SuperBowl Sunday Peanut Style

Peanut accomplished his own Superbowl worthy feat of strength today on this Superbowl Sunday (10 1/2 months). He walked across the family room while pushing his walker. This is the next step in the walking process and we are so proud that he was able to drag his hefty legs one by one in little steps. Up until today, he would push the walker out in front of him but had not figured out how to drag those fatty legs along with the upper part of his body. It is truly amazing to see the daily changes in his abilities. Just this morning Papa Bear and I watched him try in vain to get his little legs to go and he took out his displeasure with the walker by yelling at it and shaking it. And then just a short 9 hours later, he and the walker made up and became good friends. We immediately got video of it and skyped with Mee-Mom and Mommom so that they could see it too. (Who says the 2nd child gets shafted with documentation of their lives??) I foresee more injuries and gasps of fear in my future as Peanut really gets walking, but I couldn't be happier for my Peanut!!

Dinner Chatter

This evening we sat down for family dinner and started talking about our day. We got more snow here and Little Man got to play on the back porch building castles in the snow while Peanut and I watched from the warmth of the sun room. We also blew up the jumpolene for some inside energy burning fun and Little Man jumped in the jumpolene with his superhero cape and did lots of cartwheels and somersaults.

As Papa Bear and I were discussing Little Man's acrobatic style we started discussing his overall athletic prowess. I mean, this kid can jump further than I can and loves to jump on one leg while jumping on the trampoline. He crawled before he was 7 months, stood up on his own by 8 months and walked 3 days after turning 9 months. We are thinking about putting him in a true gymnastics class to give him an outlet for all of his tumbling, jumping, flipping desires (and maybe save some our furniture in the process). We think he would be good at it and enjoy it a lot.....and as we discussed this we started talking about what we think Peanut will be good at. He is too young to really determine his likes and dislikes so we were in far away thought, picturing our little Peanut in two years time, wondering if he will be interested in all things sporty like his brother, or all things art like his cousin or all things scientific....and then we looked over at him eating his spaghetti....

and thought that it just might be all things eating. Papa Bear remarked that while we don't know for sure what he will love doing when he is older, a pie eating contest is in his future for sure. My thoughts, well, I don't know what he is going to be into...but all things cute is what I am thinking!!

Wordless Wednesday

Peanut Needs Antenna

Antenna: Zoology. one of the jointed, movable, sensory appendages occurring in pairs on the heads of insects and most other arthropods.

Boy could Peanut use some of those, the sensory appendage part anyway. It would save his poor forehead some damage and it would save our walls and furniture some major dents! You see, Peanut crawls with his head down. He looks at his hands, the floor, Little Man, just about anywhere other than where he is going. And he knows when he has arrived at his destination when he hits it with his head. As soon as he thunks his head, he reaches his arm up and then pulls himself up to stand. So I was thinking if he had some antenna then they could feel that he was about the hit the wall, coffee table or couch and he could pull up BEFORE he hits his head. By the time he goes to bed each night, he has at least 4 red marks on his cute little forehead. So anyone have some spare antenna to help a crawling baby out?

Blame it on the Clock

I love the Tot Clock. This has to be one of the best inventions in the world - or at least my world that consists of diapers and formula and other motherhood stuff. Papa Bear and I always lamented over the fact that Little Man couldn't tell time so we couldn't tell him to stay in bed until 7 or 8 or 9. And then we found the Tot Clock. This singularly genius invention has changed things in this house. It is simple. When the clock is blue - it is bed time (or nap time) and when the clock is yellow it is awake time. Why he hasn't questioned this is beyond me, but Little Man is a rule follower and it works for him. At the end of nap time (which I have set the "blue time" to be a 2 hour duration) he yells "Mama the clock is yellow" and I say "Are you sure?" and he says, "Yes, it is really really yellow" and then I say "well come on down" and at night when he wakes up and comes running into our room screaming because of the chicken by the door or the blue and green mouse that is going to get him, I can give him a hug and then say "What color is your clock?" and he sleepily says "Blue" and then there is no fight in taking him back to his room because that's the rule. This wonderful clock has helped us get more sleep and instead of having to tell Little Man that Mama just wants a bed free of pint sized squirmers, I can just tell him that the clock is blue and so he must stay in his bed. I highly recommend the tot clock for any sleep deprived parents of a toddler. (And no-one is paying me to say that)

However, I will issue this one warning. Travel with it. If you don't you are left to the whim's of whatever clock happens to be in the room where you are staying. An example of this is when we were in Delaware visiting Mee-Mom and Little Man was sleeping on a mattress on the floor and by a cruel cruel trick of the world, Mee-Mom's clock is backlit yellow. So at 3 am, Little Man pops up and says, "The clock is yellow, time to wake up!" So yeah, travel with it and also a secret trick is that during the week you can have it turn yellow at a certain time, say 6:30 am, but on the weekend you can change it so that it doesn't turn yellow until, say 7:30 am, and your Little Man would never ever know :)

Wordless Wednesday

Chase - Little Man and Peanut style

The boys are starting to be able to play games together. Although Little Man does get frustrated that Peanut doesn't play by his rules - they are starting to have some moments that good play is happening. I am not sure that this video qualifies as one of them, but it was cute to see Little Man "slow" his running to try and give Peanut a fighting chance of getting away from him. (Please note that Peanut is in slow motion mode at this point because he was had been playing "chase" for about 30 minutes) ** This is a video Mommom, don't forget to click on play!**