Winter Review

Dearest Bastian,

You are still the apple of my eye, although you have been causing me much more trouble lately! Over the past three weeks you have been teething like crazy (all four top teeth coming in)- why do my children get teeth so early?! You also have entered the world of separation anxiety in a BIG way, and become easily frustrated by mobility issues. You are quickly learning that "NO" is a word you do not like, and voice your opinion of the word freely!

On the up-side, your comprehension is developing beautifully! I would say that you fully comprehend the following: light, guitar, doggie, Roofus, more, Mama, walk, and milk or nurse. You will imitate the sign for nursing/milk, and you imitate a raspberry sound and other mouth movements and sounds (like sticking your tongue out, lip smacking, and simple consonant-vowel sounds). You continue to get around via army crawling, or walking (more like running) in your walker. I never wanted to put you in the walker because I worried you would become too dependent. It has made my life easier, but I do think it is doing exactly what I feared. You insist on standing most of the time (when you're not in your walker), but require support from Mom or Dad. When we say "walk, walk Bastian!" you will start walking with assistance but you definitely aren't ready to take any steps on your own (although would really like to!). Your legs are totally solid and sturdy- it's hilarious to compare them to Luthien's- so once you are standing you're like a brick wall :)

Some of your favorite past-times include grabbing anything and everything in sight and putting it in your mouth (especially small, circular objects), pulling books and dvd's off of shelves, and eating. I am convinced you can mash up anything in your mouth, so I probably give you things I shouldn't- you love mashing up whole frozen fruits and veggies, like peas and blueberries, and other small round things, like raisins :) You like EVERYTHING- it doesn't matter if it's spicy, sour, etc. which is SO different from your sister. The only thing you aren't particularly fond of are sweet potatoes and bananas by themselves, and anything similarly textured. You also love plain yogurt, which is so funny because again, it is rather sour, but I am happy I don't have to worry about sweetening it!

We've had a fun and chilly winter here in Mass, and here are a few pictures to document your development:

Classic Bath Shot...you actually took a face-dive right after we took the picture, which I knew was going to happen and kept telling Dad to hold on to you! By now you are now much more stable sitting up in the bath.

You love all of Dad's musical equipment!

Here are a few funny shots of you eating! You insist on making a total mess when you eat- I've sort of started turning you into a baby bird and making you take bites from my hand in order to avoid the mess!

Dad had to make your hair all crazy for added effect:

One of you/Luthien's favorite activities is having me push the two of you all over the house in the laundry basket. You love me to sing "Wheels on the Bus" and make the car/raspberry sound (I think this is where you learned to do it yourself)

First snow, just before Christmas!

View from our window...

We were fortunate to house-sit for friends of ours over Christmas. They have an adorable, quaint little beach house and we had a lot of fun. Here you are enjoying all the trucks and other wooden goodies they have at their house. Sorry about the strange outfit, we had to borrow and put you in some of Luthien's clothes the first night!

Making Christmas cookies, which you were more into than Luthien:

We opened presents at our house, which you weren't as excited about as I thought...

Here you are with your new toolset (drool and all):

Getting bites of apple from your sister...

And finally, just a couple pictures from our New Year's trip to Brooklyn. I have no pictures of you with family because every time someone tried to hold you, you reacted with a face similar to this (although you were being a bit more cordial to your cousin Olivia since she kept her distance):

This is with the exception of a few occasions with Nana, and one very sweet interaction with Uncle Tom:

I just realized my developmental notes are current, while these pictures were taken 1-2 months ago! I will post more pictures soon, so you can see how you are beginning to thin out (I think). Also, I wanted to tell you that you love to do things to get a reaction out of us. For example, you'll pluck a guitar chord, pause, and look at us with a big grin, full of pride. Very cute.

Everyone says you look JUST like your Dad. We still don't see it, besides the sturdy legs, light complexion, and reddish hair :)

I love you baby boy, more to come (and sooner this time, hopefully)!

Mama