Immobile Communication

Eamon is at that great age (6 ½ months), where he can communicate and interact, but when you put him down somewhere you can be reasonably sure he’ll still be there if you turn your back for 10 seconds. I know that these days are numbered, however, since each day he seems to be doing something new and different on his milestone chart.

Eamon "helps" Mommy fold the laundry

For instance, Eamon can definitely turn over now. He can turn over onto his tummy, and onto his side, and onto his back. He hasn’t figured out crawling, yet, but he has figured out to roll short distances to get what he wants. The other day, he rolled onto his stomach and even got his feet and bottom up and pushed, but forgot to move his arms, and then became frustrated because he wasn’t moving. Other times, he pulls with his arms but forgets to move his feet. There’s a lot of baby to coordinate, but I know that it’s coming soon.

He’s also trying to sit himself up. He can sit for a long time if you put him in that position, but has yet to be able to go from lying down to sitting up unassisted. He grabs onto his crib rails and heaves, though nothing quite happens yet (once again, that’s a lot of baby to pull up). Eamon also attempts to sit up while his diaper is being changed, which is just fascinating.

Mmm...remote control...I shall love thee and covet thee always....

Even more pronounced, however, are his advances in communication. He doesn’t talk yet, but he has learned that he can initiate communication. He laughs and smiles almost all the time (when he’s not tired or hungry, of course), and is always trying to get others to laugh and smile with him. He's been playing Peek-A-Boo with us for awhile now (where he puts a diaper rag over his face, and then pulls it away and laughs when we shout Peek-A-Boo).

Peek-A...Huh?

He’s also learning to mimic. Aaron and I give Eamon raspberries all the time on his tummy, and the other day, to my surprise, he grabbed my leg and did the same thing to me! Now it’s one of his favorite tricks to make the people in his life laugh. Today, when Eamon and I went to lunch with my friend, Charmaine, she banged on the table while talking, and then Eamon banged on it, too. She banged again, and so did he, and on and on it went. When she occasionally remembered to talk to me, Eamon would bang on the table again to get her attention and keep playing their game.

THBBBBBBBBT!

Unfortunately, not all of Eamon’s communications are positive. He’s also learning to be a bit, how shall we say it?—manipulative. Eamon and I were shopping in Babies R Us a few days ago, and I was looking for something on a registry. Eamon was determined that he wanted that registry, and kept grabbing at it. I was looking for a specific diaper bag, so I just kept moving the registry away from him and ignoring him until I suddenly heard a loud wail. I looked over to see the tears welling up and the little mouth starting to pout as he reached for the registry again. I put the registry behind my back and told him, “No, you can’t have it, now stop it,” and he gave a very disgruntled sigh and started playing with the toys on his seat cover. He hadn’t been upset at all. He just wanted to see if he could use the crying to get what he wanted.

The shadow looms ever closer...

But 95% of the time, he’s a smiley, happy little guy. That manipulation thing was just a fluke, I’m sure, and probably won’t happen again.

(Sigh. We're in for it, aren't we?)

Eamon vs. Water

Over the holiday weekend, the Wolfe family made a trip across the Virginia peninsulas to meet up with our friends the Greens who live in Okinawa. It was the second overnight trip Eamon has taken (see Meltdown Extravaganza), and we worry how he'll react. He's done much better with strangers recently, but we curtailed our plans a little just to be safe. We wanted to take a trip to DC and visit friends, but were unsure how having his routine disruped for 3 or 4 days would affect him.

Anyway, the visit was great and it was good to catch up. The exciting part was getting Eamon to sample a pool for the first time. No, not having him eat it (although he did try- like he tries to put everything in his mouth).

As a former lifeguard, I think it is imporatnt to get him used to the water early. I loved being in the water (and still do), so naturally I want Eamon to feel comfortable, too. He has become more interested in bath time since he figured out he could splash, so we weren't too worried about the adventure.

Admittedly, the pool (although heated) was chilly. It took a little while to get used to it. Have we mentioned Eamon's dislike of cold? He won't drink from the bottle if it's too cold, he won't sleep well if he's too cold, he doesn't like the wind if it's too cold, etc. Although this fact was well known to us, we tried to get him in the water anyway. It didn't quite go as planned. Little man went from smilely happy baby to upset crier in 2.3 seconds. I kept him in the pool anyway, since I had grown accustomed to the temperature and thusly thought that he would, too. Wrong again. More screaming. So we took him out.

I sat him on the edge of the pool to see if he would go with just having his feet in the water. No. Once removed from the (assumed) torture, Eamon quickly retured to his smiling happy self. Not being a quitter, I wanted to try again. This time we slowly waded in, and I took off his hat so I could submerge him, thinking that if it was all done at once, he might actually like it. Wrong. Blood-curdling screams leapt from his little lungs. Who knew something so small could make noises that loud?

