Category: Mago Elf Liam

This morning he declared it. I went to wipe a booger from his nose with a tissue and he said:

No dada.

Also, this afternoon my family had a barbecue at my brother-in-law’s. Many of us gathered in the basement to play video games (Super Smash Bros. on GameCube). As Mago watched the battle proceed on the projection screen, he said, in a low, raspy, demonic voice:

Diiie.

Tia insists I taught him this. I don’t remember it. I don’t doubt she’s right though. Or maybe an angel of darkness taught him. It didn’t get its wish if it did – it’s just amusing. It’s also specifically associated with video games. I took him upstairs and he said it less – but when I went downstairs to the game room and stepped in, he said it again.

Yesterday morning I put a baseball cap on him backwards and said “Hey dude!” – shaking my head to the side and snapping it back. He thought this was very funny and laughed every time I did it (like in this recording, noted this entry – sheesh, listening to that again I was almost torturing him and not tickling). He picked up the word right away and started doing the same thing, saying “Dude!” clearly with a jerk of his head to the side, waiting for me to either do it in turn or laugh.

Tia said he was doing it again later that day, but when she did it back the novelty had worn for him (as with other new amusements).

This was more than a week ago and I haven’t written it –

He choked on a bagel chip bite that got caught in his throught, blocking his airway off a great deal and it was hard for him to breathe. We used rescue techniques to get it out of him, and saved him. It was very sobering for me, and for him very frightening. We used a mix of techniques – if you’ve got an infant or kid, learn them. Here’s a page detailing some rescue techniques for choking, and breathing and heart arrest. He’s I suppose small for his age (percentile – funny, he used to be large for his age), and while he’s more than a year old I think the techniques for infants worked better for him; it’s not just age to factor but size also. The back blows face down with the head lower I think are what worked best – but it’s probably different each situation. I struck between his shoulder blades a little lower. He was having a vomit reflex to get the thing moved up his throught which didn’t seem to do it, but the back blows brought it all up with vomit. Apparently you’re supposed to mix this with turning the infant face-up and using small thrusts at the mid-sternum if back blows alone don’t do it.

We’d have been wiser to call for an ambulance at the same time we tried to get him out of it ourselves. I think it’s very lucky we knew how to handle it just from what minimal memory we had of infant first aid.

Last night I put on his pajama pants and said “Schloop!”, with a low tone that slid sharply up as I did so. Now, this is a fairly timid confession for a father to make, that he has said something silly to his son. I’m aware this breaks convention with the stoic and stern father who sometimes restrains tears of shame when SON appears interested in dollies. Wait a minute, what was I saying? ..

So anyway, when I said “Schloop!”, he giggled intensely. I love this giggle. It is my favorite sound in the whole world. He’s my most favorite first SON I’ve ever had. Fortunately, I am not a polygamist, so this is not a comparative statement that will make some other son hang his head in sorrow over not being a favorite.

Double anyway, a large part of why he giggled was because he was wired. He was wired because his cousins (Tia’s nieces and nephews) are visiting for a family reunion, and he seldom sees so many other babies (FATHER hangs his head in shame – we need to get him out to see other kids – and we need to get out to see family and old friends more often).

Triple anyway, he was wired because he had been very happily playing with other babies and kids all evening, and stayed up late to do so, and was in the too excited to succumb to sleep mode. I knew this word was one of those things I’d found that was a one-time amusement charm, a magic discovery that could be employed repeatedly for a while because of the novelty; perhaps he has never encountered the “sch” sound, and actually for myself I’ve never said or heard said “Schloop!” that way, though I might be wrong. Whatever the cause, this was very novel to him, and I said it repeatedly and each time he giggled. He sat up and focused a great deal of amused attention on my lips and repeatedly tried to say the word in just the same way himself, struggling to find the opening consonant – “Bl.. dd.. pp.. dd!” but never quite getting it. I’m sure he got closer and it will come out of him eventually, but meanwhile I greatly enjoyed his amusement with the word as I repeated it, which amusement slowly faded.

