Breakerfall

The Monkey showed me something new yesterday. He was kneeling, and then pitched forward...but broke his fall with his hands. It kind of turned into a crawl from there. That's a gross motor skill that's certainly going to come in handy. Generally, he kneels up a lot and can pull himself up to (but not onto) most furniture.

In the fine motor skills department, he is getting a lot better at strumming the guitar. The nylon string flamenco guitar I bought in Spain in 1988 is the best, because the strings don't cut into his tender little fingers. He can get a fluttering little strum motion with his fingers, and sometimes gets it close enough to the strings to produce a nice sound. Or sometimes he Whangs the low E. And sometimes it's impossible to tell because his other hand is grabbing all the strings for balance. He appears to prefer it when I make major chords for him to strum rather than minor chords.

No playgroups for us today...for the sake of the children. The Monkey has a snotty nose, I've got a sore throat, and the other members of playgroup don't need that kind of trouble.

It's too cold to go to the National Arboretum, although it might warm up later. Spring bulbs are up, so it would be nice to catch them in bloom. Except that the car is in the shop, getting new tires. So maybe we should have a culture day, and Metro down to a museum? I haven't seen the Holocaust Museum yet, but I'm not taking the Boy there for a long time yet. I could just stay around the house and try to clean up a bit, do the domestic thing.