Baby Sign Language

I've tried signing with Baby Max since he was...a baby. Now, he's almost one, and he's signing back. He's signed "more" a few times. Recently, Garrett had him at the grocery store during bottle time and Max began insistently signing "milk." Unfortunately, G knew what he wanted but had forgotten to pack it. "Uh-oh" as Max likes to say.

This month we've attended two classes for Baby Sign Language. The instructor must be a saint. She calmly chatters away about signing and assigns homework while toddlers and crawlers steal the show. When things get a little out of hand, she blows bubbles or breaks into a signing song.

I can tell that Max is more receptive to signing since we've attended the class.

But the real reason to attend is the kids are hilarious. For many, this is the first real interaction they have with other little ones. I wonder how much of their personalities and reactions predict how they will be later in life.

During class, Max explores and "visits" momentarily with other children and adults in the room. Usually while missing a shoe or sock. He begins fully dressed, but as the minutes tick by he loses one shoe and one sock at a time. (The instructor actually taught us the sign for "shoe" just because of Max!) I threatened to bring him naked next time. It would save me time and laundry.

G attended this week's class with me, and he thought it was hilarious as I did. He also shared my concern that we may be too relaxed. Is it bad when your kid falls down--yet again--and all of the other parents gasp while you laugh? It's not like Max cries or anything, though. We're so accustomed to him falling into things that it's not something we get worried about anymore. If he cries, we know he's really hurt. Mostly, a tumble doesn't phase him in his journies. And he does journey.

He is incredibly easy-going. One of the little boys took a rattle that Max was playing with. It was in the center of the room, so many of us saw it and wondered what was going to happen. Instead of getting upset, Max laughed at the older boy. He tried to reach the rattle, but the other little boy was bigger and held it over his head. It made me fear the future and a bully taking something from him on the playground. I muttered, "Get him." Garrett reacted similarly. But Max just laughed. Another, smaller, little boy decided he wanted the rattle and rammed into the big kid, knocking him over and taking the rattle. Max laughed at the two boys on the ground and went off to explore some more. The parents of the big kid made the older boy give Max the rattle. Max looked at them all like they were crazy for interrupting his exploration and took off again.

In the end, I actually felt sorry for the bigger kid. He was the only one upset with the whole thing. Plus, he was a sweet little boy. He's the only one I saw going around the room trying to hug other kids and pet their hair. Max thought he was pretty cool. After watching the big boy pet another kid's head, Max imitated him.

Ah, the influence of peers already!

A Day of Firsts

Definite first steps today. He walked from his dad to me. It was so exciting.

While eating real chicken--not the baby food variety--he said, "More."

He slapped me "five" repeatedly. Since he loves hitting things, this seems socially acceptable.

We play a game where we say, "Blow out the lights." Then we blow and flip the switch. Max thinks it's hilarious and usually blows after the lights are out. Today, I asked him to help me "blow out the lights" while we were standing by the light switch. He grinned at me, leaned over and flipped off the lights.

First Pool

Max has cute little swimming trunks, but it was hot, so he just wore his Little Swimmers. He didn't care what he looked like. He had a blast! Here is his dad putting him in the pool for the first time


He liked the little penguin in a boat. It didn't float so well, but he still enjoyed it.
Most of all he enjoyed splashing.

Crawling in and out of the pool became a favorite event of the afternoon. You can see the dirt from the deck on his diaper!

1st cousins

Max met his cousin Oban for the first time. In the past, Uncle Brett always made sure Oban was hanging out elsewhere when we'd visit. When they finally met, Oban shook with excitement. At least, I hope it wasn't fear. Max tentatively patted her and eventually grinned.

Max was in awe of this creature that was dog. He watched her scamper all over Brett's enormous yard. Oban dazzled him by grabbing a turtle by its shell and flinging it across the lawn.

Yep. I think those kids could get into lots of trouble together.

Play date

Max and I met up with some friends and 10 new babies.

