Excitement!

One of my coworkers is renovating her kitchen, and she brought me some kitchen toys that belonged to her son.  I think the little dude is a fan.  He made SO MUCH NOISE!

Guess who might be talking!

Several weeks ago, the little dude was in the tub when he waved his rubber duck in the air and said "Duh."  It seems pretty obvious to me that his first word was duck.  Since then, he has tried to say church ("cha"), towel ("tah"), and dad ("dadadadadadadadadada"). Today he attempted watch ("oowah").  These words are all subject to great debate in our household.  I stand firm that he's talking up a storm (slight exaggeration, but whatever) while the little guy's dad insists that he hasn't said a single word.

Tonight at dinner I was recounting the way the little booger said watch (in the above picture-- he was holding a watch!) and I was met with serious skepticism.  My darling husband then turned to our darling child and said "Are you talking up a storm?"  The little guy looked right back at his dad and said "Uh, no."

His first word was, officially, "No."

Great.

Outside!

The little guy loves the dogs.  When they went outside today, he wanted to follow them.  We ended up following them outside, but not before I got a few pictures.

10 Months!!!!

I can't believe the little guy has been a part of our lives (outside the womb) for 10 months now. Time sure goes by fast. It's amazing to think how much he has grown in such a short time. He's been all I could have hoped for and more. The fun (and frustration) never ends!

The boys mom is out of town on a business trip so his Nana has come up to help out. I know she is really busy and it's a huge sacrifice for her to take a day off work (though I'm sure spending time with her #2 beats payroll any day), but the boy's mom and I appreciate it more than we could ever say.

So, I don't think he takes enough naps at daycare. It seems like every Saturday he sleeps forever. Even though it's Friday he didn't go to daycare today, so to him it was Saturday. He ended up taking two 2-hour naps while his Nana came all this way to spend time with him. I'm sure if he could talk he'd apologize.

I would have had some pictures from today, but his mom took the camera with her so here's a (gratuitous) fun picture of the boy from last week having his first KFC. Man, that stuff is scrumptious! He thought so too.

Well, this post is everywhere. Happy 10-month birthday kiddo! Your mom and I love you very much!

Daddy's boy

Eric is playing in the tournament for his softball league, and he had a game tonight.  Before he left, the little guy was very interested in Eric's hat.  He grabbed it,

tugged on it,

got it off his dad's head,

and then had his dad help him put it on.

What a daddy's boy!

Little helper, Part 2

Remember how the little guy had fun helping his daddy with the laundry?  He's also helping me unload the dishwasher! 

He has a death wish or something, because he went straight for the knives.  I'm not sure how he manages to find the most dangerous thing possible every time, but he does it without fail.

He's hip and happenin'

The little guy had a great time yesterday playing with his daddy's wallet and wearing his daddy's hat.

Check out that backwards hat and his Puma gear!  He's tough, yo.

Naked baby!

Due to too many grapes and my stuffy nose, the little dude got a nasty diaper rash today.  In order to air him out, he got to play naked!  Then he peed on the kitchen floor, so we put him in a loose cloth diaper with no cover.  That way his bottom got air and our carpet got a little protection.  Once we got the acidic poop off his little tush, though, he cheered right up.

Up in the air, so blue!

We went to a playground at a state park near our house today.  The little guy wasn't too sure about the swings at first.  Then he decided that he was sure-- that he didn't like it.  That was kind of the end of the playground adventure.

He did enjoy trying to eat moss and lichen near the river, though.  We sat for a while and watched some kayakers practice going over the waterfall.

All in all, it has been a nice lazy Saturday.

The Joys of Fatherhood

Leave it to Dad to come in a mess up a perfectly good bedtime routine! (Is it quiet? Is it calm? - 'No Cry Sleep Solution')



I couldn't help it. I walked in and he was sitting up in his crib with a giant smile on his face. He wasn't that sleepy anyway. And just so you know, he was asleep in 15 minutes.

I do feel bad about the hiccups.

Red alert?

I think we're on a "walking warning" (like a tornado warning, only slightly more terrifying).  We've ratcheted up from "walking watch" recently.  He's standing on his own for about a second at a time.  He can squat down to pick something up without falling over, and he's co-opting anything he thinks will work as a walker and bashing into walls and furniture full speed ahead.

Splish splash

Bath time is highly entertaining and very wet (for both of us).  The little guy has realized that falling over in the tub is the best way to make a really big splash.  He's pretty methodical about it, leaning back carefully to make sure that he doesn't hit his head on anything. 

He's going to hate me for this when he's older.

Lost and Found

The TV remote disappeared the other day.  We have separate remotes for the TV, cable, and sound so it wasn't too big a deal.  This afternoon, the little dude appeared in the living room carrying the missing clicker.  I'm not exactly sure where he kept it, but I'm a little concerned about what else he's planning on pilfering.

High chair

We have this cool high chair that promotes good posture by having a place for the baby's feet to go. It is also a food-catcher whenever the little guy eats.

That's why we crate the dogs during mealtimes... meaning that this is the view from the dining room table:

It doesn't seem to bother the little guy at all.

Off topic

I read about this IQ test for dogs today. (These two bloggers are hilarious and inspired me to try this.) The first test is to put a treat under a cup or can and see how long it takes your dog to get it. Ha! (I thought to myself smugly.) Our dogs will rock this test.

