Bathtime and a visit from Aunt Mandy

My sister came over today to visit and take some pictures of Nick. She took hundreds, and my little man got lots of attention. He really loves to strike a pose. . . he even knows not to blink when there's a flash. In the shot above, Nick was playing with his squishy hippo that squirts water.

Today he was big on splashing. I'm not sure how he balanced well enough to lift his leg to shoulder-height. Perhaps Nick has been copying my pilates moves.

It's funny how the weekend goes by so quickly. I feel like I could use another day. Sigh.

An hour in the life of an active toddler

My little boy can accomplish a lot in an hour. I took my camera and spent an hour down on the floor with Nick today, while Greg was making a delicious clam chowder (yes, from scratch). I was trying to keep him out of the kitchen, since he tends to hang on Daddy's legs and cause trouble. These are the pictures I took during my hour on the cold hardwood floor. I present: an hour in the life of a 14-month-old.

5:01 Having just woken up from his nap, Nick started playing with his cars. I don't believe Nick knew I was going to snap this picture. The expression on his face says, "Huh?" Nick likes to roll his cars around on the floor, but this one makes noise when you push on the top of the lights. I do believe that every single male child will, unprompted, start to push cars around the floor and make noises. There must be a gene for that.

5:04 Never in one place for long, Nicholas took off while I was trying to get a picture of him with his firetruck push toy. He runs quickly for a little guy who only learned to walk a little more than a month ago.

5:11 Back to the blocks and trucks. Nick does not build towers, but he certainly knows how to knock them down. His blocks are squishy and they squeak, so he also likes to chew on them.

5:12 Nick started yelling and following me around. He was clearly upset, and I thought perhaps he might want a snack. So I put him into his high chair. Yes, he definitely wanted a snack. He graced me with this lovely smile as he demolished his blueberries, milk, and homemade wheat bread with jam.

5:24 In his usual creative way, Nick let me know that snacktime was over and he wanted OUT. Can you see him throwing blueberries at me? I think the projectile had already left his hand by the time I hit the button on the camera.  Throwing food is an automatic ticket out of the high chair.

5:27 All cleaned up, Nick decides to rock out with his guitar. This was a gift from his Auntie Mandy, and he loves making music with it. He also likes to swing it around and hit things with it. Perhaps this bodes well for a career in the performing arts? Hopefully not.

5:33 Tired of the guitar, Nick takes off with it at a full run, eventually throwing it at the cat.

5:41 Nick is in the mood for a little Trivial Pursuit (chocolate edition). I told him, "Maybe later."

5:47 Nick takes a huge pile of junk mail off of the table. I let him. You have to pick your battles, and junk mail is not a battle I care to fight. Hopefully their ink isn't too damaging when it is chewed.

5:52 Nick manages to sneak past me into the kitchen, where the smell of clam chowder is filling the air. I believe he's chewing on a baby bowl. We keep random plastic things around for him to play with in the kitchen.

5:57 Greg finishes dinner. Yummy! But it should be no surprise that I was pretty beat, after following him around for an hour.

5:59 Dinner is served.

Photography frustrations and the joy of junk mail

Nick was thrilled in this picture because I let him keep all of the mail. There wasn't anything important that I needed, so I let him tear it to shreds and chew on it. He was all, "Best toy Ev-er!" Then he spent the next twenty minutes tearing papers and shrieking joyfully. I'm sure that's not what all the politicians figured would happen with their attack ads and fliers.

We get the funniest junk mail. Besides being on every democratic/liberal mailing list in three counties, we get a ton of baby coupons and fliers. When I was pregnant with Nick, I signed up for everything. Plus, Greg is a child and adolescent therapist, so he gets fliers for seminars and such all the time. In a typical week, we receive ads for programs on how to help: adolescents who cut themselves, children with psychopathic tendencies, and video game addiction and its implications. (Yes, really.) Finally, since I'm a teacher, I get union fliers and magazines, educational journals, and fliers for seminars. Oh, and you can't forget the catalogues for prizes and children's books. (Every year I spend hundreds of dollars on prizes for my little friends. The catalogue people have caught on to this.)



The camera saga continues. My camera, a Nikon Coolpix S220, apparently had something wrong with the lens and two other parts. We mailed it in and they agreed. Yup. The pictures it took sucked. They fixed it at no charge, and mailed it back to me. I finally got my camera back this week, and I excitedly snapped about a dozen shots of Nick yesterday and today. However, when I uploaded the pictures today. . . well, you can see what happened. I'm not using any weird mode. These pictures were taken in auto mode in a lighted indoor room. I cannot be that bad of a photographer. So I emailed Nikon again and thus, the saga continues. I swear, if I have to mail it to them again, I'm not going to be a happy camper. We paid for insurance and priority mail shipping, and the darned thing still doesn't work right.

This last picture (below) isn't quite so bad. Still grainy, but not too blurry. I'm not sure why this picture worked and the others are all blurry and spotty. I know the lens is clean because they replaced the lens. Sigh. Anyhow, Nicholas was bringing me a book to read. . . again. Not that I mind. Lately Molly (my female cat) has taken to sitting on the arm of the couch, listening to me read to Nick. I wonder if she understands any of the stories. She sure looks interested. Then again, while she's pretty smart for a cat, she's not smart enough to run away when Nick gives her hugs. Instead she just growls and whines until I come and get him.

