Axel's becoming a big baby loudmouth.  "Gu UUUUUHHHHHHH,"  he'll say, looking at me with an earnest expression.  "Arrrgggurgglegrrrrr."  I try to do the give-and-take/conversation imitiation thing, but Axel doesn't quite get that he's supposed to wait his turn.  Once he's started, he just keeps on going with a low moan at the same mini-Frankenstein tone, "uhhhhhhhhhh."

He - flirt that he is - loves to babble at strangers.  In the check-out line at the grocery store, he had very important things to tell the checker, like "aaahhhhrrrrraaaahhhhrrr."  The checker found this to be adorable and talked right on back, fuelling more gurgles and groans.  Axel primarily speaks in vowel sounds right now, with the occasional "guh" and motor boat "brrr" powered with a generous glob of salivia.  Despite my best efforts to enunciate "Mama," there's no m-sound.  The most mama-melting thing he does now: while he's nursing, he'll pull off to gaze up at me, and then he'll slowly touch his face, then touch my chest, then go back and forth again, peppering his me-and-you touches with smiles and "guhs."  Yeah, it turns me to mush.  When he does this, I don't even care that he's getting distracted and can take a long, long time to finish off a meal. 

In other development news, Axel's rolling like a madman.  He blasted through whatever barrier had been preventing his back to side rolls from making it all the way to his belly.  He'll roll back to belly, then to back, all the while twisting himself around in circles so that his head ends up where his feet had been.  If he were doing this rolling and rocking routine in a field of high grass, it would result in mysterious mini-crop circles. 

Amidst this developmental flurry, we're preparing for another baby milestone: the first day at daycare.  With Axel's more limited sleep during the day, and raised activity level, he's not such a workplace-friendly baby anymore.  A few hours here and there are fine, but not a full day.  So, the time has come for Axel to join the other babies at daycare - we finally got a spot, after being on the waitlist since last May.  He'll go for a few hours Wednesday, then most of the day on Thursday.  Next week, he'll start going three days a week.  I used to work at a daycare and as a nanny, so I am comfortable with the world of childcare in general.  But, I'm still a little nervous - Will he actually take naps?  Will he eat?  Will he bring home every contagious disease under the sun? Will the other babies like the new kid?  I'll report back later this week.