Dancing to "The Biggest Loser"

I sure do like it when cute shirts are on sale at Target for $1.49!
What I really wish I had captured on film happened yesterday: Normally when John cannot reach a toy at the bottom of his toy chest, he calls for me, points at it, and grunts. Yesterday he got brave and tried to reach the toy himself. I learned of this when I heard hysterical screaming and turned to see that John had fallen in to the chest head first. All that was visible were his bottom and his legs kicking wildly in the air. He wasn't hurt in the slightest, but was so scared that I just couldn't bring myself to snap a picture before rescuing him.

John is hearing music in more and more places now, noticing even snatches in commercials or background sounds. Last night Chris and I were watching a recorded episode of The Biggest Loser and noticed John dancing (in his style) to the suspenseful music every time a contestant weighed in.

Peek-A-Boo

John loves the "diddies" (kitties) so much. Oliver is very patient with him, allowing John to hug him by lying on him bodily.
John is figuring out peek-a-boo now. Yesterday I was in our bedroom reading and hoping John would bumble around in the room and play by himself with minimal attention from me. I began hearing a very quiet and sweet "Mama!" coming from our bathroom. (Don't worry, the toilet is in a separate room, door closed for safety.) It was so quiet that I didn't pay much mind but by the sixth "Mama," I thought I'd better go look. (John often talks to himself and says "Mama" so it isn't necessarily that he's calling me.) I walked in and found him hiding in a tiny corner with a baby blanket over his head. So I asked, "Where's John?" Then he pulled the blanket off his head and burst out laughing. So we had to repeat that several times. It was so cute. (Here he is in the kitchen.)Lately he has been taking pieces of paper out of my desk drawer (I have to install child proof latches) and then wrapping them around his head . . . because if he can't see me, I can't see him. So he sits there with a piece of paper (paint color samples) wrapped around his head and thinks he's invisible.

Happy Second Anniversary to Us!

We celebrated a day early by spending the day in Dahlonega an hour away in the north Georgia mountains. The day began with Mass at St. Luke's right there in town. Then we meandered two blocks to have breakfast at the Corkscrew Cafe. Here is John enjoying a little zucchini bread muffin.
For a time at breakfast, John was heartily entertained by a game in which I would give him my empty camera case, he would squeeze it through the leg hole of the high chair, and then I would grab it away with a funny noise.

Unfortunately I embarrassed my poor husband at breakfast. You see, I had spent the last 15 minutes of Mass outside with the baby, so I missed the farewell given to the pregnant choir director. At breakfast in the very cozy cafe, I spent quite a few minutes telling Chris the aspects I didn't like about the Mass . . . all the while seated 30 inches away from what turned out to be the pregnant choir director. Chris kept trying to cast me glances (shut up shut up!), but I was clueless.

After breakfast, we poked around some stores, including a fun antique shop, before taking our first-ever horse and carriage ride (John was asleep).
After visiting some more stores, we toured the Gold Museum, where we ran into our next door neighbors! What a small world.

Today was a lot more relaxing than last year's anniversary, which we spent at home, alternating eating our take-out dinners and pacing around with a screaming six-week-old John!

Happy Anniversary to My Beloved Katherine

Photo of us on our honeymoon in Rome, Pope Benedict XIV having just spoken with us, shaken our hands, and given us his blessing.

Technically, our anniversary is tomorrow, however we are celebrating it today.

Mama's Puzzle

Why, oh why, can't I help you with the puzzle, Mama?

A Mother's Question: What exactly is it that is staining all my shirts? Almost every one of my cotton shirts has become covered in what look like grease stains. John isn't spitting up anymore and I'm not dousing myself in salad oil, so I really don't know what is going on. Sometimes the stain treatment works, but after enough staining, it starts to fail me. That is how almost all my shirts--even new ones I bought six weeks ago--have ended up very blotchy. It is very frustrating that I already look pretty "simple" (to be charitable) in my clothing because it is baggy (has to fit me as I move up and down in size with pregnancy) and plain-colored (everything has to be mix-and-match to save time), but a lot of days I look downright dumpy now that I'm covered in stains. I believe my home might be infested with gnomes who are staining my shirts for fun.

Fun Times

Having fun tangled up in Mama's Ergo:
Having more fun playing with packing supplies:

Tonight John really liked the red bell pepper soup (store bought). He kept asking for more and more and more! He sure does prefer spicy flavors.

Playing So Quietly

I forgot to mention a funny moment from yesterday. John was playing so quietly and nicely at one point that I thought to myself, "Wow, John never plays this quietly and nicely for so long! I'm going to take this opportunity to make that phone call I need to get to. Wait, John never plays this quietly and nicely . . ."

