Check it Out

Did I ever tell you? When we went to Mexico, there were several street vendors who knew some catchy English phrases. Michael wore his bucket/boonie hat to keep the sun off, so they would call to him, "Hey, Gilligan!" (Now imagine it with a Spanish accent. Go ahead. Say it out loud. :) ) They also tried to catch our attention by saying, "Hey, honeymooners!" Michael was also growing his goatee out, so the best one was, "Hey, Senor Whiskers!" But the best one for the purposes of this post was the invitation to "Check it out!"

Darwin is starting to really check everything out. I have been worried about him because we don't have a mobile for his crib. I wanted to make one that hangs from the ceiling and had the dual purpose of something to look at for Darwin, as well as a room decoration. But, I didn't know how to get it to stay up safely in a rented apartment. Luckily, we discovered something else that has really caught his attention (see #8 especially). A few things actually.

1) The Michael Jordan poster and Argentina flag.
They're hanging on the wall behind the rocking chair, so Darwin loves to "check it out" when he's being burped. It's really some of the first things I caught him looking at.

2) His baby gym toys.

He's started to try and hit the toys every once in a while, which is super fun! We *think* he's doing it on purpose.

3) His rocker toys.

He just got this rocker from the ladies in our ward at his shower. It rocks (pun intended).

4) The TV, especially football and basketball.

Wowza can he get glued on that thing easily! For someone whose attention span is only supposed to be like 15 seconds, the tube can blow that record to pieces.

5) Lights. Anywhere. Any color.

He loved the Christmas tree lights. Now he loves floor and table lamps, as well as looking at/out the window during the day.

6) Daddy's face.

Every day when Michael comes home he and Darwin get to hang out for a while and Darwin studies Daddy's face. Sometimes he smiles and sometimes he just takes it all in, wide-eyed as can be.

7) Pictures, as in paintings.

Two of the coolest times that Darwin has smiled--and a couple of the very first times he ever did smile--were once when I kissed him on the cheek, and then when I showed him a picture of Jesus from the Gospel Art book.

8) His photos.





This is my favorite thing ever, and the thing that makes me feel not so bad about having no mobile for him. I just put up some twine and got some mini-clothespins and clipped up some photos that we had extras of. I added the wooden soccer ball, baseball glove, and football that I found at the Dollar Store, and voila! There's his one and only room decoration made by Mom. The best part? He LOVES it!! It's over his changing table and he doesn't even notice the wipes, the old diaper, the new diaper, the diaper cream, NOTHING, because he is so focused on looking and SMILING at his pictures. (He seems especially focused on the picture of him and his daddy, which is cute.) I texted Michael this morning and told him he can have dibs on changing him in the morning this weekend because that's the best time and the best place to get him really smiley. Also, he kicks his legs around like crazy when he gets all happy. Cutest thing ever. Man, I love that little guy. This almost makes changing his diaper a pleasure! And that's sayin' somethin'.

Check it out! He's checkin' himself out! :)