Sparkle butt.
When I put him to bed the other night, his jammies glowed in the dark. He had stars and other twinkly things all over his chubby little baby body. He had no idea how cute this was. After nursing him, I held him in front of the crib and he put his head on my shoulder, which means he is tired and will not fight sleep. I enjoyed the cuddle for about 3 seconds, and then he pushed me away and dove toward his bed. So I put him down and watched his glowy baby butt for another second.

The boy likes boobs.
I might feel embarassed later about posting this one, but I also don't want to forget it.

Lately when he is breastfeeding, he will pull away, see the nipple that feeds him, flick it with his finger, and then giggle. Sometimes he will go back to feeding, other times he just wants to flick it, and I have to distract him.

Let's hope no one was watching.
He is obsessed with mouths. Early this morning, he took a ball and shoved it at my mouth. A sucker for cute Will moments even when they promote germ sharing and look very weird, I bit down on the ball and pretended to be chewing on it, shaking my head back and forth like a golden retriever. He cackled. My mouth dropped the ball, he reinserted it.

Whenever he sees our new little daycare baby, he tries to stick his finger into her open, wet mouth.

Mouths - fascinating.

Tiny violin.
Previously I wrote about how Will is lacking the things his brother got -- cafe visits, swim lessons, stroller rides on city streets. And it sounded like I was feeling typical motherly guilt for not giving him the perks Mr. Firsborn had.

But I know Will is happy. In fact, he is less needy than Charlie was and is now, and often pushes me away to play near the big kids. He loves to help open the front door for them (while being held by me) and to wave out the window at them. He sits in his clip-on chair at the toddler table and eats with them, imitating their noises. When they color, he stabs paper with his crayon.

So it is not Will I am sad for, but myself. (Waaa, I know. My blog.) When I let myself really think of it, I am regretful that I didn't savor all his baby moments -- or even half of them -- as I did his brother's. When I did savor a moment, it was cut short by a screaming kid or my realization that I needed to start lunch or the smell of a nasty diaper. There are millions of cute things he did that I know I missed -- though I'm not sure what they were. Cuz I missed them.

Which is why every day this month, I am going to savor at least one baby moment.

The end of babyhood, part 3.
When Will was a baby, I would sing "one little, two little, three little baby boys" while bouncing him on my hip to the rhythm, and then put him down to sleep. But I stopped doing it awhile back because every time I started to sing, he would shake his head no.

Today I went to put him down for his nap, and as I stood in front of his crib, he started to bend and then straighten his knees, causing his body to bounce up and down, while saying "ahhhhh." I realized he was asking me to sing for him, so I did. Every time I stopped, he bounced and said "ahhh" for me again, and he got a good 5 minutes of singing. When I finally put him down, he cried like his little heart was broken. Ten seconds later, he was out cold.

The end of babyhood, part 2.
The stuff I'll always remember.
Today when he was nursing, he looked up at me, made my eye contact, and then tried to stick his chubby little index finger into my mouth. I shut my mouth tightly. He made great attempts to force it in.

Later, while still nursing, he put his baby foot in my face. I kissed it. He let it fall, and then raised it to my mouth again.

The end of his babyhood
Today Will is 11 months old. He has one month left of being a baby, and I am sad. So, every day for the next month, I will post something babyish that he did that day, and that I am going to fully appreciate.

Today I handed him a yellow school bus and let him watch me put a Little People in its driver's seat. Then I added another Little People, and then two more until the bus was full. I pushed the bus in his direction one inch. He picked up a Little People and used it to bang the other People until they were all lying on their sides.