The Family Edelhay: Jordan, Alex, and Angus

Angus is getting to be a fast walker. He's also mastered the backward crawl down the stairs. Now he'll get himself in position at the top of the stairs -- feet down, tummy to the ground, and instead of carefully going down each stair, he'll streamline his body so that he can slide all the way down the stairs on his tummy. Angus can get off of sofas and beds by himself. Sometimes he can even climb up by himself.

Angus loves riding the trike that his grandparents got him for his birthday. He rides it around his grandparent's driveway, around the Madison Park playground, and up and down the flat street near our house. His nanny, Chelsie, got him a little red bike bell for his birthday and he rings it all by himself.

Angus stopped using the bottle this month. It was an easy transition. He just got less and less interested in it. Angus loves eating blueberries at his grandparents house. Grandma froze lots of Anacortes local blueberries in the summer and now they're Angus's favorite food.

When Angus wakes up in the morning or after a nap, he lays around in bed, lazing around and enjoying a slow morning start. This is a totally new thing for him. A month ago, he'd be up, ready to go, standing at the edge of his crib as soon as he was awake. Now, he likes a little bit of laying about before he gets going. Angus also started snoozing in bed with mom and dad after he wakes up. It's so warm and snuggly.

When Angus wakes up or when his ready to go to bed, he will carry his blue blanket around the house with him. It's a pretty long blanket, and he has to work hard to keep himself from tripping on it.

Angus's first word was "this". He spent a week going around the house pointing at everything and saying "this", "this", "this", and every once in a while "whatisthis". Angus loves looking at picture frames. He'll go into our library and pick up old pictures of mom saying "this," "this," "this," pointing.

Angus is starting to respond to the word "gentle". When we say gentle, he'll touch things more carefully. He's good at being gentle with art, flowers, and Amelia. Angus and Amelia love babbling to each other. Angus used to be the silent partner while Amelia chatted up a storm. Now, they're both babbling all the time. Angus likes to share his food with Amelia. He offers her his big boy food when she looks at it covetously.

Angus likes knocking over piles of blocks, and he loves opening and shutting the doors on his latch board. He has a whole bunch of puzzles, but he has singled out the crocodile and the giraffe pieces for extra attention. Angus is also getting really good at playing ball. He can dribble the ball halfway across the room. He can throw about a foot away (but not always in the right direction).

At Amelia's house, Angus loves playing with her pooh bucket. The baby inserts square blocks into a little square hole and it counts the blocks with a pooh voice. At home, Angus is enjoying all of his new birthday toys, but he loves the Fridge Farm most of all. He pulls it off of the fridge and carries it around on his shoulder like a boom box while dancing around the house. It sings: "I'm Farmer Tad. Listen to my banjo..."

Angus loves all magnets. He pulls them off of the fridge. He carries them around the house. He holds the magnets up against every vertical surface that's 2 feet high. At first, Alex and I sort of laughed at Angus... silly Angus, the magnet won't stick to the wall. But he's found a whole bunch of surfaces that we didn't realize were magnetic -- the dishwasher, the bathub! He's a little experimenter, and he's finding new things every day.

Angus loves pulling things into and out of containers like his block sorter. He loves putting all of his bath toys into the bathtub before his bath. Dad will line them all up on the bathtub ledge, and Angus will push them into the tub one by one, laughing the whole time.

Angus loves ready "Peek a Who?" and "Grow up", two board books by Nina Laden that let you peak through a cut out before you see the next page. He loves the mystery, and he loves turning the pages by grabbing the cutouts. He also likes the bright, bold illustrations

When Angus gets tired or upset he wails and whines and gets a little crazed. When he gets really upset, He likes to snuggle with me. I'll sit cross-legged on the ground and he'll come sit on my legs, facing me with his head nestled into my chest.

This month, Angus spent an afternoon at the Museum of Flight with Grandma Grandpa and Uncle Owen on a workday. They had so much fun running around in the open space and climbing stairs. Angus also got to see real firemen and a real fire truck with Chelsie at story time at the library. Story time was packed and all of the kids were really excited.