Oliver and friends

Oliver and...

Troy
Avril

Jocelyn
Susy
Marta & Susy

More bits at two months

He's growing hair! A new fuzzy head of hair. O was born with an old-man's hair - mostly bald with a fringe around the back and a thin line of hair across his forehead. Thankfully, this pattern has mostly evaporated as the peach fuzz takes over. We're still trying to work out the color, which looks semi-red in the sunshine, but pretty dark indoors.

He has a wonderful fascination with sticking out his tongue when he's happy. It's a slow motion, peeking little tongue, in and out and in and out. Then when he loses that mood, he foams at the mouth. Then when he's really calm, he likes to clasp his hands together in front of him. It's like a cross between a worried grandmother and a more sinister figure contemplating his next step towards world domination. There's also the impulse to try and shove his entire fist into his mouth. We caught a few of these moments on camera but the tongue is still elusive.

He's showering us with many more smiles these days but they're harder and harder to catch on camera as he adopts a more inquisitive look whenever the camera appears in front of him. I think he's on to us.

The most curious activity he's developed is a bashful kind of smile, as if he's embarrassed or shy. This is really interesting to us because to be bashful would imply he's self aware, as if he knows his 'status' in the family and has developed some feelings about that status. He certainly knows who we are, but is it possible for a two month old to have accrued memories and be able to compare his current state with earlier experiences? Is it possible he's experiencing this emotion, or is it just what we're qualifying as an emotion?

First smiles

Oliver recently started blessing us with an assortment of facial expressions including a few adoring smiles.

Other stuff

What else has been happeining?

We celebrated our 4 year anniversary on the 27th of September and ventured out for our first dinner outside the house since Oliver's arrival. He came along and slept the entire time, fortunately. He's good like that and now we don't have any qualms about taking him anywhere.

The Aussie Rules Football (AFL) Grand Final took place on Saturday, Sept. It's similar to the Super Bowl in that everyone gets together at the pub or for barbeques to watch the game. It was also similar to your typical Super Bowl in that the game was no contest. In the spirit of the day, Oliver took his first trip to the pub.

Before you post some kind of scorning comment, of course he didn't really down any beer, but he did get a little tipsy on milk.

We bought a car a short while ago, a Holden Astra CD. This is the first car either of us has owned and driven on a daily basis since 2001. We like it.

Runs good.

Just the other night, we went to the Arup annual party. The theme was James Bond. Eric went as Beach Bond (e.g. as in Dr. No) with snorkel gear at hand just in case he needed to go diving for villians. Melissa dressed as Domino. Six, to be specific. We left Oliver with our friends Marta and Michael Fisher. Despite the fact it was our first evening away from him, their first time babysitting, and probably their first time holding a baby, the evening went perfectly well.