Mr. Pooper:
I don’t actually call you “Mr. Pooper.” I just like the idea of being able to say I was “hanging with Mr. Pooper.” Heh. You won’t get that reference but maybe if Google is still around, you can Google it.
So somewhere around month nine or ten, you went from being this laid-back, never-fusses-ever baby to being a little boy with big, vocal wants. That has been an interesting transition for mama and daddy. Watching you exert your will and get upset when you don’t get what you want is very interesting. I can see the little wheels in your head turning when you figure out that something is out of your reach or that I’m hiding something from you or I outright won’t let you have something you’ve got your heart set on. You used to just grunt when you were disgruntled but now you can shriek with the best of them.
It’s kind of funny; you are such a ham at home but become very serious when we go out in public. You like to watch, to take stock of the situation before you will allow yourself to have much fun. I took you to River Day in Saltillo and you were a little weirded out by all the new people and new noises. Everyone was coming to say hi to you and there were rednecks revving their engines around us and you were just unsure of the whole thing.
You also have finally started that good ol’ separation anxiety, so that if you notice us leaving the room, you let us know how much you don’t like that idea. Which means that peek-a-boo is, like, SUPER entertaining for you.
You really love animals. From puppies to kitties to your stuffed animals, to the animals at the zoo. You are very curious about them and I am trying to teach you gentle touch, because you like to grab handfuls of whatever you can and one of these days that is going to get you swatted.
You got sick this month. A head cold, really, just a bunch of snot and sneezing and coughing. You were pretty pitiful, up every hour wailing for a couple of nights. We felt so helpless and then we got sick too. We were all pretty green there for a while. You finally surrendered yourself to the supreme command of the bulb syringe and we buckled and took you to the pediatrician when we thought you had an ear infection. Turns out you were A-OK, you had just discovered how much fun it was to try to pull your ear off!
Your favorite food now is the remote and all other things you aren’t supposed to put in your mouth. Just today I came into the living room and you had a big canister of maple poofs turned up and the entire contents of the can were scattered around your head. You were having an awesome time.
You like drinking out of cups so much that more than once you have dumped the cup all over you. You like to try to drink from the cup in the bath tub. You are kind of weird!
We have really enjoyed living so near the lake and all the parks around here. I take you for strolls pretty regularly on the weekends and Daddy goes running with you. We also like to take you to the mall so you can go to the kiddie play area and watch all those other tiny babies who climb all over everything. How do they do that?! Just the other day I took you and this one tiny girl couldn’t have been more than eight months old, but she was motoring around and climbing on everything like a pro. She came over to you and started grabbing at your shoes, as if to say “Get those things off and move around!” You just looked at her like she was some kind of freak. To be fair, seeing something that small move that fast IS pretty freaky.
Daddy and I are hoping that the peer pressure might get to you and you might start to crawl a little bit. But for now you’re content reaching as far as you can to get something and then pitching a fit when you can’t. You will roll, you will scoot, you will hump the floor. But you just are not feeling the crawling thing yet.
Can you believe it’s almost been a year? Boy oh boy, little man. I sure can’t.
So. Cute. Love the pics. Especially ‘cheekwood12’