He's becoming more vocal. Or something.

As those of you who have seen Sean lately may have noticed, he's becoming increasingly vocal. Sometimes, he'll string together some syllable sounds (like "ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba"); sometimes he'll just make a sound sort of like a yelp, but under control, as if he's seeing exactly what his vocal cords can do. Sometimes, he'll start babbling on his own; other times, he does it when someone talks to him, and other times it's a response to an adjacent conversation, sort of "Hey, I want to participate. Hear me talk!" All of which are very cute, especially when you notice he's making eye contact. Also, I should add, he's been discovering different non-verbal sounds he can make, with a focus on sputtering and spitting; these new tricks for his mouth also amuse and entertain him.

This evening, he fell asleep at his bedtime feed, but then woke up again -- and stayed awake for a while; Merrie eventually came out into the kitchen and told me he was still up and attentive. So, I went in to see how awake he was, and whether he was hoping for some social attention before dozing off.

And when I reached his field of vision, I noticed his eyes were wide open, probably a sign both that he was awake and that he'd been in the darkened room long enough for them to dilate some... coincidentally, the same visual cue that goes with trying to get someone's attention... and as soon as he realized that I was coming to see him, he smiled. And blew a big raspberry at me. And smiled even more brightly.