In Communicado

On Monday I was working on my naughty list, so today, just before Christmas, I'll give you something nice.

I've said before, that books would lead you to think that child development is linear. "By age X, a child should be able to make a tower of 3 cubes, and by age Y a tower of 5 cubes, or some such nonsense."

It doesn't work that way...at least not for us.

Instead, with all 3 of our boys, we see these "quantum leaps" in their developmental abilities over a realtively short period of time:

Yesterday, they were eating only Puffs. Today, they're able to bake a lasagna.

(My stomach is waiting patiently...)

Over the past week, Bab-E Brother has made one of those quantum leaps in terms of communication.

He's been eye-balling and taking notes on everything his brothers, Mom-E, and I say and do for months now, and apparently he decided it was his turn to chime in.

Several things to highlight:
1. He's started waiving pretty consistently. The other day at the See-Eye-Aye, he spontaneously waved at another child and said "Hi-ya".

If you say to him, "Where's Mom-E/Big Brother/Little Brother?" he'll zoom his eyes in on them and often wave

2. He's also started signing more regularly. He made the "milk sign" a few months ago, but this has been somewhat inconsistent. (Which is a little surprising, as "milk" is usually the first sign a baby makes consistently. But apparently for him, repeated grunting and lunging towards Mom-E when he's hungry works good enough.)

Nope, instead Bab-E Brother's favorite sign is "tree". He's absolutely obsessed with our Christmas tree. He can't walk by it without making the tree sign. He definitely has the holiday spirit.

3. The boy has a belly laugh to rival Santa's. I mean it's the Guinness of baby laughs. And not just when you tickle him. The boy just loves to laugh. Little Brother may be the "party animal" who likes to roam the house without pants (more often than not), but Bab-E Brother appears to be the jokester who likes to make everyone laugh.

As soon as he can stand unassisted, he'll no doubt be a "stand-up". (Bah, dat, dah...ching!)

And to combine his love of trees and laughter with the Christmas spirit, we took the boys last weekend to a local Christmas light extravaganza (a hayride through a forest of Christmas lights, roasting marshmallows on an open fire, etc.) All the boys had a good time, but perhaps Bab-E Brother had the best time. Despite the cold and late night, he pretty much sat on Mom-E's lap and chuckled in amazement for an hour as we rode through the lights display.

4. Lots more babble and different sounds. We hope to find a translator soon.

And so, exciting times here at the Busy-Dad-E household. We're looking forward to a wonderful Christmas, and wish the best for you and yours!

Merry Christmas!

See you next week (I'll be incommunicado until then),
Busy-Dad-E