Mrudula's Festival of the most Fascinating baby in my relation...

My fascinating baby is our first and only (so far) grandson Jimi (named after the legendary American rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix) Victorino (named after his Mom Victoria who passed away just hours after he was born) Campos (Victoria's maiden name) Hoff. He just turned 20 months old and everyone who knows him (and many people do) just cannot get enough of his company. My wife and I (Chris and Bob) are his grandparents through his Dad, Darren; Carol and Able are his grandparents through his Mom, Victoria. All four grandparents are honored to have Jimi in their care, whenever any of us can.

Jimi loves music, especially dancing, playing with his drums, playing with his guitar (it plays music from inside, but he does his fingers on the guitar, rocks back and forth, rocks his head in rhythm, and twirls around; best of all from his Dad's point of view, is that Jimi puts the guitar on left-handed like Hendrix), and playing his harmonica.

The other day he was in the living room watching the dancing from the 1952 classic Singing in the Rain with dancers Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds. He loves to watch the kids dance on Sesame Street and when various characters play the drums, including Elmo.

He adores watching Cookie Monster gobble down the cookies, yelling, “Me like cookies, yeah, yeah, yeah!!"

When he is happy, like when he is enjoying his food, he will rock his upper body and head back and forth as if he has a tune in his heart.

He loves to take baths and comes to ask us to give him one. He loves to close doors, turn off lights for us, and throw things away. He loves to help put the dog's food in the dish for the dog and he is always asking for extra cookies for Damu, the part-pit bull and part-incognito.

Jimi loves to read, be read to, and read to us, with some words that we recognize. He enjoys watching Curious George the monkey, It's a Beautiful World, Dragon Tales and Arthur. He also likes Avatar and is a Sesame Street junkie, never getting enough.

He also enjoys playing with the television's remote, changing to channels that he prefers, adjusting the color and tint, and changing the menu language to Spanish or French. He is fascinated with the DVD player and prefers that the power be on 24/7.

He loves playing cars, trucks, helicopters, anything with wheels. He loves the animated movie Cars and he often picks out two of his stuffed animals to fight each other.

He loves playing guns with anything that even partially resembles a gun (like a piece of railroad track, a drum stick from his drums, or a Piglet stuffed animal. He says, “Pow, “Pow, Pow” and really appreciates it when we act “shot and wounded.” When we “Pow, Pow” back, he looks up at the sky, rolls his eyes, gently lying down, assumes the horizontal position of a “goner.” You should see him twirl his "Star Wars" light saber.

He is the most coordinated 20-month old I have ever witnessed.

Monday-Friday nights he usually sleeps between my wife and I. He cuddles up to her so close that they look like one person. Sometimes he migrates over to me and cuddles. Some nights he kicks me in the back and one night he kicked me off the bed.

He doesn't much like to eat his own cereal in the morning, but he loves to share my cereal with me. Same thing with blueberries: doesn't like them served to him, but enjoys eating whatever blueberries he sees floating around in my cereal.

He loves to be outside, hug the dog, follow his Dad everywhere, pound on keyboards, eat ice cream, drink water, inhale milk bottles one after the other, “box” with other people (“fight,” “fight” he says and immediately pretends he has been punched, swoons, and hits the floor, in a gently floating motion).

His vocabulary is growing amazingly and he can and will repeat anything. Like Curious George, he is always asking questions: “Esthat?” “Esthat?” “Esthat””

He makes us chase him for a hug sometimes and then sneaks up to give us one.

He loves to go on “cruises” with his Dad in his Dad's Jeep and once when I was with Jimi and Darren in the Jeep, Darren was playing a weird (to me) album by Mars Volta. When the song was over, Jimi said, “Again” and “Up.” He wanted it louder.

He is a loving, cheerful, and glorious toddler; he brightens up our lives so much we have to wear prescription strength sun glasses, and fills our hearts with such sweet, high quality joy.

He is the most Fascinating baby in my relation...

This is my entry for:

Mrudula's Festival For the Most Fascinating Baby of My Relation...