Uh-Oh

The little stinker can reach the doorknobs.

This probably isn't great.

Mommy's Helper

When I started to make dinner tonight, I realized that I only had about half of the ingredients for the dinner I'd planned. The little booger was playing while I tried to cobble something together from a few cookbooks (it worked-- I am my mother's daughter). Then I guess the little dude decided that he wanted to help find recipe-pieces to use for dinner, too.

Apparently this was serious business, because he refused to smile for the camera.

Summer Fun!

He liked the sprinkler from yesterday's post so much that we went out and bought one for ourselves. He was playing in it tonight when he turned around and yelled "It's COLD!!!" Hilarious.

I think he may have enjoyed it more during clean-up because the water wasn't shooting quite as high. We'll definitely have a well-watered lawn this summer.

Appropriate clothing? Never!

We went to a party a couple of weeks ago and the little booger got to play in a sprinkler. He's so silly-- he wouldn't put his bathing suit on!

He was a happy and sopping wet mess.

Yum, Chalky!

It turns out there's a reason that sidewalk chalk is ages 3+. Little ones eat it.

He had a lot of fun once he stopped eating it, but he didn't get a ton of drawing done.

He just ran around banging pieces of chalk together.

Our Little Helper!

The little stinker can be a real handful at the grocery store, especially once he figured out that he could reach what's in the cart from the basket. We seem to have a solution (for the time being). He helps push!

I have to walk a little funny and our grocery shopping is done at a very sedate pace, but the little dude is well-behaved. Totally worth the trade-off.

Spoon, Schmoon

The little dude sometimes usually has a hard time with his utensils.

Occasionally he just gives up on the spoon and tries to suck the yogurt out of the container.

I guess if it works, it works.

Too Much Fun?

We got a new computer and it has a camera in it. It's crazy. Here we are having wayyy too much fun with the pre-fab backgrounds. (Our desk chair caused a slight problem with the "green screen"-- hence the brown patches on the little dude's forehead.)

We are going to be such an embarrassment to him when he's a teenager.

Ambulance!

Nothing bad has happened. We bought the little dude his first set of Hotwheels, and he enjoyed the ambulance for dinner.

Crotchety Old Man

The little dude is already a little old man. Here he is enjoying his morning reading:

He was actually 'reading' it out loud. "Baby! Airplane! Tractor!" (I'm only calling him crotchety because he was not a happy camper when I needed to change his diaper.)

Happy Father's Day!

From our house to yours....

 This is what our church gave each of the fathers today.

Cheese!

The little stinker has learned to "Show me your smile!" We think it's hilarious. He has such a cheesy grin.

I'm a Slacker with Big Dreams

Tomorrow is a dress-up day at daycare. The theme is Camelot. (No, I'm not kidding.) We went to four or five stores last week in search of a costume with no success. I've already packed my sewing machine, so even if I had the time or the inclination to sew something for him, I can't.

Instead, we stopped by Burger King tonight and got a crown at the drive-thru. My plan was for the little dude to decorate it with some stickers that we had around the house. I was pretty sure we could get it to look like this because I am, frankly, delusional.

He had a fantastic time decorating the crown. He put almost all the stickers on by himself!

Here is our finished masterpiece (and yes, his entire Camelot costume is a cardboard crown with yin yang stickers on it):

I'm glad we did this-- it was a lot of fun, but wow-- I am no Martha Stewart.

You Can't Be the Best at Everything!

He can climb.

He can run.

He can even spike a football.

He just can't figure out how to sit on the stepstool.

What a goober.

Befuddling

The little stinker wanted some ice water out of my glass tonight. He did a pretty good job!

But seriously-- what was that? Maybe his breath felt funny in his cold mouth? I have no idea. Sometimes he is so confusing.

Softball!

The little booger's dad and uncle are on a softball team. We try to go to their games when we can. Here he is enjoying the ambiance.

Ah, basesoftball.

Broadway, Here We Come!

The two (amazingly talented) guys in this house put on quite the show today:

I'm pretty lucky, huh.

Confusion, Step Two

The little booger is dying to drink out of a real cup. We let him use one tonight at dinner (with about one tablespoon of water in it) and he actually did pretty well.

He can drink out of it without any problem... it's the time in between sips that's the issue.

Considering where he was just over a year ago, though, this is amazing progress!

The Sun Shines!

The little stinker is an enthusiastic bedtime reader (I love it!). The book we're reading in this video is one of my favorites from a set of Eric Carle books about the world. If you watch the video, you'll get to hear him read along and also say "Go away, Sadie!" The poor dog was downstairs! It's just one of his favorite phrases, I guess.

He actually calmed down and went to sleep pretty quickly after this.

A Boy and His Rock

The little booger picks up rocks whenever we're outside. Usually he throws and kicks them, but the other day he brought them home for dinner.

We had to take the rock back outside when he tried to use it as a spoon.

Lucky Dogs!

The dogs have finally discovered a benefit to having the little booger around. He wants to feed them treats! They've probably gotten more treats in the past week than they have in the past year. (I'm serious... we tend to be a little stingy with the treats.) Here's the little booger passing out treats in his Sunday best (thanks, M and C!).

One new skill and suddenly 3/5ths of our household is deliriously happy!

Dog Walker

We took a loooong walk today. The little booger was ready to go! He outweighs Beau now (barely), so they are much more evenly matched on the leash.

The little dude rode in his stroller (eating crackers) most of the way, but he did walk for just long enough to fall, skin his knee, and get covered with dirt.

Boundless Energy?

Running around like that is why he ends up worn out and like this by bedtime.

Foodie?

Here's the little stinker enjoying some couscous at dinner. There was couscous everywhere-- the table, the floor, his hair.

I feel like every other post I write is about food, but that's about all we do here.

Shoes!

The little booger is very interested in shoes right now and he's always trying to take off and put on his shoes and ours. Here he is playing with my sandals on the deck.

He managed to shuffle across the deck while wearing them, which is a pretty major accomplishment for him.