Hot Fun in the City

While the heat outside has been breaking records, Gus and I have been staying cool and having fun indoors this week. We cannot wait to get back outside to the park, the library, the zoo or just take a neighborhood walkabout. Tomorrow will be the day, especially since JJ will be home and we have plans to go here http://www.krugersfarm.com/ for a concert and picnic dinner. How fun! Meanwhile, Gus has been developing new talents on what seems like an hourly basis. I am fairly confident that a lot of this is due to the Baby Einstein First Signs video we watch once or twice a day together. He LOVES it and has begun using his hands a lot more in just the past few days. A few days ago he discovered pointing - now he points at everything he is interested in, including us, which is cute. We have lots of ET moments.

Just yesterday he began to clap his hands - really well, I might add - and now he does that all day, at whatever he thinks is fun, or just to express himself, I suppose. When he does this, he usually yells something like "nine, nine, nine!" or "aaahhhhhh!" Not sure what those mean.

He hasn't actually begun signing yet - but we think we caught him in some attempts - he does a thing with his chest that looks kind of like the sign for "bath" and a couple of times he looked like he was signing "ball" - but he could have been half-heartedly clapping. Either way - I can see the progress, so I am excited to keep signing with him.

Also in the past week - we got him some bubbles in a container that also doubles as a whistle - so he learned to blow the whistle. Then, I thought he needed to apply that skill to other things - so we broke out JJ's harmonica and he started playing that until Big Mama howled too much (because she always howls to the harmonica) and he got scared and cried. Next up - a kazoo - which we will be picking up tomorrow when we are out and about on JJ's day off. Since Gus already plays the keyboard every day and guitar regularly (not to mention listening to Pandora and dancing with Dad and Mom), I think we are meeting our goal of introducing him to music early.

On another note (teehee), everyone who knows Gus knows he loves books...but he's always been content to read a bit and move on. Not anymore. He has begun to demand the repeat read. This is how it goes: 1. He gets out his Rolie Polie Olie book that I got for him at a children's consignment store, 2. We read it to him while he absorbedly watches our fingers track the words, 3. We reach the end and close the book, 4. He cries until we begin reading it over again. This goes on until he is good and ready to be done...about 6-8 read-throughs.

So, that's what our little man is up to these days. We are having a blast. He is just about ready to start walking - which will require it's own post - I believe. In fact, I would argue that he already took his first steps - but JJ insists it was too much of a "shuffle" to count. He did that last night and then again this morning - standing and stepping side to side, then scooting one foot forward and falling on his butt.

Isn't that just like life sometimes?