Well, even though his first foray into the water was a complete and total failure, I am going to sigh him up for baby swimming lessons next week. Maybe the indoor pool will be better for him...

Stranger Danger? Not Really.

Yesterday was a real test of Eamon's ability to deal with strangers and change his routine. My mom threw her back out last week, so yesterday while I went to training for summer school, my friend Sally (who works with me) came over to babysit him. Sally has lots of experience with kids from working at the Y, so even though Eamon apparently cried for the first hour she was there, it didn't really faze her.

Eventually, she got him to take a nap. Afterwards, he woke up with a whole new attitude, and was smiley and happy for the rest of the morning. They played and laughed, and she took pictures and sent them to my phone. It has to be one of the best things about advances in technology!

When I got home, however, there was no rest for the poor boy. I scooped him up and hauled him to Lee Hall Elementary for a meeting. That's one nice thing about having a principal with kids--when I told her that I only had daycare through the morning, she said it wasn't a problem for me to bring him, as long as she got to hold him.

So Eamon went to his first meeting. His role was mainly to throw things on the floor, which people don't do nearly enough in meetings today. The meeting lasted about an hour and he was actually really good. I had brought plenty of toys and a bottle, and he didn't start getting fussy until the end--but he was really ready for a nap at that point.

He also let my principal, Amanda, hold him. No one, however, enthralled him more than our current assistant principal, Barbara. He thought she was the bee's knees. She picked him up and he smiled and smiled and smiled. In fact, he beamed. Light rays of joy came shooting out of his face. He gently stroked her hair over and over and just seemed to marvel. She put him back down on my lap, but he kept staring at her. She tickled his leg, about an inch above the knee right in the little crease, and he laughed. She did it again, and more laughter--belly laughs.

Well, it was eye-opening for me. First of all, he does get over his stranger anxiety as long as 1) there aren't too many people, and 2) you let him get used to someone first. He has to sit on mommy's lap for about 15-20 minutes, checking out the other person, before he'll let someone else hold him without incident.

Not only that, but I learned that Eamon IS ticklish! Up until this point, I would tickle him and he would smile politely but that was about it. I tried the tummy, under the arms, under the chin, and sometimes he would laugh a little, but more because I was making silly faces than because of outright ticklishness.

Ergo, I give you: Tickle Me Eamon

Fooled You!

So…last Tuesday, the magical event finally arrived: Eamon rolled over! All by himself! Twice! According to my mother, who witnessed the blessed event, Eamon was having his normal bout of “tummy time,” and in all his flailing, found himself miraculously on his back. Hooray! roared the crowd (my mother), much to the baby’s delight. My mother placed him back on his stomach, he flailed and woop, zoop, sloop—lightning struck twice.

But only twice. Since then, he has been placed on his stomach a multitude of times, with no repeat of our earlier success. It’s like he did it, crossed it off the milestone checklist, and is done, thank you very much.

In fact, he almost seems to be having more success rolling from his back to his stomach now, which is ironic because he would never, ever do this on intentionally (tummy time is baaaaad). Eamon actually enjoys sleeping on his side, which is just a fraction of a turn to his stomach.

Oh well. It will happen in time, we keep telling ourselves (hopefully in time for our appointment with the doctor so that we can really cross it off the milestone list so that we don’t have to hear the “hmm” and get the cocked eyebrow. Not that our doctor does this, but still I fear it).

In other news, Eamon has decided that while he doesn’t see much point in rolling over, vocalizing is really fun. His favorite time to “talk” is in the car while we’re driving. He burbles and cooes and mumbles to himself for minutes on end. Sometimes the things he says sound eerily like words, though of course he doesn’t really understand any of it and never duplicates it. He babbles long strings of various syllables with lots of inflections—it almost sounds like he’s speaking another language that we just don’t understand. We’re not sure what he’s saying, but whatever it is, he’s really emphatic about it.

Another big development: Eamon has started “solids.” Well, rice cereal, anyway. It’s not that solid; in fact, it’s rather soupy, but he lurves it. We’ve waited this long on the solids because he seems to be allergic to so much, and we want to give his digestive system time to really mature. He has it about once a day (usually around lunch) and enjoys “helping” us by attempting to grab the spoon or push the cereal farther into his mouth with his hand.

Needless to say, this type of mealtime also requires a hearty clean-up time afterwards. Although, to be fair to Eamon, in this video I was using an ice-tea spoon because we couldn't find the baby spoons we had bought months ago (they were craftily hidden in plain view in a cupboard that I had only checked twice). Also, I was probably giving him too much food with each spoonful because it was my first time feeding an infant solids, and I had no idea what I was doing either.

If Nonspeaking Things Could Talk

Kate's Computer: (in a sleepy, confused voice) Huh? WPA password? Internet? I have no idea what you're talking about. You say I've hooked up to the internet reliably everyday for the past three years? Sorry, I'm just not recalling this. Do you happen to have the password written down anywhere? You did, but then the file on the computer isn't there anymore? Wow. That's a quandary. Huh. Sorry, I just don't think I can help you with any of this.

