What it means to be a boy

You know the picture from my earlier post of me sitting in my wagon, waiting to be pushed? Well, as much as I used to love pushing my wagon around, now I love to be pushed in it. Unfortunately, my wagon is not made for riding (the sides are only about 2.5 inches tall and it's pretty wobbly), as I discovered yesterday. I was outside with Daddy pushing me in my wagon when I took a header on the pavement. As you can see, I landed on my face. It did not feel very good.

I'm a pretty resilient boy, so after some tears and cuddling with Daddy, I felt much better. And today the scratches and bruises are already almost gone! Apparently healing is one of my super powers. Which is a good thing, because this isn't my first facial contusion, and I have a feeling it's far from my last.

Luckily, Mama already got me a real wagon that I will be able to sit in to be pulled around the neighborhood. It has two seats so I can share it with my little brother or sister, and in the meantime I can stretch my legs and enjoy the ride! With a seat belt on. And maybe a helmet.

Weekend warrior

I had a pretty mellow weekend except for one little event, which I will post about separately. I hung out at home, I went to church daycare and ate all of their crackers, and spent Sunday afternoon with Daddy while Mama did this weird thing called a pedicure (which she seems to like but seems painful to me because when she came home, her toenails were all red).

I'm trying to be a good boy, but it's sometimes hard to remember what I'm not supposed to do. But now, once Mama says "no no" to remind me, I look at her, stop what I'm doing, and walk away clapping for myself. Because I deserve applause for being so well-behaved. Mama agrees and she claps for me too.

Even though I'm generally a good boy, I'm have more and more tantrums. Mama usually just lets me scream and waits for me to be done, which isn't nearly as fun as it would be if she'd get all excited too. So my tantrums are usually pretty short, especially when I stomp my feet and Mama thinks that it's time to dance and she stomps her feet too.

You can see from the pictures that I'm getting more and more handsome, although the first one shows me right after waking up in the morning. I'm a little slow in the mornings, and I get some serious bed-head. But once I have my morning milk and get some breakfast in me, I'm ready to roll! Oh, and that last picture? That's the last time I wear those pajamas. Not only are they ridiculously short, but there's nothing flattering about a skin-tight thermal one piece, even if it has footballs on it.

Friday photo (and video)

Mr. Blue + my rock-on fingers = happiness


I know a lot of signs, but my favorite is the one I use most during meals. So far, I haven't needed to use those silly "all done" or "enough" signs that Mama keeps showing me.

Collection

My French "easy" button
A warm fuzzy slipper
The cordless dust buster
And television clicker
My toddler-sized basketball and
Cow in the wings
These are a few of my favorite things...

Skillz

So far I've got traveling and blocking down...just need to work on my free throw.

Living la vida loca

1. Maybe Daddy won't notice if I remove this from his hand verrrry slooooowly...
2. What? No, these pills have nothing to do with the huge grin on my face.

Disclaimers: I did not actually get the beer out of Daddy's hand, and the pill bottle contains pennies -- it's a great way to make toddler-proof shakers.

Please pass the beans

Mama's a little concerned that my current eating habits are just a tiny glimpse into what it will be like when I'm a teenager. She's afraid she's going to have to spend half of her time cooking food and the other half shopping for more food. While Daddy works 150% of his time to pay for the food.

Yesterday Mama gave me a lunch consisting entirely of finger food (sandwich cut into strips, avocado chucks, slices of pears, cheese), and I didn't look up once from my plate until I'd polished off every last morsel. And last night when Mama was making my dinner, I ran to my high chair and pulled it out.

Today for lunch, I had a full grown-up serving of spinach lasagna (with the yucky cheese taken off -- remember, I don't like cooked cheese and I spit it out if it sneaks into my food), half of an avocado, and two tangerines. And I kept asking for more, so Mama gave me some of her lasagna too. Then she decided that it's time for my nap even though I was still signing for more (albeit with my head resting on the table).

I can't wait until I wake up from my nap and get my snack! I'll probably get yogurt with sliced strawberries or cottage cheese with sliced grapes. Yum! Food makes me very happy.

