It Was A Very Good Year

Almost a year ago, I was having lunch with my friend Barbara when I got the phone call from David – he and Megan were off to the hospital for the birth of our grandson Willem.  We were in Brooklyn last weekend so I can offer a first-hand update on the stellar progress of this remarkable, affectionate, brilliant, charming, exceptional and wonderful baby.

When he was about two weeks old, Megan nicknamed him “The Boss,” as in “I have to get off the phone now – The Boss wants to eat.”  A year later, he is still “His Bossiness” and is more likely to answer to “Hey, Boss” than to “Hey, Willem.”  He has been photographed so much that, when the camera comes out, so does his smile.

Here is what Willem has mastered: speed crawling, playing the guitar, picking up Cheerios off the floor and standing without help. He is also the youngest person to achieve Platinum status with the airlines, having completed ten round-trips, all without buying a single ticket.  Here is what he has not mastered: walking, doing anything with a cup but waving it around, and using a spoon, at least not a spoon with anything in it.  Learning to escape from his crib is at the top of his bucket list.

Willem marks his territory by drooling on couch pillows, piano pedals, carpets, everybody’s shoes, and the laptop, when he can get at it.  He finds satisfaction for the mind and for the mouth in board books like “Going on a Bear Hunt,” “The Subway” and my personal favorite, “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket.”  He has graduated to Size 3 diapers and turned diaper changing into an aerobic exercise for both the changer and the changee. 

So far, he has sampled purple carrots, a variety of fruit and vegetable (???) flavored yogurts, bananas, provolone cheese, bagels, pizza and bacon (thanks to my mother, aka Granny – who else?)  He has graduated from sucking on apple slices to scraping off apple bits with his four and a half teeth.  Willem tried strawberries with such bad results that he will probably wait until he gets to high school to order strawberry pie.  As far as I know, he has not sampled Chicken McNuggets, Steak tartare, Brussels Sprouts or Graeters ice cream.  I also don’t think there were any jelly beans in his Easter basket either.

By the way, at mealtimes, he enjoys background music by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.  He recently discovered that, if you really want to have fun at breakfast, you can lean over the side of your high chair and do the raspberries with a mouthful of Yo Baby yogurt.

Willem’s toys have crowded out most of his dad’s guitar equipment and most of his mom’s photographic equipment.  He has made short work of the houseplants.  His accumulated menagerie of quirky, huggable stuffed animals includes a big yellow duck, a lion, a giraffe, a stegosaurus and a cow with bright pink udders - none of which talks, thank goodness.  He does not own a kid piano, a drum or finger paints although he does have a remote control – without batteries. 

Willem’s clothes are covered with steam shovels, cars, cement mixers, dinosaurs and guitars and his socks have monster fangs on the heels – clearly he is not in touch with his feminine side yet.  He owns half a dozen adorable little pairs of shoes and some Joe Cool sunglasses so he’s ready for a big summer of picking up girls in Prospect Park.

He makes a lot of noises and is headed in the direction of saying important stuff like “Mama” and “Dada.”  “NeNeNeNe” is one of his favorite things to say and I was all set to trade in “Nana” for “Nene” until I remembered that, in the crosswords, “nene” is some sort of a Hawaiian goose.  I decided to pass on being “Nene” because geese are loud and disgusting and I don’t look good in a grass skirt.

Last Friday, we got to see Willem with other kids his age at his weekly music class.  It was lots of fun.  Pete, the teacher played the guitar and led songs and activities with plenty of movement and rhythm.  Pete also collected the musical instruments at the end using two baskets – one for the dry shakers and bells and cymbals and another for the wet ones.  Anyway, we’re not sure if Willem is the most musically gifted kid in the class but he is unquestionably the baldest – ditto for the toddler playground. 

Speaking of the toddler playground, anyone who knew David as a kid or has known Paul at any stage of his life will not be surprised to learn that Willem goes up the slide rather than down. He was as unmoved by a loud “NO” from a little girl with red curls as Dennis the Menace is by Margaret.  At home, Willem is watching for an opportunity to climb inside the dishwasher simply because, like Everest, “it is there.”

So, it has been a busy and exciting year for Willem and for all of us who are watching him grow and change.  It’s impossible to predict what he will experience and accomplish in the coming year although the photos below may offer a hint. By the way, Megan took the first two photos in this post, I took a few and Paul took most of then, including the four at the end of the post.