Milestone Minutiae

Luke has been on antibiotics for a week. I started out giving them to him with a syringe. Even though I'd squirt it as far back as I could, he was quite good at bringing it forward and spitting it out. After a few doses, I started using a baby spoon to collect some of it and give it to him again. When he saw the spoon, he opened his mouth so wide that I abandoned the syringe and started using the spoon from the start.

Earlier today, Emmett told David it would snow Wednesday night. Neither David or I had checked the weather report for this week, but sure enough, we're expecting snow on Wednesday night. In order to get this information, Emmett would have had to open the WeatherBug by double clicking on the icon in the system tray, click on the Forecast link, and scroll down to Wednesday Night. He's seen us use the WeatherBug before, but I've never directly told him where to find things in it. He must be paying attention!

I guess Luke has his hands figured out, because he's really been grabbing things. Not just his feet or toys, but also my face - lips, cheeks, and nose. Pair this with his predatory tenancies, and you've got trouble!

Luke loves to chew and drool on things. He's lightning quick, too. When he gets a hold of something (a toy, your hand), in a flash he's got it in his mouth, gumming it into submission. It's funny to watch, because he opens his mouth wide and shakes his head back and forth on the way. And he doesn't just wait for his hand to get to his mouth, he moves his head forward too, so he doesn't have to wait. It's like having a tiny predator in the house.

When I first started putting Luke into his saucer , his feet didn't reach the bottom. When Grandpa Tim was visiting, he noticed that Luke is able to spin himself around a bit now. Sure enough, his feet reach the bottom now. So far, I can't tell if he rotates on purpose or not.

The house was a wreck, so I explained to Emmett that we'd have to work hard to clean it. Usually he's all for lending a hand, but this time he said "You get started and when you're almost done, I'll help."

Luke has found his feet and toes. At least a week ago, he'd grab his feet while on the changing table. That's his only time to really grab them, because his feet are always in jammies or booties to keep him warm. Today, though, he played with his feet through his jammies. I guess he's decided that they're fun even if he can't get at the toes individually. I hope he still likes his feet when the weather warms up!

Watching Emmett learn to read reminds me a lot of when he was learning to speak. With talking, he picked up words slowly at first, and then the vocabulary exploded (this is normal language development). With reading, he's been sounding out short words for a long time. I noticed a few weeks ago that he knew some words by sight (the, of, do, in, and - words like that). As little as a week ago, if he sounded out a word and came across it again, even on the same page, he'd sound it out again. Just a couple of days ago, though, he figured out "analogous" words. I told him the sound that "ight" makes, and he was able to read Dwight, light, sight, might, etc. He now typically sounds out a word once on a page (or once in a short book). Today, he read half of "Go, Dog. Go!" stopping only because David arrived with lunch. I've seen Emmett trying to read various things on his own (instructions, labels on the washing machine, of course books). He

Emmett frequently requests it and we all enjoy it, so Jamie's CD is on heavy rotation in the car. Yesterday Emmett announced "Uncle Jamie doesn't know much about the world." This surprised Aunt Becky who was visiting, but track one had just ended so it wasn't just a spontaneous insult. In other news, the Word Whammer is the toy-of-the-moment (Thanks Jamie and Christina!). When you put letters in, it sounds them out, saying "Great word!" or "Great sounds!" Initially Emmett was mostly entering nonsense. Today I saw him enter his first real word, one whose spelling he sounded out for himself. He pointed to his word and said, "FAR. Grandma and Grandpa live far away."

Emmett really can read. He doesn't like doing things he's "not good at" which makes it difficult to get him to practice. In fact, until about a week ago we believed that he couldn't do much more than sound out words very slowly. But when we made his morning cartoon dependent on him first reading a very easy reader to one of us, suddenly he can read! Now after just a week, he's more willing to try to read things, and seems to be having more fun and saying "I can't" a little less. At Red Robin today for dinner, he read a table sign that said "Red Robin Blue Ribbon Good"

Luke has been drooling a lot, and chewing on everything - his fist, my thumb, toys, whatever. Oh yeah, and he's been HIGH maintenance for a week. (Thank goodness for visitors to hold him when I can't!) But it's too early for teeth, right? Emmett got teeth at 6 months, so this is probably something else. I just hope his disposition doesn't stay like this until 6 months...

Yesterday I was reading some old stuff about Emmett, and found that at three months he started kicking wildly on the changing table. Luke must be clairvoyant because he immediately started doing " riverdance " on the changing table as well. So as to outdo his brother, he has added wild arm movements to the wiggling, lifting straight arms up high and slamming them down to his body.

Today was Emmett's first day back at Spanish school (he went for about a week before Christmas). I always ask him about his day, what his favorite part was, and how confusing it was. Trying to be sure he's not having any problems in class, I also ask him if any of the kids had any trouble, or if he had any trouble in class. Before Christmas, one day he reported that Larkin (a little girl) had some trouble. When I asked him what it was, he said "I was pushing my hand towards her." After a bit of back and forth, I discovered that he was sitting across from her, and was sliding his hand on the table into her space to bug her. Trying very hard not to laugh, I asked him not to bother her any more. Today, no kids had any trouble in class. I decided to ask specifically if he bugged Larkin . He said he did, so I asked for more info. He said "I accidentally leaned on her." ARGH .