G2's Favorite Things (Part 1)

Mama here. As we get closer to G2's first birthday, he's becoming a very funny little dude with very distinct (and often baffling) preferences. Here in no particular order are some of things G2 likes (and pictures I like).

Favorite Animal
I'm going to have to go with lion on this one. This was one of the first animal noises he made (more on that in a later post), and every time we bring out the toy bin, he will dig out this rather mangy looking lion toy we picked up in a dollar bin somewhere. He desperately wanted to pet the one that was lounging near the glass at the zoo. 

Hey. Hey. Hey. Lion. Hey. Lion. Lion. Lion. Hey.

Favorite Song

It's a sad truth that I sing fewer kiddie songs to G2 than I did to LG. When LG was little, I was constantly singing about spiders and lambs and doggies in the window. (By the way, totally conflicted about that song.  It's short and punctuated with the kind of doggie noises that speak to discerning baby sensibilities. Though the whole puppy mill angle makes me a little uneasy.  Don't even get me started on "The Cat Came Back.") G2's world is filled with no less music, it just happens to be dominated by less Wee Sing and Mama-led-melodies and more by Spotify, Frozen and Laurie Berkner.

There are still a few songs that can stop a meltdown in its tracks. When he spent some time in the hospital, "5 Little Monkeys" kept him calm.  Better yet, he acts out the whole song. He bounces when the monkeys bounce, he's got the finger-waggling of the disapproving monkey doctor  down (A monkey doctor or a doctor for monkeys? You decide.) and shakes his head furiously and cracks up when the well meaning physician tries to help some concussed primates.

However, the current favorite is "The Wheels on the Bus." This is a fine choice for an almost one year old. Classic. Hand motions. Public transportation. Wonderful. Unfortunately, this has ruined the song for me. Seriously. Why was this made? And yes, that is Roger Daltrey as the dragon bus driver. We happened upon this before G2 was born, and when LG was sick before he was born we watched that. A lot.

Though nothing gets him grooving like the ABCs. 

Favorite Pet
This is a tie. He loves Lola. I think. If the amount of food he tosses her while he's eating is any indication, he loves her a lot. Though, typically, when you love an animal you don't try to grab fistfuls of fur, or poke your fingers in her eye, or flick her paws. I choose to blame this behavior on a lack of fine motor skills. Lola, who is very old at this point and is generally not fond of wee people, is very patient and has yet to eat him. Win.

Our long-suffering dog.  We don't have any pictures of G2 and Lola interacting. We're usually on heightened alert when they get close to each other so photos take a backseat to making sure he doesn't get eaten.

And there's the fish. I like having fish, though as Matt has mentioned in the past, he's indifferent to our fish wards. We recently restarted our tank with six very pretty guppies. LG seems to to take after her father in her disregard for the fish. G2, however, loves the fish. Mainly, he likes to try to poke his fingers through the hood of the tank and yell nonsense at them. The fish, who are thankfully behind some very thick glass and are always expecting to get fed, are very patient and have yet to eat him. Win.

He's only knocked the hood off once.  Poor fish.

Favorite Toy

He likes just about any toy that blinks and makes music. (I like the ones with volume control. This is not a post about what I like, but I thought that was important to note.) There's the singing guitar, the singing turtle storybook, the various singing phones, and his (singing) office.

You mean your office doesn't also contain a piano?

He equally likes anything with wheels- motorcycles, trucks, cars, shopping carts, baby carriages. He particularly likes a set of cars he has that move via a spinning ball at the center. He does spend some time moving these various vehicles back and forth, however, his favorite pastime is flipping them over spinning the wheels.

By far, the cutest favorite toy he has is his dolly. He got the doll from Santa in his stocking for Christmas. I started putting it in his crib without really thinking about it. I wanted LG to have a lovey when she was a baby to help her sleep, but she never took to the stuffed animals until she was older (and now she sleeps with a rotating entourage of about 4 stuffed animals). G2 didn't seem to care one way or another about the dolly until I started to notice a trend.

He holds her hand while he sleeps. Have you ever seen anything so amazingly cute in your entire life?

NO, YOU HAVEN'T.

Favorite Food

Blueberries. Hands down. Kid would eat his weight in blueberries if we would let him.

There are no blueberries on his tray you say? He ate them all. Come on, it's a cute picture.  Work with me.

Favorite Leisure Activity

It's hard to choose a leisure activity for a little person who sleeps about 15 hours a day. But when G2 wants to relax after a hard day of pseudo-crawling (more on that later), putting peanut butter in his sister's hair (true story), and shouting at fish, he engages in some serious swinging.

His partner in crime.

Unfortunately the buckle on the swing got stuck and I had to cut him out of it. It was all very dramatic; bonus, now he can fling himself out of at will.

With spring on its way (in theory), there will be much swinging!

Ah, the feeling of the wind through his hairs.

So much joy. 

More G2-approved stuff later this week!