Hy's New Tricks

Whenever people ask what Hyrum is doing, they usually ask if he's walking or running all over the place. Yes, that he does. But that's not what's new.

As soon as family left, Hyrum realized that time is a special commodity, and you have to stop every once in a while to enjoy it. In other words, he has learned how to SIT. This won't seem incredible to many of you, but our boy has never been a sitter. He squats. He walks, he runs, he pauses, he squats, he falls over occasionally, he tackles... he's never decided that he would like to stay doing the same quiet activity for long enough to warrant sitting. "Besides looking at books. He will sit for a book." Well now he's sitting for toys and in the tub (which he never did except when we visited the Green M&Ms last month).

In playing, he likes most to sort shapes and to stack blocks ... or cans of vegetable soup ... or cups of yogurt. His music preferences are also growing. He gave a pretty big headbop during a Shakira (latin pop) song. This morning he conducted David Nevue and Jared Johnson playing Classical/New Age piano. He has also expressed interest in Chopin's 'Raindrop' prelude and a Bach chorale number about death. Anything with trumpets or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir still gets him pretty happy, but he doesn't know what to do with jazz.

He's also learning how to jump into Mama's lap. "Lately when Hy wants my attention, he'll attack my legs, and if I sit down he'll usually climb into my lap, try to climb and jump up on me and he'll stand in front of me with his back to me and kind of do a jump-fall or the kind of trusting fall they have you do at team building exercises. He's gotten to the point that he's willing to fall on his bum too, not just on me, when he tries to jump. He's getting better." His feet haven't really left the ground yet, though. He bounces.

Dada is still Hyrum's best friend. He is really sad any time I leave. Here he is crying because I stepped outside to put away the garbage (with my camera in hand). It's comforted him a lot that Joy has driven me in to work almost every day this week so that he could say goodbye. "He watches Daddy leave through the screen in the mornings when you go by yourself."

Tonight Hyrum was really ready for dinner. So he pulled his chair out and climbed on to it without any help or prompting. The other day as he and Mom went outside, he went right over to the stroller and climbed into it, turned around, and sat down in it without prompting. "Just relaxed, waiting for me to push him around."

And in the speaking news, Hy is starting to get more interested in imitating sounds. While reading Is Your Mama a Lama, he will say "bat," and he gave Mama his very first attempt at "please" today. 'pees' [Here he is reading scriptures with Mama. Those are post-its in the shape of flowers they're playing with. "He chooses the scripture story I read with him these days. He'll take the book from me when I'm singing him songs. He'll flip through it for a while and then leave it on one page until I'm ready to read it to him. If I start reading the wrong side of the page, he lets me know.]

He can find one body part on his face on any given day. Usually it's his eye, and he will point to his eye or poke gently into ours and say, "eye!" On the odd day, he finds his ear, but on those days he doesn't find his ears. Joy reports that today he played with his fingers and toes on cue as she read a book to him, "and his eye and his shirt - he pulled on his shirt when it says 'This is my shirt.' And when we read about the bath, he said, 'ba. ba.' He's learning new things all over the place today."

So that is what Hyrum is learning this week.