Laundry Basket, Part 1

The little booger's imagination is growing and growing.

I'm a turtle!

It's so fun to see!

I'm in my turtle shell!

Brushing Teeth

Am I the only person who used to sing the song about brushing your teeth every hour of the day?
     When you wake up in the morning and it's quarter to one,
     And you want to have a lot of fun
     You brush your teeth! (Ch-ch-ch-ch, ch-ch-ch-chhh)
     You brush your teeth! (Ch-ch-ch-ch, ch-ch-ch-chhh)

There's a verse for each hour...

Anyway, the little guy is doing a great job of brushing his teeth. 

If only he were tall enough to see himself in the bathroom mirror!

Terrifying!

Can't you hear him say "Only 13 years and 3 months until I can drive this sucker!"

I'm not ready.

Photographer in Training

The little booger still loves taking pictures. He seems to be experimenting with close-ups right now.

 Some of them are extreme close-ups.

Beau has the patience of a saint.

Shoes?

This little delicate flower child of mine just WAILS if the velcro on his shoes is too tight.  The same child crams his feet into his two-sizes-too-small water shoes for Wet Wednesdays at daycare.

Ridiculous.

Wow!

The little guy learned how to pedal the other weekend at his Nana's house. Here he is showing off his new skills on his tricycle:

To quote one of his teachers, "Wowee, wow, wow, wow!"

Green Thumb and a Ham Sandwich

We grilled out hamburgers tonight and for some unknown reason (maybe he's really a communist) the little guy insists he doesn't like them.  I don't think he's ever had one, but whatever.  His loss.  He did, however, discover he likes ham at his Nana's last week so I got him some honey maple ham at the deli when I was getting my lunch meet on our last grocery trip.  After we sat down to our nice juicy (albondigas) burgers the kiddo wanted a bun.  I then asked if he also wanted some ham and he excitedly said yes.  I told him to put his ham on his bun and then he could have a ham sandwich, to which he replied, "No daddy, a MEETING sandwich with ham!"  Well whatever it was, here's the pathetic little sandwich and the proud chef.

In other news our african violet got a case of aphids so I have been caring for it.  I was trimming it up and accidentally cut off a good leaf.  I didn't really want to throw it away so I just stuck the stem down in the soil.  That was 3 weeks ago.  This is what I saw at lunch today.

If you can't see it, there are two little leaf buds pushing up through the soil.  I knew you could root an African Violet, but I had no idea you just had to plant the leaf.  Emily is disgusted.

More Sharing

This video just cracked me up. Enjoy!

Sharing

The little stinkpot occasionally enjoys sharing. One of those (few and far between) times was tonight, when I got to split a *very* stale graham cracker with him. Yum.

Say What?

We are winning Parents of the Year over here. This morning, I told the little guy "Chill, dude. I'll get you some milk" when he started fussing about wanting milk on his cereal. He repeated that all through breakfast. Tonight, I found out that somebody *coughEric* taught him to say "Judo-CHOP" while karate-chopping your back. Fantastic!

Snuggle Bunny

After I was away for a few nights, the little guy wanted to cuddle with me at his bedtime. I must have been tired too, because this is what Eric found much later in the evening:

Naps before bedtime are the best.

Back to Life!

We're back home after a restful weekend of golfing (Eric) and not golfing (me!). Here's a picture of the little guy showing his daddy how to swing a golf club.

And here's a super flattering picture of me. This is my "It's wayyyy past your bedtime" face, apparently.

The little guy told me to repeat "It's late" to the camera while he took my picture. Already a documentarian... or maybe more like reality television because it was kind of scripted.

Oh the horror of it all...

The Boog is down with his Nana and Pops, the wife is out of state, and I am alone with the pups.  I was gone all day yesterday with only a couple brief stop-ins for dog potty time.  I felt so bad about leaving them all day that I even slept in the family room last night to keep them company.  Please note that a cold, wet nose and whip-like tail at 5:34 AM quickly extinguishes any flame of guilt.

So the kid is gone thus no new pictures of him (well there is that picture of him and his potty on the side of the road), but I do have a sad picture from our trip last weekend.  On the way to Leesburg a car in front of us kicked up a rock and this was the aftermath on my new Jeep. :-(

I was devastated.

Shhhh!

Don't tell Wheaties, but I think goldfish are the real breakfast of champions.

Softball!

We got to see an early double-header tonight for Eric's softball team. The little dude was SO excited-- he told everyone at daycare that "Daddy has a softball game" on our way out. The only thing he wasn't excited about was posing for me to take his picture.

Fun with Friends

We visited some friends in Leesburg this weekend and had a blast! We went to an amazing water park on Saturday, which was the perfect thing to do in a heat wave. I forgot to take pictures, but a good time was had by everyone except the cats. This is what the little guy looked like after we loaded up the car to come home:

It was a truck kind of day

The garbage truck came this morning. We heard it at breakfast and said "Hey, do you know what's coming today?" The little booger's eyes got as big as saucers and he whispered "the garbage truck" before sprinting to the window to watch.

This afternoon, he pushed TWO dump trucks around the house at the same time.

Life is good!

Playing Trains

We've been working with the little stinker on using sentences. Instead of saying "CEREAL BAR!!! Please?" he's supposed to say "May I have a cereal bar please?" or some reasonably polite variation on that theme. It's kind of hit or miss, but I think we're making progress.

Tonight he came over to me and said "Mommy, would you like to play trains with me?" so I said yes, of course! He built me a train and we each pushed our trains around the track. Exciting!

Happy Independence Day!

We got ice cream, went to a parade, and then a cookout!

It doesn't get much more American than that, right? Hope your 4th was great, too!

Back to the Kitchen

Now that swimming lessons are over, we have time to cook again! The little booger and I made a chicken salad tonight. He ate about half the chicken before it ever made it into the salad, but he helped measure everything, drizzled oil into the dressing and whisked it, pressed the garlic, and added the onions, pecans, and chicken to the bowl. He was actually helpful!

We walked to the playground after dinner. Since the little dude outweighs Beau by five pounds now, we let him hold Beau's leash for a bit. He's getting so big!

Well Trained!

We went up to Pittsburgh yesterday and the little dude didn't have a single accident. He's even washing his hands all by himself now at home. Wahoo!