Carmine has become quite the little joker, and is developing such a strong personality now. Not only does he get mad when you take something away from him, but he also really plays with you now. Today I was taking a video of him, trying to get him to dance, but instead, he decided to play peek-a-boo. He was standing in a doorway, and he snuck behind the wall, and then quickly leaned his head out and smiled at me, and kept doing it again and again. It was one of the funniest and most adorable things I've ever seen.
He's still so young, it's hard to tell whose personality he's inherited, but based on what I've seen so far, I'd have to say that I think, like his appearance, he's going to be a mix of both Gabe and Dante (i.e., a mix of both me and Scott). He loves to play, and he LOVES to laugh! Luckily he's got his two big brothers constantly doing stuff to make him laugh - there is no shortage of goofy behavior in this house!
Something else he's been doing lately that just warms my heart - when we're going somewhere and I put him in his carseat, he leans forward and cranes his neck so that he can look over at the other seat to see if Dante or Gabe are in the car with us. He already worships those two, and I know that feeling will only intensify as he gets older.
Another object of his affection these days is the package from the deli that contains the Land 'O Lakes American cheese. The kid is addicted! He can't get enough of the stuff! He also loves bananas - ate almost a whole one tonight at dinner. It's no wonder he's packed on several pounds over the past month or so - he is doing some serious eating. And when I was taking pictures for the Christmas card last weekend, nothing I was doing was working - he wouldn't even look at me, never mind getting a smile from him. Finally, I yelled out "Carmine, do you want some cheese?" His head snapped up so fast, I thought he was going to get whiplash!
Dante's up to his usual antics, too. He's taken to walking around with a keychain clipped to his belt loop. It's actually two keychains, on which he has several keys, so he makes a nice jangly sound when he walks. In addition to that, he had Scott put a guitar pick on a string for him (he's been using Scott's real guitar picks to play his toy guitar, but kept losing them), so he's also been wearing that around his neck. And next to the guitar pick necklace is the cross pendant he got at church. He's very careful about putting all these things on every morning, and adjusts them to make sure they're just so. He loves his accessories.
We shop at Trader Joe's pretty frequently, and anyone who's been to Trader Joe's knows that when they need help at the front of the store, they yell "All hands on deck!" Well, Dante apparently hears this as "Man on deck!" because he was pretending he was on a boat the other day and he kept yelling "Man on deck! Man on deck!"
Another good Dante-ism - when he has edamame, he asks for some "sauce oil" to dip it in. That would be soy sauce, of course, but I think I might start calling it sauce oil, just like I sometimes find myself saying "fribsee" and "diming room." His mispronunciations have taken on a life of their own.
Today after lunch, he was playing restaurant while I was busy working in the kitchen, and he told me that he was going to bring me pumpkins, apples, sausage, and potato chips - and "a whole big bag of wine." I told him it was a little too early for a whole big bag of wine, but maybe one glass would be nice : )
Gabe is now missing both of his top teeth. And, being the awful mom that I am, the Tooth Fairy forgot to visit when the second tooth fell out! Talk about a moment of panic - when he came downstairs that morning crying. What a rotten feeling : ( I quickly realized, though, that I could remedy the situation. I snuck upstairs with an envelope with his coins in it, and stuck it between the bed and the wall, and called him upstairs and showed him, explaining to him that the envelope must have slipped behind the bed, and he just didn't see it. Whew! Crisis averted!
We've been listening to lots of different music with them lately, and one of the things I added to the iPod recently was some Queen songs, including "Bohemian Rhapsody." They love it! The funniest thing, though, is that when I put it on, Gabe yells "Oh yeah, rock and roll, baby!"
They give me a lot to laugh about, and so much to be thankful for.
a lot of laughter in that household... the right kind of laughter!
Posted by: Wes | November 26, 2010 at 02:20 PM