Notes from the crib

George is learning one or two new words a day. It's fascinating to hear what comes out of his little mouth! One of today's words was "book". He loves "reading" books and having them read to him. Each night (and usually before naptime) we read Mama Do You Love Me and Goodnight, Moon. He loves to cuddle and look at the pictures while we read. Tonight he climbed up into the chair and looked at the books himself. He was so good - didn't even bend the pages.

George has really started to talk these days. Some of it is incoherent babble, but more and more recognizable words are coming out. Yesterday he said "thank you" to the cashier at Target when she handed us our packages. Today at lunch he told many of the patrons "Bye. Thank you. Bye." When we are at church, he tells each row of parishoners "Bye" when they go up for communion and at restaurants he tells everyone "Hi" and "Bye" as they approach and depart.

Tonight at dinner he came up with "Juice" (well, okay, it was more "Joooos", but we knew what he meant). In the car, he was playing with a stuffed tiger and kept pointing it at us saying "Woof...Woof...Woof". I told him that tigers were more like cats rather than dogs, and said "meow" and growled at him. He thought that was very hysterical and giggled. Then he started growling with his tiger instead of saying "woof". He also learned that orangutans (another toy) say "oooh..oooh...ooooh" (again, this was very funny!).

Today we ate lunch with a new friend, CCT, who we met through blogging. She is an "in real-life" friend of one of DH's good high school/college friends and she lives in the area so our friend in-common hooked us up (we also have another friend in common, who I only know through blogging. Isn't the Internet cool in how it connects people?)

So, our new friend suggested meeting up at a local Mexican food place that I'd never been to before. It was yummy! George ate and ate and ate. He and I split an enchilada platter and some chips and salsa. George ate an entire enchilada, all of the refried beans, and three-quarters of the Mexican rice with veggies. Then he entertained himself by dipping chips into the salsa and eating them. He ended up drenched in salsa, but he had oh, so much fun doing it. He also had rice and beans in his hair and all over his face. He's very into feeding himself! I only had my camera phone, but I couldn't not document the event, so here's a few snapshots!

This food is finger smacking good!

DH took George for a bike ride tonight. George even got to ride with the top down.

I realized this week that I am on the go from 4:30 in the morning until almost midnight every night. It's no wonder I'm exhausted. I gave myself permission to nap this week and that helped quite a bit, but my task list didn't get any shorter with the mid-day naps. George has not been consistently napping, so I only got to sleep if he did. Some days he doesn't nap at all, some days he wants to go to sleep at 11 AM, and now most recently he's been going down from about 4-6PM. At that point, I'd rather he just stay up and go to bed at 6. Oh well, for the most part I'm just happy that he does nap, whenever it happens.

George amazes us every day with how clever he is. One day he picked up a CD from the floor and carried it over to DH's computer and tried to put it in the CD tray. We have no idea how he knew where the CD tray was, let alone that the CD he found across the room would go in the tray. We don't think he's ever seen us put a CD in a computer like that, so it's not like he was watching and mimicking our behavior.

He's known about our remote controls for awhile and will pick them up, point them at the TV, press buttons, and see what happens. This week he learned how to take the battery door off the back of the remote and remove the batteries. Luckily, he tries to hand the batteries to DH as soon as he removes them. We now make a concerted effort to keep the remote out of reach, so George won't harm himself. Sometimes he still manages to get ahold of the remote and doesn't like it when we take it away from him. He's gotten very good at his angry tantrum face.

A friend asked me to make a baptism cake this weekend for her little girl. I was more than happy to do so, I got to play with my cake tools and George even got a playdate out of it. The mommy came over with her two little girls (the baby and her big sister) last week to look at cake books so we could come up with ideas for the cake. George was happy to entertain and share his toys - we even had a little Easter egg hunt outside with some of the eggs we didn't get to distribute this year.

Here's a picture of the cross cake I made for little Julia. I also made a two layer chocolate cake with chocolate truffle frosting for them - it smelled so good that I think I'll have to make one of those for us this week. That's the hard part about baking for others - sometimes there's not enough extra for me to snack on.

My parents bought an outfit for George at the M&M world in Las Vegas back when I was barely pregnant. He finally kind of fits into it. Amazingly, he didn't mind the hat and liked looking at the reflection of his covered head on the mirror page of his book.

