The Lion at 13 Months

I know, I know.  I'm very late with this, and I still haven't taken his traditional picture in his chair.  I'm not sure if I should continue now that he's over a year old?  I'll put up a few from his 13-month-day, though.

Sweeping

Physical Activity

Right now there is nothing Robby loves more than to "help".  See the picture of him sweeping above.  On the wood floors he will literally push the broom back and forth by himself.  If only he was good at hitting the ENTIRE floor, instead of just one high traffic stripe!  I hope his enthusiasm stays up until he can master that.  Since the ear tube surgery, his balance is so much improved that his walking is fantastic.  He can zip across a room at almost a jog.  He also is climbing, and I have turned around more than once to find him standing on a chair or a speaker.  He carries very heavy objects like brooms, tubs of toys, or others weighing probably a good 5 pounds and doesn't loose balance.  He is signing a little bit (mostly eat), points a lot, and is gaining more dexterity with his hands.  He likes to color with both crayons and sidewalk chalk, and is starting to be able to turn the pages of regular books (though he also likes to rip those pages, so we don't try it too often).  He has been starting to try and use a spoon, but it is still very messy. 

Bringing the dog harness to go on a walk

Mental Leaps

He isn't talking much more, but his ability to communicate is better.  He brings the things he wants to do (see the dog harness), and will tell you "no" or giggle wildly for "yes".  He is wayyyyy too good at "shopping" which is our term for pulling items out of cabinets that have door latches on them.  He LOVES his shape sorter cube, though he usually just takes off the lid and puts the blocks in it that way.  He is starting to pretend.  For instance, he tries to use EVERYTHING as a phone and talk into it.  He mimics us, yelling at the dog, or doing the same activities that we're doing.  Recently, since we've done a lot of renovations, he's managed to get ahold of paint brushes and "paint" things.  Thank goodness there was no paint involved!

Food

Oh, he's definitely getting pickier.  Which is amplified by the fact that he can say no, and throw really well.  He would prefer to always walk with his food, but then we end up with smears all over the house.  His current favorites are peanut butter, graham crackers, fish, and berries.  I am done pumping during the day (yay!) and only nurse morning and night.  Unfortunately, he is refusing milk.  In all forms.  We get MAYBE one cup of coconut milk in him a day.  It's a bit of a problem.

Toys and Playing

I mentioned that the shape sorting cube is one of his favorites.  He also is FINALLY enjoying books more again.  Woo hoo!  He will pull them out, sit down, and read them to himself.  He prefers to sit on your lap and do it, though.  Which, I am so very happy about.  He was never particularly affectionate and now wants to sit in your lap and give hugs and kisses (that aren't bites in disguise!).  That does not mean that we've totally eliminated the biting issue, but it's getting a little better.  I only have a few bruises at the moment.  ;)  If you don't know what he wants to do, though, or decide to do something different, he still may hit or bite, or throw a temper tantrum.  He currently has THREE scrapes on his forehead where he whacked it into things when he was upset.  Sigh.  Guess there's an up and a down to becoming more independent.  

Robs,

I love how sweet and funny you can be.  I even love how opinionated and vocal you can be...sometimes.  It shows that you're becoming a little man.  I am starting to miss having a baby, but I do love my toddler.  Happy 13!

Basement Bathroom Remodel

Ooh boy, am I exhausted.  It's been a long week, but we finished the basement bathroom.  Can I tell you how much harder it is to renovate with a toddler running around?  Most of the work had to take place while he was asleep.  And Chris took Friday off.  But it's done!  And it looks a MILLION times better.

The day we moved in:

Wasn't it lovely?  We lost the shower curtain immediately, but had to keep the laminate flooring on the walls for WAY too long.  Also, it had a non-functioning light/fan...ok, it functioned, but also smelled like something was burning.  Also, about the toilet was a really cruddy looking medicine cabinet/light combo that was SUPPOSED to be embedded into the wall.  It was not.  It's raw edges were out for the world to see.  Typical handiwork of the previous owners.

Today:

Yes, we have an off-beat shower curtain (we've had that awhile), but it's charming, right?  And we have a couple-joke about moose.

Most of what Chris did on Friday was put up bead board and trim.

WAY more storage.

New mirror, sconce light, and fan/light (that's actually vented OUTSIDE now, instead of to the laundry room).  We did end up only doing one sconce because of electrical issues, but I like it.

New flooring.  It's vinyl tile that we grouted, but I still think it looks great.  And we continued it out onto the landing.  We'll be using the same style, but larger size in the kitchen.  Which...is next week.  Phew.



In Love with Daddy

I probably have the only husband on the planet that requested that we clean for Father's Day.  And, I swear, we don't have a dirty house!  He just really likes it to be tidy.  Robby was upset when he couldn't help more than he was allowed.

On Saturday:

He wasn't allowed to mow the lawn.

He wasn't allowed to vacuum up the metal shavings from the vent pipe Chris put in.  (He's trying to open the door so he can get down to the vacuum.)

He had to sit on the side lines while laundry was being folded.  (Ok, he was really getting pulled around in the laundry basket and having a blast.)

And he went to bed  before Harper ran through the screen door.

And then on SUNDAY, he was napping while we were working on renovating the bathroom.