I have been working on a 1,000-piece puzzle safely high up on a card table. The cat had leapt onto the card table and knocked a dozen pieces onto the floor. John was sitting beneath the card table surrounded by soggy, chewed, perfect choking size puzzle pieces. On the bright side, he didn't choke on any of them and none were permanently ruined, but I did lose out on my peaceful phone call time.

My Assistant Baker

John is not much of a climber. He has yet to even try to climb onto the couch, so, I was impressed today when he climbed onto his toy box via the windowsill.
Well, I'm feeling improved today! By late afternoon yesterday I actually felt a burst of energy, so I left the house for the first time in seven days! It was wonderful just to visit the grocery store. What did I do today while I was feeling more myself? Did I catch up on housework? No, I cooked things! I had three apples that had become too soft for my eating preference, so I decided rather than waste a dollar's worth of apples that I should make apple sauce.

I also tried my hand at oat bran apple muffins, which sounded good: oat bran, brown sugar, shredded apples, a few raisins, some other basic ingredients. Unfortunately, with no other finer flour to cut the oat bran, the muffins reminded me of horse feed. John liked the flavor of the muffin, but the oat bran just shredded in his hands and afterward I remarked to myself that I might as well have just given my 13-month-old a half cup of raw oat bran and let him spread it all over the wood floors.

When I set out to bake the muffins, John was intrigued and demanding attention. He simply must know what is happening on those high-up counter tops. I have realized that I have four options: lock John in something like a playpen (where he will cry and wail), let him stand on the ground crying and wailing, wear him in my Ergo, or try to find another way to let him watch. Today I tried the latter option for the first time. I set him up on a chair, which I pushed into the corner and my body acted as the fourth wall. John loved watching me bake up close and personal. And, yes, I removed the dangerously sharp cheese grater out of John's reach about two seconds after I shot this photo and realized it was there.


Lastly, I baked some rye bread, which I've just pulled out of the bread machine. It smells fantastic! I plan to have hot bread smothered in melty butter before going to sleep . . .

Survival Mode

John has now taken to his sippy cup. He likes to carry it around throughout the day sipping water.

Sorry for my gap in usual posting. Since John got sick, then I succumbed to it, I've been in survival mode. No house cleaning, no real cooking. I haven't left the house in seven days except maybe to go to the mailbox once or twice. John is going stir crazy, but I haven't even had the stamina to walk him around the block. As of last night, Chris has fallen victim to the virus. Aunt Erica caught it too on the day she returned home. In a self-pitying, un-Christian moment, I will make note that Chris and Erica may take cold medications so they can get through the days and do their work, but Mama cannot take anything because she is nursing, nor can she just stop taking care of the baby just because she's sick. So Mama is pretty grumpy these days. Thank you, St. Paul, for providing this dying-to-self opportunity.

John Playing His Song

John is on the mend, still sick and grumpy but improving. He hasn't had a fever in more than 24 hours, so I figure that now he has to get through the probably lengthy period of time of having a wet cough and running nose hanging on.

In the meanwhile, Mama is now sick, which is no fun.

This morning I let John try using a sippy cup again, having not offered him one since he was six or seven months old. He drinks out of a little juice cup with my assistance. Maybe it's better to stick with that process and skip the sippy cup altogether so it's not one more baby thing from which he has to graduate. I don't know. Anyway, this morning I offered him the sippy cup. He enjoyed the novelty, did not easily get the concept of tipping the cup to get the water into his mouth (I had removed the slowing valve), but did quickly realize that he could pour the water onto his tray and kitchen floor in order to have grand fun.

For Christmas, John received a Little People airplane (thanks Uncle Dan and Aunt Courtney!), which has proven to be one of his favorite toys. When one pushes the captain's seat, one of four sounds is played: one of those sounds is a song, "High and Low," which always gets John "dancing" (shaking his pointy fingers around with his mouth hanging open). It took John three weeks, but in the last few days, he has finally learned to push the button hard enough and to push it quickly three times so he can get to his song without listening to the other sounds. Now we hear "High and Low" all day long--which is pretty innocuous, but is also exactly why we don't buy him electronic toys and the batteries are removed from all his other electronic toy hand-me-downs!

Here John spied the not-so-hidden camera:

Chris filmed this one and broke our cardinal marital rule that we don't film each other looking silly when we're filming the baby. First of all, you can see my knees and fingers bobbing off to the side as I was joining John in his "dancing." Then Chris turned the camera on me and caught me in my junky sick clothing, not wearing makeup, and looking like a dork! Well, it was a cute enough video of John that I decided not to let pride get the best of me and upload it to the blog anyway.

