Dur dur d'etre bebe

I hope not too many of you remember the early-90s French novelty song "Dur dur d'etre bebe" (English:  "It's so tough to be a baby"), but this has been one of James's themes recently.  He's made so many discoveries lately:  He has agency!  He can change his environment!  He can make decisions!  

Unfortunately, the tall people keep overriding some of his decisions, particularly the ones that involve the street, kitchen knives, or electronics.  Immensely frustrating!  He spends a lot of his time shaking his head "no" right about now.  The "no" gesture doesn't always mean what we mean by "no" -- often, it means "not now," "in a minute," or "I'll do it, but don't expect me to smile at you while it's happening."

Also, Mama is enormous, slow-moving, and not much fun to play with.  This just adds to his frustrations.

Luckily for James, my fabulous mom is visiting right now (and more on this soon), so between Mimi and Dad he has a lot of fun companionship.

We've been telling James about his little brother, and have been reading some books about new babies.  One of them, "Hello Baby," has been a particular hit.  James is particularly impressed with the picture of the new baby crying (mostly because it gives him an opportunity to show us the gesture that goes with the song lyric "The baby on the bus goes waa, waa, waa").  Not sure the books have really prepared him for what's about to happen, but I'm sure I'm not prepared for it either on some level so I guess we're even.