My younger son has a remarkable ability to inspire comparisons to non-human creatures. While his smile is quite human – and adorable to boot – the noises and gestures he makes often aren’t.

As he’s moved from a newborn who arrived nearly a month early to a very mobile baby, here are six more things Little Bird reminds me of:

Who, me?

Puppy: Since Thanksgiving, Little Bird has been on the move! He crawls fast, making it easy for him to make a beeline towards whatever he wants to put in his mouth. And his favorite thing to chew? Shoes. Seriously. I’ve left him for just a moment and come back to discover him with Sprout’s shoe hanging out of his mouth. When I exclaimed, “Little Bird!” he looked at me with the exact same big-eyed expression my puppy used to. He also likes banging and gnawing on a neon pink frisbee. (Now that I think about it, that might not be a good plastic for him to chew on. Oops.) Sprout chewed on a lot of things, but nothing nearly that weird. I suspect Little Bird might be a slightly more challenging toddler than Sprout.

String bean: Little Bird has grown a lot since he was born, but never filled out from his initial skinniness. At his nine month appointment, he was 60% height (60% taller than most boys his age) and 0% weight. As skinniness runs in the family and he’s steadily gaining weight, there’s nothing to worry about, but he’s a little string bean of a kid.

Camel: I have a saying that all babies and toddlers fail in at least one of the three basic life functions: eating, sleeping and pooping. As Little Bird’s sleeping is getting better (sometimes), he’s had a serious dip in another area – drinking. Over the Christmas holiday, he decided he didn’t like drinking from a bottle. Because we had been supplementing my nursing with formula, this was slightly concerning. But it got really worrisome when he continued his bottle strike after I went back to work. The doctor says as long as he has three wet diapers a day, he’s fine. I still worry though. I regularly tell him, “You aren’t a camel!”

Via Kitty Ying on Flickr. Little Bird wasn’t wearing a dress though.

Hamster: Today, we discovered that he will actually drink if we give him a sippy cup while he’s standing up. He’ll reach his mouth up to it like he’s drinking from a hamster bottle. He also tries to chomp on electrical cords like a little rodent, but we’ve always managed to catch him first.

Bird: As per his nickname, Little Bird does have some avian characteristics. In particular, when he’s on his back and gets excited, he flaps his arms and legs. One day, he’s just going to take flight.

A kid: Among all of the holiday hoopla, Little Bird marched through a number of major milestones. With his newfound ability to pull up on furniture and his insatiable curiosity, he’s now able to explore everything. In addition, he’s even started making noises that sound like the building blocks of words. Somewhere in there he’s passed the point where he looks more like he will as a kid than he did as a baby. While some moms are sad about their kids’ transition from baby to toddler, I’m not. Perhaps a bit wistful, but not sad. Instead, I love seeing a bit of what is to come in his face and look forward to experiencing even more.

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