Atticus is pretty much a full-fledged walker now. He still stumbles from time to time, but the intervals between stumbles are quite long now. He walked all over the children's play area at the park this evening, as well as all over our backyard. He goes outside for playtime with the other walking one-year-olds at daycare. He walks well barefooted, in socks, in shoes; on tile, on carpet, on rocks, on grass, on mulch, on concrete, you name it. He's already moving at quite a pace too. Interestingly, now that he's a walking fool, he's lost interest in the bath. I think it's partly that the bath is less fun when you have a whole new world to discover, and partly that he's wearing himself out so much exploring the world as a walker that by the time we get him into the bath, he has nothing left.

He's been mimicking me lately when I shush him to sleep, which cracks me up and totally ruins the calming effect I was trying to create.

He's now signing "cracker." All of his signs are food-related. hmm

Echo

More walking

I keep forgetting to turn my cell phone when I'm videoing... argh.

Atticus First Easter Egg Hunt (video)

Atticus First Easter Egg Hunt

Improving walker

Watering can

Can't figure out how to turn this upright... a rare sideways glimpse of Atticus

Without any prompting from me, Atticus watered plants in the garden yesterday evening. He picked up the hose, I turned the water on for him, and he moved the hose back and forth among three plants--again and again and again. Be still, my beating heart. I wish I had had the video camera with me; maybe next time.

He has a new tooth, maybe two, coming in. It's been a while. I've gotten spoiled by my agreeable baby. But where is he now?

This morning he grabbed my baby bell cheese and boiled egg as I was adding them to my lunch bag. I let him hold onto them, thinking heck, I'm holding him, I have my eye on him, no big deal. As I scurried around the kitchen packing our lunches, he managed to chomp into both the egg and the baby bell cheese despite their packaging. I was so busy I didn't notice until his chuckle of delight caught my attention.

first steps(2/2)

Ed Grimley?

first steps(1/2)--this time, it's for real

There's Something About Mary--with snot



Atticus refused nearly all of his sold food yesterday, but that didn't affect his energy level. Here he is playing with the swing in the nearby park. He prefers now to stand or sit beneath the swing and push it and the dirt and woodchips around.

Just a little update since I haven't posted in ages...

Atticus continues to be his lovely self. He's such a cuddle bug. And he's often laughing or making me laugh. He's become more adventurous and confident about signing, though kind of random if you ask me about what he signs and doesn't sign. I only recently started consistently signing "all done" when he seemed to be done with his meals. And he seems to have gotten it now--in very little time. He did it beautifully tonight. And this is quite an improvement on his previous "sign" that he was done--throwing his leftover food all over the kitchen. Tonight he also attempted to sign "egg"--not a particularly easy sign. He didn't get it quite right, as to be expected, but I was impressed that he wasn't too intimidated to try. However, I've been signing stuff like "ball," "book," "water" and "bath" for ages, and he still rarely, if ever, tries those. They must be too hard? Or less "fun"?

A few weeks ago he was exhibiting some hardcore toddler tantrum behavior, though since then it seems to have subsided. He was crying the second something didn't go his way, rather than having the patience or trust that I might help him if he would just wait a second.

As the video posting showed, he started swimming lessons last weekend. His second lesson is tomorrow. He was overdue for a nap when we got there last week, so he was clingy and whiny at first, but he quickly succumbed to the soothing warm water and fun activities (what really excited him was swimming toward the wall of the pool in order to knock down a foam turtle sitting on the ledge) and really enjoyed himself. Afterwards we had lunch at the new organic bakery down the street; then he passed out for a long nap.

This morning he slept in until 8am, the latest he's ever slept, I think. He did wake at 4, which he's been doing a lot lately, but I took him into bed with me, which I haven't done in ages, and he crashed out again.

First Swim Lesson (video)

Atticus first swim lesson