Fun with Hy

Happy 13 month birthday, Hyrum!

Hyrum has a lot of new skills and games in addition to playing with goats. The first thing whenever I pick him up, out comes his index finger to start pointing at pictures "That is Jesus. Er ist Jesus Christus" or "Heber J. Grant" or anything else in between his room and breakfast "That is the heater. Das ist die Hitze." "That is the bread maker. Das ist ... das Brotmacher. Yeah, why not? Brotmacher is as good a name as any other."





"But I do still enjoy my goat."
Yes, Hyrum still enjoys his goat. A little salt, some cabbage, and ...
"DAD!"

I showed him where the Big Red Button on her foreleg is and how to turn the goat on and off at will. Mostly he tries just by pressing it with his forefinger - if we're supporting it from behind or if he presses hard enough, it'll work, but he hasn't quite ... grasped the notion of pinching it between two fingers. He'll sit there pressing the button on and off dozens of times.








"While Dada has been teaching me how to push his buttons,"
Wait a sec...
"Mama taught me how to throw a ball. I used to hand it to her so she could throw it away and I'd run after it. But then I practiced throwing it behind me and then I actually threw the ball in front of me! We tossed the small basketball back and forth for a while."








In food and drink news, Hy ate strawberries this week and on Easter - for the very first time - we convinced him to eat CHOCOLATE.
"It's an acquired taste."
Video forthcoming. He holds his own bottle to drink now ... as well as his own cup, though he is willing to overturn either of them and dump them anywhere he can.

Like all the nursery kids we ever met, Hyrum loves bubbles and balloons. He doesn't reall reach out for the bubbles yet, though. He's content to watch.

For his birthday, we filled his playpan with balloons of different sizes. Many have now been popped.
"I accuse Dada in the kitchen with the scissors"
You win Clue again, son.




Hyrum has also learned how to play peekaboo by himself. He'll grab his saque or a blanket or a coat and throw it over his own head while running up to one of us. He waits until we call out, "Where's the baby?" Then he throws the cloth off his head and smiles big to have surprised us. Sometimes he just hits himself in the face over and over again with the cloth, disappearing and reappearing with giddy laughter.
"Then they put me to bed." *pout*





"Ah, yes, here I am with my monkey friend on the computer. I have a laptop like Dada and they don't tell me No everytime I try to play on it. I also really enjoy playing on the keyboard Mama and Dada got me for my birthday."





Hyrum is ... definitely growing up this month. He walks almost everywhere now. Holding his hand and guiding his walking is more an acknowledgement of his growing independence than a desire not to haul a 25 pounds baby around everywhere. Then there are these moments when his face looks more and more like a little boy's instead of a baby's and I'm forced to admit some of what growing up means.

Joy told me of a very cute thing today at Church. After sacrament meeting while I was in the clerks' office, she was gathering Hy's toys (it takes forever to reaccumulate the Baby Einstein picture cards when he's determined to spread them). Hy was standing by one of the closed doors out, looked around and couldn't see her. He called out in a very small voice, "Mom?" She called back to him and reassured him she was there. In a more calm voice, he then called out, "Dadadada?" Joy explained I wasn't there and he toddled back to her.

"Yeah, well Mama told me a cute story too."

Oh, did she now?

"Yeah. She said after you took a bunch of pictures of me one day, you cuddled the camera close and said that I would never grow up, that I would be your little baby forever and ever."

I ... may have said something of the sort.

"I love you too, Dada."