A friend asked last week if I'd make a Little Einsteins cake for her son's birthday on Sunday. Since I had no idea what Little Einsteins were (apparently they are a kids show on the Disney channel), I had to consult my friend Google first before I committed. Luckily Google was able to point me in the direction of some great ideas. Here's the final product - I hope the birthday boy likes it.

DH and George were on their own today, as I was busy teaching a stamping class and running errands. DH took pictures of George enjoying a snack of hummus and pita chips. I love how his fingers are completed caked in hummus.

The Relay for Life started this evening and goes until 7:00 tomorrow morning. Thanks to everyone who supported us! George and I were allowed to take the first shift, since bedtime is kind of important in our household and I thought coming home to our own beds was probably better than camping out at this stage in our lives. George was a great walker and rider (I had him in the jogging stroller for most of our laps). We were able to do 11 laps in about 35 minutes, which worked out to just about 3 miles according to my pedometer.

He also took time to collaborate with a friend on some artwork while we were waiting for our turn to walk. Coloring is a newly acquired skill. Within the last few weeks he's discovered the joys of paper and crayons.

George likes peeping through the knotholes in the fence to keep an eye on the neighbors.

As you probably know from reading earlier posts, George and I are thumbing our noses at bedtime and walking in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life this weekend. We have a goal to raise $200, and are halfway to meeting that goal (many thanks to those who have already donated on our behalf!)

I am asking you, our blog readers, to help us reach our goal by de-lurking. Post a comment to this thread by using the "add new comment" link below. For every comment we receive between now and 11:59PM on Friday April 18th, I'll donate $1 to the Relay for Life fund (up to $100). Please sign your comment, so we'll know who to thank!

A couple weeks ago our neighborhood held it semi-annual garage sale. We didn't have anything to sell this year, so a friend came over and we walked the neighborhood looking for bargains. She found two child swings for a dollar! I found a new set of wheels for George.

George is fascinated by cars. Everything with wheels, actually, is enticing to him and he gleefully identifies the wheeled object as "Carrrrrrrr!". He's been involved in several scuffles lately over the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe as most of his friends have them. The kids adore their cars and are somewhat possessive of them, and while they'll share most anything else, they don't like other kids sitting in their cars. So when George goes to play with his friends, the moms often have to hide the Cozy Coupe to avoid tears and screaming from the host and guests. George has even gone so far as to try to catapult himself out of the wagon DH was pulling when he spied a neighbor child in her Cozy Coupe a full block away.

Needless to say, when I saw a gently loved convertible Cozy Coupe being offered at a sale for the bargain price of $5, I snatched it up. George sat in his "new" car most of the rest of the day. We had to sneak it outside onto the back porch that evening to avoid him wanting to sleep with it. The car appeared to have been stored for quite awhile previously, and I had to rid it of several spider families. While cleaning it up, I discovered a hole in the back where a handle could be installed. I looked up the car online, and sure enough, the original design had included a removable handle that parents could use to push the car along like a stroller. I was able to order a replacement handle, which arrived today. DH installed it for us, and George and I spent the evening pushing the car around the yard. I attempted to take him for a ride down to the neighborhood park, but he wasn't interested in riding - he wanted to push. I was only able to get him pushed two houses away before he exclaimed "Bye Bye" and tried to climb out of the moving car! I'm sure the newness of the handle will wear off eventually and he'll be more than happy to have us push him around as he relaxes behind the wheel.

Today George and I went out and bought him a basketball hoop for the back yard. We had purchased one from Walmart yesterday only to find out that it was a "Walmart exclusive" variety that didn't have height adjustment. Other than that, it looked the same as the ones in the other stores and had the same name on the box. I'd purchased it not realizing that it was an "exclusive" and that it didn't have all the features we wanted (but that explains why it was $10 less than everywhere else I'd seen it). I was quite disappointed to find out that it wasn't the one we really wanted, so we boxed that one up to take back and went to get the good one today from another store.

George is really good at dunking the ball and thinks its funny when the ball bounces on the ground. He didn't even mind when I took a shot, missed, and the rebound bounced off the top of his head - it didn't phase him at all. Maybe he's got a strong soccer-player head?

Our backyard patio is starting to look like a Little Tikes showroom what with the kiddie car, sandbox, picnic table, and now a basketball hoop. But we do spend hours out there every day, so I think they'll all be put to good use.

