Tasting

Before we feed Max from a bottle, we let him taste the food he's about to get from a spoon. I forget the precise reasons for this procedure, but no doubt they have something to do with developing a healthy relationship with food. Here is a video of one of the less successful meetings of Max and spoon. Note the bumbo seat.

Tasting from a Spoon from Codered Summer on Vimeo.

Chicken pox and possibly unrelated personality developments

Today marked the fifth morning we saw Max with chicken pox. He continues to be very happy during the day, albeit a little restless and uncomfortable at night. Max got his last antiviral doses today. I don't know if the fancy new medicines are responsible, but, knock on wood, this hasn't been that severe a case of the chicken pox. So far.

Max is also shedding some of the personality traits I associated with his early stint as a sort of orphanage baby. Babies at the mercy of caregivers with lots of other patients don't cry when left alone. (This is alienates the caregiver.) Instead, they wait until an adult swims into view again and give them their best happy smile. Max is now starting to take us for granted (as well he should) and, if we walk away from him, will complain loudly. Good for him.

Another new development I noticed while putting him to bed tonight is his habit of babbling all sorts of fantastic syllables as he's drifting off to sleep. When he's awake he sticks to "dadada", usually in response to an "ahdadada" from one of us. Interesting that he's more adventurous when he thinks no-one is listening.

Here's a closeup of Max's face, showing off his pox.

Chicken Pox, Day 5

Max is babbling a lot more

Max & the rattle
Originally uploaded by andreas.lehnert

Just a couple of weeks ago, while still at the HSC, we thought we heard Max emit his first few coos. Last week, at our first appointment, the pediatrician coaxed a few gurgles out of Max. She then asked us whether we had heard him using consonants. Who knew the fricative was such a developmental milestone?

Over the past few days, Max has been babbling a lot more. I've been listening for consonants but I can't pick them out of the liquid stream-of-consciousness speaking style Max prefers. I'll leave it to the pediatrician to decide later this week. In the pre-dawn darkness today I tried to capture his logorrhea, but Max broke off his monologue to play with the video camera and the rattle. I'll be on the lookout for my next chance. In the meantime, please enjoy Max being alternatively delighted and frightened by his rattle.

His babbling has an edge of tension to it: if you weren't looking at him, you would think that he was crying, or getting ready to. But he does it all with a big smile on his face, and he usually doesn't break into tears, so he must not be in distress.

On a related note, Max is fascinating by people talking. Carolyn and I were chatting in the kitchen and we noticed his head tracking from speaker to speaker, like at a tennis match. We've seized on this interest to also make a big deal out of eating. "You see, Max, mommy and I are using our mouths ... to eat ... and we've got big smiles on our faces so it must be fun". He doesn't seem ready to give up the tube just yet though.