Decorating (with) eggs

I know it's not quite Easter yet, and I've never even seen a goose, but I still managed to give Mama a nice goose egg on her forehead today. I headbutted her when I was trying to get away from Daddy during our "Gotcha" game, and it seems that my head is a fair amount harder than hers. Although I have a red bump on my head, it didn't even faze me. Mama, however, couldn't see straight for several seconds.

Why, I otter...

Here I am catching my next cold at the zoo yesterday.

It's a zoo out there

This morning we went to the Woodland Park Zoo* for a few hours. We got there right when it opened, along with all the other parents and their early-bird toddlers. I still don't appreciate it quite in the same way Mama and Daddy seem to, but I had a fun time. We saw lots of loud monkeys, elephants, giraffes, bears, a wolf that looked like a really big Cowboy, and even a peacock walking around the food court plaza! My favorite animals by far were the otters, but not the real ones. I liked the bronze otter sculptures they have in the bear den. I wanted to stay to play with them and give them lots of pats, hugs and kisses (Mama said that it's no wonder I get sick all the time), but eventually I had to let the other kids play with them too.

We had a quick lunch in the food court, where Daddy paid an arm and a leg for an order of sweet potato fries (which I wanted to eat instead of my sandwich). Then Daddy gave me a ride through the rest of the zoo on his shoulders, and he only hit my head against branches a couple of times. I got him back by using his ears as handles. I fell asleep the minute we got in the car and didn't even wake up when Mama took me out, took off my coat, shoes, socks and pants (I spilled a cup of ice water on my lap during lunch), and put me in my crib. The zoo is exhausting!

*How in the world did they manage to get the URL "zoo.org"? Someone in their IT or marketing group was on the ball!

10 Things I Like About Me

1. When I eat with my hands, I always hold one piece of food in one hand for safe-keeping, and then eat the rest of the food with my other hand. That way I know I always have one piece left.
2. I've picked my own word for Daddy. Even though I call him "Daddy" on this blog, I call him "Papa" or "Baba" in real life. When I see him come home from work, I yell out, "BABA!!"
3. I love to play with my Lego Duplo blocks. They are in a box that is hard to open, so I bring the box over to Mama so that she can open it for me. Then I take all of the blocks out and pull apart whatever Mama has built. Sometimes I put things back together, but I generally prefer destruction over construction. However, when Mama asks, I will put all of the Legos back into the box.
4. I often hold things I like behind my head when I walk around with them. It's how you would hold a phone to your ear, if your ear were on the back of your head. I started doing it with phones, but I also do it with remote controls, shoes, my recorder, and anything else small enough to get back there.
5. I love the dustbuster vacuum cleaner. I can play with that all day long. And I'm very careful to get under the furniture and inside Cowboy's crate.
6. I like to play with Cowboy. I pet him when he walks by, and sometimes I chase him around the house. He's very nice, but he runs away from me when I chase him.
7. I've learned how to take smaller bites, so now I don't stuff huge pieces of banana or sandwich in my mouth (well, usually). I'm especially good with banana.
8. I like to play games with Mama and Daddy. I play hide-n-seek with Daddy (he's a really good hider) and I play "Where's my boy" with Mama. She asks "Where's my boy?" and I dive-bomb her and either give her kisses or zerberts all over her face.
9. I still eat more than my body weight every day. I especially like bananas and avocados, and I'll even eat a little bit of meat now and then. I still don't like beef, but I'll eat a tiny bit of pork or bacon.
10. I talk all the time, but I don't usually use the same kinds of words Mama and Daddy use. I have my own, but every once in awhile I'll slip in a big boy word like "dog", "milk", or "cow". My words are more fun. My currrent favorites are "blogl-blogl", "cogla-cogla" and "bloo-bloo-bloo" (I like the "L" sound). I still use my sign language words though, because that's how I get critical things like food, drink, toys and diaper changes.
    

Friday Photos

1. You'd think I was pretty funny too, if you could just learn to speak toddler-babble.
2. I love my giggler toys! And no, I didn't make that mess behind me.
3. Wheee! Push me higher!
4. This is Prince Charming. Mama says he has to stay in the neighbor's garden, but I like to move him around. Also, you like my backpack?
5. Are you just going to look at me, or are you going to pick me up?

