Saturday, December 26, 2009

Amiri: 34 months; Arram: 9 months

Amiri is becoming more and more vocal (not that any of you get to see it on Skype... he clams right up when the camera's on...) and is just so quick to pick things up.  He'll repeat entire sentences back to us, or jump right in to Mom and Dad's conversation.  Today he suggested we pick up toilet paper when he overheard that we were going to stop by the store anyway.  And he makes up little stories; like the airplane that goes up and down--zoom!--beep! (and 'beeps' my nose with his finger). 

His favorite book is one that shows mama animals cuddling with their baby animals.  We have to point out which one is the mama and which one is the baby.  And what they're using to cuddle (arms, paws, claws, nuzzling with noses), and what each animal says.   He likes to find and point out examples of babies elsewhere in life --basically, anything that's small. 

He has also learned to play solitaire on the computer.  I taught him for ten minutes one afternoon, and now he's actually pretty good!  I think the hardest part for him is just in controlling the mouse precisely enough.  It's quite entertaining to listen to his commentary when we let him have computer time.   "Eight on top of nine.  Oh, yeah.   Excellent!  Oh!  Find ace!  Find ace!  Mama, find ace!  Mama!  (Mama:  "Nice work, Amiri.")  Put ace up there.  Put two on ace.  Hooray!  Deal three cards.  Put five on top of six."


Arram has turned into a fun little proto-person overnight.   It's like he emerged from a cocoon and suddenly has a personality.  And, what happened, has he always been this cute?  I can't stand how cute he is lately.  He's charmed us with eye contact and smiles for a while now, but now he's laughing, and babbling, and purring (thanks, Asia, for that term; I love it).  He's frequently joyful, and it's infectious.  He has five teeth now, and I think there might be three or four more on the way, and he loves showing them off in his wide grins.

He loves baths.  No, LOVES baths.  I'll put just a couple inches of warm water in the tub, and he turns on his tummy and kicks like a frog, and then he'll roll over on his back and float, ears underwater but little face poking up, alert and enjoying.  He crawls really fast now, often ending up investigating in places we'd rather he didn't (recycling bin; shoes by the door).   He can a-l-m-o-s-t pull himself up to standing against furniture, and once he starts walking, it will get a lot more exciting around here.

And his eyes are changing color:  once solid blue, they are starting to turn brown near the pupils.  If he's anything like his brother, the brown will spread outward and they will be fully hazel in a few months.  It is a little bittersweet for me to see his baby eyes go... they were such a striking blue with tiny, nearly-white rings at the center.  I fell in love with him while looking into those eyes for the first time. 

2 comments:

Jeanne said...

Your little blue-eyed polliwog! My eyes changed color just as you describe, and your's did too. I am guessing the "blue-to-hazel eye gene" is quite dominant. You can tell we are family just by looking at our eyes!

Auntie Kathie said...

Awwww!!! I can't relate to eye color changes as Jason's eyes remained blue.

But I remember when Jason's brown baby hair all fell out and grew back in as platinum blonde and stayed that way for years....eventually changing back to brown. Mine was blonde when I was very little too and later became brown. I have a ponytail here somewhere showing the blonde on the last inches of the ends and brown everywhere else.

So we change as we grow, eyes, hair, shapes of the noses and faces, etc. Kids are fun to watch as they may resemble a different family member at diff. times of their lives. :o)