The Escape Artist

It took him months, but John finally figured out how to circumvent the long baby gate. It is screwed into the wall only on one side because previously the other side was pinned behind a piece of furniture. The furniture broke and is gone now, but John hadn't figured out that he could just pull the gate away from the wall and sneak behind it. Here I caught him in the act.
The first time I removed him he cried. The second time, he totally lost control of his emotions and threw a tantrum like I've never seen. We have this other piece of heavy furniture sitting around needing a place, so I used it to pin the gate to the wall temporarily. It's unattractive, but effective. John is not pleased.

New York Report

We are home safe from New York!

Chris was already in New York on business, and John and I flew up Wednesday evening. The flight was hairier than usual. I felt strangely flustered throughout the whole thing, which was so odd, considering I've traveled all over the world! First, I left the house and drove five minutes before realizing that I'd forgotten to leave food for the cats, so turned around to rectify the situation. I got back on the road and the trip took a whole hour instead of the 45 minutes I'd thought. I parked at one of those "park and fly" places near the airport and felt pressured as the bus waited for me. The driver saw me taking extra time because I was loading a baby, but she didn't do anything to help. Finally, a nice older gentleman--a customer--got off the bus to help me, which then got the bus driver scrambling. Anyway, because I felt flustered, I totally forgot to bring John's car seat with me! I called Chris from the airport and, after considering different options, we decided that Chris would simply buy a new car seat in New York before picking me up at the White Plains airport. I was so flustered while at the airport that I kept being overwhelmed by a sickening feeling that I'd forgotten John somewhere, so I'd gasp and look down at my chest only to see John snug in his Ergo. I wondered if that is how it feels to have some forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder!

The security lines were the longest I'd ever seen at the Atlanta airport, so I would have nearly missed my plane had it not been delayed 90 minutes due to terrible weather all along the East Coast. To top it all off, when I arrived, the gate agent told me that the plane had been oversold. As she had me stand there for 30 minutes, hoping to get a seat, you can imagine the speech I was writing in my head about how my son had surgery in the morning and I had purchased my ticket two weeks ago and we were not going to be the ones to suffer because of the airline's despicable practice of selling more product than it has to offer. Ultimately, I got my seat without having to deliver my speech.

Thankfully through all the chaos of four delayed flights stacked up at my gate, John is now old enough that he really enjoyed sitting at the gate window and watching the planes and trucks on the tarmac. Also, John got to see a doggy (a seeing-eye dog) and a kitty--of sorts. You see, John has a wild animals book with several big cats in it. I point to the leopard and say, "That's a leopard! He's a kind of kitty." At the gate, John began pointing and saying loudly, "Kitty! Kitty!" He had spotted a woman carrying a faux fur leopard-print coat! John made the same observation about another fur coat at the airport two days later. What a smart boy!

John became very scared when we took off because he was watching out the airplane window. He's never been scared before and I think it was because he has enough cognitive development now to be disoriented by the sudden changing speed and size of the things he was watching out the window. I had to close the window to get him to stop screaming in fear.

The flight itself was fine--John was moderately fussy--until the end when it got really scary. For the last 25 minutes, I've never felt such turbulence in my life. I was so scared that I was audibly praying nonstop Hail Marys till we landed and I didn't care who thought I was crazy. I really thought I might (throw up, then) die!

When we landed, John was actually asleep, so I waited until everyone got off the plane to wake him. The small plane had parked on the tarmac and, without my line of ducklings to follow, I was disoriented in the pitch dark and pouring rain--the air so cold that there was snow stacked on the ground. I bundled John in a blanket and just started waddling as fast as was safe across the icy tarmac, calling out through the rain to any worker walking by, "Where's the door?! Where's the door?!" Obviously, I finally found my way indoors and Chris picked us up.

Here is a photo from Wednesday morning, on our way to breakfast. Chris had parked by this wonderful wall of icicles.

John at breakfast:
Showing us his nose. He always squinches his nose when he points to it.


Many, but not all of you, heard from me that John was finally diagnosed with a Type 4 Posterior Tongue Tie and a too-tight superior labial frenum. This explains our many, painful nursing difficulties in the early months, John's earlier reflux, and his almost total inability to swallow solids. The correction is a simple frenectomy, but so few doctors these days know how to diagnose and then properly correct a posterior tongue tie that we decided to fly to New York to see two experts.