George had his eighteen month doctor's appointment on Friday. He weighs 21 pounds, 4 ounces and is 30.5 inches tall. He's down on the charts a bit, but the doctor told George he was growing fine just like he always does. The doctor's visit included a vaccination - Hepatitis this time. This is the last vaccine he will get until he's school-aged. Amazing how many they receive at such a young age.

At eighteen months, George is very independent. He wants his food whole, not in pieces, and he wants to feed it to himself. He still loves pancakes and waffles most of all, and turns up his nose at most of the new foods we offer. He has developed a love for pita chips and hummus, and we've introduced a peanut butter substitute which he adores. While we haven't followed most of the child rearing "mandates", I am hesitant to give him peanut butter just yet. The recommended age is now 2 or 3 before peanut butter is introduced to avoid the child developing allergies. I don't know that I'm convinced early introduction causes allergies, but I would hate for George to be allergic to peanuts. Peanut butter was, and is, so near and dear to me as a food, I just can't imagine not being able to share that love with my son. I'd rather deprive him of the ooey-gooey goodness known as peanut butter for a few more months, if doing so is going to help him be able to enjoy it for the rest of his long lifetime. So for now, we are using Sun Butter (a butter made from sunflower seeds) on crackers and toast. Sun Butter tastes amazingly like peanut butter, although it has a much less viscous consistency. George goes nuts (no pun intended) for it!

George has discovered the back yard and we spent a good 2-4 hours every afternoon playing outside. So far he's got a sandbox, a picnic table, a kiddie car, and a box full of playdoh, bubbles, and chalk to entertain him outdoors, along with all the dirt, rocks, and weeds he can find. George will often grab our fingers, say "bye-bye" and pull us to the back door where he proceeds to knock and look up at us to see if we'll open the door for him. Often, he does this first thing in the morning. If we still have the curtains shut, he pushes them aside to peer out longingly at his toys.

George is helpful around the house. He loves to be my laundry assistant. I'll empty the basket of clothes that need washing into the hallway and he brings the items to me in the laundry room piece by piece. I lift him up and he throws them into the washing machine, then toddles off to get another item. When it's time to dry, I'll hand him a wet piece and he'll throw it into the dryer. He does have to take breaks in this step to press the dryer light button on and off - it can't be all work! He'll even shut the dryer door for me when he's done loading it.

He's a climber and a daredevil. I'm constantly having to chase him to the top of playground playscapes. At parks where there's both a toddler playscape and a big kid playscape, George eschews the toddler one for the bigger, more dangerous playground. He loves going for wagon rides with DH, and as long as he's got stuffed animal friends with him he enjoys riding in the bike trailer.

He's napping once a day (usually), for anywhere from one to four hours. Some days he doesn't nap at all, and those are long days! He's started being able to make it through church with only one trip outside for a "cooling off".

He's also decided not to look at the camera any more, so it's much harder to get pictures of him.

*Note: This will be pinned at the top of the blog until after the walk this coming weekend. Scroll down for current blog posts.***

George and I are signed up to participate in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life next weekend. We'll be doing laps to raise money for cancer research. If you are so inclined, please consider visiting our Relay for Life web page and making a donation.

**Tuesday note: Heartfelt thanks to those of you who have made donations! Thanks for helping us work towards our goal!***

Need to get to bed so no time to write. But I've been told I need to get pictures up as *someone* has checked the blog 12 times already today for new pictures. So here you go...

Since I haven't posted a video in awhile, I decided to record George having a cereal snack this evening. The plate in front of him contains hummus. He'd eaten some pita chips with hummus earlier, and he refused to let me take the plate away. He screamed each time I tried. He was even dipping his cereal in the hummus when I went for the camera, but he stopped doing that when I pressed the record button.

Target had a sale on bike trailers this week, so we bought an entry level model. Some features are left to be desired, but it will work for us for now. DH gets the fun job of pulling George, both because he wanted to and because I only have a super fast racing bike and didn't feel safe pulling George behind me. George was unsure of the bike seat and kept trying to pull his helmet off, but we made a pit stop at home to pick up some of his stuffed animals to ride shotgun and he was much happier after that.

It's that time again when parents pull off highways and make their kids pose for photos in the random bluebonnet wildflower patches along the roadside. It's a state law, you know.

George was not at all interested in looking at the camera or sitting still. Perhaps it was because it was close to naptime and he knew that he had to keep moving or risk falling asleep. Or maybe he just wanted to be obstinate.

Here's the best of Bluebonnets 2008.

For reference, here's last year's shots.