Sheesh.  Life is rough for the little guy.  But he did get to spend a lot of time with his great dad, who make him laugh more than anyone, and is the best role model possible.  Even if he's being turned into a neat freak.  He's one lucky little man.  We love you, Chris!

Busy Days: Ear Tubes and Vandals

Yesterday was a busy, busy day.  And it definitely had its ups and downs.  Overall, I rate it as a smashing success, but...well...I wasn't sure that was going to be the outcome when we woke up.

Yesterday began at 4 am when I woke up Robby so that he could nurse for the last time before his surgery.  He groggily complied, and promptly fell back asleep.  I did not.  At that point, I started to get nervous and run all the horrific scenarios that could occur.  At 5 am, Chris and I admitted to being awake and got rolling.

As we scurried around preparing to leave, I made a horrific realization.  "Chris, is that spray paint on our front door?"  "Oh, crap."  Sure enough, our front door had a lovely naked stick woman with giant boobs painted in black spray paint.  And even worse?  Our siding was sporting an arrow and the words "Go hard" on approximately a 5'x5' section on the front of our house.  We noticed 2 other houses with spray paint at that point, but decided to cope with it once we returned home.

At 6 we made it out the door, and made the 45 minute drive to the surgical center.  Robby did surprisingly well driving, for once, and really didn't fuss too badly about not having eaten.  Another rare occurrence!  Thank goodness!  We arrived a couple minutes after our 6:50 check-in, but no sweat, they got our name and hustled us back to the prep area.

Robby immediately set out to make friends with all the nurses and other families.  He got along particularly well with a 13-month-old named Violet, who also kept coming over to visit him, and give hugs.  They were very cute together.  I think we're going to have to worry about this one being a ladies man.  He stood on his own on the scale, walked over to the height chart on his own, stood there, and was agreeable for all the tests they had to run pre-op (blood pressure, heart rate, etc...).  The nurses were even all volunteering to babysit for him.  What a charmer!

At this point, they gave him his "giggle juice" and he got pretty loopy.  It made him relaxed, but also, unfortunately, made him even more of a biter.  My shoulders are very bruised today.  He would not listen at all, and kept clenching down.  At least he didn't start screaming, like some of the other children, at this point. Apparently, they didn't take to the disorientation well.

Then, another family arrived, and low and behold...they were friends of ours!  They hadn't seen Robby since he was a tiny baby, so it was great to catch up.  We need to make a point of meeting up more than yearly, especially since we really do live close to each other.

The surgery was over in all of about 15 minutes, and Robby was awake before we ever made it back to recovery.  So, obviously, my fears about anesthesia were unfounded.  He did great.  They said his left ear had been fairly clear, but his right was so full that the ear drum was distended, and the liquid had solidified to a rubber-cement consistency.  No wonder he had such trouble!  After nursing for a bit, he seemed to be doing well, so we headed home.

On the car ride home, Robby wasn't having any more of this "fasting" thing, and insisted on eating.  We were a little concerned about this, since they had told us that the anesthesia could make him nauseous and, particularly in the car, he might get sick.  But, I gave in and handed him his bag of animal crackers.  That he promptly demolished.  And, surprisingly, kept down.  He did NOT inherit his mom's weak stomach.

Upon arriving home, Robby was acting fairly normal.  I worked at home for a couple hours, but then headed in, and left Chris in charge.  They had a great day cruising around Home Depot, Lowe's, and Sherwin Williams, getting supplies for the kitchen and downstairs bath renovations that we've finally settled on.  I'm sure you'll hear more about that later.

Throughout the course of the day, our house was visited by what seemed like the entire neighborhood.  We were the hardest hit, but ultimately it turned out 7 families had been affected.  5 houses and 2 cars.  It seemed to be the work of bored teenagers, as the graffiti was random and varied.  It was everything from a heart to a racial slur.  One house even had their outside light bulbs painted black, which, at least I'll give them points for creativity.

Eventually, we were able to get everything off with sweat and paint thinner.  The cops have been out, and they took pictures of all the damage, but they don't have much hope of catching anyone.  We did talk to insurance, but obviously are not filing a claim.  Our neighbors with the damaged cars are the only ones who can't clean up the damage, and will face hefty bills.  There is discussion about starting a neighborhood watch, but really, everyone's just startled because, really, nothing has ever happened before.  Well...some cars were keyed last year, but that's it.  It's really a great neighborhood, most of the time.  Most of us are blaming the high school boys that do whippets behind the grocery store, but that may be unfair.  We don't KNOW anything.

So, everything settled down, and Robby has done FABULOUSLY with his new ears.  His walking immediately went from Frankenstein-esque to almost a jog.  Obviously, he had been having balance issues!  Also, his speech started to change.  He was trying more words, and some of the ones he had said previously were clearer.  Overall, we are very pleased so far.  Hopefully his health improves as much.

Important Videos

Since I'm such an absentee blogger, I'll totally write this one in, and give you some adorable videos.

Finally, I bothered taking a walking video.  Yeah, it's not great, he only takes a couple of steps, and...yeah, he's eating crackers off the floor.  He survived.



Cute puppy love.  Robby worships Harper.  Harper...does not always agree, but she's pretty tolerant.


And, finally, just because it's funny.  My brother's dog trying to lick cheese off the floor.