An attractive toy

Magnetic you might even say... Quinn has just discovered magnets on our filing cabinet. He's been playing away happily, learning to attach the magnets and take them off again, making his "interested" growling sound the whole time.

Apparently his growling sound is quite unique, according to a drop-in worker today. He growls all the time, with different inflections seemingly implying different meanings. He's in a verbal phase again after coming through a big physical locomotion phase.

He has also cottoned onto pulling himself up to standing these last couple days. He does so with aplomb now, and doesn't even look proud of himself any more, having mastered the skill for over 24 hours now.

Quinn and Luther (our 16lb black cat) were playing together today, unstaged. Quinn had his "light-saber", a 4' long pipe insulator, and he was waving it around. Luther, lying nearby, started batting at it. Quinn was quite interested by that, and started purposely waving the light-saber near Luther, and giggling when Luther batted it. It went on for 10 minutes or so. It was sort of like that moment I imagine when one's first kid and second kid play together for the first time unprompted. Hopefully it's a friendship Quinn and Luther will share for years to come.

The Right Amount of Falling Down

Quinn has started pulling himself up on everything. Our furniture seems to not be conducive to pulling up, but a dining room chair on its side seems to be helping. It's amazing to watch the innate drive to stand and walk. It's also a little nerve-wracking. Our new downstairs hardwood floors are great in some aspects, but they are slippery for little feet and hard for little heads.

It highlights the fact that the right amount and right type of falling down is essential in learning how to walk. I fear him falling and hurting his head on the hard floor and I tend to hover when he pulls himself up. But he needs to learn that falling is ok, that there is a right way and a wrong way to fall, and that if he keeps getting back up long enough he'll learn how to walk.

So I try to walk the fine line between allowing him to fall but preventing major injury. It's one of the many challenges of judgement in parenting. I'm sure it will recur over and over in various incarnations over the years.

Went Snuffelupagus On Me

Bec, Quinn and I attended a First Birthday party for one of Quinn's friends yesterday. They had a batch of helium balloons and when Quinn caught sight of them he stared at them. I picked him up and we walked over to them and he spent about 10 minutes batting at the balloons like a speed bag, grunting and making his Interested Sound. He was so into it he was working up a sweat.

Quinn got one of the balloons out of the deal and he just loved it. It was pink but I was calling it Very Light Red. Anyway this morning the helium balloon had lost a little steam, causing it to drift around the house just below ceiling level. Quinn was transfixed. Over the next little while it lost even more such that it hovered about floor level. Quinn was completely fascinated with it and played with it for about 25 minutes straight, which is an eon when you're not quite a year old. He'd bat it up in the air and it would slowly drift back down. He'd stare at it, galvanized. He'd bat it across the room and then go chase it. He'd carefully grab the tether and bat the balloon repeatedly and get a great big grin on his face.

I thought this was all interesting enough to capture on video. I grabbed the little camera and started recording. Suddenly Quinn stopped doing anything and sat and carefully examined the balloon. After a minute of boring footage I stopped recording. Quinn immediately started batting the balloon and doing interesting things. I started filming again. Quinn began a thorough examination of the balloon again. So I don't have the video proof, and you'll just have to take my word for it that it really was quite interesting to watch his reaction to the balloon.

He's got a point there

Quinn has started pointing at things. He's sort of been able to follow where we're pointing for a while now, but today is the first time I saw him point at something. This is a quantum leap forward in his ability to communicate, since he's able to point at things he's interested in, and we can name them and take him over to see what he's looking at.

It brings up a curious aspect of human nature - the desire to share something one is interested in with another person. I wonder why that is, exactly? I guess from an evolutionary point of view it helps to point out danger or food, but there seems to be a happiness angle associated with it that transcends those reasons. At its best it results in idea sharing and mind expansion; at its worst it leads to foisting one's ideas on others.

I should be careful with my pointing. He's got a point there.

Congrats Cousin Cliff!