A good book on a cold, cold night

It never ceases to amaze me how much Nick likes to hear stories. Tonight he sat for six stories in a row. Each time we finished one, he would go and bring me another. Some of his favorites are "Waddle," by Rufus Butler Seder, "Yum Tummy Tickly," by Karen Baiker, and two touchy-feely alphabet books. On a cold night like tonight, it felt great to curl up with my little boy and just read stories. I could practically read them in my sleep by now.

Even though Nicholas is my first child, I worked in daycare centers while in high school and college, so I have quite a bit of experience with infants and toddlers. I seem to recall that it was unusual for them to sit for an entire story, let alone six in a row. Heck, even the kindergarteners I work with now only last two stories or so before they need to run around. Not that Nick always sits for stories. But at least once a day, he'll bring me a book and want me to read to him. Then, he will look at the books once we're done, turning the pages and pointing to the pictures while he mutters to himself. I'm seeing this as a good sign; books are a huge part of his life. He seems very interested in books, for a fourteen-month-old. But perhaps I'm just being a doting momma. Or maybe I remember incorrectly about how long toddlers will sit.

Wordless Wednesday

Random thoughts about my son's talents

Nick sure likes to make music. One of his first favorite toys was his little piano, and even at five months, he'd bang away happily at the keys, enjoying the noise. These pictures are from the DuPage Children's Museum, and I snitched them from my mother-in-law's camera, since mine is still in the shop. I think Nick would love it if I came home one day with drumsticks like this, with big rubber tips. My son has many talents, and loud music is just one of them. I wonder if he'll be interested in playing a musical instrument someday. . .

Today Nick was into singing and banging on things. After work, I had to take him on some errands. Through the blowing snow, we drove to the mall and I had to put him in the stroller while I handled some Christmas returns. He cooed and sang to every lady in sight, whether it was a clerk in the Gymboree or a little baby in a stroller. He also loved banging on the side of the elevator. Nicholas has this habit of trying to catch a stranger's eye and then smiling really big until they smile back. It's quite endearing, and it is interesting to see how people react, especially if they're people who aren't used to being around kids. So far he usually wins and makes the person smile. Today it was a somber-looking gentleman in a business suit on the elevator.

Then, after the mall, I had to go in for a blood draw. I have thyroid disease that's not well-controlled right now, so blood work has been happening more often. Anyhow, just while I was waiting in the waiting room to be called, Nick managed to traverse the entire huge room while humming to himself, walk by every single person and grin hugely, and destroy a magazine. I was chasing him the entire time trying to minimize the damage. He smacked on the fish tank and tried to tap the fishies, hung onto the leg of an older lady, and tried to steal a book from a teenaged boy. Then he removed the door stopper and began to chew on it furiously. This was in five minutes. I simply chased him as he waved the door stopper around.

But the most hilarious part was when I got called in for the blood draw. Nick is too big to sit on my lap while they stick me. Besides, he wouldn't be able to stay still. So I sat him on the floor with a magazine. He waited just until the lady had the needle in, and then he laughed and ran off. "Don't worry," the phlebotomist said, "he can't go far. We're enclosed by doors." However, Nick tried to pull a pile of papers off of the desk and laughed at us. Then he tore a sign off of the refrigerator and took off into the reception area, again singing at the top of his baby lungs. He was in the area behind the counter where the receptionists sit, crawling under the counter. Since I was immobile, I could only listen as Nick squealed in glee and crawled under their desks. He ripped a big orange sticker off of one of their printers and was hugging a receptionist's leg when I finally retrieved him. I do believe Nick made their day.

Does toddler chasing count as exercise?

Because if so, I can count hundreds of minutes each week as a workout. Chasing Nick as he runs towards the garbage can. . . Following him to figure out why he's crying. . . Racing him to see who can get to my cell phone first. . . Running to stop him from abusing the cat. Then he'll do something funny and cute, like breaking into dance in the middle of the living room. (see above)

They say that a toddler's brain is twice as active as an adult's, and I believe it! Nicholas is incredibly curious, zips around from one thing to another, and is constantly on the lookout for trouble. Plus, he's fast. I do believe he's skipped straight from barely walking to outright running. He can do squats, fast pushups, near somersaults, and sprints. I read once about a study where they took football players who were in excellent shape and had them mirror the every move of toddlers. I believe by noon every one of those football players was dead tired. Perhaps the toddler plan will be the next big diet and exercise book. "Throw half of your food off the table, but eat whatevery you want. Put rice into your ears, throw toys down the stairs, and make every step a run. Soon you'll be as slim as can be! It's the toddler diet!"

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand the toddler's need to explore. I've even read studies about how kids can be negatively impacted if they aren't allowed to explore their environment and have new experiences.  It's very seldom that I get frustrated with the force of nature that is my son. Usually I just sigh in defeat or laugh at the absurdity of things. Nicholas is like a tornado lately, though. Greg and I try to let him play with anything that isn't dangerous, so long as we're keeping an eye on him.

We try to pick our battles. The plastic straw he's playing with above? Fine. The butter knives he was trying to snitch from the dishwasher while Greg was cleaning up dinner? NOT fine. That's why he's stomping out of the kitchen in the picture below.

I borrowed Grandma Toni's camera today while she was visiting. It was so nice to take pictures of Nick again. My camera is still at the Nikon repair shop. Hopefully I'll eventually get it back in one piece. I keep trying to take pictures with my cell phone, but Nick won't stay still long enough and they all turn blurry. I guess that's the point, though. Nick won't stay still. At least not until bedtime. Then he's out.