This and that observations (in the life of a newly turned one year old)

June 9, 2010 - Sydney keeps INSISTING upon putting his spoon into his (monkey) cup and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out WHY. And then, all of a sudden, as I was stirring my morning cup of steamy, hot chai tea, I realized that he watches me do this nearly every day. (Also, Mike seems to think that the spoon in the jar of babyfood would also look a lot like his spoon in his cup.) We have an observant child.

June 10, 2010 - Sydney and I went outside to play, bringing his yellow "slug-bug" baby car with us. Because our street is a hill, grading towards downtown, the car often rolls on it's own down the sidewalk and Sydney chases after it. He used to crawl around, pushing his car and making motoring car noises with his mouth. Today, however, he discovered that he can stand on one leg and push the car with his foot. When we were done with the car, we ventured back into our driveway; here, Sydney noticed his reflection in the hubcap of Mike's truck and he kept smiling and waving at himself. Again, we have an observant child.

June 11, 2010 - Lately, we realized that Sydney has been signing the word MILK for both breast-feeding  and hunger so, we have been trying to teach him that MILK is just for mommy's milk and that EAT is for eating food. When Sydney woke today, after already being nursed in the middle of the night AND an early morning feeding, he was signing that he wanted MILK. 

I specifically asked him (signing) "MILK? or EAT?" 

He immediately brought his hand to his mouth. 

"EAT." I announced.

"Yeah." he said, while simultaneously shaking his head in affirmation.

"YAY!" exclaimed Mommy. "You know EAT!"

June 11, 2010 - As Sydney and I were sitting in the recliner breast-feeding, I saw a light reflection on the wall and heard a car in the driveway. I announced "I think I hear Dadda."

Sydney immediately stops nursing and wiggles down off of my lap, running quickly to the babygate by the sunporch door. "Hi Dadda." he says as he gets to the gate.

Sadly, I look into the driveway and do NOT see Mike's truck; someone must have just turned around in our driveway. "Sorry, buddy." I explain. "It was a false alarm; Daddy isn't home yet, but he should be home ANY MINUTE!" (I feel HORRIBLE for getting his hopes up like that!)

Sydney waits, playing by the door, babbling about DADDA.

When I see Mike's truck pull in, I grab Sydney and lift him over the gate, announcing "Sydney, daddy is home!" He runs to the door, grinning from ear-to-ear, waiting to give Daddy a BIG "Welcome Home" hug. (Or a "hug, hug, hug" as we like to call them.)

June 11, 2010 - Sydney had just gotten done eating and HE WAS A GIANT MESS! He had food smeared all over his body, face and even in his hair. After wiping (most of) the "chunks" off of him, I set him down to play. There, I stood, observing the sticky mess on his temple and in his hair; so, like any good mom, I grabbed a butt wipe and started scrubbing at his head. His white, blonde hair stuck straight up, all over, on the top of his head. "You look like a duck." I announced, commenting on his fluffy hair.

Sydney immediately stands up and starts scanning the living room with his bright, blue eyes. (His newest book has a stuffed animal DUCK - labeled TOY in the book - that looks a lot like his baby chick that he rarely plays with.) I announce "I think you left your DUCK in the kitchen."

As I stand up, to go retrieve his chick/duck from the kitchen floor, he points to the Fridge Farm magnetic piece that sits on the floor next to the recliner. (It is the head piece for the YELLOW DUCK.) What a smart baby; he keeps proving his recognition of the English language.

"You're right!" I reply. "That IS a duck!" (Sydney proudly nods his head YES.)

After I get his stuffed animal chick/duck from across the baby-gated kitchen, he smiles and points to the "toy" duck that is pictured in his new book. We have an observant child.

June 12, 2010 - For days now, I have been watching Sydney eat one of his favorite foods: Cheerios! But, for some reason, our little boy - who used to eat foods daintily, delicately picking up one piece of food at a time with just his thumb and forefinger - has now turned to eating like a heathen*, grabbing entire fistfuls of food and trying to shove it all into his mouth at once. And once he gets it into his mouth, while dropping a lot into his lap along the way, he quickly crams another handful in so that he can barely chew it all - and quite possibly, can't get another bite inside.

This leaves me to ask: 

Where did my polite little eater go? 

And how long can I expect this "phase" to last?

* http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heathen

heathen (noun): strange, uncivilized

June 12, 2010 - After eating a breakfast of Yoplait Blueberry yogurt, fresh raspberries and Cheerios, Sydney was wiped down from head to toe. (Thankfully, he ate wearing JUST his diaper.) All signs of our early morning shower were LONG GONE!

Sydney had climbed through his pile of toys in the corner of the living room and carefully selected his Winnie-the-Pooh jack-in-the-box (a gift from Kerri shortly after he was born). He brought it onto the floor in front of the recliner and started playing with it. [He now knows that the red (music note) button plays music and the yellow, flashing (circle) button makes Pooh appear from the top.]

All of a sudden, I witnessed an AH-HA moment as Sydney ran across the living room and stopped in front of a box of diapers that was sitting on the end table by the couch. He meticulously points in the lower right corner of the diaper box where there is a 2" tall cartoon picture of Winnie the Pooh hugging Eyeore. We have an observant child!