Recently, our Little Lord Sausage Legs began what can only be called a sting of first’s. And now as i write this, 2 week later, he’s not just done these things once, but is practicing them.
This began on Friday night 9/26 upon our arrival in Santa Barbara for the engagement party of Jena Jenkins & Jan Martinez. As soon as we put the little man down on the bed at the hotel, he started to arch his back & body is such a way that he was pivoting & teetering on that one hip. He was [this close] to rolling over. We had NO idea at what age these creatures ought to be rolling over, but if felt like he was early, just shy of his 4th month birthday. With the grunts & groans of anything trying to heft the better part of its own weight from Here to There, he kept trying and kept trying, only getting as far as the left hip. Only to collapse back onto his back in tears under the fatigue of the continued effort. By Saturday morning, with an audience of Jena & Jan, he seemed to get a wee bit further towards the goal as he would find that notch and just hang out there on the left hip. For the rest of the weekend and on into the beginning of the week, he would try his new move whenever he had the chance. The most “amusing” being that 4 second span between being placed into the car-seat and being strapped into it. But on Tuesday afternoon 9/30, Anna calls me at work literally screaming. She had placed the lil dood down to beat his rhino whilst she went downstairs to fetch the laundry. But upon coming back up the steps, there he was on his stomache. “I fucking missed it!” she cried. But soon afterwards, non unlike the training wheels coming off, he began to roll over more frequently then she she could count, always to the left. And it wasnt until Thursday night that i finally saw it. Now, he his literally spinning over not only to the left, but to the right as well. Furthermore, he is reportedly rolling back over in a baby’s version of a 360. Again, i have yet to see this. It is not until DAD sees the event that it becomes real!!
I think it was also on the Santa Barbara trip that he discovered another new trick. It is no insignificant trick either. AS i’ve been trying to tell him, as a boy growing up, it is one of the most important noises he, as a boy, CAN MAKE. For those boys who can achieve higher & more realistic executions of this trick, their social status amopngst their peers will most certainly be elevated. For boys anyway. I am of course referring to the almighty Fart Noise.
Ok, he’s a slobbery baby. So much so that we thinks the excess of spit is the precursor to early teething. Whatever the case, he’s producing so much slobber that anythng that even THINKS of coming in contact with his mouth will get slippery wet. So, add to this the his achievment of pursing his lips and blowing air thru them. Viola: the ones & zeros of the Fart Noise. With his level of moisture, the fart noise becomes the moist sloppy kind. Sometimes, right after i wipe away the fuel from his mouth, he’ll crack-out one of the more classical staccato farts, only thereafter to degrade again into the messy wet farts. Of all the milestones thus far, i am most proud of this one. He’s getting really good at it. He’s putting some vocalisations behind them, which gives them the bass & heft & authentic sound of The Real Thing. And these are SO LOUD for such a little big man! Call me juvenile, but the more realistically he can create these magical sounds, the more revered he’ll be by his mates, and the more effective he’ll be at making people smile.
And in a much more sad milestone, Jude has also caught his first illness. There was an episode in mid to late September where we were sure he had pink-eye. Not so much because his eye was teary and red, but more so because Dad developed a funky stye in his eye not too long after that. But this is different. This is a full-blown cold, complete with the stuffy yet runny nose, the sneezing and the coughing, the loaginess and the lack of appetite. And Dad gave it to him. We had just come back from the baptism in arizona where i had caught the legendary 5-day bender cold. No sooner did i make it out of those woods then he starts to develop the same thing. Have you ever tried to suck thru a straw with your nose clogged? How about a nipple? You CANT! Feeding has become crazy hard. And you lie a baby horizontal with all that gunk in his head, and it just turns to concrete and the pressure increases. In a reality where for the next 15 years it will be HIM that gives US these illnesses, i’m not too sure how i feel about having given HIM his first.
He’s clearly getting us back by keeping us up every hour of the night by waking up in his crib and practicing what else: the high-decible fart noises and thrashings of a little big man rolling over & over in his crib.
joy…
(Originally Posted: 2003_1010)