The Bobster at 17 Months
How is it possible that the whole month of May went by with no posts from us? Well, we're just slackers, I guess.
May was a fun month of travel and all kinds of new developments in Bobby.
In early May headed east to Vermont and NH. In VT, we attended my cousin Mark's wedding. It was the first time in six years that my cousins have all been together, and Bobby got to meet his four second cousins, Emily, Sean, Courtney & Sadie. He had a great time chasing after the big kids, watching what they were up to, and joining in occasionally.
Bobby was a trooper during all the airplane travel -- spent a two hour layover in Chicago running all over the waiting area, trotting up to strangers, saluting them with a raised arm (and in special cases, showing them his belly) then trotting off to the next person in a continuous circuit. He got so attached to some of his fellow travelers that when they got up to board their respective flights, he tried to follow them onto the plane, then looked at us, baffled, as if to say "Hey -- where's my new friend going without me?"
After a great weekend in Vermont, we headed to New Hampshire to visit Grandma and Grandpa. You'd think they would have been tired out after a three week visit from Amos, Etta & Emilie, but apparently they only need a few days to recover between toddler incursions. Center Sandwich was experiencing blissfully warm weather, so we enjoyed the opportunity to run up and down grassy hills for hours on end (a joy Bobby discovered here in Seattle, fully indulged in Vermont, and continued in NH). Since Bobby's balance headed downhill is good but not fully perfected, this requires a grown-up to be willing to hold his hands. I'm glad he's not completely reckless, but it did get to be a little tiring.
Speaking of being reckless, Bobby is thrilled with any opportunity to climb things and jump down. He loves the stairs -- he's happy crawling up on his knees, or having us hold his hands so he can walk up. Mommy sitting at the computer is an invitation to climb up her chair. And he's not subtle, either -- he'll walk over, grab my arm, grab my hand, and insist that I help him climb. The slide at the park is fun to go down, but much more fun to climb up. He's not so adventurous that he'll jump unaided -- instead he'll grunt and shriek until we hold his hands and help him jump. And once is never enough -- usually 10 times is the minimum.
Another fun skill he's discovered is the ability to run in place. Or maybe it's tap-dancing. It's a riot to watch.
A less fun skill is the hurling of food from his highchair. He and the dogs are terrible training for each other. The dogs have all but determined that Bobby's now the head of the pack -- Scylla has stopped listening to Roger or me entirely, but sits with rapt attention waiting for a 'command' from Bobby. He raises food over his head (which Scylla interprets as an instruction to sit), smirks slyly, and then hurls his food. She either catches it or scrambles for it -- either one is pretty entertaining and a pretty good motivator for Bobby to repeat himself. Consequently nothing Roger or I can say to either of them seems carry much weight, when they're so mutually entertaining.
His non-verbal communication skills are quite impressive. As I mentioned, he's not subtle about just grabbing us and moving us to what he wants. When he wants to read a book, he sticks it in our hands (even if it means grabbing our arm, opening our hand, and sticking the book in it). He also has a preferred book-reading position (on the floor, sitting between our knees and resting his back against our belly). Should we fail to adopt the correct position, he'll move us accordingly. He's also learning body parts and can point out his and ours. Ears, eyes, nose, mouth, head, belly -- he's happy to point to his own (Where are Bobby's ears?) or jab a finger at ours (Where are Mommy's eyes? Ow, that's right!). He knows which dog is Scylla and which dog is Homer, and reliably points to the right one when asked. And he's certainly learned how to say "no" by shaking his head (interestingly, this is his response to being offered homemade Jello. First he shakes his head, then he giggles and throws it to a dog).
His actual spoken vocabularly is, well, non-existent. He's close to saying "cat," and I'm pretty sure he said "Homer" today. He says mamamamamama quite often -- it generally means "something's wrong -- fix it now."
His latest trick is putting on Mommy's shoes:
How is it possible that the whole month of May went by with no posts from us? Well, we're just slackers, I guess.
