Soccer Star

Okay so he's not quite a soccer star, but he had his first soccer lesson yesterday. After figuring out they put him in the wrong class, for 3-4 year olds instead of 2-3 year olds, things were much better. By far his favorite activity was building cone towers and kicking them down. He also did some "throw ins" and drop kicks. Mostly it was soccer lessons centered around games which was a lot of fun for him. They did bring out a parachute and he refused to participate in most of the activities until all the kids went underneath. All in all I think he really enjoyed himself and liked having Dad along for the lesson.

Mom was in the stands with her giant zoom lens playing the part of the paparazzi. Uh-oh looks like he's a left footed kicker. Check out the concentration, the focus, the follow through! My boy loves destruction.

Swim class update

Well I stopped going to swim class and now Dave or Grandma (who is back in town, yay!) take him. It has been going so well with no crying at all apparently. He pushed off the wall to glide to the instructor, jumped in the pool, was thrown off the step to get him to climb back on, and started paddling a little. Sounds like I was really hindering his progress. Aww makes a Mom feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

He has also been swimming in Grandma's pool a couple of times since they got back. He mostly just plays and doesn't submerge himself since it's still pretty cold. Last year he cried every time he got in so that's progress. He still refuses to get near his frog float, let alone sit in it.

Hot Travels

We went to a wedding in Northern California and arrived just in the time for the heat wave. We didn't take G to the wedding since it was in the evening. We left him at Grandma and Grandpa's house to play and sleep. Good thing, since the reception location had no A/C. Though even without G we were ready to hit the road by 10pm. I also realized I'm getting old because I didn't recognize half the music played at the reception!

Staying at Grandma and Grandpa's was hard because there is no A/C. G couldn't nap or sleep in the hot weather and was super duper cranky the next day. However while Mom and Dad were away he ate well and had fun playing with the Grandparents.Dave also got sick on the trip so that combined with the obscene heat was no fun at all. Luckily it cooled down just in time for our trip home. We came home to our closed up house at 85 degrees.

Father's Day

Father's day was really Mother's Day. Dave made breakfast! In all fairness I took him out to breakfast the day before to avoid the crowds. Then Dave took G over to Andy's house after his nap. I was free to do anything I wanted. I was so overwhelmed with options I just sat at home editing photos from a shoot earlier in the day.

I took some pictures during a playgroup last month and since then have gotten requests for portraits. Who knows if this will turn into something, but for now it's good experience. If I had something to do with G, I would definitely pursue this further, but it's kind of difficult to be professional and drag a two year old around.

Swimming wasn't such a disaster on Monday. Dave came during his lunch break and G cried a bit at first, but then relaxed and even smiled some! I have hope that someday G will like swimming.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Today Dave and G had a deep conversation.

Dave: I love Mommy, G, and Oskar. What do you love?
G: .......cars!......those cars (points to the parking lot)
Dave: You love cars?
G: Yeah
Dave: What else do you love?
G: ......treats!

Just for the record he has said that he loves us (even the dog). I have no doubt he loves to BOSS the dog around though. He tells him to get off the couch all the time for no reason. He also tells him to stay off the bank in the yard since I'm always yelling at him to stay off. He likes to repeat my commands to the dog like drop it, leave it, etc. However Oskar doesn't understand him yet and ignores him and it totally frustrates the little dude.

For an early Father's Day we took Dave out to breakfast. We ended up at a restaurant that uses peanut oil so it would have been the second time we've had to walk out. Last time it was a burger joint. However they had a few items on the menu that were peanut oil free and grilled on a separate griddle, so G had french toast with syrup (for the first time) and gobbled it up. We managed to avoid having him pick from Dave's plate so no trip to the ER today.

Have you seen Family Guy?

If you have then you'll understand my post, if not I'm afraid you'll have to watch a few episodes. I think G is Stewie. I don't think he's trying to kill me perse, more break me down until I need to be institutionalized so he can eat whatever he wants and sleep (or rather not sleep) whenever he wants.

After his nap, he's a different child. We don't run errands in the afternoon because he is...dare I say crazy? He is like a little ball of energy that bounces off the walls, screaming (ignoring me should go without saying), running, going from toy to toy, throwing things, jumping off things, etc. Timeouts are a joke right now.

I think things are so bad because 1) he's TWO 2). Dave has been out of town for a few days 3). he's out to get me.

It's All About the Car Day and the Owie

I'm so proud to say that today G and I filled up the car with gas, washed the car, cleaned the windows, had the tires rotated, got the oil changed, and bought a new air filter. He did so well through all those errands I couldn't believe it!

He has a runny nose today and is really uncomfortable because of it. However, he has learned to blow his nose so there is an upside I guess.

He also proved to me that he knows his colors and shapes (at least some of them), but is pretending not to! He got out three puzzles at once and I told him he could only have one out at a time. He then proceeded to get out two more and dump them on the floor. I told him he had to clean up the puzzles before he could play with other toys so he started to put his shape puzzle back together. As he was doing it, all on his own, he announced "green circle", "oval", "yellow", etc as he fit the pieces in. I had no idea he knew what an oval was! Wow!

