Milestone Minutiae

When Luke wakes up in the morning, he likes to sit up and contemplate the morning. Sometimes he'll crawl around on the bed, sometimes he'll just sit there and pat me. This morning I was less aware than usual, so I was startled awake when Luke blew a raspberry on my belly.

Today we had dinner at a nearby park that has an interactive water fountain for kids to play in. It stays warm practically all night long, so Emmett had a great time in the water. He did stop once or twice, huddling in his towel to warm up (the water is COLD). It was really nice to watch him play so well with other kids in the fountain. He was pouring water on other kids, and they were pouring water on him, all without incident. I even saw him approach one girl to pour water on her, but when she shied away he went to another kid to pour out his water. Wow! Reading subtle social cues! Woo hoo! Luke was interested in the fountain, too. Mostly, he wanted to touch the square grid in the middle that covers the drain. Twice he set off determined to touch it, but got upset by water spray before he reached it. I stayed just a step behind, so I scooped him up as soon as he started to yell.

Emmett has entered a very imaginative phase. There are frequently monsters in his room. He's not really afraid of them, he mostly uses them as an excuse why he can't go get his own new pair of underwear (I told him boys without underpants are invisible to monsters, he bought it). This afternoon we went on a treasure hunt (following the map he drew on the easel). It started with him looking through an imaginary peep-hole in the wall in the storage room and went all around the house. He'd been planning it for a while, because in the morning I'd closed the door and he complained that his treasure hunt started in there.

Luke usually wakes up an hour or two after I put him to sleep. He's usually sitting up and crying when I get to the bedroom. As soon as he sees or hears me, he puts his thumb in his mouth and quiets down. And of course, when I get to the bed, he slumps right over into me.

Emmett's art has made a rather dramatic switch from scribbles and free-form blocks of color to line drawings. He's been drawing "treasure maps" on his new easel. They're large and convoluted closed curves. Very different from what I've seen so far.

Luke's added the "m" sound to his babbling, so sometimes he actually says "Mama!" To be fair, it usually sounds more like "muh muh" but I'll take what I can get. I get all excited, of course, to let him know that this is a special sound. Today at dinner, Luke started saying "Muh muh." I looked over to see him signing "more."

In the living room, our sofa has a rolled back, so even with the top against the wall, there's a decent sized gap at the bottom. Luke has discovered that he fits behind the sofa. The first time he went in there, he got upset so David rescued him. But yesterday, he went all the way through, and then came back the other way. Later, he tried the same thing in the family room. Unfortunately for Luke, the gap behind that sofa is only about as big as his head. After spending some time trying to shove his shoulders in too, he started fussing and I rescued him.

Adjust his blanket. Tiptoe into the bedroom. Turn on the light. Turn off the light. Turn on the light in the hallway. Talk in the kitchen. And if Luke hears Emmett's voice, it hardly matter how close to asleep he is, he'll jump up and charge across the bed towards the sound. Luke really likes Emmett.

Here's a mistake the child of religious parents wouldn't make: After going to a birthday party, Emmett told me that they played "a god game." I didn't know what he was talking about, so I asked some questions. I finally figured out he was talking about a game where they knocked godzilla toys (not gods!) over with water balloons. I explained to him the particular meaning of the word "god" to many people, and he's mostly calling it a "godzilla" game, now.

David and Emmett have invented a game for the basement. One person takes a beach-ball and hides. When found they throw the ball at the other player, hence the name Ambush Ball Bonk. There's a variant called Chase Ball Bonk. Figuring out the rules for that one is left as an exercise for the reader.

Luke is starting to try standing without holding on to anything. I've seen him do it for up to about five seconds at a time.