Baby watching
Baby
watching can be hilarious. Jasper’s arms barely
reach
the top of his head – if he were an adult, he’d
resemble a character from a
Snoopy
cartoon.
If he has an itchy scalp, it’s all I can do to keep myself from cracking up as he stretches up and around his big noggin.
His attempts to imitate us are also chuckleworthy. Carolina has taken to vibrating her finger in front of his mouth when she’s washing his face.
Jasper figured out that making a noise during this time results in an amusing ‘burble bibble burble’ sound. So he tries to copy this alone. He has almost everything right – the sound, the facial expression, his hand movement – but his fingers are an inch or so away from his mouth, so he looks like a person with zero vocabulary complaining about somebody’s cigarette smoke getting in his face.
He’s learned that clapping is the result of doing something clever, so occasionally he will give himself a round of applause, for no reason we can divine.
Our early discouragement of him getting involved with his food serving meant that JD is a little behind with this aspect of his development. But we discovered little rice cakes called Mum Mums, which he gnaws on, chokes on and generally decorates the place with. This has at least taught him that putting food in your mouth is fun (good), but has the downside that he will pick up anything loose on the floor and attempt to eat that, too (bad).
The little man is going through a period when the slightest distraction is a cause for instant investigation. Should he be attempting something dangerous, or at least ill-advised, the best way to stop him is to get busy cleaning a window, drop something small or move a plate.
In a flash, Jasper will cease whatever he’s doing and rush over, at his top speed of 1.5 metres per second, to get in on the action.
We finally, finally put our house on the market this week. I think that deserves an exclamation mark! For as long as it takes to sell, we have to keep the place clean, tidy and odour-free.
No mean task with a rugrat around. Meanwhile, he’s charming realtors and marvelling at other people’s homes. Little does he suspect that one of them might be his before too long. Sleep well.
