Little Drummer Boy: June 18-24

I turned 2 months this week! At the doctor, they told me I weigh 13 pounds and am 24 ½ inches long. Apparently, I’m a very long baby (95th percentile, whatever that means). Even so, I am still dwarfed by Mama’s foot. But I don’t feel so bad—lots of things are dwarfed by Mama’s foot. I’ve started to bat and kick at things like the toys on my Gemini toy mat. (Mama and Papa are not sure if I’m hitting them on purpose or if they’re just in my way while I’m flailing. Sigh. I try to explain these things to them, especially when I'm on my changing table and have their undivided attention, but they just giggle at me and think I'm cute. [see video] If I’m patient enough, surely they’ll catch on.) In addition to kicking at stuff, I like to use my feet to hold on to the bar in my stroller. It is the perfect size for toes to wrap around. I also have figured out how to entertain myself (since, for some reason, people are not at my beck and call 24/7). On Monday, Mama caught me smiling and squealing to myself. I think she squealed, too. On Saturday, Papa introduced me to Motorhead and began training me to be a rock’n’roll drummer—footage will soon be available, I hope. These days, I get to see GrandB a lot, because she comes over after work to see me, but I don't get to see Grandpa Marty as often. So it was super when they both came over this week and he showed me his wolfman impersonation.

June 11-17: Grape Jelly

Golly, were there a lot of firsts this week! The biggest was my first overnite away from home (not counting the hospital when I arrived). See, Mama and Papa were in the car one day and the radio station offered free tickets to a concert to the first person with the correct answer to a trivia question. Well, I have now learned what many in the family already know: Papa is a veritable repository of trivia. As you are probably guessing, Papa called in and won two tickets to see someone called Beck (and I thought I had a weird name!). It was just in time, because Mama and Papa's anniversary (11 years!) was coming on Saturday, and they hadn't made any plans. I guess they had a nice time at the concert; more importantly, I got to stay with my GrandB and Grandpa Marty at their place. We had lots of fun chatting and swinging and experimenting with grape jelly. (I'm still not sure what was up with the jelly--I'll have to remember to ask Grandpa Marty once I can talk.) After the concert, Mama and Papa came over too, and made it a big sleepover party. This week I also took my first full-tub bath with Mama. It was really neat to let my legs float in the water. I liked it so much I took another one with Papa on Saturday. Now, I'm not sure how to broach the next subject. Perhaps first I'll share that sometimes I think I'm some kind of behavioral guinea pig for Mama and Papa. I hear them say things like "what will he do if we tickle his toes?" or (while poking) "he smiles every time we touch his chin!" And we all know that Mama just can't get enough of my poo. So I suppose I should not have been surprised that I'm being experimented upon with something called "natural infant hygiene." Google it--you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about babies and their excrement. Anyway, on the 11th, I sat on the toilet (well, more was suspended over the toilet) and peed (in the general viscinity of the toilet). (There was also a breakthrough involving pooing on cue, but maybe we'll just leave things there for now. I'm sure there will be more later on this subject, alas.) Other fun things this week included applying for my passport. I've been told that in August we'll go to England to see my great uncle Tim. I'm really looking forward to that--I love meeting family! Plus I get to fly (which sounds great--I wonder if that means I can skip all the fuss about learning to crawl and walk?) Mama took hundreds of mug shots of me for the passport photo. I've included the final selection here. On Saturday, we decided to celebrate Fathers' Day early with Grandpa Marty and GrandB by going to Fernbank Science Museum. It was a lot of fun--I think I liked the IMAX movie about the Amazon most. But the electric ball thing sure fascinated Papa. Mama wrote this in her notebook this week that she'd reported to my uncle Norwood that there have been some changes since his visit: "R no longer has little white pimples on his chin; he can more reliably find his fist to suck on (altho not 100% of the tme--or even close); more smiles; likes to kick feet up, esp. on changing table, where he kicks feet toward head and lifts his butt up; smiles on changing table a lot too."