John in the waiting room of the doctor's office:

After two weeks of a serious case of nerves about John's upcoming procedure, I was graced by God with great calmness during the actual event. John was given Versed to calm him and prophylactic acetaminophen, numbing gel, and two shots of Novocaine before the doctor used a laser to revise the two too-tight frenums. For the three-minute procedure, I sat back in a dental chair holding John along my body with Chris at our feet. John was nursing within ten seconds of the laser being turned off and it took ten or fifteen minutes to calm him down from being restrained.

All was well and we left with doctor's instructions to follow John's lead concerning eating solids. Food would not further harm the wound, but might make him sore, in which case John would let us know. Chris and I stopped to grab some lunch to eat in the car so we could avoid dragging John into a restaurant. It was only 30 minutes after the procedure when John began vigorously making the sign for EAT at me because he wanted some of the pepperoni off my pizza. I was nervous and did not want to give him such a food so soon! But he kept signing and the doctor had said it was okay to try, so I let John eat.

And eat he did! In one sitting, John ate three slices of pepperoni, two bites of cheese, and two bites of soft cookie! He has never eaten like that in his little life! Normally when he "eats" pepperoni, for example, he tears it into a zillion small bits, chews on them, and spits them out. This time he ate each slice by taking large bites--four per slice--and chewing them well, then swallowing. Here is a photo of our sweet boy eating and you can see that he's still ever so slightly dopey from the Versed:

After his feast, John fell asleep for a much-deserved nap:

Wednesday night Chris had to fly on to his next (two) cities for business, so John and I managed on our own that night. He was irritable and fussy from a sore mouth, but nothing some infant pain reliever and distractions from Mama wouldn't solve. Here is John asleep the next morning (yes, you caught me not bothering to change him into pajamas).


Bed hair!


On Thursday morning, John and I were without a car and I thought it was a good idea to walk the one block to the diner across the street from the hotel for breakfast. I had known in advance that the weather would reach a high in the 20s on Thursday, but hadn't wanted to haul along my heavy coat for how little time I would be spending outdoors. Who knows how cold it was early on this morning as I trudged through the snow, but as I began to wonder if the cold air filling my sinus cavities could actually cause my head to explode I realized that maybe I shouldn't have gone for that little walk. (Never fear: John was entirely bundled up in multiple layers, heavy coat and hat, and a blanket shell. It was just Mama who was stupid-cold.)

We got to the cute, tiny White Plains airport by taxi cab. The flight was our best ever! John fell asleep about two minutes after take off (I had closed the window so he wouldn't be scared). He was sitting in my lap while I read him a book and he simply leaned back, closed his eyes, and was asleep! He stayed asleep until ten minutes before landing, when he woke up drowsily and peaceably, never letting out a squeak for the entire flight. Here is a self-taken photo:


John and I are so very glad to be home after our 48 hours in New York and we look forward to Chris joining us soon. Chris and I don't think John's frenectomy will be a magic fix, but we do hope and think it will set him on the road to age-appropriate eating. I, for one, am very excited about that!

Weekend Report from Charlotte

John hiding behind the sheer curtains in the hotel room:
The baby has begun imitating us blowing our noses, including with sound effects, as seen here:

Climbing on the round pillow is all fun and games until it rolls out from underneath a person:
Asleep after a long day of driving:

John and Daddy having a fun boys' outing to Costco while Mama took respite in the hotel room (cell phone photograph):

Chris took us to a fun Japanese restaurant with a hibachi in the middle of the table. John was not afraid of the flames and enjoyed playing with the chopsticks.

Here is John, transfixed by the new electronic lights-and-sounds phone I bought him in anticipation of our plane ride tomorrow. Having just spent four days traveling with my sweet boy who is utterly not sweet when trapped in a car, I was more than happy to spend $10 to let him have a distracting toy for our next three days of travel.
As has happened before when we travelled, John was thrown so far off routine and got so few good naps that he was over-exhausted as of last night and spent half the night having night terrors. Those are so hard on Mama!


Other tidbits: John is now "babbling" in sign language. Sometimes when he thinks I don't understand him, but I really do (for example, when I do not let him play in the toilet), he stands tall, holds his arms out straight, and starts squiggling his fingers emphatically. It's both cute and impressive to see that he understands that there is a separate "language of hands" and he is trying to use it, even when he doesn't know the specific sign already. And it is certainly more pleasant in those moments than hearing him shriek!

