Zentropy

It certainly has been an exciting month of fatherhood, as you probably gathered by my complete lack of postings this past month.

Carson has transformed from baby to little boy. I think the change occurred slowly over the past few months, when he was uttering his first words, cutting a tooth, practicing temper tantrums, and throwing everything he got his hands on. Allow me to break down each one of these items separately….

First words! He’d been saying variations on ‘dada’ and ‘mama’ as early as 6 months, but I think our interpretation was more of a confirmation bias. We WANTED to hear him say those words, so we interpreted any gibberish as variations. Well, we were pretty much full of shit then, but now he’s really turning it on. The long, drawn-out ‘dadadadadada’s and ‘mamammamama’s have turned into clearly definable ‘dada’ and ‘mama’ when he sees us for the first time that day, or gets upset, or is curious about something. His curiosity is easy to pinpoint as he’s pointing at absolutely everything now. This weekend we watched him look at his granddog, Libby, and say ‘doggie’. I’m amazed that he picked up on ‘doggie’ in particular, and not one of the colorful metaphors we spew when our own doggie goes into a barking fit. We were thinking it was only a matter of time before he started speaking, because he’s been babbling incessantly by conjugating consonants and vowels for 4 months now. We’ve been good about having ‘conversations’ with him, and definitely encouraging him to speak. Given how much his mama and dada like to talk themselves, it may be a good idea to start teaching him NOW how to turn off the babbling.

Cutting teeth! SUCKS. ‘Nuff said.

Temper tantrums! These are actually kind of cute now, but I know they’re going to get old quickly. He throws up his arms, arches his back, and puts on the pouty lip with a little ‘waaa!’ thrown in just to make sure we get the message. They pop up a few times a day, and they’re over pretty quickly. Kind of like thunderstorms in Florida. Only without beaches or Buicks. We had a lovely experience yesterday driving back from Courtney’s folks’ house as Carson screamed for the last hour of the drive, solid. He just can’t be confined by a carseat or high chair for more than 20 minutes or he’ll get bored and go nuts. Of course the second you remove the restraints, and he stops crying and laughs at you. Wonderful. This child may have a future in acting.

Throwing stuff! Self explanatory. Throws everything you put into his hands when he’s done inspecting it. Sometimes throws his fists into daddy’s face when excited. Good times!

Still, you can’t be mad at this face, EVER.