Ecce Homo

Dylan is ever more the little man. He's more stable standing, cruising and walking around, though he won't walk unless you give him at least one hand to hold on to. He's still reticent. That's OK. We are not pushing him.

This week, he started playing independently a bit (yeah!), flipping through his board books alone on the floor or playing with his toys quietly without making a huge mess or trying to get into things he shouldn't be getting in to. I'm talking five or ten minutes but at least it is a start!

He is exponentially cuter than ever and full of personality. He laughs at all the right times when reading his books or when watching cartoons. Unfortunately, he's really started to suffer from separation anxiety. They say this actually a sign of maturity and not a sign of regression. But it means he wakes up in the night and absolutely does not want to be alone. We've had some rough nights of sleep (or I should say groggy wakefulness) over the last week or so. Otherwise it is all good. We are just sad we can't be in the U.S. for Dylan's first Thanksgiving.

We will be celebrating with friends on Saturday. Everyone is coming over and Cristiano will be grilling a 12-pound turkey on his all-American BBQ grill. He's been strategizing and reading recipes all week and asking me questions, such as "So I stretch the skin over where the neck was and hold it in place with a skewer?" I want no part of that. I told him to get the butcher (who is a friend of ours) to prepare the turkey for him as I don't want to see any turkey heads, gizzards or gullets in my kitchen sink. Cristiano also didn't realize that you have to have a whole carving strategy and that our lame vegetable knives may not get the job done. Like I said, I'm staying out of it. I'm on side dish duty! Happy Thanksgiving everybody.