Chris has already left for his next business trip, about twelve hours after we got home. I've lost count of how many weeks Chris has been on the road, usually Monday through Friday. John is really missing his daddy. John now calls both of us "Mama," but I know the difference. I don't know how I know, but sometimes "Mama" means me and sometimes it means Chris and I believe that I know which is which. Today when John saw Chris' suitcase in the hallway, he became agitated. Then we all walked downstairs and said bye-bye to Daddy, watching him go out the front door with his bags. As soon as I shut the door, John threw his head back in my arms, flailing and weeping, "Mama! Mama!" (meaning Chris, not me), while waving his hands "bye-bye." I took him upstairs for some soothing time. The bright side of when we finally move to our new home town is that Daddy will be home a lot more often with us.

Tidbits

We've been out of town house-hunting, to be home in a few hours, so I'll post photos later. Following are just a few tidbits:

I've been teaching John his facial parts, but with only hit-and-miss results when I ask him to identify them. Chris had no idea I was teaching him this stuff, so when he began asking John to name his facial parts this morning, we were both amazed by the results. Upon request, John pointed to his nose, his ears, his hair, and his teeth (he knows "teeth" but not "mouth," nor has he figured out "eyes" yet). So cute!

John is being very consistent about showing me his owies now so I can kiss them.

As we've been driving around for hours looking at homes, we've been surprised by John's attention to far-away details, as proven when he points out a dog several blocks away ("woof! woof!").

That's all for now . . .

New Sign for OWIE

I think that John is acquiring a new sign: for owie/pain/injury. The remarkable thing is that I just began using this sign yesterday. The idea is that this is an important sign so that the baby can show you where he hurts if he injured himself out of parents' eyesight or has an internal pain, like a headache. Since yesterday, when I'd witness John hurt himself, I'd quickly begin making the sign for PAIN right next to where he bonked his head or whatever while verbalizing, "Did you hurt yourself on your head? You have an owie!"

Three times today I saw John make his version of the sign. First was when we were in the nursery where I had my back to John because I was hanging up his clothing. I heard a bang and John begin crying. By the time I whirled around, John was crying and making the sign in front of his head. Then in the afternoon, John began making the sign on one of his thumbs. I thought he was doing it all wrong because he wasn't crying and I couldn't see anything. Then I saw a tiny paper cut! I was amazed and offered to kiss it. John let me kiss it and laughed. Then he made the sign on his other thumb and now I was sure he was just playing to get another kiss. But then I inspected the other thumb and it had a much bigger paper cut on it! So I kissed that one too. Then I remembered an hour earlier when I was letting John tear up a catalog and he burst into tears for no apparent reason: I think that is when he obtained his paper cuts.

All I can say is that sign language for toddlers is so cool!

More Mei Tai

I successfully got John into the hip carry position in the mei tai, then vacuumed the downstairs with him to test out the functionality. The sling was perfectly comfortable enough. For the hip carry, I maintain that a ring sling like the Maya is superior because it is very fast on and off and the weight is distributed over the whole curve of the shoulder (unlike the narrow strap you can see in the photo). But it is very nice that the mei tai can function in every basic position, seemingly quite well.
I also got John into the low back carry position. (One could cross the straps over the front of the chest too.)

Tomorrow I hope to get John into the high back carry position. What intrigues me so much about the mei tai is that position and the fact that one can wear even a newborn back there!

Miscellaneous on Monday

John loves brooms, so I let him "help" me sweep up some shredded paper yesterday:
Chris bought us a fun set of dominoes and John's merely being allowed to hold a domino kept him happy.
Today some workers came to replace our deck. This might be one of the most exciting things John has ever seen. He stood by the kitchen bay window for at least an hour, even skipping his morning nap so he could keep watching the men demolish the deck.

I'm in the midst of researching another kind of baby carrier: the mei tai. Actually, my beloved Ergo is a Westernized mei tai. Something I have learned about babywearing is that the rule of general and specific tools applies to slings as well: the more specific the sling, the easier it is to use, but the more limited its use; the more general the sling, the more skill required to use it, but the more varied uses it has. (For example, a plain 15-foot strip of fabric probably offers the most ways to carry a baby, but tying it is like doing oragami.) This leads me to explore a real mei tai. I borrowed a friend's (thanks Elaine!) so that I can see whether I like the style before I buy one. If I decide I like it, then I can to choose among the many makers, all of which offer slightly different styles. Here you can see me wearing John on my front (an easy carry): I hope to get him onto my back tomorrow.
Today . . . John ate cheese. It was amazing. As you know, he chews solids, but he can't seem to swallow them. Today he saw me eating a slice of cheese and and asked for some, so I obliged, figuring he'd chew the piece and spit it out, as usual. He seemed to eat the pea-sized piece of cheese, then grunted. I made the sign for MORE? He then made the signs for MORE and EAT, which was thrilling in itself. I gave him a second bit of cheese, which he ate, then he asked for a third by making the sign for EAT. I searched the ground for the first two bits of cheese, but couldn't find them. I watched him carefully while he ate the third and fourth bits of cheese. He ate a fifth pea-sized piece before he was satisfied. I couldn't believe it! Here he is with his sixth piece of cheese, offering it to the cat.

