Putting Me Through the Wringer

LR had quite an evening. It started before his evening bath. I've been experimenting with undressing him in his room instead of the bathroom so that I don't have the pick up the clothes after the bath. It was working well until tonight. After undressing him, he sprinted off to the living room instead of the bathroom. I went to chase him down and he peed on the floor, then sat down, and put his hand in the puddle before I could get to him. I ran him to the bathroom, realized I couldn't leave him there alone; therefore, the puddle would have to stay on the floor, slowly seeping between the wood planks.

After the bath he climbed up onto the Pack N Play which was sitting on the far side of his crib. He's been doing that for a few days, but since it was no longer serving as a barrier from the wall outlet, I decided it was finally time to move the crib into the corner. That one thing snowballed and became 13 tasks I needed to accomplish before his bedtime. I cleaned out the bottom of his closet to make room for the Pack N Play. I carried the small bookshelf that had been in there out to his play area to make use of it as storage for his toys. Then I spent time cleaning and reorganizing his play area. (I know... rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.) Meanwhile LR is happily playing. Then I get back to his room to push the crib into the corner and I hear gagging on the far side of the crib. I leap over to LR and find he's throwing up with a half of a plastic Easter egg jammed in his mouth. I freed the plastic egg (and the waterfall of vomit) and got him into the bath again. Scary that things that just recently had been harmless are now incredibly dangerous. Daddy came home just in time to see me almost melt down and thankfully took LR and put him to bed. So now the outlets in his room are inaccessible once again. The Pack N Play is in a place where he won't be climbing on it any more. Finally, the plastic Easter eggs are in the trash. Tomorrow will be something else, I'm sure.

He's climbing everything!

Last night I turned around for a minute and in that time he scrambled up on his Incrediblock^TM.

I don't have much to report from the weekend since Daddy was on baby duty most of Sat and Sun. I was at a rugby coaching clinic, so Daddy got the full housewife experience. LR seemed happy, fed, and not stinky when I came home, so I assume all went well.

I Can Out Annoy My Child

Kids can really fixate on one thing and not let up. LR is no different, and yeah, it's annoying. Today I held LR at the kitchen sink because he just had to know what was going on with the dishes. I was interested in getting an Eskimo kiss, so here's how the conversation went.
"Bubbles!" said LR.
"Eskimo kiss!" I said.
"Bubbles!"
"Eskimo kiss!"
"Bubbles!"
"Eskimo kiss!"
"Bubbles!"
"Eskimo kiss!"
Finally LR turned his face toward me, smiled as if to say "geez, mom," and gave me an Eskimo kiss. Then it was back to business. "Bubbles!" he said. "Yes," I agreed, "bubbles."

I totally won.

Frozen Soccer

We got a small dusting of snow this morning, so I decided to take LR out onto the deck for some frozen soccer this afternoon. Turns out a frozen soccer ball is like a rock. He kicked it around a bit, but was really more interested in playing in the snow. Luckily, it was cold enough outside that he didn't mind coming back into the house after 15 minutes or so.

We've had 2 interrupted nights of sleep for some reason. He's woken up screaming once each night as if from a nightmare. Don't know if he's hit a new stage in development or if he's just hungry. I made sure to feed him a muffin before bed this evening just in case.

Football Day

Lots of football today. LR spontaneously broke into cheers for the Patriots. Touchdown!
And see that little orange tonka car on the coffee table? That's mine from I was little. It was my favorite which is why I kept it all these years. Know what I found this evening? A chunk of the bumper on the floor. He's getting to be such a brute. It survived 30 years and ME and in just a few months he's chipped the bumper. I might be taking my toys and going home soon.

Last night LR decided that "BucketHead" was a fun game.













It's all fun and games until it gets hooked around the back of your head.

Molars

LR has 4 molars! I feel like an inattentive parent. When did he get those? I kept careful track of his first one on his lower right side and I assumed the left side one had poked through, but I finally got a good feel around his mouth with my finger and found that all 4 were through, top and bottom. Boy was I surprised, both by the teeth and the fact that he didn't bite me. Rightfully so. If it's in his mouth, he should be allowed to bite it.

So, there is a side effect of taking LR to the new baby gym. He has discovered that everything is scalable. The dining room chairs and the coffee table are now fair game. It's a little scary, but fun at the same time.

"Ma-Ma" Finally!

Too bad he only said it while identifying his new dinner food, edamame. Dammit!

Cuddles

I never describe LR as a cuddly kid. He's boisterous and curious about all things in the kitchen. He loves reading and playing with any toy vehicle. He's not a fan of being in the crib, but at least he's started talking or singing himself to sleep instead of screaming. As for hugs, he only gives them when I ask for one and he's in a giving mood. He cuddles when he hasn't quite woken up from his nap and needs some extra down time. Kisses are only given to stuffed animals and even that he does reluctantly. Recently, however, his thick exterior is showing signs of cracking.

