As you know, Henry turned one year old about two weeks ago. At the point he turned one, there seemed to be this switch in his brain that went from hyper baby to AHHHHHH I’M A TODDLER!!!! (One would call this going to ‘11’ by the way). As Andy and myself are older parents and we are as far from fit as one could possibly be without a crane to get us out of bed in the morning, it’s fair to say that we are struggling a bit to keep up with him. I’m sure once he starts walking\running, this will get even worse. We may need to consider hiring a “just quite didn’t make it to the Olympics” track runner to help us out.
On the move...
I don’t know if it’s just the rapid crawling from here to there to there to here to there to ‘What’s this? It’s shiny!’ to there to ‘Power cords! Fun!’ to here to there to ‘Catch the cat! Must catch the cat!’ to there to here to ‘Must drop Daddy’s cell phone on the ground then push it across hardwood floor like car!’ to there to ‘I don’t know what this is so I better eat it’ to here to ‘Cable box ON! Cable box OFF! Cable box ON! Cable Box OFF!’ to there to ‘NOOOO! I want to stick my fingers in the hole in the soda can! You are so UNFAIR!’ to ‘Shoes shoes shoes EVERYWHERE!’ to there to ‘MUST PLAY IN TRASH CAN WHEN PARENTS AREN’T LOOKING’, or if it’s just his constant babbling and struggling to figure out what he’s saying.
Still on the move....
The experts, whoever hell THEY are, always say that when your kid is babbling away that you should maintain eye contact and respond back to them like it’s a proper conversation. This is supposedly to help the kid understand how the flow of conversation works. Now, when I used to work, I used to struggle maintaining focus during an hour long meeting – and that was listening to someone speak proper English. For Henry’s 11 some waking hours, I do my best to “uh huh” him and “oh really?” him and “oh, that sounds interesting, tell me more”. Of course I end up getting bored with my own responses so I start making shit up. “There was a bear with a potato peeler running through the yard?! Wow! Did he have 5 arms? Tell me more!”
By the way, where do toddlers learn the “I don’t know” look? How do they know how to mimic “I don’t know” without actually knowing what “I don’t know” is? Henry has been doing this for the last couple of days. He does the “I don’t know” expression (head tilted to one side of course) and then starts chattering away and looking at me like I’m the dipshit who can’t see the obvious. Where do they learn this? Do I do this to Andy without realizing it? Did he get it from ‘Postman Pat’? I have no idea.
This is not our kid, this is just the expression so you know what the hell I'm talking about.
I do know what Henry got from ‘Postman Pat’ though. He got his first word. In the mornings after I give him his bottle, I put him in his play pen and stick on Cbeebies for twenty minutes while I have a cup of coffee and check my email. When I came back into the room with my coffee, ‘Postman Pat’ was on and they were doing something with apples (I don’t watch the show very carefully – they could have been shoving them in the mouths of roasted pigs, I really have no idea). Henry turned away from the television, looked at me and said, “apple”. His first word…and he got it off of ‘Postman Pat’. He said ‘apple’ for a good hour or so after that but since has only spouted it once or twice while I was changing his diaper. He did spout his 2nd word today, to the cat. It was close to bedtime. Henry was on the couch with us and the cat was lounging on Andy’s legs. Suddenly Henry sprung towards the cat, looked at her and said, “HI!” The cat was not amused, though Andy and I had a good laugh about it.
Thanks Pat.
Anyhow, I’d write more but I’m tired and my drink is waiting.
good job postman pat! i wish i could have seem him saying hi to chloe though..
ReplyDeletehave fun with mom and dad
word of advice: give something to dad to do or fix at all times... at least 2 tasks a day