His happy place

Nathaniel loves ceiling fans.
Sometimes he'll be crying away, and I'll change his position a little ... he'll catch a glimpse of a ceiling fan and quit crying as he stares and stares at it.
Sometimes I'll be feeding him, and he'll stare intently for 10-15 minutes at the fan.
Sometimes he'll be looking at a person or some other object, when he seems to remember the fan is overhead and promptly quits whatever he was looking at to stare at the fan.

Sure, some might say, he's interested in the movement and the flowing air. Nope.
These ceiling fans are not running. He's just amazed at how they look, it seems.

I tried spinning one when I first noticed his interest, but he immediately looked away, losing interest in the now moving fan. I stopped it, and he started staring again.
Very odd.

I know babies are interesting in contrasting colors (every baby book mentions that), but it's still amazing to see him staring so happily at this mundane brown fan against our white ceiling.

Long nails

Amanda has been doing an excellent job of keeping Nathaniel's nails within reason, but it's amazing how fast they grow. She'll cut and file away one afternoon, and that evening, it seems, he'll already have scratched his face. We always feel like bad parents when we see a little scratch on his nose, cheek or forehead. We can't wait until he really starts to understand his hands belong to him and he can actually stop bopping himself in the head and scratching himself very easily.