Family Resemblence at 15 months

Ok, so it's a week before 15 months.  I was playing around with some pictures, and here are side-by-sides of Chris and I and Robby at around the same age.  The picture of me is shortly before I turned 2, but it's the best I could do.  I'll let you evaluate first.

Obviously, this is Chris (read the overalls) and Robby.

And this is me (see the dress) and Robby.

Chris does not agree, but I think that Robby looks more like me.  NO THIS IS NOTHING AGAINST YOU, CHRIS.  But, I like that there's some of my features.  Particularly my eyes.  Anyway, I don't have much to say, but there ya go.  Another quick picture post.    

What is the most fun?

Robby has SO MANY OPINIONS right now.  I know I've said that since day one, but it gets more and more true by the day.  And this simultaneously means he's getting easier and harder.  So, what's "the most fun"?

1)  Mom.  And only mom.  No dad.  I want mom.  Said "NayNay".  God knows why on that one. 

2)  Strangers.  OH THIS IS SCARY.  He may be my little leech most of the time, but if a stranger looks interesting?  Bye.  My parents' friend who he NEVER MET BEFORE walked up to him and said, "Robby, do you want to go inside?"  Grabs her hand and GONE.  How do you explain stranger danger to a non-verbal 14 month old?  ARGH!

3)  Cars, trucks, bikes, and things that go "Vroom".  The one noise he will make, other than an occasional monkey, is "Vroom".  And he LOVES that we live next to a grocery store with trucks.  And LOVED the push car at my parents' house.  We did not have the room to bring it home, though. 

4)  Animals.  Whether it's his dog or cat or the dogs at the dog park or pets at the pet store, he's wild about animals.  Perhaps a little rough in his tackling of the cat, but loves them.

5)  Being a "big boy" and doing things himself.  If he gets to sit on his own, or do something on his own, it goes MUCH smoother.

 

And Harper likes food being at her level

6)  Finally, thankfully, reading!  He finally will ALMOST make it through a book.  And he does at least enjoy "reading" to himself.  Usually on a dog bed.

7)  My favorite?  Mr. Personality!  (except when that involves screaming, noodling, or temper tantrum-ing ;)  )

This Working Mom's Day

Ok, so I'm on vacation, and not actually at work.  And I don't have any pictures, but ask and ye shall receive.  Kat of Living Like the Kings did a post on what her day looks like, and here's mine.

5:30 am   Robby wakes up and wants to nurse.  If I'm lucky, he'll go back to sleep, if not, we're up for the day.  If he goes back down, I go upstairs again and pretend to sleep for 20 minutes, which never actually happens.

5:50 am   If I fell asleep (or not) Chris has a stupid snooze alarm that goes off.  Not that he gets up.  On good days, I run down, hop in the shower, day starts.  Bad days, Robby hears the alarm and wakes up, and I may not get a shower (though I MIGHT get one after Chris is ready if things go well). 

6:00 am  I go down to the kitchen, start to pour my cereal, usually right about now Robby wakes up.  So, I go up and grab him, Chris has finally heard his alarm going off, and is in the shower.  I nurse Robby, change him into clothes, and come downstairs again.

6:20 am  BREAKFAST.  I plop Robby into his highchair with a banana or nectarine or some other fruit.  He'll have cereal at daycare later.  I plop on the couch with my bowl of cereal, and we watch the news.  Or maybe some Sesame Street if he's being fussy.  After, I run around trying to get clothes on and get out the door.

6:50 am   I leave for work.  Chris takes Robby to daycare around 7:15.  I get to work at 7:00.

7-3:30pm  Work.  I come home for lunch sometime between 12 and 1 for 1/2 an hour.  I don't really see people.  Lots of computer stuff.

4 pm   Pick up Robby from daycare.

4-6:00 pm  I play with Robby, try and do some cleaning, and get dinner ready.  A lot of days we'll go to the pool.  Occasionally a walk or the library.

6:00 pm   Chris gets home and we have dinner.

6:30-7:15 pm Dog walk.  This is a highlight of both Robby & Harper's day.

7:15-7:45 pm Bath, playing in Robby's room, nursing, going to bed.  He goes to sleep somewhere between 7:45 and 8:15.