I gave John a paper towel tube and showed him the trick of dropping an item in one end and seeing it come out the other end. The first several times I did it, John continued to stare at the top end of the tube and I had to show him how the toy had come out the other end. Later in the day, Chris spotted John quietly dropping a toy into the tube over and over.

More Language Skills

Today John and I enjoyed a visit to Grandmom's house. There I was noticing John's increasing language skills. Today he made two signs (MORE and EAT). Also, John responded three times to seeing a picture of an animal by making the animal sound (once I showed him a dog and he said, "woof!," and twice I showed him a horse and he said, "neigh!"). Lastly, John has a new spoken word: naked! Each night as I'm undressing him for his bath, I tell him that I'm getting him naked. I've noticed lately that he responds excitedly with "nay-nay." I didn't intend for that to be one of his first words!

John has become braver about his pop-up toy. The second day we had it, I spent a lot of time making the animals pop up, first counting one-two-three! as I pushed the button (and John hid behind the couch watching me). I hoped this would help John learn to expect what was coming. Today is the third day and I caught John playing with it without fear.

The Goofy Face

John has been developing a goofy face and voice for at least the last month. He squinches up his nose, makes buck teeth, and talks in a stuffy-noise voice. If he starts talking that way, I imitate him and we laugh; if I start talking that way, he imitates me and we laugh.
My cautious boy is becoming brave about climbing onto the seat of his red car. It makes me nervous because he does fall off of it a couple of days per day. I want to encourage him to be a little braver, so I don't show him my nervousness and just move the red car to the middle of the living room every morning--that way he won't hit his head on something sharp when he falls.
He also likes to stand on the seat, hold on to the handle, and shake the car back and forth (here, while making the goofy face).

Scary New Toy

Today I stopped by Target looking for Fischer-Price Snap-Lock Beads, which they didn't have, and came out with a Playskool Busy Poppin' Pals. I figured that this toy would let John push buttons, pull levers, and switch toggles, all without any electronic sounds or flashing lights. But the poor boy is rather nervous about it all! He's just not an adventurous wild child at heart. Here he is cautiously pushing a button:
Here he is a few seconds later, having jumped backward when an animal popped up:
Here I am, enticing John to push the buttons. Note how he becomes nervous and runs behind me to hide.

Then John stood up so as to flee more quickly from the animals, popping up as if out of nowhere. (Sorry that I forget and filmed sideways.)

And these videos were shot after John had played with this toy over the course of six hours . . . he was still that nervous!

Breastmilk Contains Stem Cells

K's comment: Will the wonder never cease at the perfection of God's bodily design?

Breastmilk Contains Stem Cells

By Catherine Madden

Mammary stem cells (red/blue) and differentiatedadult mammary cells (green) isolated from humanbreast milk.

The Perth scientist who made the world-first discovery that human breast milk contains stem cells is confident that within five years scientists will be harvesting them to research treatment for conditions as far-reaching as spinal injuries, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.

But what Dr Mark Cregan is excited about right now is the promise that his discovery could be the start of many more exciting revelations about the potency of breast milk.

He believes that it not only meets all the nutritional needs of a growing infant but contains key markers that guide his or her development into adulthood.“We already know how breast milk provides for the baby’s nutritional needs, but we are only just beginning to understand that it probably performs many other functions,” says Dr Cregan, a molecular biologist at The University of Western Australia.

He says that, in essence, a new mother’s mammary glands take over from the placenta to provide the development guidance to ensure a baby’s genetic destiny is fulfilled.

“It is setting the baby up for the perfect development,” he says. “We already know that babies who are breast fed have an IQ advantage and that there’s a raft of other health benefits. Researchers also believe that the protective effects of being breast fed continue well into adult life.

“The point is that many mothers see milks as identical – formula milk and breast milk look the same so they must be the same. But we know now that they are quite different and a lot of the effects of breast milk versus formula don’t become apparent for decades. Formula companies have focussed on matching breast milk’s nutritional qualities but formula can never provide the developmental guidance.”