For the past week or two whenever a nanny leaves the house, he runs up to them while they're putting their coats on and asks to be picked up. I thought it was because he wanted to go over the gate and he knew they were heading that way, but this week I noticed that he is specifically giving them a hug. Today he wrapped his arms around Nanny M's neck and put his head on her shoulder... definitely a hug. Then she put him down and he continued on without screaming to go over the gate. I asked him where my hug was. He looked at me and went back to playing with his trains. He did the same thing yesterday with Nanny A.

Luckily, not all is lost. I've taught him the Eskimo kiss. I can't remember what made me start giving them to him last week, but now if I ask for an Eskimo kiss, he puts his face close to mine and smiles as we rub noses. It's the best.

He's not such a toughie after all.

Paper Towel Games

LR invented a game today. After lunch I was cleaning up in the kitchen when I noticed it got quiet in the laundry room where LR was playing. Since I couldn't see him I dried my hands and went to investigate. He had pulled out four rolls of Bounty paper towels and stood them up on end. Then he was navigating the rolls, trying not to knock them over. If he knocked one over he'd go back and set it back up. I added a roll to his collection and then ran to get the camera. By the time I returned, I found exactly what you see in the first photo: 2 towers of 2 rolls each. It was like finding crop circles. Did he really do that?

After stacking them, he knocked them over and I arranged them for him to run through. He went back and forth through the obstacle course for a few minutes before wanting to stack them again. He took the outside rolls and made a tower in the center that was 3 rolls high. The only photo I got of it was blurry unfortunately.

Later in the day we played Bounty Bowling. I would help set up the rolls in a triangle and he would roll the large exercise ball into them. That helped keep him occupied while I made dinner, so I know I haven't seen the last of that game. Daddy has told me about how he and his brothers invented games like giving values to their baseball cards and playing a D&D like game with them. Lego fit well in their father's guitar and matchbox cars found ramps all over the house. I was glad to see that LR has inherited his father's creativity when it comes to finding indoor entertainment. Good thing since today was cold and rainy!

Pushing His Weight

While at Costco yesterday, Daddy took LR to play in the area beyond the registers while I checked out. They headed down the hallway to the bathrooms and found one of those big metal palette carts to push around. It had two palettes on it and he rolled it about 30 feet. Then he found another one with a Whirlpool Duet washer and pedestal on it. Daddy reports that LR put his back into it, grunted a few times, and started rolling the cart. He pushed it about 5 feet before Daddy pulled him away from it. I know he had a mechanical advantage, but the kid is freakishly strong.

I know it's just a few weeks past Xmas, but I went to Toys"R"Us and got LR a plastic basketball hoop to give him something active to do indoors during the winter. I've also found a baby gym that's open in the afternoons, so that will help. LR picked it the concept of putting the ball through the hoop in no time. Now everything goes through the hoop: balls, cars, food, plastic animals, etc. I like his enthusiasm.

Daddy seems to officially have a name. Not "Da-da," but "Ga-ga." LR knows how to say the D sound, but for some reason he won't use it. Sometimes instead of "doggie" we hear him say "goggie," so there must be some confusion there. Anyway, Daddy's the first one of us to have a name. It's just so cliche.

Daily Specials

New Food: Cabbage
New Sign: Strawberry
New Stunt: Getting down from The Learning Tower. While I made dinner this evening, LR practiced getting down out of the tower by holding onto the top bar, sitting down, and scooting his butt off the ledge. He hangs for a second before he lets go. I think he can just feel the ground with his toes (or maybe sense it in a Jedi sort of way). Here's what it looks like.

Fake Laugh

LR had a tough time waking up from his nap Sunday afternoon, but I was in the middle of my nap too, so he joined me out on the couch for a little while. We've been working on getting him to nap without a bottle for 2 weeks now. You'd think it would get easier. He cries for only a few minutes for the morning nap, but in the afternoon it's hit or miss. Today he cried for 20 minutes before settling down.

Between naps, LR and I went to his first "Music Together" class. I was a little irked when we arrived because the directions to the karate studio where the music classes are held were poor. The teacher immediately pulled out an acoustic guitar which LR went right up to and wanted to play since Daddy lets him play one at home. I had to drag him away a couple of times. LR then danced in the middle of the circle and spun around until he fell down. I'm pretty sure he really enjoyed it. He also actually interacted with another little girl. She would hold out an egg shaker to him, he would take it, and then laugh his fake laugh. By the time she had handed and he had taken half a dozen eggs, his forced, fake laugh had me and the mom next to me laughing.