8:15 pm We start madly doing projects or cleaning.  Recently, we've been renovating the kitchen, so the house isn't as clean as we'd like.  We still sweep, vacuum, and do dishes daily, but the rest is a little chaotic.  The last piece (counter tops) are being installed Monday, so hopefully it'll get back to normal.  This past week, I've been sick and passing out on the couch by 9:30 and not doing much unless Chris specifically requests that I do.  Usually, he goes to bed around 10, and I'm a ridiculous night owl and will be mucking around doing nothing useful until 11ish.

There's my working mom craziness!   

I Felt Like a Stalker

Alright, and if she happens to read this, I'm going to feel like even more of one, but here goes.  There's a blog I read, and I swear I read it before I realized that the woman lived in my town.  I actually came across the link on someone else's blog who is not from this state, so there.  And it's not on my sidebar, so no clues.  Anyway, with all this vagueness, I have a story about how I'm an incredibly awkward loser.

Obviously, I immediately realized she was from "Philly".  Yeah, yeah, we all say that.  But then I started recognizing places.  Like, "Hey, that's our dinky town's fair."  Or, "That's a coffee shop on our ONE street with businesses."  This girl has some major followers.  And is kind of a bad-ass.  So, intimidated.

Yesterday, I go to the pool.  And, sure enough, there she is.  Hanging out with one of her friends and their kids.  And, I'm like, "Don't stare.  That's weird."  But then I realized she kept looking at me.  And I thought, "Huh, that's really odd.  I have like 15 readers."  So I went on about my splashing and chasing business.

After a little while, I started to think about, wait a minute...  Her son looks familiar.  And not in a, "I see him on her blog" familiar way.  But an "I actually know the kid" kind of way.  Only then does it hit me.  OH!  He's in swimming classes with Robby, duh!  Maybe that's why she recognizes me.  I never really pay attention to all the moms watching the classes from the sidelines.  In a class of about 8 babies, only 1 other mom is in the water, the rest are dads.  I just enjoy the class.  But I DID remember that when Chris took Robby to the class last week, he had come up with a nickname for her husband.  He thought he looked like a celebrity.  But he had commented that the wife was better looking than the celebrity's wife, and was pregnant and a brunette.  BINGO!  I had solved the mystery.

Still, I didn't say anything and just left.  And we aren't going to swimming class this weekend, either, because we legitimately had other plans.  But for some reason I now feel like that's me avoiding this person I've never talked to ever.  The strange, strange world of blogging and my awkward place in it.  

The Lion at 14 Months

I only recently realized that I'm a week late on talking about 14 months.  So, we've been busy, with a whole lot of crud that I can't go into, but you'll just have to believe me and enjoy the late recap. 

Our little terror is getting bigger, faster, more opinionated, and better at getting into trouble.  Don't get me wrong, I love him to bits, and he can be hilarious, fun, and SO smart...but OH so tiring.

Physical Feats

Robby's now at least a jogger, if not a runner.  He is FAST.  We were at TJ Maxx the other day, and he was sprinting down aisles giggling at the top of his lungs.  Thank goodness for the giggling, because I kept losing him!  I literally couldn't keep up!  (Note: Penn State attire is CHEAP there.  See the 2T outfit that Chris decide he needed to model.)  He can now put puzzle pieces back in the right holes (is that physical or mental?), can use a spoon, but it's slow so he gives up, can go backwards on his bike, though he hasn't figured out forward yet, and actually is falling MORE because he is moving too fast and not being careful enough. 

Mental Feats

Talking really hasn't improved.  He does tell you that a car or truck goes "Vroom" and makes the noise while pushing his toys around, but that's about it.  He is the biggest tattle tale on his furry dog sister.  If she gets on the couch he runs over pointing at her screaming, "DOOOOOOG, AHHHHHH!"  Meaning, "Dog, off!" in English.  He knows what he wants to eat, what he wants to drink, and, on occasion, even what he wants to wear sometimes now.  It can make for a lot of temper tantrums.  EVERYTHING is a reason for a wet noodle and screaming, even if it is just that you walked 5 feet away to get his shoes before you go outside.  He knows routines VERY well, and if you start one that makes him happy (like going on the evening walk) or sad (Mommy leaving for work) he reacts long before you think he'd realize what is going on.  At daycare when I pick him up, he now insists on carrying his own bag, and walking (at least part of the way) to the car himself.  He'd walk the whole way, but what can I say, I get impatient.   

