Walter's favorite word ...

... is crocodile.

When he wakes up in the morning it is one of the first things he says--"ccchhhhroccckkkohdial"--like he's been dreaming about the word all night and practicing it in his sleep. He says it at home and at daycare; it's not his most-used word, but he says it at least once a day.

There are so many things every day that make me think "I have to write that down.  I have to remember this."  Tonight it was the crazy case of the giggles he got while nursing before bed, resulting in an unfortunate case of the wet hiccups. And the way he added in his two cents over the baby monitor while we watched the presidential debate.  And the way he walked all over the church during our Wednesday night activities, even walking right up to me while I led worship from the lectern ... a "first" my congregation has been predicting for awhile.

Walt and Henry the day that inspired us to get the boy some shoes

He got his first pair of shoes and took less than one day to adapt to walking in them. He went to his first birthday party, a one year celebration for his best friend, Henry. (Walter and Henry have been day care friends since 3 months; sometimes they'll make eye contact and start cracking up out of nowhere, sharing a joke that no one else is in on.) Walter likes eating stews and other complex, multi-layered, textured and flavored foods, making his daddy the cook very proud.  He likes to help Daddy cook, too, pushing his first pork roll around the pan with a pair of tongs.

There's no way I can possibly keep up with it all, remember it all, record it all.  But I am enjoying it all very, very much.

Crocodile!

Room 2! And other stories!

Another quick update because I may never get a chance to finish the 7 month round up post, which I've come to think of as my life's work. We're doing a lot of living these days and not a lot of documenting that living, which is fine, but documenting is an important part of living, too.

Walter loves the garage door.  When he hears it he cranes around to watch it go up (or down) and he does his happy shimmy as it goes.  Never fails to get a smile.

Walter loves the swings at the park so much that we now need to come up with an alternate evening walk route.  As we approach the park, he shimmies with anticipation.  As we walk right by the park, he screams in dismay.  If we stop and swing, he is elated.  If, after much time has passed and much swing has been swung, we decide we need to eventually leave the swing and go home, he is devastated.  "Just leave me here," he seems to say. "I want to swing FOREVER."

Being a baby is kind of dramatic. The highs! The lows! The highs! The lows! (Get it ... he likes the swing ... and he's having mood swings ... OK, it's not that funny.)

The big news of the day is that Walter moved up to Room 2 at day care. Room 2!  Mobile babies!  There are walking babies in Room 2.  Babies who wear SHOES.  I didn't put him in shoes today, but I did send him in a pair of khaki shorts and a super cool orange Avengers t-shirt.  I realized as I was picking out his outfit that I didn't want to send him in baby clothes because I was worried about what his new peers might think and I want the kids at school to like him.  Oh man.  Mama's a little silly.  But from all reports he did have a very good day. He excelled at dancing, shunning solid foods, expressing himself grandiosely in a confident baritone, and looking at things.

Sean is singing "Rainbow Connection" to Walt, who just had his routine 10:30 angry wake up.  We're not sure what's up with the 10:30 wake up, but it's pretty predictable.  And now I see that Sean has been successful, so we'll head upstairs and sleep sleep sleep.  My magnum opus will wait for another night.