Bath Time...

...is a part of our regular routine.

...is something Holden has loved since he was about 2 months old.
...is when Holden gets his last sillies out.
...is just too cute to resist photographing (even if the lighting is bad).

VIDEOS: Still a Super Silly Boy

One thing that I always love to post about (esp. when Holden was an infant) is how silly he is. As he becomes more and more of a toddler, he keeps getting a better and better sense of humor -- and does some of the funniest things. And I still absolutely love his laugh/giggle. More than a year ago, when Holden was just over a month old, he was already becoming Mr. Giggles (see post) ... and that silliness only continued, leading to my favorite video of Holden giggling EVER! (see post). Last March, we added a nice video compilation that provided evidence of the continued silliness (see post).

Here are a couple videos from last weekend, when Holden had a major silly streak. I'll let them speak for themselves:

spring arrives early

Not that I want to jinx us here in St. Louis, but spring has definitely arrived early this year (or, at least for now). After a couple months of nasty snow, ice, and near-zero temperatures, we've recently seen temperatures climb into the 70s with sunshine to boot. And nothing could make Holden happier -- he just loves the outdoors!

Last weekend, we went to the zoo on Sunday (and so did everyone else in St. Louis, by the way), and today after picking Holden up from daycare, we all went for a walk before dinner. That's something I don't think we've done since November, and it was super nice. Maybe if this warm streak continues over the weekend, we can find some time to go to Tower Grove Park or the Botanical Garden. While I know that we're in for at least one more burst of cold weather (after all, it's still February), I think we're all psyched about this much-anticipated taste of spring.

Bring on the daffodils!!

My name is...

As most humanities grad students know (whether they want to or not), sometime around the 15th month of a child's life, he/she goes through what the theorist Jacques Lacan calls the mirror stage. At the "mirror stage" a child begins to recognize that the child in the mirror is not someone else, it's them. In psychoanalytical theory, this moment is critical: it is when we develop a sense of subjectivity, or 'self,' that is...well...inherently fraught.

Fraught or not, we're pretty sure Holden has hit this stage...because when we ask him where "Holden is" he points to both the person in the mirror AND himself. And today, when he saw a picture of himself, he pointed at it, then at himself.

Pretty cool right? Even cooler: he seems to be learning how to say his name. When we ask him about "Holden," he's been pointing to himself and saying "Da-den."

A sense of 'self.' Pretty heady stuff. And if Lacan is right about this stage, let's just hope that he--and Freud--are wrong about their theories of mothers.

my architect

Holden's been stacking his blocks a lot recently, and building some pretty interesting projects. So it constantly leads me to ponder, what kind of an architect he would be.

Here is his latest funky construction, followed by some likely influences ; )




or, it could be more like this...

finally, we have a 20 pound child

Today was Holden's 15-month appointment, and finally, after more than a year of feeding this guy, he tipped the 20 pound mark (20 lbs, 12 oz, to be exact). Woot! He's still in the 6th percentile, but he's gained a bit in height, up to the 10th percentile. Don't even try to ask me how tall he is...they told us in centimeters and I immediately forgot the number.

Other than those facts, there's not a lot to say about the doctor's appointment. All looked normal, and the doctor noted that his upper molars are "right there, just below the surface." She couldn't get a look at the lower molars, but I know for a fact that they are also almost ready to break through. It's been a long time since we've seen any new teeth and the H-bomb's been quite cranky about the whole phenomenon. Perhaps we'll have a nice little "tooth explosion" soon and see 4 pop through at once. One can only hope.