It was Dr Cregan’s interest in infant health that led him to investigate the complex cellular components of human milk. “I was looking at this vast complexity of cells and I thought, ‘No one knows anything about them’.”

His hunch was that if breast milk contains all these cells, surely it has their precursors, too?

His team cultured cells from human breast milk and found a population that tested positive for the stem cell marker, nestin. Further analysis showed that a side population of the stem cells were of multiple lineages with the potential to differentiate into multiple cell types. This means the cells could potentially be “reprogrammed” to form many types of human tissue.

He presented his research at the end of January to 200 of the world’s leading experts in the field at the International Conference of the Society for Research on Human Milk and Lactation in Perth.

“We have shown these cells have all the physical characteristics of stem cells. What we will do next is to see if they behave like stem cells,” he says.

If so, they promise to provide researchers with an entirely ethical means of harvesting stem cells for research without the debate that has dogged the harvesting of cells from embryos.

Further research on immune cells, which have also been found in breast milk and have already been shown to survive the baby’s digestive process, could provide a pathway to developing targets to beat certain viruses or bacteria.

A story provided by ScienceNetwork WA - Activate your connections to science. For permission to reproduce this article please contact ScienceNetwork.

Paper Bag Bests Boy

John having grand fun playing in the front yard in the sunny but windy and brisk weather. Here he is pointing in astonishment to the dry leaves skittering across the cul-de-sac.
I've heard of a cat who gets stuck in a paper bag, but a boy? John was playing with this paper bag and got his arms all tangled in it. He began fussing for me, but I couldn't help taking a few photos before I rescued him.

Receptive Language Skills

John’s receptive language skills are increasing by the day, which is so much fun to watch. I thought I’d let you all know some of the language John understands now. (And, to clarify, I don’t think John is any smarter than a normal 14-month-old, but it’s still amazing to watch even average cognitive development.)

When I ask John, “Do you want to brush your teeth?” he starts making his sign for tooth-brushing, while grinning and running into the bathroom.

When I tell John that it is time for bathtime, he begins repeating his word for "bathtime" (which is two syllables and begins with "ba-"). Also, I think he has recently begun saying a word for "diaper" (two syllables, begins with "di") when I say, "Let's get you a nice, dry diaper."

If we’re in the upstairs bedroom and I ask John, “Are you ready to go downstairs with Mama?” he toddles over to the baby gate at the bedroom door, which is where I pick him up and carry him downstairs. And if we're downstairs and I mention going upstairs, he toddlers to the baby gate near the bottom of the stairs.

I can ask John, “Do you want to nurse?” and get a very reliable response depending on whether he wants to nurse. In fact, if he is crying in distress, I can often calm him enough to temporarily stop crying by telling him that we’re going to nurse in a moment.

When I ask John if I may wipe his nose, he holds his face very still and sticks his nose out at me.

If we’re downstairs and I tell John that we’re going to “go outside,” he runs to the doorway between the kitchen and garage. (Then part of our routine is that he gets to push one button on the alarm pad to make it beep before we leave.)

When John hears music, he begins dancing. If I say, “Should I put on some music?” he also begins dancing to tell me “yes.” If John hears a sound that interests him, he points to his ear. If he hears a telephone ringing (even on a television show), he puts his hand to his ear and says, “Ohhhh?” (which means, “hello”).

When we say grace before meals, we say, “Are you ready to pray?” If John feels like it, he responds by putting his hands together to pray. Also, several times he has recognized me praying. Just this morning, after I woke up and was doing my ablutions, I sat down on the edge of the bathtub to pray. It might not be the holiest of places, but as a mother, I have to grab prayers anywhere and anytime I can. John was playing in my closet, so couldn’t even see me, but he could hear me praying aloud. When I walked into the closet to get him, he greeted me by making the sign for praying!

I keep thinking of examples, so I'll stop listing them. Suffice it to say, this is an exciting time!

Below are two more photos from the birthday party yesterday, as taken by my brother-in-law:

John and Sophia Dance!

Today we had the pleasure of attending the third birthday party of John's cousin Sophia. Sweet Boy had the best time bumbling around his aunt and uncle's back yard.

Some of the guests were a couple with four children whose youngest, also named Sophia, was only two weeks younger than John. John was dancing to the music when Sophia joined him and then showed him up! Boy, could that little lady cut a rug! John stood in awe.

