For those who have not been harassed by me about these things, Casey has a whole slew of new little random Baby Tricks that I am amused by.

• Casey is now knocking on closed doors.  Makes a little fist and everything.  Not entirely sure why.  Lesli believes this is because Casey noticed Lesli knocks on the door of the people she nannies for and they open the door.  It does make me wonder, though - what does she expect to happen there?  Who does she expect to open the door?
• She knows how to turn on and off her CD player.  She has one that is loaded with a CD that plays lullabies, and has learned how to press play, pause, and increase the volume.  Which is about as much fun as you can imagine.
• Speaking of doors, as I mentioned before, she’s actually gotten quite good at closing doors.  Which can turn into quite the fruitless exercise.

That is all.  I’ll post some videos soon, I swear.  Good times.

Categories: Baby Tricks, Development, toddlerhood
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Casey,

In what is probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever, ever seen, you managed to turn one right beneath our eyes.

We looked at your baby pics, the ones we’ve kept on our mantle; there’s this frame we have that has a holder for a small-ish picture for each one of your months along with a larger one for your year old picture.  Your pictures look amusing from birth till about three months: but each one after that looks pretty much the same.  Your face fills out, then gets a little more “normal person” looking.  Your hair grows further from a  nest-like ‘fro to a mop of curls that would be four times their length were they straight.

Your four teeth haven’t been joined by any others quite yet but you are certainly teething.  And drooling.

You say a few words but they’re not quite there yet.  You know who I am and call me “dadadada” and you call Lesli “maaaaaaaaaaaaa”.  You know new baby tricks like dancing when we ask you to, blowing kisses, and walking all over the place with reckless abandon.

A year.  It’s hard to believe it went by so fast.  More pictures soon.

Love always,
-Oz

Categories: Development, toddlerhood
1 Comment »

Casey,

I think at this point, it’s safe to declare that the word, ‘the’ is not your first word, irrespective of your constant use of it.

Instead, I think it’s ‘mama’. You say it to get Lesli’s attention. You say it to call out to her when she’s no longer in the room. You’ve pointed while saying it, directly at her.

So I guess, first word slightly before 10 months. Not too surprised at your vocabulary, all things considered. Your mom is your world. And you are hers.
-Oz

Categories: Development, pictures, what it is to be a parent
1 Comment »

Casey,

You are constantly covered in drool these days.

It didn’t always used to be this way. There was a time where saliva did not gush freely from your mouth, and you were not constantly trying to insert any small to medium sized object in the vacinity into your mouth.

No, at one point you were just a regular, non-teething baby. You just had to go and decide to change that, didn’t you.

The best part is that you’re sort of figuring out this whole crawling business, too, so you spend a lot of time on your stomach, face down. You try to crawl, angry, while rubbing your face on he floor or our bed, all the while leaving us a little snail trail to let us know where you had been most recently.

Icky.

You also freak the hell out when your mom leaves the room or even sometimes turns her back to you. Clearly you want her comfort, and full time at that. Her work is never done!

Mean time you’re still cute as all hell.

Lesli and I were discussing - it seems like you haven’t changes much in the face since you were 3 months (now you are 8 months). Weird.

Some photographic evidence from this weekend’s random walk to Sutro Heights:

Categories: Development, pictures
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Casey,

There are times in all of this business that you really surprise me. Sometimes in the ‘freaking me out’ kind of way, but that still is a type of surprise. .

Today you stood up on your own. We put you in the crib on your butt (or stomach, I can’t quite recall), leave the room for a minute, and come back to find you standing up in your crib with a Cheshire grin on your face. You were clearly proud of yourself.

Lesli captured a picture she needs to send me so I can post it, but the attached was taken shortly after. Little cub, you’re growing up.

It truly is strange to see this happen, too.

Supposedly, you’re a bit advanced for your age. We visited a physical therapist today for your very mild torticolis and she said many of the things that you do (including your waving when people say hi or bye) is well advanced for someone who just turned 8 months. Crazy.

It makes me feel old. I worry about you becoming increasingly mobile because that just means it’ll be all that much sooner till I am chasing you down.
-Oz

Categories: Development, pictures
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It’s pretty amusing watching you slowly develop, Casey.  The most interesting thing about it probably has to do with the fact that you’ve done so much in such a non-chalant manner.  One day you need someone to hold your head up, the next you can hold it up all on your own as if that were always the case. 

You never seem to even make a to do about it.

Today, you started mimicking our sounds.  Before, you would make faces at us:  smile back at us, stick your tongue out back at us, whatever random contortions we would make you would try to approximate as best as you could (and many of them were done spot on!). 

Today through, you learned two noises:  “ffffft” (a fricative noise), and “pphhhbbbt”, the rasberry.  We blew a rasberry, you blew one right back.  Back and forth, we did this several times and you seem to be amused by this particular game.

Your next trick will eventually be actually putting your thumb in your mouth, I’m guessing.  Right now you seem contented with your index finger and thumb, or sometimes pretty much your entire fist.  You also seem to have learned how to scoot around on your tummy a little better than I feel comfortable with. 

Just don’t start playing with daddy’s computer.
-Oz

Categories: Development, Uncategorized
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Perhaps, Casey, I should be saying, “if at first you don’t ’suck’-ceed”, because you’re trying desperately to suck your thumb.

I swear, we have a 4-D image of you in the womb sucking on your thumb, on our mantle in the living room (it’s in a frame, labeled ‘Baby’s first picture’). Why is it that you could do it then but can’t quite do it now?

Instead, you gum and maw at your entire fist, or the edge of your index finger. You flick your tongue at your little cub paw, and make cooing noises in an attempt to placate yourself.

It’s cute, but I’m sure it’s frustrating. You’ll figure it out soon, I’ve no doubt. In the mean time, ignore our giggling at your efforts.

-oz

Categories: Development, New Parents That We Are
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