BBS intensifies

Busy Baby Syndrome here has really intensified over the last few weeks. I didn't realize that William could get busier, but I clearly was wrong.

My son the musician, busy with the drum:
















I think that William is well on his way to...dare I say it...becoming a toddler. A toddler in attitude anyway, if not a toddler in actual toddling.

But he's even close to achieving that! He'll take a few steps if you hold his hands.



















At first, he'd only let you do this for a few seconds. But he's gradually developing more confidence, so you can actually help him walk in this manner across an entire room now. David calls it "wiki walky"-ing. You hold his hands, he takes a few rubbery-legged steps, and you say "wiki walky, wiki walky, wiki walky." Then when he decides he's had enough, you clap and say "Good job!" And he does, too. Clap, that is. He hasn't quite managed to spit out "good job" yet. :)

William has also discovered that he can motor across the length of the living room and kitchen with his walking toy, too.
















When he first realized that he could stand up and push the toy, he took these hilarious straight-legged steps. He's gradually getting more graceful. It's amazing how babies learn to do this!

And yes, he's wearing his jammies and a Spider-man backpack in those pictures. I picked out the backpack at Target, and he seems to enjoy wearing it. I love it because it makes him look like such a big boy. It also makes me laugh to see him gleefully padding around the room with his little backpack on. There's nothing in it. Maybe when he starts walking for real, I'll put some of his stuff in it for him when we go places. Important stuff, of course, like some of his books and a binky and maybe Natty.

Despite the fact that his main mode of transport is still crawling, William is into just about everything these days. I can't imagine that he could possibly get into more when he does start walking. Nothing is safe now!

The refrigerator is one of his favorites. If I open the fridge, I can't shut it because magically, there is a baby, pulling himself up on the shelves, grabbing gleefully at whatever he can reach.




















He knows there are CDs and remote controls inside the drawers of the coffee table, and he is determined to liberate them:



















Also, he wants to eat whatever food that David and I are eating. Last night, he had the same dinner that we did, and I made sure that he could see that. We all had chicken fingers and broccoli. And that made William very happy to see that he was eating the Big People Food. Otherwise, he points at my food, clearly demanding that I give him whatever I'm eating. Or he pulls up on my chair, smiles a big smile at me and casually reaches for my plate. It's like having a dog who begs for food. Except that William's persuasive techniques are second to none. He looks at me with this winning smile on his face, and I swear he bats his eyelashes at me, trying to wheedle some Big People Food out of me. Sadly, I'm a great target. He gets cinnamon bread and ice cream this way more often than I'd like to admit.

Bottom line, William is active with a capital A these days. But you know, even though it's sort of exhausting, trying to keep up with him, I have to admit that I'm enjoying it. Yes, part of me sometimes gets all nostalgic and says "oh, my little baby is becoming a big boy." But the reality is...those early baby days were hard, hard hard. I didn't get nearly enough sleep, and I was nursing all the time. Now, I do get a decent night's sleep most of the time, and my son thinks that goldfish crackers are one of the seven wonders of the world.

Honestly, it's really fun to watch William becoming more independent. It's exciting when I say something to him and realize that, hey, he actually understands what I'm saying some of the time. He'll wave if I ask him to wave, clap if I ask him to clap, and--this is the latest, courtesy of a song we sing at the Y--he'll wiggle his ears if I ask him to wiggle his ears. Well, he grabs both his ears, but he clearly understands that the ears are involved. (And I think it's funny every single time.) If I say, "William, where's your water?," he often crawls off to find his sippy cup. And when I put him in his car seat, he waves and says "bye bye" because he knows we are going somewhere. In fact, I told David that I may have to resort to that time-honored parent tactic of spelling certain words in front of William because he knows what they mean now. How many "n-a"s are in the word "banana" again?





















And he always cracks me up. Luckily for me, I can usually make him laugh pretty easily, too. That way, I get to hear his laugh all the time. Little silly guy.