The Brattons

I haven't posted in four months. That's because I was washing cloth diapers.



Ok, that's not true. I did wash cloth diapers, but they didn't take that much time. I said I would let people know how cloth diapering was going, but I really don't want my first post back after four months to be about methods of containing infant bodily waste, exciting though that may be.

So what has changed since November? Mostly Daniel. See how much bigger he is than last time?

9 month old Daniel eating a snack with his puppy

This is what displeasure looks like.

The biggest change in the last few weeks has been his sudden interest in literature. He's always liked books, and we've been reading to him since the day we brought him home from the hospital (The minute, actually. We walked in the door and my Mom picked him up, carried him to the easy chair, and started reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar.' I remember she told him the caterpillar's name was Daniel and he started bawling.)

Daniel's first week of literacy. And life.

So we had been reading to him regularly, but we didn't let him play with the board books on his own because he just chewed on them. We really didn't want them to all be reduced to pulp. Every once in a while he would get a hold of a book somehow, give it a few good gnaw marks, and then we would take it away. But a couple of weeks ago I found him on the floor with a book and *miracle!* he was turning the pages and looking at the words and pictures. Milestone! Huzzah!

The way Daniel used to read.

Daniel actually looking at a book

After determining that this was his new way of treating books and not just a fluke I put a few board books on the bottom of the bookshelf. Now his small library is one of his favorite places to play. I'm still on the lookout for backsliding and book chewing (he still eats paper bags, after all)...

yummy.

... but for now he is free to read 'Go Dog Go' and 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' whenever he likes. And 'Islamic Civilization.' Because if the child can sneak into my room 3 times in a row and locate that particular book out of a series of eight identical volumes then he must really want to read about Caliphs and mosques. And who am I to stop him. Besides, it's so funny to watch his little hammy hands so carefully turning such text rich pages!

Baby's first cultural studies.