9 Months Old

This past month has been a big transition for us. Little man began by pulling up to his knees, then to pulling up to standing, and now to pulling up on the WALL! And there are many times when little man just lets go and doesn't realize he is standing. I have a feeling this one is a climber - he is already making his way up on boxes. And little man is FEARLESS - most of the time he doesn't even cry when he falls or bumps into things (so when he does you know it definitely HURT!). We never had to worry about either of these issues with big sis. She was so cautious or cried when she fell (so we at least knew why she had a bruise or bump). And she was only really interested in climbing anything by age 2 or 2.5. So the types of baby proofing to take care of this combo of fearless nature and climbing is a bit more extensive.Our food introduction is still moving along slowly. I am very happy that he will eat a wide variety of foods. But some items tend to make him gag (which might still be the thrush or he just isn't ready). This week we made a bit of progress, though, because the last two nights he has done much better with tiny chunks of mushy banana and avocado.

Speed crawling is the mode of transportation choice these days. Not much cruising yet - thank goodness. We need a milestone break so momma can catch up cleaning up all of the choking hazards aka big sis' toys. Little man has figured out where his favorite "play stations" are. He moves from the TV (where he bats it with his hand) to the fireplace (where we promptly pick him up) to the back door (to taunt the dogs) to the coffee table (chew on a few magazines) to the pantry (our trash is little man's treasure) to the laundry room (dog food - YUM!) to big sis' room
(itty bitty toys and shoes galore) and finally to the bathroom floor (b/c our other floors are just too clean for little man!). Any time he is heading to an area we might deem off limits he gives a little grin and then TAKES OFF at top speed. He's gonna be just as mischievous as big sis was and still is!

Little Man's TV "Playstation"

We set up little man's room this month. There are a few more things to do to "finish" it. But it is nice to have a room for him to play in (with supervision of course!) and eventually sleep. We are still working out the thrush issue so he still prefers to be close to momma (less sleep at night). Of course the fact that separation/stranger anxiety has finally set in may be part of that. Most everyday we leave him at daycare he cries. If it isn't one kid starting the day in tears it is the other . . . But at the end of the day I am greeted by a smile, speed crawling, and outstretched arms. So I think I am forgiven for leaving him!

Our Favorite Teacher

This month he finally starting clapping his hands together - previous to that he just hit his hands on his legs if you clapped. And my favorite current baby trick is "dap" or "love". He holds out his little fist and waits for you to tap it with yours. We all love this one and we each receive a huge grin from little man when our fists collide!

Fearless Fish the Ladies' Man and Mommy Tomboy

Yes, prepare for a random collection of thoughts.

Little man is loving bath time! He is so fearless and spends most of his time slipping and sliding all around the tub. He has gained much more control moving throughout the tub - just a couple of weeks ago I had to hold onto him almost the whole time. Now I only have to spot him when he attempts to stand up. Fearless little fish!


Our little man is graduating to a new class at school next week. We LOVE his current teacher and so I am a bit sad about the move. But he is ready for it - and we have heard good things about the next teacher. He will have to leave his lovely girlfriends behind, though. That's right, he is a BIG flirt and currently the only boy in his class. Little ladies' man!

Big sis' role playing is picking up these days. My favorite scenario is when she is the mom and she goes to work. Little man and I are dropped off at school and we get a quick "love you bunches" as she runs to the next room. It melts my heart to know that I might be someone she thinks is cool enough to imitate (like a princess, chef, monster, or ghost - her other favorite roles). She is a fun little mommy!


Our bis sis is also graduating to a new class at school next week. I don't know much about the next teacher but she is buddies with all the kids in that class. It will be another hard transition for her - she really doesn't like change. And we just got past her last round of tears EVERY DAY. Like little man, she is way outnumbered by the boys in her class. And at school she is a tomboy through and through!

Academy Awards

Top 10 Reasons why I don't get to enjoy the Academy Awards anymore:
10. What? The Academy Awards are this weekend? Ryan Seacrest is commenting on fashion while plugging American Idol?
9. Extremely sick Disco
8. Wide awake 2 year old
7. THRUSH - CONTINUES!
6. An amazingly obnoxious dog who thinks she is allowed to sleep on the BED again
5. Our "clean" house that still looks like a disaster
4. Never having any time to actually watch any of the nominated films in 2009 (ok, so actually none of the films since 2005)
3. Finally setting up little man's room
2. I have to admit that I miss the days of Billy Crystal, Whoopee Goldburg, and Robin Williams (mock if you will but this one tonight is too boring if you have never seen any of the nominees!)
1. Did I mention we are still fighting THRUSH?!?!

