Slap Happy

As of late, Monster has deemed that sleeping is unnecessary. It is especially unnecessary at night.

Monster has countered my attempts to provide a peaceful and calming environment leading up to naptime/bedtime by acting more and more crazy the more tired he becomes. He will run around and around, laughing manically wildly at anything and everything remotely funny. He even suddenly becomes ticklish. And he wants to play with his toys. Not the spatulas, not the food processor, or any other inappropriate-for-toddlers household item as per usual, but his very own toys. Without a doubt Monster is tired. I can only assume he is afraid of missing something  and is attempting to keep himself awake by constantly moving and making noise. Because the other option is that he’s secretly trying to take over the house and doesn’t want to miss his chance to overthrow me. Hmm…

I’d like to be mad at him for trying to subvert my attempts to get him to sleep. He’s just too darn funny when he’s slap happy – it’s hard to be mad at him when he’s acting like a ham.

Tired eyes or Asian eyes? So hard to tell...

You want me to nap? Haha! I'm going to play with these tools instead!

 

Contentment

I let them share the big bed with me

Tomato Pie

Monster thinks he’s big stuff. He forgets he’s only a toddler and is always trying to act like a grown-up. He’s been trying for a couple of months to use utensils and has finally figured out his spoon and fork (he’s still working on using the knife).

Tonight we had pizza for dinner and we gave Monster a slice of his very own, so he could feel like a “big kid.” He ate the toppings off the pizza using his fork, then he went to town.

Om nom nom

Making a mess

All smiles

Monster In a Box

Monster accidentally fell into an open box today. And when I say accidentally, what I really mean is that he walked into me and fell over – and the box just happened to be perfectly placed to catch him.

Hysterically Sadly, I didn’t initially realize that Monster had fallen into the box. I was preoccupied with looking at Facebook (sorry Monster), and he walked into me from behind. He wasn’t too upset about it at first, he just kept kicking my legs, which I thought was odd and that’s what caused me to look to see what he was doing.

I couldn’t stop laughing and had to take a picture. By this point Monster was not amused that I was not immediately helping him out of the box. Sorry kid, you’re just too funny sometimes!

Now is not a good time for a picture, Mom!

And in case you’re starting to worry about Monster’s well being while I’m watching him, P was home when this happened. He happened to be busy sleeping on the couch though and missed the whole incidence. Even Monster’s pleas for help while I was busy taking his picture were not enough to rouse P, who was sleeping a few feet away from the aforementioned box. 😉

13 Months!

It’s hard to believe that just a year ago Monster was this tiny:

Smiling Monster at 1.5 Months

And now he’s a constantly-in-motion toddler:

Give me that camera

Some days I wonder why I couldn’t wait for him to be this big and mobile. What was I thinking!?!?

Seriously though, he is such a joy – we are truly blessed!

At 13 months, Monster can:

• Use a fork and spoon correctly.
• Stack blocks (and anything else he can get to balance…toys, canisters, stuffed animals…it’s all fair game).
• Can now say rock (usually says ‘ca’…he’s getting better and better at ‘r’ sounds everyday), truck (although it usually sounds like “uck”), Jake, and that. Favorite words are still out & up though – usually said in that order too!
• Peek-a-boo is one of his favorite games. He’s recently discovered he can walk behind the head of the bed. Much time is now occupied in this activity.
• Laugh, laugh, laugh! Our serious little man is finally starting to laugh a lot – he sees humor in many things now.
• I’ve also been cheating and using ‘sposies at night because they keep Monster drier. Monster has learned to pick up his dirty diaper and throw it away after I’m done changing his diaper. Is it wrong that I’m really proud of him for learning how to do this? Because I am.

It seems like everyday Monster is mastering a new skill, word, or game. He’s growing up way too fast!

We love you little Monster! Can’t wait to see how much you’ll grow in the next month (but seriously, slow down – you’re growing up too fast)!

Let’s Talk About Lists

A little while back, I confessed to all of you my absolute lack of organization. Recently, P decided to help me out by purchasing a white board to help me stay on track with chores.

This Sunday night at started to freak out about all the “to-dos” that have been slipping through the cracks.

My list is on the left....P's homework is on the right...

It’s now Friday morning, and this is the progress I made so far:

• Fold laundry
• Update financials / Find jump drive
• Sort / Recycle papers
• Write blog post
• Research washer / dryer
• Research fireproof safes
• Fix ‘I’ key (cannibalize broken computer)
• Vacuum
• Get packages ready to be mailed on Tuesday
• Upload / Print pictures
• Write thank you notes
• Make other lists
• Sign up for CSA

Hmm…well, I’ve made some progress. That’s better than none, right? I’ve also started several of other items on this list. Let’s just say papers are being sorted – although if you saw them right now you’d probably question that statement.

