Sweetie Pie

It doesn't get much sweeter than this. Tate doesn't smile - he grins.

Well Lettered

Tate rolled over yesterday at a mere 8 weeks of age - a full 2+ weeks earlier than West - so I felt the need to showcase some of West's many talents. You know, just to balance things out a bit. According to Maggie, his primary caregiver on weekdays, West can count to ten in not one, not two, but three languages (Mandarin, Spanish, and English) and he knows his ABCs forwards AND backwards. Not bad for a just-barely-two-year-old! He also climbed out of his crib for the first time today during nap time, which we discovered when he called from the hallway "Mommy! What doing?" but we'll ignore that milestone for now and focus on the extreme cuteness of letters and numbers said in a sing song baby voice. West has been treating us to his own special mash-up of ABC/1-2-3 for a few weeks and I can attest that it is absolutely adorable. This is the closest I've come to capturing its cuteness since he refuses to perform on demand - it's not very musical but you get the picture. This piece is hardly visually arresting - I had to film without West seeing me - but I think the audio more than makes up for the lack of eye candy. Enjoy!

Playing Telephone

These cell phones appear to be based on the heftier '80s designs. Note the dayglo colors, which reinforce the association.

Early Footage

Here is a four-day-old Tate engaging in his favorite activity. Sleeping is still what he does best -we are pretty sure that he was a cat in a former life.

In The Beginning ...

Here is a clip of Aaron logging some quality time with Tate when he was very, very new - two days old and still warm from the oven. He's changed so much already!

American Idol

Take One:

Take Two:

What do you think? Does West have a future as a karaoke star - or something more? Maybe he'll even be the next YouTube sensation and give that Single Ladies baby a run for his/her money.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

I am taking advantage of the villa Wi-Fi to upload a bunch of videos and some photos so savor these as they may be the last posts until our home internet is up and running again. West has started to really enjoy reading books on his own - Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is one of his favorites and I caught the tail end of one of his reading sessions a few nights ago. Enjoy!

The Telephone Game

This video (uploaded from Italy!) of West and Aaron playing "Telephone" (with phones Aaron builds out of blocks) is for Aaron's mom. Happy birthday Grandma Ahearn!

Throwing the Baby in with the Bath Water

Bath time is tons of fun in this house - we sing a special song (music and lyrics courtesy of yours truly) to mark the occasion, West has lots of fun toys to play with (Aaron does his fair share of playing with them too), sometimes I even blow bubbles. One of West's recent favorite bath activities is when he gets to act out everything we do to him (washing, rinsing, toothbrushing, etc.) on his bath-safe baby doll, Baby. He loves him (her?) and they have great fun together. We had a hard time getting West to do his usual cleaning routine with Baby - I guess he felt s/he was clean enough already. Thanks in part to Baby, West is learning his body parts (he can even say "eyes" - and does so on camera) and practicing excellent hygiene. In the second clip he does give in and washes Baby's hair - my apologies for the poor quality, especially the lighting and camera angles. Needless to say, this type of interaction bodes well for West's relationship with the sequel we hope to welcome in June.

Speed Reader

And I thought I was fast! West can be a real speed demon when it comes to reading these days - we can hardly keep up when he switches into lightning mode during his post-bath/before-bed book sessions. He doesn't read aloud much in this footage (so endearing!) but as an added bonus/consolation prize you do get to witness another of his favorite words: fish!

Frequent Flyer

West is crazy about airplanes - he is always finding little specks in the sky (day or night - it doesn't matter) and pointing them out to us. "Airplane" is one of his most frequent (and earliest) words. But don't take my word for it - you can hear about it straight from the horse's mouth. Who knows? Maybe we have a little pilot in our family. Fingers crossed he goes the commercial route (as opposed to the military).

Big Shoes to Fill

As you can see, we're on a bit of a video kick here. It's been raining all week, which makes photography almost impossible, so I have had to resort to capturing some of the highlights of our cabin fever on the camcorder. This clip is very short but what it lacks in length it makes up for in cuteness. Enjoy!

Musical Medley

Featuring all the greatest hits: Itsy Bitsy Spider (with accompanying hand motions), a rousing rendition of the ABC song, and more killer dance moves!

Achtung, Baby

Mehr video you say? Here is West channeling his inner Eurodance star. Nothing beats Rubber Ducky, or Quietche-Enchen, set to a slammin' techno beat - and in German no less!

Reading Aloud

I thought it was time for some video. Here is 2-1/2 sweet minutes of West reading to himself. If you listen closely, you can hear him saying what we think is "What's this?" as well as saying "Bye" to the animals before turning the page.

Rody-o

We picked up this Rody pony at a yard sale (for $5!) and West is really starting to enjoy it. He especially likes when we "sing" the theme song to Bonanza as his personal sound track. He still needs help getting onto its back, and requires adult supervision in case he tips over. West loves wrestling with it when he is not in a riding mood. Next stop, cowboy boots!

Tease

West seems to have taken a break from dancing - sightings are much less frequent these days and you are more likely to catch him climbing flights of stairs or, well, eating. Still, I managed to capture these two very brief clips recently - all for your viewing pleasure. And mine, of course.

Semi-Communicado

We are finally learning to decipher Westspeak! The above video shows his mastery of the sign for "more" (food is a powerful motivator) and if you listen carefully to the video below you will here West saying "hello" over and over again (my apologies for the lack of visual stimulation). It sounds like "A-yo" and is super cute. He says it to me first thing every morning and uses it correctly when seeing/meeting people for the first time.

Baby Love

Here is some sweet (and poorly lit) footage of West being particularly attentive to his babies and Christian, his lion, courtesy of Auntie Kate. He's an equal opportunity care-giver. West is especially fascinated by the dolls' blinking eyes. I think they are creepy, personally, but if West is a fan then I am too. I think Aaron and West enjoying a tea party (100% Aaron's idea, by the way) is one of the cutest things I've seen lately. From one strong, sensitive man to another ...

Valley of the Dolls

Modern parents that we are, we got West two dolls recently - one that can go in the bathtub and one that can't. We really want to make sure that he is exposed to lots of different toys and experiences and for him to know that nothing is off limits for him. The above video shows one of his earliest interactions with his "babies". He definitely knows what to do with them - when we ask him where his babies are he runs over to the toybox, digs them out and brings them to us - but he is hardly obsessed with their care. We think his combination of feeding them, giving them open mouthed kisses, ignoring them, and throwing them on the floor is just right.