Here we are one-hand typing a blog again.  I saw “we” because Dante is my right-hand man and writing assistant right now so he deserves SOME credit. And by “assistant” I mean he’s totally occupying my left hand as I have to hold up his peacock toy so he can bat at it, otherwise he’d be screaming for attention.  Think I’m kidding?  Check this out:

So as he’s taking right-handed pop shots at Mr. Peacock (he seems to favor his right hand, much to the delight of his left-handed daddy), I’m getting a few updates out.

It’s the second of some seriously HOT days and he doesn’t seem to like the heat.  Mr. Grumpy Pants and I are trying to maintain some semblance of comfort in our closed-up house (shades pulled, doors to extraneous rooms shut, and one lone air conditioner struggling in the other room).

Dante is almost 11 weeks old, and he’s developed quite the little personality it seems like overnight.

The past week he’s been very actively and deliberately reaching out and touching his hands to toys dangled in front of him (thus, The Mr. Peacock Diversionary Tactics).  He’s also started to show some hand-eye coordination as he unclenches his fingers to grasp at the tags on said toys (it’s always the tags, not the toys themselves, I swear).

But by far my most favorite development with him are his finely honed conversational skills. For the past few weeks he’s been ‘talking’ up a storm and we’re having delightful chats in his baby language, which consists mostly of “Ah GOOOooo!” (his favorite word), and many sounds that seem to start with a “K” or “G” and end with a gurgle of saliva from the back of his throat.  When connecting with him in his native language, he always gets excited and kicky and flashes a very accomplished gummy smile (sometimes accompanied by a fart).

Both developments show me that he has begun to progress beyond the mere mass of screaming and pooing chaos that he was before. Oh my God, he’s growing up.  Noooooo!!!!