new and old

Yesterday Anders produced a blast from the past when he put his arms up in the air at 90 degree angles when he was ready to eat, just like last October in the hospital. It was a signal I had not seen in a while.

I think he is learning about humor. He has a low guttural bear-like growl, which is pretty funny, but also pretty low for a one year old baby. Anyway, the other night at supper, Anders was dinking around with his food, not eating. Anna got mad at him and he growled back at her, which made Anna laugh. Anders picked up on this phenomenon, so he would growl, then look over at her to see if she was laughing. This continued about six times.

Yesterday at Kindermusic, I learned from one of the mothers that her son was inspired by Anders to start clapping. I hope that he is not also inspired to start throwing things. Anders was playing bean ball with the wooden shaker eggs yesterday. No baby was safe from his two handed throwing. The teacher tried to give him a Kleenex to throw, but I decided to just grab his arms to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. Anders crawls right up to her and expects to be held. She has to go around to the other babies and gain their trust to hold them, but not The Mayor.

My students are taking midterms today. We have a busy weekend, some of it planned and some unplanned. No rest for the wicked, as my grandma used to say. Oh, one more funny thing.

So regular readers will know that Anders has not been sleeping as consistently since he returned from MN in August. We had to get him up to go to the babysitter this morning, but he was out like a light. Anna turned on the radio, then turned on the light, we clumped around,but no stirring. He kept his face down and his butt in the air, as he always does when sleeping. Finally, I went to rouse him as Anna looked on.

"Anders. Anders!" (Nudging him) "C'mon, Anders, time to get up buddy," I said.

Nothing happened.

Anna: "Is he breathing?!"

I thought this was a ridiculous question, then I nudged him again, nothing. I started to get worried, so I grabbed him and picked him up. Then his red, mattress-smashed face lit up as he saw us and gave us a shake. He couldn't have been happier. We were relieved. Anna used her dad's line, "Who's happier than Mr. A?!"

These are the brief moments of panic that give parents gray hair.