I know he said it.

Let's not quibble over nasals vs. stops. He was trying to say "Mama" and we all know it. Actually I have about a minute of footage of his practicing the bilabial consonant with an "ah" vowel. He really tried on "Da-Da" too. Totally unexpected, but I think the parental reaction may get us a repeat.

Do you know something, Schroeder?

We sort of hoped our kid would be musical. Turns out we had no idea.

Getting into Mischief

Special thanks to Aunt Julie for her comment. Here are some post-haircut pictures of Paul. He's an adventuresome little chap. He's discovering a whole new world of things he has to stand up to experience. The top of the coffee table, for example, used to hold such treasures. Why Mommy moved the picture frames to the top shelf of the book case is a hard one for Paul to figure out. And now for the pictures.

Paul's a crawler, alright!













He's still fascinated by books.











"Like my toys?"

(Paul LOVES the truck from this set. I haven't taken the three other cars out of the box yet--mostly because it's so cute to watch him crawl excitedly over to the box like "Oh boy! More cars!")







Paul very much appreciates the advantages of being able to stand up to play.













And he enjoyed his carrots.

Dump Truck Ride

Paul has a good time with his dump truck. Here he is getting a ride down the hall.

Crawling Paul

Paul is an official crawler. He stayed in the "Crawlers" nursery Wednesday night and held his own quite well against the older, but not too much bigger, little boys on that side. We've already had our share of crashes, but Paul isn't one to sit and pout about banging his head on the floor. He'll cry initially but squirm to get down when I pick him up to assure him everything is okay. Apparently the danger of the floor is worth braving for the sheer freedom it is to roam around on it.

We're having a great time getting to know this little guy. His favorite pastimes include eating paper and sitting on Daddy's shoulders. We encourage the latter, but he has to sneak in order to indulge in the former. There were a couple of no-nos under a table in the study which I blocked off with a chair. As I sat glibly reconciling financial information, naively assuming that my son was playing with something normal, like a toy, I heard a high-pitched cry indicating that Paul was in need of immediate assistance. I turned around to discover that he had gotten stuck on the lower rungs of the chair in his attempt to investigate said no-nos and was suspended between earth and sky with his knees about half an inch off the ground. If I could only make his toys seem like something he wasn't supposed to have. . .

Well, today's headline is the snow. Paul wasn't exactly dying to frolic and romp in it like the Bob Jones students, but he tolerated it well, and it certainly inspired curiosity. He, like his parents, was glad Daddy could be here to enjoy it since the bank decided to open an hour later due to the inclement weather.

Sneaky Paul

Okay, this all took place on the same day on three separate occasions. Paul would be playing happily on the floor on a blanket, and I'd be loading the dishwasher or something, and I'd come in to find him ignoring all his cool toys in favor of (respectively) his own cave, a burkha, or a mini canyon. This was the day I realized that he will no longer confine himself to a blanket and have hereafter opted for the rug--to which he, incidentally, will not long be confined either.

Life with Paul

Paul is really enjoying being home with Mommy all the time. At least, I'm sure he must be; Mommy is sure loving it. Crawling is in sight. Paul will not remain on the floor long without popping up on his hands and knees. Then he'll rock back and forth like, "There's got to be more to it than this." If he sees something he wants, he gets to it somehow though. For example, if a toy (especially his truck) is in front of him but out of reach, he'll pop up, stare at it, rock, lunge forward, land on his tummy, and wave his arms and legs around as if to say, "Hmm. Seems like this should work." He'll catch on.

Now for the pictures.



Paul before our walk to the duck pond. Turns out it was like 65 degrees, so he was a tad overdressed. But don't you love the hat?










My friend from college, Carolyn Jones, was in town for Christmas. We had the same Thursday class schedule our first semester, we both changed our majors from church music to speech, we traveled on drama teams 2 consecutive semesters, we were engaged the same summer, she got married the month after I did, and her due date for Samantha was 4 days after Paul's. Here's Paul trying to instruct Samantha that pictures are serious matters, not to joke around about.



Here's Paul in his sweats with the remote.















Paul learning the fine art of rough-housing on the floor with Daddy.










Paul's early crawling attempts.

Christmas Pictures

Papa and Haddon















Christmas with Jeffcotts












Where's Paul?














"I'm getting into the Christmas thing."












Christmas with the Crockers

"This is nice. How does it work?"














"I just love taking walks."













"Can you do this?"














"What should I build?"














Paul loves the baby in the mirror!

Pictures of the Jumperoo

Rainforest Jumperoo

All right. I know you've seen cute video of Paul in the past, but this, you will agree, is the best one yet. Okay, Jon and I decided to give Paul his Christmas present early so he can get an extra month's worth of enjoyment out of it. We picked it up at Target last evening and put it together for him. It was right before bedtime when he finally got to ride in it, but he still had some quality time bouncing. See, the one in the church nursery doesn't have batteries (for obvious reasons), but this one lights up and plays music if it moves. So, Paul figures out right away that when he bounces, the toy lights up, a song plays, and the elephant makes a sound. This was fascinating. He would pause and stare at the thing until it stopped blinking, beeping, and elephanting (or however elephants go). Then when it was quiet, he'd wave his arms and move around so the toy would rock and the show would start again. We happened to catch one of these cycles with the camera. I'm thinking of submitting it to Fisher Price in case they want it for a commercial.

Gentlemanbug outfit

Here are some more photos of Paul taken shortly after his Saturday night bath. He's wearing his "gentlemanbug" pajamas. The hat was unbelievably cute, but it really did a number on his hair. We resorted to the blow dryer before Sunday School, but it didn't keep him from looking like one of those pencils you twirl to relieve stress.

The other picture is one I sneaked while they weren't looking.

Thumb story

Paul has found his thumb. It's super cute. You'll want the sound for this video. I apologize for the footage of the wall. I don't remember doing that.

Anyway. We thought Paul was progressing pretty well with consistently finding his thumb when he wanted it, but we had no idea just how well until this morning after church. . .

We were talking with some folks who were noting things about Paul like how much hair he has and how he's so much bigger than many 3-month-old babies, and how he looks so grown up, etc., etc. Well, he began to put his right thumb in his mouth. Jon reached over and pulled his hand away playfully. Paul grinned at him and popped his thumb right back in his mouth. Jon pulled it away and held his hand. Paul, grinned even bigger and proceeded to stick his other thumb in his mouth--demonstrating not only his great manual dexterity, but also his control over the situation.

Random Pictures

"I love this car seat."












"Whoa. That's a NICE camera!"











"Mommy. They're not supposed to know I cry."











Paul likes to play on the floor (for a little while).











El Pato Pablo

Paul recently noticed that his mobile over his crib is a pretty fun toy. He'll look at it and try to sing with it sometimes.

Growing up

Paul's getting to be a big boy. Here he is hanging on for dear life in his swing.









Aunt Jamie likes to do his hair.












Here he is in his cute bug overalls from Aunt Cheryl and his giraffe shoes from Mrs. Jill.















A couple of guys from the 2005 Spanish Mission Team showed Paul some pictures from the summer. Note the shirt. It was a gift from the Casillas twins.














And last, but not least, here's a little number I've entitled "Duck Hunter."