Family Tales

Don’t worry, we don’t let him do it unsupervised.

another version of the “expressing himself” video.

An Eye-Wrinkling Smile
Originally uploaded by Pamela PC.

Here he is! Looking more and more like a little boy instead of like a baby every day.

Here’s a video on YouTube featuring Callum. If you can’t see the video in the window, you can try clicking on the link.

Interesting piece in Inside Bay Area about baby sign language. We haven’t been pushing this hard with Callum, because he still isn’t doing more common gestures like “bye bye,” but we’ve learned some of the common signs (more, milk, eat, mother, father) and expect we’ll begin using them more as time goes on. We’ve got a couple of videos on the subject, and put them on the DVD player occasionally. I think they’re pretty entertaining and probably encourage verbal language development, too, because whenever they do the sign they also say the appropriate word.

My cousin, Debra (Debby), a federal public defender, made her first oral argument this week before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Here’s WindowsMedia audio. Great job, Debby. We’re so proud of you! (And we got to see her briefly, too, since it was in SF, which was wonderful.)

The Scottish family will know Debby from her visit over Christmas (without us).

Scarcely a diaper change goes by that we fail to have an encounter with the Squirm-meister General, as we have come to call him. This is the part of Callum’s personality — which is increasingly ascendant — that insists upon flipping over, standing up, grabbing for faraway items, and generally making things difficult on the parents. This is despite the fact that we’re only trying to do things that are for his own good…. like protecting him from falling off the changing table, dressing him in warm clothes, and removing and replacing a dirty or pee-drenched diaper. He just doesn’t seem to appreciate our parenting at such times.

Of course, this gets me imagining the future, when we’ll be saying “no” to unchaperoned parties or past-midnight bedtimes. His squirming will, by then, have morphed into something a bit more psychological, I’m sure. I guess we should appreciate the fact that his “needs” at the moment consist only of grabbing, keeping in constant motion, etc.

Now an update… The boy has his first tooth coming in. It’s his left, lower incisor, and it’s sharp. I had one of those horrible working-mom moments when I told the day care provider about the tooth and she already knew. *sigh* Why didn’t she tell me? Also, he’s taken to standing up at every opportunity. He’ll “walk” forward when I’m holding both his hands but he’s not doing much locomotion when holding onto anything else. Generally, he’s becoming a menace to himself and others. I’ve also taken to calling him “the marauder” for the trail of destruction he leaves in his path. Maybe it’s time for better baby proofing