Day 4 for DownS/ Tuckered out Thursday?

Today was another busy day in Artie’s little life. He was still sick most of the night but you could not tell it by his energy level today. He is much better. Way much better while I have red eyes and deep circles under them! Ha!

To begin with, as I was cleaning the kitchen, he opened the baby gate (didn’t I shut that?) and cruised on in holding onto the cabinets. He looked up at me and grinned. I love that grin! First time around the cabinets, dude! And what fun it was, until he got halfway around.
He came to a standstill at the dishwasher.
For some reason that escapes me now, when I bought the thing, I selected black. Oh, wait, I know…it was on sale! Any way it has a nice shiny reflection.
The minute he got there, he kinda froze. Of course I moved over to where he was to make sure he was okay. He was so still. Very unlike him. Lil man was looking at the baby in the reflection touching his hand. It was fun watching him check himself out. When he finally moved he patted his tummy and laughed. He touched his face and ear. Self awareness. It was so sweet. He has been checking himself out in the mirror since he was nine months old and the first person he ever waved at was his own reflection, but this was different. He was there, alone, looking at a full length view. This was him, by himself, standing tall and in all his glory. He did a few squats, gave himself a ‘no-no’, rubbed his hair and giggled a lot. He liked what he saw.
He managed to break into the kitchen several times today to visit the dishwasher.

Later, after floor play and OT, I sat him in the lounger. We have been working on dismount. He tends to prefer the head first approach so we have been turning him around and showing him the feet first approach to floor contact. This has gone on for a couple of weeks and he has just giggled and lunged. Ouch! Good thing I have been there to catch. Sure enough, today he turned that diapered butt around and eased off feet first! Yay!! A safe landing and lots of cheers…he loves the cheering part and will repeat something over and over again to get me to do it. Yes, I do make a fool of myself for him. Nobody else is watching! Today, since he couldn’t get back on the lounger to do a repeat act for his audience, he just stood on his tippy toes and put his head on the seat and pretended to dismount by turning around again and throwing his arms in the air as if to say "TA DA!"…I cheered for that too. I told you I was easy. He did that until I grabbed him up and tickled him to distract him. The boy is relentless!

There was still a lot of play in him at bedtime. We lay down together to have a talk. He had a lot to say…”ba ba ba ba da da” and then a few raspberries. I, too, had a lot to say. I kept repeating “ma ma ma ma” over and over with lots of emphasis on the “MMMMM” part, challenging him. I am vain and want to hear my name too. I mean this Da Da thing has gone too far. When I explained it to him in a gentle way, he giggled. Covering his face and rubbing his eyes he blew me another raspberry. Guess that’s baby talk for ‘get a grip’.
Sleep came easily and softly for him tonight. I gently moved him to the baby bed. I hope he sleeps better. I hope I do, too.