Wren is One: Twelve things Wren loves

I am compiling a little story about Wren at age 1. Here is a list of the things he loves most. Its my version of the 12 days of Christmas:

1) Being with his family. Wren loves me, Frost and Joshua. He follows me around the house as I do housework and is terribly excited when Frost wakes up, hooting and climbing on him. He likes being picked up by Joshua when he gets home and Joshua holds him up over his head so Wren can grab (and bite) the pull-up bar on the living room doorway.

2) Kitties. When Heather, the new babysitter, started watching Wren he was very sad. After the first morning with her she told me that he was only really happy when the cats came by. He crawls after them rapidly and is starting to learn to pet them gently. He still strokes their fur the wrong way and tends to pound them with the cat brush but he no longer leaps on them and digs his fingers in their flesh. He points to kitty pictures in his board books and is animated and chatters incomprehensibly about them.

3) Birds. When we are outside Wren scans the skies for birds. I recall that when Frost was small he had an uncanny ability to see fire engines. It was as if he had refined fire engine recognition down to a few key triggers and was far better at it than I was. Wren is the same with birds. When I take him out the carseat he cranes his head around and then starts pointing and hooting at the air, sky, trees. On careful inspection I finally see a roosting crow, a seagull on a pole or a distant aeroplane. Wren is convinced these are all birdies. At the zoo his favorite exhibit was the flock of crows which followed us to eat the baby-crackers he was dropping. Similarly, at baby-coop he loves the starlings and crows which come down to feed on the marshy field by the parking lot. He never tires of watching the crows in particular and is fascinated by pictures of owls.

4) Green Lego Bushes and minifigures. The fourth treasure for Wren is Frost's lego. This is usually off limits but sometimes Wren managed to get into Frost's room. Then he makes a beeline to the lego pices Frost has left on the floor. his favorie pieces to chew are the green lego bushes (which are rather prickly) and to bite the heads off lego minifigures which are particularly forbidden. At times Wren managed to dump all the lego minifigures from their carefully sorted boxes and then rushes and rumbles through them with his little fingers (one in his mouth and one in reserve).

5) Bubbles. Wren loves bubbles. Sometimes he says "pop" when he pops one. He sits on the floor and flaps his arms in the bubbles as they descend.

6) Noisy instruments. First thing in the morning Wren plays with toys in the musical instrument box which is by his crib. The room is still dark while he forages for noise in the box. He likes the rattles, the xylophone and the hand drum best but also enjoys whistles and bells.

7) His ball rolling toy. For his birthday we bought Wren an extension to his Rollipop. He loves this toy. Not only are there balls which roll with mysterious and interceptible slowness to the base but it can be knocked over, filled with non-rolling objects and reconfigured to produce multiple rolling stacks. Strangely, Wren finds the very shortest tower quick compelling and drops the ball in and collects it repeatedly.

8) Raspberries & cookies: Wren points at raspberries in the grocery store. He has eaten more than half a punnet at a go and gets excited when we stand near the raspberry bushes in the garden. Let me just say Wren loves raspberries. Frost also loves raspberries so there is some raspberry rivalry when they are in the fridge. Frost and Wren also like cookies. When I was baking christmas cookies for a cookie exchange Wren threw tantrums when I refused to open the cookie tin and give him cookies or cake. I was holding him in the kitchen and he would lunge forward out of my arms towards the tin or tray, pointing and hooting in case I was in any doubt. He normally is given arrowroot baby cookies but he prefers the all-ages variety.

9) Walks in the stroller. Even on grumpy cold days Wren enjoys going to walks in his stroller. These almost-freezing days we zip him up in his Bundle-me where he is warm even in his shoeless state. He likes to watch birds, dogs and point at things. When he is impatient on long walks he swivels sideways and tries to stand up. That's when I keep him happy with stroller snacks which he picks up carefully between thumb and forefinger and chews quickly with his mouthful of teeth.

10) Going down stairs. Wren likes going down the basement stairs backwards. This is an extreme sport for babies and although he would do this alone I have to be careful to stand behind him in case he lunges and plunges.

11) Playing pounce on the bed. Wren watched Josh and Frost play pillow-fight or "war" on the bed and now likes to join in. He stands up tall and then throws himself face first onto whatever is in front of him. He only does this on things that look soft and pillow-like: the quilt, blankets, pillows, cushions, a belly. Sometimes he misjudges and pounces clean off the bed and hits his face on the floor. Other times there is something hard under there or he pounces on my face or overshoots into the wall. So, this game is generally fun but laced with a little peril.

12) Shutting doors. Wren loves to close doors and gates. He does it decisively and likes to hear a CLICK. Then he cries or complains because he has shut himself in or out someplace and cannot get that door to open again. Since the kitchen cabinet door s are latched against him he cannot play with them as often but still tries to get in as soon as one is left ajar.