Stink-eye

The little guy is sooooo cute when he gets in his crib and stuffs his mouth full of blanket. The problem is that he's not a huge fan of flash-photography at bedtime.

Who would have thought? Toddlers... as easily annoyed as grown-ups!

Terrible Table Manners

The little dude gets so excited when he realizes he's about to eat that he starts laughing. I was trying to get it on camera, but he wasn't very cooperative. I did, however, capture his latest mannerism at the table:

We have no idea where he picked this up, because we don't do this at all.

He's getting better all the time!

The little dude has developed some pretty intense shape-sorting skills, thanks to the adorable toy his great-grandparents got him for Christmas.

It's so entertaining to watch him think-- there's practically smoke coming out of his ears!

Daddy's Boy!

It's been hard finding time to take pictures this week. The little dude is transitioning to the mobile room at daycare and he has been exhausted! It's amazing how tired he is. Here's a photo of the little guy and his dad roughhousing last weekend.

I can barely look! My baby!

Baby's First Garage?

It looked like this outside today:

So we came home early and stayed indoors. The little dude was scooting around when he decided to park in the big cardboard box. He didn't realize how far in the scooter would go, so he totally smacked his face on the top flap. 

 Then he tried to shut his scooter in the box.

 But he ended up getting inside the box with the scooter. I don't think it was as roomy in there as he expected...

 ...especially when he tried to stand up. He's HUGE!!

 He eventually got it all sorted out and rode away.

What a lot of chaos!

We have an animal sounds book that ends with the line "What a lot of noise!" Change "noise" to "chaos" and you've described our house perfectly. See?

There is just SO MUCH FUN TO BE HAD!!!

Living on the edge?

He's not quite talking on the phone while driving, but he's texting and scooting. Thank goodness he can't get his learner's permit for fourteen more years!

Outside!

The little dude likes watching the dogs go outside. It's a little poignant when he stands at the door and says "Beau? Sadie?"

Cousins are fun!

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would give the hard working head poster a break tonight. The little guy's cousin stopped by last night for a little while with both his twin uncles and their wives. It was great to have everyone in our house just to hang out and goof off. We don't get to see them too often so when all us big boys and both the little boys get together we have lots of fun. Here is an awesome video of the two tikes practicing their moves, which I sure will pay off later in life! Watch out ladies!

Say "Aaaaaaah"

Another new thing the little dude is doing is trying to feed us. He says "Aah?" and puts food in our mouths after we open wide.

Sometimes it's kind of cute. Sometimes, though, it's not. The other day he tried to feed me pre-chewed crackers... and he can be quite insistent.

Hanging with Dad

The little dude sat on the stairs with me last night. Tonight he sat on the stairs with his daddy.

Future percussionist?

The little stinker loves shaking my two colored-sugar bottles. He even gets them out of the cabinet himself! (Dear Fellow Cookie Exchange Participants: I promise he didn't put them in his mouth before I used them.)

Little dude's maybe got some rhythm? He definitely has style.

Just hanging out...

The little dude gave me pinkeye, so I was a tad irritable yesterday... hence no posting. My eyes feel a lot better today, though, and the little dude was in a fantastic mood tonight. He's turned into a big imitator. Here he is sitting on the stairs with me:

And here he is reading with his dad before bed:

This and That

This morning the little dude spent some time pretending the the temperature controller for our heating pad was a phone.The heating pad was out because little dude's dad hurt his back lifting our growing child. The big guy is doing much better today, though, thank goodness.

Tonight, the little dude climbed out of the bathtub by himself. It's amazing how many new things he's learned how to do. Some things stay the same, though... like how the little guy still loves chili.

His other new trick is that he can tell you what a pony says!

Much better than Peek-a-boo!

This game is his current favorite.

We could do worse!

What am I doing?

Sometimes I don't think I've learned a thing in my almost-15-months of parenting.

Even the little dude looks surprised that I don't have a handle on carrying a baby and a snack.

Our Little Clark Kent!

I had a hair appointment this morning, so the little booger was home alone with his daddy. Those two crack me up when they get going. Here's the little dude throwing a pose with his dad's glasses:

He has a future in eyeglass modeling, amirite? Or at least a great shot at winning America's Next Top Model some day... Here's a video of their playtime:

Daddy's Little Helper, Part 4

He's really helping this time!

