Things are heating up

Hi everyone!  I took a little break from blogging.  The weather has gotten so nice!  I think Mommy and Daddy are starting to get in the Summer mood, too.  We went to Walmart and got me some new stuff.  They got me some new sandals (my old ones were getting a little small), a cool ball to play with that looks like a globe, a new pool (because last year’s is too small), and some new clothes.  I’m REALLY excited about the pool.  Last year, I got to play in my little pool a lot.  I don’t like to stay in the pool, of course, but it’s fun to walk around it and push the sides down so the water can pour out.

Mommy and Daddy also said that I need to be sure to mention my new ability to say belly button.  Now, as it has an unnecessarily high number of syllables, I tend to shorten it to “Bay buh”.  This, of course, gets the point across, and I always make sure to point at mine or Mommy’s or Daddy’s in case there is any confusion.

You know what’s really fun?  Driveways.  I love to pick up the little rocks and chunks of asphalt.  Mommy and Daddy won’t let me into the house with them, though, so I try to leave myself a pile by the door (though the pile does seem to disappear sometimes).  Luckily, Daddy has been showing me how to use pockets, so I think I have a way around this.

Did I mention that I have a new booster seat?  The coolest thing is that I can now buckle myself in.  Mommy and Daddy just hand me the straps and I click the 3 straps together all by myself.  Sometimes it takes a while because I get one twisted or upside-down, but I can do it if given enough time.

Mommy and Daddy took some pictures the other day, so I’ll bet they’ll be asking me to post those once they upload them.

Sickly, but Still Cute

So it’s been a few days since Mommy and Daddy helped me blog. Things have been really busy!

I’m a little sick. My fever is starting to go back down now, but I’m still too sick to go to daycare. Mommy has to stay home with me today, because she doesn’t have any classes. If I’m still sick tomorrow, Daddy will probably stay home with me. Last night, I kept waking up so Mommy brought me to bed with her and Daddy for a little while. I fell asleep in her arms, so she put me between them until I woke up again. I loved it!! I’d open my eyes, see them looking at me, give them a great big grin, and then drift back off to sleep.

Yesterday, Uncle Chris, Miss Stacy, and Mr. Jonathan all came over for dinner. It was really fun. I got lots of attention, even though Jonathan kept playing with the jumbo Legos that Mommy and Daddy got for me. I was a little cranky because I was getting sicker, but Mommy and Daddy say I was very well behaved. Daddy grilled chicken and Mommy made pasta and salad. I didn’t really feel like eating much, though. I liked seeing everyone, but being sick is stinky.

I mentioned that I had figured out how to open a door, right? Well, I’ve been getting lots of practice. We hung out with Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Summer for a while the other day, and I went in and out of their office again and again. It’s hard to get my hands all the way around the doorknob and twist it, but I can do it. Unfortunately, Mommy and Daddy put “child-safe” locks on the all the doorknobs that lead to sweet, sweet freedom. Until I find out how to work them (or my blowtorch arrives), I’ll have to wait for Mommy or Daddy if I want to go outside. Luckily, it’s been warm enough that I get to go out pretty often.

March of the Daniels

Last night Mr. Thomas and Ms. Summer came over for dinner and brought their Daniel.  Their Daniel is tiny!  And squishy.  Mommy and Daddy say I used to be that small too, but I think they’re mistaken.  We had a lot of fun together, even though he can’t walk.  Or crawl.  Or sit up.  It’s not his fault - he’s little.  He also seemed a little afraid I’d squish him.  I wouldn’t though!  I was as gentle with him as I am with the kitty!  In other news, the kitty has been walking funny since I body-slammed him last week…

Mommy picked me up early again yesterday and today.  We played all afternoon and went for walks and had so much fun!  Mommy looks awfully tired though!  It’s so warm out now that we can go for walks everyday, and Mommy doesn’t sound so funny when we go up the hills now.  We also get to play outside at daycare on the playground too.  Today I played with the toddlers!  One of my toddler friends showed me all of their toys.  They’re way better than the toys in the baby playground!

Nightmares and zippers and things like Chemistry

Lately, I’ve been waking up and immediately crying really hard. In the past, Mommy and Daddy would hear me talking to Mr. Floppy (my bunny) or other bedroom accessories. After I played for a bit and relaxed, I’d then inform them of my readiness to get up with a sincere and escalating call. These days, though, I’ve been instantly going from asleep to completely awake and really upset. Mommy and Daddy think I might be having nightmares. All I know is I don’t like it.

I’ve been trying to figure out how zippers work. I first learned while attempting to escape my cotton prison during nap time. PJs are for babies. This, of course, led to Mommy and Daddy coming to my crib to find me partially or completely disrobed, including diaper. And yes, it was sometimes inconvenient. And yes, it was sometimes messy. But it was also glorious. Anyway, as I had only explored the “taking off” side of zippers, I’ve decided to start learning to zip things up. Last night, Mommy and Daddy were trying to get me dressed for bed when the realized that I wasn’t leaning over to be difficult but was actually reaching for the zipper so I could zip up my PJs. With Mommy holding the pieces just right, I was able to zip the outfit almost up past my leg. I still have some practicing to do, but that’s what nap time is for.

Mommy picked me up early from daycare yesterday and today. I like spending so much time with her! I wish it were Spring Break every week. She’s also been doing a lot of cleaning. While it’s nice to have so much room to run, she’s taking away all my toys. Now, I don’t mean the regular toys that were bought for me. I mean the extra toys, like school papers and books. How am I supposed to knock everything off the coffee table if it’s clear?! I have a hard enough time finding outlets for my need to inflict mayhem. Things are really getting out hand. I’m going to have to do something to level the playing field. It may finally be time to execute plan Alpha Male. Everything is in place, though I did have a surprisingly hard time finding peppermint-flavored staplers. Now, if I can just find a way to open the lid on the motor oil…

 

Great weekend!