Little Boy Is Sick

Poor little John is darned sick. I'd been suspicious when I heard a few random wet coughs on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, his sickness was fully obvious. This is the first time John has had a wet cough or a fever, and it's been no fun for any of us. His temperatures have gotten up to 102, so I've been medicating the fever, even though at a lower level I'd prefer to let the fever do its job fighting the virus. John can hardly breathe for all the mucous and he's clearly in a lot of pain (I'm presuming a sore throat and possible headache and joint aches). He doesn't know how to cough out the mucous so ends up throwing it up. The baby is absolutely glued to me and won't so much as let somebody else touch him without bursting into wailing tears. I've slept a total of about four hours in the last two nights because John isn't often sleeping longer than five minutes before he has to shift position and cry until he can fall back asleep. Often, the only way he can sleep is if I'm sitting up, holding and jiggling him in some contorted position.

Essentially, this has been two days of almost continual crying on John's part. Thank God that Aunt Erica is visiting while Chris is on his business trip because she is providing me a tremendous amount of help, making me food and generally being my hands for me: I haven't had to hold John this much since he was a newborn!

Here are two photos taken while John was sitting on my lap, generally being miserable with his pale skin and red-rimmed eyes:

I am grateful that John is still nursing. As is normal with sick toddlers, he has zero interest in food and, in fact, will barely drink any water. Yet one thing I haven't had to worry about in these days is whether he's getting dehydrated. He's nursing around the clock for comfort so I can feel confident that he's getting plenty of water and calories. Yay!

This blog post was made possible by the fabulous Ergo in which John is asleep on my back.

(As an aside, I feel bad even reporting that John is sick as I found out yesterday that an acquaintance just learned that her two-year-old has leukemia. So, we pray for her family and count our blessings.)

"Blizzard" of 2008

We had snow in "Hot-lanta"! On Wednesday night, one to two inches of snow fell and actually stuck to the ground for almost 24 hours. This was cause for real excitement to us Southerners.

View from the front door:

View of the back deck:
On Thursday morning, John toddled to the glass door, pointed to the snow, and said, "Wowwww . . ."

Wild Animal Baby

John has received his first edition of Wild Animal Baby magazine (thanks, Lynn!), which he seemed thrilled about. He grabbed the perfectly sized magazine right out of the mail and began pointing to the pictures and hooting, showing it alternatively to me and Aunt Erica. He hardly let go of his magazine all evening!

We're hoping the next couple of days go well: we're expecting nasty weather (freezing rain and possible ice storm) and John has come down with his first wet hacking cough and fever, so he's an irritable boy.

Favorite Dinner in a Long Time

Taking a walk with Auntie Erica in the quite brisk, sunny weather:

What's Cookin'? On Saturday I baked Brioche bread which Chris turned into fabulous French toast on Sunday.

Last night I tried a new recipe as sent to me by a girlfriend: creamy chickpea curry over rice. It was heavenly! I was truly ebullient over dinner. Essentially it is onion, curry powder, Garam Masala, garlic, coconut milk, soy sauce, chickpeas, diced tomatoes, basil, sugar, salt. I served it over brown rice to be healthful, but it would taste best over white basmati rice. Also, I realize I could easily add some chicken to a portion of it for a meat-eater. John seemed to greatly enjoy the flavor and spent 10 minutes silently and contentedly putting the saucy rice in his mouth.

Speaking of John, now he "brushes" his hair if I hand him his baby hair brush, an adult hair brush, or even the lint brush. I'd like to get that on video tape because it is so cute.

He'll Be Naked Before We Know It

John doesn't much like long sleeves and today he had his first success getting that blasted shirt off of himself. In this photo he's blowing a raspberry at me.
Auntie Erica has come to visit!!! Here John is feeding her his yogurt while refusing to eat any of it himself. It's not like he doesn't know how spoons work!

Cute Boy Photos

Our cute boy! Sorry all the photos are blurry today.

A New Sign!

John has a new sign! Today he made the sign for more, although I don't know whether he meant it for more or for water. Either way, this is exciting because it is John's first two-handed sign (unless you count folding his hands in prayer).

We've been using the sign for water for a couple of months, but John has never imitated it. Lately I've been working on more as well, so when he repeatedly asks for more water, I reply, "Do you want more water?" and make the sign for more. Twice tonight over dinner he made the sign for more (and then gave me a big grin) when he wanted more water!

Speaking of mealtime, John seemed to greatly enjoy his dinner (cheese and onion quesadilla in wheat tortilla) and his lunch (pasta with spicy red bell pepper sauce--at a restaurant with me and Grandmom). Too bad he didn't swallow much, but he loved putting the food in his mouth and chewing.

And speaking of folding his hands in prayer, tonight I was praying the rosary and began with the Our Father when John toddled over, stood next to me, and folded his hands in prayer for about an entire minute! The thing is that I was just sitting in my glider, my hands not folded in prayer, so he wasn't following that cue. It was either coincidental or he recognized the Our Father from when Chris and I pray it together every night. Amazing to this first-time mama!