We can't wait until he can reach all the buttons on the washer.

Hooray!

This is what feeling better looks like:

It may have killed the radio star...

... but videos make giving breathing treatments a lot easier! Every time the little dude gets a cold it settles in his chest and we have to give him breathing treatments. These involve pinning him down and waving the nebulizer thing in his face while he screams and thrashes. It's so awful that I don't think we've ever made it through a whole treatment. Last night, though, I played Sesame Street videos on YouTube and he happily sat through an entire treatment. (Those links are to our favorites.)

 Not only was it wonderful last night, it worked again today!

Adventures in Toddlerhood

The little dude wandered out of the living room today (he was home sick with a fever and cough) talking on the remote control. Then he came back without it! I looked *everywhere* for the stupid thing.

 Yup, he put it in his dad's boot.

Still no progress on table manners...

The little dude wanted a chicken leg tonight. I gave it to him because (a) I'm a sucker and (b) he has pinkeye again. Here he is ripping off chunks of meat with his teeth and spitting them out:

And here is wrapping up his dinner by smashing the bone into the table:

Making people watch these videos before and during mealtimes could become a widely successful diet plan!

More Creative Eating!

Today was not a photogenic day for the little dude... so much so that we gave up on getting a good picture.
Exhibit 1:

Exhibit 2:

Exhibit 3:

Anyway, tonight during his dinner, he stacked three crackers on the top of his sippy cup by the spout. Then he brought the cup to his mouth and ate/slurped the crackers off of it while drinking. He was so deliberate about it! It's fun to see him think things through, but really? this?

Recycling Is Dangerous

The poor little dude got in a fight with our recycling bin and lost today. Here he is after he stopped crying:

He was really upset, but it just looked like a little scratch between his eyebrows (and maybe a small mark on his nose). We washed the wound and put him down for his nap. Here's his face when he woke up:

His nose is soooo puffy and red! The scratch grew! He looks awful!

He's not a baby anymore...

While we were visiting my parents, my mom figured out that the little dude preferred a regular spoons to his rubber-tipped spoons. Similarly, he's a lot happier in his high chair without the baby set. Look at him sitting there like a big boy:

Going along with that same thought process, we got him to stop throwing his food on the floor tonight by giving him a real fork. That's probably not anywhere near as smart (or safe), but look at how focused he was with it! He speared that piece of pasta on his own (and several times over).

Continuing with the "Oh my gosh, he's so grown up!" theme, he sat down with The Atlantic after dinner.

I promise I'm not bragging about his budding intellect, though. He mostly just chewed on the cover.

Busy Bee, Part 2

He tried doing his rounds tonight on his scooter. Unfortunately for him, it was wayyyy too slow. He can't really steer very well, either. He ended up parking in front of his activity center and beating on the music button.

Success?

Noooooo!

The little guy was in a pretty foul mood when I picked him up this afternoon. He got to play in the mobile room for a while, but he was NOT happy about being back in the infant room at the end of the day. That attitude carried through most of the evening, so here's a happy picture from a few days ago:

This was taken right before a post-spaghetti bath.

Busy Bee

The little guy's current favorite activity is turning on as many noise-making toys at one time as he can. It's so over-the-top obnoxious that it just makes me laugh. He took a grocery bag with him on tonight's round.

He usually starts at the cubbies. Here he is turning on one of his music-box books:

"Look, mom, it makes MUSIC!!!"

Then he's off to the activity center to make MORE MUSIC!!!!

He can't linger there, though, because he has to get back to the book before the song ends. (This is important work, can't you tell?)

And now he starts all over again.

I'd keep going, but the camera ran out of batteries before the kid did.

Home Sweet Home

We got home today. The little guy wandered around for a few minutes, grinned, and then ran over to his favorite noise-making-toy. He seems happy to be home, but he's a good little traveler. The little dude is just as comfortable going through my parent's kitchen as he is going through ours.

Here's a quick video from the beach:

He ended up going into the water after those seagulls. Both of us got wet due to that bad decision.