P laughs about the second to last item. Seriously, who puts “make other lists” on a list of things to do? It is pretty funny when I stop and think I. It’s just there are lots of long-range things I need to do that I’m constantly forgetting about (I blame my mommy brain for this…), and a white board isn’t exactly the best medium to capture these types of items on.

I’ve been thinking all week about the best way to keep track of these tasks. There are so many options – create a Word document, make a list in Excel, use OneNote, or a notes or list app on the iPad? And that’s barely scratching the surface. How to choose???

Despite all the benefits to electronic lists, I prefer something more concrete. After much thinking, I’ve decided on using so a dedicated notebook to keep track off all these other lists. Hopefully it’ll help me stay on track. 🙂

What about you? How do you keep track of your lists?

A Writing Contest, Perhaps?

Dear Readers – I need your help!

So, this is not the post I planned on writing today. Right before I sat down to write I checked my e-mail, only to find this little gem:

I hope that everyone likes the shirts, if not too bad;-) The colors could have been brighter on the front of them. The colors look better in person. The first line is blue, second is purple, and so on and so forth. This is the second batch of them, the first ones were horrible! 

The t-shirts were $22 and the tanks were $18. I am going to pay for Katie’s shirt and all of the koozies. I prefer cash, more spending/drinking money for me…..woo hoo!!!!! Hopefully everything fits in my carry on so I don’t have to check a bag.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone.

Allison

A picture of the aforementioned t-shirt was also attached, but I can’t seem to be able to copy it from my e-mail. It’s for a bachelorette party.

Anyway – for the last couple years (yes, that right, I said years), I have been receiving e-mails similar to the one above – except they’re usually about school/basketball activities, selling a house, or periodic reports from a home owners association.

You see, there is another woman who lives in another state who apparently has the same name as me. And has no clue what her proper e-mail address is apparently.

I’ve always just opened the e-mails, skimmed through them, realized they weren’t intended for me and deleted them. Since most of them come from just a few select e-mail addresses P has always recommended I mark them as spam so they won’t show up in my inbox anymore.

But you and I both know I’m far too nosy to do that. 😉

And I figured they would stop sooner rather than later when this woman realized she wasn’t getting any of these important e-mails. Apparently not.

As a result, I now know far too much about this perfect stranger who I have nothing in common with, except for the fact that we share  the same name.

So, I’ve decided that I’m going to write back to every incorrect e-mail I receive for her, explain my predicament, and ask to be removed from the mailing list. I’m hoping sooner or later it will get back to her and she’ll start remembering her proper e-mail address once and for all.

The above e-mail seems like a good one to respond to, as it’s clearly from friends. I figure they’ll be more likely to let know she’s been giving out an incorrect e-mail address.

But I’m stumped with what to write. I want it to be funny, but also not make me seem like a weirdo (if that’s at all possible to not do). I ran several responses past P this evening and each one elicited P’s patented “you’re crazy” look. So I’m all out of ideas.

This, dear readers, is where you come in. Anyone interested in writing a funny response for me to send? I can make it interesting by offering a TBD prize. To keep it fair, I’ll have P pick the winning response. He doesn’t read this blog, so your identities will be hidden until after he chooses a winner.

So, anyone interested in participating?

 

Poops Everywhere

Yesterday P and I were reminiscing about our first few months as parents – let me tell you, we’ve come a long way! We can laugh about it now, but those first few months we took everyone’s advice seriously and wondered what we were doing wrong when said “advice” didn’t result in the promised outcome. Now that we’re more seasoned parents, we know better.

I try to always keep in mind those first few months when I talk with newer parents. I never want to make them feel like they’re “failing” at something because their precious peanut is 4 months old and still hasn’t rolled over yet, unlike all their friend’s children or is 6 months old and still isn’t sleeping through the night. Instead of giving advice I just try to listen to them and provide encouragement.

Part of the reason I started this blog was so I could accurately capture life with Monster as he grows and when in a few years time these early memories start to fade I can come back and re-read them. Figure it’ll help keep me honest in the future when I start to go gray and loose my memory. 😉

Anyway, what I am really trying to say is that I feel like I’ve been bragging a lot about Monster in my more recent posts. So I thought I’d share this horrifying funny story with all of you. That way, in the future when you’re having one of those days when nothing seems to be going right, you can think back on this story and be glad that at least this didn’t happen to you.

A few days ago, I was changing Monster’s diaper. He almost never sits still during this process and is usually doing everything in his power to get free before a new diaper is put on. Sometimes I let him run around diaper-less for a few minutes, just because he enjoys it so much. On this particular day, Monster had already gone number 2 (he usually only does this once a day), so I thought it was safe to let him run around sans diaper for a little bit.

