Cream of the Crop

Ptolemy is a featherweight.  It's official.  He went to his 12-month check-up, and he had fallen off the bottom of the growth chart.  The doc says we should pump him full of heavy cream all day long, which sounds like a dream come true for me.  I love creamy dairy products!  (Whipped cream on turkey sandwiches, anyone?)  I distinctly remember asking my mom when I was eight, "If the Queen of England came to visit us, would we serve her cream instead of milk?"  Her reply was sortof noncommittal and perplexed.  I didn't understand how that question could have more than one obvious answer.  Of COURSE we would serve the Queen heavy cream instead of ordinary milk!  And now I can say I'll settle for nothing less for Prince Ptolemy.

He now drinks Half & Half out of a sippy cup constantly.  It won't be long before I'm soaking all of his food in bacon grease.  I really think he's such a shrimp because of his surroundings.  His world is not geared toward babies.  By all rights, a baby should be nourished while rocking in a chair in a quiet nursery, listening to soothing music.  Not dangling precariously from his mother's breast as she uses both hands to fill a cooler with ice and soda cans for the two dozen teens that are running through the yard practicing their primal screams.  The poor kid doesn't have a chance.

But, despite Tolly's waif-like, 18-pound frame, his verbal skills are up there with the best of 'em.  He can say the usual words, mama, daddy, uh-oh, go, izzit (what is it), diptaboo (peek-a-boo) and others like Golda, Star, Prestie, Scott, Coco, kitty kitty and gobble gobble.  His funniest word is "Mom," said just like the older kids.  "Moo-oom?"  He imitates inflection very well, even if his speech is still garbled.  He copies everything people say.  I know, all babies copy everything people say, but...it's so funny!  The doctor didn't come right out and say Ptolemy was the most beautiful, funniest, happiest, smartest baby he had ever seen, but I know that's what he was thinking.  It's what I was thinking, for sure.  We love this little featherweight!