Charlie and I frequently lie on the floor or the bed to play.  If my cell phone rings, and I am foolish enough to answer it, an immediate game of “keep away” starts.  Charlie will reach across my face, crawl around my head, or anything else he can think of to get his hands on that phone.  He is surprisingly persistent, and usually successful.

Recently, my cell phone’s performance started to decline, most likely largely due to the afore-mentioned phenomenon (upon successfully getting the phone, of course he uses it as a pacifier).  A week ago, my phone finally died.  Fortunately, Jean still had her former phone, so I switched my phone number to that phone; it’s the same model as mine, but pink (mine is a manly steel gray).  It works perfectly, and as an added bonus, my old phone was promoted from “crappy cell phone” to “excellent toy”, or so I thought…

Charlie has no interest in my old phone.  I give it to him…  Nothing.  I pretend to try to keep it from him…  Nothing.  I lie down next to him and hold it to my ear…  Nothing.  I open it…  Nothing.  Yesterday I actually sat and had a lengthy conversations with myself; I’m lying there on my phone saying “No, he’s not going for it.  Charlie seems to know that this conversation is BS”…  Nothing.  Charlie has absolutely no interest in that phone! 

However, if I try to use my NEW phone near Charlie, he mauls me.  I know nothing about how easy it is to take candy from a baby, but taking a cell phone is a real pain in the ass!

Based on some very scientific testing I’ve performed, I think Charlie is left-handed.  One of his favorite activities is reducing walls and towers made of blocks to one level (or at most two, if he’s distracted).  I have built such structures in front of him, far away from him, on his immediate left, and on his immediate right, and without exception he demolishes them all with his left hand: 17 times in a row!  In the case of something off his right shoulder, he can’t even reach it with his left hand.  He will rotate himself on his belly about 45 degrees, then reach across his body with his left hand to do the deed.

In other news, Charlie has picked up a new play-habit that definitely goes in the “Wow is that cute” category.  Those who have read the older posts will know about “Pillow Time”; in short, it is a game we play in a big bed, where Charlie can move around and bonk his head a lot without hurting himself.  Anyway, often I end up lying next to him face-to-face…  Recently, he has taken to wanting to put his pacifier in my mouth.  If I keep my mouth closed, he will just keep trying to jam it between my lips.  If I do open my mouth, he immediately yanks the pacifier out, and then puts it in his own mouth.  Some of you (especially if anybody who doesn’t know me very well is reading this) may be thinking “Oh my god…  That’s so unhealthy” (or just plain “How gross!”) and to you I say, in all sincerity, “Phoooey on you.”

Yesterday Charlie turned 10 months old.  It has been an exciting month; went to his first birthday party (his good friend Peyton’s on August 9th — 2 years old), and he attended his first wedding (he went to Jake & Chrissy’s “wedding weekend”, but during the actual events he was sequestered in a hotel room).  On the less exciting front, at his 9-month check-up he was pretty near the 50th percentile for height and weight.  His head circumference was in the 85th percentile, but it was pointed out to me that, unlike height and weight, the range of head circumferences is very narrow, so there is little difference (in the actual dimension) between 50th and 90th percentile (but I still call him “Fat Head”).

It has also been a very eventful month for his non-physical development; he seems more animated just about every day.  His interaction with his surroundings is much more extensive, and though he still cannot express them, it seems clear to me that his thought processes are much more formulated (what he wants to do at a given moment, for example, or what he is experiencing beyond just hot/cold, hungry/thirst, etc.)

He spends a lot of time on all fours rocking to the beat of music only he can hear, but he still does not usually lift his butt off the ground to go anywhere.  He is crawling a little more dexterously than previously, but I think there is still a good bit of improvement ahead.  On his feet, he is very sturdy (with somebody holding him for balance), but has yet to lift himself up to a standing position.  In fact, he still rarely even gets to a sitting position on his own (refer to the previous post).

Charlie, as well as Jean and I, are getting very excited for our upcoming trip to Chicago and Boston.  It is always great to see either of our families, let alone both, and this trip will be extra-special because Charlie’s cousin Lauren will be having her Bat Mitzvah.  As an added bonus for us (for everybody, but especially us), Charlie’s half-sister Maddie will be coming in from Virginia for the celebration.  They’ve only met once, and we’re all anxious for Maddie to start developing relationships with ALL her Sandberg relatives, but especially Charlie.  Hopefully we’ll have lots of great pictures for future posts.

Charlie is crawling!  He has been for about a week now, but it is a process he is still markedly improving day-to-day.  It still occasionally surprises me when something that is a few feet away cathes his eye and he just motors over to it.  Much like a Looney Toons character, he doesn’t understand the concept of surfaces, so he will crawl off the edge of things if not closely monitored.  Of course this is totally normal for an early crawler, but still a bit disturbing to see (the adult in my head is asking “Charlie, don’t you see that there is no more bed (or whatever) to crawl on?”).

Sitting up seems just on the horizon.  By “sitting up” I mean getting into a sitting position by himself; he is very stable when once somebody has put him in a sitting position.  It is amazing how flexible babies are; sitting on his butt, Charlie can reach forward and pick up something that is well beyond his toes.  Anyway, he has gotten himself up to a seated position a few times, both by doing a sit-up from a lying position, and by rolling onto his side and then pushing up with the down-side arm.  But both of those are still quite rare.

This weekend, Charlie will attend his first birthday party, for Peyton Huff, who will turn 2 this Sunday, August 9th.  For those who don’t know, I’ve started working at my shop on Wednesdays (for reasons not worth getting into), and our good friend (and Peyton’s Mom) Jen Huff has been baby-sitting Charlie.  24 month-olds and 10 month-olds are about four lifetimes apart, behaviorally, but they’ve certainly gotten used to hanging out with each other.  Peyton knows who Charlie is (“Baby Cawlie”) and often brings toys over for him to play with (usually with a little coaxing from Mom…)  It’s very sweet.

