Darren saw Santa today for the second time. The first was at the Toys for Kids Breakfast. We've graduated up to the big tub and he's loving every minute I put him in there. He likes splashing the water and chewing on the rubber duckies he has and boy what a collection he has. I think we have 9 duckies to play with now.

He's comfortable crawling on the floor now and pulls himself up on the coffee tables in the living room. His main passion is finding all the things he's not supposed to touch or see. His favourite toy is this kitty book I bought him because it's a touchable rubber kitty in the middle of each page. I've been trying to find books with touchy, feely contents for him. He wants me to read him that book every morning and sometimes more than once. It's a good thing he gets distracted because he'd never tire of that book otherwise. We'd be stuck there forever reading his kitty book.

He learned to wave his hand today and he loved getting the reaction from everyone waving back. He laughs and laughs at them.

He found that his grandparents end table was a real nifty place to crawl through.

We found that he was facinated with pool balls and we think he'll be a fine pool player one day. Well that is if he can put them down long enough to use the pool cue instead.

Darren had a very different day today. He got up fine this morning and had his usual morning. He had his morning nap and got up in time to eat lunch and then it got strange. He decided this was the day to take his afternoon nap early, 3 hours early that is. Then the rest of the day he was up and everything was normal or so it seemed. He decided he was cranky and tired during dinner. We got him home in time to go to bed. We were at my mother's for dinner. That's when he decided he was lonely and didn't want to go to bed. He's never done this before. It wasn't a big deal for me though, so I rescued him from his lonely cries and sat up with him. We stretched out on the glider together and he did the most precious thing. He laid his head down on my body and totally relaxed. He shifted somewhat so he could see me and I sang to him. I watched him slowly go to sleep and I thought I'd give him a little back massage. He arched his back and then he giggled. I laughed and then did the same movement again and he laughed at me. I hugged him and as we sat there staring at each other I smiled at him and he understood me and smiled back. It was the most precious moment. I wish I had taken a picture but I wasn't in a position to but I wouldn't have traded anything to miss that time with my son.

It's so amazing that most of the time you think they are just babies and they aren't aware of anything or understand anything like you do. Then they respond to you out of the blue with full understanding and it shocks you.

Well the trip went well for me and Darren didn't suffer one minute without mom around. He was just fine with sticking around granny for a week it seems. I did alright in the casinos and won most of my gambling money back. I call it "making my deposit". I found a children's store in Tacoma Mall and bought all the Stewart Tartan clothes they had left. In Canada it seems that they only like dressing the girls in Stewart Tartan and not the boys so I was glad to find some down south. We're getting our Sears portrait done on Wednesday night which is good because he's growing out of clothes faster than I can put them on him. He's wearing 12 months and they are stretching a bit now. He's only 8 months!

When I got back I found my little backwards crawler doing it frontwards and he sits up and twists on all fours. He's all over the floor now and he seems to have a foot fetish. He likes eating socks, shoes, slippers especially. He's strange. He claps his hands and indiscrimenately says "dada" and "mama".

The pictures are of Darren with his great grandpa and his great, great aunt.