Just for Gramps

Just wanted to wish Grandpa a very Happy Birthday!


Today was G's last day of music class. By the end of the two summer sessions he would walk during at least part of the train song and shake the egg shakers (instead of having me carry him), march during another song I can't remember and greet the frog. He even gave Miss Carol a goodbye hug today! While it was a fun class, we aren't going to continue since he has swimming twice a week, preschool, playgroup, and a little brother due to arrive.

Here is G proudly showing off his first bandaid. He got a blister on his foot from his knock-off Crocs and the scab kept ripping off. I think he takes pride in his war wounds because he likes to point out his "owies".

The Beach

No soccer pictures this week because I had to participate in class. Dave stayed home to work on the garage. He's installing cabinets and trying to get our mess organized. I'll never let him skip soccer again! There is way too much sitting down and getting up involved for a large pregnant Mom. I thought my legs were going to pop off like a Barbie doll. Thankfully Grandma took over the last half of class.

Sunday we hit the beach with the Grandparents. Our realtor had a party at the beach which was our main reason for making the trek. As usual though, G didn't get in the water and didn't eat lunch. I tried to just get his feet wet, but he screamed and cried so we just played in the giant sandbox aka the beach. He loved playing with all the toys Deb brought too. The toys kept him busy long enough that all of us got to eat lunch. After I got nice and crispy and G was sufficiently wired from chips and cookies we headed home.G spent a lot of time playing in the giant sand pit.
Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa all went out body boarding since the water was fairly warm. G and Mom stayed on the beach and watched from the sand pit.

Mom is numero uno again!

It used to be that G preferred anyone to Mom. He didn't want me to look at him, change him, hold him, or be near him. I wasn't even allowed to sing in the car...wait I'm still not allowed to do that! I thought I wouldn't lose my "coolness" until the teenage years. Little did I know I wouldn't even make it two years!

Recently things have changed. He cries when Dad comes to pick him up and take him for a bath. He pleads for Mom to give the bath. He wants Mom to do everything now including carry him up and down the stairs! It used to be that Grandma was numero uno, but now G doesn't let her get him out of the car seat or carry him if I'm around. However if I'm not around then Dad or Grandma are still cool.

Sadly, I'm still unable to take him to swim class because he cries so much about everything: getting changed, getting in the pool, etc. When Grandma takes him he doesn't fuss much at all and he does so well. Tomorrow is his second first day of preschool (we took a break last session), and Grandma is going to take him to ensure a happier and more productive day for G. Dad and I are going to go on a hospital tour to find out where we need to go to deliver baby #2 and what we need to do.

Train Snob

When G was sick, I DVR'd some cartoons and he discovered a love for Thomas on PBS. I'm amazed that watching a 30 minute show a couple times a week has had such an effect on him. He now sees the t.v. and asks to "watch Thomas". He also knows the difference between his Thomas trains and his (gasp) generic trains. He only wants to play with his Thomas trains now. I think he really likes the faces on the trains, but he only has two. I can see I'll have to start searching for deals on Thomas trains.

He also loves to fly Dave's flight simulator. I'm not sure he loves flying as much as crashing though. He spends less than 30 seconds in actual flight and then has a "big crash." The most annoying thing is he wants to change planes after every crash. He's picky too, you can't just go with any old plane, he has to approve the selection!

Soccer and a Smoothie

Here is G at the beginning of practice. Luckily it was not hot today so he had a lot more energy than last week. We treated him to a Jamba Juice smoothie after the lesson which I think he enjoyed more than soccer.
Here is the dribblin' fool... Are you jealous of his masterful footwork?
Build a cone tower....

Destroy a cone tower...

He Swims!

This is how G starts off the swim lesson.


Then a few minutes later he recovers and is fine. And what you all really want to see....the latest and greatest video of G swimming, taken by Grandma B.


