Age Old Question

"How old is he?" She asked after waving and cooing at Critter.
"He's a year old." I replied. "Actually, he's thirteen months old." I corrected myself and then cringed after hearing myself say that.

I get the question a lot. Ever since he was born, whoever took an interest in Critter asked. Everybody, strangers, that coo and caw at babies want to know how old they are. Maybe people are in awe of their tininess and want to know what age this little size is.

With infants, age is defined in months. "He's two months old." "She's 5 months old." Etc., Etc. After the kid turns the magical ONE year old, people still say the age of the kid in months. They do it up to two years old. Pre-motherhood, I didn't understand why after a year, the age is still in months. AND after becoming a mother, I still don't understand why we're saying a child's age in months.

I also ask mothers that I come across, the age of their children. It drives me nuts when they respond in months. "She's 19 months." It takes me a while to figure out the age. I have to stop. Think. And count on my fingers (without them seeing) 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Oh, the kid is a year and 7 months! Why didn't they just say so? It's easier for me to hear a child's age as one year and X months than just months.  I understand it better. Am I the only one that gets confused when they hear a child's age in months? It's like military time. People use it in the real world (outside the military) when they really don't need to. When I hear military time, the abacus comes out and I have to subtract 12 just to figure out the time and then wonder why the idiots used milatary time.

I'm not doing that again. When questioned, I'm not going to say Critter's age in months. I refuse to. I'm  going to respond One Year One month.

On Sunday, Critter was 13 months old. Slept at the park to celebrate.

In this photo, he's awake and  One year One month old.

Music to My Ears

 Mamma Mia, I've been heartbroken.

Critter's first words were.....
....nope, not Mama BUT Dada. Since he started jabbering away, that's all I heard aaaaaaall freakin' day.
Dada, dada, dada, dada, dada, dada, dada, dada, dada, dada.

I would sit him down.
"English Lesson #1. Mama. Say it. Mama. Look at my lips." He'd try to squirm away and I'd sit him down again."Pay attention. Mama. Your lips need to come together and then separate. Ma Ma." He'd say, "Dada"

I gave up.
He did finally come around to saying Mama but not as often as Dada and only when he needed food. SIGH! I'm just a tool for that kid.

This morning, I was in the kitchen making breakfast and I heard Critter wake and say "Mama"!
That was the first word out of his mouth! I ran into the bedroom, Hubby was laying in bed with Critter. "He woke up and that's the first thing he said!" I shrieked excitedly.
It melted my heart.

Mama and her Critter

I'm Mama!

Mommy Scorsese

Remember when you'd have to sit for days/weeks and have a portrait done. You'd get the children all dressed up in their best outfit, commission an artist and after the oil paint dried, you'd have a keepsake to hang on the wall.

This is NOT Critter.

Of course you don't remember. We weren't alive when the only way to capture moments was to sit for Rembrandt or Manet.

We can take pictures till our hearts content. We don't like them, we delete. We want to alter them, hello Photoshop. I probably have thousands of pictures of Critter. The kid is only a year old and he's well photographed. Sure there are lots of pics that are blurry, but hey, I can't bring myself to delete them.

It's not that obvious here, but this photo is very blurry. But he's still sooooo cute.

Not only do I have lots of pics of Critter, but I'm obviously shooting an epic movie. I have hours and hours and hours of Critter footage. Every trick Critter does, I try to pull out the video camera and capture. Sometimes, I'm not quick enough and I try to get him to do a retake. He's not an accommodating actor because most times he's moved on and doesn't want to do a re-shoot. He must be in SAG. Damn, union.

So much happens during the day that I want to tape. It's just me and Critter most times, so there's no one else to hold the camera and press record.  I have a tiny little tripod (from my pre-critter stage career). I set it up, hit record, and viola, we can both be in the home movie. We're like the Barrymores, it's all in the family.

Lights, Camera, Action.
The first video I recorded using the tripod, was with Critter (6 months old) laying on our bed and me running up to tickle him. Two minutes of me running back and forth, tickling, and Critter laughing.

WEEEELL, I'm not Martin Scorsese! I completely messed up the frame (that's movie lingo). I cut off Critter's head!! It's two minutes my pudgy legs running to a headless giggling baby.

I'm not posting the video, It's really creepy. But here's a still from it. There wasn't a "Take 2"