That's how you do it

For a long time, Will was reluctant to speak on the phone, uttering "fine" and "good" or "I don't want to talk" when prompted. He's been getting better in the past few months, though, and really good in the last couple weeks.

The other day my mom called and Will asked to speak with her - unprecedented. He had a nice talk with her, while holding the mouthpiece flush against his cheek.

After handing the phone back to Jana, he says "Mommy, you have to talk into this end so you sound louder" while pointing at said mouthpiece.

Next week's lesson: practice what you preach.

Happy boy

If you've asked lately how Charlie is doing, we've been likely to tell you that he's eating and gaining weight well, getting closer to rolling over, and smiling and talking a lot more. Here's a video of it. It might not seem like much, but when you're with Charlie every day this constitutes a monumental development from where he was several weeks ago. It's exciting to Jana and me, as you can probably guess by the tone of her voice.

Sleepyhead

Last night Charlie slept seven hours straight, from roughly 9:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. He was then up for an hour-plus while eating, and slept two more hours until about 8 a.m. This continued a trend that had started earlier last week.

Very nice! Charlie sleeps well on his tummy; in his car seat; in a swing; and while being held.

Unfortunately, we need him to sleep on his back at day care -- it's a liability issue that has to do with preventing SIDS. We went through the same thing with Will, and frankly, it was really stressful for Jana and me.

We will spend the next two weeks working to get Charlie more comfortable sleeping on his back. He did it for a half-hour stretch yesterday afternoon, and hopefully we can figure out a pattern and a swaddling technique that works.

If you have any suggestions for how to help Charlie learn to sleep on his back, by all means, post them here. We want to do the right thing and help our son sleep as safely as possible!

Domo arigoto, Mr. Will Tappa

Earlier this week Will and I were in the basement and Will was playing with a robot. I called him Mr. Roboto, after the classic Styx song, and started humming the lyrics. Will seemed interested, and began repeating after me. Realizing I really didn't know the whole song or, really, any of the lyrics, I sought them out on YouTube and found the lyrics.



Jana thought she should impart some of her favorite music in the form of Particle Man from They Might Be Giants, which Will really enjoyed.



Afterward Will said "Mommy, I love your music because all your songs are great."

To which I said "Did you like my songs Will?"

"They were ... okay."

Ouch for me and ouch for Styx! It wasn't a stretch to think Will might like They Might Be Giants; they produced the theme songs for kids shows like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Higglytown Heroes.

We'll see what he wakes up singing tomorrow.

How much is that baby in the window?

Charlie was in fine form this afternoon. His curls were piled high on top of his head and he was smiling big enough to make that dimple on his right cheek pop out. He kept uttering those baby classics "goo" "coo" and "aahhh."

That's probably what prompted an older man at the grocery store to say, "I'll give you $100,000 dollars for that baby. What a fine specimen!"

I was a little taken aback, and just said, "No thanks." He then offered me the same amount to just rent the baby. Well, that was just weird so I gave a worried half-chuckle and got the heck out of there.

Anyway, I told Will and Scott today, "Some guy offered us $100,000 for our baby today."

Much to our surprise, instead of asking how many water balloons that might buy, Will said, "Wow. That would be enough to cover our house."

Ah, his father's son.

Fire drill! Or not ...

Will makes us laugh on a daily basis. Lately, he's been more chatty about how his day went. Previously, his answer when we asked what he did at day care was very teenagery: "I don't know" or "nothing."

Today I asked him what they did at school today, and among other things he says "We didn't have a fire drill."

Confused, I asked for clarification: "Do you mean you did have a fire drill?"

"No, we didn't have a fire drill."

"Did you have a fire drill yesterday?"

"No."

"Have you ever had a fire drill at day care?"

"No."

Interesting choice of words, son. This is kind of like Jana asking me how my day at work was, and me saying "I didn't perform open-heart surgery today."

Can't wait to find out what random thing the kids didn't do at school Thursday!

Check up

One of the best parts about being in Upper Michigan is when Will gets to see his cousins. Will's cousin Nathan, 6, lives about 8 hours away so it's pretty rare when we get together.

Yesterday, Nathan and Will got to see each other for the first time in about two years.

"Will, you're getting tall," Nathan said, sizing himself up to Will. Nathan still has several inches on Will, but Will seemed to think they were about the same height.

"Yup," he said, holding his hand on top of Nathan's head. "We're almost exactly the same temperature."

Jumping castle

During Strawberry Fest, Will had a fun time in what was known in my day as a moon walk, an inflatable jumping zone Will called the "jumping castle." At one point there were about 15 kids in there - about 10 too many - but it was fun.

Bath time

Jana and Charlie