The Natives Are Getting Restless

Hello again, blog fans! Glad to be back in my regular chair, typing away at yet another blog posting. Actually, it's not my regular chair. My regular chair is from that Swedish furniture store. It's on a wheeled base with five casters, but sadly two have fallen off (that's because you are crazy). Not such a stable situation, if you ask me. I worked on it for a while when it was only missing one. It wasn't as difficult, but it was still a thrilling ride every time I sat down. Will I get thrown off? Will I tip over? Who knows! Oh, the excitement!

Yes, I am the parent of an infant, and this is the most excitement I can handle in my day. Anyway, I'm on a rather boring black fold-out chair for now, waiting for some seating solution to come to me out of the blue (hey idiot, how about just buying a new chair?!). I will prevail!

So, what else is happening in our exciting lives? Several different Theo-related milestones to tell you about, so let's get right to it.

1. Rolling over, but alas, only the front-to-back kind, not both ways. It's actually pretty entertaining because he tries oh so hard to get from back to front, but it's the darned arm getting in the way. I'll describe it, but you're going to have to imagine how this works along with me. Better yet, get someone to read this out to you and follow along on the floor. Hours of entertainment! Anyway, he gets almost all the way over from his back onto his stomach, after overcoming the part about how both the legs and torso have to move in the same direction, but doesn't realize that he has to move his other arm out of the way first. For those of you following along, laying on your back with your arms to your side, roll over onto your right side, but don't move your right arm. See how when you get all the way over, your arm is still trapped under you? Well, imagine being a baby and not knowing how to move that arm. Like a coiled spring, he wings himself back onto his, um, back (too many "backs"), and shouts in frustration. He'll get it one day, and I'm not entirely sure why we're thinking this is a good thing.

2. Propping up his head. Theo can now sit propped up and hold his head up without it falling over or rolling around Linda Blair style. Okay, I guess he never got the full Linda Blair thing; that would be a little bit weird. But he'd really fling his head around, you know? Anyway, we have head stability now, so that's one less thing to worry about.

As far as the rest of it goes, more of the same. Sleeping is so-so; some nights are good, others are bad, but that's the way it goes. When he's awake, he's still quite the character. He smiles more often now (although they're still very difficult to catch on film--okay, digital media), and is starting to ask for kisses. That's a really funny one, but one that will never come across on, er, digital media, so tough luck. Come by the house if you want an in-person demonstration. I'm sure that'll be the day he refuses to do it.

Not much else happening. Went to the beach last week for the first time with Tanya and Mark (but you can call him Pat), which was fun for all. This weekend we went into Vancouver where mommy got her hair cut (Pure Studio on Spruce and 7th--it's run by a long-time family friend's son--he's really good) while daddy and Theo walked around town. I was going to go to Long & McQuade to indoctrinate the boy on rock and roll guitars, but it moved and didn't tell me, so that was out. Thanks a lot. If my boy likes soft rock or *shudder* country, I'm going to send them the therapy bill. Didn't take as many pictures this week, but we got a few good ones, and those are the ones I'm going to share with you today. Oh, and some others from last week's massive haul, just to beef it up a little bit. Here we go.

First off, I promised Tanya I'd put a picture of her up here, even though it's a decidedly Theo-less picture.

And here's the family...

A couple more from the self-photography session of last week. I love his expression. And, of course, my beautiful wife. I probably have the best-looking family in Canada, nay, North America, nay, the world! Without me in the photos, of course.

And here are his two favourite things to do now. First off, being bashful is his newest thing. If you look at him a little bit too closely sometimes he decides that's enough, and buries his face in whatever's convenient. Usually it's the shoulder of the person carrying him, but in this case it was the bed...

Here's the second favourite thing: chewing on his fist. Just wait til those teeth come through...

Like I said before, keeping the head upright is no problem now, the mechanics of which are demonstrated in this picture. This looks like something out of a textbook, I think, but I can't place why. To me it looks like one of those line drawings, but coloured in. Whatever.

I think he's cheering on the Oilers here.

"Who, me?" I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot more of this look as time goes on.

I had one more story to share, but alas, my luck with uploading pictures has run out. It's probably for the best, considering it's 11:00 now. Church business meeting tonight--took up quite a bit of productive blogging time. But it was good to go and keep up with what's happening. Anyway, I'll sign off because hey, it's still Sunday (*cough* Jane *cough*) and that means I'm on time.

Oh, one more quick thing. No post next weekend, sadly. We're heading up to the lovely Mara Lake for a few days of houseboating fun with the family. And by that I mean Steph's dad's side of the family. Which is really Steph's step-mom's kids and their kids. Follow? Don't worry, I'll draw you a chart. But hey, going away means several good photos (hopefully), so I'll likely be posting on Monday or Tuesday just to get them up here. So ciao for now, all. See you again sometime next week.