Friday, October 16, 2009

Look Who's Sittin' Now

So far, the developmental milestones have been kind of underwhelming. I mean, yes, it's cool that he can track things with his eyes, hold his head up, and not root at the slightest provocation, but those aren't exactly the kinds of things that seem important to anyone but the pediatrician. Rolling over had its momentary thrill and I still love watching him reach for anything you happen to put in front of him (which has signalled the end of cooking with him on my hip), but all the biggies (talking, walking, pooping in the right place...) still seem like they are a ways away and Eames doesn't seem in a hurry to do grown-up things any time soon. In fact, he was rolling every which way for a while, but now it appears that rolling over is passe and he happily stays wherever you lay him down.

Anyway, it occurred to me that we should be getting to the point where he's at least trying to sit. He has a 6 month check-up in a few weeks and he needs to stay firmly in the average range (no deviations here). High time we start practicing. So, I set him down on the play mat in front of the toy Aunt Patty got him and guess what? Eames has already mastered that shit:



What I'd forgotten is that Eames doesn't like to approach his new skills slowly. He's an all-or-nothing kind of little guy. When he decided to roll over, he did so by rolling across the living room floor; up to that point, he'd never shown the slightest inclination and then, boom!, look at me rolling toward the front door! Catch me if you can! And, while he's using the toy to stay up in this video, he's already given that up as well.* Clearly, like his mother, he doesn't believe in practice. I fully expect that one of these days, out of the blue, he's just going to look at me and say, "Don't use your rhetoric on me, mother. I'm not interested." I would not be at all surprised.

*I posted the short video, since blogspot wasn't really digging the 5 minute sitting video.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Dial E for Eames

Since he was born, Eames has had a prodigious chin and, if I'm to be honest, cheeks to match; in fact, I periodically do the finger sweep test to make sure he's not packing anything in those cheeks of his--like he's gained the manual dexterity and mobility to sneak a few cat toys into his mouth while I'm not watching. Hell, sometimes it even looks like he might have a whole cat in there (Pasha or Simi clearly, since Nico is obviously too big).

While discussing the possibility that his cheeks might need their own zip code the other day, Josh mentioned that Eames bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain famous director and TV show host. Pat Sajak came to mind for a minute, but he, to my knowledge, has never directed a film and he's far too tan. Josh was, of course, referring to Alfred Hitchcock.

How did I ever not see that Eames is the spitting image of the master of suspense? The gravity-prone jowls. An extra chin. Melancholy eyes. A fuzzy pate. This kid will be sicking birds on an unwitting population in no time or throwing people off of bell towers or spying on our neighbors...

And I will definitely have to rethink leaving him in the doorway jumper while I take a shower.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Commie Leanings

In old country I cosmonaut space sheep.
Zen I dreenk Vodka.