Putting 2006 in Perspective

This evening Daddy looked up from the dining room table and said, "we have blue spots on the ceiling." I looked up and sure enough, a spatter of purplish-blue spots dotted the ceiling above the table. I started laughing and he asked, "blueberry yogurt or red wine?" Is there really any question?
How our lives have changed...

In other news, LR slipped and whacked his chin on the coffee table last night. He split his chin so that it was just shy of needing stitches. The cut was about a quarter inch and clotted relatively quickly, so we decided that scars will be the tattoos of his generation and he'll look cooler with them. In actuality, it was so close to his bedtime, that I thought he'd be more traumatized by a trip to the ER than by a tiny scar when he's older.

Word List

A bunch of people have asked me recently about the number of words LR says. I have hand waved that he says a dozen words and signs 2 dozen. Yesterday I sat down to actually think about it and found he knows a lot more than that. I broke them down into 3 lists: sign, spoken, and understood (neither signed nor spoken). The spoken words are often clarified with a sign, so we're glad he's using sign language as well. Otherwise, "car" sounds like "cold" and "bath" sounds like "ball." Oh, and "hungry" and "big" are new signs this week.

Sign Words

water	plane	train	car
cold	bath	sun	bear
cat	hungry	dog	elephant
zebra	lion	more	again
boat	finished	fish	pancake
butterfly	hot	milk/bottle	corn
teeth	ice	ice cream	cheese
ball	Elmo	big

Spoken Words

bottle	cold	train	car
bath	cat	dog	more
again	boat	corn	teeth
ice	cheese	ball	Bob
big	elephant(noise)	fish	pancake
butterfly	chair	bib	hot
cracker	bus	bike	kick
bowl	cup	dip-dip	beep-beep

Understood Words

no	play	outside	food
Mommy	Daddy	Gigi	pizza
give me 5	Cheerios	throw	blanket
sit	animal	monkey	cow
guitar

So I guess it's a few more than a couple dozen.

Tower, Train, and Acrobatics

I broke down and bought "The Learning Tower" for LR which arrived on Saturday. Daddy put it together and LR is just a fan of climbing out of it so far. Hopefully he'll get the idea that it's to keep him at counter height with me while I'm cooking.

I pulled out the Brio set we bought him for Xmas again yesterday and he loved playing with it. We had it on the coffee table for a while, but I ended up moving it onto the floor so that he'd be able to reach all the way around the track. He's not great at keeping the train on the track, but he certainly loves trying. He also says "train!" each time the commuter train goes by our house and he's started signing "plane" when he hears a plane going over. I think those are his favorite signs right now.

Yesterday we saw him sign "water" for the first time while splashing through a huge puddle. We had to go to the rugby practice field so that I could install a new lock on the field box. It was raining and Daddy decided there was no way LR was going to stay dry, so he let him walk ankle-deep into a large puddle. As he walked into the puddle he put his hand to his mouth and clearly signed "water." Then he made it halfway through and stopped and signed "cold." That was when I realized that I didn't want to go into the puddle to get him, so Daddy and I vigorously coaxed him to the other side of the puddle. He made it but was irritated when we wanted to get him into the car. Apparently the 40 degree and rainy weather agrees with him.

This last picture is of LR from this evening. He's practicing his circus tricks. At first we thought we should stop him from doing it, but he was so careful that about it, that eventually I grabbed the camera and snapped this photo. After going up and down half a dozen times he bored of it and moved onto something else. Was fun to watch though!

Snowball Fight!

Well it wasn't actually a snowball fight. Daddy threw the snowballs, LR just received. Oh, and LR ate any snowballs he found. We got close to 2 inches of snow today (which is nothing compared to the many feet our family in Denver got this week) and made the most of it by taking LR out onto the deck in his snowsuit. It was a great test run of the suit and it worked really well. Going to have to get some boots, but I'm waiting until there is promise of more serious snowfalls. We took a bunch of pictures of LR wandering around the deck, eating the snow, getting pelted by Daddy, and then eating more snow. Even after coming in the house I let him keep one mitten on so that he could continue to eat snowballs. He ended up with a red upper lip and a very runny nose, but he didn't seem to mind. He also used the same sign for snow as rain and since I can't remember the real sign, I'm going to let it stand.

We started the day with a belated Xmas with our friends and their son King in their brand new house. We watched LR to see what he could get into, but luckily he didn't find the stairs or the low-hanging blinds until it was almost time to go home. The rest of the day was pretty quiet since Daddy is recovering from a cold. LR tried to divide his time evenly among his new toys. Each one was stood on in turn and since they all held up under the stress I'm assuming that's one of the official tests that toddler toys must go through.