Trouble

Right now, we're starting some discipline tactics.  Mostly, we're trying to start using time outs.  They're only a minute long right now, and not working so well yet, but we're trying.  He KNOWS what they mean, but it doesn't seem to stop him.  Yesterday, we did about 5 in a row of, "If you hit mommy again, you're going to time out," followed immediately by Robby hitting me again.  Hopefully it catches on soon.  I'm taking pointers from Lauren's post here.  I can only hope he gets as good as AM at it!

Favorite Things

Right now, Robby loves vehicles.  Trucks, especially, but cars and bikes are close seconds.  He also still loves dogs.  His favorite toys are, not surprisingly, his toy cars and trucks, and his ride-on bike.  I did manage to damage him when I was pushing the bike and didn't realize he had let go.  Ok, no permanent damage, but I felt awful that he fell, got a bruise on his forehead, and cried a lot.  His favorite foods are yogurt, graham crackers, popsicles, and cereal.  Hmm...have we entered a carb/junk food phase?  We really do try and feed him healthy food.  Daycare is not helping.  Their menu is SO carb heavy.  I'm trying to decide what to do about it, actually.  He used to eat about 75% of his fruits and veggies at daycare when we sent his meals in...now...it's a problem.  He's started swim lessons and SQUEALS the entire class.  Even the teacher couldn't get over how absolutely fearless he is.  He is not the oldest, or the most advanced kid in the class, but he IS the one jumping off the edge on his own and dunking his head.  I think I'm going to have to worry about my daredevil in the future! 

All in all, I still think you're a pretty awesome kid, lil man.  You're definitely a mama's boy, even if you're as rough and tumble as they come.  I love that you come over for hugs "just because" and still check in with me...before you run off, climb something, or pull something over or out of the wall.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  Love you! 

Couple Peeks into the Past Week

The neighborhood vandals are still at it.  They've egged 12 cars, destroyed everyone's newspapers, and spray-painted another 3 cars.  On 3 different nights.  We're all not quite sure what to do.  Chris's car was unfortunately one of the ones that got egged.  We need to look into getting the paint repaired.  It's really sad that we hold our breath every morning before we walk out the door.  I swear we live in a VERY safe town.  This is NOT normal.  We're at a loss. 

And here are a couple of cute pictures from Robby's first day where he insisted on deciding what he wore.  Well, at least the shirt.  Dressier than I usually send him to daycare in, but pretty darn cute if I must say so myself.

And to quickly wrap up, we're exhausted.  We've been finishing up the renovation of the kitchen, and Robby is getting 2 more molars, and spending a lot of the night screaming.  So, since tiling while a toddler is awake is pretty much impossible, we stay up all hours of the night, and then pray he doesn't wake up, which...he does.  Ah well.  I suppose I should stop typing and get some sleep! 

Quick Flashback to Senior Year

In my mom's group, people are posting their senior pictures, so after I uploaded mine, I figured I'd share it here.  I was in the class of 1999.  Gasp!  I know!  It sounds like an eternity ago!

I have 5 different senior pictures, or something crazy like that, but this is the one I uploaded, so this is the one you get.  I had so much fun taking these.  And I ran into someone later in life that said they saw my picture in a flyer, but I don't know that for sure.  Kind of cool if it happened.  It wasn't this one, though, it was a black and white.

Anyway, senior year.   I was actually tan for once in my life because I cooked at night at BW-3 (now Buffalo Wild Wings) and then during the day I'd sleep on the deck.  Yes, it takes me that many hours of sunlight to not look like a vampire.  That was probably my favorite job ever.  We had a lot of fun, I really love to cook, and, even if the hours were bizarre and I didn't get to go out much, I still enjoyed the night shift.  I'd work from 5pm until close, which normally meant that I'd get off as early as midnight if I wasn't the closer, 2 am if it had been dead and we could clean before it actually closed, or between 3-6 am if it was a rough night.  Not surprisingly, my parents encouraged me to stop working there by October of my senior year because the hours were hurting my schoolwork.

During senior year, I was pretty typical.  I had such senioritis, had already been accepted into colleges, and was just having fun.  I was SOOOOO ready to move on, but thinking back I enjoyed my time there, too.  Isn't that always the way? 

What are your senior year memories?