cuteness chronicled!

Yesterday.

Atticus was so. cute.

*After hopping into the shower, I noticed Atticus howling at the bathroom door. He wanted in. I gingerly stepped out and opened the door, expecting him to come in, bang on the shower door for fun, and try to make off with the toilet plunger. Instead, he slid open one of the shower doors, which are attached only at the top, meaning if you push them in at the bottom, they swing into the shower instead of remaining stationary, a special feature for which Atticus has a particular proclivity. Very surprising, I know. Whining in protest, Atticus tried to climb over the side of the bath. He was hoisting with his own petard, if you ask me. I rarely get a moment to myself during the day, and I wasn't ready to give up this little bit of peace. More accurately, I wasn't willing to fight the battle of removing his clothes and diaper, only to later wage a blitzkrieg campaign to reclothe him. But, his eyes were so plaintive and full of innocence. So, into the bath he came. Instead of showering, we took a bath together. Atticus discovered that when he trapped a small plastic ball underneath the water and then let go, it popped immediately to the surface and bobbed away from him. His little face evinced fascination and delight. I was watching him discover something for the first time. And I had the distinct thought that we probably won't have very many more baths together. Soon, he will be too grown up for that.

*Before showering, I had tried to distract Atticus by taking some of his ABC blocks out of the push-cart they fit neatly into. I created two stacks of 4 or 5 blocks. You already know that I failed to entice further exploration...But later, after Atticus's nap, I took him out of his crib and then left the room to get his lunch ready. When I returned, all of the scattered blocks has been placed neatly back in their rows. I was immediately confused. I hadn't picked up the blocks...so who had? I watched Atticus as he followed me out of the room. One of the blocks was not exactly flat; it wasn't flush with the other blocks. Atticus crouched down, adroitly tapped the block into place, and then ran out of the room. I laughed out loud in absolute wonder. Soon, such things will become commonplace, I'm sure, but today was the first time. And I got to be there.

*After lunch, I peeled a banana, threw the peel in the trash, and then walked into the other room. A minute later, Atticus starting crying. I walked in and there he was, dangling the banana peel in his hand, tears welled up in his eyes, lower lip quivering. He was truly sad. The pathos of the situation was admittedly comical. Drooping banana peel in hand, he looked up at me as if to say "I thought you were peeling the banana for me. But, you ate it! And I discovered the evidence in the garbage!" With genuine sympathy, and a small sidelong laugh, I picked him up and offered him an authentic banana.

*We have been doing some basic signs with Atticus since he was 4 months old. Until a month ago, he really didn't sign back to us, even though he definitely understood our sings (food, milk, sit down, up, more, book, ball, star, bird, airplane, shoes, all done, change diaper). He has finally started using signs to talk to us! He has been using the "change diaper" sign fairly frequently. Once, he made the sign very quickly, then ran away from me and hid behind the rocking chair in his room, where I snuck up on him, sitting perfectly still (yes, it apparently IS possible!). "Boo!" scared him into a fit of giggles. But, usually, he only signs after we have used the sign. One of his new favorites is "hot." When he is walking near a heating unit, I sign and say "hot" to him. He imitates me--he puts his hand up to his mouth and then drops it down. But yesterday, he initiated a conversation with me! We were walking home from the park. I was holding him at this point, since his little legs are magnetized to mud, rocks, and dirt-filled crevices. Which I actually let him explore sometimes. Just not yesterday when the ground was nice and thawed and mushy. Well, as we're walking, Atticus puts his hand out in front of him, palm facing outward, fingers pointing left, and moves his hand in a sweeping motion from right to left. The first time he did it, I wasn't paying much attention, but the second time, I realized that there was an airplane flying overhead that I had completely tuned out. He was signing "airplane"!!! Anyone watching my reaction would have thought my child had just taken his first step. I repeated the sign, excitedly pronouncing "airplane!" We signed "airplane" back and forth half a dozen times. Atticus had noticed something that I hadn't even picked up on, and then told me about it! Can I help feeling proud?

*In other news, our hard drive has crashed, so I have no pictures to post. :( The data is supposedly entirely recoverable, but the drive will probably cost upwards of $800-1000 to repair. We're not dwelling too much on this. We've lost pictures to a similar crash a few years ago. We've learned our lesson.

*Also, I am now teaching piano lessons one afternoon a week, and possibly expanding to Saturday morning as well. I am enjoying it! Though the initial set-up is a bit of work, and I have quite a bit more to do, I am very excited. In other music news, Walker got me some software for Christmas that will write what I play on the piano. I can't wait to try it! We are getting another macbook (used) so that I can have my own computer. It's very tricky for both of us to share this one laptop when we are not together most of the day.

*In other, other news, it's 11:25 pm and Walker is still at church meetings...