The novelty’s gone. This has happened with various other sounds, gestures, and words, but there are always more. It’s just a matter of finding them. A while ago he was very amused with my sharply turning my head away when he applied only just a bit of force with his hand to the side of my head, or bopping my head down on his rattle for no reason at all.

This number is probably inaccurate, but searching my blog for the word “update” returned six entries related to Mago. And I can’t think of a better subject header. And 7 is a nice, magical number.

This morning I forgot to say goodbye when going for work and he cried. I hurried to him and apologized, and picked him up, and he calmed down and gave me a tight hug for a long while. I want to forget tomorrow so I can have the same thing again. Though he often gives hugs after naps and in the morning.

The other day while Tia held him, he forcefully turned her head to the side to examine a hair clasp on the side of her head. She turned her head back and he forcefully turned it back again, all of this with a very serious expression on his face.

He looks at and grabs my new self-made necklace, specifically the boat charm/pendant on it (about that next entry, pending), and says “Boa.” he says water (“Wawa”), flower (“Fwowa” or “Fowa”), apple (“Appum”), and a baby-sitter apparently taught him “Hippo”. This morning he clearly said “Happy”. Also this morning he heard me say doggy (I forget why) and he sniffed like a dog.

He ate one. Tia hurried to get the chewed up bits out of his mouth.

Mmm..

Every morning he wanders from his room to ours saying “Bam!” repeatedly and goes over to the guitar case. He then wanders around the room happily while I play the same old song (last entry). I’m very flattered that he apparently loves the song so much. But I’m just starting to learn basic strumming for others from the Children’s Songbook.

He says “Di!” for many things – meaning dirt. The other day Tia took him outside and the first thing he did was stoop down to the ground saying this for various grassy/dirt/twig objects, which he put in his mouth.

He seems to be left-handed like me, and people say he looks like me. My mom says he looks a great deal like my older brother at that age.

He’s twice taken ten or twelve free-standing steps in a stretch and is venturing to walk more often.

He’s very interested in anything mechanical or with buttons, or anything he can take apart or move around a lot, and he goes for Mr. Potato Head over his stuffed animals now.

Children’s toys are often numbingly, obnoxiously, pointlessly loud, with utterly irrelevant frenetic sound effects that bear on nothing other than raw frenetics. Do toy manufacturers think children are learning anything from that? They’re learning that anything silent, quiet, or relevant is boring or not worth their time, that’s what they’re learning. My boy loves a quiet stroller walk as much. He’s happy with it. In fact the obscenely attention-grabbing toys seem only to ironically deter his interest after only a short time, while other calmer activities keep his interest.

Mindless saccharine barbarism.

The day before yesterday, he shuffled alongside the bed from the foot to the head where I was reading, took my forefinger, and gently and affectionately bit it. Yesterday it was my forearm. This is an escalating problem. Today? Only Mago knows..

(Make no mistake: my tone is jest. I’m very charmed and flattered by his affections.)

The day after the 22nd (Wednesday, when he took five steps) he didn’t take any steps – he was more interested in crawling. He took 5 or 6 twice the next day (yesterday) with our coaching. We sat on the ground with him between us five baby steps away, stood him until he balanced, then let go and he took the steps by himself, beaming and laughing, then collapsing into either of us. Today he’s taken many, maybe 25 or so – mostly with our coaching. He’ll get eager and lean forward so that he loses his balance. Today at my mom’s I was turned away and didn’t notice until I turned back and he stopped walking, standing and looking up at me about six steps out from the chair he had been standing against before he ventured off.

His sixth tooth is in – we don’t see others yet.

He took yesterday; mostly balanced in place. He took another half step this morning and has been taking several of those a day with our coaching.

We photographed him signing light, bed, and bird this morning.

He frequently says bye-bye in the appropriate setting now. Tia came to pick him up from babysitting at grandpa’s the other day and as soon as she came in and picked him up he waved around to the others and said this.