Max Today Waking Up From Nap
The other day, he clearly made the baby sign I have been using for “no more”, palm down waving hand back and forth. In the past, I could tell he understood because when I would do the sign or say “no more” he would do his old favorite of fingers over the mouth and go wa wa wa wa wa. He is progressing to waving his hand across the tray of his high chair causing whatever is remaining to go flying. Not exactly what I was going for, but he is getting his point across. LOL. I acknowledge these cases with a prompt removal from the highchair, but really praise it up when he does the sign without the food flying bit. He can wave “Bye Bye/Adios”. He can “kiss” (open wet mouthed smackerou). Now, I am working on the baby sign we are using for “eat”, fingers to the lips. The kid is smart. He seems to “get it”.
Over the weekend, I was letting him play in the back yard while I swept leaves. As usual, he tried to put them directly into his month. However, unlike in the past, when I told him to “not eat the leaves” he smiled and put them down. Of course, I had to tell him that about 20 times, but each time, he looked at me, smiled, and put them down to move on to another part of the back yard and new leaves. LOL.
His word recognition in both English and Spanish is quite phenomenal, if I do say so myself, which I do. However, unprompted, Naomi has told me the same thing. She says his is “very intelligent” (in Spanish). So, it is not just me. (smile)
One early morning when he was in my bed with me playing with “his” TV remote (the one that doesn’t work anymore). He took the back off where the battery goes. I looked at him amazed. I put it back on and handed the remote back to him. Once again, he took it off. I put it back on and gave him back the remote. A third time, he put his little finger on the lever and took the back off then gave me a big smile, like “yes momma, I do know how to do this”. He is not yet 10 months. How did he figure that out? Incredible!
I have this big entertainment center in the living room that has three sections and each section has a cupboard at the bottom with a door that opens up. We have been putting his toys and books away in there. Sometimes, he just likes to open and close the doors. A few weeks ago, when he was mastering this he couldn’t get the door open because he was sitting in front of it, he started fussing and getting frustrated because the door wouldn’t open and yet he knew that it could/should. I told him to not get frustrated, that he had to move his body to the side and out of the way of the door. He looked at me. Moved. Opened the door. And, beamed. Now, he is mastering pulling everything off each and every shelf and throwing it to the floor, just because he can. He can clear each shelf in about 20 seconds with a nice swipe of his arm.
What else?
He will look at flowers when you point them out to him. He finds the airplane in the sky when he hears one or you tell him one is flying high in the sky. We were watching a Baby Einstein DVD the other day and as typical I said the word of the object on the screen and act as narrator. When I said “ball”, he crawled over to the ball sitting next to him and touched it, rolled it around, and beamed to me in recognition/making the connection. I, of course, told him how brilliant he was and that he was absolutely correct that was a ball.
He has this great soft little chuckle when he is pleased with something like when I give up trying to rock him back to sleep in his room and bring him into bed with me. Or, when he slides out of my lap after a bottle or quick cuddle, and gets his feet on the ground and realizes he is “free” (and not off to bed). He has this “he he he he he” type of chuck/sigh of happiness.* It is a delight to hear.
He has the most contagious laugh. He has been sick and teething (yes, looks like at least one tooth has broken through with 3 more on the way/just behind it) so he hasn’t laughed much lately. But the other day on the way home from our walk, our neighbor (who is 4) came over with his puppy to play in the front yard with us. Max just laughed and laughed and laughed to see the puppy run around and laughed even harder when the puppy licked his feet, his hands, and his face. It was just the best and made me want to get a puppy for him so badly. I have had to repeat countless times to myself since then that now is not the time and that it isn’t fair to Shadow, who was safely in the backyard away for the puppy energy. Shadow dislikes the puppy energy and much as Max seems to love it.
When I read to Max, I usually hold up two books and ask him which one he wants to read. He will crawl over and “pick” one by touching it or taking it into his hands. Once, he didn’t pick either which I thought was strange so I held up two different books and he smiled and picked one of them. Apparently, he just didn’t want to read either of the firsat two choices just then. It is just adorable and I can tell that he really does know what he is doing because his preferences change every few days. Sometimes, he will actually sit on my lap or next to me and “read” an entire book. Often, he will move around and just look back as I turn each page to see the picture. The book picking is especially fun when he is about to crawl out of his room into the hall and I ask him to pick and he excitedly crawls back to let me know which book I should read next.
Maybe most of this maybe normal almost 10 month old behavior, but I think my son is just brilliant. That’s my story and I am sticking to it. My kid is just great and I am reminded daily about how fortunate I am that he is in my life.
* We actually never co-sleep anymore and he only fell asleep in my bed one morning for a few hours during the height of his sickness last week, but sometimes I bring him to bed to cuddle and give him his bottle if he seems just a little too awake in the middle of the night/too early in the morning and we cuddle a bit before I take him back to his bed to fall back asleep.
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