Friday, December 12, 2008

So busy

We have been really busy lately and keeping up with the blog has been a low priority. But here are some pictures of things we have been doing. Bright's speech is amazing- he can count up to 14 on his own, knows groups of letters for the ABC song, knows all of his colors, can sing jingle bells on his own, and also loves to sing the 5 Little Pumpkins song. He says Amen at the end of grace at dinner time, likes opening up his advent calendar, goes to 2 story times each week, Stretch 'N Grow, and Together Time, too. We are always doing something.
Bright's first gingerbread house, made out of Graham Crackers,

snugglin'

A cozy spot.



Finger painting in the tub.

Bright and Momma in his closet nest.


Cozy closet nest time.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

steamroller

Our days are filled with endless movement, hollering and banging lately. Bright plays out his role as Bob the Builder to a T and is hard to redirect when I cannot take the constant hammering and sawing that goes along with his play. He is also having great fun exploring his vocal capacity and I am thankful that most of the other tenants here are either at work during the day or are retired and semi-hard of hearing, or just don't care about his yeowling. He loves to ask us "Howyadoin" and "whatyadoin", as well as saying "Hey dude." He gets a bit fixated on a theme centered on an exciting event of the day or days ago and will chit chat on and on about it. Thankfully though he has taken to playing a new game of hiding where he lays down and asks to be covered up with a blanket. He lays still and whispers "Hiding". He will stay that way for an increasing longer amount of time these days. My sweet silence!

We, or I, continue the house hunt. It seems so hard to raise a boy in an apartment. Boys seem to be so rowdy or full of life. I hate to keep hushing him. I also would like him to sleep later than 6am but the heavy walkers upstairs are up and at 'em at the crack of dawn every blessed day. So keep us in your prayers that there is some little dump house out there with our name on it.... Preferably in the Town of Jerusalem and with low taxes :)

Here's some pictures.



Thursday, November 13, 2008

1,2,3,4,5

Bright has been really chatty over the past few weeks. His vocabulary and sentence length are growing by leaps and bounds. A few days ago he counted to five at lunch and then this afternoon he counted to 10 while he was playing in his room. Okay, he missed the number nine, but still... Then to show it wasn't a fluke, he did it again this evening. Wow! I am impressed. It's not like we work on these skills directly either, just counting out loud when cooking or piling up blocks. He also gets it though books and DVDs too I guess. He likes letters and knows several now. He will sing out blocks of letters in the alphabet randomly throughout the day. QSR, NOP, that kind of thing. The other fun thing he can do is recognize his name in print.

Behaviorally we have entered the terrible twos a bit on the early side of things. Bright just turned 20 months last week and we have seen the signs creeping ever so slowly but now things are really getting rolling. To spare the details, suffice it say we have some very challenging days here and when it's nap time I do a little dance inside for my 2-3 hours of peace that come along with it.

Nothing else new to report. All are healthy here and I am heading to bed.

Friday, October 31, 2008

It's the thought that counts right?!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! And Happy Birthday Andy. He's 28 today! Yahoo. Makes me feel younger! Anyway, we are having dinner guests tonight and I thought I would make him a cake I have never made before- Boston Creme Pie- since he likes the donuts so much. Seemed easy enough as I skimmed through the recipe... skimmed, I remind you. Holy smokes! Like 40 ingredients, 5 hours and a whole slew of swears I now have a lop-sided semi-oozing cake cooling in the fridge that may or may not taste better than it looks. Totally reminded me of the book "Julie and Julia" where a disgruntled government worker decides to "add meaning to her life" by going through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" book in one year, and nearly loses her mind while doing so... I can assure you that no extra meaning was added to my life while I was struggling to make the homemade custard filling while 19 month old Bright tugged at my legs and demanded to help, or be picked up, or get into mischief in another room, all while I was praying that my egg yolks would not scramble while adding hot milk to them. Another shining moment was folding the egg whites into the batter and then folding the flour into it as well. Folding is such a joke. Can anyone actually ever get the flour to not lump up while doing this, or actually mix in correctly? Not me. I have always loved baking breads and cookies. I think I now know that cakes are not my bag!
Here are some pictures from 2 days ago when I was making pizza crust. Bright really wanted to help so I gave him some really old TVP to scoop and measure and pour. He was in heaven! What a powdery mess though!

