Pee-pie!

Well, our latest news includes playing "pee-pie" (the Lamm/Rogers house version of "Peek-a-boo"), Knox getting closer to walking and he first attempts at throwing a temper tantrum.  The last is, obviously, our least favorite of what he has learned lately.

We play pee-pie using a burp cloth or dish towel to cover his eyes while saying, "Where's Knox?  Where could he be?"  Then we pull down the cloth saying, "There he is!" and making a big fuss over him.  It has been one sided for many months now, but he turned that around on us this past Thursday.  I threw his burp cloth over his head, saying the norm, when he decided to take action and pull it down from his eyes.  He was so excited to hear me respond to him, that he immediately pulled it back up and waited for his prompts to lower it yet again.  We played several times, just to make sure it wasn't my imagination, and rushed him and the burp cloth upstairs where Keith and Charlie (the next door neighbor) were talking deer.  I interrupted so Knox could perform, but as babies do, he got performance anxiety and only wanted to check out what the big boys were doing.  Knox's next attempt at playing pee-pie just happened to come while I was attempting to jog for the second time.  It was one of those instances when it was only the second time he's made an effort to play any form of game, and, as a mother, you feel an obligation to encourage his new activity despite ANYTHING that I might be doing--including a miserable attempt at jogging (knees hurting, out of breath, barely able to speak, saying "Where's Knox?  Pee-pie."  At least the dogs weren't with us for that lap.)

As most of you know, Knox has been working his way to being able to walk for quite some time now.  He keeps getting closer and closer.  Lately, he's been letting go of furniture to try and get to another piece of furniture a few feet away.  Even more recently, I've caught him getting into the "breakfast nook" (if you want to call it that), pulling up on a chair and just gunning towards the center of the kitchen.  By gunning, I mean three steps...total.  In addition to walking, he's made it up three steps in just a matter of seconds, instead of the initial two from which he feel a few weeks ago.  I'm starting to lovingly refer to his bruises as battle wounds.

And now to what Keith and I both now, will be the first of many temper tantrums.  Of course, since we're "Super Parents" (equivalent of Superman), we will squash those tantrums from the get-go and have the most well behaved child--ever!  If I could only dream in color...Anywho, the extent of his tantrums only include the arching of his back with his head thrown back and a slight whine.  But I think for the most part, he's just learning to use his body a bit more.  He does the whole head back, arch thingy even when he's not upset so I'm not too concerned--yet.

Oh and Keith finally got latched on the kitchen cabinets, so I'm not chasing after him there.  I thought I was smart in using his corral gate in its extended state to block him for the kitchen, i.e. the dog bowls, but my little genius has found the slight hole between the gate and wall.  He even goes to the measure of pushing the entire gate to get to the edge of the carpet (my little linebacker) where he sits and enjoys a nice little snack of carpet fuzz.  He throughly enjoys picking individual pieces of carpet and putting them into his mouth, only to choke until he ralphs.  Lovely, isn't it?  At least I know he can feed himself.  Here's to looking at the positive.

So, that's been our week's highlights.  We'll have an exciting weekend with Grammy & Grandaddy (Keith's parents) since they are coming to visit for the weekend.  I think Knox is very excited--and I think Mommy and Daddy are too!  I'm sure we will have some wonderful pictures to share after their visit.