Trivia

How many rolls of toilet paper does your toilet bowl hold?

Big Sis showed me today that our toilet bowl holds at least two unrolled rolls of toilet paper.

-Disco

Blind Date

My cousin is getting married! He and his fiancee are a very cute couple and it has been fun too read a bit about their story these last few weeks. The thing about weddings is that they always cause me to reflect on the beginnings of my relationship with Disco. Disco and I met 13 years ago on Feb 17, 1996. Since today is an anniversary of sorts, I thought it would be a good time to share our first date . . . a "blind date"

Disco and I met at a college dorm blind date event. I found out, by accident, that he was my date. He knew he would be paired up with me from the beginning. It was on a Saturday night and being diligent college students we both were up studying college life late into the night the Friday before blind date. I happened to live directly above the front entrance and saw Disco walking another dorm resident back home that Friday. Of course I assumed the worst and decided that they were together and that the next night would just be a waste of my time. Being the absolute gentleman that he was, he routinely walked girls back to their dorms after parties. But I didn't know he was such a nice guy (and to this day still give him a hard time about this particular girl). At the time I thought I was in for another date with a TOOL!

Saturday night I got ready with my dorm mates and was too nervous to eat or drink beforehand. Disco hung out with a few of his buddies (including catlady's beau) and they prepped for the evening with a bottle of wine. Disco is quite smiley after a bit of wine!

Anyway, we had so little to talk about during the date. It was SO BAD!!! We sat across from each other and were surrounded by a large group of people who knew each other. This date was the first time we had ever spoken to each other. And he sat next to the girl he walked home the night before. It was so uncomfortable!

As with most college functions, the evening became much livelier AFTER dinner. I was able to relax a bit. Disco and I finally began some sort of conversation as we party hopped throughout campus. The final party we attended happened to be in his room with tons of people piled into the tiny space. We danced for a while - most notable song was The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" although we disagree on whether it was the first song we danced to that night. Like he did the night before for my dorm mate, Disco was a gentleman and walked me back across campus.

The next few months were too complicated for this post - I will save those tales for another time.

Here is a photo from that first date . . . we look SO YOUNG! I think it is pretty cool to have a photo of the night we met. I would have never guessed we would have ended up together based on that one evening. But I am SO glad the crappy start to our first date didn't dissuade either of us from our relationship. It has been a great 13 years overall!

Painting

Here is the pic from August 2008 of big sis painting her walls purple. We guided her toward a shade of lavender - left to decide completely on her own the walls would have looked like Barney! She is adjusting really well to her new room so far. Much better than momma. Of course I would be doing better if baby Elmo hadn't woken us up last night. Toys that talk on their own in the middle of the night are creepy . . . especially when you hear them over the monitor!

Valentine's New Room

Happy Valentine's Day! We spent the day enjoying sunshine at the zoo and park with our buddies. And then we all headed to the Arts Center so that big sis and I could see a play while the boys viewed art. The day ended with some heart shaped pizzas - all in all a great Valentine's Day!

Tonight is big sis' first night in her big girl room. "Uncle Sam" bought big sis' new mattress and Disco spent most of the day getting her room ready for the move. I am probably the most apprehensive because this is the first time she hasn't slept in our room in almost a year. Next week we concentrate on little man's new room. Sigh . . . we are so ready for the transition but yet another reason time is flying by way too fast.

Tomorrow I will post some pics of big sis painting her room way back in August. I don't even have enough space to list all of the specifics which caused our delay, but mostly construction issues and problems related to living in an old house. People ask us if we are settled . . . there will always be more projects. But I love this house anyway!

Dirty Kitchen Floor

Bye bye exersaucer . . . hello dirty kitchen floor. That's right, little man has given up on any form of confinement.


Yesterday I was in the kitchen and found non-choking hazard toys from big sis' play kitchen for him to play with while he was there. Well, it didn't take him long to figure out the location of this new play area! So today I sat him down on his playmat in the living room (strategically placed so that I can keep an eye on him while I wash dishes). Bent my head to wash one bottle. Then looked over at the pantry and he was already sitting up and trying to reach into a bag of pecans sitting on the floor. Wow that boy is fast these days! And can we say, need to make time to do more babyproofing?!

Anyway, he seems to be really happy to crawl all over our dirty kitchen floor. He enjoyed grabbing big sis' ABCs that hang on the refrigerator. Little man even attempted to shove the letters into the "phonics box". He loves to take things out of boxes/bags/shelves and attempts to put things back inside boxes/sacks/shelves so I guess it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise. Although he wasn't able to get those letters into place no matter how hard he pounded them on the floor, box, fridge, his head, etc.