Friday, October 24, 2008

He did it!



Bright successfully tinkled in the potty last night! Yahoo!

Let's hope that there is continued success and interest on his part.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Seen and Done

We have been busy here. Colds going around. First me, then Andy and now Bright. Playdate continued as planned, flu shot postponed (perhaps permanently...), last minute playdate canceled due to cold, grape picking session 1 a sucess, grape picking session 2 postponed due to rain, grape picking session 3 a tremendous success. we have frozen batches and batches of concords in various forms- goo for grape pie, skins for grape bread, grape bread itself- now sadly eaten and gone, pulp boiled and strained for making grapple sauce... Phew! Our first session got us 13 pounds in 15 minutes, the second time around we got 16 pounds. Grand total spent for those two trips- $9.

Today we watched a fabulous movie- Once. Check it out if you love music. The soundtrack is great- just burned it and now listening to it again while I type this. Emusic.com has an offer of 35 free songs with a 1 week trial.

We have been surfin' Netflix and really enjoying some of our finds lately. I am hooked on the Riches and Andy loves The Wire. We are working our way through those right now. Checked out the debates as they have been on- on one of the random cable stations that still comes in on the tv in the bedroom- neither one of them really answers any of the questions. Too bad we can't have an a la carte ticket.
First batch of grapes picked- 13 pounds for 4 dollars.

Andy washing and rinsing the grapes.


Showing Bright the baby snail that was attached to a grape.


Bright eating his fave- Organic wild blueberries-frozen. What a mess every time....

Bright shaving for the first time. I thought we would be able to put it off until he was at least 5...

Bright playing with the brussel sprout stalk from the Farmers' Market today.


Wearing Andy's jacket before he left for work.


Bright's new desk- hand me down from great neighbors who are moving away. :(



Bright seems to rarely be without his construction helmet these days- or Truction helmet as he calls it. A good thing given all the spills he takes ramming around now.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

10 things I love about my boy

Instead of losing perspective from another tough day, I have decided to list the things I love so much about my guy. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Bright loves music- particularly Weezer's Red Album. He asks for it by name. He has been exposed to all kinds, except country, and seems to rock out to all of them. Must have had something to do with the Ratatat show we took him to when I was just about ready to give birth.

2. Bright has a great vocabulary. He doesn't just spit out words he has heard, but uses them appropriately. He uses words like visor to describe one hat vs another, he calls my dirty tissues gnarly, he knows a leopard from other big cats, knows the names of construction equipment, etc. The best is when he is just about to fall asleep and he says something random like "Pilchard", the cat from Bob the Builder, or "pinto" from the beans he ate at dinner. He takes it all in and it swirls around inside his little head, only to bring it back out when you least expect it.

3. He is our red-headed veggie boy, as Jaimie likes to call him. Thank goodness that a boy raised in a vegetarian household likes veggies. His two favorite foods are broccoli and tofu. They were some of his first words after daddy. He ate brussel sprouts with me yesterday at lunch, nodded his head and said good when I asked him if he liked them.

4. He never gets sick. He has had one or two junior sized colds, 1 ear infection, roseola, and maybe pink eye but we stopped giving him the drops three days after starting them because he stopped looking pink the day after we got them. I don't think his scratched cornea counts as a sickness. Just stupidity on our part.

