You are usually a remarkably chilled out baby. Nothing seems to faze you - not sirens, nor dogs barking, nor your daddy face-hugging you like the creature in Alien.
But there's one thing that terrifies the life out of you.
As soon as you hear it you'll burst out in tears, your eyes wide with horror. No amount of reassurance can calm you down until it stops.
I hope you can overcome your phobia, or you'll spend a lot of your life with slightly damp hands.
On the day you were born, the law changed in the UK to allow parents to share maternity leave. So, after 10 months of maternity leave, your mum is now handing you over to me.
But I'm not your sole full-time carer just yet, because she's used all the annual leave she accrued from last year so we can have a month off together.
We've home-swapped with a lovely San Franciscan lady, so for the next few weeks we're living in her apartment in Golden Gate Heights, and she's living in Brixton.
Today, we played tourist and visited Alcatraz.
It was a sunny day.
There were great views of the city.
But you didn't eat your lunch, so we had to discipline you.
Your mum has done some great posts about what we've been up to in San Francisco at her blog.
Some of your contemporaries, especially those with big brothers or sisters, are crawling now. Some are even walking, coasting along by holding onto furniture as they toddle.
You will get to it in your own good time, and when you do, you will be able to explore the world properly. You will be able to fetch any toys you want!
Tomorrow, we are swapping our flat with a lady from San Francisco, so we are taking you to your fifth country, the United States of America!
It is much further away than the other countries you have been to (UK, Greece, Austria, Germany). They speak English, but it sounds a bit different to how we speak it at home. And their clocks will be a bit behind ours, so you might feel more sleepy in the daytime for a while.
Whenever we're on our laptops, you're eager to have a turn bashing at the keys. We thought we'd leave you to it and see what you wrote. Here's what you came up with (until you started changing factory settings and we had to take the laptop away):
Everybody (friends, family, strangers in the street) tells me how much you look like me. And they are right, but when I look at you I see glimmers of your daddy too... and above is the evidence!
A little while ago I thought I would investigate who you look like, so above is a collection of baby pics... parental Smiths at the top; their children on the row below; and your daddy, you and me at the bottom.
It is lovely to hear you babbling away, making cute little squeaky noises and saying 'mama' or 'dada'. But every now and again you seem convinced that you are a dinosaur, and you make the loudest, most disturbing 'scrark' noises.
Some babies can be left to sit on a floor, sometimes even a hard surface like wood or tiles, and will play around but generally stay upright.
Not you.
Every now and again you have what we call a 'diva strop'. You have plenty of tummy and back muscles to keep yourself upright, but you occasionally fling yourself backwards with all your might, arching your back and crashing your head into whatever is behind you.
This is why there is a pile of cushions in your play area :)
The 'Diva Strop' is sometimes triggered by you feeling disgruntled, but if you do end up banging your head on a wall or the floor, then you get immeasurably more cross.
Part of me loves that you trust us/the world enough to know that you can fling yourself around and you will always be safe (may you always feel a little like that).
But I also hope you don't really hurt yourself in the process. Roll on exploring, crawling, walking, and having a more refined risk assessment process!
You've been a bit restless this week, and on Wednesday morning we found out why - your first tooth is poking through!
You've been feeling it a lot with your tongue and your lip. At the moment it looks like a translucent sliver edging out of a sore bit in the middle of your lower gum. Your mum wants to take a picture but it's hard to see and you're quite reluctant to show it off.
Marion was telling us about how the snowdrops in her garden have started to come out, and the tip of the bud is extra hard so that it can push through a layer of frost. Just like your teeth pushing through your gums.
You now know how to wave hello and goodbye. And as we saw in a previous video post, you can clap when you are asked to (though it makes Uncle Matthew call you Pavlov).
And now you can blow kisses! Well, it is a bit like a fish impression, but it is very sweet all the same.
Daddy and I know that you are on the brink of some big stuff, crawling and walking and talking. It is a bit of an unknown for us, but we are so excited to see you get bigger and stronger and more able.
Bottles with rice in, a wooden spoon, a cardboard tube... endless real/normal stuff that you find fascinating.
And lately you have been obsessed with our electrical gadgets, phones, ipods etc. So I took the batteries out of an old remote control, and it is your new favourite toy.
Granny and Grandad also gave you their old computer mouse and keyboard, so once you are a little bored of your new Christmas toys, I will cut the cables off them and you can go nuts!
