The Active Baby

Let’s see, what did I do yesterday? Well, to start off, I almost burned the loft down. Yup, I almost did. We have a bathroom light out. It’s halogen so of course this meant I had to make a trip to Lowe’s (which means it only took me about 4 weeks to make this trip). I brought the bulb with me and thought I had bought the correct one, but as it turns out someone put a 500 watt bulb in the 150 watt spot. Something doesn’t smell so good when you put a 500 watt halogen bulb in a 150 watt fixture. But, we are all okay, so no worries.


Hmm… then, I almost burned down the loft. Yes, again, I almost burned down the loft. I made pan fried pork chops (I know, sinful but good) and while I was not-so-carefully bringing the flour covered pork chop to the pan of oil I spilled a bunch of flour on the cook top… on the hot hot burner… there was a lot of smoke and black char. I think I’ve cleaned most of it off.

What else (don’t worry, so far I’ve never “almost burned down a house” more than two times in one day)… oh yeah, I went to the pool. And when I got there I took Monkey out of his stroller, wrestled with him to put his hat on (because somehow the German and Irish genes chose to show up in Monkey), tried to corral him into his raft, tried to convince him to stay in his raft and not swim out of it, threw his ball so she could swim after it, threw him in the air, etc, etc, etc. And there was this very nice woman at the pool with her little girl. The woman asked me how old Monkey was and when I told her he was 10 months she said, “Aww. My daughter is almost 2 and my son is 11 months.”

Huh? Your son? Is he under the water because all I saw was a very quiet little girl calmly sitting in a raft. And then she jerked her head behind her so I could see her 11 month old son. He was sitting on a towel on the ground playing with toys. Occasionally he got up and crawled a few inches away and then sat down again. I’m sure as I watched him my mouth fell open. And I asked her, incredulously, “If you put him there… he just stays there?” I think she thought I was saying something negative… apparently she did not hear the envy in my voice. Because you see loyal readers, you should know what would happen if I put Monkey on a towel a few feet away from me and then I went in to the pool. That’s right, I’d be writing a post about how my son almost drowned because he crawled right over in to the pool.

And then later, after I was exhausted playing with Monkey (read making sure he didn’t drown) she picked up her son and brought him in to the pool. He hung out on her hip… the entire time. I mean he was very much the observer, just not so much the mover. Mine is both. And here is how I know.

Monkey has a new game that I think he learned from watching us in the pool. He throws a ball and then chases it. Well, okay, I lied. To be more precise, he palms a ball, throws it, and then chases it. I swear this is the truth.

Below is a picture of one of his balls. He has another ball, it’s green with a butterfly painted on it, which is the exact same size as this ball. He palms this ball (and the green one).

I know it’s hard to see the true size of the ball, so I put it next to something most people would be familiar with (at least I think most people, it has always been a staple in my kitchen – oh, and you southerners that read this, this is how we northerners make corn bread – no lie). It isn’t a big ball, but it isn’t a tennis ball either.

And while I couldn’t get a picture of him throwing and chasing a ball (video camera is in the works… after we close our house in Texas, once I’m in one apartment only, and once some credit cards are paid down… or maybe just for Christmas) I got you this picture. Right in front of his left arm is the green ball I told you about. What you can’t see is that he is reaching across his body with his right arm to palm the ball with his right hand.

And then he throws it. And then he chases it. I am thinking star basketball player… the first famous paesan basketball player. He can buy me a mansion someday… I’m not proud (just exhausted).