Every 3,000 Miles

Like all good fathers, I've already discussed with Walt the importance of routine maintenance on vehicles and durable goods.  I guess he took me seriously, because Ginger took this picture of him under his crib a few days ago.  I can only guess that he was checking the springs and railings.  I'm so proud of him. 

Actually, he rolled under there.  He rolls everywhere.  On this his nine-month birthday post, there is still no progress on the mobility front.  He sits, reaches, pulls, grabs, kicks, flops and rolls, but he still hasn't crawled that first step.  On the other hand, Walty has been quite vocal as of late.  He will talk himself to sleep and talk to himself while he's in the car and talk to us when he's demanding his dinner.  It's extremely cute, as are most things he does, but, again, we are rather biased.

Another more recent development is clapping.  He will, on occasion, mimic us clapping for him.  He also likes to "help" Mommy clap by putting his hands outside hers while she claps.  He still likes trash better than toys.  If there is a piece of cardboard or discarded paper in a room, he can usually roll to it pretty quickly if he doesn't get distracted by a certain little black and white dog.  While the lack of mobility has certainly dampened any hopes we have about professional sports, that hasn't stopped us from trying.  Walt likes his miniature basketball.  Thanks to some coaching fom Gram and continued practice, he has learned to roll the ball to us.  Really, he just throws it straight down, and it usually ends up bouncing off of his extremely chubby legs in our general direction.  But he seems to understand that when we roll the ball to him, he's supposed to get it back to us.  He should be tops in the assists category.

All in all, he's a perfectly wonderful little boy.  I just got back today from my first extended trip away since he was born, and I must say that I missed him (and his mother) dearly.  I can't wait unitl he can go on guy trips with me.  This particular weekend centered around an event that didn't start until after his bedtime, however, and it was very loud.  If you haven't guessed, yes, I went to a NASCAR race this weekend.  There, I said it.  I'm a race fan.  Hopefully, I still get credit for being a good dad if a bit of a redneck. 

Check out the new birthday pic in the Birthday album and look out for an album of pictures of Walt's trip to the zoo.  It should be coming soon.  Alas, Ginger won't let me post an album of my race pictures.  Two words: pit passes.   Yee haw.