Friday, January 27, 2006

Useless flippers

From Carolyn--

This I miss: Do you know those little wind-up toys that move around if you put them in water? Do you know how silly they look if you put them on the floor and let them unwind there instead, flippers flapping uselessly? When Pete used to get really exited, he'd collapse on the floor on his stomach and kick his legs and pump his arms over and over, just like those toys. Now that he's able to stand up, he really doesn't do it any more. He still gets excited, but he shows it in different ways.

However, he does now occasionally give big sloppy open-mouthed un-puckering kisses, which are pretty great.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

New sets of photos

Here are the Petey pix including his first Christmas, first big trip east, and first birthday. Again, I recommend the "view as slideshow" function.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Happy birthday, Pete!

Happy birthday to Pete! The big oh-one! We explained to him this morning how he amazes us with all the things he can do now, and also, by contrast, what an utterly incompetent human he was a year ago. Man, you couldn't even eat right! Fortunatly, Pete has a wonderful sense of humor.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Pete says hi.

First word! First word! At Saints Rest this afternoon, Pete started saying "hi" to people, in the right context, with a little wave. He kept it up through the evening, greeting [cjacobso], her dad, me, my mom on the phone, his new rocking horse. For the almost-year he's been alive, I've probably asked him "Can you say [x]?" thousands of times, always rhetorically. "Can you say amphibious? Can you say Oscar Peterson trio?" Tonight, I said, "Can you say hi?" And he looked at me, gave me that little wave and a smile, and said, "Hi!" Wonderful boy.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Pete hits the road

Since that last update on December 22nd, we've taken our first big trip east (an annual winter event before last year) with Pete. Two and a half weeks and 2,800 miles later, we're back, enjoying getting used to our house again, and trying to catch up on a lot of things at once--including notes to some people who might be reading this. Soon!

Pete has gone through one of his phases of hyperdevelopment. When we left, he couldn't climb a stair; now, he can climb a flight. (Only up--he's eager to go down head-first, so we have to work on that.) When we left, he was eating prepared baby food and some training puffs, perhaps with a Cheerio here and there; now, we can hand him a hunk of bagel, and he'll cheerfully pick away at it on his own. When we left, he was babbling but seemed not to have the sound of words yet; now, a set of words--prominently "mama," "baba" (bye-bye), and "light"--are contending to be the first that he definitively and exclusively connects to their referents. He stands himself up with ease and releases his grip for quick moments without falling. If someone playfully falls from a sitting position, he falls too, and laughs. It's a whole new world for the whole new year, with a first birthday approaching in less than two weeks.

One great trip moment: we walked outside of our hotel building in Allentown, PA to get some breakfast. We were surprised by a sunny morning (rare on the trip) and a big flock of Canada geese making its way across the sky above us in a series of groups. We directed Pete's attention upwards, not knowing whether he could see or would notice the squawking birds, but he did--he pointed up, tracked groups of them, grinned, and squeaked himself, making a sound generally reserved for sightings of cats and dogs. Sky puppies! Every morning should start so well.