One small step for the little man ...

Two parts to this video. First is Kole trying to chew the lens off the camera. Pretty funny. Then comes the main event - achieved about 7:30pm tonight, April 30th.

Cognitive Learning

If you're rusty on your English, cognitive learning is the rawest form of taking information - seeing something, reading it, smelling it, whatever, processing the information and responding with an action for a desired result. Observation A = Action B = Desired Result C. It's what makes dogs and chimps seem human. Responding to voice commands and such. Basic human learning - see something, repeat it. For babies it's different because at some point you just see the twinkle in their eye that ... they get it. They're not a helpless infant that only knows how to breathe, eat, do bathroom stuff, stare aimlessly and mindlessly manipulate simple toys. Then, you see the mind evolve and know it's ready to take the next step. You do something to a toy, it makes a noise when you do something to it, and then you get the contemplative stare of: How did that happen? Did I do that?
Kole up to now has been doing some basic mockery - waving and clapping hands. He has toys, like donut-looking things on a stand, and he has figured out that he can pull off the donuts. The basic monkey stuff. But in the last week or two we've seen the product of what I think is cognitive reasoning. He has a baseball toy where if you move the tee the ball sits on it plays music. Before he would swat the tee because he knew it would move. Now we believe he puposely moves the tee to make it play the music. Then came last night. Riley & Reagan (or Kelley, actually) gave Kole a little play set that includes a little car with a ramp. It's barely a foot tall and the car goes down this slide in about 1 second. Nothing elaborate. But Kole loves watching it. Put the car on this top little landing, push it, the car goes down the slide - and sometimes you can make something else fall down when the car goes through it. Kole can watch this over and over until he gets the urge to grab the car then taste it, throw it away then go find Maggie. But last night something clicked in his brain. There had been Observation A for a while, and now he was ready to make an Action B for a Desired Result C. As Kathy was cleaning up after dinner and I was playing on the floor with him (I do more than my share around the house, I promise, but if I don't get home until after 5:00 I have very little time with him until his 8:00 bed time. So - I was getting my daddy time in!) I was playing with the little car thing. After letting the car down the ramp, Kole did something that is essentially simple, but was neat to watch. He grabbed the car and attempted to place it back at the top of the slide. I barked at Kathy and made her watch, and she had the same wide-eyed look of amazement that I did. I took a picutre! It was like .... He gets it! He wants to do it again! So over and over we went. Letting the car down the slide, then letting Kole ungracefully slap the car back up top. After a few minutes, it became throwing the car. Then we would put the car up top and see if he could gently push it, which he responded by either grabbing it back or tackling the whole race track. Then it was time to go casually crawl away, grab some donuts and slap them together and give a gleeful screetch. A brief moment, but we think a real milestone of cognitive learning. Maybe it's one of those things that only another parent can relate to, and I hate thinking about stooping to parental snobbery in relation to the non-parents out there, but this was very exciting for us to see.

First Easter

Kole's first Easter began with a quaint sleep-in. Good thunderstorms in the early morning hours meant snoozing well past 7am. Eventually, as is his routine, he quickly sprouts up to the side of his crib, bouncing like he's on a trampoline and starts happy-squealing. Which, today, prompted mom and dad to observe today's awakening of junior with ... he has risen!
He's just getting over little cold, and we thought we may not take him to church so he won't get other kids sick. As it turned out, he was ready for a nap as it was time to leave for church. So, Kathy went and I stayed behind to keep an eye on him. I was pretty ready for him to get back to church and repent some pretty heinous sins - including desecrating the Bible. Since he's been able to pull himself up, nothing has been safe on top of the coffee table. Remote controls, drinks, magazines ... and yes, even Kathy's Bible. He'll gleefully grab it and sling it to the floor, then crawl carelessly over it back and forth. So, we've been telling him he's committing a major sin. He usually responds with a giggle and a squeal.
Anyway, he takes all of a 30-minute nap while Kathy's away, she comes back and we headed to Shanna's (Gedy's daughter) new place. It's literally 1.5 miles from our house, on the other side of Polo Rd. Grammy and Grandpa Gedy, Kelley with Riley & Reagan (Kelly Don on the road to Georgia), Ben and Sydney, Ava, Gedy's dad Andy, Bruce & Kathy and their 6-month-old Bruce Jr. were all there, along with Shanna's roommate Etta. Big dinner in a big dining room, and a great time had by all.
Then came the big Easter egg hunt. Riley and Reagan pretty much did most of the egg hunting, but we did manage to throw an egg two feet from Kole. After lots of prompting and pointing, as he gazed around everywhere in la-la land, he finally reached out and got his first Easter egg.
Between being passed around and hugged and kissed and loved on by everyone in the house, to Riley playing with him unmercifully, crawling everywhere, pulling himself up to explore new territory, we came home and he was as exhausted as he's ever been in his life - and that's not an exaggeration. Just short of 10 months, he was POOPED from the day, as it would soon be obvious. He napped for more than two hours and would not wake up from casual noise outside his door. If it were a cartoon, you could have lifted his eyelids to find X's on his eyeballs. By 7:30, we woke him just so we could give him his last feeding before bed. Normally, we'll fill a bottle with 7 oz. of formula. Most nights he takes 5 oz, sometimes 6 oz, and a couple of times a week maybe he'll knock out all 7. Tonight - after taking all 7 oz, he was whiny and pitching a fit, so we made him 3 more ounces and he sucked those down. His bed time is normally 9:00, but we figured he was ready to crash again. So, we put him to bed at 8:00, and by 8:15 he was back with X's underneath his eyelids.
Great Easter Sunday - lots of great memories and some good pics.
PHOTOS: Aunt Shanna opens the doors to her home for Easter and Kole responds by immediately seizing control of the TV remote (I keep telling people it's genetic); Kole and Mom after a successful Easter egg hunt; Kole tracking down an egg, approximately 60 seconds after it was placed 2 feet from him. It was filled with chocolate treats which Mom and Dad confiscated.

Spring in Full Swing

Until Kole can walk, he's pretty limited to his physical activity. Especially at a park, where most of the play equipment is on rough rocks. However, we took him to the park to day to swing in a swing and slide down a slide (in Mom's lap). The swing set has one bucket-seat swing for real little guys like him - but even with that we needed to stuff a towel between his back and the swing (a good tip from our neighbor Macko, who also has a 9-month old), or in front of him, to keep Kole from rattling around the bucket seat like a rock. The result was priceless. Kole assumed his open-mouth, tongue-out pose - like a dog hanging his head out the car window on a ride - which is his international sign of sheer joy.
This was at Park Hill Park across the street from us on Robinson Rd.