Yesterday we went over to Ian and Tyler's house. G has so much fun playing with Ian. They played with the Geotrax, chased each other around the house, and had push cart races. G also really like Tyler's kitchen. He was shoving all sorts of things in the microwave and then pushing buttons, waiting, and getting it out to put something else in. Do you think he's trying to tell me something? Perhaps I use the microwave a wee bit?

When we were leaving G of course didn't want to hold my hand. I told him he could walk to my car if he stayed on the sidewalk. He complied, but then started to run, then he tripped and did a face-slide on the sidewalk. He now has a nice owie on top of, to the side of, and below his right eye.

Day at the Park

My Mom's club had a festival for the Dad's and G had a great time. He jumped in the bouncer for a long time, rode a big wheel, ate ice cream, had a caricature drawn while eating a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich, and got to go inside a fire truck. He also went on a train ride at the mall after we left. Did you see the giant sharing the train car with him? Poor G had no room!

Reading a book on the way to the park.

Deep in concentration
Having his caricature drawn.
Chowing down on ice cream.

Touring the firetruck. He got a sticker badge and plastic fireman hat!Pinned in the corner of the train car with a giant.

Music and Mom gets kicked out of swim class

Music class went really well. G went to one class long ago and he cried through most of it (seeing a trend?). This time he was eager to get and return instruments, play the instruments and try to copy what the teacher was doing. The only thing he wasn't thrilled with was dancing and marching in a circle. I had to hold him through those, but I'm sure he'll warm up as he gets used the kids and the routine. All in all I think he had fun.

Swimming on the other hand has taken a turn for the worse. He now spends his time crying through the lesson. He is tense and upset and doesn't really get much "swimming" time anymore. The teacher spends a lot of time trying to find toys or calm him down first. Then when he gets back to the step he's crying again.

I know he's acting like this because of me (it's preschool all over again), and the teachers know it too, so they asked me to leave the pool area to see if that would help him. Of course he was upset at first, but then he was much better. For future lessons I'll have to have Dave come or I'll just have to leave him and watch from outside the pool area. Here is a picture of the boy in his new speedracer suit that Isaac got him.

Doctor Gigantor is in the house

G got a doctor kit from Connor for his birthday. He loves the stethoscope! He's also fond of the cell phone and just carrying the whole kit around. For some reason he has an aversion glasses/sunglasses. I did manage to get him to try on the doctor glasses and snap a shot. He looks like Harry Potter don't you think?

Naps are my nemesis

I wasn't just being cute in naming his blog. He really does hate naps.

Well I figured out how to get G down for a nap without too much fuss -- have Dave do it. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday G took naps just fine when Dad did the nap time routine (which is pretty much identical to my routine). Then comes Monday and Dad is back to work. G had a stressful time at the pool as I mentioned and was clearly beat after all the crying, but still protested the nap. I managed to get him to sleep by laying with him for a few minutes and then sneaking out.

Tuesday he had a busy morning at the park with Connor. It was hot and the boys were running and climbing everywhere. He went down for his nap without crying, but only slept for about an hour. Wednesday he cried for nearly and hour before conking out. I went in afer 20 minutes to try and lay with him since it worked pretty well on Monday. Well this time he screamed louder, refused to lay down, tried to pull me out of his bed, whacked me a couple of times, so I left for him to scream.

I am starting to wonder if something scares him in the room. Last night he woke up at around 1am screaming which he never does. Dave went and calmed him down in a few minutes and he was out again for the rest of the night.

Since Dave never reads the blog, I can post part of his Father's Day present. I got him a frame last year and I took similar pictures, so I'm just updating the pictures. The photos in the frame spell out D-A-D-D-Y. i'm going to keep the first D from last year and update the rest of the letters. He was a much more willing model last year...before he could run away. :)

The Monday Grump

Swim class did not go well today. For some reason G turned into a little screamer once class started. He was all decked out in his new swim suit from Isaac, lookin' cool so I don't know what he could have been upset about. I think he might have just been tired from his action packed weekend. Dave has also been at a lot of classes, but wasn't there today, so perhaps he was upset about that. He didn't do much swimming since he was screaming non stop. He and Miss Tracy spent most of the time looking for toys to calm the little booger down.

Party Tidbits

G spent most of the day in the bouncer outside. It was funny because I would see Dave and ask where G was, and he didn't know. Then we would find him outside in the bouncer. He'll get more of his bouncer fix this weekend when we head out to a Mom's group event with bouncers and face painting, etc.

When our barren dirt yard returned, G kept saying "big choo choo all gone". He even said that the next morning when we were taking Oskar outside. Clearly he needed closure and I should have let him say goodbye when the bouncer collector came.

The surprise of the birthday party was the he blew out his own candles! He took two tries and the candle was out. I think learning to blow his own bubbles helped him achieve this. He is obsessed with bubbles. Sadly he knocked over the open bottle the other day so we are on bubble rations until I get to the store.

He also clearly understands what presents are now. After the first couple, he would demand to "open more presents". He always picked presents that were wrapped before the gift bags. I think he really enjoys riping stuff to shreds.

Some actions shots... He's all business here:Excited to find a picture of a car on the box.
Showing off his present opening skills.

Check out this tongue action. I really don't know why Oskar is in the sand box (Dave took this pic when he was cleaning up after the party), but his beard is covered in sand.