Congratulations to my intrepid Cousin Cliff the particle physicist, who was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada this weekend past. Here's the writeup from his citation:

"BURGESS, Clifford - Department of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University
Clifford Burgess is a renowned expert in the applications of effective field theory. As a theoretical physicist he has had an impact on an unusually broad range of fields including superstring theory, early universe cosmology, particle phenomenology, astrophysics and condensed matter physics. With over 120 published articles, he is one of Canada's most prolific and highly cited particle theorists."

Cliff and his family were kind enough to include me as a guest for the reception and banquet. A fine time was had by one and all, and it was great to see the Burgess clan. Congratulations Cliff! That's quite an honour! Now about that committee work... ;)

Tooth #4

Tooth #1 was brutal. Combined with an 8-day stretch where Quinn pooped exactly twice, it was as difficult a stretch as we've faced. Teeth 2 & 3 were not nearly as bad - both upper front teeth, with an endearing gap that gives his frequently-wielded smile an earnest and slightly Bobby-Clobber comical look. But Tooth #4 is on its way now, and while it's not as bad as #1 was, it's a bit reminiscent of it. He was up early this morning, wailing for an hour or so starting at 4:20am.

Yes 4:20am. And that's only slightly earlier than normal. Normal is 5am, with only minor variations. We finally got him advanced to 6am only to get a solid kick in the arse from the blasted time change. Back to 5am it was. Bec absorbs the brunt of it, bless her soul, allowing me to function for work. I'm usually up at 7am though, to get to see him for an hour or so before I go to work. He has slept slightly longer - almost as long as most books recommend as the minimum - when he has been sick with a cold. It's almost enough to make us dangle him in front of all passersby sporting colds (but not quite...).

Periscope up!

Quinn's new favourite thing is to stand up on his knees and look out over the edge of the tub during bathtime, then sit down, and then repeat, over and over. Every time he gets up on his knees I say "Periscope up!" and he grins. Unfortunately he also does this in his crib, which may be partly why he melted down in the hands of his aunt last night, who kindly babysat for us while we went out to celebrate our anniversary. It took him a while to settle last night, but he shows no ill effects today. It remains to be seen how much the event scarred his mother but so far it doesn't seem too bad.

Quinn has no fear of the water. Coming from a land where the water routinely kills people I think this is a good thing and a bad thing. Hopefully he inherits his mother's natural waterskills that his father doesn't seem to have in spite of growing up in, on or near the water. Until we determine that for sure we'll continue to keep a close eye on him as he bellyflops fearlessly into the tub from the "Periscope up" position.

The bee's knees

Just today he's gotten even more focus in his eyes. He now not only notices things and studies them, but he gets this really curious and inquisitive look in his eye, and he wants to be over there RIGHT NOW to check it out in more detail.

Out busy little bee gets up on his knees quite easily now. Just today he seems to be much more stable on his knees, allowing his hands to operate more independently. Using this newfound skill, he is better able to get things out of his toy drawers, and he is becoming expert at getting the DVDs out of the entertainment unit drawer. In his eyes, it's the bee's knees.

Mobility

It's been awhile. Too long. Many factors, but nothing serious, thankfully. Anyway, Quinn is mobile now. He crawls around on his belly, pulling himself with his hands. He can move from sitting to his belly and back. Today for the first time, he started to tip over in the bath, but caught himself by putting his hand out and pushing himself back up! Very impressive.

He also really loves being read to. He can concentrate intently through a half dozen books at a time. He'll crawl over to the pile of books in his play area and try to get at them, indicating he wants to be read to. Sometimes he even picks out a book that he wants read. He will turn pages when prompted.

He's particularly fun when reading the book "Goodnight Moon". There are several pages in colour, and some of them have a red balloon in the picture. Whenever we get to those pages, he points to the balloon and rubs the picture of the balloon, staring at it. But whenever we turn to a page that doesn't have the red balloon in it, he immediately turns the page after scanning for the balloon and determining it's not there.

He's really learning a lot these days, and developing a personality to go with it. He's a smiley, lovey little boy. May that last for years to come.