Joy!

We didn't do anything exciting tonight. The little booger played with his ball-popper. That thing drives me up the wall, but the little guy loves it.

 His clasped-hands 'oh joy!' expression in this one killed me:

It's not my favorite toy, but that's not the point.

How Not to Talk to Your 16-Month Old

I was going to write about the little dude's new silverware (riveting, I know), but then he did this:

What isn't in the video is the conversation that followed him ignoring my initial request. In the dialog below, he is LS (for Little Stinker), and I'm Me.

Me: Hey, can you close that please?

LS: (completely ignores me)

Me: Hey, can you close the door please?

LS: (continues to ignore me, turns some knobs)

Me: LS, can you please close that door?

LS: (pushes a button, giggles to himself)
 
Me: Hey, LS, can you please close the door?

LS: (looks at door, smiles at me) Door!

Me: Yes, door! Can you please close the door and play with something else, like your car?

LS: (points to window, smiles at me) Car!

Me: No, no. Your toy car. It's right there (points) at your feet.

LS: (points to and stamps his feet-- grinning like he's trying to say 'Feet! These are my feet!')

This is where I got up and closed the door. It's nice that he understands so many words, but this was one of the least productive conversations I've ever had. Happy 16 months!

Eating with Gusto!

Today was a successful food day for the little stinker. He had yogurt with lunch, which he and Sadie thoroughly enjoyed.

We spent the afternoon at the emergency vet. Beau hurt his back again, so he's on bed rest and some serious pain medication (poor little beagle). After an exhausting afternoon running around the parking lot at the vet's, the little booger took a second nap. He woke up in time to enjoy his dinner, starting with his corn muffin.

After eating one and a half muffins, he polished off a bowl of chili.

It's fun to cook for such an appreciative audience.

He's a maniac!

This is how he goes down the stairs:

Thankfully we've been there every time he's started down them like that. We were thinking about crawling backwards down the stairs with hopes of influencing him to do the same. He's going to break a bone if he keeps this mess up.

What a Mooch!

The little stinker's favorite breakfast is whatever other people are eating. Here he is sponging off his dad.

When he wants our food, he'll stare at us, drool, whine, and make the signs "more" and "please." Sometimes having him around is like having a third dog, except the dogs don't know sign language.

Security Blanket

We had a tired little boy at the table tonight.

 He loves that blanket so much we should've named him Linus.

He likes to chew on the blanket, too, so it's constantly covered with partially-chewed cracker bits and yogurt. Yum!

He can do it!

The little dude likes to do things the grown-up way, thankyouverymuch. He won't be fed from his rubber-tipped baby spoons because his dad and I use different ones. Here's a video of him eating his yogurt out of a big spoon at dinner tonight.

It's pretty fun to see him do things himself even though he can make a huge mess. For example, he was helping himself to Cheerios (yay!)...

... when he dumped the entire box out onto the floor (boo).

I guess only first-time parents are surprised by that turn of events.

Haircut and Terrible Faces

The little booger's Nana showed me how to cut his hair last night. It's a wee bit shorter than we anticipated, but isn't he adorable?

I'm having a hard time getting reasonable pictures of the little stinker. These are his favorite facial expressions when he sees the camera:

The only time he doesn't do something like that is when he's doing something like this:

I don't think we'll be getting family portraits done anytime soon.

I may be vile and pernicious...

... but you can't look away.

The little booger was so entranced by The Dinosaur Train that Sadie fell asleep in front of him and he didn't even try to touch her.

Well, shoot.

Apparently, the fact that our entertainment center has doors no longer means that it's childproofed.

Garbage.

Quiet Saturday Morning

It's nice to eat a leisurely breakfast while reading the newspaper or a good book. He's so sophisticated!



Circus? Zoo?

I can't decide if our house is a circus or a zoo.

On top of the somersault ridiculousness, the little stinker is climbing on everything from his new car seat...

...to the box of diapers for daycare.

I did get some snuggles after his bath, which almost makes up for the constant stream of heart-in-my-throat please-be-careful holy-goodness moments around here.

Daddy's Little Helper Is Taller!

