Elephants

My parents stopped by on Sunday evening to drop off a cute little outfit that my mom had bought for Adam and just say "hi," and Adam was at first in a little bit of shock - one moment he was just trying to get Shannon and my attention because he was bored, the next, there were 4 people in the room ready and willing to look at him and all of his tricks. So he showed off.

He went to his musical table, pushed some buttons and started dancing.

He showed them how he could turn from the couch to the coffee table like it was the easiest thing in the world.

He squealed and screamed and banged on the dryer door when I "let" him show them the joy of the dryer. (The dryer, apparently, is absolutely the best, most amazing and interesting thing in our entire house).

He banged two toys together in his hands (oh, so you CAN clap... but only when it makes good noise).

 

 

 

He loves, loves, loves to show them what he can do. He showed them things even I didn't know he could do.

On Monday night, Adam took two steps unassisted from the recliner to the couch without any coaxing necessary from Shannon or me. In fact, Shannon was sitting in the recliner, unfortunately looking the opposite way, and missed it. I cheered, clapped, said, "yay, Adam!" and he smiled at me. I scooped him up and kissed him and he had no idea what he had even done that was so fabulous. He looked pretty confused about why I was so excited. And yes, I teared up like a big baby.

Although he took his first steps, he's not barging head-on into the bi-pedal world just yet. He likes to see how long he can stand up on his own when he thinks no one is looking - but if he knows you're looking, he'd rather not show you his skills just yet. I suppose he wants to perfect his abilities before revealing them to an audience.

This morning he was very excited to watch his "Your Baby Can Read" video, for some reason. (Yes, I fell for the marketing and bought it. I thought, "what could it hurt?" but in the back of my mind am still not convinced that it will work. We will see, I guess. He has been watching for about 3 weeks now). It has actually been a good way for me to get all of the before daycare/work things done every morning. However, it has been touch-and-go about whether he really cares enough to watch the video - and he's so little, I'm definitely not going to force it on him if he doesn't enjoy it. But I guess it was interesting this morning, and he squealed and talked during the whole thing.

The first video has 22 basic words like "hi," "wave," "clap," "arms up," "toes," "mouth," "gorilla," etc. Adam really responds to the word "elephant," and I thought I heard him attempt to say it last week in response to the video. This morning, "elephant" flashed across the screen, the man said, "elephant" . . . and Adam said, "eleba."

I said, "Great job, Adam! Elephant!"

I was picking up around the room and packing his bag for daycare, and a couple minutes later I heard him say, "eleba." I looked up, and the screen said "elephant," then the man said, "elephant." I think my jaw dropped. I'm still shaking myself, trying to figure out if it's even possible for a 9 month old (specifically - 42 weeks old) to even do that. When I do the flash cards or even try to tell him to do "arms up" or "wave," he stares at me like I have five eyes. Maybe I'm going crazy. Someone smack me.

I probably shouldn't point out to him that he's over-acheiving... my jaw would have dropped if he had just said "hi." Funny enough, I specifically remember that the first long word I could spell was "elephant." I learned it from a spelling game on my parent's Apple computer, back when computer games had like 6 colors and came on a floppy disk.

Then I dropped his happy, bubbly self off at daycare, where he cheerfully held his arms out for Amy to pick him up, and after she took him, he smiled at me and waved good-bye (what is going on today??). Billions of synapses must be firing for him this week.

On another note, my amazing, handy and helpful husband removed our ancient, circa 1980 gas range and replaced it with a beautiful new range.

Next up on the list is installing a microwave over the cooktop, removing the equally ancient built-in microwave (if they called them microwaves back then), building a pantry, and (sigh) probably re-staining the cabinets.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not sad about re-staining the cabinets. I think it will make an enormous difference and look a million times better - but anyone who has restained a mere 4 cabinet doors realizes how much work goes into sanding, cleaning, and applying 3-4 coats of stain evenly. Imagine doing it for 34 doors and 14 drawers - not to mention all of the wood work. That's probably why new cabinets cost about 30k.

But if Adam can take his first steps and do his best to say "elephant," and Shannon can install a new range . . . maybe I can get up the energy to tackle the kitchen.