Pull-Ups

Daniel continues to pull himself up, all over the house. It's the latest craze! Today, he pulled himself up in the crib (instead of napping), also on the coffee table & on the high-chair.

Stand Up!

Daniel pulled himself up to standing today, solo, by leaning on the music table he got for Christmas from Larry, Diane & Randy.

Uh, Duh, Bur, Nana, Buh, Kuh & Dah

We are starting to get protean "words" from Daniel, spoken with intent, and in context.

Some words we're getting: "uh" for up, "duh" for down," "bur" for burp, "nana" for banana, "buh" for bottle, and a guttural "kuh..." for cookie & kitty (we're also getting "dah" for Tashi, and also for dog, when he sees one).

In other news, he's started sticking his fingers up his nose. He has made a habit of trotting out this trick at Christmas gatherings and in restaurants.

It's also interesting to note that, despite the king's ransom in gift's he's received for his birthday and Christmas, Daniel spent a good deal of time today playing w/a plastic box of "Wipeez" in the nursery, ignoring the piles of toys altogether.

All I Want for Christmas

I've been singing a little song to myself for the last few weeks: "All I want for Christmas is a full night's sleep..."

...and I got it! Thanks, Daniel Claus!

Dude Humor

My son is laughing at burps. He can't speak yet, but he thinks burps are pretty funny.

When I burp, he points at me, laughing, and says, "bur! bur!"

Hands

Daniel "fed himself" this morning. I gave him a small bowl of oatmeal and he ate it with his hands and poked at it with his spoon. This is the first time I can remember him eating with his hands for any extended period of time.

StairMaster

Christy & I took Daniel to the Children's Museum today for his official 1st birthday. We spent quite a long time in "the Meadow," going up and down the carpeted stair-and-ramp by the entrance. Other big hits included the moving "gears puzzle" and a wooden teapot we found in the apothecary. Christy discovered a great gift for blowing bubbles with dry-ice "smoke," which mesmerized the li'l fella.

This time, a year ago, we were eating hospital food and wondering, "whuh happen?"

Daniel's #1 Party @ MusicTogether

We celebrated Daniel's 1st birthday party today @ MusicTogether (where Daniel and his Mom have been taking music & sign-language classes). We had two other baby guests, Ellie & Remy. Heaven made a banana-chocolate-chip cake just for Daniel, and cupcakes for everyone else, which were a big hit due to the banana-cream icing.

We did a conga-line, sang the "Tiny Dinosaurs" song, and even played with a parachute (apparently Daniel's great-Grandma Georgia has some experience with the "parachute workout").

You should have seen Christy and me, in the wind, trying to stuff three giant balloon bouquets into the back of my Jeep after the party. And then... the hair-raising "squeak squeak" of balloons all the way home.

Laffy

When a group of people are talking, and then they share a laugh, Daniel will now join in with the laugh.

It's quite strange, this social mimicry thing.

Cookies vs. Milk

I gave Daniel a choice between a bottle (of milk) and a cookie today. He chose the cookie over the bottle. The long supremecy of leche is beginning to crack.

Magic Beans

Today was the first shopping trip w/Daniel where I've come home to find a mystery item in the groceries (something I didn't put in the cart myself).

The mystery item was: "Star Wars Mighty Beanz," whatever the hell those are.

Shifting the Balance

On the heels of our success w/spaghetti last night, Christy was able (after much cajoling) to coerce Daniel into finally eating rice @ the Red Lantern restaurant today. And he appeared to enjoy it. I can't believe we got him to eat pasta and rice in two days. We've been trying for months.

As we were getting ready to meet Christy for lunch, I pulled him out of his playpen (where his muscial star-stacking toy is), and he sang me the melody to the first line of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," eerily on pitch, words substituted with "Da-da's."

And a final epochal event - we lowered the mattress on Daniel's crib down to the lowest rung, because he's was pulling himself up over the rail of the crib. It's amazing how quickly that shifted the balance of power at nap time.

Monkey See

We got Daniel to eat (finely chopped) spaghetti tonight. The secret ingredient was love... and extra cheese.

He didn't want to eat it at first, and he repeatedly spit the noodles out, but once he watched Christy and I making fools out of ourselves, slurping long strands of noodles into our mouths, he gave in. And then he ate the whole bowl.