5. He loves, loves, loves the people he loves. He talks about grammy and grampy all the time. He remembers everything he does with them. He remembered that Shay went on a canoe ride when she was here, all on his own without prompts. He talks about Monty jumping on the screen door and Tibby being naughty because she eats the plants. He sobs when daddy goes to "workies" and knows he has a job and will be home at lunch time. He has a strong attachment to Uncle Matt, and not just because of Margo :)

6. He likes to say "Sugar" and give you a big sloppy kiss and hug, out of the blue. I don't know who taught him to say "sugar", maybe Kyle? Whoever it was, thank you. It is really sweet.

7. He loves the things his daddy loves. GI Joe guys, vehicles of all kinds, outdoor moon hunts, wrestling, playing ball, working in the garden.

8. He is smart as whip and this is a source of frustration at times for him when he wants something done just a certain way and cannot communicate it properly to us, or his little body can't make it happen on his own. He knows what he wants, watches others do it first and then gets it on his own.

9. He has his daddy's nose and my curls.

10. He loves to have his teeth flossed. Who knew a baby would be into that? He saw me do it one day and asked what it was and we tried it. He calls it "mint" because of the mint flavor. He'll randomly ask for it during the day. Once a day is all he gets and he never bites when I do it.

and a bonus-He's all mine, all day.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Where did he go?

Since we have returned from camping Bright has been not his usual carefree, happy go lucky self. he has been replaced by "Angry Boy". With mood changes too frequent to count, and crying jags that tear your heart out- not to mention drive you bonkers because they happen over the seemingly silliest of reasons, our past week has been terrible. We have had our first down on the floor temper tantrums with arms and legs flailing and screams to wake the dead. Sometimes you can shift his mood by offering an alternative or just letting him go while you walk away. Other times his tantrum just follows you, too upset to be away from his source of frustration which also is his source of comfort. His spiritedness has increased ten fold as he bounces from forbidden thing to forbidden thing in the apartment, even when they are way out of reach. He climbs, jumps, chews on (always a favorite...) everything. Yes, I am sure it's mainly teeth- all of his molars have come through but are not out entirely, and his bottom eye teeth are coming through too, but some of it is just a behavioral phase. You can see it in his eyes as he screams out, "Climbing..., get down" while climbing onto the coffee table, as warning of sorts that he is up to no good, while also reminding himself that he isn't supposed to be up there. This too shall pass, right? The part I dislike the most is not living in a house, but in an apartment. Sure we have more yard and open space than most people have for their house, and the lake out back is great, but sometimes, when your kid is older he needs to run outside and not have to worry about a parking lot, or people watching him, or me worry about what the neighbors will think when he truly deserves to be hollered at... ugh. So, staying home with him has its pluses but the lack of a second income and the things it allows you to do is never far from my mind on days like today.

Oh, and I got bit by a damn alpaca at Alpaca Days celebration. That was just the icing on the cake. Tomorrow will be better. It has to be.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Pictures

Some pictures of Bright from not too long ago...

Bright with one of his Bob the Builder toys. He could sing that theme song all day long....
We have not cut his hair yet, but those shaggy curls are getting longer and longer every day.

On his 18 month dr. appointment Bright had a terrible time- cried for the whole time the two of us were there. We came home to find that daddy had lined up all of his little people figures as a surprise for Bright to find when he returned. This may actually be only a portion of his guys.
Bright has been taking a fancy to eating peanut butter and jelly crackers- well, really just taking them apart and licking out the insides and then giving us back the crackers for more jelly and peanut butter to be added on.

Setting up the tent with daddy.


Camping seemed like the only reasonable excuse for letting him eat junk like Pringles and chocolate pudding. Unfortunately he developed a strong love for the chips right away and can say "Pringles and Pudding" very clearly.
This is the face of two struggling people, each trying to maintain control over the other. Who do you think won this time?

Monday, September 22, 2008

Camping was great!

