Happy Birthday!

To my oldest sister and my wonderful mother-in-law. I hope you both have a great day!

Best Toy Ever

Have you seen these before? This is our Matrushka doll. It was given to us by my sister-in-law who served her church mission in Russia. We've had it for years.

The Boy has a number of stacking toys, including this...


...and this.


But he would much rather play with the matrushka. He will spend a good deal of very quiet time with this toy, which I love of course. I can hear him playing with it right now in the living room. It is definitely his second favorite thing, right behind his maraca.

The White Board

I thought I would take a short break from exploiting my son for this blog and switch to exploiting the Man. Like many people, we have a white board on our refrigerator. Among the things I keep on it is a running list of things that I need to do and one that the Man needs to do. Often I come down in the morning to find that he has left me a message before leaving for work. Usually it is something barfy and sentimental like "I love you". Actually, I really like those. But yesterday I came down and saw this (he tried very hard to imitate my hand writing I think)...

I got the bedroom done that day.

The Opposite of Standing

Oh yeah...I can stand. Check me out. Mom's here and this is pretty fun.

Wait, wait...what happened?! She left me and I'm not so sure about this anymore. Why?! Why would you do that, Mom?!






Better get closer to the ground. Slooooooowly, slooooooowly. Assume the squatting position. I think I look like a Ninja when I do this, so it's cool.








Ah yes! Here we go. Much safer.

Happy Easter!

Technically, yesterday was not the Boy's first Easter, but last year we were in Arkansas and I have no pictures of it. So I went a little crazy this time. The Man says that I exploit the little guy for blogging purposes. Eh...so what. He's so dang cute.

We had a leisurely morning and then went to church, which was cut to one hour. So nice! After we got home, we had an egg hunt, so to speak. We did it in the living room because it was too cold and swampy outside and the Boy still prefers crawling. I love this picture so much except for the Imaging Science book and the TiVo remote in the background. Why did I not clean up first?


The eggs were filled with raisins, and once the Boy discovered this he started opening the eggs and shoveling the treats into his pie hole.

I neglected to bring my camera, but we had a very nice dinner with friends that evening that was topped off with a bunny cake. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter, too!

Let's Play!

Today we took little guy to the Play Museum. His favorite part was looking at the fish tanks, which are placed in the hall before you even go in. So much for buying that season pass. But that's okay, because he also enjoyed the building blocks, the mirrors, and the "sand" boxes. He wasn't too sure about the "sand" sticking to his hands at first, but he got over that pretty quick. Here are some of my favorite pictures from today...

On our way out, we ran into this fluffy creature.





The Boy wasn't too sure about her, though. Better snuggle into dad for safety.

It Begins

I knew this day would come. I wrote about it a while ago. Read this post first if you haven't already. The Boy now finds great joy in tossing his food down to the dog. He giggles and giggles whenever she snarfs around his chair and eats his hand-me-downs. So I started to take his food away when he did this. (He's having a hard time breaking the 20 pound barrier and doesn't really need to be giving food away.) That didn't stop him. Oh no. Even if there is nothing on his tray, he still grabs at invisible food and "tosses" it onto the floor. Then he laughs at Roxy for sniffing around for it. It's a little brutal - especially for a 1 year old. So now, during the times he feeds himself, we have to gate Roxy out of the dining room. I can't keep doing that though...I have no permanent solution here.

It's kind of difficult to see in the picture, but if you look closely on the floor to the left of the boy, you'll see his bread pieces on the ground. And below, he is enjoying feeding her his afternoon snacks. Ugh.

While We Wait...

While I wait for more of you to enlighten me with your song choices on my previous post (hint hint), I thought I would share these pictures with you. I bought these flowers at Wegmans this week because...I wanted to. They were so bright and happy. I brought them home and tied that pretty pink ribbon around the vase, which came off of a chocolate milk jug that was given to me by friends for my birthday. They have really helped bring a little sunshine to my winter. Hope you enjoy them, too.

Hair Cut

I finally decided to trim the boy's hair. It was getting a little out of control if you saw my previous post on this topic. I was quite pleased with how it turned out considering how apprehensive I was to take scissors to his mop.

But then the next morning he woke up and it looked like this...
I found it a bit ironic that he is playing with a hair brush.

Oh well. I tried.

Identity Crisis

I am starting to think that my child believes he is a dog. Perhaps he has concluded that since they both get around on all fours, they must be the same species. Therefore, he growls like her, plays in her water dish, and attempts to eat her food. And now this...

My first reaction to seeing the Boy inside the dog bed was to quickly snatch him out. I mean, the dog sleeps in there. Gross. But then of course, I remembered I had a blog and the urge to take a picture overcame that of good hygiene.

