Friday, October 16, 2009

'Round, 'round, get around, I get around!

The Luke man has been ever more on-the-go these days. When we place him on the floor in the living room, he reliably makes a beeline for the toy bin (crawling), pulls up on it to his knees, and peers in! We call this rummaging, as he then sticks in his hand to retrieve a toy of choice.

Besides improving his crawling skills, he's been picking up speed in his walker. He grins wider upon banging into furniture and Erik thinks we should make bumper stickers. Here are a few of my favorites: "I brake for no one", "My other ride is Mommy", "Baby on board", "Caution: Infant driver", and "Nielsen for Gerber Baby". Luke's driving course was recently extended as we finished the final section of laminate wood installation - hurray!

His dining domain has also expanded with the exciting introduction of finger foods. Fear of the baby heimlich maneuver kept me exclusively in the puree stage for a few extra weeks, but I was delighted to discover the 'Mum-mum' rice rusk crackers that are sold at Walmart. They dissolve so quickly that choking really isn't a concern. We've since added a few other baby snacks and now we all love finger foods as well as the ever expanding variety of pureed foods that I keep adding to our freezer in portion-size cubes for convenient thawing.

Luke has added a new game to his repertoire: classic peek-a-boo! He initiates it himself, pulling a blanket up in front of his face and beaming at our exclamations when he lowers it. My mom visited recently and she loved his peek-a-boo, and she also began to teach him to wave, kiss, and identify eyes and noses. I hadn't even attempted any of these, but she truly has a gift for teaching children! I've tried to continue where she left off and we think he may have even waved and kissed on command a few times (identifying facial features definitely seems like a more distant goal). Below is a picture of what we think is his version of an air-kiss. He only does air-kisses, kissing against your skin or blowing it off his hand add way too much complexity!