Fascination (baby update)
Robin’s always been vocal beyond crying, whining and cooing. A few weeks ago, he started going ‘ooh’ and ‘ahhh’ at us in speech-patterns and grinning if we mimicked him. But then he got distracted by his hands and his mouth, and bringing the two into a more perfect union, and he mostly stopped that.
But a couple days ago, around the same time that he started incremental laughter, he returned to babbling. Oh wow, did he return! He doesn’t just babble, he gets irritable if he wants to babble and nobody is willing to babble with him. He wants to talk to people! And he grins and giggles and hides his face and squirms with joy when we talk back at him, real words or word sounds. He seems totally convinced that he’s talking just like we are, which is utterly fascinating (and adorable). I was talking to another mother at Costco today, and he decided he wanted to be part of the conversation. He treated us to a lecture on the meaning of ‘oooahhh’ and I melted all over the floor. Very messy.
I weighed him today via the time-honored method of weighing myself while holding him. I think he must weigh 15 lbs or so. I no longer get remarks on how small he is; instead people tell me he’s so big! when I tell them how old he is. And indeed, he only seemed a little smaller than the 14-month-old daughter of the lady I was talking to, though I didn’t see them side by side. Unsurprisingly, this kind of remark gets me right in the motherhood, and I get all proud and everything. He also gets compliments on his eyes, which I’m a bit more uncertain about, since probability says his eye-color is only temporary and aren’t most Caucasian baby eyes blue, anyhow?
Oh! He also played by himself with a toy for the first time ever yesterday. Well, I say ‘play’ but it was more ‘wrestling/staring in awe/trying to eat’. I think that counts! It was one of his many cuddly dragon toys (we kind of have a theme going).
Angie, 
melinda, 
Michelle and one other person are discussing.
Cathy 7:13 pm on December 5, 2007 Permalink
OMG, how exciting…and cute! Sounds like he’ll be talking in sentences by the time I get back up there again. I can’t wait to see him…and on that topic, I need pictures!!!
Michelle 9:21 pm on December 5, 2007 Permalink
from the wikipedia page on eye color: Often, newborns have blue eyes, which change to green, hazel, light brown or dark brown, as they grow older. It is thought that exposure to light after birth triggers the production of melanin in the iris of the eye. By three years of age, the eyes produce and store enough melanin to indicate their natural shade.
As I recall, blue is a kind of default color (for everybody, I think). If something happens to affect the expression of the genes you have for eye color, you could end up with blue eyes even if you don’t technically have the genes for it. This page explains a little of that: http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/ugenetics/ask.php?id=226
melinda 12:21 pm on December 6, 2007 Permalink
Chrysoula,
I have a Maginn family album with pictures dating back to 1800′s as well as pages of baby pictures of Kevin’s father. I have a professional service scanning the entire album for everyone in the family. If you and Kevin would like a copy of the disc, please let me know. There are pictures of Kevin’s grandfather as a baby that resemble some recent pictures you have posted of Robin.
Mindy
Angie 2:08 pm on December 6, 2007 Permalink
So cute! I wish I could be up there to get to know that one baby, because I love the chatterbox tendencies (which Matteo doesn’t usually go for, and Izzy does, so I’ll get a bit of it in a few weeks, at least).