The Family Edelhay: Jordan, Alex, and Angus

I just posted a photo essay showing all of the things that Angus and i did last Wednesday. My maternity leave is almost over, and I wanted to capture what a day is like for us.

See the photos.

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Angus is interacting more with the world every day. He's been enthusiastically learning to control his world -- starting with the things most important to him. He's striving to gain control of his binky. He can grab the binky, pull it out of his mouth, move it around using his hand. He can almost get it back into his mouth. Right now when he tries to get it back in, he jams the butterfly edges in his mouth instead of the nipple. But he's close. Any day now, he'll have full mastery of the binky. And he will be happy.

Angus is trying to control all parts of the world. When he's overloaded, he sheilds his eyes with the back of his hands. By experimenting with the sun, he's figured out that if the sun is in his eyes, he can turn his head in the other direction.

Our inquisitive little boy -- next thing you know, he'll be learning how to control us.

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Angus rolled from his tummy to his back on Tuesday afternoon! He was so surprised and pleased with himself. I rolled him onto his tummy and he did it again.

This is all part of Angus's new wiggle campaign. He's wiggling all the time now. He's pulling his knees to his tummy and putting them back on the ground in a sort of perennial pilates. He's shifting his weight from side to side on both his tummy and his back. He's intentionally trying to take a face dive when he's sitting up just so he can see what will happen and where he'll end up.

This has all been awful for his sleep. He's sleeping in only 1-2 hour chunks because he keeps waking up to try new kinds of wiggling. But it is highly entertaining for both him and me. Now, if only he could repeat that roll a few more times.

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Angus is gradually learning to love books. At first, he would look at one or two brightly colored pictures in a picture book. Then he started clumsily turning pages of the board books, and grabbing their spines. Finally, he has started to like rhymes.

A few days ago, I tried reading Yertle the Turtle to Angus. I've tried Dr. Seuss before, but the other attempts all began with mild toleration and ended with wriggling, grunting discontent. But this time, he smiled, he laughed, he looked amazed and fixated. It was so exciting. I love reading, and so does my husband. It was amazing to see Angus taking real joy in the written word for the first time. The joy was real, even if Angus only made it through half the story before he became both overloaded and bored. (How is that even possible?)

Now, I'm on the hunt for stories and tales with rhyme and rhythm. I got my hands on an anthology of nursery rhymes. They are the right length for Angus's little attention span, and they have pleasing meter and rhyme. For your enjoyment, I'll leave you with my new favorite nursery rhyme:

I had a little nut tree
And nothing would it bear.
But a silver nutmeg
And a golden pear.

The king of Spain's daughter
Came to visit me,
And all for the sake
Of my little nut tree.

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Angus just emerged rosy-cheeked and quietly smiling from his pre-sleep nursing. He has been taking time during and after nursing to shyly smile at me, to conduct his side of a sweet conversation, to quietly hang out with me. He seems confident enough to put himself out there. He stares into my eyes, and thoughtfully tries sounds he hasn't tried before.

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