By Mommy

It was a rough weekend, relatively speaking, but we finally have our sweet Rowan back.  All the shots last week had him feeling out of sorts (unsorted? assorted?); even Grandma Irina couldn’t get him to laugh.  On Sunday afternoon at 4:30 he fell asleep for what we thought would be a nap, but he didn’t wake up until the next morning.  And when he did, he was all smiles and giggles again.

Rowan loves his new exersaucer and can spend most of the day sitting up.  If he’s tired he starts to slowly bowl over and play with whatever is between his feet, but I can see him getting stronger every day. He’s already lost one of his spare chins.

His latest, sudden talent is using both his hands.  Until today, if he had something in one hand, he would have to put it down before picking up something else.  Today he held a different rattle in each hand and would bang them together!  To test that it wasn’t a fluke, I put other toys in front of him and he did the same thing.  His favorite plaything, though, is still his foot, and it seems nothing is yuumier than a good set of toes.  Toe jam!

His other big change is that now he knows when his diaper is full and complains about it.  So his cries have become: 70% needs to sleep; 20% needs to eat; 8% sees something he wants but can’t have; 2% poop.  Which is kind of a relief because Mommy’s nose has grown immune to the smell and can’t always tell when it’s time for a change.  Daddy, however, can pick it up from two rooms away.  (For a good laugh, read How not to potty-train a kid.)

Oh, and one more change — he “sings”.  Unfortunately he has chosen Chinese opera as his preferred genre.  (If you’ve never heard the stuff, consider yourself blessed.)  Daddy and I were pushing him in the stroller on Sunday when this prolonged high-pitched sound comes out of him.  I thought he had hurt himself and went to check, but he was in there smiling and serenading the neighborhood at the top of his tiny but very healthy lungs.  I realized today that this might be my fault since our afternoon playtime music includes Beethoven’s very operatic Ode to Joy.  I think I’ll go back to Mary Had a Little Lamb for the next few weeks and give the neighborhood a break.