We had a great time camping on Saturday. Bright played and played at the play parks, climbed in and out of the tent a dozen times, ran around the picnic table, lifted firewood, got into mischief whenever possible and didn't trip and fall into the fire. He also fell asleep without much fuss even with being dressed in his footie pjs and snowsuit. It got down into the 40s at night and we had puddles of condensation on the floor from us breathing in there and all the moisture in th air too. All in all it was better than we had imagined it would be so we will definitely do it again next year. Pictures to post later in the day. Bright just said "Tibby, post, relaxin', get her!!" Better go save the cat...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

wish us luck!

Today we are going camping with Bright! I am very excited and so is Bright! We put up the tent last night in the yard just to see if we could fit all three of us inside and he was all revved up after that and barely slept last night. We are not going very far from here but it's a good location on the lake with three new play parks also. It's nice that he is getting old enough to do these kinds of things and chats about the things he wants to do while he's there.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Where we have been

It seems as though life has become much busier now that Andy has gone back to work. I didn't think that could be possible since we had been really bouncing around all summer long but now that Bright and I are on our own again we seem to fill our days up pretty fast. A day with a toddler full time is a challenge in itself. A teething toddler adds another layer, and then a talking element just boosts the craziness level. I cannot get over how much fun Bright is right now. Four weeks ago I was worried that he was not learning to talk in the appropriate time frame. Then four nights ago we hear him say "Combine... wheat... bread" at the dinner table, from one of his books. He has been stringing three words together quite well in the last few days. It all started with the party at Mom and Dad's place when Kyle, Pam and Shay were here. Andy and Bright were picking apples off the apple tree and throwing them into the corn field when they came across a really buggy one. Bright kept saying " Bug... Apple" for days to follow. He must have figured out that when he says stuff like that that we will talk to him about it and we understand him so he wants to say more and more. Child development in action is pretty cool.


Now with tooth #17 coming in Bright can eat lots of things like grownups do.Bright loves the lake and will go in whenever we are will to brave the now chilly waters. This is the beach at our place. (Thanks for the pic Pam)
We went back to the museum of play with Kyle and Pam and Shay right before they left. Bright had a great time in spite of his runny eye that day.

I think I will be posting once a week or so from now on. Keeping up with Bright has been an amazing task lately and at night I just want to relax. Tonight Andy and I watched Darjeeling Limited for Movie Night. I give it a 10. Must has struck just the right chord in me at the right time. Makes me doubly sure that I want to take the train across country in a few months!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Good visit and blueberries

Kyle, Pam and Shay left today. And Matt and Margo too! All of us are feeling kind of down here- it was so nice to have them here. Shay and Bright chased each other around almost every night until they had worn themselves out. Then they shared a bath together most nights. Bright was in love and in awe of this big kid that would actually play with him. Shay took on the big sister role quite well. I have lots of pictures but no time right now to download them. Bright has pinkeye. Boo! That put a damper on our last day together since I didn't want the three of them to fly home with a goopy eye.

This morning, since we decided it would be better to not infect the kids at Together Time, we went to pick blueberries instead at the Sugar Shack. We rode on a stretch golf cart up and down hills to get to the fields way out back where the picking was happening today. The variety that was in season was a little on the tart side, just how I like 'em. Bright practiced saying "pick" while grabbing huge handfuls of them and rolling them gently into the buckets. He was a great picker for about 20 minutes when he must have gotten hungry because he started putting those huge handfuls directly into his mouth. He had so many at one point that his lips couldn't close when he was chewing! After letting him eat almost his weight in berries we went to pay and we had gotten five pounds for 1.65 a pound. Not too shabby! We may go back tomorrow- those u-pick places bring out the greedy in me. I seem to just want all of them when I get there and it's hard to leave. Apple season is almost here. The Cider Mill is open which means a cup of cider and a cider donut are ready- for a 1.75. Yahoo!

So we are looking for potties for a boy. If anyone has any good suggestions of brands for a boy, please let me know. Bright is very interested in the one we got at a yard sale but there is no deflector for him and his bit and pieces don't quite make it into the pot.

