growing baby

Faced with the difficult choice of kissing me goodbye at school or going to play with a girl, Mateo stood for a little bit, oscillating back and forth, and then went with the girl.

I am guessing this is a preview of things to come.

Mateo and Roan had their first theater experience this past Saturday. We went to see Peter and the Wolf at the Broad Stage. It was absolutely fantastic–for the kids and the adults. Ilya and I were delighted to see a Joss Whedon favorite (Amy Acker) playing the role of the Duck; Roan raptly paid attention to the instruments and stage until he contentedly and quietly fell asleep; Mateo loved the theater seats (they were numbered!), rocking in the too-big theater chair, and listening to the instruments. Mateo didn’t quite make it through the whole show–we spent the last ten minutes or so in the lobby–but he had fun while he was there. I think we’ll see Peter Pan at the Broad next month! 🙂

Roan has lots of firsts as well. His first tooth has peeked out from his bottom gum, he’s mobile (he sits, twists, falls, goes on fours, and sits to get around), and he pulled up to a stand for the first time yesterday. He’s also been eating solid foods–so far he’s tried bananas (first food, yum!), rice cereal (blech), sweet potatoes (super yum, more, more!), and avocado (this morning was his first time–he kept pushing it out of his mouth with his tongue, but maybe he’ll warm up to it more later).

Mateo’s discovered new joys of cause-and-effect: he lets out a piercing shriek; Roan cries.  Repeat cycle.

I tried telling Mateo not try scream because it was scaring Roan (pointing out Roan’s tears and scared shuddered breathing).  Mateo thought that was funny and screamed more.  I tried telling Mateo that he was such a good brother and wanted to bring Roan toys and make him smile.  Mateo said he didn’t want to see Roan smile, he wanted to see him cry more.  I tried telling Mateo screaming was not a choice.  Mateo screamed more.  Finally I said he could scream but I was going elsewhere with Roan.  I left for a few minutes and Mateo stopped.

At least it wasn’t malicious?  Just…scientific interest…….

Afterwards Mateo brought Roan toys and played nicely with him.  For another night, all’s well in brotherland again.

Mateo loves numbers. He loves counting, forwards and backwards. Pays attention to page numbers, to street numbers, to house numbers. He counts things, too.

He’s less good at the concept of adding and subtracting though. This is obviously a more advanced skill, so we’re not pushing him — perhaps just casually working on things like adding one apple to a batch of 4 etc.

But apparently, when he’s got some vested interest in it, Mateo can add just fine. Our evening routine is that one of us sits with Mateo for a few minutes after we turn off the light and names a time when we’ll leave (i.e. we turn off the light at 8:32p, and say that we’ll sit there until 8:37p or something). Mateo usually negotiates another minute, then we sing some songs or whatnot and leave at the appointed time. If he’s close to falling asleep, we’ll name a time when we’ll come back and look in after him (i.e. 8:52p or something like that). Sometimes he waits and starts calling us as soon as his clock shows the right time, and at other times he’s asleep and we just look in and see him sleeping.

Well, so apparently Mateo keeps even more attention to this time than I’d thought. Several times now I’ve come back and said, ok, I’ll sit here until, say, 8:58p. Mateo then calls out “Ok, 6 more minutes!” — i.e. he’s done the math to realize how many minutes have to pass until I have to leave. He’ll then call out “5…” and “4….” as the minutes pass until it’s time for me to leave.

Ro’s doing the cradle-rock these days, getting up on all fours and swaying back and forth.  In general, Roan is just such an incredibly content baby.  He truly hardly ever cries (I’m knocking on everything I can reach) and is totally mellow.  He’s also *so* interested in food.  He keeps grabbing at our plates when we’re eating (he likes to sit on our laps during meals) and he stole Mateo’s banana yesterday.  (Mateo reportedly said: No, Roan, that’s my banana!)  We may need to start on solids a little earlier than 6 months at this rate.

When both the kiddos are awake and I’m the only one at home, I often put Roan to sit on the floor surrounded by a boppy pillow while I play with Mateo in the same area.  (Roan can sit really well on his own, but I don’t want him to fall in the very moment I’m looking elsewhere, so the boppy pillow is a nice safety guard.)  Anyway, yesterday Roan toppled over backwards onto the boppy pillow and when I said “oh no, Roan fell,” Mateo went over and straightened Roan out!  It was so cute!  I had to adjust Roan a bit more so he was really sitting again, but the gesture was so sweet.

Mateo is sneaky. He knows that parents don’t always communicate perfectly, and attempts to use this to his advantage. A common interaction will go like this:

Linda: Mateo, time for bed
Mateo: No, Papa said one more minute

or:

Ilya: Ok, we read two books and then pajama time!
Mateo: Mama said five books

Naturally, we hadn’t said anything like that. Sometimes, both of us will be in the room and protest, saying that said no such thing. Or Mateo will forget that we remember what we ourselves said and the interaction will be like:

Linda: Mateo, time for bed
Mateo: Papa said one more minute
Linda: No, Papa didn’t say one more minute!
Mateo: Then Mama said one more minute!

Apparently, telling little white lies is a fairly normal part of child development.

Poor second kids. I wanted to make a post about Roan, but here it is, in its entirety. replace all instances of “Mateo” with “Roan”.

growingbaby.org/2009/04/26/dynamic-equilibrium/

Note that Roan’s age is similar to Mateo’s down to the week (130 days instead of 135).