Leaves are apparently quite tasty.

I have been having problems with my left foot for awhile, and the short of it is that I haven’t been able to walk very comfortably or very far.  I never enjoyed walking, but it wasn’t painful until this little problem.  This weekend, Jean finally dragged me to a shoe store/foot specialty shop (La Foot in Berkeley…  They have a cute slogan: “Tired of the agony of deFeet?  Experience the glory of La Foot!”)  I got some new shoes with very rigid soles, arch support inserts, and a little pad to insulate the sore spot on my foot.  This is all in the blog because now I can walk relatively normal distances, so Charlie and I have taken to spending a lot of time in local parks.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Charlie has been tentative about moving around in grass.  I think it was because he wasn’t sure if it would hurt (grass is very pointy!) and he hadn’t much experience with it.  It was really hot today, so we spent a couple hours on the grass in the shade, waiting for the sun to dip enough for the swings to be in the shade (the swings are the big ticket item for Charlie…  everything else is just atmosphere).  Charlie learned the following about grass:

1) Despite its appearance, when he puts his weight on grass, it feels soft like the carpet in his play area at home

2) Unlike carpet, if he grabs a handful of grass, he can rip it right out! (this was very exciting for him…  don’t think he hasn’t tried his damnedest with the carpet.)

3) Once he’s obtained a handful of grass, he can eat it… not surprisingly, this discovery came maybe 2-3 seconds after the previous one.

4) Grass doesn’t taste very good…  this discovery came, unexpectedly, NOT right after the previous one, but about three tries (mouthfuls) later.  Maybe he thought the first two were just bad batches…  I feel a little guilty that the only reason I let him keep trying it was that his facial expression was incredibly cute all three times.

Anyway, in case you were wondering, these are the principle lessons of Grass 101, as far as I can tell.  If further lessons are discovered, I will certainly post them.

It’s official, Charlie is crawling.  He is wobbly, and doesn’t get his knees under him, but he is crawling well enough that even somebody who wasn’t his parent would say so.  He can go where he wants to in a (relatively) straight line.  I spent an hour this afternoon constructing block towers all over his play mat, and as soon as they got more than about two blocks high, he would motor over and knock them down.  It is amazing how quickly babies develop their body coordination.

We went to a new park today, where Charlie took his first outdoor nap.  There is a park near our house that is very sunny, but today we went to a different park that has shade.  Charlie laid on my chest and we just fell asleep looking at the sky.  Though Charlie enjoyed the grass, and picking up (and trying to eat) every leaf he could get his hands on, he would not crawl.  He would roll over onto his stomach, put his hands down, and lift his head up, but then when he lifted his hand to start to crawl, he held it tentatively over the grass spot where he would put it if he were going to move forward.  All I could think of is that, if you’re unfamiliar with grass, it probably looks like a very bad place to press down the palm of your hand.  I tried taking his hand and pressing it down, so he could feel that the grass was soft, but he started crying, so we gave up.  We will be working on getting comfortable with grass over the next few days.

July 9

Well, nobody else’s hands, anyway.  The picture pretty much tells the story, but to fully appreciate the significance , you have to be aware that Jean was not home at the time, which means that Charlie was able to stand at his play table stably enough that I felt comfortable moving away from him, and for long enough that I had time to snap the photos.  He usually stands on his tip-toes, but he is slowly beginning to get comfortable putting his heels down.

This post and a few that follow it were written over the last couple weeks, and not posted.

July 2

Charlie is just about ready to crawl anytime now.  Of course, I can no longer count how many times we’ve thought “Charlie is about to <fill in the blank>” and then — pfft — nothing comes of it.

Anyway, he gets onto his belly, and then he gets his butt up in the air so he is on all fours, then he rocks back and forth…  then he falls over.  I was worried about negative reinforcement (he often falls forward and bonks his head), so I started letting him practice on our bed.  Then I read that getting on all fours and rocking is a very common step in learning to crawl, so I wasn’t worried anymore, but during the interim crawling-in-bed stage, “Pillow Time” developed.  When lying on his back in bed, Charlie absolutely loves being pummeled with pillows!  When you hold a pillow over him in position to completely cover him (we have “body” pillows that are literally bigger than Charlie), he starts kicking and screaming (in a good way) and raises his hands in the air like he is a mothership guiding the pillow home.  Then when you actually drop the pillow , he wraps his hands as far around it as he can and practically smothers himself, giggling the whole time.  I’m not sure I’m happy about it, but he’s clearly inherited his Dad’s love of lounging around in bed.

Today we went to the Huffs to play with Peyton and Jen (and Dave for a little while, when he wasn’t working).  We had some very nice book time…  As always, it’s “Different strokes for different folks” (or babies): book-time for Peyton is turning the pages, looking at the pictures, and doing a little reading…  For Charlie, book-time means taking the books out of Peyton’s hands and trying to eat them.  The important thing is they both had fun, and seem to be getting more used to each other’s company.

Jen captured the single moment Charlie was interested in reading a book more than eating it

After book-time, Peyton went to play outside/in the garage with bubbles.  Though Charlie occasionally seemed to enjoy watching the bubbles float around, he can’t really chase after them (which is the main reason Peyton likes them).  However, he did find another way to entertain himself, and even moreso, his Daddy.  I’ll have to remember this little trick next time we need to get him to the East Coast and there’re no seats on the plane!

I think he wanted me to join him in there (he's not too good with spatial relations)