He was having such fun, I couldn't bring myself to spoil it - or to put the camera down. Then Roxy came to investigate. I don't think she was very happy with the boy commondeering her bed. But she is getting more tolerant of him and his fascination with all things dog related.

Shake It Up!

Here is the other picture I took on Saturday of the Boy laying in the floor. Incidentally, it was at my birthday get together. (Thanks to all my friends for being there and to those who wanted to be but couldn't.) I love this picture because it also captures little buddy's affinity for his maraca. This was a Christmas present from Mamie and Papa and it rarely leaves his sight now. Whenever you shake it, this toy can do counting or colors in English and Spanish or musical sounds. Since the Boy has a hard time ever keeping his arms still, this is a perfect toy for him. I was a little worried when it stopped functioning correctly after it got dipped into the dog's water bowl. Luckily, it dried out and is back in full operation.

As a result of the inordinate amount of time he spends with his maraca, little guy has learned how to "count" to ten. It goes something like this:

Dad: Let's count it out! One!
Boy: *grunt*
Dad: Two!

Boy: *grunt*

Dad: Three!

Boy: *grunt*
Dad: Four!
Boy: *grunt*

...and so on. He's a genius!

A Happy Place?

I am not sure why and I can never tell exactly when, but lately the Boy can often be found laying on the ground, motionless. He is completely content in this position. I once thought it would be a good idea to get down there with him. When he saw me, he cried, got up on all fours, and crawled away. So I stood up, feeling rejected, and went back to what I was doing. He then returned to the original spot and resumed his lazy demeanor. Here he is on:

Sunday









Monday









Tuesday








Wednesday









Thursday

Friday

Saturday






Either this is his Happy Place, or he's given up on life. Whichever it is, he does NOT want to be bothered. Sometimes I feel like I should grab the chalk and outline him.

**In response to Jo's comment, he has never fallen asleep like this and never stays this way for more than 30 seconds. I guess when you've only lived 13 months, 30 second breaks seem sufficient.

An Unexpected Visitor

This is Stella. She lives behind us one block over and decided to drop in this morning to say hello. I saw her out of the corner of my eye while I was sitting at the computer and she was snarfing around our driveway. So I hurried her through the house and onto our back porch. Stella has visited us once before (also unannounced - she just has no etiquette). And though the picture on the bottom makes her look like a good candidate for a Cujo movie, she is a very sweet girl. But we are ill equipped to host a big dog. Besides that, Roxy is never all that thrilled to have another canine in the house. She is guarding that door with the full force of her 17 pounds. Outside however, they are buddies.

The Boy is also not a fan of Stella. I thought that having a dog would keep him from being afraid of them. Not so. He saw her and was terrified! Would you just look at that pitiful face.

Luckily Stella does not even come close to fitting through that doggy door, but it is not for a want of trying. Poor pooch picked the wrong day to get loose- she must be freezing! I hear her whining outside as I type. I hate to call Animal Control, but I think it's better than letting her become a popsicle.

It Got Very Quiet

Yesterday, prior to the big step, I was in another room when I realized the Boy had become very quiet. This is not usually good news. So I peeked my head into the living room and saw this...


Anyone who knows me at all probably knows that I don't find much pleasure in reading. But I badly want my kids to love it, so this was a proud moment for me.

We'll Call it Official

The Boy took his first step yesterday! And I do mean step in the singular. He may have done more (but I doubt it) had I not gotten so excited at the first one that I gave him a big kiss preventing any further forward travel. I still think it will be a while before he walks. The Boy is a fairly cautious kid and generally does not attempt anything until he is certain he can do it right. But he is more willing to stand on his own now. Incidentally he can do this with a rubber duck in his mouth, which is good since that has been its permanant home since it was given to him by our friends, the Silva's.

Cheery-O

In my opinion, the Cheerio step is an important step in a baby's life. If he can eat Cheerios by himself, then we are on our way to many more independent eating habits. It's also the beginning of many a Cheerio being left in piles on the floor, all around the house, in his car seat, on the pew at church, etc. I bought a box of Cheerios a little while ago but still have not felt comfortable giving it to the Boy. However, some sweet little girl was kind enough to share hers with him at church on Sunday. Okay, she didn't so much as share them as she left them on the ground and little buddy became a human vacuum cleaner. But he did quite well with them. So Monday morning I thought we would give them a shot for breakfast.



The first round went pretty well.






But then something went horribly, horribly wrong.





Have I ever mentioned the ridiculous gag reflex on this kid?



The Cheerios are going back into the cabinet for a while.

Do I Need a Hair Cut?

Someone please tell me what to do with my child's hair!