18 Months

The Man is 18 months today.

And for our traditional pictures:

0 Months:
6 Months:
12 Months:
18 Months:

Birthday Weekend

This weekend we celebrated my 30th birthday. Woah. We had my mom, dad, stepmom, and Pepe the dog as houseguests for the weekend.

Friday was my birthday. We got a group together to go to a Japanese steakhouse for dinner. I love these places. Yum.Then back to our house for cake and merriment:Thanks, everybody!

Saturday morning Mom and I went and picked out a Halloween Costume. Oh, the suspense is killing you, isn't it? But you'll have to wait until I make it, then I'll post pictures. In the afternoon B. hosted a stamping party (I have no creativity, but if I do exactly what she tells me to, I too can look crafty) so the men (including the little men) hung out at our house and watched football. Our game was on at 8 p.m. so we had the gang at our house for dinner and the game.

We used this again. Waffles for 14, coming right up!:We gave all 3 of the boys a bath together. For some reason this was traumatic for the babies, Little Man and Little I.





Little Man thinks that our desktop computer has cows on it (he likes the Chick-fil-A website) and that the laptop has cars on it. Here are Daddio and LM watching car videos. So happy. (Note that LM also got new Cars slippers).
This morning we bade farewell to our houseguests, but not before doing a little driving with Grandma. Beep Beep!
And it's a good thing Daddio got me a Wii Fit for my birthday, because between the waffle maker and these beautiful things from my in-laws, Mimi and Grandpa Jeff, I need it:Actually I asked for these cookbooks (then forgot about them). There's a picture for every recipe. Can't wait to dig into them.

Thanks for a great 30th, everybody!

Portion Control

Yesterday I drove through Dairy Queen for a small vanilla cone with sprinkles. It's a good travel treat with not too bad nutritional info.

I got this. (In case you're wondering about the perspective, I'm holding the ice cream cone actually touching the steering wheel, not close to the camera).

Hey, I tried.

Fart with Care

Forgot to mention... think twice before passing gas in our house. Little Man now announces whenever he, or anyone else, toots. Whenever he toots he announces, "Poop!" We do not know where he learned this. It's fine enough for him to announce his own bodily functions, but as Daddio learned yesterday, he announces it for everyone else, too.

Weekend

Yes I know, I have a posting every week called "Weekend". What else should I call it? I will accept suggestions.

The theme of Elmo's World on Sesame Street this morning is "shoes." Imagine Little Man's happiness. If only it was about shoes and trains, we might be overwhelmed with happiness. Now he tries to sing the theme song to "Elmo's World" but only knows "Elmo" so it goes a little something like this, "Elmo Elmo Elmo Elmo". Anyway, here he is mesmerized by Elmo talking about shoes:T. was canoe camping this weekend, so Little Man and I were rolling solo. Or duo. Per M&B's lead last week, On Saturday we went to a pond near us, in a national forest. I've always suspected that if Little Man were walking without his friends M&I it'd be a lot slower. Good grief. It's a nature walk in slow-mo with this kid. It's probably 1/3 mile around the pond and it took us an hour. At one point he even decided to sit and take a break in the middle of the path.
Hey, I'm in a tree!
Hey, get me out of this tree!
Here, I tried to take a self-portrait of us together (Noni & PB, I didn't have the extender with me but I should have!) and he dives out of the tree onto me:Ducks:


He was eating and I had the football game on Saturday afternoon. We scored a touchdown and I did an impromptu cheer which Little Man found to be HILARIOUS. So I broke out the camera and did it again.


This afternoon we broke out the sidewalk chalk for the first time.
Chalk everywhere.
Can you tell that he scratched his ear with the chalk?
He gets a kick out of walking through our front bed.
And, Happy Anniversary to us! 7 years tomorrow. Who wants to come visit us NOW? Thanks, Hubby!

Tolerance - the mark of a successful marriage

I bought T. this shirt then made him wear it. My shirt is for real, but T. only wears his shirt in the privacy of our own home, and rarely at that.

These pictures were taken a couple of years ago, but I thought you all would enjoy them.

Wild and Crazy Friday Night

Sorry for the lack of updates. We're very busy and important around here, you know.

Tonight we had a shopping outing. T. is going canoe camping this weekend, and I'll be camping out at The Breast Cancer 3-Day in October, so we needed to get an inflatable pad for under the sleeping bag. Plus T. had to get my birthday present (next Friday, 30!). After we did those two errands, T. remembered that he needed a few food items for the trip. We almost went to a country Wal-Mart with a tired baby a Friday night. That's desperation.

Luckily, as we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot (cue Shawn Mullins song here, know any other songs about a Wal-Mart parking lot?) I spotted the Cici's Pizza. It was a new experience for all of us. Just a few mental images for you:

1. T. sitting in Cici's in his suit eating macaroni-and-cheese pizza. It's pizza with macaroni-and-cheese on it, for real.

