Daddy's up and eating some breakfast before heading out to the library, while Junior is sleeping peacefully and dreaming about whatever it is he dreams about. Often, we think, it's eating - as he gently makes sucking motions. Last weekend was mostly in a fog as Daddy slept off his bug much of the time. There were no projects this weekend except for recovery and schoolwork. And a visit to a fairly disappointing showcase of cities at the Northern Cities Conference downtown. The nice carryover is that bedtime is still very early now, and allows pleasant mornings like this.
Baby continues to amaze. His favorite vocalization lately is a relatively low, long "heeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr", interspertes with shrieks of delight as Mommy and Daddy sing songs and play. He's a very aggressive grasper and puller now - Daddy's face, nose, ears, hair, chin are favorite playthings. In the past few weeks he's started to really track objects which are moved around, above, and behind him by turning his eyes, his head, leaning (sometimes falling!) over. Really cool. The pile of diapers on his changing table are no longer safe, and often - after a change - we walk away with 2 clean diapers. One on him, and one in his arms. He doesn't gnaw everyting he grasps, but most things. Really, like the doggie, his mouth seems to still be a big part of his object manipulation capacity. The days of flailing with his arms to touch things appear to be over - he's now making coordinated grasps.
We still need to avoid the television - by now, he cranes his head 1/3 the way around just to see the bright flashing idiot box, before we refocus his attention to something better. Like Daddy's chin. It's a little frightening how attractive it is to him, and says a little something about how hard it is for grownups to avoid television entirely.
A particular stained glass on the front picture window is still the love of his life (after Mommy, of course). Ever since he was tiny and first started to show focus upon objects with his eyes, he's been attracted to this small metal-and-glass hanging. Now he'll grab it if we're not careful. Doggie and Kitty, in the past month or so, are now popular as well - he holds on to their fur very tight and they are very tolerant of him.
He's a champ at tummy time, holding his big head up high - using the muscles in his back and, sometimes, his arms to do it; and even tolerating it for several minutes at a time. His hair is now turning all blonde - not just the roots - and he's looking more and more like Daddy every day. Mommy has been receiving a new set of larger diapers in the mail from her various trading partners around the country, but he's not quite ready for the big ones yet.
Even though it's quite warm now - in the 40s most days - the thaw has made the roads and walks very icy, so we really can't go for walks with baby just yet. We put new pictures of him up on the website: rehbergs.net/mike (or, if you highly value Donna's independence, www.alaska.net/~mears; they both work). Take care.