Toward the end of this video clip, John gets over his amazement and begins to dance again.

Running Free

Chris is home after yet another 5-day business trip! Yay! We don't like John's daddy to be gone this much.

Before taking a stoller walk this morning, we let John run free on the driveway and in the cul-de-sac. He was thrilled.
You can see that John is really gaining speed, if not quite running yet.

Mama's Little Bibliophile

I once had an Editor in Chief who was known (by his employees) to ask all his interviewees if he or she was a bibliophile. Of course, any of us applying to be an editor were, but the test was whether we knew what the word meant. I'm not sure my poor husband knew he was marrying a bibliophile whose dream it is to have all our walls lined with built-in bookshelves.

My cookbooks didn't last in their low-t0-the-ground position for more than two days. I really wouldn't mind John taking them off the shelf to look at the photos, but he was repeatedly ripping them, and that just won't do.

Tonight, he is, as I type, entertaining himself with all the books off of one of our religious shelves. He has been utterly gentle so far, so I'm perfectly happy for him to enjoy flipping through books. How else will I create a little bibliophile of my own? Plus, it gives us an opportunity afterward to practice Putting Things Away.

Here is John with some light reading: all the documents of the Vatican II Council:

Showing me some of his booty:

Getting Mama's Attention

I receive a very clear message from John when I've been spending too much time doing computer work at my desk instead of interacting with him or even letting him participate in my household chores. These three photos were taken Tuesday at 6:58 p.m., 7:14 p.m., and and 7:31 p.m.

In the first photo, John began crying piteously and seemed to be stuck under the chair. I helped him out and went back to my desk. A few seconds later, the crying began again and I turned to find John "stuck." I stood over him and arched my eyebrow skeptically, to which he burst out laughing.
Then my dinner was ready and John was playing quietly by myself. I thought, "Oh great, I'm just going to let him be and eat my dinner in peace for once." After five whole minutes of peace, I turned to the totally silent John to find that he is now tall enough to reach my box of Kleenex and had emptied most of it.
As I was washing dishes, I heard scared weeping. John had been hiding under his afghan, but got his fingers tangled in the holes of the blanket and couldn't figure out how to get them out.
This photo was taken the next day: John has had a heighth spurt since Christmas so his feet now reach the floor when sitting in his red car (thanks, Grandpa!). He has not yet figured out how to drive forward, but he can drive backward. Sometimes he is even brave enough to stand up on the seat of the book, which for this little non-climber is very adventurous.

John on Tuesday

John trying his best to squeeze beneath the baby gate to get closer to the kitties eating their food:
Our boy who never climbs anything climbed something! John actually climbed all the way to the top step, but by then I was standing behind him to catch him when he would inevitably lose his balance (which he did when he began dancing to some music he heard).
Our boy who never eats anything ate something! Today I baked some vegan chocolate chip cookies (which were fabulous and did not taste vegan) and John indicated he wanted some. I gave him a shard thinking he'd never eat it as he doesn't even like sweet things, but he gnawed on it for ten minutes!
The piece of furniture which used to safely house my cookbooks lived in the kitchen area and had doors which I could lock. But that piece of furniture broke, so the cookbooks have been in another room, out of easy reach, and it has been bothering me. Now, we have this bookshelf-like piece of furniture sitting in the kitchen area because we got a new armoire to house our television. It's all very complicated, but suffice to say that I got the idea to put my cookbooks in this piece of furniture. You ask, what kind of fool are you, woman? Of course, John noticed them right away, saying "wow!" and pointing (see video below). It has now been two days of my continually putting the cookbooks back and trying to distract John. Obviously, this won't work, but I'm still thinking of a solution.

Wow!

The ice cream cake Chris brought me last night:

John before Mass:

John often says "Wow!" (because I say it) when he is in amazement. Here he is standing on his Learning Tower, watching me cook. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I cook, I like to keep people around saying "Wow!" and singing my praises.

It occurred to me today that when John says "wow," he might actually be asking me "what's that?" Essentially, saying, "Wow! What's that called?" Normally I respond to his "wow" by repeating my own "wow" in agreement, but now I'm going to try experimenting with responding to his "wow" by telling him the name for the object. Today on a walk, he said "wow" to an airplane, so I told him what it was. Then we were lying in bed and he kept pointing and saying "wow" to items he could see. If I replied, "wow," he'd just say "wow" again. But if I told him the label (fan, vent, Jesus [crucifix]), then he'd point to it again without saying "wow."