The Gaga Diaries

Can anyone translate baby? I’m stumped by this one tonight…

Recently this has been Baby Gaga’s go-to pose when he spots a camera in the room. You. Snap my picture. Now.  It’s like he’s giving whole new meaning to the phrase “point & shoot”. 

Did you know that Baby Gaga is Mexican? Well, if you want to get technical, he is Mexican by relation.  You see, his two cousins came to our family through adoption and are full-blooded Mexican-American.  Naturally my whole non-Mexican family has decided to adopt this heritage as our own since that’s just how we roll.  We are a family who loves any reason to celebrate, remember? So this weekend we threw our first Cinco de Mayo fiesta NOT to celebrate Mexican Independence Day (that’s not until September), but to celebrate the victory of the outnumbered Mexican army over the French in the David & Goliath-like Battle de Puebla in 1862.  

There was authentic (and some not-so-authentic) food like enchiladas, pozole, guacamole, Mexican casserole, tres leches, sombrero cookies, and of course, margaritas.  None of those for Baby Gaga though! 

A piñata.

Games like “General Zaragoza Says.” 

And best of all, a real-life Battle of Puebla reenactment where the little people played the Mexican army and the adults played France.  Don’t be surprised if the authenticity of this reenactment lands it on PBS or something someday soon! *Note: in the video, I meant to say the army on the right is FRANCE, not Mexico twice. 

¡Viva México!

At 16 months of age, Baby Gaga has yet to master the ‘spaghetti spin’ with a fork and spoon, but he still manages to employ his own efficient methods for downing the starchy goodness.  

If Baby Gaga comes over to you and sticks his rump in the air, here’s a hint about what he expects you to do next.  Future Olympic tumbler? 

I would easily say that Baby Gaga’s favorite food is tomato.  In any given week it is guaranteed that he will pack away a few pounds of tomato whether they be in raw form, pico de gallo, salsa, you name it.  He can’t get enough.  So I guess it shouldn’t have come as any surprise that he loved, and I mean LOVED, his first taste of tomato soup that he had on this dreary first day of May.  If he could have taken a bath in it, oh wait… he kind of did. And he got one with soap and water right after too!

There have been some developments in the way Baby Gaga plays with toilet paper these days.  As you may recall, he used to just enjoy TPing the bathroom.  But today he took it to a whole new level.  I swear I had nothing to do with this.  He pulled these out of the drawer and stacked them up all by himself! 

Dear Baby Gaga,

It’s happened.  You’re at that age where you don’t want to be in my arms anymore.  Sniff sniff.  Where you squirm and wiggle to get down and run when you see an open grassy field, or, better yet, slides and steps!

I really feel like we’re starting to see the little man that you’re going to grow into.  Elements of your personality that will stick as you get older.  I’m going to make my best effort to describe them to you here because I think it will be fun for all of us to look back in twenty years or so and see if these predictions were correct.  

At 16 months of age, you are: 

Observant. You study things very carefully.  It seems like you really want to be sure you can do something before you give it a try, but then once you do give it a go you are a very fast learner.  This is how you are with everything from entering the sandbox at the playground to walking.  The only thing it doesn’t really apply to is eating, where you always dive right in no matter what! 

Flirty.  I know all babies flirt.  But you have this different way about you.  You study your subject (see above) and mimic their every move, tilting your head the same angle and direction as they do.  Works like a charm every time! 

Happy.  Your ear-to-ear grins aren’t just for the camera.  That’s how you are 99% of the day.  Whether you’re eating, taking a bath, playing with friends, or just hanging out in your room talking to yourself and reading your books, you are loving life.  

OK, so the more I write this list the more I realize it probably sounds like I’m describing any and all babies.  But I swear… you are different.  And I now realize I simply can’t put into words how.  You’ll just have to trust me.  

Here’s the rundown of all other things Baby Gaga… 

Things you like:

• Brushing your teeth
• Bathtime (still)
• Eating (still)
• Frappes.  While we were all trying to collect ourselves last weekend when a gust of wind blew everything off the picnic table at Skip’s, you took the opportunity to swipe our frappe and none of us even noticed until you already had a pretty good sample. Based on your reaction when we had to take it away, you REALLY liked it. 

Things you don’t like: 

• When we take your purloined frappes away
• Not being able to get into the fridge or dishwasher
• Leaving the playground
• Wearing shoes in the car.  You take them the second we pull out of the driveway off every time!

Things you can do: 

• Bring us your shoes & point to door when you want to go outside
• Point to your high chair when you want to eat something
• Beeline it for the microwave from another room and point to it when you hear it beeping
• Make a big “mmmmm” sound when you blow kisses
• You also do that when you eat something especially tasty
• Hug and kiss your stuffed animals and images you like in books
• Say ‘bye bye’ at the end of a book or when you are done nursing or to the water when we empty it out at the end of a bath
• Differentiate dogs and cats.  This is big since for a while all animals were ‘kitty’.  Just today you looked out the front window and saw a a woman walking her dog and said ‘daga’.  Not sure how you figured that out since, to be honest, her little Chihuahua kind of looked like a kitty, but I’m impressed! 

I’m going to replace the ‘new foods’ category since it’s just getting too difficult to keep up.  You really do enjoy and eat everything!  Your vocabulary, on the other hand, is more fun and notable to track these days.  