May was a fun month of travel and all kinds of new developments in Bobby.
In early May headed east to Vermont and NH. In VT, we attended my cousin Mark's wedding. It was the first time in six years that my cousins have all been together, and Bobby got to meet his four second cousins, Emily, Sean, Courtney & Sadie. He had a great time chasing after the big kids, watching what they were up to, and joining in occasionally.
Bobby was a trooper during all the airplane travel -- spent a two hour layover in Chicago running all over the waiting area, trotting up to strangers, saluting them with a raised arm (and in special cases, showing them his belly) then trotting off to the next person in a continuous circuit. He got so attached to some of his fellow travelers that when they got up to board their respective flights, he tried to follow them onto the plane, then looked at us, baffled, as if to say "Hey -- where's my new friend going without me?"
After a great weekend in Vermont, we headed to New Hampshire to visit Grandma and Grandpa. You'd think they would have been tired out after a three week visit from Amos, Etta & Emilie, but apparently they only need a few days to recover between toddler incursions. Center Sandwich was experiencing blissfully warm weather, so we enjoyed the opportunity to run up and down grassy hills for hours on end (a joy Bobby discovered here in Seattle, fully indulged in Vermont, and continued in NH). Since Bobby's balance headed downhill is good but not fully perfected, this requires a grown-up to be willing to hold his hands. I'm glad he's not completely reckless, but it did get to be a little tiring.
Speaking of being reckless, Bobby is thrilled with any opportunity to climb things and jump down. He loves the stairs -- he's happy crawling up on his knees, or having us hold his hands so he can walk up. Mommy sitting at the computer is an invitation to climb up her chair. And he's not subtle, either -- he'll walk over, grab my arm, grab my hand, and insist that I help him climb. The slide at the park is fun to go down, but much more fun to climb up. He's not so adventurous that he'll jump unaided -- instead he'll grunt and shriek until we hold his hands and help him jump. And once is never enough -- usually 10 times is the minimum.
Another fun skill he's discovered is the ability to run in place. Or maybe it's tap-dancing. It's a riot to watch.
A less fun skill is the hurling of food from his highchair. He and the dogs are terrible training for each other. The dogs have all but determined that Bobby's now the head of the pack -- Scylla has stopped listening to Roger or me entirely, but sits with rapt attention waiting for a 'command' from Bobby. He raises food over his head (which Scylla interprets as an instruction to sit), smirks slyly, and then hurls his food. She either catches it or scrambles for it -- either one is pretty entertaining and a pretty good motivator for Bobby to repeat himself. Consequently nothing Roger or I can say to either of them seems carry much weight, when they're so mutually entertaining.
His non-verbal communication skills are quite impressive. As I mentioned, he's not subtle about just grabbing us and moving us to what he wants. When he wants to read a book, he sticks it in our hands (even if it means grabbing our arm, opening our hand, and sticking the book in it). He also has a preferred book-reading position (on the floor, sitting between our knees and resting his back against our belly). Should we fail to adopt the correct position, he'll move us accordingly. He's also learning body parts and can point out his and ours. Ears, eyes, nose, mouth, head, belly -- he's happy to point to his own (Where are Bobby's ears?) or jab a finger at ours (Where are Mommy's eyes? Ow, that's right!). He knows which dog is Scylla and which dog is Homer, and reliably points to the right one when asked. And he's certainly learned how to say "no" by shaking his head (interestingly, this is his response to being offered homemade Jello. First he shakes his head, then he giggles and throws it to a dog).
His actual spoken vocabularly is, well, non-existent. He's close to saying "cat," and I'm pretty sure he said "Homer" today. He says mamamamamama quite often -- it generally means "something's wrong -- fix it now."
His latest trick is putting on Mommy's shoes:
I stand corrected. His latest trick, perfected just moments ago as my back was turned, is climbing up onto the couch unaided. He was pretty pleased with himself. The cat, for whom the back of the couch was safe territory until now, was less enthusiastic.
Mom
posted by Katy Mathias at
12:49 PM
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