Since Kyle is still a baby for another four weeks, I think I can still use this post title. This is really random, and you might not understand the following things or be entertained by them, but I want to record them for posterity. That’s redundant, I know. Whatever.

-When Kyle gets tired, he feels his eyelashes with his thumbs. He has been doing that for a couple of months. It’s like he can’t figure out what those furry things on his eyelids are, so he has to keep feeling them. But he only does this right before nap or bedtime.

-He also shakes his head, like he’s saying “no,” as a form of communication or when he’s really excited. He loves it when you do it back.

-For the past week or so, also when he is tired, Kyle has been snuggling into me when I hold him on my lap. He puts his arms straight down and burrows into my chest, arms between his body and mine, smiling like he’s in the best place in the whole world.

-The Tall Guy/Short Guy game. We’ve been playing this one for a long time and it’s starting to bore him now that he can pull up on furniture and cruise just fine by himself thank you very much. The game is this: Kyle sits on my lap facing me and I hold his hands. He pulls up with my hands and stands in my lap. That’s when I say “Tall guy!” over and over again in a high voice. Then he sits down with a plop and a waiting smile, so I say “Short guy” in a low voice. Repeat.

-He really, really does not like avocado.

Vernacular

Our language has taken on a whole new subset since Kyle was born. For example, there are a few choice words to describe the noises that he makes, specifically “squawk” and “yap.” In the beginning, there was little difference between the two, because the only noises he made were crying noises (explosive poops, being a subdivision of the Poop Section of Language, have an entirely different group of words).

He would start out with a series of short coughs followed by a little squeaky cry = Squawking. If not placated immediately, the cry would escalate into a powerful yell (Yapping), so loud for such a small body. “Is he yapping?” was our code phrase for “will you go check on him this time?” Or Stewart would read Kyle’s cues and say “I think we’re headed for a full-on yap.” Or we would ask each other “where’s the Yap Monitor?” Or I would deposit the yap monitor on his lap and say “you’re on Yap Duty” and go take my shower of the week.

My favorite use of the word is difficult to describe. Stewart is a lover of all things South American, having been born in Venezuela and spending his first 13 years there. So when we saw the movie “Motorcycle Diaries,” he was enthralled, especially with one song on the soundtrack – the Chipi Chipi dance. Don’t ask me – I don’t really speak Spanish – but this dance is a catchy little tune that’s perfect for dancing around with a Squawking baby. Thus, Stewart changed the words to “Yappy Yappy.” In fact, he’ll replace the lyrics in most songs with the word Yap. Imagine “Sympathy for the Devil” as “Allow me to yappy yap yap yap, I’m the man who yaps and yaps…”

Now that Kyle is 4 months old (!!!) he has developed many new and delightful ways of expressing himself. The morning squeakathon is my favorite. He will sit in his bouncy seat while I make breakfast, entertaining himself by making a series of ever-higher squeaks. It’s as if he’s trying to see how high he can go. This ought to be an interesting game once he hits puberty.

But wait! There’s more! Not only can he squeak, but he can also talk. He has long, complicated conversations with me, Stewart, the dog, the cat, his crackly butterfly toy, his fingers, or just himself. They go something like this: “aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrarrrraaaaaaaaaaablllllllllllll. Ggggggggggggggppppppppppppptttttthhhhhhhhhh. AAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

Having discovered this new talent, Kyle no longer squawks very much. When he wakes up in the morning (the early, early morning) he often starts out by talking, which we sometimes refer to as squawking but only if the mood of his noises sounds a little bit stressed out. But for the most part he’s happy and cheerful and if we lay in bed listening he’ll go on like that for 15 minutes. Stewart will obliviously drop back to sleep, which leaves me listening to a stereo mix of “aaarraarraaarrr” in one ear and “HONK-ssssssshhhhhhhh” in the other. Then eventually Kyle will switch from talking, to – you guessed it – Yapping, and the Milk Machine must be employed once again.

1. Stewart calls Kyle’s clothing “his uniform.” As in “Kyle pooped through his diaper so I had to change his uniform.”

2. Sometimes when Kyle is finished nursing, he launches his head back away from my breast and falls asleep with his head back and lips pursed. I indulge him and snuggle for a few minutes before I put him down.

3. He only sleeps well if swaddled. Otherwise, he gets really excited when his hands find their way to his mouth. Not soothed – ready to play!