New words: 

Cheese (cheeeee), hot (hah), water (wahwah), hat (ha), baby (beh-beh), cookie (key), ball (bah), poop (poo), diaper (dah), hee-eeey (hey)

I know I say this every month, but this might be one of my favorite ages yet.  I love watching you go off exploring and learning to do things on your own.  Just so long as you always come back to give me a hug and kiss good night.  Forever.  Please. 

Love, 

Your Mommy

Recently when the little guy is hankering for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack sooner than I expect he has found a new way to let me know.  He books it over to his high chair, whether it is set up or folded away, and eagerly points and grunts gesturing to get up into it.  More subtle messages from Baby Gaga.  ;)

Baby Gaga’s latest trick du jour is to bring us his shoes one by one and then point to the door.

If we stall too long he takes his shoes back, sits down on the ground, and desperately tries to put them on himself.  I guess this is his subtle way of telling us we all need more vitamin D. When your vocabulary is limited you got to get creative! 

While visiting Mimi and Bampy today, Baby Gaga came upon this table and chair set, which he thought was the coolest thing ever.  He climbed up into the little Baby Gaga-sized chair all on his own and stayed there for almost an hour munching away on snacks and lunch like a little mini adult with his Cousin Gaga.  Must.get.one!! 

After a doctor’s appointment today, Baby Gaga and I decided to treat ourselves to some Greek food.  My little man loved the lamb and beef gyro, but I think his favorite part was all the raw onion I was picking out from our meal that he kept scooping up and devouring.  Seriously. This kid will eat anything! 

Last weekend we celebrated Baby Gaga’s grandfather’s birthday.  The whole family met up at Skip’s Snack Bar, this old school hamburger joint that’s been around for 65 years and is a legend in the area.   Pretty fitting for my dad’s 65th birthday! 

One of the best parts about Skip’s (after their Cheeseburger Special and old car Cruise Nights, of course) is this big field behind their restaurant.  It’s hard to find such wide open spaces in the city, so it was a fun treat to be able to let the little guy loose where he could run wild.  

And run, he did.  All of us — big and small — had a blast racing around after one another, burning off those All-American hamburgers, french fries and shakes.  It felt good to be out in the late sunshine, running around breathless, and getting our hands dirty.  

Baby Gaga then kindly agreed to referee a pretty competitive pick-up air volleyball game amongst the big kids.   

This was one of the first times we’ve really been able to all run around together as a family since the little guy’s been walking around on two feet and it was so fun!

Looking forward to many more warm nights of family, milkshakes, and playing hard until the sun goes down.  

It’s so crazy to believe it’s only been a few weeks since this whole walking-on-two-legs stuff all started.  How quickly the crawling days are becoming a distant memory.  And did I ever mention that it all began the same day poor Baby Gaga got his DTAP vaccination… in his leg?! Yup, the nurse said they would give it to him in his leg since he wasn’t walking yet, but if he had been walking at that point he would’ve received it in the arm to avoid soreness and discomfort.  Little did any of us know! And then my boy defied all odds and decided to master uprightedness that very night.  At 11pm.  Only 24 hours after he had just started to walk with us only holding onto one finger.  

Our boy may have waited a little while to start, but once he did he took off! Here is the video documented progression of how Baby Gaga went from crawling to walking on his own in a day! Warning: be prepared for me to be really annoying and say phrases like, “That’s it… that’s it!!” and “Right back up!” over and over and over again.  

April 4, 2012: (evening) — walking with one finger for the first time ever

April 5, 2012 (afternoon) — walking with the assistance of a flimsy toy

April 5, 2012 (late night) — WALKING!

Before our baby was born, Papa Gaga and I made a casual pact that we would try not to use the word “no” very often as new parents.  We didn’t really mind if other people did, we just wanted to personally challenge ourselves to create an environment that was safe for our baby to do what babies do best: explore the world around them.  We wanted to take on the responsibility of babyproofing our house, for example, in such a way where Baby Gaga would be free to touch and experience almost anything rather than filling his world with temptations he wasn’t allowed to explore.  And for those things that truly were hazardous or dangerous to his health (ovens, litter boxes etc.), or in situations where we couldn’t control everything in the environment, we wanted to see if we could think up alternate, possibly more effective, ways of directing his focus elsewhere. Wow, that all sounds really high and mighty, doesn’t it? But I promise you that wasn’t the intent.  

Now before you go rolling your eyes some more, all that lead up was really just to say that lofty parenting goals or not, we have still earned ourselves a “no” monster! I have probably used the word a maximum of three times directly with Baby Gaga in his fifteen months of life.  I’d guess the same is true for Papa Gaga. But as of a few weeks ago, it has become one of the little guy’s most favorite words.  He literally will pick up on someone saying it twenty feet away and start repeating with the most impish little smile on his face, “No… nooo… nonononononono,” while happily shaking his head back and forth.  And in classic toddler fashion, anytime we ask him a question, he’ll usually respond “no” even if the answer is actually yes.  It’s hilarious. And I guess it’s inevitable.  

Me: Do you want some of this orange, sweetie?

Baby Gaga: Nooooo (shaking head “no,” while simultaneously reaching for orange)

And even though I still plan to continue with my “environment of yes” parenting goals, I embarrassingly admit that, at least for now, I find this to be one of the cutest, most favorite things my little guy does lately.