When he’s feeling ok he’s been doing a lot more. He’s been having solid food (not solid-solid, but blenderized-to-a-fine-purée-solid) almost every night at dinner. This weekend he was given organic green beans for the first time. Now, Peter does not yet have the ability to speak proper words, but this does not mean he is unable to communicate complex messages. The first time he gets a spoonful of these green beans, he morphs his dynamic face into an expression which speaks the following words, verbatim: Dear sweet merciful God, what the heck was on that spoon? Then his face changes a little to express this: I gotta stop being a nice baby. Then he swallows.
We aren’t horrible, mean parents, so we disguise the beans with the rice cereal that he likes so much. Actually, I’m not sure if he hated the beans more or the bananas. The pulverized bananas we got had quite a lot of citric acid listed on the label, and it tasted more like lemon than bananas. I’d tell you what Peter’s face said when he had that, except I couldn’t tell because it was all puckered up into itself.
Peter is now old enough to really take note of the stimuli that surround him, and not just pretty colors or flashing lights. His reactions to sounds are some of the most interesting. About the only TV he watches is Sesame Street, and for the most part he is disinterested in it. Except when Prairie Dawn is on. Prairie Dawn is a Muppet little girl, that mostly appears with Cookie Monster to do the Letter Of The Day routine. We think it’s because of the voice, but when she comes on he lights up. Then when the sketch is done and, say, Elmo shows up, Peter loses interest.
Another audio advancement in Peter’s development is his reaction to music. A routine that Peter and I have developed when I get home from work is to put some music on and I haul him up by his armpits. Then he dances, mostly by bouncing up and down, but it’s rhythmic and distinctive. He prefers funk – nice, bouncy, rump-shakin’ funk. I’ve tried giving him slower, non-funky music, but he reacts to it like- well, not as bad as organic green beans, but it’s obvious to him that his dad doesn’t know how to pick music.
To finish up here, I’ll inform the world that Peter goes back to the doctor on Thursday. We think he’s grown at least an inch in the recent past (or his pants are shrinking), so it will be interesting to see what his new measurements will be. Can he crack the triple digits in his percentiles? Can he give 110%? We’ll find out.
PS - Bonus Halloween pic:
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