Bye-Bye (June 4-10)

The biggest thing this week was a sad one. My GrandmaLee had to leave to go back to Texas. I have really enjoyed entertaining her especially in the early mornings, when I'd come in around 4:00 and tell her the secrets of the universe in my special grunt language. She responds by reading me the financial section of the New York Times. We had great times. I'll miss her lots and lots. I know Mama and Papa will miss her too, since they put her to work cooking, washing up, and in what I can only describe as a one-woman sweatshop. I finally comandeered the camera to document the latter; it was the least I could do for my early morning buddy.
Also this week was another departure. We have all enjoyed watching a pair of Carolina wrens build a nest and lay eggs and feed their young on the deck just outside the living room. Well, this week the baby birds (3 of them) fledged. What else can I tell you? Oh yes, it was a rather social week. I guess Mama was a little lonely after GrandmaLee left, so she went to a couple gatherings of nice ladies this week. I succeeded in charming most of them. One group was a mommy group that meets in a park, and I met a few other babies my age. Mama told me I was the longest and by far the cutest of them all. This week Mama and Papa saw me get scared for othe first time. Papa and his mama were playing around and Papa splashed some water on her. It surprised her, and she made a startled cry. Well, I tell you--I woke up right away when I heard my GrandB sound distressed and I let loose with a wail. Everyone cuddled me and assured me everything was OK, and so I went back to sleep.

Weekly Roundup (May 28-June 3)

The biggest thing this week is the fact that everyone has finally started to notice that I'm smiling at them. They're learning--little by little, I grant you, but they're progressing. I'm so proud of them. Sunday was an exciting day. For the first time, I visited GrandB and Grandpa Marty at their house. Mama and Papa went to the nearby pool with me and my uncles and aunt. I got to splash my feet in the water a little bit, and then spend some time sunbathing (well, actually shadebathing) au naturale. We could not stay too long, though, since that evening Mama and Papa had an open house. Lots of people from church and some family came to visit. I got to meet a great aunt, a great uncle, and some cousins, big and small. Papa always has to straighten out Mama, who never remembers if they are my first cousins once removed or second cousins--of course I'm just a little guy and can't be expected to keep that stuff straight. All I know is that they were really nice. Some of the ones closer to my size played on Papa's hammock. I can't wait until I get to do that!
The 30th was GrandmaLee's birthday, and so GrandmaLee, Mama, Papa, Uncle Norwood, and I all went out to eat to celebrate that as well as Papa's birthday last week. They said they had delicious Italian food--I'm not sure about that since I slept through the whole thing, and wouldn't know what Italian food is anyway. The next day, Uncle Norwood left. I sure will miss him. I spent most of the day driving around town with GrandmaLee and Mama, who had a couple doctor appointments. I found Mama's legal pad where she's always writing down things about me. This is what I learned: "5/31: Had very green poo. 6/1: Had partially green poo. 6/2: Doctor said not to worry about the green poo." Just as I was getting worried that all Mama notices is my diapers (which I'll admit, can demand attention), I got to this part: "6/2: This week R pulled E's hair a few times. Also he is so much chubbier and also focused--seems to be observing things more actively. The past several days he's been extremely grunty and grumpy. Seems to me his tummy hurts--the green poo may corroborate that. [here we go with the poo again....] We're trying to burp him better after each meal (& between b**bs too), but he often does not seem to have a burp in him. We all hope he will feel better and be less grumpy soon. Some feedings he is SO loud, even when sucking he grunts." Sorry about the censoring, folks--but I'm trying to keep the language clean on this blog (even though the cat keeps trying to give me pottymouth).
On Saturday, I met another great aunt and great uncle, whom Mama and GrandmaLee met up with at the High Art Museum. They all went to see the Gee's Bend Quilt exhibit. I kept trying to share my opinion of the quilts with everyone, but for some reason, that only got me a pacifier. Anyway, Mama and GrandmaLee really seemed to enjoy the quilts. That's all for this week, folks!