10 Months On

Andrew is in his 11th month and he is gradually moving from the crawling to walking stage. This process is amazing to watch. Four months ago he was crawling like a 'scout' as Masha says, using his elbows and knees to propel himself forward. He has been flying along on hands and knees for a long time now and recently went vertical using the furniture as his third hand. He runs the perimeter of the room with ease. Just today he took a few steps unaided toward Masha. He is so pleased with himself, he squeals in delight.

Which brings me to mention his talking. We cannot decipher any particular language, yet. There are a lot of interesting sounds he repeats like 'da' and one where he sticks his tongue out and draws it in while vocalizing, something. He also opens his mouth wide and says 'ahhhhh'. I say it with him and then we can harmonize the sound together.

He loves music. Recently we were at a Canadian Embassy pub night. The band was a local group of Ukrainians who must have been schooled in Nova Scotia because all of the tunes were Gaelic jigs and reels and airs. One guy wore a tartan. Andrew was mesmerized by the music and he giggled and laughed and stared at the musicians for the entire time.

He also loves to play with his toys. We bought him a dump truck with large lego-like bricks. He has not taken much interest in the truck but he loves putting his head inside the box, taking out the bricks and then putting them back inside.

Masha has been weaning him and there seems to be no significant trauma on Andrew. He enjoys eating and he does not much care about where the food comes from.

Masha is now looking at going back to work and recently had a proposal from an Italian-Turkish venture looking to start up something here. We'll see what happens.

I am looking forward to the end of the school year and getting back to the cottage at Cumming Lake in July. We hope to see many of you while we are in the country.

Till then,

That's the news from here.

PS: I was in Berlin last fall to see my good friend Bill play with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene. The show was great and it was fabulous to see Bill. We hung out, ate Thai food and I got to lounge around the 'green room' with the band all day. Bill had his own album in the can at the time and now it is about to be released. You can check it out at http://www.myspace.com/thepriddleconcern. It is getting some pre-release airplay and he will playing a few shows in Toronto in April and May. The CD will be in stores in early May.