Vacuum and Telephone

John still doesn't show fear of the vacuum cleaner, although it's such a common fear that I expect it may come as he gets older. I've always vacuumed while wearing John in a sling. Today was the first time I vacuumed with John running loose. He followed me around and even touched the vacuum while it was running. This photo was taken after I'd wrapped up the cord: John kept touching the vacuum and hooting.
Here is an admittedly boring video of John exploring the vacuum:

John now has a second baby sign: for telephone! He cups a hand over his ear and says "ohhh!" This is in imitation of when we play telephone with him: I'll hold a telephone to my ear and say, "Ring ring! Hellooooo?" Now John even announces every time the phone rings with his sign and "ohhh!" This afternoon he was quite agitated when I did not answer the ringing phone.

Another Haircut

John has been developing Farrah Fawcett feathers in his hair, so today I gave him another trim, probably his fourth in his short little life. Before:
After, looking like such a fine young boy:
This afternoon I tried a new window cleaner, Method, which is purportedly non-toxic. Because it is non-toxic, I was cleaning the windows even though John was awake and bumbling around nearby. He was very interested in what I was doing and it occurred to me that since he imitates so much of what I do, I would hand him his own cleaning rag. He set about washing the windows! I do aspire to be the kind of mother who trains her young children to do chores and allows them to do them, even though she could do them better and faster. We'll see if I can overcome my perfectionist tendencies to achieve that parenting ideal of mine.
I also bought a little set of toddler utensils, which are more substantial than infant spoons. I wonder if John will eat more if he's holding his own spoon. Tonight he did pretty well with his hummus.

I've noticed that John's word for baby has changed. His word for kitty evolved over the months from "tss-tss" to "diddy." When John first began pointing to himself and saying baby recently, he said a two-syllable "ba-ay." Now he has picked up the second "b" but dropped the long "e" sound because he cannot yet say the phoneme "bee." So, now baby is "ba-ba." I find it fascinating to watch his language acquisition.

Dancing Boy

Today John was dancing more vigorously: waving his hands around while walking in circles. Of course, as soon as I grabbed the camera, he stopped the walking. For the second video, I set up a "hidden" camera on the couch, hoping John would feel more spontaneous, but he spotted the camera.

Greenville Overnighter

This weekend we went on an overnighter to Greenville, SC. John was thrilled with the full-length mirror in the hotel room.

Walking to dinner downtown Saturday night:

On our way to dinner, we stopped in the general store and bought John a $3 straw sheriff's hat.

John looked so cute bumbling around in only his diaper (check out that belly paunch). Chris is holding down his arms so he doesn't yank off his hat before I can take a photo.

The hotel room television set played muzak while the screen flashed psychedelic shapes. John was transfixed and began "dancing." While other toddlers his age are already shaking their behinds and bending their knees to music, all John does is wave his hands around. He definitely has his parents' dancing skill.

Increasingly John is holding his hands to pray when we do, which is precious. At Mass, I made the sign of the cross when the priest was beginning his homily, as is customary and is also what we do every time before we say grace. John immediately folded his hands to pray, which was the first time he has done it without first being cued, "Are you ready to pray?" He did that a second time during Mass as well!

John was overtired on Sunday because of the extra long Mass which let out right in time for his afternoon nap, which he wasn't allowed to take because we went to lunch with some new friends. Because he skipped his nap, then he couldn't fall asleep for it at all on the drive home, causing Mama to have to do a lot of entertaining of a grumpy kid. Here is John wearing Mama's sunglasses:

I let John play with my metal eyeglasses case. He got bored with it quickly, so I began pretending that I was looking in the case when suddenly it would snap shut and get my nose. "Hhhmmm, what's in here? Oh no! Something's got my nose! Snap!" John thought that was hilarious and when I gave him back the case, he began playing the new game with himself.

On a pit stop on the drive home, we parked next to a truck containing two little Yorkshire terriers (or "rats on a string" as we affectionately call them). John was thrilled, although he thought they were cats. I told him that they were dogs and reminded him that doggies say "woof woof!" He kept pointing and saying "woof woof!" so I got out the video camera. He wasn't nearly as cute on tape, but here you go anyway:

Apple Pie

Today John and I enjoyed a walk in the sunny but cold weather. Atlanta even had snow a couple of nights ago.
Tonight comfort food was on the menu: grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, followed by an apple pie with vanilla ice cream. I've never mastered this iconoclastic American dessert. This one was medium good, not the best.
John was a big fan of pieces of the crust soaked in the apple juice drippings.
When asked, "Who is the baby?" John points to his chest: