Post of the Day:
There's so much to do. And it's all good. I have been helping my daughter with her science fair blog. Fascinating. (I will put the link here when we're ready.) The picture below is an example of what we did. Can you tell where that shirt is from? Maybe I should do a poll here, too! Well, her science (psychological science) experiment is based on her blog. That blog is an 18-question poll, accompanied by 18 photographs of clothing which we photographed at Nordstrom and at D.I., with a generic (baby blanket) backdrop and no identifying labels. The poll asks respondents (who must be female consumers between the ages of 13-45) whether they think the clothing is found at Nordstrom or D.I. I can't wait to see the results!
The sun is bright and happy. The snow is bright and happy. I am happy. The house is neither immaculate nor horrible. (Well, except for the inside of the refrigerator and the garage, which are horrible). There's a mountain of unfolded laundry on the couch. There's a dalarhast in my kitchen windowsill. Of course. The baby is sleeping in his crib.
I am so madly in love with that baby. He is over 19 pounds at four months of age, which puts him in the 100th percentile on weight, and in the 90s for height and head circumference. (I explained this to his 8 year old brother: if you put 100 4-month-old babies in a room, your baby brother is the fattest one.) In other words, he is the size of a one to one-and-a-half year old. He wears 12-18 month clothes, but he's so very, very much younger in his mannerisms and facial expressions. I am going to list a top ten of things I noticed about him today:
1. A drop of white milk on his chubby, bright pink cheek when he woke up.
2. Toothless gums, adorably innocent and perfect, in his wide open, laughing mouth.
3. His little tongue, as it works to express who knows what, and blowing bubbles at the same time.
4. His hands, always opening, closing, touching, reaching. He grabs my hair 100x a day.
5. Putting my finger in his palm while he is nursing. It's holding hands, the best we can.
6. Slathering baby oil all over his legs, tummy, and neck when I change his diaper. He laughs because it tickles. So then I rub his legs more and get him to laugh and laugh.
7. Putting him high over my head, and poking his tummy with my chin. This makes him laugh every time.
8. His voice. He makes tones, sometimes on the in-breath, usually on the out. He razzes. He has so many sounds that I can't explain them all. He even has one that sounds like he is exaggerating. When he makes that one, I laugh at him and kiss him and he knocks it off. It's so real, this beginner talking of his! At least, to me. I encourage it by narrating to him almost all day long, narrating or singing.
9. He loves to read. At least, when he's done nursing, he looks at my pictureless book pages, fascinated, trying to pull them, fingering the paper. He has no limit to how long this interests him, except if he wants to eat more. He also loves the mobile that hangs over his crib-- 5 animals go in a circle while the mobile plinks out "Brahm's Lullabye" --he squawks for it to start up when it stops. I wind and wind. Usually by the third time, he either falls asleep or he's mad and wants to get out of the crib.
10. His beautiful, infinitely beautiful, bright, living blue eyes.