2. Little Man surprised us by knowing how to say "pizza." He was not eating much, so T. got alfredo sauce and dipped pizza crust into it. LM cautiously tasted the sauce, then yelled, "PIZZA!" before shoving it back into his mouth.

3. And we need to continue to be aware of what we say, and what the TV and radio says around Little Man. We we were a lane behind a tour bus, and it decided it was in the wrong lane and just sat there. I said, "Oh no" and Little Man said "Oh no. Oh no. Oh no." for about the next 5 minutes.

We came to our senses after being fed and did NOT go into Wal-Mart, but stopped at Kroger on the way home instead. That was a close one.

In other news, Little Man calls the phone "Herro". Not only does he say "herro" if we give him the phone, but he thinks that's what it's called.

PS - My review of Cici's: totally worth the $4.99. I expected it to be like public school pizza, with the perforated crust, remember? But no, it was not bad at all. And clean. It exceeded expectations.

PPS - We have an 80's countdown on TV, on VH1. Which reminded me that in elementary school me and my friends did Walk Like and Egyptian at a talent show. I was the tambourine chick who had the whistling solo. Awesome.

Hangin' with the Boys

When we went to the football game on Saturday, Little Man went to hang with his boys M. and I. And of course their parents who generously volunteered to watch him.

B. sent me some photos:Then they came over for dinner Sunday night. All 3 of them were in the teepee. I knew if I got the camera they'd run out. Here's I. in motion, running at me as soon as I grabbed the camera:
The cheese stands alone:
And thank goodness Little Man is finally getting interested in books, because I was questioning my parenting skills:This is serious business.Really he's just looking for cars and shoes in the book.

And a funny story: he's been really into Moo-ing lately. We look at the Chick-Fil-A website a lot for that reason. So tonight before bed I was singing Old MacDonald to him, with the mooing and the quacking and all those great things. After I laid him in his bed and left the room, I could hear him in there by himself singing "E-I-E-I-O".

Weekend Update

Another football home game this weekend. I didn't manage to take pictures of the football festivities, but luckily our guests were courteous enough to take pictures of themselves, so we won't forget them.They were happier pre-game.

Little Man seems to have learned that football weekends, you're supposed to eat all day long. Here he eats a bagel:Playing with Jeffrey:Wearing Pop's hat:Our guests cheer for the wrong team, and are therefore required to sing for their supper:



And, a still life. We finally got red peppers from the garden:

Breakfast Chatter

Pretzels, Please.
I didn't want to put the firetruck slippers on his feet this morning because I knew he'd be mad when I took them off for school. So we compromised.
He reminds me a little of one of those aliens from Sesame Street. The ones who say, "Yup Yup Yup Yup Yup Yup Yup." With a little dramatic flair at the end, for good measure.

Shoes & Cars

Little Man is really into shoes and cars. He loves walking around in shoes, and is particular about what pair of shoes he wants to wear. He also often notices others' shoes. And he likes motor vehicles of all types, and calls them all cars.

For Christmas last year my cousin gave him a pair of fire engine slippers. They're CAR SHOES. They're a little too small now, but I figured he'd finally be able to appreciate them.
And I swear I didn't coach him to say this (the cooler is leftover from our tailgate this weekend):

A Case of The Mondays

This morning Little Man stretched his toddler wings and had a regular Monday morning tantrum. It all culminated when I told him it was time to go to school. He ran and hid in his teepee. I tried to pick him up and he ran off again, so I took his stuff to the car hoping he'd want to join me. He was in fact coming towards the door when I got back, but he was carrying (not rolling, even though it has wheels) his golf bag because he wanted to bring it to school.

When I told him "no" he ran away and I had to catch him and put him in the carseat. He pulled the stiff-as-a-board toddler trick. We made it to school with minimal fuss, then when I tried to set him on the floor he refused to put his feet down. I wound up handing him to a teacher. On the plus side, he didn't cry when I left today. He just gave me a dirty look. Good riddence, Mommy.

I know how you feel, kid. Mondays are the pits.

Weekend

This weekend marked the start of the home football season, which always feels a bit of a crazy time for us. We had a boring opponent this week, so Abi opted to stay home with Little Man. My dad (Pop), Daddio, Uncle J., and myself went to the game.

I just now realized that Abi took a few pictures of their day together for us. What a good babysitter.

His favorite toy is this golf bag that Daddio got him for Christmas.
Woof Woof.

This afternoon we spent some time clearing out the garden. Our compost pile had weeds taller than us. And only tomatoes and peppers are still growing (Dad picked around 20 tomatoes when he arrived yesterday. Tomorrow we'll be eating grilled tomato and cheese sandwiches for lunch, and homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner!), so we cleared out the rest of the space.

Last November I threw our Halloween pumpkin on the compost pile. Today, under the weeds, we found its child. It's dead (probably not enough light, since it was under taller weeds.)
Also under the weeds we found that we actually have some nice, rich compost.
Also many weird bugs.This afternoon we played outside a bit. Little Man is working on saying "flowers" and was showing me the butterflies and big fat bumblebees.So sad that tomorrow's Monday.