So, here is Sadie looking at me after spending 2 minutes not getting the treat out from under the cup.And here is Beau, completely ignoring the treat under the cup in favor of some phantom treat on the carpet.

*sigh*

Yogurt and learning how to share

The little guy ate his yogurt today in the living room today so that his dad and I could catch up on Burn Notice (what? He woke up when the show was only half over!). The beagle never took his eyes off the little dude until the yogurt was gone. He stayed about this far away for the whole meal.

Manners, take two

We went to a wedding today (no pictures yet), and the kid behaved really well... until he let loose with a giant belch during the final prayer. The only people who heard him were in the surrounding four rows of pews... good thing we sat in the back! I hope that they weren't recording audio anywhere near us. If so, our apologies to the happy couple.

Hiatus

We've been on a hiatus for two reasons. The first is that my camera battery died (I'm too lazy to charge it, apparently). The second is because the boy traumatized me this week. Remember this? Well, Wednesday night, the boy climbed out of his high chair onto the dining room table and promptly fell off the table. He's fine (I cried more than he did). We're all back to our usual selves, but it took me a few days. *sigh*

So here he is, earlier this week, climbing over his daddy to get to something dangerous, I'm sure.And here's a picture I remembered today. During dinner a week or so ago, he kept putting his ear to the table like he was listening for a stampede in a western. It'll be fun when he starts talking and can tell us what goes on in that crazy little head of his.

While the dog is away...

The little dude and I were home for a day without the dogs. I emptied out the water dish to remove the temptation, and here's what he did with it:

Usually he makes tons of noise by batting our plastic recycling around on the kitchen floor, but this was way better.

Toast sticks

I have a great book called The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers. (If you ever need to cry, read it.) The chapters are organized into 'spiritual toast sticks' after this adorably heart-warming story about a young Mr. Rogers and his neighbor. I was thinking about that the other day, so I made toast sticks for the little guy for breakfast. It was a hit! It's really easy for him to eat it by himself. He crams as much as he can in his mouth and then has to chew for days.
He sneezed out about half a piece of bread the other morning. It was pretty hilarious, but maybe you had to be there.

Baby foodie!

I made him dal tonight, with lentils, carrots, potatoes, curry powder and other spices.

He loved it!I think this makes up for the edamame and yogurt.

Disappointment

The poor little guy tried to replicate his toilet paper nest today, but the roll was out and I hadn't replaced it yet.
Yes, that is one lonely little square of toilet paper lying on the bathroom floor.

Power and randomness***

Our power was out yesterday, so I didn't get to share my picture of the boy trying to chew on the dog's bone while the dog tries to chew on the baby's toys. This further establishes my excellence at child supervision, I think.

In other news, the only casualty from the 18-hour power outage was our egg carton. It didn't do too well in a cooler full of ice all day...Tonight we got mail from today and from a random chunk of time last month (stupid mail-forwarding didn't work). Luckily, the little dude is practicing for an executive assistant career, opening and sorting our mail for us. Maybe we'll have him start keeping our calendar.

*** It's a stats joke, get it? Hahahaha.

Sleep is for the weak

He didn't take a single nap all day at daycare. I tried to put him down early, but he didn't want to go.

He played and yawned and rubbed his eyes all evening. When I put him down in his crib at his usual bedtime, it looked like he thought about fussing and decided it wasn't worth the energy. He was asleep almost as soon as I left the room.

Sunday with a 9 month old

Today, while our family was prepping for the beginning of Shark Week and a church picnic, Owen got into a little trouble. But first, this aside.

Shark Week starts tonight on the Discovery Channel so this afternoon we were watching Discovery because they always air previous seasons to get you amped up for the new week. It's kind of nice because the boy's mom loves Shark Week. In fact, she's recording it on the DVR. We rarely get to watch nature programs at our house because one time when she was little she was watching one with her dad and a lion ate a gazelle baby or something. (sniff, sniff, sob, sob)

Shortly after we were married she gave in and we began watching a nature show. It was a cute story of three babies; a hippo, a lion, and a croc. Close to the end of the hour, after we had become attached to the little animals and there potential lives ahead, the poor little hippo baby was tragically trampled to death after the grown-up hippos get scared of something. The baby hippos mother wouldn't leave its body and was getting terribly sunburned guarding it from who else but the lion and the croc from our story. It was really sad and my wife started bawling. So no more nature shows when she's around and that's why Shark Week is nice, though I don't understand how watching giant fish eat poor helpless furry seals is much different, but I'll take it.

So anyway, I was watching the amp up to Shark Week and the boy's mom was in the kitchen baking cookies for our church's baptism service/picnic this evening. The kid was crawling around in the floor playing close to me for a little bit and then he snuck into the kitchen and was scampering around under his mom's feet. This went on for a little while as he knocked a empty juice bottle around the kitchen and was making lots of noise, which he loves to do. Then it was quiet for a little too long. I'm not sure how long, because I am like my father in that when the TV is on, we go deaf. I finally realized I was hearing something in our half bathroom (right off the kitchen, mind you) and I got up to check on the kid. This is what I found.

That wasn't an old roll of toilet paper either. What a mess! This kinda stuff gets under my skin a little, but I'm working on it. I got a little aggravated at his mom and we began discussing who should have been watching the little guy.

Meanwhile, he slithered off across the room and interrupted our discussion with a splash. He loves that stupid dog water bowl! Remember this post? Needless to say he is moving faster and faster and I'm gonna have to learn to deal with my mess phobia.