War zone. First encounter.
I love spying on Muffin while he's playing in his room. He makes humming noises, a recently learned brrrrm brrrrm and high pitched sounds. He dances with his shoulders to the music in his toys. He makes his little cars run on the sides of his cot. He nervously tosses away any piece he can't assemble in less than two seconds.

When Bruno plays alone in his room, it is generally time for me to make his dinner and prepare his bottle before he gets his bath. It takes me from 10 to 15 minutes to complete the operation and, towards the end of it, Bruno usually has grown tired of being by himself. He either sings or crys a little and starts crawling to the kitchen, where i'm waiting with an empty tupper and a wooden spoon. The beats of his plastic drum linger on in the kitchen jungle.

Three days ago, Bruno showed up at the kitchen a little earlier than usual. I turned to greet him with a big smile and noticed he was clutching a dry baby wipe. He was wearing the largest grin ever. The kind of face that tells you: "Oh, i've been naughty. So naughty. I've just pulled the biggest trick in my short life. Come and see for yourself". I leaned closer and noticed little bits of something all over his hair.

As i began to realize what had happened, my heart was racing and my brain was trying to decide whether to laugh or sob. We both went into his room. The nappy bin had been turned over. There were probably two very dirty nappies in it. I can't be precise, because the contents we all over half his room. There was shit on the rug. On the furniture. On him. Him. I looked into his eyes and he started giggling. He was so proud of himself. I shrugged, suppressed a smile. Disinfecting war zone took me less than i'd expected. Rubbing Muffin's grin off would have probably taken a lot long.

Swings, bouncing elephants and dirt, of course
From the First-Park-Experiences set, we bring to you, every Muffin's must-have: The 'I eat dirt trendy t-shirt'.



Although he was sick and softy, Muffin still found some energy for his fourth incursion into a public park yesterday. Now that the weather is quickly evolving from lovely spring to heat heat heat, he and his mates get to spend a lot of time outdoors in daycare. Which explains why he has dirt all over his mouth when i go pick him up.

Yesterday i took him to a little park closer to our home where we hadn't been before. He was already developping a temperature so he wasn't very excited, though he did show a big interest in both elephant shaped bouncer for a while. The downside was that the swing was not baby adapted and he couldn't stay on it.

We went back home, where i took his shoes off and gave him a foot massage that made him giggle. And then i turned his pants around and shook the dirt away from the insides of his pockets. Heh.

By the way, the Dirt clothing comes from here.

Mother's Day and That's The Nose
We celebrated Mother's Day for a while on Sunday morning. We had a long special breakfast at the 'big dinning table' and i opened Bruno's present. It was wrapped in electric blue paper and it had a silver ribbon around it. It was a paper/portrait holder that sticks to the fridge. It is, of course, glorious. Muffin got very happy when i opened it: i imagine he recognized it from a recent memory of plunging parts of it in green paint. It was memorable.

Both Pablo and i had to work at home but it got very difficult with Bruno trying to pull out the cables from the back of our computers. I felt like my day was slipping by running after him, though i was having as much fun as he was. He is unstoppable these days. He is faster, for one. More curious. And he has developped an adorable habit of dancing with almost any beat, let it be a Britney Spears song (not that he has heard any, i'm giving an example here, people!) or me drumming my fingers on the keyboard. As soon as he recognizes a rhythm, a mild tempo, he starts shaking his shoulders and putting his hands up in the air like he just don't care. I could watch him go forever.

We went for a walk around town and he screamed with joy at some tree tops, he screamed with joy at some passers-by and he yelled at a kid his age who happened to grin back. We came back home and i played the Days of the Week song at the Caillou site, so he danced and screamed with joy some more.

A brilliant Mother's Day in all. And before going to bed, he demonstrated that some of my silly stuff is finally sinking in him, and succesfully pointed his finger to my nose when i said, well, 'nose'.

Tired and enthusiastic
Since our dvd is broken, i sat Muffin on my lap this morning to watch one of the Baby Einstein videos on the computer. He hadn't seen one in ages and he was instantly absorbed by it. As you can see in this clip, he somehow manages a yawn and a squeal of delight almost at the same time.


By Castpost