The mobile mute

It's official, Cameron can crawl. I'm sure the wifey will be supplying video confirmation shortly, but I thought I would beat her to the punch and narrate the milestone. It went something like this: right leg a little forward, left leg a little forward, right arm a little forward, left arm a little forward, right leg a little forward, left leg a little forward, right arm a little forward, left arm a little forward, (repeat about 4 more times) and... dive for remote control. In all seriousness, it's really quite remarkable to see him crawling. We've been watching him break it down into isolated components for a week or two now and then all of a sudden it just all comes together somehow and he's moving. And it's also somewhat ironic that he is always motivated to crawl to either the remote control or the phone. If that isn't evidence of social learning then I don't know what is. If he stands up tomorrow walks over to the computer and logs onto yahoo fantasy sports, I'd just think, well... that makes sense.

Speaking of standing, that brings us to his next feat. We have amped up the training where he stands holding my hand and practices maintaining his balance. Then I try to position him perfectly to sustain unassisted standing for as long as possible. It's really quite fun and intense. It feels like I'm building a house of cards - you have to stay focused and keep the hands steady and then gradually remove. But despite many tumbles and one instance where I actually believed for about 30 horrifying seconds that I had just torn my babies' ACL, he is starting to get it down. I think our best time is somewhere between 6 and 7 seconds in which he has remained a homosapien erectus all by himself. He did it once today at a car wash (please note - it's somewhat humbling when you are the only people sitting in a car wash lobby waiting for your car in the middle of a torrential downpour) and once in our living room. He's versatile like that; he can conquer multiple surfaces. However, on another practice session today, he lost his balance and as he was falling literally grabbed onto the flesh of my cheek with one hand and wouldn't let go until he had righted himself. That didn't feel so good. But to quote the great Ron Burgundy after Baxter ate the entire wheel of cheese from the refrigerator, "Heck, I'm not even mad. I'm just impressed."

Alright, I'm done with the bragging. Let's get to the negative stuff. I'm starting to get somewhat more sure that Cameron is going to have some articulation speech delays. Exhibit A: at least three generations in a row of men in my family who have had some articulation delays. Exhibit B: Cameron has a father who, according to his mother, "had two sounds" (not words, SOUNDS) at the age of 2-and-a-half. I also didn't really master some of those pesky consonants until well into grade school. I was a vowel machine though. Some might say I was an "Uper An" of vowels. And that brings us to the troubling exhibit C: Cameron's girly-scream consonant-devoid babbling. Every day, wracked with guilt, I listen furtively for the sound of a consonant in that Mariah Carey-octave squealing. But there's nothing. I try to over compensate by talking to him throughout the day with only consonants (not an easy feat I might add) - but it's to no avail. So, I want to say I'm sorry my son. I feel badly if I have passed these speech difficulties down to you. It pains me so. But then I think, hey, at least my genes aren't responsible for keeping you from being a real sized boy. And that makes me feel much better :)