Buzz Buzz

I believe in buzz cuts for little boys during the summer. Our little friends M&I always have their hair buzzed, so I nominated their parents to be the ones to buzz Little Man.

On Sunday we were over there and we were ready to do the deed. Before now he's always had scissors haircuts. I made the mistake of telling Little Man about it ahead of time. I told him it'd say "buzz buzz" and he could have a treat and he'd be handsome like M. and I. (not me, but the kid I).

This resulted in terror and tears. Not bratty tears, but those really sad, please protect me Mommy, tears. So, no haircut on Sunday.

Yesterday when I wasn't there the men took over. Instead of telling Little Man about the haircut they sat him down with a lollypop and did it. T. said there were minimal tears.

Here's the end result (picture taken on T's phone and posted from Internet Explorer, so it's not great resolution AND you won't be able to expand it. Sorry).

Need to get that boy a hat!

Georgia

My friend Erin from college who now lives near my parents came to visit this weekend. Little Man spent the weekend making her read to him, and saying (repeatedly, as he is prone), "Hi Erin," "Bye bye Erin," and "Where'd Erin go?" He offered to wake her up in the morning. "Where'd Erin go?" Erin is sleeping. "I go get her."

After Erin left on Sunday, he asked where she went and I said, "Erin went home to Georgia." He remembered that his grandparents and cousins also live in Georgia, and started naming them. "Abi in Georgia?" Yes. "Abi, Pop, Pepe, Grandma, Eddie... I go Georgia, too." I told him we couldn't go to Georgia right now because it's a long drive. I guess he felt I didn't give enough weight to his request, because later he took my hand and said with earnest, "Mommy, I go Georgia, PEESE."

Last night he asked me again, "Where'd Erin go?" I reminded him that she went home to Georgia. He said, "I go Georgia too. Bye Daddy! Mommy, put jacket on."

Georgia is where all the fun people live.

Here are some pics Erin took this weekend, swiped from Facebook. LM looks like a redhead in this one, doesn't he?

Adult Assembly Recommended

That's what it says on the box that the Earth Wagon came in. As opposed to letting your 2-year-old assemble it himself, or just letting him play with the screws and metal pieces as they come.

It took us two adults to get it assembled, but we think we succeeded. As I predicted, Little Man did not want to leave the wagon for school this morning.

My Kid Can Out-Earth-Day Your Kid

Look what arrived today, Earth Day! (Or look what arrived sometime this week that I noticed this morning, ahem.) It's a birthday gift for Little Man. In our family we like to drag birthdays out.
It's an Earth Wagon, made from 230 recycled gallon milk jugs. Which reminds me that we need milk.

I'll show you the assembled version just as soon as Global Warming sets in and it stops SNOWING on Earth Day. Plant a tree. HA.

You Can Almost Hear the Snapping

It's a motorcycle gang! Watch out, Sharks, the Jets are in town!


Dance fight!


Now, we ride.

Nesting

People talk about getting a burst of energy when pregnant and doing things like cleaning, decorating, moving furniture, etc. They call this nesting. I do not have this symptom (although I did thoroughly clean the fridge a few weeks ago).

Today we did do some nesting, though, to make room for a new addition to our household. Behold, the new baby:



Glory Hallelujah, 2 1/2 years later, the tools are organized!I also have garage junk in my minivan to be taken to the dump. But I'll probably drive around with it in the car for a few weeks first. Because that's how I roll.

Ducks

Today is April 16, which makes it the 2nd anniversary of the shooting at VT. The VT students and faculty will have the day off through the 5th anniversary of the shooting, and the staff had a late start today, too. It also happened to be a BEAUTIFUL day, unlike two years ago when it was windy and snowy.

Last year we went to the candlelight vigil on the Drillfield which is going on right now, but this year Little Man has a more rigid 8:00 bedtime and we didn't want to subject everyone to a 2-year-old. Instead, he and I went to campus this afternoon.

Please brace yourself for many cute, almost the same, pictures of Little Man in nature. I cannot stop myself.
"Mommy, I'm gonna sit on this BIG rock."
Then I pulled out the crackers and let him feed the ducks. Animal crackers are part of a natural duck diet, right?
"More crackers, please!"
I really didn't pose him in any of these rock pictures, he kept deciding to sit on the "BIG rock."
Here is the Drillfield. Lots of ultimate frisbee being played today.
He's looking at a squirrel. We actually don't have squirrels in our neighborhood so he didn't know what it was.
This is the flower he picked for me. So pretty.
Twinsies!

Conversations with Little Man

When he was just learning to talk, he would repeat the same few words over and over and over. He still does that. But now that he's confident that he can communicate with us, sometimes he'll tell us a story and I'm sure to him he's speaking in perfect English, but we can't quite get it.

The other day in the car:
Little Man: What happened Mikakat?
Me: What? Motorcycle?
LM: What happened Mikakat?
Me: I can't understand you. A cat? Michael's cat? A cat on a motorcycle?
T.: He's talking about a truck.
LM: Mikakat. Meow.

Thank goodness he translated himself, 'cause we never would have gotten there. I still don't know how Michael or a motorcycle fit in, but at least we got the "cat" part.

I'm trying to teach him how to answer the questions that are commonly asked of 2-year-olds. We have some work left to do.
Lady at a store: What is your name?
Little Man (pointing to himself): Truck shirt.

Neighbor: What is your name?
Little Man (pointing to himself): Guitar shirt.

Anyone who asks: How old are you?
Little Man: Fine.

And while he's been a parrot or an echo for several months now, he's starting to comprehend a lot more. A lot of what he's comprehending isn't directed at him.

For example, on Sunday we stopped off the highway to get gas. It was a confusing exit and T. made a noise like "ARGH!" Little Man kept saying, "What's wrong, Daddy? What happened, Daddy?" until I calmed his nerves telling him we just couldn't find the gas station but everything was okay.