I couldn't fight off the peer pressure anymore. I joined facebook. Let me know if you are on there, I need some friends so I don't look pathetic. :)

Carseat woes

Last weekend we got out the infant carseat and tried to install it and the convertible G is in now in the back of the Civic. Uh-oh they don't fit! Well technically they do if Dave isn't anywhere in the car, but if he's driving or sitting as a passenger they don't fit. Unfortunately the truck and the Civic have about the same interior space so we are in trouble.

We have been thinking about replacing the truck with a minivan for a while and having Dave use the Civic for his commute car. However with gas prices going up and up with no end in sight, a big ole minivan doesn't seem like the smartest decision. Plus the smaller cars are much cheaper than the tricked out minivan. We also don't want to spend a ton of money on a hybrid something or other since the price difference is huge.

We are looking at a 2008 Honda CR-V, a 2009 Subaru Forrester, Toyota Rav4, Toyota Prius, and of course the 2008 Honda Odyssey if we go for a minivan. We've already eliminated the Rav4 (aesthetics) and Prius (too small). If we start to consider the Highlander or larger SUVs the gas mileage is bad, but the hybrid versions are really expensive, so we might as well get the minivan. The CR-V and Forrester get about the same gas mileage 20/26 and the Odessey is about 17/24. We shall see what happens. We are at least waiting until Sept when the new 2009s come out to see if the prices on the 2008s will drop any.

See I knew fast food was bad....

G came down with Hand Food and Mouth Disease I thought he got it from the playland at McDs on Friday, but that seems too quick since he had symptoms on Friday afternoon. He came down with a fever and crankiness first. He started to get irritated with his mouth so we thought he was teething, but it must have been the sore throat and mouth sores. Then he developed some blisters on his thumbs, and a day or so later blisters on his toes. By the time I found out he had something, he was pretty much over it. Good thing too since it's viral and there is nothing I could do, but pump him full of Motrin for the pain and fever.

Here are a few pictures of the sick boy dusting, and watching a show with Oskar.
Finally here is Rambo during his lunch today. Sadly when he was done, his tray was just as full. He is sporting Mom's headband over his new haircut he got yesterday at Grandpa's.

Corruption by the Fast Food Industry begins....

A few pictures from swim class.

He had his first Happy Meal yesterday after swim class. The evil fast food chain lured us in with their giant play area and yummy saturated fats! G enjoyed his nuggets and fries and reluctantly "shared" an ice cream cone with Mom.

When did they get rid of those little happy meal boxes with the M handles anyway? Here is G sampling the french fries first.
Showing off his bite to the cameraYummy ice cream. "Mom you are not getting this back...no matter how hard you cry."


Then in the afternoon Dad and Grandma and Grandpa painted the baby's room. Oskar, G, and I were trying to stay out of the way. Both boys enjoyed sneaking into the room and walking on the tarps looking for trouble. Then G and Grandma spent some time at the "big park". Grandma commented that he's fearless and a climbing maniac. Here are some photos to make Uncle Matt proud:
At the summit:

Last night G had a rough night. He woke up every few hours crying for Mommy. In a strange way I was happy he wanted me to lay with him in his bed. He was warm, but didn't feel feverish. We gave him Motrin and put him back to bed. He continued to wake and I continued to try and lay with him. I even brought him to our bed so we could all get some sleep, but he wasn't having any of that. By morning he was his energetic self, while Mom and Dad were a tired mess.

Currently he is napping with a fever of 100.6.

Kimchi Boy

He sees it all the time. He had a lot when he was in the womb. Dad even eats it, but G never asked for it until last Friday. He asked for "Com-Chee" and rice. I gave him some radish kimchi and he actually ate it. It was probably his first vegetable in weeks! I was thrilled, but knew it would probably be a one time occurrence.

Well yesterday he surprised me and asked for it again. This time he also insisted on trying cabbage kimchi. He wasn't too thrilled with the cabbage kimchi, but still ate the radish kimchi. Cabbage kimchi has a lot more flavor to it so it might be too strong for him at this point. Grandma E would be so proud though, yesterday his tray had rice, kimchi, and burgolgi!

Right now his favorite food is yogurt...and lots of it!

