Moo, Baa, La, La, La!

Really Totally Looks Like

"I'm so smart," I hear you saying. "I can tell Anthony and Damien apart by their hair!"

Well, OK then, you clever person you. Let's see how well you do when hats are added and hair is removed from the picture:

What do Resident Murlocs have for babies? Baby Murlocs!
This was hard to take. Damien kept taking Murky and putting him back in the living room where he belonged. OCD babby is CDO.
Two out of two babbies prefer the taste of swords.

More Totally Looks Like

The Damien-English Dictionary

The complete vocabulary

• Mama – Mommy (also used to identify an iPhone)
• Dada – Daddy/Donald
• Dadeye – Strawberry
• Nana – Banana
• Appo – Apple
• Ba-ba – Bottle
• Deedy – Mickey/Teddy
• Neeny/Ninny – Minnie
• Bubo – Pluto
• Doody – Goofy
• Daisy – Daisy Duck
• Pete – Pete the Cat
• Ohtoo – Toodles (Oh Toodles!)
• Adda/Addeye – Anthony
• Beeby – Baby (used interchangeably with Anthony for any baby/doll-like object)
• C-A-T Cat – Cat
• Mow/Mowf – Mouse
• Esseh – Elephant
• Giwah – Giraffe
• Bee – Bear
• Meow, Woof, Moo, Baa-a-a, Neigh, Oink, Qua (quack), Do-do-dooo (Cocka-doodle-doo), Twee (tweet, squeak), Roar, Gwah (growl), Ribbit, Hoot, Oo-ah-ah (howler monkey) – Various animal noises
• Ohwy – (Oh Really?) Snowy Owl sound
• Yahwy – (Ya Really!) Horned Owl sound
• Dadum, dadum, dadum, dadum – Shark noises
• Voom voom – Car sound effect
• Choo choo – Train sound effect
• Dwuh – Truck (no F-bombs from our little one)
• Uh-oh, Oh no! – Various exclamations (usually said with hands on side of head or on cheeks)
• Night-night! – Goodnight
• Hi – Hello
• Bye – Goodbye
• Aww – What he says when leaning in for a hug
• Yay! (clapping) – Used after a song
• Wuh, Two, Twee, Fo, Fi, Si, Sehseh, Ay, Ni, Ten, Lehveh, Twev, Tootee, Fotee, Fitee, Sitee, Sehtee, Aytee, Nitee, Twehtee! – Numbers
• Weh, Ownh (nasally grunt at the end), Yewo, Gwee, Boo, Popo, Bwa, Why – Colors
• Whasa? – What's that?
• Hussssssssss – The old woman whispering "hush"
• Up, UP, UP! – Where the Snort takes the Baby Bird
• Boo (short oo) – Book
• Boo! (long oo) – Boo!
• Deedoo! – Peekaboo!
• Yoda, Ahtoo – Star Wars characters
• Bah – Ball
• Bwah – Block
• Soosoo – Circle
• Suhsuhsuh – Cylinder
• Cue – Cube
• Twiah – Triangle
• Eye, No, Mouf, Ee (ear), Heh (head/hair), Chee (cheek), Teef, Knee, Foo, Toe – Body parts
• Fafa, suh, *kiss* – The Sign of the Cross, kissing the Rosary at the end

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Photodump

Totally Looks Like

Anthony totally looks like Perry the Platypus.

Damien totally looks like Anthony

Therefore, Damien totally looks like Perry the Platypus

Read more »

The (Big) Boy

Lest we forget about the firstborn, a couple Damien stories.

On Sunday, as we were rushing out the door to Mass, Damien apparently thought we weren't rushing fast enough and wanted to leave. So he grabbed me, pulled me over to the hallway closet, opened it, took my hat out, put it on my head, then ran to the front door. He knows that daddy putting on his hat is the last thing that needs to be done before we leave.

Then today, after changing him, I had left his shoes on the floor because I was in a hurry to change Anthony. Damien picked up his shoes, took them to the closet, opened the closet, put away his shoes (in the proper place), then closed the closet.

Anne Marie comments that he's better about putting away his shoes than I am.

Peas and Pods

Can you figure out which picture is which brother? (Highlight to read answers.)

Anthony on left, Damien on right.

Anthony on left, Damien on right.

Ha! Trick question. Both are Anthony.

Damien on left, Anthony on right.

Damien on left, Anthony on right.

Damien on left, Anthony on right.

Anthony on left, Damien on right.

I just pray that they grow up as close to each other as I did with my brother.

Twins, separated by two years.

Our Little Boy, The Charmer

Hi!

So Damien's favorite word is "hi!" He says it to everyone and everything. Today, at Mass, he was standing in the back, next to the door, and greeting everyone who came in with a "hi!" and a wave.

He was also giving hugs to a lady in the pew behind us. Later, we might need to explain strangers and personal space to him, but right now, he's just too cute.

