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.