Alishatheninth

not content to just lie or sit. When awake (which is an increasing amount of the time, especially if they sleep well at night like mine does), wants to be doing something. Would make a terrible McGuffin - hard to transport and very loud.

when he crawls he makes a constant stream of delighted grunts, so if you go round the corner and wait for him it sounds like a wild boar is coming.

obsessed with strength and cardio training. He crawls, he does pushups, he sometimes wails for his hands to be hooked onto a bench so he can practice standing (and increasingly he likes to show that he can stand with only one hand steadying him, he will soon be a toddler). If I had the exercise ethic of this baby I'd be Olympian.

the only time he does just sit there is when other kids are playing and he can watch with blankly envious eyes. His dad took him to the zoo and he watched the other kids the whole time ("we have animals at home, papa"). He spends workdays at nursery with lots of other kids of different ages. The older ones treat him basically like a pet cat, only no cat would tolerate the amount of mauling that he seems to actively appreciate. His favourite person in the world is his big sister, who he finds hilarious and emulates whenever possible, for example in the game Ram Mama's Stomach With Your Head While She Lies On The Floor.

Babbles loudly and constantly, totally indifferent to the fact that nobody understands him or that anyone else is trying to have a conversation. Will play with a dexterity toy while shouting at the top of his substantial lungs. This does sound like words, in a Potemkin-village sort of way.

after five months of obediently eating homemade vegetable purees (and formula), he has developed a palate and now only wants to eat pizza, pasta with tomato-based sauce, chips with ketchup, Gruyere cheese (not cheddar), cake, and wild strawberries (do not waste his time with the cultivated versions). He did consider a junior version of a tomato-based curry edible, but not the adult version with chilli and tamarind. Theoretically this makes going out easier as he can eat proper food, however I do sometimes miss the time it was possible to be sure he had eaten some greens instead of throwing a lot of broccoli florets on the floor.

force of destruction. Must be prevented from attacking the wifi router. Pulled apart one of his toys, a wooden one that has probably served several generations already, and happily waved around the bit with a nail sticking out until I took it away and he cried.

starts whining for reasons which are increasingly difficult to determine, because it used to be hunger / nappy change / tired, but now it could be "do not have correct toy" or "want to play Ram Mama's Stomach". As I recall this gets worse until at least age 2-3, when they develop some ability to communicate more sophisticated desires.

loves baths. This might be a my-children thing, but on weekends this summer he often gets three baths a day out in the garden, just because there aren't many other activities you can do with a baby and the days feel very, very long, so letting him splash around for half an hour seems like a good deal.