An introduction to all things Smushy

I would be remiss if I didn't blog about my son... sometimes. I don't want to spam my blog with ONLY him all the time, but I have many people from around the world who are interested in updates. :)

This is my little Mushy Smushy man.

Henry Scott Vidler.

Henry--a nice, strong, historical English name.

Scott- after my father who passed away a few months before I got pregnant.

And obviously...

Vidler - because he was born out of the union of a McClellan and a Vidler and took his daddy's last name.

A lot of the time we refer to him as 'mush' (which strangely enough means boy/man in traveler) or Smush, Smushy, mush mush, mushy man, and all the combinations there is. Reason? Just because when I held him in my arms I kept saying he's so tiny, and mushy, and cute. Hence the nickname Mush.

There's so much that I could say about Mush mush and he's only just over 6 months old.

First of all I will say that every mother thinks their baby is the cutest ever. They get clouded in the aura of 'that's my baby' that a lot of the times when people look back on their son/daughters baby photos they will reminisce and think...'oh yeah, they weren't that cute; they look like a potato'. I'm probably not the exception to this, but regardless, I think my baby is super cute...even in super close up photos.

Honestly, most of the time the only babies I find cute are those related to me...so my nieces and nephews. That's probably something about it being your own kin that make them so much more adorable to you and everyone else's babies lack in comparison to the cuteness that is your own flesh and blood.

One thing I can brag about is that my son takes a crackin' passport photo. Considering that babies don't need to have their eyes open or be looking at the camera necessarily for a baby passport, this photo is pretty professional looking.

Part Sumsh co-operating, part mommy being an amazing photographer. 

He's generally a happy boy. He smiles and giggles a lot. His giggle is adorable, like a little old man laughing. He finds daddy the funniest, but laughs when mama makes faces at him too.

He laughs at the silliest things:

• Mama standing over him and dangling a curtain of her hair around his head/face.  He especially likes it when I flick my hair back--i guess it's like playing peek-a-boo with my hair. 
• Abraca-smushy: when i change him and yank his leggings off in one swift motion like removing a table cloth without disturbing the table settings.
• Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy: something we learned in baby yoga where i support his bottom/lower back in my hands and bounce his butt up and down while singing "Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy"
• seeing the kitty hack (because of a hairball) - he finds that particularly hilarious:

• being bounced up and down when sitting on my or Rob's legs
• being tickled under is armpits or his bum. his bum is very ticklish- i discovered this one day when i went to give him a baby massage around his legs and lower back and he would squeal with delight when i got anywhere near the end of his spine. when we did that baby massage course, he wasn't ticklish there, but I guess he is just more aware and it tickles him now.
• watching mama dancing and pull funny faces at him

• Clapping the soles of his feet together
• wriggling his legs - it gets him every time. he finds it quite amusing
• When mommy sniffs his feet and says 'peeeuuuuweeeee smelly feet.'
• the ceiling: it creeps me out when he laughs at the ceiling still. it's blank..nothing there. i wonder if he's seeing 'the other side' and someone made a hilarious joke at him...and then i get very freaked out. well, as long as hes happy and i dont have any supernatural sightings, i'm good. 

The last thing that I'll say is that he LOVES 'his' kitty. My cat Charlie/binx is old and not the cuddliest thing -- he swats at me if i give him too much love -- and at first he wasn't too keen on Mush. to be fair there were A LOT of new things...we moved him to our new house, we had new baby things everywhere, new appliances that made noise (dehumidifier), a new person (my mom) in the house and then the screaming child... it was all very new for Binx.

Now that things have settled down, he's gotten used to Henry. He at first kept his distance from the child, then would get braver and sniff at him then back away. Eventually he 'claimed' Henry by nudging him. Now he freely walks near Henry, sometimes keeping his distance and sometimes letting Henry pet him. 

Henry absolutely loves his kitty though. He's learning to 'pet the kitty nicely' and not grab fur which is important. Needless to say that when kitty is around, mushy's whole attention switches to the cat. He loves watching his kitty intently and I think Charlie has warmed up to Mush mush as well. Charlie lets his guard down around Henry more now than when he first arrived and I can see the two of them living together harmoniously, as far as cats and babies go.