Learning Every Day

It's amazing to watch Aki Bear grow. It seems he learns something or acquires a new skill everyday. I remember seeing him really and truly smile for the first time...I think it was August 6 - his one month birthday. It is different from those smiles that came before that. Those pre-smiles seemed accidental somehow. When he smiled for the first time my heart did a little dance, that's how I knew it wasn't "accidental" but instead the real deal.

The next big one was his "talking." He says stuff like "agoo" and "hi" (but not really hi as in hello) and "gah". It's quite adorable. He also does this squealing thing. We have long conversations. This morning at 5 A.M. we had a very long conversation. Somehow you can't be grouchy for very long when he doesn't want to go back to sleep early in the morning and starts talking away, exercising his sing-songy, growing vocal chords...you can't stay mad, you smile and converse back to this little, innocent, sweet boy and you forget how tired you are.

Sucking on his hand and drooling came next. This is funny to me because although he was sucking on his hand I don't think he realized that it was attached to him or that he was aware of it. I think it was more of an instinctual thing that he just reflexively shoved it in his mouth because he needed to suck on something. A good example of this is when we lie down to nurse sometimes he will find his hand before my breast and start sucking on his hand as if milk will start to stream out of his fist. It cracks me up every time. Watching him learn to unclench his pudgy fist has been fun to watch too. Instead of awkwardly shoving that in his mouth he's learned to have a finger or two or three or four instead. This slowly grew into him sucking on his thumb but always with an index or middle finger thrown in. Every now and then he'll find his thumb but it's not quite a good latch.

Then he found his foot. He sees it best when he sits in my lap. He just stares and throws his hand in that direction. He doesn't quite have the back strength to hold himself up or the coordination of getting his hand to his foot in a graceful manner. It actually really reminds me of when my Grandaddy, who had Alzheimer's, was sitting on the edge of his bed staring at his feet with such concentration. When asked what he was doing he said, thwarted, "I'm trying to get my right foot to move in front of my left foot!" My Grandaddy's unlearning intersecting with Aki Bear's learning.

He's sitting on my lap here leaning over concentrating on his feet. Really.

 Then came the realization of his hand. This is adorable too. He holds his hand in a fist in front of his face and stares at it. He has a hand! I wonder what is going through his head? He will grasp a toy with his tiny fingers and just stare at his fingers firmly gripped around the object. He will grab at things if you hold them in front of his face. He progressed more quickly with using his left hand, we are thinking perhaps he's gonna be a lefty? Who knows. He is now equally exploring with his right hand.

His focus is becoming more complex too. Before, when we'd go for walks outside, he'd look around but never really would look at me (this is when he's sitting in his stroller.) It was as if he was completely focused on the sky and the trees and the openness of the outdoors. I would try and talk to him but it was as if I was invisible. Just the other day he was able to see me and smile while on our walk. I look forward to the next spurt in his growth chart!