Hair Cut

This is what happens when Costco's low prices on Norelco products collide with the mommy instinct to keep kids neat and tidy.


Short hair! Well at least it's all the same length now...

Take that, Santa!

LR had his 15 month appointment yesterday. He got 3 shots, so wasn't thrilled, but he recovered quickly. He weighs 26 lbs. 3 oz. and he was 31.5 inches long. That puts him in 75^th percentile for weight and 60^th for length.

As we left the pediatrician's office we noticed a women who had her arms full with one toddler and had two slightly older children, a boy and a girl, in tow. She was busy getting the youngest into the car while the older boy was hanging around the back of the minivan. Think of the back of the minivan like a clock and the winshield wiper as the minute hand. The wiper normally rests at 3 o'clock. As we watched, he reached up and grabbed the wiper and pulled it to 6 o'clock. Like spitting in Santa's eye...

We laughed and turned to look at our angel sitting happily in the car seat. "Lucky," we thought, "to have such a good kid." Of course, that's just the thinking that produced Uncle Corbin and me, the spirited second children after easy-going first children.

Merry Xmas!

We had a lovely, small Christmas with Daddy's Dad, Grandad Y. We were expecting our friends and their son, but they all came down with a stomach bug, so we told them, "Merry Christmas, and please don't come over." They completely understood. We're going to celebrate with them next weekend.

LR loved all his nice toys and Daddy and I discovered that we bought a lot more cars for him than we thought we had. His stocking was stuffed with Matchbox and Tonka cars. In the pile of gifts were 2 dump trucks and a train set from Brio. He's in car heaven. Fortunately, Grandad bought him a piano on a mat that rolls up for storage. So far he likes dancing to the demo music and crawling across the mat. Every once in a while he'll poke at the keys. That may be a toy we put away for a few months, but we'll see. We also had to baby proof the giant wooden cart full of wood blocks Grandad gave him. LR can get it really moving since it's on casters and he dinged one of the kitchen cabinets before we got our hands on it. It's going to be a great toy though.

One of the things I picked up at Costco for him was a Baby Einstein plush chair and he loves that. The back of the chair is the body of a large caterpillar. He does somersaults over it, sits on it, rests with his head on the "balls," as he calls them, which are really the body sections of the caterpillar. He loves that he finally has a chair of his own. When I ask him where his chair is, he smiles and goes right to the caterpillar.

LR is now a big fan of the piggy back ride. He's just getting to be big enough and holds on to us (sometimes) while riding on our back. When he got tired of being in the stroller today, I put him on my back and carried him until my arms got tired. Then Daddy put him on his shoulders. He sings with every step like he used to when we bounced him to sleep, "ah... ah... ah... ah!"

The Lake, Take 2

Last night we let LR open Gigi's gift. He really got into ripping the paper off. He loved climbing on the box too, so as soon as he unwrapped it, Daddy shored up the box and gave it back to him for climbing. LR loved the animals and played with them a bunch today. In fact, he signed "fish" for the first time today. We've signed it to him so many times over the past year that I assumed he had decided that he didn't need to sign it back to us.

Today I decided to take the same path on our run. I thought I could just jog by the lake, but as I crested the hill, the lake came into view and LR squealed with excitement. Ok, glutton for punishment maybe, but I thought it would be cruel to skip it. So, we stopped at the shore and I let LR get out and play along to shoreline again. I still had to keep him from stepping into the water, but he did a slightly better job today. I gave him an LR-sized branch to play with hoping that he could stick it into the water and play without actually having to stand in the water the way he likes to when throwing mud and rocks. What helped more was that he was interested in digging with the shovel. He's never played with one before, but seemed to know exactly what to do with it. Scoop mud and throw, right?

A very messy 15 minutes later, I dragged him away from the water. More tears, but I took him through a small section of woods and into an open grassy field. (Learning from previous mistakes, I knew a few laps around the grass would solve the muddy shoes issue.) There was a small slope which he played on for a long time. He was practicing running up and down it. I would say "up, up, up, up, up!" and he would walk up the slope. Then I'd call "down, down, down," and he'd coming running back down. It's the first time I've seen him close to running. Like a nervous skier, when he'd start going too fast, he'd veer off to the side and point his toes uphill to stop the momentum. Sometimes he fell, but he definitely enjoyed it. I got this last picture of him as he wobbled down toward me. The blur in his hand is the magic yellow shovel from the other day.

Side note: It's a lake, not a pond as I wrote in the last post. It's the Lower Mystic Lake. Oh, and I love, love, love the last picture in this post.