Wednesday, April 22, 2009

activities of an (almost) fifteen month old




Seriously? When did this child become a CHILD?? Diaper notwithstanding, he is SOOOO not a baby anymore. Sadness!


I have missed out on so much posting, I don't even know where to start. I started this blog as a record of his activities, so let me get up to date on those. As of today, (14 1/2 months) the goose is doing the following:


-walking, climbing, running (the other week I found him on top of the dining room table, having climbed up via the dining room chair, waving a margarita glass around. I'm not lying. Now all our dining room chairs are on top of the table, it's a great look for the room).


-dancing and clapping to music- any time he hears music, but especially music that he recognizes, he claps his hands, shakes his head from side to side, and stomps his feet like he's in a hoe down. He does this all with enough enthusiasm that he normally loses his balance and ends up on the floor.


-eating almost everything except (of course!) MILK! so we are still marginally breastfeeding over here, gah! But hopefully that comes to an end soon, I am definitely ready to stop and with this pregnancy, my milk supply has plummeted. We are stymied on the milk thing, I even make yogurt smoothies and milk shakes and it's still a hit or miss proposition.


-is sleeping like a log at night (please no jinx!!) from 8 pm to 6:30-7. Naps are touchier, as he is
trying to transition to one nap but is so active that he often needs two. I try to play each day by ear but it sucks not having a definite schedule. Makes it hard to plan activities.


-is a total jabbermouth. He is still mostly babbling, but makes all sorts of sounds and noises, like hes' having a real conversation, just not one with another English speaker. He screams "DaDAAAA" all the time, can say juice (more like deuce), and I think he's said Stella a couple of times, but it's so mangled that it's hard to say for sure. One of his favorite words is "bish?", which he says when he wants me to open a bottle or get him something and we have no idea what it might mean.


-can UNDERSTAND things, it's soooo nice. I'll say "Where's your juice?" and he'll look around and go get it. He also understands "no", and he hates it. He scrunches up his face and shakes his head and stamps his feet when I say it. He is going to be one stubborn toddler.


-likes pointing, waving, giving hugs.


- LOOOVES pushing his purple stroller around the neighborhood. He won't stay in his stroller, instead he gets out and wants to push it. So Chris got him his own baby stroller (no blue available to JC's dismay) and we put his curious George doll in there and he literally pushes that thing for 5 blocks around the neighborhood. It's hysterical. Of course, everyone thinks he's a girl, which I'm like, whatever, I keep walking, but JC will stop and explain for ten minutes. "He's actually a BOY, he just really likes to PUSH things, this is the easiest thing to get around, he doesn't actually like DOLLS, he doesn't even own any, it's just for PUSHING and it didn't come in blue. But he also plays with CARS and BALLS and TRAINS, that's all he plays with really, CARS. and BALLS. LOTS OF CARS. LOVES CARS. CARS." By this point I have circled back around and physically drag JC away from the poor passerby who just made a simple comment. Our poor neighbors.


-speaking of JC, this kid is definitely a daddy's boy. He looooooves him some JC. At night, when JC comes home from work, it's a toss up who's more excited, Graydon or Stella. Both are squealing and jumping around and racing for the door. It's a circus.


That's about all I can think of right now, I'm sure I am forgetting a ton. One more thing I want to get down. Today we had an interesting situation. Gray had a massive poop this morning, one that went up his back and out the diaper and got on his clothes. Nastiness. So I whipped off his diaper and outfit and carried him to get washed off in the sink. Well, while I was cleaning him off Miss Stella grabbed his dirty, poopy diaper and started EATING it. Oh. My. God. So I put him down and snatch the diaper from Stella but it's so gross and smells so bad and I'm so pregnant and I just turned to the trashcan and vomited everywhere. Then I'm still recovering and I hear a noise behind me and STELLA is throwing up. Ohhhhhhhh grossity gross gross. So I wait til she's done, grab some paper towels and start cleaning up that disaster. I'm halfway done when I look up to see what Graydon's up to, realize he is buck naked, and he's smiling at me, and he has just peed all over the refrigerator and kitchen floor. It was truly a shitstorm. I am still disgusted by it all ten hours later. Ah, motherhood.

Luckily for him he's adorable.


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

well, hello there

Is anyone still around??? I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted... it's been the same old song and dance around here. Headache, puke, headache, puke, headache, headache, puke, puke. After taking care of the goose, and making his meals (while simultaneously vomiting in the kitchen sink, I guess I AM a multi-tasker, after all), by the time nighttime rolls around I literally fall into bed. So haven't had the energy to blog much. But I do have some cute pics from this Monday that I wanted to share (and my dad has been badgering me about this site), so here we are.

Monday we were fortunate enough to be given tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll. (Thanks again, Sean!) It was a very exciting experience, although I think more for me than JC or Gray. JC has already been to the White House, and Graydon was more interested in picking trash off the ground and eating it than actually participating. Plus, the lines were ginormous, and since Graydon has declared total war on the stroller (he absolutely refuses to sit in it, impossible toddler), JC had to haul his 23 lbs around in the Baby Bjorn and was not super happy about it.
But beyond that, we really appreciated the opportunity to go. Besides, we lucked out to be in the one group that the Obamas came out and talked to the crowd and mingled and THAT was very, very cool.

Here are some of the best shots:









That's Fergie with the Obamas, Dad. She's a pop singer. You have probably heard her songs in your step aerobics classes.



They are a very handsome family, it was so cool to see them live.



Meltdown man in full effect.

Gray's favorite activity.




The only kid who participated LESS than Graydon.



Obama's forehead, we were 5 feet away but he left before we could get a good shot.


Biden is walking behind the lady with the brown bag- hard to spot.



Knocked OUT in the cab. And no, you don't need a carseat in taxis. Pretty sketchy but the metro was pretty far away and the baby was crashing.
That's it for now, will try to be more regular about posting but no promises. I made some inroads today in finding someone to come help me once or twice a week with Gray when I'm so sick, so hopefully I'll be more rested and able to blog more. Fingers crossed, at least!