His Mother's Son

As most of you know, Vanessa spent most of her adult life traveling around the world. When I posted these pictures of Nate and his globe beachball to the family email list under the title, "His Mother's Son," I got the following reactions:

Vanessa:
Nah, if he was REALLY my son he'd be looking at Africa!

Patricia:
He must be such a disappointment to you.

Katherine:
Judging by the wrinkles on his forehead and the location of the globe, I think he's looking for secret prisons in Afghanistan. Aww....(but he could just be memorizing the capitals of former Soviet Republics, which would also qualify as his mother's son).

Elizabeth:
Maybe he is just a normal well-adjusted baby who likes round things made out of plastic. Has anyone stopped to consider that, as unlikely as it may be?

Mary Jo (feeling defensive, since I don't believe in Baby Einstein:
round balls made of plastic with interesting shapes and colors. In my defense, I only bought this after I had exhausted CVS, Rite-Aid, K-mart, Duane Reade, Walgreen's, Pathmark. It was amazon or Walmart.

Vanessa:
clearly you haven't spent enough time with my supergenius baby or you wouldn't even contemplate such heresy.

Chris:
I believe that about 34 years ago, there were published studies showing that given a choice between colorful but simple patterns and more intricate black and white patterns, infants preferred to look at the intricate patterns. The globe is therefore (if this research holds) more interesting than a beach ball. Maybe it was only 34 years ago that I started being interested in these things.

Brent:
I remember reading that study about a year after it came out and determining it was entirely true.

When Nate Is Not Turning Over

Nate does not spend all his time trying to sit up, playing with the baby in the mirror, and turning over. He takes advantage of all his tummy time to examine patterns more closely.

Rolling Over and Tummy Time

Since I saw him last Thursday, Nate has completely mastered rolling from his back to his stomach. He rolls so fast that I haven't been able to photograph the process. When we put him down on his back, he rolls over onto his stomach immediately. He seems to love rolling more than he necessarily loves tummy time.

Favorite Toys

People are Nate's favorite toys, but  he also likes some inanimate objects.  Thus far the cats Captain Haddock and Barnacle do not qualify.  The only times I have seen him notice them was when I was carrying him in the Bjorn facing out.