February Showers

Oliver shed his first tear this weekend. You might already know this, but babies don’t shed tears at first. They cry (a lot), but they don’t tear up until much later. Lately, Olie has become much more communicative about his needs and wants. He used to sit quietly, happy to be along for the ride, content to go with the flow wherever that might lead. But no longer. He now bores easily and pipes up when he feels the situation needs to change. He squeals his dissatisfaction often and, unfortunately, loudly.

But back to this tear…It was Friday afternoon, and Olie was hollering out his displeasure as his mother changed his diaper for the 15th time that day. He’d been there done that and wasn’t interested in putting up with it yet again. He screamed, he yelled, he cried and cried some more. Then came that first tear. And, with that tear, he wrenched his mama’s soft heart.

When not ratcheting up the volume over his demands for change, Olie is now often working out his vowel sounds. As you’re talking to him, explaining how snails and turtles carry their homes on their backs, how giraffes have spots and very long legs and necks that allow them to pluck leaves from the very tops of trees, or how elephants use their trunks to give themselves showers and dirt bathes, suddenly he’ll utter a long oooohhh or a laden aaaahhh as if he’s really following along with the conversation quite easily. “That’s very interesting,” he seems to be saying. Then, to clarify his delight with the new-found knowledge, he sometimes follows up with a giggle, or even a chuckle.

Thumb sucking is also a new hobby. To be fair, Olie found his thumb and started sucking his very first day, but he didn’t really adopt it as a habit. However, in the last week or so, Olie has begun sucking his thumb, particularly at night or as he’s falling asleep. His mama calls it self-soothing. Whatever name you give it, he’s sleeping much longer now, sometimes even through the night. Hallelujah for that opposable fifth digit!