Allow me to introduce . . .

my son. See, when babies are little, they don’t have a whole lot in the way of personality. I mean, some babies cry more than others, some want more attention and some want to be left alone more, some smile a lot and some are more thoughtful. Some don’t mind strangers and some cry if anyone but Mommy is holding them.

Recently, Lego has become a lot more capable of using his body to do what he wants it to do, and as he gets better at this, his personality is starting to shine through. So, let me tell you about my little boy.

1. Lego loves people. At home, he wants to be doing whatever we’re doing, as close to us as possible. At the grocery store or at church, he looks and smiles at anyone who smiles at him. Once, a little girl slightly older than him crawled over to say hello, and he got so excited that he went up on his hands and toes and bounced and yelled at her. I’d never seen him go up on hands and toes before that. The next day, he was starting to try to crawl. I like to think she inspired him. Whereas Lego’s cousin cried when anyone but her parents held her for much of her first year, Lego spent most of Thanksgiving Day soaking up the attention his grandpa (and others) gave him. When we have company, everyone remarks on how good he is, and while he is often good, Lego is always at his best when there are lots of people doting on him. When nobody’s paying attention to him, he can get a little cranky.

2. Lego loves a challenge. He spends much of his crawling time trying to get under his dad’s computer desk, even though we always move him when he gets there because of the cables and outlets. He also tries to crawl under my desk, onto a wooden ledge that’s two inches off the ground. He’ll try to get his whole body onto the ledge and then over my feet. If there’s anything at all in the room, he wants to get over it. This includes people lying on the floor, the air mattress (he can get up on that), his diaper bag, or a book. Going around is not an option. The picture below shows him as he’s just finished climbing over his dad’s legs, just because they were there.

If we are sitting on the floor near him, he will try to climb us as high as he can, grabbing clothing or hair as leverage. He always wants the toy that’s just out of reach or the object I won’t let him have.

When Lego learned to roll over, he spent much of a whole day working at it before he got it right. Not only that, but he rolled from back to front first, which is apparently harder, simply because he wanted to get onto his stomach so badly. He knew, even then, that he’d have to be on his stomach in order to get around. Which leads me to my next point.

3. Lego loves to move. He will protest if he’s been held on our laps for too long without being allowed to move. He cries if we are changing his diaper and won’t let him roll over and crawl away. He hates it when we hold him still to change his bandages. At his six-month checkup, his pediatrician told me that he was “highly motivated to move” and that he would be an “early mover.” At seven months, he was army crawling all over, getting into everything. Maybe I’ll have to get him interested in cross country or swimming or something exhausting. Hehehe.

4. Lego loves to talk. I knew this from day one. I remember my mom remarking that it was highly unusual how many different sounds he made as a new baby and how he was always making them. He doesn’t cry a whole lot, but he sure does talk and yell. I’ve even heard him talk in his sleep. This is only really a problem when we’re at church and we need him to be quiet. I look forward to the day when he will understand me when I tell him to shush because it’s the prayer.

Anyway, that’s Lego in a nutshell. He keeps us laughing, that’s for sure—him and the crazy bugs in his brain.