Well boo...

One thing I know to be true... raise your kids up in the way that they should go and they won't depart from it. Well I'm doing the best I can to teach the boy right from wrong and to keep him from developing bad habits, though at almost one I'm not sure he really understands much of what we say to him. I guess you just have to keep repeating the core principles and values you want them to learn until they sink in. Here's is a picture of one attempt to instill one of the most important principles of life.

(This was us getting ready for game 2 of the Phillies - Reds series.)

Principle 1 - Baseball is the one and only best sport God has given us and the Reds are the team. I think this one is starting to sink in. See how happy the boy is?

Principle 2 - Sometimes things look bleak (down 2-0 to Grandma's Phillies, thus the post's title), but never give up.

Books!

The little guy has weaned (sob), so our new bedtime routine involves reading some board books together.  He's getting pretty good at turning the pages, but his sense of timing needs work. 

It's a good thing there aren't a lot of words on each page and the plot is minimal because he rarely goes through the book the right usual way.  He seems to randomly combine skipping a bunch of pages and going through the book backwards.  For some reason I feel compelled to read each page out loud as he turns to it.  It makes the stories a little choppy, and sometimes I really have to rush (or guess at what the page says).  "Who says quack? Cows say moo. Not a hen. Look! A dog! Cows say moo. Cock-a-doodle-doo. Cows say moo. Who says quack?" 

Makeshift Walker

When I was in high school, sometimes we would order a ton of lemon slices with a glass of water in an attempt to make lemonade for free at restaurants.  It never worked very well, but I think the little dude is following in those footsteps by making his own walker and saving us the money.  Here's the proof:

Future cool guy?

Thanks to an adoring aunt, the little dude has a pair of designer jeans.  They're awesome, and he's super-spiffy.

When I picked him up today at daycare, I was informed that the pack of little boys that play together (chasing each other around and giggling) has started wrestling.  And, they love it.  Apparently they laugh and laugh and crawl all over each other and wrestle.  That's fine, but now these little terrors are trying to involve the other babies... and the other babies aren't necessarily fans of rough-housing.  (Already?  Really?)

My reaction: dismay and a touch of amusement.  My vision of a book-loving introverted son has been shattered.

His dad's reaction: "Yes!  He's part of the cool crowd!"

Of course he is, look at those jeans!

Assorted hilarity?

We have a lot of random pictures that are funny, but aren't providing any inspiration for posting.  So here's a compilation of happy photos with a theme: food!

What can I say?  The little guy loves to eat anytime, anywhere, anyway.

Also, his striped pajama pants make his tush look funny:

Just to see you smile...

...his dad'll do anything.  Apparently, this includes playing a game with a cracker in his mouth!  The little dude grabbed one cracker out of his dad's mouth and ate it, but his mouth was still full for this one:

We're going to miss that laugh when he grows up.

Buckwheat Festival!

We went on a short trip today to the Buckwheat Festival.  We ate some good food, spent time with some family, and saw a lot of really amazing animals.  The little dude also spent some time playing in the grass with me and then with his cousin.

We got to see a lot of goats today (I love goats, don't know why), and the goats cracked the little dude up.  He thought they were hilarious. 

On our way out, the little guy was asleep and we caught the tail end of the draft horse pulling contest.  I had no idea how big those horses were.  The winning team pulled 9500 pounds 27 feet.  These horses were massive-- this picture doesn't do them justice.