The Fam

The boy turns three..

Birthday Boy from iamthechad on Vimeo.

It seems like the boy has been blessed with a good sense of rhythm. He loves to dance, and most of the time he looks like he’s trying to be an Elvis impersonator. Once in a while, though, he gets his whole body into it. (You’ll need Flash installed to see the clip.)

Rocking Out Baby on Vimeo

It looks like the trouble is about to start! The boy’s not quite walking unassisted yet - he only uses one foot so he mostly goes in circles. Give him some assistance, however, and watch the little guy go! (If you can’t see the video clip below, try this link.)

The little car he’s pushing doesn’t seem to have enough resistance. If he had gone a few more feet, he probably would gone face down. I’m thinking about ordering the Classic Walker Wagon, since it’s earned rave reviews from others, including Odin.

If you look at the counter over on the right, you’ll notice it’s over 52 weeks. Yes, that means our little man is now one year old. Here’s some pictures from the party:

See the rest of the big day here

We’ve been expecting it for quite some time now, since the boy’s favorite place seems to be on his hands and knees, rocking back and forth as if pure willpower can make him move. Yesterday everything seemed to finally click, and he made his shaky way across the living room floor - crawling!

This feat was quickly followed by another first, as we found out he was on his way to the cat food dish where he got to try his first bite of dry cat food before anybody could get to him. Crawling for less than a minute and he’s already up to mischief!

Don’t worry - we didn’t let him finish the cat food. We don’t want the cats to be any more jealous of him than they alreay are.

The boy made his first sign today. He indicated that he wanted some “milk”, which is the sign we use for his formula bottle. Hopefully the trend will continue!

The boy said his first word the other day, quickly followed by his second and third. He doesn’t know what he’s saying, and he’s usually just copying us, but it’s close enough for us. So far, he’s been saying:

• “mama” - The first word
• “rara” - Trying to say Sarah’s name
• “dada” - Me! Shows you how I rate, huh?

Lately, he’s been quite taken with the whole talking thing - how to move the mouth to make different sounds, how to make loud and quiet sounds, etc.

The one he always seems to settle on, and the reason I think he has a real future in politics, is chanting “blah, blah, blah” at the top of his lungs. This, of course, is combined with banging on his highchair or talking even louder when one of us tries to get a word in edgewise. He’s a natural.

Zayne, being a Pampers wearer, suffers from VML (Visible Muppet Lines). (For those that don’t know, Pampers diapers are printed with Muppet and Sesame Street characters.)

The diaper I put on him tonight after he got out of the bath had Ernie on it. I was a bit hesitant to expose Zayne to Ernie at this early stage, because I think we all know Ernie’s a bit heterosexually-challenged*. Then I thought this is the perfect time to start teaching tolerance to the boy. I mean, Ernie’s big and orange and gay, but he’s just like you and me, right?

[Thanks to DaddyTypes, for coining VML]
*Apparently, using the word “G-A-Y” in a publicly searchable arena is not the brightest of ideas. See “Searches” for more info.

In other news, Zayne is the proud owner of his very first tooth today!

The boy has now slept through the night two nights in a row!

He’s also figured out how to roll over onto his back. He kind of looks like a Weeble - put him on his back, and he sort of pops over to being on his stomach. He hasn’t figured out yet what he can do while he’s on his stomach, so he usually gets mad and starts hollering. It’s kind of funny - “What’s the baby upset about?” “Oh, it must be time to flip him over again.”