Train Arriving - Please Step Back

A few pinched toes and bumped heels help one learn quickly.  Cat and I now step aside as quickly as possible when we see Nathan rolling his train down the hallway, because that train does not stop.  A few weeks ago, he was more like a San Francisco cable car; traveling in one direction and stopping at the end of the hallway, at which point, we turned the train around and sent him off in the other direction.  Now, he is more like a dune buggy, zipping around at full tilt, taking corners on two wheels, backing up and turning around in a flash.  He's a reckless driver!  If only he had a horn and more precise control over his middle finger, he'd be just like Mommy!

A Birthday Right Around the Corner

Nathan's first birthday is fast approaching, and there seems to be a race to see how many milestones we can squeeze in before then.  He's very close to walking at this point; every day this week, I have held his hands and walked with him up and down the hallway in the evenings.  On some days, he's confident enough to take off with only a tenuous hold on one of my fingers.  On other nights, he holds on to both hands and stops periodically to make sure I'm right behind him.  There have been a few instances when he can just about balance on his own when I first stand him up and several times when he nearly falls over but finds his balance again.  Nana and Grandpa are visiting for his birthday, so he may very well have a new trick to show them by then.

He'll have to keep his seat this weekend, though, when he takes his first ride on Metro.  Cat and I are running (or walking) the Scope It Out 5k on Sunday, so since it will occur at the same time as the Cherry Blossom Festival, our hopes for parking downtown are slim.  Cat has steeled herself for a morning of looking like a tourist as we snap pictures of Nathan on the train, in the station, or wherever else our shameless excitement dictates.  Maybe he can enjoy other unique DC experiences, such as babbling away with the crazy homeless people in Lafayette Square or cruising along Pennsylvania Avenue between chemical warfare sensors and jersey walls.  If this year's race is like the ones of years past, it may also be his first walk through a giant inflatable colon.  Hopefully, the weather will cooperate so that he can take in the sites around the Capitol from the comfort of his stroller.

Perhaps most of all, Cat and I are looking forward to the one year mark for the way it will simplify some things.  Cat is planning to buy our first carton of whole milk next week, so Nathan's first birthday could mark the end of formula mixing and nightly vitamin D doses.  The day could also mark the end of the increasingly awkward car seat dump, when Nathan is unceremoniously dropped into his car seat as I try to find a comfortable position from which to strap him in.  In accordance with the car seat's guidelines, we will finally be able to turn him around to face forwards, so no more frustrated crying in the evenings when he has nothing to look at and no more giant blind spot from the mirror that we use to see his face from the front seats.  Of course, the downside of that change of orientation is that movies such as Casino Royale or Saving Private Ryan will no longer be acceptable choices for the minivan DVD player.  We could be stuck with Finding Nemo and The Lion King for the foreseeable future.  Before long, our weekend drives could be accompanied by the sound of Elmo and Cookie Monster.

Big Changes

Cat and I have started noticing something recently; Nathan has been losing his baby face and is starting to look more and more like a little boy. As his face becomes more expressive and he smiles more often (or pouts when he hears the word "no") it's lost a lot of the pudginess from his younger months. He's also slimming down in the stomach, which is understandable, since he spends most of the day zipping around the house on all fours. And although he still has the "thunder thighs," his legs have a lot less padding than they used to, albeit still enough to insulate the callouses that he is developing on his knees from all the crawling.

Most of all, his social skills seem to be changing dramatically.  He now watches us more intently, gauging our reactions as he does certain things.  For example, when he swings the baby gate at full speed towards the refrigerator, causing a loud bang upon impact, he looks up at us to see what reaction we will produce.  Will we cringe at the loud noise?  Fuss at him for making such noise?  Play along and laugh at his antics?  We're just such mysteries.  On the other hand, if we take away his toy by latching the baby gate after entering the kitchen to wash dishes or prepare dinner, he becomes upset when he realizes that he is locked out the room where Mommy and Daddy are.  That usually results in much crankiness and violent rattling of the gate.  He's very curious and rambunctious kid, and doesn't take too kindly to boundaries.  What fun.

A Walk in the Sun

We took advantage of the great weather this weekend--a stark contrast to last weekend's four inches of snow--and took Nathan outside to test drive his toy train on the sidewalk. He loves pushing his train up and down the hallway, so it seemed logical that he would enjoy a longer track, especially one with some sunlight. He liked being outside so much that he made three trips up the sidewalk. Uphill was the only route that really worked; the train tended to get away from him on the downhill, so we had a few derailments. But even though today was also his first time in shoes, he took off with almost no trouble at all.

It's Almost Like Being There

Nathan is now into the babbling stage.  He loves to hear his own voice now, so on some days, he uses every breath to repeat his favorite sound of the day.  Recently, the oft repeated syllables have been "da," "ma," and "na," much to the delight of two parents and one grandparent.  Or for the parents, just for a little while.

In celebration of this new milestone, this blog introduces a new feature, the "Living with Nathan" virtual reality simulator.  Picture the scene; you're sitting in the living room, reading the paper or watching television.  Nathan is quietly surveying the neighborhood, looking out on the parking lot on a sunny day.  Suddenly, the toys in the living room beckon him and he starts crawling towards the living room.  This is what you hear:

da da da da DA DA DA DA da da da da DA DA DA DA da da da da DA DA DA DA da da da da DA DA DA DA da da da da DA DA DA DA

Finding his toy car in the living room, he turns back around and heads back to the door.

DA DA DA DA da da da da DA DA DA DA da da da da DA DA DA DA da da da da DA DA DA DA da da da da DA DA DA DA da da da da

Amazing, isn't it?