The Family Edelhay: Jordan, Alex, and Angus

Listening to: Elizabeth Mitchell in the car to and from Kim and Hui-San's house

Reading: Angus is starting to have more patience for books. He still doesn’t get through a whole story, but he's interested in the pictures. He also likes closing books.

Playing:
*Angus likes to explore. He started by exploring the dry leaves in the front doorway. Then he started crawling beyond the door.
*Angus loves boxes. He loves to push up on them, pull them down, turn them over, pull things out of them, put things into them, and beat the drums on them.
*Angus loves playing with shoes and shoelaces.
*Angus loves things that roll because he can chase them. The clackity ball is still fascinating, and he loves his new wooden car because it rolls
*Angus greets mom and dad at the end of the day by waiting at the corner picture window at Amelia's house. He loves matching his hand up on the window with mom and dad, and blowing
*Angus is fascinated by our cheapo tiny alarm clock that I got in Mexico City. Anytime he's anywhere near our bed, he looks around until he sees the clock, then stares at it and grunts until he gets it. Once he has it, he palms it, turns it around, examines it and mouths it.

Eating: Angus is loving Cheerios. He's eating finger foods like peas, Cheerios, banana chunks, and yam cubes. He grabs giant fistfuls of food, closes his fists, shakes his hands over his head. Then he tries to get as much food as he can in his mouth by jamming as much of his fist into his mouth and scraping his hand against his bottom lip.

Sleeping: Still sleeping from 7:30pm to 5am, then naps with mom until 6:30.

Skills:
*Standing --Angus can easily pull up on almost any surface, including the windowsill, the bench, the recycling basket, the wall, and the side of the pack and play.
*He's a crawling king! He crawls everywhere, and he crawls fast.
*Getting down from a standing position safely.
*When he's hungry, Angus is clever enough to crawl over to his high chair and pull up so that he's standing at the foot of his high chair. When he wants to be held, he'll crawl over to mom or or dad then pull himself up on their clothes and raise his hands.
*We started using hand signs, but Angus hasn't mimicked them back yet.
*Angus learned how to clap. He gets really excited when he claps, and then we clap back.

Events:
*Nanny share is still at Amelia's house.
*For the second half of the month, Angus had pretty bad eczema on his cheeks and arms, including a bad sore on his cheek near his ear. At the end of the month, he started a course of antibiotics and hydrocortisone to get rid of it.
*Jordan had her first mother's day.
*This was the month of babyproofing. Our house has never been more clutter-free.
*Angus sprouted a 3rd tooth -- his bottom right incisor.

Angus gets more coordinated every day. Today, he learned how to push himself over the edge of the exersaucer so that he can grab things on the floor. He also learned how to bow his back and lower himself while crawling underneath a chair. This is handy because he desperately wants to grab the cords we've carefully hidden behind chairs.

Angus wrote this series of haiku for Jordan and delivered them this morning in a hand-written card:

you have a garden
i am your little seedling
who needs so much love

i store my love here
i use it to grow up strong
my smile returns it

thank you for my smile
and the rest of my body
it is really good

you are a good mom
the mere sight of you brings joy
you define happy

happy family garden
is filled with dad, me, and you
you did a good job

thank you for your love, Angus xoxo

Angus loves to eat. No really, he loves. to. eat. He eats all the food on his plate and insists on more by clenching his fists like the hulk. When food comes near his mouth, he opens up as wide as possible and eats in big gulps, not wasting a drop. He does this two or three times a day!

Tonight, he ate half a banana, half an avocado, 1/4 cup squash, and 1/4 cup of Cheerios, all before his nighttime 8oz bottle. Amazing.