Busy Saturday

It was a hot Saturday morning for soccer. G drank a lot of water and seemed kind of sluggish through the lesson. Grandpa video taped most of the practice while Mom shot pictures again. I tried to sit on the side of the field to get closer, but G kept jumping in my lap wanting to take pictures himself. I had to retreat back into the stands so I didn't disrupt practice.

Here he is deep in concentration dribbling the ball down the field before class.Here he is in a faceoff with the goalie. He was victorious and dribbled the ball into the net. Actually the little boy just stood in the net after he kicked the ball in. They don't play an actual game or have positions, but it looks cute.
After a hot soccer practice, G and I went to the water park while Dad went to work. He had fun getting soaked until his legs flew out from under him and he whacked his back and head on the ground. The material they used for the flooring of the park is slippery and that is at least the second time he has wiped out. Next time I'm having him wear shoes to see if that helps.

After his nap we headed over to his buddy Kaitlyn's house for a bbq. Between trying to kill green bean plants by over watering, diving through playhouse windows, jumping off the retaining wall, charging up and down stairs on the bank, fighting over toys with Isaac he found lots of things to do. Wish I had thought to take pictures! I heard Kaitlyn even gave him a kiss, however I think Isaac is the leading man right now because the two of them were chasing each other around the yard while G sat in my lap eating chocolate cake.

Then the best part came....I dropped him off at Grandma's for the night!

The park

The park nearby officially opened this morning, but I took G over yesterday evening. Last night and when it was time to leave and eat dinner he cried for "more park". I told him the park was closed and we could come back tomorrow. He said "mommy open park", so I guess it's a winner.

He didn't really check out the water area yesterday, just the playground. The playground is geared more for the older kids. There are lots of advanced climbing structures, openings high up, and it's three stories high! I had to follow him through to make sure he didn't jump off the top or something. He's fearless, but I'm not! It's definitely not made for the pregnant Mom with the narrow walkways and tight turns.

Dad and G had fun in the water park this morning. I can see there a lot of kinks they need to work out in the system because the water kept shutting off and it was difficult to get it to stay on for long.

When Dad is away.....

G gets cranky. Dave has been working 7 days a week and long days at that, so he only sees G for a few minutes in the morning. I think this makes G mad and he gets to be so difficult to deal with in the afternoon. Plus Mom feels like a beached whale these days, so I can't win the physical battles like changing diapers, getting in the bath, etc...so things take a lot longer. Doing the bath and bedtime routine was Dad's thing and I can tell G misses that.

On a brighter note, I can now put him down for a nap. I think he has fully accepted that his crib is gone. I'm even having pretty good luck putting him down for bed at night. He doesn't go to sleep immediately, but he doesn't scream and cry forever. Although last night I made the mistake of letting him take one of Oskar's toys to bed with him. He had me tuck in the toy and he snuggled up with it. I thought "oh what harm can that do, so it's covered in dog drool, whatever". Well I didn't stop to think that the toy had 6 squeakers in it! I heard "squeak squeak" for at least an hour!

Speaking of the dog, he turned 4 on June 30th. I had grand plans to get him a toy and possibly a new collar, perhaps a SMALL bag of treats. I'm sure he would rather have a steak dinner, but he's getting a little hefty from all the extra "under the highchair" feedings he's been getting. In fact I think Ethan was feeling bad for the Woofer and sent a few extra helpings off the high chair for his birthday. That almost makes the daily torture by a two year old worth it, right? Actually they get along pretty well. They usually have daily rounds of chase, fetch, and bark at the passerby. Yep that's right, my son barks with the dog.

Safety week at swim class

This week they have been doing safety stuff so G has been learning a lot of new things. I mentioned some things in the last swimming post, but here is a video I took. Dave was late to class so I stayed through most of the class and got to take some video. For some reason Dave doesn't like to use the camera. In the video he is laying down to retrieve a toy, jumping in the pool and swimming to the step.

The good news is I was able to stay in class and G didn't scream and cry like in the past. I think I'll continue to have someone else take him since these lessons aren't cheap and I want him to get the most out of it! It was nice getting to see how he was doing though.