The Knob on the Front Door to Our House: (in a snotty, French voice) Non! I will not werk anymore! Eet is a deesgrace, all zis coming and ze going. I weel not open ezer again! Pah!

The Lock on the Back Door to Our House: (in a tough, northern accent) You know what I say? I saw screw you. You gonna not use the lock for two years and then expect it to suddenly work? Well, tough cookies--the lock is rusted shut and there's nothing you can do about it.

Kate's Big Red Suitcase: (in a big, red suitcasey way) Ha! She still hasn't unpacked me from her trip to New York to see the Tony Awards. Wait a second--is this Kate's thinly-veiled attempt to tell the world that SHE WENT TO SEE THE TONY AWARDS AND HAD A GREAT TIME IN NEW YORK WHILE EAMON AND AARON HAD A LOT OF BONDING TIME AT HOME BY THEMSELVES FOR A LONG WEEKEND? Tsk. Not very subtle, Kate. Not very subtle.

Nesta: (in a weary English nurse-maid sort of voice) You want another kiss, little Eamon? Oh dear. Yes, yes, I appreciate all the affection and I do love you, too, but this is getting ridiculous. Of course, it thrills me that your face lights up whenever you see me, but if you could manage not to grab my ears and put my nose in your mouth every now and then, it would be greatly appreciated.

Eamon's Baby Elmo Doll: (in, you know, an Elmo voice) Why is the baby calling Elmo "Eh-goo?" Wait a second! He's reliably calling me something? Something vaguely Elmo related? That's fantastic! Elmo is so excited!

Aaron's Text Message to Kate: (in a non-punctuated, non-capitalized sort of voice) If Eamon learns to say "Elmo" before "mama" or "dada," I'm going to shoot that red furry *bleep*

Eamon vs No Mommy

For the first time in his life, Eamon was left with his Dad. Alone. For 2 days.

While his mother went gallivanting in New York, the Wolfe boys (and Nesta) stayed in SE Virginia. Not as glamorous, I know, but little man has no clue. He was happy as a clam to spend time with Daddy.

Nothing really remarkable happened, which is a blessing in and of itself. One of the revelations of the weekend was this- Eamon is completely and totally in love with the dog. He'll crane his neck around to see her when he hears her jingle, and will sit completely entranced to watch her every move. He sat outside in his chair for 20 minutes staring at her playing fetch, and seemed disappointed when Nesta had to stop and get some water. He reaches out for her all the time and gives her big smiles that rival the ones he gives anyone. Recently, he has started to kiss her back which is sweet, amusing and disturbing at the same time.

Nesta has been wary of him for the most part- I think she saw him initially as an interloper who took all the attention away from her. Now that he is a little more interactive, she has warmed to him- but not too much. I am still HER daddy, and will vie for my attention at all costs. She will protect him to a point- that point being my attention.

Meanwhile, little man was an absolute angel for me. He went to bed without too much of a fuss, we napped together multiple times, and generally had a ball.

On Sunday, we took a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, where the dog was SUPER EXCITED and the boy was considerably less so. It was a bit of a challenge to manage a baby and a dog at the same time, especially since Nesta must smell everything and there are lots of great smells and so much to see and the horses and the people and the squirrels and the road apples. Eamon was much more chill: laid back in the stroller, taking in the sights.

When his Grandma and Grandpa came to pick him up Monday morning so Dad could go to work, he seemed genuinely surprised that he was going with them- "But, we had so much fun, and you're my dad, and it was good" was the look plastered over his face.

Even though we had a great time, Mommy was definitely missed, and we we all glad she came back safe and sound.

Eamon vs Gravity

Eamon has spent the majority of his life on his back, as infants are wont to do. He has little interest in being on his tummy and, until recently, made no significant progress towards rolling over. He still shows no interest in rolling over, but sitting up is his new favorite thing. Why view the world from your back when you can see so much better from an upright position?

His progress in this endeavor has been steady. We started proping him up in the corner of the couch about three weeks ago, and I think it served as motivation. Over the last week or so, he worked with his grandma on moving from a tripod position. Wednesday, Eamon lifted one hand off the bed, then the other. Proud of his accomplishment, he let out an "oooo" with a huge smile on his face. He has now figured out that his hands can be used to balance himself, and he can shift his body to keep from falling over. That is, until he decides that having his foot in his mouth is a fun thing.

He is also trying very hard to create sounds like Mommy and Daddy, and seems frustrated at his inablity to do so. He has a couple of favorite noises, and thankfully went through the period of screeching just to hear what his vocal cords could produce rather quickly. He has also developed a full blown laugh, which makes spending time with him so much more amusing. I have a great time getting him all wound up. This game is not looked upon favorably by his mother, who can no doubt forsee the times when I get him all riled up just prior to bedtime. Smart woman.