My friend Emma is over in Ethiopia working
at the Selamta Children’s Compound, a program of the Human
Capital Foundation, owned and run by my boss. I added
a link to Emma’s new
blog and I’d encourage you all to read it. She’s a
great writer and I’m sure it will be a fun read, and very, very
different from the life of Lex.
3/2/06 – UPDATE – Apparently the blog came down
for awhile. Hopefully she’s able to put it back up
again.
Lex started arm waving this weekend. We
were at my grandparents having lunch and Grandpa started waving
to Lex (who was on the other side of the table in his
exersaucer). Lex watched him for a minute then raised his arm
and waved it back and forth at Grandpa. Grandpa said “wow,
that’s pretty good,” and Alan and I said “wow, look at that!”
:)
Lex has been working on the hand
waving lately too. When I wave my hand (open/close sort of
wave) he will watch very closely, looking back and forth from
my hand to my face, and after a few seconds his hand will start
mimicing. I’m not sure he even knows he’s doing it. Sometimes
his hand will go a few times and it will catch his attention
and he’ll start watching his own hand instead of mine. It’s
amazing to see the learning going on every day.
So now he has been out of my
belly for as long as he was in my belly (plus or minus a few
days, of course). He’s growing up so fast :)
We took Lex to the Montshire Museaum today to play. He had
fun, I think. :) We had fun anyway. I tried to show him the
exhibits, but he was much more interested in all of the kids
running around. I said, “Look Lex, a solar system” and he
cranked his neck around to see a small child run by. I’d put
him down to crawl in a wide open space and he’d make a bee line
for some child’s shoes. :) Needless to say, the small childern
enjoyed him as well. A good time was had by all.
I love the third picture down because they
both look so happy and because you can see Lex’s top teeth. His
bottom ones took forever to grow in, but these top ones are
coming in like freight trains. They cut just last week and they
look so big already. I hope he’s not going to have enormous
front teeth :)
We have a really great
snowstorm going on today too. I wasn’t aware it was coming
(I’ve become weather-ignorant lately, I can guess at what’s
going to happen in about 5 minutes, but that’s as far into the
future as I have any weather knowledge). So it was snowing
lightly when we left for the museaum, and coming down like mad
when were done. Luckily Lex fell asleep in the car because we
ended up in traffic for a long time due to a big accident on
the highway. We both agreed that it’s better to be stuck in
traffic than wherever the drivers of the mashed up cars
were.
PS – I should mention that Lex cut his 4th
tooth about a day after his third. We were on the road then, so
I wasn’t able to post promptly. :)
Lex had his 9-month “well child”
appointment today (check-up). Not surprisingly he’s doing
great. He is officially 19lbs and 27 inches, which means he
gained 2lbs and 3 inches since his 6-month visit. The doctor
was impressed with his crawling, standing, walking, and
talking. Sometimes I wonder if she gushes over every baby or
just the “truly advanced” ones :) He was crawling around on the
floor (in his diapers – so cute!) when she came in and he
crawled right over to her and started playing with her shoe.
She gushed, we bragged, and he didn’t need shots – so a good
morning was had by all.
We have a top tooth! And we’re on our way
to Franklin today. Yay! What a good day!
So I spent $14.95 on this fancy crawling toy a few months ago.
It has lights and music and its supposed to encourage baby to
crawl after it. Lex likes it well enough, but never crawls
after it. He sits on his butt and plays with it. But… give
that boy an empty bowl or a bottle of water and he’s all over
the house. It’s hysterical! I gave him a small bowl of Cheerios
on the floor today. He dumped the bowl, first thing, then
proceeded to pick up individual Cheerios, put them in the bowl,
and then eat them. One at a time. Then he ran out (as far as he
knew) and so he started throwing the bowl (yes, another new
trick) and crawling after it. When he’d get close to it his
hand would hit the bowl and it would got another few feet. He
made it all the way around the living room like this. I was
laughing so hard. Then he came full circle, back to where he
had been eating Cheerios, and found a little pile of them that
he’d been sitting on! So he got his bowl back, put the Cheerios
in it, and ate them. Funny baby :)
Lex is so smart. I love watching him
learn. We have two “interactive” books (one being Pat
the Bunny) and Lex knows exactly what to do on each
page. We don’t even read them much. He never liked them before,
but lately he’s taken a real interest. Pat the
Bunny has a page with a little mirror on it and Lex
always touches the mirror. Tonight we were reading a different
book and one page has a picture of a mirror on it. When I
turned to that page Lex reached out and touched the mirror (not
the rest of the pages, just the mirror). He’s so smart. I love
watching his eyes scan the pages when we read stories. And I’m
teaching him how to put the balls in the holes on the dragon
toy he got for Christmas. He tries very hard, but his
coordination needs refinement :) He’s just so much fun. It’s
amazing to watch him every day!
My little sister will be joining me at
Binghamton!! Or maybe I’m joining her? Either way –
yay!!
