Mac Mannerisms

Yesterday this little pill box of mine would not eat any dinner.  He flung it as far as he possibly could; the walls were plastered.  This was not a new catastrophe, it actually happens about two times a day (but dinner is by far the worst).  Luckily, our landlord said to not even worry about the carpet as he will be changing it when we move out.  Still, for some reason, last night I felt like pitching a little fit of my own.  I am so tired of picking food off the walls and carpet. 

At one point Mark pointed a finger at him and said quite sternly, "No!"  and Mac shook his head at him, then stared at his finger for a minute.  Then he reached up and pointed his finger back at Mark, trying to make their little pointers touch.  It was a little bit funny.

And so, we laughed.  And then Mark, bless his soul, helped and gave me the option of dishes or cleaning up Mac's mess ... and I went for dishes.  So Mark scrubbed while Mac ate food off the floor and I washed dishes and de-fumed.  I'm thinking it will be nice to start time-outs sometime.  (I might need them too.)

But for the most part, Mac really is quite adorable.  Some of my favorite little things of his include:

• Nodding when he eats something he likes.  This has to be my favorite.  He pops something (we get this reaction most often with eggs, strawberries, blueberries, cheese, avocados, olives, pretzels, and grapes) into his mouth and then vigorously displays his approval.  I love it.
• He still likes to run cords/necklaces/string through his mouth.  He hooks it behind his little bottom teeth and slides it back and forth.  It was funny the first couple times ... but he does it until he gets sores on the corners of his mouth ... this one we are trying to stop.
• Mac loves to pucker his lips and say, "No no no no no" and then grin and say, "Shes" (yes) right after. 
• He says hi to everyone and everything these days.  If it's a kid or an animal, he'll crouch down with both hands on his knees, tilt his head to the side and say, "Hi."  Lately he's been doing that with a lot of kids.  I kind of like my social little guy.
• He has started gasping when he sees something exciting.
• Anything with a beat will get him bouncing.  Typically it isn't very long, and it doesn't even seem like he means to ... it's like the music just takes him over for about 5 seconds, and then he returns to whatever he was doing before.
• After seeing us blow on his eggs a few times, he now blows on almost everything before he eats it.
• Peek-a-boo is still a favorite, but it can't just be hiding your hands behind your face.  He has to actually hide behind something (or at least get his head behind something) and I say, "Where's Mac?"  And then he pops out with a "Deeeeeerh" and I say, "There he is."
• He's been asking where Mark is a lot.  He says, "Dah?" and looks around corners.  Especially when we got meet up with Mark for lunch ... he definitely knows that the school means Dad is somewhere close.
• To Mac, all creatures bark.  Stuffed or live.  If it's little and fuzzy, he says, "Aff aff aff!" and tries to hug it. 
• Mouth noises are still a hit.  I find that funny, as they are Mark's biggest pet peeve when they come from anyone but our little man.  Perhaps Mac will slowly desensitize Mark to it .... then I can eat cereal in the same room as him!
• After teaching Mac how to kill people, Mark has moved on to teaching him "knucks", also known as "exploding knuckles" or "pounding it".  Mac will ball up his fist and hit yours, and though he hasn't got the hand explosion down yet, sometimes he'll fall over. 

There are a lot of cliches about motherhood, and I am learning that there is good reason for it.  It really does get more and more fun as you watch these little people become their own person.