Beforehand, I was concerned about Max's first big play date. How would he interact with the other children? Would he be a bully? Would he be a wimp? Would he share? Would he be an outsider?

Upon arrival, I set him down and he plowed past adult legs and baby accouterments to arrive on a play mat covered in toys. Sitting on the mat was Libby, an adorable little girl just a couple of weeks older than Max. Eying each other, they played side by side for a while. Thank goodness she has an older brother, though. Because when things got physical she knew how to take care of herself. Max is new at kissing and likes to try to kiss the top of our heads. (He also likes to pull hair, but none of the older children had enough to endanger them and the teeny-tinies were usually protected by carriers or mother's arms.) He tried kissing her, and climbed over her to get to her head. He left slobber all over her and made her cry.

Actually, he left slobber a lot of places. I think he's teething again. I hope he wasn't trying to use her cute little head as a teething biscuit.

Nonetheless, he tried making up to her later. Extending his dimpled arm, he offered her a ball. She looked at it and crawled away. He stared after her. I swear he shrugged before looking at the ball and cramming it in his mouth with his pudgy hand. I was happy to see that he took rejection in stride.

Allison, the oldest little girl was our hostess. Toddling around in her pink dress, she greeted everyone and offered her toys. I was handed a puzzle piece of the soft mat, which I don't think I'm smart enough to piece together. She looked genuinely happy to have so many children playing with her things. Of course, the most gleeful expression I saw was when one of the cats appeared and she tore off after it. Those cats knew just how to move to avoid her...and later to avoid Max who found patting their noses a new favorite pasttime.

Babies abounded. Two sets of twins arrived. Each set was a boy and a girl. Two baby singlets were there, too. Max was enthralled. All the babies were dressed so cute. Max definitely has a thing for shoes, which is strange since I can't even seem to keep a pair of socks on the kid. At least two times I caught him nibbling on baby shoes. Luckily, the babies were too young to fear for their toes. A few times I caught him peering into the face of a sleeping baby. His face was close enough to kiss them...but he didn't. Whew! One of the times, little Haley wasn't sleeping, but she didn't seem to mind. She just stared right back at him.

One of the teeny-tinies began to cry. (Max had nothing to do with it.) A chorus of babies joined that single cry. At this point, Max had crawled under the high chair like he does at home. When they cried, he looked up at me and blinked. He looked confused like he wasn't sure if he should join or not. However, the high chair distracted him so tears were avoided.

At another point, all the babies needed changing at the same time--except one. Avery's mom teased that she only changes her diaper once a day. I need to learn that trick. Avery is a few months older than Max. He was enamoured with her. They took off crawling after each other. I was concerned that he was too aggressive, but like Libby, Avery knew how to take care of herself. Max likes the spunky girls.

I look forward to another playdate. Hopefully, some of our other friends will be able to join us. Since Toral is moving her twins all the way to Florida, it might be a while before we get to see them. But I'm hopeful.

After all, we know miracles happen.

Don't call child services.

I understand I have a little boy.

However, how bad is it going to get?

Just this week he has fallen on a bookshelf (I think he was trying to climb it) and bruised the side of his face. It looks awful. I felt horrible as I held him and he howled. (He trills his tongue as he cries. When he first started the trilling, we thought it was his fake cry. Oh no. It's real.)

Today, he was crawling along and then... BAM! He face planted right on our tile floor. The crying started. The trilling joined in. He reached a crescendo and tears flowed. Garrett held him this time while I tried to kiss his face and make it better. That's when I noticed the blood.

That's right. His nose was bleeding! I don't know if my nose has ever bled, yet my 8 month old had a bloody nose.

Max isn't even walking yet. What on earth will I do when he can run?

Is my son a vampire?

When I returned last weekend, Max had two teeth. When I left on Friday he had the beginnings of one. Over the weekend both bottom teeth sprouted.

And they can do damage.

We were in his playroom last night, and he crawled over to me. I love it when he does this because he either plows right into me or he stands up and hugs me. This time it was to hug me. I nuzzled him and he moved to nuzzle back--his face in my neck.

