Drinking Milk Like a Real Man

Merrick is a great eater. From the get go, we were a fabulous breast feeding team. He had to take a bottle right away because he was a little early and had low blood sugar. I worried that it would affect our goal to breastfeed predominately, but it was no problemo. He switches from one to the other very well, takes formula whenever Auntie Tiffani watches him, and overall is an eating machine. Recently, I was in a hurry and needed him to take a bottle while I finished something up to hold him over til I could feed him. I realized he didn't know how to hold his own bottle yet (something a kid his age should probably know how to do). So I put it in his hands and tried to show him how to hold it up. Every time I gave it to him, he almost held it up high enough. So I'd help him lift it up a little bit. Every time I did that, he'd let go all together and let me do it. Sigh. I was trying to save time here. Alas, I needed him to figure it out. So I lifted it up for him, put his hands on it, and turned to finish the task at hand. I turned around and found that he had his own way of doing things... a much more efficient, simple and hands-free way of doing things. Very innovative.

Thankyouverymuch!

Sprinkler Surprise!

I love to garden and be outside. Most mornings, I take Merrick with me to pull weeds, talk to my gorgeous grapes on the grapevine, check on Charlotte (our beloved Tortoise) to say "hello", look at the hibiscus opening from the night before, and enjoy nature. A few weeks ago, I went to make sure everything was being watered evenly and found some places looking too dry. So I left Merrick to entertain himself on the grass (a baby who can sit up is my kind of baby!) while I went around the corner to check the drip system's timer box. There are 2 settings for our drip system. One is for the lawn, the other for the plants around the perimeter. I have them labeled "grass" and "plants", respectively. I switched the dial over to "plants", set it for manual timer and turned it on for 10 minutes to give me time to tinker with the valves and make sure water was coming from each spigot. I thought I heard something strange as I came back around the "yard" side of the house. What I saw was this: A very good natured baby boy, smiling in all his soaking-wet glory. I was so surprised by the sight, and even more so that he wasn't crying or upset. I think it's shocking to be assaulted by cold water without warning, even as a grown up who understands that it's not harmful. I think I'm safe to say most babies would have been scared or shocked or something?

Nope, not Mild-Natured Merrick. He just splashed around in it while I ran upstairs to grab my camera, laughing all the while. He loves the water. And apparently he loves surprises, too.

I guess I am pretty funny after all...

I've been told that I'm pretty funny before. I like to catch people off guard, make them feel a little uncomfortable, compel them to think. And if they happen to laugh while I'm at it, even better. Well, tonight I had Merrick in stitches. We've made him giggle before, laugh a little with encouragement. But this was full blown. It's the darnedest thing when your offspring develop their little personalities. In any age-specific material about Merricks development, I'm reading that around this age is when children develop their unique sense of humor and more personality. Well, tonight, it happened. I usually flirt with him (and anything/anyone in my general vicinity) and have fun while we do our day to day things. As I fed him his yams I took a bite to see what it tasted like (I just made bunches of baby food for him and wanted to know if I was as good at making baby food as I am at big people food. Dang I'm good). And true to my fashion, I made a scene out of it. I pretend like I was gobbling it up and making funny noises as I did so. Unexpectedly, something magical happened. Merrick went crazy! He thinks I'm hysterical! I have to admit, I am quite a riot, but his response was way over the top. He's officially the perfect child. He cuddles, he's happy, he smiles all of the time, he looks just like his gorgeous father, he loves me, and he thinks I'm hilarious. We had so much fun just gobbling up our food and making noises (He's well on his way to mastering my social graces, Emily Post help him) that he almost couldn't even swallow his food. I was afraid he was going to aspirate yams. And like it. Alas, he did swallow some of it before shooting it out of his nostrils. Video to come if I can figure it out.