Fire fighters

Our neighbors are tearing down their house next week, and since the house will be completely demolished, they invited the Fire Training Academy to use it for a training exercise. I walked Cowboy down to watch 15 fire fighters run around, knock holes through walls, and even climb on the roof and use a chainsaw to cut a hole through it! They wore all of their gear and made lots of noise, which was really fun. They even had fake smoke coming out of the house, and we could hear the bells going off as they ran low on air or other warnings sounded on their equipment.

The nice fire fighters even came over to us and answered our questions and let us look at their equipment. Mama really liked the thermal imaging camera and I was pretty interested in the chainsaw. However, I was a little wary of the fire fighters themselves. They are very large and outfitted in scary yellow uniforms. I cried when Mama tried to get a picture of me with one, and then Cowboy came to the rescue and wouldn't let him near me. So no pictures of me with fire fighters. Mama says she bets I'll like them more when I'm older and that I'll be SO excited to sit on their trucks. That's the same thing she said about that Santa guy. We'll see.

Same height

This is the last post of the day, I promise! Just wanted to show you that I've caught up with Cowboy in height and will soon be able to terrorize him a lot more effectively. Of course, he still has 50 pounds on me.

Wearing o' the green

St. Fat Lip Day?

As another way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I gave Mama a fat lip. I actually split her lip (with a bottle of lotion), but now the bleeding has stopped and it's just fat. I still haven't achieved Cowboy's double-whammy feat of giving her a split lip AND a black eye at the same time, so I have room for improvement.

Just another day

I'm not sure if it's easier with or without Mama sitting there.

Happy St. Pat's Day

One of my Mama's friends said her Nana told her, "If you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough." Thanks to Mama, I'm lucky enough to be part Irish, so I guess that makes me pretty lucky! But when I went for a walk today, I still wanted to be on the safe side (after all, my looks don't exactly scream "Irish") so I made sure I wouldn't get pinched.

Helpful boy

I'm trying to be helpful by collecting things from around the house and bringing them to Mama. She usually thinks it's nice (I know she needed that tea kettle while she was folding laundry, and who wouldn't want my socks and one of Daddy's sneakers?). But for some reason she doesn't seem too happy when I pull the outlet covers and corner guards off and bring them to her. Something about "baby-proofing" not working so well for toddlers. I have no idea what she's talking about.

Sleep-a-rama

I must be going through a growth spurt or something, because even though I'm not sick anymore (my spots finally went away today), I'm still sleeping a lot! After the miserable night of the spiked fever last Sunday, I've essentially been hibernating. I've taken a 3-4 hour nap every day and I sleep 12-14 hours every night. My appetite is back too, but it's hard to fit in as much food as I'd like when I'm too busy falling asleep at the table. However, I did manage to eat a huge bowl of oatmeal with berries and an entire banana today for breakfast. I was super excited about the banana especially.

Friday photos

1. A little trashy
2. Polka-dots are all the rage
3. What?

Just because

I suspect I'll be mentioning this video in therapy 25 years from now.

I told you I'm sleepy

Yesterday Mama took me to run some errands and I didn't last very long. Not surprisingly, Mama had her camera with her (is there ever a time when she doesn't?) so she managed to catch me as I tried to fight off sleep. You can hear when I finally give in because I stop sucking on my fingers.

And my new development for today: spots! Starting on my face this morning, spreading all over my body by bedtime. So far they aren't itchy, so it's probably not chicken pox. It could be roseola or measles, but it doesn't really make a difference because they are all spotty diseases caused by viruses which have no treatment other than "wait it out". Since my fever has gone down, Mama is just going to keep an eye on my spots to see what they do. But I think spotty = no Gymboree for me tomorrow.

The sleep continues

Mama was worried I wouldn't sleep last night after my 4-1/2 hour nap, but I had no problem. I slept from 6:30 PM - 8 AM, which is longer than I normally sleep! And then after eating half of my breakfast and staggering around my play room a bit, I fell asleep in my stroller when Mama took me to the grocery store. I slept for 45 minutes, then came home, refused lunch, and went back to sleep in my crib.

