Hurry Up Or You’ll Miss It: 6 Months Old

I have to hurry. Naptime is by no means a guarantee of peace and quiet. Today is Fresco’s six monurthday. He still has no teeth – no one is surprised – but he can sit up and almost crawl. He laughs when you chuck him under the chin and when you eat his cheeks. He is affectionate like a 19 year old boy who has just attended his first long island iced tea night at the campus pub. In fact, I do not want to be anywhere near Fresco the first time he gets drunk. Note to self: save enough money for university education OUTSIDE hometown.

It must be strange, being the second child. Always vying for attention. Getting a sense, somehow, that you are following a pretty tough act. Developing strategies very quickly to get yourself some applause too. Fresco uses shouting and adorableness as his weapons of applause-getting. He has buckets of charisma. He uses it first, but if no one notices, he turns up the volume. If you look at him and talk to him while he’s shouting, he usually stops and grins at you.

Sometimes he roars. Sometimes when he roars I remember how I roared when I birthed him and I wonder if the scientologists are right about silent birthing being best but then I remember that he is a Taurus and I would rather believe in astrology than scientology.

I was reminded this morning that he is a Taurus as I attempted to wrestle him into a booster seat so that I could see if he fit. Unfortunately, at the same time, he was trying to get the newspaper on the table. Guess who won.

We both did! House of Compromise!

Sometimes I think I ought to record milestones but on the other hand, the only time this will matter is in 30 years when he has his own kids and calls me, desperate, “Mom, when did I cut my first tooth? Because apparently age of first tooth is hereditary” and I will have to say, “Sorry, son, you were 10 months old, now leave me alone I’m watching 10 years of back-recordings of TV I was too tired to watch when you were a kid.”

This part of Fresco’s life, though it still feels faintly miraculous because he is alive and didn’t used to be, is not the most interesting to me. Maybe he knows I am thinking that. Maybe that’s why he shouts so much.

Or maybe there’s another reason. I guess I’ll just have to wait to find out.