P always yells at me when he catches me doing this, promising that sooner or later Monster will poop on the floor. I always poo pooed (pun intended) his dire warnings.

Well, that day, P’s prediction finally came true.

Monster had been playing rather quietly in his room for a few minutes so I went in to check on him. Only to find several little piles of poop on the carpet. Ahh! P and I started to clean it up and Monster decided he wanted to help too. Luckily I got to him before he got to the poop, but it was close to nap time and he really didn’t like being told no. So we had a cranky baby to deal with in addition to a disgusting mess. We cleaned the mess up as best we could at the moment and put Monster down for a nap.

You would have thought I would have learned my lesson, right? Unfortunately, I’m a slow learner. The next night after I finished giving Monster his bath I let him run around with just a bath towel on. Just like the day before, he’d already gone number 2 earlier in the day, so I thought the chances of a reoccurrence of the previous day’s events were highly unlikely. Oh statistics, I know better than to apply you to an individual basis. But I threw caution (and statistics) to the wind. And got schooled. Boy, did I ever get schooled.

While Monster was busy playing with the Little Green Machine we borrowed to clean up the carpet from the day before’s accident, I was chatting with P about something. And then I began to smell that unmistakable odor. OH SH*T!!!

Luckily, the towel Monster was wearing caught most of the mess and only a little bit got on the carpet. However, it was smeared all over Monster’s back, so he unfortunately had to go back in the bathtub. He was not happy about that situation.

Suffice it to say, it’ll be quite some time before I let Monster run around again without a diaper on.

Aren’t you glad you’re not me? Hopefully I made your day a little brighter.

Now let’s never speak of this again.

Such an innocent looking toddler

But he's clearly thinking up his next mischievous adventure

 

 

My Little Monkey

Monster has been experiencing separation anxiety since he was about 7 months old or so. The last month or two its gotten more noticeable when we’re around others. Mostly it’s dependent on how close to nap/bedtime it is, or if it’s one of the days I work.

At such times, when someone else tries to hold Monster, he’ll cling to me as tight as he can – he reminds me of a little monkey when he does this. Sometimes it’s frustrating, but it also warms the cockles of my heart, knowing he’s so attached to me (literally and figuratively, haha). I know it’s something he’ll grow out of within the next year, so I try to enjoy it, despite how much I’d like him to be held by someone else so I can have a break. On days I work it’s pretty much “game over” from the moment I pick him up from my parents up until he goes to bed – I’m either constantly holding him or he’s got a firm grip on my finger and is pulling me along with him on his explorations. My little monkey won’t let me out of his sight.

Ironically, his separation anxiety is the worst around people he knows. I don’t understand why – the only theory I can come up with is that he’s afraid I’m going to leave him, since that does occasionally happen. When we go to the store, Monster is happiest walking ahead of me, waving to other shoppers, and trying to touch everything he can. It doesn’t bother him one bit if he happens to walk out of my view (don’t worry, I keep a close watch on him all the time when we’re out!). I’ve been seriously contemplating buying one of those “child” leashes to make sure he stays close when we’re out and about. Then he would really look like a little monkey!

That Monster…always doing the opposite of what I expect.

My Little Monkey

Cheesin' for the camera

My Aha! Moment

I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this – but if you know me and you know Monster, I’m sure you won’t be surprised at all by what I’m about to tell you.

Last week Monster was sitting in my lap while I was typing at my computer. it was after lunch or dinner and I hadn’t finished clearing the table yet. Monster was happily playing with some of the utensils  (it’s one of his favorite activities), when he suddenly he stabs my computer with a fork. Specifically my ‘i’ key. He stabbed it so precisely that he punctured the gasket under the key, which caused the little piece of metal that contacts the part of the keyboard to apparently fly out. I have no idea where it went. I tried to find the piece but haven’t had any luck yet. So, I’ve been scouring the internet trying to figure out how to fix my ‘i’ key which is an interesting activity to undertake when your ‘i’ key isn’t working, only to come to the conclusion the only thing I can to do fix it is to buy a repair kit.

My sad, 'i'-less keyboard

With my memory being what it is, I hadn’t remembered to order it yet. Which actually turns out to be a good thing because today I had an ‘aha!’ moment. I realized that we have three broken computer taking up space sitting in a box in the closet. Each computer has a working ‘i’ key, so I think I should be able to remove the ‘i’ key from one of these computers and install it on mine. Haven’t undertaken this task yet, but I’m fairly confident that it will work.

The kicker is that I have been plotting the ‘disappearance’ of these computers for some time now, as they are taking up a lot of space and don’t work! Guess I’m going to have to rethink that course of action since they actually came in handy. Rats!