One Year Old
My little guy has officially departed Infancy. We celebrated with cupcakes on the actual day--he shook his head with a vigorous "no" when offered some to eat but smashed it with a ferocious zest. The next day was our Easter egg hunt, where we had a cake and singing and he got to wear his little birthday hat.
And this week, in addition to making stumbling attempts to walk (kind of halfway between cruising and lurching, but no fully independent steps yet), his language seems to have jumped forward. (I'm using the term loosely. Extremely loosely.) Basically, this morning when I was feeding him some sharp cheddar cheese and slicing it off the hunk with a knife, he got a little ahead of me, and he started calling, "Muh! Muh!" and putting his hands together in a loose imitation of the baby sign for "more" that we've introduced in a rather inconsistent fashion over the last few weeks. When I asked, "Are you asking for more?" and made the sign back, his face lit up and he did it again. I know that it's something all babies eventually come to do, but it nonetheless made me feel a little like Anne Sullivan.
Then tonight, when I was changing his diaper, he was fighting it and crying because he hates being immobilized--he's so strong that he can actually turn himself over 180 degrees while I'm holding his feet, like a little twisted breadstick. I finished changing him and picked him up, and he stopped crying and signed "all done." He did it several times until I said, "All done?" and he was all smiles at being understood.
Even more sweetly, at bedtime he was holding onto the tube of baby toothpaste (because that child loves him something in a tube). I had him in my arms, trying to get him to sleep. He reached up with the tube and I realized he was offering it to me to chew on, so I dutifully clamped down on it, and he was delighted. He put it in and out of my mouth, so pleased (with those big daybreak grins) that I had accepted his invitation to share in this most pleasurable experience of tubal enjoyment. Finally, wanting him to settle down to sleep, I said quietly, "All done" and made the sign, and he gently took it away from my mouth where he had been offering it and held onto it quietly to go to sleep. My little love. I went back into his room later to get it out of his bed, and it was still warm from where I had slipped it out of his little baby hand.
And this week, in addition to making stumbling attempts to walk (kind of halfway between cruising and lurching, but no fully independent steps yet), his language seems to have jumped forward. (I'm using the term loosely. Extremely loosely.) Basically, this morning when I was feeding him some sharp cheddar cheese and slicing it off the hunk with a knife, he got a little ahead of me, and he started calling, "Muh! Muh!" and putting his hands together in a loose imitation of the baby sign for "more" that we've introduced in a rather inconsistent fashion over the last few weeks. When I asked, "Are you asking for more?" and made the sign back, his face lit up and he did it again. I know that it's something all babies eventually come to do, but it nonetheless made me feel a little like Anne Sullivan.
Then tonight, when I was changing his diaper, he was fighting it and crying because he hates being immobilized--he's so strong that he can actually turn himself over 180 degrees while I'm holding his feet, like a little twisted breadstick. I finished changing him and picked him up, and he stopped crying and signed "all done." He did it several times until I said, "All done?" and he was all smiles at being understood.
Even more sweetly, at bedtime he was holding onto the tube of baby toothpaste (because that child loves him something in a tube). I had him in my arms, trying to get him to sleep. He reached up with the tube and I realized he was offering it to me to chew on, so I dutifully clamped down on it, and he was delighted. He put it in and out of my mouth, so pleased (with those big daybreak grins) that I had accepted his invitation to share in this most pleasurable experience of tubal enjoyment. Finally, wanting him to settle down to sleep, I said quietly, "All done" and made the sign, and he gently took it away from my mouth where he had been offering it and held onto it quietly to go to sleep. My little love. I went back into his room later to get it out of his bed, and it was still warm from where I had slipped it out of his little baby hand.
posted by Tara | 9:35 PM
1 Comments:
Happy birthday, beautiful boy! Love the twisted breadstick description, and your retelling of his first gestures toward sharing and reciprocity. Love that impulse to include you in his sweetest moments. --Erin
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