Mmmm...sleep...

I would play Sleepy Dwarf in the movie

Today after my doctor's appointment, I came home, ate a bowl of yogurt, and then took a nap. A very long nap -- from 12:30 until almost 5 PM! Mama was a little worried that I wasn't going to wake up. Then I had some dinner (I still don't have my appetite completely back, but I managed to eat half of an avocado, some cottage cheese, and half a bowl of beans with sweet potatoes), drank an entire sippy cup full of milk, had a bath, and went back to bed at 6:30. I'm not sure if I'll sleep through the night (that's a lot of sleep, even for a sick little boy) but Mama's keeping her fingers crossed that I won't wake up with a fever!

I thought we had McAfee for this

Apparently, Mama and Daddy take better care of their laptops than of me. They have McAfee anti-virus software loaded on their computers, but nothing protecting me!

Last night was the hardest night I remember (although Mama claims that there were some pretty long nights when I was a newborn). I kept waking up crying with a high fever. Then the crying would make my throat hurt so I'd start hacking. Which would make me cry even more. Mama spent most of the night rocking me in the glider, singing to me, giving me water to drink, and giving me infant Tylenol every 4 hours. The Tylenol would help me sleep a bit, but then I'd wake up crying a couple hours later. Daddy even changed my diaper at 2 AM because the amount of water I was drinking was sure to overflow, but it turns out the tears and the sweating from the fever took care of most of the extra fluids.

This morning we went to the doctor since I've had a fever on and off for 4 days. She checked me out and said that it looks like I have the virus that's going around right now. Runny nose, fevers, sore throat. I can't take anything for it other than Tylenol, Benadryl and Maalox (to help soothe my throat so I can eat). She said my fevers should start coming down on their own by Wednesday...two whole days away! But at least there's an end in sight.

Here's a picture of me at the doctor's office. I was having a moment of happiness because Daddy let me play with the paper.

I've had better days

I'm having a really rough couple of days. I'm sick with a cold (at least, Mama hopes that's all it is) so I've had a fever for the past 3 days and I have a hard time sleeping. Today is the first day that I've actually lost my appetite though -- I ate most of my spinach at lunch but I didn't want anything else. I'm trying to take a nap, but I keep waking up and crying because my throat hurts (you can hear how raspy it is when I cry) and my nose is clogged up. And to top it off, one of my back molars is cutting through! Mama can also feel the bumps in my gums where I have other teeth pushing their way up. So all in all, it's pretty miserable being me right now.

Still not a fan of snow

Reunited and it feels so good

Remember my original posse? My friends from Mama and Daddy's birth & labor class? I've known them since I was in the womb! And now that we're all such big kids now, we decided to get together for a little party last weekend. Not everyone was able to make it (no Jammy or Oliver), but I still had a lot of fun.

I saw Amadea, Kirsten, Enna and Hieu and played in Enna's big blue tube (I love that thing) and stole everyone's food. They didn't realize how good I am with a spoon, so I'd nonchalantly sidle up to someone with a plateful of food and quickly dig in for a bite of hummus or bean salad. And then Hieu's mom Thy pulled out a banana, and of course I had to get a piece (or three) of that!

I'm no longer the smallest one there (remember how everyone kept commenting on how I'm the oldest yet the smallest at the last get-together?) but Amadea is still leading the pack (and yes, she's the youngest). I think I'm a close second though, and if it weren't for her ponytail I might even be the tallest one.

Kirsten's going to have a little brother in July, so she and I are both preparing ourselves for this whole new world of "sharing" and "not being the center of attention". Hieu liked to bang on things as much as I do, and Amadea seemed to have the sweets for Hieu. Enna was super nice because she shared all of her toys with us (did I mention the tube?).

I had a great time running around with everyone and wore myself out by the end of the afternoon. And there was no way Mama was going to get a picture of all of us together. Are you kidding?

Mama posted all of the pictures on Flickr, but here are a couple favorites.