He doesn't want to go to bed lately either . . . and of course big sis is there to encourage that! And obviously it is time to lower the crib mattress. So much to do . . .

Biker Chik

"Sweet"

Big sis isn't as skilled on the bike as her pals - after reading some of their blogs and talking to a few folks we decided to encourage her to try out her "bike" more often. The one at our house is kind of like a big wheels/tricycle mix. We had a bit of delay getting her on any bike at home during this past year because of the new baby/house addition at the same time (great idea on our part!). But she has been excited to try out this "bike" on sunny days lately. With a few BEAUTIFUL days lately (although not today) she had perfect weather to ride around the driveway. My favorite part of this process is how excited she gets that we move our cars for her. It is like Christmas all over again just because we give her space all to herself for riding her bike!

Since the bike is outside most of the time the original stickers are long since gone - and any remnants were scraped off last week. Disco, big sis, and I had fun adding new stickers one day when little man was napping. And of course our favorite is the roller derby bumper sticker from some of our friends in Boston - it got a special spot right on the front. AWESOME!

"Freestyle"

Note: Helmets should always be worn while riding bikes. We strive to stick to this safety standard however everyone was so excited about the new stickers that we forgot until we looked at the pics!

The Adventures of Action Man . . . Under Attack!

The adventures of mild-mannered little man aka Action Man continue. . . Today we find action man under attack! He began by fighting an invasion of bacteria causing an ear infection in both ears. While fighting those invaders another set of enemies attempted to gain a foothold on action man. The evil THRUSH, sworn enemy to ALL breastfeeding mommies!!!!!!!!!!! Dr. J, mastermind of all things healthy, gave valuable counsel and weapons to action man. For now, we will aid action man with his war against the evil THRUSH. And if the battle against the invasion of bacteria in his ears becomes heated (aka, he runs a fever) we must shift gears and turn our attention to his inner ear. This war on different fronts may prove difficult. But thanks to some encouragement from tallgirl at Kroger tonight, we feel action man and his mommy will be able to continue their breastfeeding bond (action man gives a shout out to baby P and his own battles with some serious ear bugs. stay strong baby P and mommy!).

Stay tuned for the conclusion of action man's most recent adventure, Under Attack!

Little Man's "To Do" List and Big Sis' Menu

Little Man's "To Do" List Feb 2-6:
Pull up to standing position - EVERYWHERE
Crawl - EVERYWHERE
Put anything interesting in my mouth (shoes or paper preferable)
Party like a Rock Star all night long
Create path-o-destruction throughout house
The usual - eat, pee, poop, laugh . . . but NO SLEEP (way too busy for sleep)!
Melt Mommy's heart by saying "ma mamama mama" all week

Big Sis' Menu:
"I am a milkshake and little man is a hamburger. I gunna echoo up!" (Followed by "monster" hands, growling, and tickling. Not sure why milkshakes growl . . .)

uglyworm

Uncle Scott gave little man a big stuffed animal for Christmas called uglyworm. Now we thought it was hilarious and both kiddos love playing with it. Disco even made a miniature play-doh replica of it! We had know idea it was FAMOUS and that our President's daughter has an uglydoll of her own. Check out this link to the uglydolls website http://uglydolls.com/#/uglytown/
We feel uglyworm may make a few bigsisandlittleman blog appearances this year . . .

Pink Cupcakes

Big sis was helping me "survey" birthday cake options at Kroger recently. I should have known that it would lead to me bringing home a box of cupcakes. It doesn't take much for me to give into anything sweet - so I avoid the bakery on our shopping trips. Although I usually try to encourage non-neon frostings. Unfortunately big sis was all about PINK that day. Sigh . . . pink icing tastes terrible! Disco and big sis sure were cute eating cupcakes, but the color was permanent and lasted for days.

Lets Go to the Mall!

Big sis' best bud (and his little brother) came over to our house Sat night. This is our first attempt at a tag-team approach to parents' night out with our friends. We take all the kiddos one night so they can grab dinner and then they do the same for us another night. Who knows how often we can get this to work out with everyone's crazy schedules. But the kids LOVE it!!!

Of course the little ones, aka "The Buffy Boys", were perfect. They sat on the playmat, giggled, and had a grand time. The 3 and 2 year olds were the usual laughable handful. They both like to pee and poop at the exact same time, there is a lot of wrestling and running, and in general they take it upon themselves to do a little redecorating around the house.

Tonight they decided they were "going to the mall". So they both got dressed up and announced they were leaving us. Although I was VERY tempted to make suggestions, there was no coaxing on our part concerning their attire - these were their choices. I can't wait to see what they pick out to wear to the mall as teenagers!!!