Doin' the lizard dance

Owen is starting to dance and it is awesome.

We babysat Mattie (Meg & Adam's son) on Friday and were playing Beatles for them. Clearly, Mathis is a very experienced dancer, and was showing Owen some moves. Owen, who has been known to bob his head or his torso on occasion, was actually really starting to get into it. Keith and I were in baby heaven, singing along and dancing to encourage them. Mattie is hopping up and down on his bottom, Owen is gyrating his head and torso while on his hands and knees. It's awesome! Keith runs to grab the video camera and starts recording this entire scene...and then we realize that he did not hit record. Sigh. But, the image of the boys bobbing to the music next to each other will be ingrained in my head for a long time.


Later, I realized how much Owen likes being around other kids. Mattie is kind of crawling all over, checking out all the "new" toys (new to him at least). Everytime he goes somewhere new, Owen drops what he's doing and follows Mathis. Sometimes he takes the toy Mattie grabbed (and we gently remind him to share) and sometimes he just watches his older (by 4.5 weeks) cousin play.

At one point while I'm watching this scene, the boys are sitting near the coffee table in the living room (ok, I know I know, every place in our living room is "near the coffee table") and Owen looks up at the table, and it is then that he sees it. He sees The Remote Control. This is no ordinary remote, it is a $250 remote that we HAD TO HAVE (don't you know?) with a video screen that babies cannot possibly resist. We never let Owen play with it (because I'll be damned if we're buying another $250 remote), but it's closer to him than me and with the incongruously fast speed that babies have, he grabs it. He has this look on his face, and I wish I could describe it, but it's like one of us would look if we just found a wallet packed with hundred dollar bills laying in front of us in Mexico (damnit, Erin!), like excitement intermingled with a healthy amount of apprehension. He holds the remote and looks at it like it is an absolute treasure. I say calmly "Owen, no thank you." and hold out my hand (as if, right? As if my 10 month old is going to just pass it over). He looks at me, and at this precise moment he gets the most fantastic look on his face when he realizes "You can't reach me." And he smiles the most hilarious "I win" smile, and turns his back to me and puts the remote in his mouth, for the first, wonderful, long-anticipated, time. I just love seeing their sense of humor come out.