I had an awesome weekend!  Saturday morning, Mommy, Daddy, and I went to see Nana and Papa!!

On Saturday, I got to play a lot of cool games.  One of Mommy’s and Daddy’s friends has DDR (Dance, Dance, Revolution).  At first, I just watched, but it looked like so much fun.  It’s easy!  Basically, when the music starts, you just stomp on the pad.  Uncle Chris stomps on a lot of different pads as the music plays, but I like to just stand on one arrow and stomp really fast.  Daddy tried to give me my own pad by putting my changing pad on the floor, but it just wasn’t the same.  With a little convincing, I got Uncle Chris to let me share his pad.  We did much better that way.

 Another cool toy I got to play with was Daddy’s Rubix Cube.  He messes with it when we’re in town, but he hasn’t completed it yet.  I’m trying to decide how much more time to give him.  The basic algorithm is quite simple, and it pains me to see him struggling with it so.  I tried to give him hints by hitting certain edges on the floor or chewing strategic corners, but I don’t think he picked up on it.  I figure I’ll give him a couple more tries to finish it.  I wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings.

 

I also got to go to church and hang out in the nursery for a while.  Everyone there is really nice, and I got to see some more of the family.  Overall, it was a really cool weekend.  I’m also glad for Mommy because next week is Spring Break.  She loves spending time with me, but she knows how much I love being at daycare and how much I learn there.  She and Daddy talked about it, and they decided I can still go to daycare some, even though Mommy’s not in school.  She deserves a break!  She’s been working really hard at practicum, school, and at home.  Mommy says she might steal me away from daycare for a day, and that would be fun, too!

Oh yeah!  And I learned something new this weekend!  The kitchen pantry at Nana’s and Papa’s has a loose door knob, and I can open it!  On most doors, it’s too tight for me to turn the knob.  I know what to do, but I just can’t get my hands around it and turn it far enough.  That one door knob, though, is just light enough for me to open!  And now, Mommy and Daddy can tell me how to throw stuff away, too.  At home or at Nana’s and Papa’s, they can hand me something and say “Throw this away, please.”  At home, I can flip up the lid, throw away whatever I’m holding, and shut the lid.  At Nana’s and Papa’s, I’ll open the pantry, throw it away, and close the door.  They say I’m really smart, because I only throw away what they ask me to, and I know how to open and close stuff.  I keep trying to tell them that I’ve always been this smart, but I finally have time for silly things like garbage disposal.

 New food I like: Black-eyed peas.  Suspiciously nutritive, yet delicious.

Don’t bite the hand that probes you

I like to explore. I climb under tables, rampage through piles of papers, and pull down any reachable suspended object. I touch things, grab things, smack things, and turn any hollow object into a temporary drum. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found out my classmate didn’t want me to learn about him. After considering him from a purely observative mode, I decided to take the next obvious step: exploring his mouth with my thumb. This was all going quite well, until Punk-Face McBiter-Head decided my thumb was edible. Now, I admit that my first reaction when someone sticks something into my mouth is to bite down. Good for food, bad for medicine dispensers, awesome for Mommy fingers. But this is daycare! I expect a certain level of respect and camaraderie among my peers. He bit me! I was stunned. In a moment of allusive consideration, I tried to decide if I wanted to say “Et tu, Brute?” or “You bit me deep, PoopFace. You bit me real deep just now.” I decided to go with “AHHH-wuh-wuh-Ahh”. Effective and succinct, though slightly less clever than the alternates.

In other news, there was a lot of rain yesterday. It made the power flicker, and I heard Daddy mention that the File Server crashes whenever the power goes out. I know Daddy isn’t very good with this sort of thing, so I thought I’d make some suggestions:

• Give the server a flashlight. That way, when the power goes out, he can still deliver his files to everyone.
• Install emergency lighting. This is even better than a flashlight, because the server can hold files in both hands this way.
• Quit worrying about it. After all, how are you going to read a file in the dark? I guess you could hold the paper in one hand and a flashlight in the other, but that just seems silly.

Hopefully Daddy will consider some of these suggestions. I’m not sure why he didn’t think of this on his own. Lucky for him, I’m here to straighten things out.

Expanding my Culinary Horizons

Last night, Grandmama and Grandpa came to our house!  I had a lot of fun with them.  So much fun that I couldn’t let myself take my afternoon nap.  I got kinda cranky, though, so they had to change what they were doing for dinner.  Instead of going out somewhere, we ordered takeout.  I loved it!  I got to have rolls, cheese, potatoes, chipotle chicken strips, and even ribs!!  Delicious!

At one point, I got too excited and started hit Grandpa in the face with a big plastic thing.  Do you know what he did?!  He made me sit on the floor and not touch anything.  Daddy says it was only about 20 or 30 seconds, but it was terrible!  I hate sitting still!!  Spank me, chastise me, make me eat bugs – Just don’t make me sit still.  I cried and cried.  And just when I was finished, Daddy had the nerve to say “Alright, baby boy.  Can you play gentle now?”  To this, of course, I responded with a new outburst of tears.

And I totally mean that thing about eating bugs.  Mommy and Daddy won’t let me, but I’d really like to try it.  If you can hook me up, give me a call.  I pay in Cheerios and slobber.