So Cute

I decided to share a list of cute things Nikolai does, mostly so I can remember them in the future.

• He reads books to us – he turns to a page, says something in baby talk, and then turns to the next page (not necessarily front to back, but he gets the idea).
• He imitates the way we read books. For example, in the Baby Faces book we shake the book during the “ding-a-ling” part of the “I like making noises” page. Nik shakes the book for every page with that particular baby on it.
• He pulls at his clothes when he turns to the “I like putting on my clothes” page of the Baby Faces book.
• He loves the hokey pokey, and for the “do the hokey pokey” part of the song we point our fingers up and dance around. At church he does the hokey pokey dance, pointing his fingers up, during the hymns.
• He growls like a lion, baas like a sheep, and says ee ee ee like a monkey. And he just started saying ruff ruff ruff like a dog.
• He crawls down slopes as if he is going down stairs – backwards. As soon as his head gets a certain level below the rest of him he whips around and continues backwards (full speed!).
• When I walk in the room, he gets a big smile and excitedly proclaims “Dada!” (while not correct, still really cute).
• Most animals get growled at. At first we thought he thought all animals sounded like lions, but now we are wondering if instead he thinks he is a lion and is growling at all the other animals.
• He loves to brush his hair when Mama is brushing her hair. After bath, getting pajamas on (always traumatic), and a couple of books he will crawl into our bedroom where his brush and toothbrush are kept. He immediately pulls the pacifier out of his mouth when he sees his toothbrush.
• He likes to sit in his new chair and play his steel drum while Mama and Dada dance.
• He claps along to music.
• When he wants to get out of the bath, he points to his towel and/or growls (the towel is a lion).
• He has conversations with the animals on his favorite blanket and his bunny when he is supposed to be sleeping.
• He greets people he knows with a huge smile.
• If he wants us to know he is happy or really likes something, he will smile starting with his eyes and then his mouth. It is difficult to do – try it!
• He will bat our hand away when we try to stabilize his walker – even if he is careening out of control down hill.
• He will not let go of things in order to walk, but has no qualms about standing precariously on a toy in order to climb onto a chair or reach something on the table.
• He blows kisses.
• He will tap you gently on the back to get you to turn around and say “boo”.
• He gets excited when he accomplishes something he has been working at, such as putting the stacking cups inside each other, feeding himself with a spoon and actually getting the food inside his mouth, and getting the little blocks into the correct space to hear the letter (it’s difficult – he only gets it every once in a while).
• He sucks the last drop of coffee out of our cups when we are done (he is destined to be a coffee drinker).
• He will point to his mouth and pull on his hair when asked where they are (getting close with nose and eyes, but not quite there).
• He says several words: boo (book), ba (bath), ba ba (bottle), more, Mama, Dada, p (up), Nana, Pop (his grandfather), banana, no no, and apple (although we have not heard this one in a while).
• He says thank you when handed something – well not exactly “thank you”, it is more of a sneeze sound with a nod, but the intention is clear.
• He will shake back and forth and say “no no” for things he is not supposed to do (but does them anyways – usually after making sure we are looking).
• If we forget to give him a pacifier when we put him in his car seat, if he is calm he will put his hand to his mouth and then hold it out (a car ride without a pacifier means crying the whole way). If he is not calm, then he just screams, which is generally equally effective for getting us to give him the pacifier.
• The way he says "hop hop hop" is so cute - like "bwap bwap bwap"