was our first daytime Daddy Play Group! It was great! It's almost like a completely different play group because both of us have way more energy at 10 a.m. than we do at 6 p.m. so I can keep up with him better and he's more involved with the group instead of going off to be the Little Lone Ranger like he usually does. The plan is to have the first three Fridays of the month at the community center and the fourth Friday of the month will be a field trip somewhere like OMSI or something similar. How cool is that? We can't wait to go back to OMSI!!
Ooops, he says it's time for Daddy to stop blogging and start engaging!! Later!