TMI

Sunday, August 17, 2008

New Skills

Bright's got three new teeth- putting his tooth count somewhere near 14 I think. The molars are really rough coming out but he is doing pretty good, if you don't count the night I had to sleep right by his crib on the floor for five hours. I woke up all cranky and stiff only to look up and see him staring down at me with a huge smile!

Tonight Andy told me we had something new to blog about- puzzles! Bright can now do all of his puzzles even without the pictures underneath. He doesn't need any help rotating the pieces and seems to do them fairly quickly.

Kyle, Pam and Shay come from Portland on Tuesday. Hooray! I am really looking forward to seeing them! I can't wait to see if Shay will play with Bright and Bright with Shay. He has playdates with Madeline on Wednesdays still and they are finally starting to acknowledge each other and check out what the other is doing and perhaps take away a toy or two. Fun to watch.

Lots of ice cream eating going on here. Seneca Farms has Boston Creme Pie ice cream now and we shared a medium bowl this afternoon between the three of us, then went back and bought a half-gallon and had another bowl each (Andy and I) right away. Then another for night time snack. Sign me up for one of those scooters when I have gotten too big from eating ice cream, please. Thankfully they will be closing down for the season in October, I think. Bad time to develop some crazy allergy to exercise now isn't it. I am still taking wacky doses of Claritin a day and keeping that dumb inhaler close by, just in case. Who wants to always have to think about all the "just in case"-es that could happen to a person.... ugh.

Off to watch some internet tv. We have survived so far without cable by getting netflix started back up. Football season may change things though.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Where We've Been

It's been a little while since I updated.
Here are some things we have been doing: Trip to the Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. Just about an hour from here. Kind of a spur of the moment trip for us but it worked out great. Bright slept on the way up there, woke up when we arrived and played for two hours solid before we had lunch and played some more. I ran into 2 people I used to work with at the Rochester School for the Deaf. Great to see them again- good reminder to brush up on my signing skills. I was a little rusty. Fortunately most of the deaf friends that I have are used to folks with little to no signing skills so they were patient with me while I got back into it. The Museum was really an indoor play center with all kinds of rooms-

a Wegmans shopping center where the kids got kid sized carts to drive around and pick out plastic replicas of foods with bar codes on them. They could then take them to kid sized checkouts and scan them themselves and print out receipts too. Bright loved that! He was really into driving the carts around.


A place to "drive" race cars was also a lot of fun.
You could also race matchbox cars and see who won.

There were two good sized salt water aquariums there.

There was a replica of the Sesame Street street with Big Bird and the stoop where the gang hangs out.
There was also a whole section of Clifford the Big Red Dog stuff. The neighbor where the stories take place, all the characters and a playground within it. You could deliver the mail to all of the houses and stores in the neighborhood, or play in the tool shed or make/take orders at the burger shack there.

I see that my boy has not learned to transfer the "Don't touch- the stove is hot" lesson to places outside of our home :)


There was also a random encounter with Clifford himself- scared the daylights out of Bright.Among the other things there was a plane you could "fly".
A butterfly house that we did not go into because it is a timed admission thing that we did not get tickets for when we first go there and the wait was a hour, plus an extra $3 per adult.
There was a nook that had a computer in it that Bright could play with and not get scolded- he had never played with a mouse before since we have the laptop and no mouse.
We bought lunch there- pizza for Bright and I and a veggie burger that looked like meat and I had to ask to make sure it wasn't for Andy, which he declared to be the meatiest tasting veggie burger he had ever had, and also said it was good.
Drinks before heading home.... and the scene in the car on the way back...
Yup- that is some sort of choco-cookie on my boy- either an Newman O or an Oreo. and yes, he did pop the lense out of his sunglasses at some point too. So much more there to see and do another time.


We also just came back from trip to the Spray Park in Geneva and had a blast there also. Now I am pooped and gonna take a nap.