Nodin's Top Ten Activities, August 2007

1. Biting. Arms, knees, sofas, chairs, fingers, toys, whatever, look out, it's going in my son's mouth; if he can swallow it, he will, but otherwise all those teeth he's sprouting will drive into physical objects as deep as they can. When his target's your shoulder - as it often is when he gets really sleepy - look out!

2. Pulling himself to a standing position.
3. Using said standing position to walk around whatever object he's used to pull himself up.

4. Whining. To be fair, I whine too.

5. Tilting his head to the side and smiling at observers coquettishly.

6. Grabbing anything and everything within reach (and some stuff that appears to be out of reach until it magically materializes within his little fist or his mouth; see 1).

7. Drooling copiously (teething again).

8. "Dah dah dah dah dah!" whenever excited or agitated.

9. Throwing short Boss Hog-like tantrums (cf. The Dukes of Hazzard).

10. Using every available surface for percussion. It's a lot of fun to do this along with him, as it creates a sense - real or imagined - that we're communicating somehow on a special level that makes up for the fact that we can't yet have an actual logical conversation.