Now that he's tall enough to reach the buttons, we've put the stinker to work doing the laundry. He's rocking the diaper-and-shoes because we put the clothes he had on in the wash.

That laugh is the same sound he makes when he sees a plate of food.

Growing!

We have taken the little dude's picture with a stuffed football a few times (with varying success) to help show how much he's grown. These are from our latest series of attempts.

It's hard to get him to sit next to the football now that he's big enough to run around and throw it.

He has grown into a little boy!

Still Learning...

The little booger might be getting better at a ton of things, but he still can't use a straw.

He was so serious about trying to drink through it, too.

Here's a video of the ridiculousness. He was a sticky mess.

Our Little Gollum?

He doesn't have the Ring, but he does have two sippy cups.

 He didn't even let go to drink tonight. How precious?

He already follows the hobbit mealtimes... is this a bad sign for things to come? Or am I a complete nerd? (Or both?)

Sunday School!

The little booger got to go to the two-year-old Sunday School class today since there were so few babies in the nursery. He did very well, except for when he flipped over backwards off the picnic table. (Minor detail.) As a bonus, I got to take home a picture he colored:

Here's an unrelated picture of me and the stinker goofing around before bath time. I think he's trying to eat my face.

Three's a Crowd!

More than one is a crowd in the bathroom.

The best part of this whole thing was Sadie's disgust. You can almost read her mind: Leave me out of this tomfoolery.

Brilliant!

I don't know why we ever buy toys. All the little stinker needs is household appliances. It started with the washing machine, moved to the dishwasher, and now it's the microwave oven.

Too bad he's still a little young to put in charge of cooking dinner.



I think we are both happy for him to play with the microwave, though, because his other new hobby is flushing the toilet. 

Daddy's boy

Tonight the little dude had fun roughhousing with his daddy.

He also shook his maracas (and chewed on them). 

He was dancing and wiggling with his maracas along with Toddler Tunes (radio via cable), but then he turned on the ball-popper and both his music-box books. It was so chaotic and overwhelming to have four different songs playing at the same time in the same room. He loved it, but it made me feel a little unhinged.

Happiness and Disappointment

Here's the good news: the little guy is now the small-to-medium guy. He has officially moved from the 5-10th percentile in height to the 10-25th percentile. Wahoo! Look at that tall (well, taller than he was) boy!

After dinner tonight, the little guy's dad gave him a really strong salt and vinegar potato chip. I can barely eat them without pulling a face. This is how the little dude reacted.

In case you don't know baby sign language, he said "Please, more!" with no puckering or grimacing or anything! My poor husband felt a little cheated.
Please ignore the Steelers shirt. It belongs to daycare, not to us.

Disgusting!

I wouldn't watch this video before dinner...

We have no idea why he puts so much food in his mouth at one time. What a goober!

Mimic (not like the scary movie)

The little guy tries to do everything we do. It can be a little personally invasive (like when he tries to see what you're doing in the bathroom), but sometimes it's adorable. He sat in his little chair tonight and literally rocked.

Tired Little Boy!

This is what a tired baby toddler looks after breakfast:

We had quite a Saturday!

Aaa-oooooo!

If you ask the little dude what Sadie says, he'll tell you "Aaa-ooooo." This is what that looks like.

I was trying to get a smiling picture, but he kept making terrible faces or hamming it up wayyyy too much. He's a total cheeseball.

Busy Night!

For dinner, the little dude ate a cereal bar, half a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, a banana, lots of crackers, a mini-bagel, and part of a piece of pizza. He's a messy and unstoppable eater.

After dinner, he played with one of his little toy cars. It has a mechanism that makes it almost self-propelled. Anyway, one of his favorite things to do is push it under the couch. Then he lays down on his belly and looks under the furniture. It's pretty bizarre. He managed to get the car all the way against the wall under the loveseat tonight. 

The nice thing about getting on the floor and looking with the little dude is that we tend to find a lot of his things under the couches. The only real negative here is that Beau is a stealth face-licker.

Bath Time!

The little dude is starting to imitate what we say. We were a little too excited about his attempt to say "Bath time" tonight, so here's a video.

Here's another video from tonight. The little guy loves that ball-popper. It's nice that he loves it, but I wish I had checked for a volume switch before I bought it...