Then, he bit me.

How can one cause so much pain with only two bottom teeth?

I'm not sure, but I think he may be a vampire.

Cousins

One thing I love about being here is being so close to family. I've scheduled lunch dates with my friend/cousin's wife and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Even Max's cousin joins in by taking care of him. I don't know if she'd ever fed a baby a bottle before, but I was impessed with her prowess at three years of age. He took the whole bottle!

Below Max is being cuddled by Lisa.

Happy Easter!

Good morning!
Max is crawling all over the place and loving every minute of it.
Plus, he really seems to like hats. This fact thrills me because I think he looks adorable in them. His dad insisted on putting his hat on backwards. I guess Max preferred it that way, because when I turned it around, he did this:
Yep. As you can guess, the hat went back around immediately...after I snapped the picture, of course.

Later, we changed his clothes. His second outfit was courtesy of our sweet friend Sonia. Below, he found what the Easter Bunny left him.
The green duck seemed to be a big hit.

He immediately stuck it in his mouth.After Easter dinner, I set out a plastic tablecloth and the contents of the egg decorating kits.
While we decorated, we gave Max some plastic ones to play with. Here's what he had to say.

"An egg?"

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Oh! Bang them together. Good times."

Grandma has decorated eggs more recently than the rest of us since she's hung out with my cousin's twin girls. She knew the tricks. It's only been twenty-something years since I've done this, but I think those kits have changed a bit. For example, I don't remember the dyes coloring my fingers.

Here's Max and Garrett and me. Max is examining one of the many eggs that had his name on it.
Here he is with the Tahlequah grands.
And after a long day of fun, here he is napping on his Papa.

Paparazzi on St. Patrick's Day

A baby can't even drink a cold one on his first St. Patrick's Day anymore. Here's a lucky shot the paparazzi took of our little leprechaun.

7 months and crawling!

I was told yesterday that Barbie's birthday post has been up long enough that everyone know she's 50.

Sorry.

I 've been distracted lately and have even considered stopping this blog completely since I'm not doing it regularly. I've REALLY neglected my blog on my brandibarnett.com site.

So, I'm giving a try at updating while I'm waiting for Max to either stay asleep or start crying again. Poor guy. He's teething. For a while we thought he was having separation anxiety. Or he was training us. Nope. He was in pain. I finally gave in and followed my mom's suggestion to give him Tylenol. I'm so grateful we did because we've actually had more sleep this week. Whew!

The real news, though, is that two days ago, while he was still six months old, he crawled. For weeks, he'd been crawling backwards. We didn't count that. He'd take a few steps forward and then get confused and go backwards again. We didn't count that, either. However, two days ago he took off.

And the kid can move.

I've gotten into the habit of putting him in the hallway in the doorway while I do laundry. I looked up and saw him crawling toward me. Then I saw him knocking over laundry baskets. Then he was moving all over the laundry room and I was trying to beat him to the lint that had fallen on the floor. Some part of me thought that he couldn't really be crawling. Later that night, when Garrett and I were in the playroom, Max took off and knocked down a tower of blocks Garrett built. Since someone else shared the experience with me, I knew it was real.

As my dad said the next morning, our lives will never be the same again.

Paparazzi in space

Whew! I'm relieved.

I'm a closet fan (well, not anymore) of Battlestar Galactica. Like many people, I was hugely perturbed in the first season to see they'd cast Starbuck as a female. (Fans of the original show know that Starbuck was definitely a male.) However, now that we're in the final season, the casting is beginning to make sense. I'm thinking the writers may have done it to be really obvious. After all, if she turns out to be a Cylon (read: MACHINE/arch enemy of humans), it would make a lot of people thwack their heads and say, "Duh, I should have seen that coming."

However, the most important thing to know today is that Max is not a fracking Cyclon. ("Frack" is a popular word on BG.) He is a human. How do I know this? My trusty iPhone has an application designed just for the purpose of identifying human and machine. One simply takes a photo and the app tells you whether the person is a human or not.

