Decker

Hi everyone!

This was a busy week for me, and the most exciting part of all was that I got to start my new class at the community center down the street from our house - it’s called Hippity Hoppers, but before you get confused by the title like I did, let me clarify that it’s not a class where they teach us toddlers how to bust moves like the Roger Rabbit or the Cabbage Patch (which my aunt Tully can do really well - you should ask her to show you sometime!). No, it’s actually a really fun chance for me to hang out with other small people like myself and explore fun new toys and playsets. It’s held in a big room that’s got a bouncy floor and lots of push toys and balls and stuff like that. You have to take off your shoes, but you’re pretty much allowed to touch whatever you want, as long as there isn’t someone else already playing with it. When we first got there, I was kinda shy and I really didn’t know what to make of all these other kids who are my size…except for my cousin Lee, I don’t actually get that much exposure to my fellow anklebiters! But once I saw some other little girls go over and start playing on this mini-merry-go-round, I got a smile on my face and took some tentative steps onto the mat. After that, I was happy as a clam and taking everything in! My favorite things there were these push/scooter toys that you can ride on or walk with (I only wanted to push, I mean come on - I get to ride all the time in the car!), and these big bouncy balls (one pink, one green, one purple). One of the supervisor ladies was sitting on the floor playing with the balls, and I decided to gather them all up and put them in a pile. Then I gathered all the smaller balls and put those in the pile with the big ones. Then this kid named Colby came up and started throwing the balls away - and I thought that was the funniest thing I’d seen in a long time! I laughed my deep baby giggle each time - he was a real crack-up! Near the end of the class, everyone got in a circle and started singing songs and playing with bells and puppets and stuff. I was patient with that for about one minute, but then I took a look and realized that while everyone else was sitting in the circle singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, ALL THE TOYS WERE COMPLETELY AVAILABLE. So I got up and start playing with the balls again while the other kids missed their golden opportunity! Mom is so funny - she was more interested in staying in the circle and singing, and kept trying to get me to join her. She says we get to go again next week - I think this is gonna be a fun thing!

After a long hiatus, Decker’s kisses are back (his mom had sort of discouraged him for a while, because each kiss became a bite on the cheek! I guess it’s fun to experiment with teeth when you first get ‘em…), and they are big open mouth sloppy and drooly on the cheek fun! I’m thinking Oil of Olay might want to check out the curative properties of baby spit. He’s very picky about when he will give you a kiss (doesn’t really perform on “command”), but nontheless they are nice to receive when he’s in the mood.

Sean is out of town for a few days, so the other night I (Frith) invited over Tully and my folks for dinner and a movie. We thought, “Hey, haven’t watched some of Decker’s old video footage in a while…let’s pop in one of his tapes and take a stroll down memory lane!”. So I pulled out the one from March 2004, when Decker was 7 1/2 months old. And Decker…freaked out. Seriously. We tried pausing it and fast forwarding to different spots to see what might be troubling him, and finally concluded that he doesn’t realize that a) the mommy on the tv is the same mommy holding him at that very moment in her arms, and b) he doesn’t realize that the baby she’s playing with on the tv is actually HIM. As best we could tell, he was really put out with watching him mom play with another kid (even though it was just his younger self!). I know he tends to get weirded out by the disembodied voice on answering machines, but apparently it also applies to video as well. Sort of puts a damper on being able to watch stuff while he’s awake.

Editorial Comment from Decker: Hey there…Mommy put a video on the tv the other night, but it wasn’t Sesame Street or Baby Einstein…it was her playing with some other kid! And a BABY, at that! Doesn’t she know that I’m much more interesting than some old baby with more chins and less hair than me? I’m way cuter - that baby could only crawl, while I can run around the couch! I let her know I wasn’t happy about it, and she turned it off finally. Phew! I couldn’t handle the competition! She was hugging this kid like he was one of her own!