Xander spends the majority of his time in the house with mom and dad. He usually gets to go for a walk once a day, and there are trips to the stores and such, but now that swimming lessons are over, he is in a brief respite where he has no scheduled activities outside of the house. So when he gets to go somewhere new or somewhere fun, he has one objective - looking at other people.
This past Thursday, dad took Xander to the Denver Aquarium for the first time. It was a pretty good time. There were definitely points where Xander was very interested in looking at the fish, especially in the tunnels of water, when there was literally water all around. He looked up and saw a giant sea turtle that caught his attention. At another point, he stood with his hands on the glass wall, transfixed by the many different fish floating by at his eye level. And then finally, he liked when the floor was see-through, and he could see the sharks swimming down below. But mostly, he liked looking at people.
Xander especially likes looking at kids that are a little bit older than him, say kids that are three to four-years old. When he does this, he doesn't smile, he doesn't frown, he just kind of stares at them. You can see the wheels in his head turning, as if he's thinking to himself, "Why are these kids bigger than me ... What are they doing ... I want to do that." You can tell when Xander goes into this mode, because no matter how many times you say his name, or poke him in the belly, or tap him on the shoulder, or try to make eye contact, he's just not even aware of your existence. This is a trait he picks up from his dad, who can sometimes block out other people - most notably Xander's mom - when he wants to.
Dad was out of town over the weekend, but he received similar, if not stronger reports from Xander's mom that he had done the same thing at the zoo. "Xander, look at the bears." Nope, looking at these people over here. "Xander, look at the crazy monkeys." Sorry, there's a lot of people here to look at.
If there's a bright side, it's that in addition to being focused, Xander is also curious about other people, and that perhaps it means he will be very sociable. If there's a downside, it's that he's already learned to tune out his mom and dad at the tender age of 10 months.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Baby Steps
On March 1st, Xander crawled up his first stair. It caught mom and dad off-guard, but luckily since he only went up the one stair, it wasn't a big deal. He plopped back down on his bum, and seemed satisfied that he had done it. Nine days later, he had grown a lot more ambitious.
Generally speaking, Xander's night time routine is eat dinner, watch a 22-minute Baby Einstein video, change into PJ's, story time, nighttime feeding and bed. But last Thursday, he ate dinner a little early, so mom and dad let him play for a little in the living room before it was time to watch his video. Xander apparently took this as an invitation to climb the stairs again. Up he went on the first stair. Dad slid behind him at the bottom of the stairs, but didn't really think much of it, as he had done this before. Then he climbed the second stair. And here. We. Go.
Immediately, he began to reach for the third stair, and mom and dad realized that this was no ordinary stair climbing. While dad moved into better position to hold Xander in case he fell, mom started to record on the camcorder on her phone. One problem - the camcorder on mom's phone shines a light. Xander noticed this, and turned around to look at the light, and in doing so ceased his ascent. Camera off. Up and up he kept scampering. The staircase is a two-parter, with a landing at the sixth and seventh steps. These stairs are much bigger, and gave Xander ample room to crawl and maneuver on when he reached them, which he did quickly.
Initially, Xander moved briskly past the landing, on to the eighth stair. But then he decided he liked the landing better. He let himself fall off the eighth stair into dad's arms. Once back on the landing, he decided to crawl down from seventh stair to sixth stair and back up again. He did this maybe two dozen times. He seemed to enjoy the fact that the two stairs were wide enough for him to crawl downward from one to the other. He got very good at it quickly, as he was able to keep his arms out in front of him so that his little head didn't bop on the ground on the way down.
After he seemed to tire of this game, Xander got back to trying to make it all the way up the stairs. He climbed the eighth, and then the ninth stair, but at this point he was getting pretty tired. Dad, who to this point had been silently sitting behind Xander so as to not disturb his thought process, went to the top of the stair case and leaned over to encourage Xander to finish the job (mom slid in behind him to catch him if he fell). Xander smiled and laughed, but was clearly tuckered out. The last five steps will have to wait for another day, but they seem like they will be easy prey.
Generally speaking, Xander's night time routine is eat dinner, watch a 22-minute Baby Einstein video, change into PJ's, story time, nighttime feeding and bed. But last Thursday, he ate dinner a little early, so mom and dad let him play for a little in the living room before it was time to watch his video. Xander apparently took this as an invitation to climb the stairs again. Up he went on the first stair. Dad slid behind him at the bottom of the stairs, but didn't really think much of it, as he had done this before. Then he climbed the second stair. And here. We. Go.
Immediately, he began to reach for the third stair, and mom and dad realized that this was no ordinary stair climbing. While dad moved into better position to hold Xander in case he fell, mom started to record on the camcorder on her phone. One problem - the camcorder on mom's phone shines a light. Xander noticed this, and turned around to look at the light, and in doing so ceased his ascent. Camera off. Up and up he kept scampering. The staircase is a two-parter, with a landing at the sixth and seventh steps. These stairs are much bigger, and gave Xander ample room to crawl and maneuver on when he reached them, which he did quickly.
Initially, Xander moved briskly past the landing, on to the eighth stair. But then he decided he liked the landing better. He let himself fall off the eighth stair into dad's arms. Once back on the landing, he decided to crawl down from seventh stair to sixth stair and back up again. He did this maybe two dozen times. He seemed to enjoy the fact that the two stairs were wide enough for him to crawl downward from one to the other. He got very good at it quickly, as he was able to keep his arms out in front of him so that his little head didn't bop on the ground on the way down.
After he seemed to tire of this game, Xander got back to trying to make it all the way up the stairs. He climbed the eighth, and then the ninth stair, but at this point he was getting pretty tired. Dad, who to this point had been silently sitting behind Xander so as to not disturb his thought process, went to the top of the stair case and leaned over to encourage Xander to finish the job (mom slid in behind him to catch him if he fell). Xander smiled and laughed, but was clearly tuckered out. The last five steps will have to wait for another day, but they seem like they will be easy prey.
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