Love at first sight

My friend's baby is a month younger than mine and he points at things and says a real word or two. Granted, my friend is a kindergarten teacher and is armed with experience to get the kid to sit still and learn. She reads to him and he even has a favorite book.

Reading to my son is a joke. He wants to eat the book or rub it on the floor really hard, like he is taking a stain off the carpet. When he is not fighting me over the possession of the book, I am left alone reading about right feet, left feet (Dr. Seuss) by myself, while my kid is half way through climbing stairs on the other room.

(by the way, I could totally be a children's book writer)

He does says "hey, dad!" or "daddy!", especially at 5:30 in the morning, which I think is awesome, because I can shove my husband off the bed and say, "he is calling YOU!"

My friend says that I should point at things and say their names, even if he doesn't repeat or attempt to repeat after me, and that I should keep on trying to read to him... Maybe buy a sturdier book that he can't digest...

When she says that, we are hanging out by the beach, where the beach bums take naps on the benches. I point and say to baby, with excited, high pitch baby voice, "HOME-LESS! That's a homeless!" 

At home I dig out a Thomas, the train book because everyone says baby boys love it, and flip through the pages before settling with the hyper crawling creature. I can't hardly keep up with all the characters myself. They all look the same to me. Some are even the same color, expect fatter or slightly shorter. I conclude Thomas is a lost case for my unfocused little one. 

I suddenly feel a milky breath on my neck and a baby voice, smiling, "hiiiiiii!" to the book. Matthew is instantly taken by Thomas' cheerful face on the cover. He holds the book with care and giggles at it. He doesn't chew on Thomas nor use it to clean the floor.  When I read about the trains and the station and the dumb story line, he just sits there, playing with his toes and smiling. 

What is it about Thomas that enchants little guys so much?

The kid in a bubble

I was about to write on how the baby has six teeth coming through, which makes me long for a glass of wine at nine am and have wet dreams of going back to work.

He follows me around whining, and when I am doing anything besides looking directly at him, he gets behind me and smacks my butt (like right now, I'm trying to finish this sentence standing up and having my butt smacked by a fussy creature).

Come to think of it, husband and baby are a LOT alike.

Then I read about the shootings in Connecticut and now I am deciding to home school. I sit on the floor with the baby as we share a string cheese, which I can't feed him fast enough, before I get smacked on the leg, and decide we will not go to malls or movie theaters anymore, for that matter. We are not flying either. We are staying in a bubble until he is old and I'm dead.