K and MiniHot stay with K’s parents during
the week, but on the weekend they come “home” to our house, where I live all
week long. Because I see MiniHot only for two days on Sunday and Monday it is
easy for me to see how he’s developing.
A few weeks ago he started really
looking at us, like eye contact. He has been smiling since he was only a week
old but to see him look me in the eye and then smile after I say something or
make a silly noise is truly priceless. He is a ham for the camera, sometimes smiling away or making funny faces (which probably he's doesn't know are funny) and watches
it very carefully. He seems to find it a curiosity and sometimes amusing.
He also discovered the miracle of the mirror when we put him in this little jungle tent set up we got with various stuffed toys that rattle, jingle-jaggle, flash, and play tunes. One toy is a small mirror and once he saw that he was very excited and kicked his legs and kept saying, "Uuh... Uuh," as he studied his reflection.
Last
weekend I noticed that he has learned to follow movement with his eyes as his
vision has improved. We can show him a toy and move it around a little and he follows it, turning his head and moving his eyes. He also was in the habit last week of gumming his left
hand (stuffing it in his mouth and chewing on it), which he held in a fist but with the thumb poking through between the
index and middle finger. This past weekend he kept that fist at his side often
and held his right fist in the air like he was some rock star.
Among other
things, he also now looks at his hands as he squeezes his pinched thumbs and in
the bath he can keep his head from falling forward, though it still falls
sideways and backwards so we have to be careful. Both things are very important, the former meaning he's starting to learn to use his eyes and hands together and the latter meaning he will soon be able to support his head by himself.
So, last night, after he had impressed us with making a sound or two, or even three, when we talked to him, we took him up to bed and K set him down on the futon and asked me to occupy him while she went down to get his basket of diapers and baby wipes. I sat next to my little buddy and started talking to him. He smiled at me and waved his fist and kicked his legs in the air. Then, looking me in the eyes, he dropped his legs and fist, stuck his little face out and said something like, “Ha-ow. Ouhh. Ueh-ow. Huu-uh. Hu-aow.”
I was totally impressed. He had never said so much before at once. I talked to him more, mostly telling him what a good boy he was and how strong he was getting and when I paused he said a whole lot more to me. K came into the room and heard him talking away. She witnessed our conversation and was so impressed. He was really saying something to me. We don’t know what he was saying and I was wondering what was going on in his mind at the time. But it was incredible to see him so earnestly looking at me and trying to “talk”.
I didn’t laugh. I didn’t tell him he was cute. I looked at him as though I were listening and understanding and when he finished I would speak.
Well, he’s still only ten days over two months old. But it sure is very interesting to see him grow and develop and it's really fun interacting with him along the way.
