Bears and Night Terrors

Had a weird night last night. Daddy put him down at the normal time and then we went to bed around 10. An hour later I woke up to him screaming. I rushed in, picked him up, and he immediately settled down. Took only 5 minutes or so of rocking to get him back into his crib. Usually I'll hear him wind up and then fuss a little bit, but this was definitely the screaming of a scared baby. Must've been a nightmare. I heard him again in the 4am region and then he was up for good at 5:30.

He nursed a bit and then we played on the mat until Daddy finished his shower and could take over. Daddy discovered the secret word to making him smile. All he has to do is say, "Picata" softly near his ear and he grins his big open mouthed, gummy smile. If you keep doing it, he'll start to giggle. It's the darndest thing. You have to say it like Beavis (of Beavis and Butthead). We're obviously only teaching him the sophisticated stuff.

I came home to a very happy boy this evening. He was playing in his exersaucer in the kitchen while Gigi was starting dinner. I picked him up and took him to the play mats where I showed him the Brown Bear book which he has decided is the BEST book ever. And he's not just chewing on it! He waits for me to open the first page where he sees the brown bear and then I read, make the sign for bear, and then growl like a bear. First he looks at the page and then he watches my sign and then looks back down to turn the page. His favorite is the duck (with the quacking), but the bird and cat are close seconds. It's amazing to see him actually interested in the pages of the book instead of just how much of the binding he can slobber on. The past few days he's been insisting that I read it at least twice and sometimes 3 times before we can move onto the next activity.

After a dinner of pasta, stars, a biter biscuit, and winter squash, LR (Little Rugger) took a bath. It's really the best way to get off the quarter inch layer of food caked around his mouth... and eyebrows... and ears. Apparently the tendency to miss the mouth with food won't go away soon. We had brunch with friends yesterday whose 15 month old daughter combed her hair with a slice of bacon during the meal. mmmm... bacon.