Drowling and laughing

Mid-October, Magnus is 3.5 months old.

I think it is difficult to find out how to stimulate and activate Magnus, because he doesn't like to do things so much on his own, when left by himself he will play around a short while and then start complaining. He hasn't really taken to playing yet. He just looks at me with BIG eyes wondering "what are you doing" when I try to make funny sounds on his stomach, or wave teddies in his face or tickle him.

I have, however, had a little progress in the playing area. He now enjoys to "fly" over me (trying to hit me with droplets of drool while I try to manuever him in such a way that these hit the cotton cloth on my chest), and he also likes to sit on my feet while I direct his arms and legs in all kinds of simulated activities.

One thing he does like to do on his own, however, is what I have come to call "drowling" - it's a combination of drooling and blowing. He will sit for a long time and just say abhhoooo abhhhooo, of course building up a substantial amount of drool, with the effect that he is constantly blowing bubbles with a cool sound. Magnus doesn't appear to mind getting soaking wet from his own drool, however mama Muna is obsessed with wiping it off, so there is an ongoing drowling-contest, the battlefield consisting of Magnus' chin and objectives measured in wetness on Magnus' shirt-chest. Guess who is losing?

But suddenly one day a big milestone step... It was dinner time, and as usual in the afternoon Magnus was a bit grumpy (he doesn't sleep much during the day and thus gets more and more tired the last hours before bedtime) and demanded to sit in his chair in the kitchen watching the cooking process. On impulse, I thought I would give him a plastic spoon to hold on to, and he just grabbed it. HOW COOL! I just aided his development by just suggesting the next step and he followed up.

So he grabbed this spoon and he held on to it really tight for the longest time, waving it around and putting it in his mouth. But after about 20 minutes he seemed to tire of it, and despite being given it several times again, just dropped it.

The next day we observed him for the first time purposefully grabbing for the legs of his favorite octopus in the baby gym, so we took it down and put it next to him. And suddenly he grabbed one leg firmly and held on to it for a long time. He grabbed several times over the next hour, and then he started to grab and pull the leg into his mouth. We were SO excited.

Another thing he has started lately is "talking". He looks really serious in his face while making talking sounds, it really looks like he is conversing. And the cool part is that he wants two-way-conversation, so we can sit for long stretches of time and look each other in the eye and talk seriously. Magnus has come to discover his voice. Other times he likes to just talk to himself, and one day I got a distressed phone call from home: "Oh I am so tired. Magnus is so difficult today, he is just... shouting!!"

But the really big break started a couple of days later. Lately we had been getting more and more nice smiling pictures of Magnus (something which is difficult, because he always gets so serious when he sees a camera), but this day he was again sitting in his chair in the kitchen while mommy was cooking. Daddy was entertaining Magnus. I played with him having a multicolored hippo named Jippi fly in and touch his cheek several times in a row, and he smiled and smiled, and suddenly he started laughing. A gurgling staccato sound along with a huge smile. Oh my what greatness - my baby just laughed at me !!!