It's fun to see his logic, too. He collected a rock from near the fishpond this weekend. On Sunday he started to put it in his mouth and I told him not to because it's dirty. He said, "Wash it, Mommy?"

And his sense of humor is every bit as sophisticated as a 2-year-old boy's should be.
T., eating a cookie: Daddy coooookie.
Little Man (misunderstanding): Hee hee, Daddy pooooopie. Daddy poopie. Hee hee.

Easter Weekend

We went down to Atlanta for a long weekend. Originally we scheduled the trip because Sugarland performed in Atlanta Friday night, and when we looked at the calendar and realized it was Easter that was a bonus. For a double bonus, my brother is in a show right now so we got to see him perform, too!

On the way to Atlanta we were talking about whether we wanted drive-through food or to sit and eat dinner. T. said, "Depends on what we find. PIRATE SHIP!" There is a restaurant that looks like a pirate ship off the highway. It's land-locked and in the middle of nowhere. And apparently T. remembered the exit in the hopes that we'd someday stop there.

Luckily the Free Credit Report Dot Com commercials are my favorite, so I was happy.
Sing with me now!
Well they say a man should always dress for the job he wants So why am i dressed up like a pirate in this restaurant Its all because some hacker stole my identity Now I’m in every evening serving chowder and ice tea

Despite a full weekend, I didn't take many pictures.

Little Man did get to see two cousins: D. who is 3 months younger than him, and E. who is 9 months younger than him.

Here he and D. check out Linda's fish.Saturday evening he and cousin E. found Easter eggs on the lawn. It's a good thing there were only two of them (and that E. doesn't walk yet) because Little Man had unusual technique. He found an egg, opened it and ate all the contents, then put it in his bucket and went to find another egg.
Pepe looks for droppings.
Cousin E. is skeptical about this egg thing.On another note, I had a gift card from Little Man's birthday so I got him a tee-ball set. He is, of course, very talented.
He bats righty, kicks lefty, and switches hands on eating and throwing. All our dreams are set on a switch-hitting switch-pitcher (he'll need a 6-fingered glove). Mama needs a new pair of shoes!

Picky Eater

Tonight I made (homemade, thank you very much) macaroni and cheese for dinner. I balanced it (I tell myself) with some broccoli. I served Little Man his mac and cheese first because the broccoli was still cooking. He ate some of the mac and cheese, and I brought him broccoli when it was ready.

He ate all of his broccoli, then half of mine. He only returned to the mac and cheese when I'd convinced him he'd eaten all the broccoli we had. I cannot relate to this, but I'm sure it's a good thing!

Later tonight we were reading one of those Richard Scarry books where the pages have so much going on on them. I was asking him where things were, and he'd point them out if he could find them. Then I asked, "Where's Mommy's baby?" He turned around and pulled up my shirt. I didn't know he'd internalized it when I tell him there's a baby in my belly, because usually he looks at me like I'm insane. I said, "Can you say hi to the baby?" and he raspberried my belly. Then he said, "Woah. BIG Mommy belly."

Darn Genetics.

(Birthday party post is below this one.)

Today I had the following conversation with Little Man,

LM: Cupcake, please.
Me: Would you like to eat a cupcake first, or take a bath first?
LM: No bath, Mommy!
Me: Okay, I'll get you a cupcake.
LM: No cupcake, Mommy!
Me: Fine.
LM: Cupcake please, Mommy!

Everything must be his idea and on his terms. Even cupcakes.

Birthday Boy I. and his family came over to finish the party leftovers this evening. Little Man only wanted to eat chips, and I told him he needed to eat some hamburger first before he could have chips. 10 minutes later when he was taking a rest by himself in his bed (without having eaten anything), I was lamenting to T. and M.: "I don't understand why he won't compromise. He'd rather take a hard line and NOT get what he wants than compromise at all." Then, as T. stared at me, I thought, "Oh no." I'm raising myself. Well, at least I understand him. But now I know what we're cut out for.

Me: Little Man, you and Grandma look at me!
LM: NO look at me, Mommy!

Me: Show me your green cupcake hands!
LM: NO green cupcake hands, Mommy!
Thank goodness he's cute.

Birthday Party

(This is going to be a post of 1000 pictures)

This weekend we had a joint birthday party for I. and Little Man. Saturday after naptime we had almost 30 people here, including 8 kids, for merriment and lots of sugar and junk food.

Bubbles are a big thing when you're 2. Cousin B. came in town for the party!We took advantage of the season and had the kids decorate their bags for an Easter Egg Hunt.

(There was nothing in the eggs, it'll be a sad day when they learn there's supposed to be stuff in the eggs.)Apparently we had a moment of insanity earlier in the week when we decided the kids could dip Rice Krispie Treats in chocolate, decorate them with sprinkles, then leave them to dry and take home as party favors. HA HA HA hahahahaha.

Cousin B. demonstrates that you can dip, decorate, and eat without becoming covered in chocolate.
She was the only one.
Abi and Aunt L. were left with Little Man cleanup duty. Here's what he saw in the mirror, and how he reacted to it:
We did serve dinner (to the adults, it seemed the kids were too full of potato chips and sugar), but there are no photos. Then, on to more sugar!

See Cousin B's chocolate cupcake? There were only 12 of the chocolate kind. Later in the evening someone tried to clear B's leftovers and Mom (Grandma) and I said, "We don't care whose that was. Leave it here, there's a shortage of chocolate."
Then there were gifts. Look, my angel has a golden halo.
Holy disaster area, Batman.
Even Little Man had to take a break from the festivities.
Still in love after all these years.
All-in-all, a successful birthday party. I don't even think anyone went to Time Out.