Update on the Little One

So Damien's learned a new word... "Yoda". We start them young.

You ask him "Where's Yoda?" and he runs and gets his little Yoda toy.

* * *

He's also putting his analytical engineering mind to work, trying to unlock the secrets of the remote. After his Mickey Mouse cartoon ends, he runs to the table, pulls out a chair, climbs on it, reaches for the cable box remote in the center of the table, points it at the TV and starts mashing buttons. He knows it's used to start Mickey Mouse, it's just a matter of figuring out how.

Top baby scientists are hard at work on these pressing concerns.

* * *

He's also learning inflections. One way to decipher his babblings is by listening for the inflection. "Duh-duh-duh?" with an upwards inflection means "May I have it?" "Duh duh!" with a downwards inflection means "thank you!" and is usually said when he's giving something or after he's given something.

He also counts, in this fashion. We started playing a game with him, where we'd count to three then drop him on the couch. Now he does it himself. He stands on the tables behind the couch (see, climbing), and counts "duh? duh? DUH!" and throws himself onto the cushions. Sometimes he hilariously rolls feet over head onto the floor. Hilarious for me, at least. He doesn't think it's funny.

* * *

Another one of his favorite tricks is pretending to drink from a cup. A few weeks ago, we were at a friend's house. My friend took a big drink from her water bottle, then set it down with a gasp of refreshment. Damien decided to imitate. With the bottle cap on, he tilted the bottle way back, set it down and said "Ahh!" He now does this all the time, particularly when the Murloc or I am drinking. We'll give him one of his sippy cups to pretend to drink out of. He tosses it back, slams it down and gasps "Ahh!"

But he still won't actually drink from anything other than a bottle.

* * *
He's also learned the throw temper tantrums. Hilarious temper tantrums. He throws himself on the floor, screams, and bangs his head on the floor. Then he really screams, because it hurts to bang your head on the floor. For all his smarts, he still doesn't have much common sense.

Babby Manual

Thank you for purchasing one (1) standard issue babby. During the course of normal babby operation, it is expected that the batteries may die. In this circumstance, please follow these simple instructions to change babby's batteries.

You will need the following items:
1x ¼" Phillips head screwdriver
2x AA batteries (not included)
1x Monkey wrench
1x Monkey
2x Plutonium reactor cores
47x Ginger-headed sailors
1x Hyper-electronic transducent geoplasmic nodal collectomizer

1. Use the screwdriver to remove the two screws on babby's back.
2. Remove the rear panel.
3. If you wish to reset babby to factory defaults, slide the Mode Selector Switch from "Play" to "Demo".
4. Insert screwdriver in reset button slot and hold for 5 seconds. Warning! Do not hold button for more than 5 seconds. Doing so could cause your babby to switch to Spanish Language mode.
5. Throw the bone.
6. While holding a rose between teeth and dancing the tango, apply lubricant to bearing "F" in diagram B-2332-54.
7. Release penguins.
8. Use duck caller to signal violists to begin slow movement.
9. Use towel with hobgoblin.
10. Insert fork a in electric socket b.
11. Slap your partner in the face, write bad checks all over the place, dosey-do.
12. Gently replace rear panel and tighten screws.

Congratulations, your babby should now be recharged and ready to go.

Aaaaaand one more.

Two videos for ya.

(Turn the volume up)

Like father like son.

Baby pictures!

Seems I have less blogging time now, for some strange reason. Anyways, I'll hold you over with pictures to give me time to compose The Post.

First things first.

Final Scores:

(Some of you may already have calculated these.)

Before we being, let me just say that the exact birth weight is unknown. At birth, they weighed him as 7 lbs. 7.2 oz. Later that night, the nurse weighed him at 7 lbs. 12 oz. Since newborn babies are supposed to lose weight in the first few days, it's clear there was some discrepency. After verifying that Damien was all right and he didn't have any weird psycho problems that would cause him to gain 5 ounces in a few hours, it was agreed that there was a discrepency in the scales. Early Sunday morning, a nurse weighed him again, after zeroing the scale, and he came out to 7 lbs. 7.8 oz (again, he should have been a few ounces lighter than birth weight at this point). So his actual birthweight was probably closer to 8 lbs. than to 7, but since the measured birth weight is what goes on the birth certificate, that's what we're going by here. Good enough for government work.

So, the stats:

Damien Alexander, born July 25th at 3:35pm.

7 lbs. 7 oz., 20 inches long.

Jenny: 50 pts.

Cari & Jeff: tied at 48 pts.

Devin: 38 pts.

Dave: 34 pts.

Tom: 27 pts.

Tine: 17 pts.

Katie: 1 pt.

Cleary Katie is psychic and is therefore disqualified. ;)

Your imaginary bag of marshmallows (or whatever Weight Watchers-approved treat of equal or lesser value you want) will be in the imaginary mail imaginarily shortly.

(Further bulletins as sanity warrants.)