he said “da”

Today, while I was feeding the boy his dinner in the high chair in the kitchen, I called Scott on speakerphone, to check and see how close he was to home.

That’s pretty much a nightly ritual. One or the other of us calls — Are you on the bus? I’m still on the bridge. I’ll be home in 20. Etc. Although tonight, fortunately for tired, mucous-y, Rudolf-the-raw-red-nosed me, the answer was “I’m on the stairs.”

Jonah heard the amplified voice and said “Da!”

I pushed the high chair to the kitchen doorway with the boy facing out so that he would see his daddy as soon as he came through the front door.

Door opens. Boy starts wiggling and laughing with joy. “Da?” I whisper, encouragingly.

“Da! Da!” and another “Da!”

Tadaaaaaaaa!

He’s a genius. And he loves his daddy.

(Note, I’m transitioning here to a sleep update. If you, dear reader, are well and truly sick of these, scroll down to the three asterisks.)

We’re on a new bedtime routine where I nurse him earlier, preferably before his bath, and he spends most of the evening with his dad. I try to get the boy fed so they can just play when Scott gets home, though tonight I hadn’t had it together to defrost a cube of veg, so Da took over dinner duties. Then there were books, the bath, quieter books, and then, instead of me singing to him before putting him down, the last two nights Scott did it. Good for us I think to have Jonah associate more than one singer with bedtime.

On that topic, he’s still only fussing a few seconds total after we put him down, though we’re also still struggling with that 4-ish a.m. wake-up. This morning he was screaming like he was on fire. Scott went in and held and talked to him and put him back down.

No, he is not that easily convinced. But eventually, he did go back to sleep and again, like previous similar occasions, he woke up around six-ish in a positively delightful mood. I think we could all do without the 4-ish melt-down. Hopefully it will stop one day.

His naps are still akimbo. No morning nap the last couple of days, except three days ago when his one nap of the day was at 10 a.m. Some days with no naps a-tall. Yesterday he stood and cried in his crib during both “naps,” and then in frustration I threw him in the car and headed to Tumble and Tea — where I was meeting a friend and her daughter; it’s much better in these situations to get out among people. He, of course, fell asleep in the car and I tried to transfer him to the stroller so I could go meet my friend that woke him up and then I wanted to kill myself.

Today I got him to fall asleep in the car and so I parked and sat in Trader Joe’s parking lot for 1-1/2 hours. No risking a transfer two days in a row. I made some calls, read a few pages in the manual for my DSLR that I’m still trying to learn how to use. Played the free versions of Tetris and Wheel of Fortune on my cell phone.

* * *

Jonah’s language is definitely expanding. He’s been playing with new sounds. He’s got “Pah” which doesn’t seem to have an association yet. And “Liyah” which may have something to do with going down the slide, and anything fun like a slide.

The “Gah,” which he shouted so emphatically at the fish in the waiting room at the doctor’s on Thursday got even more air time on Friday when we met our friends Elina and Lazlo at the new Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

Another no-nap day, so the already excitable boy was therefore completely, utterly, movie-star dramatic, adrenaline-fueled, BESIDE HIMSELF looking at those fish. GAH GAH GAH GAH! he shouted, waved his arms, and tried to escape the stroller, ergo, or my arms pretty much nonstop for three hours.

Inside the gigantic, multi-storied rainforest dome, where only a metal railing about 4 feet high stops anyone from diving into the pool full of huge, black, lumbering fish (if fish could lumber) below, I had a ridiculously challenging time trying to prevent Jonah from leaping over. I was holding him so he could see and he was gripping the top bar, pulling with all his might. He has a lot of might for such a little guy.

The man next to us accidentally dropped his facility map into the water. The fish devoured it.

As we traveled up the ramp to the higher levels of the forest canopy we saw more and more butterflies. One lit on the railing next to us, so big, if it had landed on Jonah’s nose, it would have covered most of his face. I held him back from petting the brown fuzzy wing with its one big “eye.” The butterfly took off, open wings revealing shades of sky blue on the top sides.

At the top, an elevator takes you down to underneath that pool of map-hungry fish, into the aquarium.

Was it good?

Jonah says: GAH GAH GAH GAH!!!!!!! — i.e.: Yes.

We also visited the “living roof” and then on our way out we stopped by the white alligator, glowing in near darkness, perched on black rocks in a recessed area of the floor, veiled by mists. Quiet, elegant, ghostly.

We are very lucky our friend Elina has a membership that allows her to bring guests because the place is not cheap. But it’s well and truly fabulous. A beautiful building, great stuff for Jonah to Gah over.

It struck me that day that becoming a mother has turned me into a tourist. Not the poorly dressed camera toting kind (though I am pretty poorly dressed most days and I’d do well to actually tote my darn camera a little more often). The fun kind — what they like to call a “staycationer” in an economic downturn — taking in what my hometown has to offer. There are so very many sights — not just the kid-focused stuff — I’ve never seen even though I’ve lived in the Bay Area for 21 years.

The next day, Scott and I took Jonah to the Oakland Zoo. Another first, for all of us. Of course he loved it. Bonus attraction: They had a petting zoo with super sweet and friendly goats. We’ll be back. We bought a membership that allows us to bring friends, and gives us reciprocal privelges into other zoos, including Los Angeles (hello, grandparents and auntie!) and San Francisco.

Not that we have to go anywhere. The boy can get all Gah-ed up over the flowers in the front garden too. He’s into all sorts of experiences. But it is fun for me to have this new reason to get out and see new and different places more often.

Where next? Fairyland, Habitot, The Discovery Museum, Alcatraz…