Now, that's a handy use of technology that everyone really needs, don't you think?

Paparazzi strikes again

It's been a while, but the photogs have snapped Max doing one of his new hobbies. My brother Brett has a knack for intercepting these pictures before they make it to the magazines you see at the grocery store.

Max's first daffodil

Uncle James and Aunt Martha gave Max his first flower. It's a good thing the daffodils growing outside the office were hardy; otherwise, it wouldn't have lasted for the pictures. Max really studied his new toy in all the ways a baby does...he mauled it, chewed it and beat it...and the flower still looked happy.
My mom encouraged Max to smell it. The flower fit nicely around his nose. Being a first time mother, I expressed concern about pollen and allergies.

This was the wrong thing to say in front of my aunt and uncle who promptly started teasing me.

They started offering Max the suckers we have in the office for customers. I said my little bit about how I don't want him having sugar until his first birthday. I was serious, of course. Everyone else just laughed.

Uncle James asked if I've fed him mashed potatoes or gravy.

No. He's only received jarred baby food--organic mostly.

He said, "Flour gravy has saved more lives than the Red Cross."

Well, who can argue with that?

Who says you can't get good stuff playing Dirty Santa?

Every year at Christmas, my family gets together for a lively game of Dirty Santa. Max is modeling part of my gift from this year's festivities. It's a hat and a vase. Versatility is key, right?

I think Max likes hats.

First day in the office

Max joined us in the office today. One benefit of having a family business is that I can set up a playpen in a corner and the boss won't say I need to get a babysitter. The babysitter is Grammy, and she's right there!

Max seems to be adapting well so far. He has grown accustomed to lots of attention, though! He has special smiles just for Linda and Connie. All Connie has to do is ask if he wants "some ice cream," and he breaks into a big grin.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

My grandmother celebrated her birthday today. It's fitting that it is so close to Valentine's Day. She loves red, pink, and roses.

And, of course, Max.

Reading

Max is just now sitting up fairly well by himself. Sometimes he's holds his arms out to balance like a performer on a tight wire. For the most part, he regains his balance.

He loves looking out the window of his playroom. Today, I was letting him play as I read The Lace Reader. He loves gnawing on books. I hope that one day he'll enjoy reading them, too.

Sippy cup

Grandma came over for Sunday dinner a couple of weeks ago. Since Max had been so interested in taking his bottle--and sometimes even the spoon--out of our hands and into his own, we decided to offer him a sippy cup.He got the concept and immediately grasped the handles and thrust the mouth piece into the pro. I didn't want to waste any milk, so we placed only a couple of ounces in the bottom of the cup.He never figured out how to tilt it high enough to get anything out of it, but I think it's a start.

No party at the crib

Last night totally rocked.

Actually, it didn't. I didn't have to rock Max AT ALL. He slept from the time we put him down until 8 in the morning. Woohoo!

It was wonderful to sleep. The only negative aspect is that I didn't spend all of those waking hours catching up on Facebook. This is probably a good thing.

We celebrated this morning by introducing a new food to Max's diet: bananas. At first taste, he scrunched his face in the way that I feel when I drink orange juice after brushing my teeth. He was not a fan. I thought babies are supposed to like bananas! Nope. Not once did he do the little bird mouth indicating he wanted more. In fact, he had banana smeared all over his face by the time I gave up.

Cereal: likes it.
Carrots: okay.
Peas: no, thank you. He actually pushes my hand away but sometimes opens his mouth for more.
Squash: loveslovesloves
Green beans: okay.
Bananas: not a favorite. We'll try again tomorrow.

In my ignorance, I gave him green beans at his next feeding and squash at the next one. My friend told me that I'm supposed to only introduce one food a day which means that's what he's supposed to get all day. Is that right? Will some of my mommy readers let me know the proper procedures for introducing foods? Thanks in advance.