Ready for Take-off

We had an uneventful flight home from visiting my parents in Orange County. (The flight down there was moderately unpleasant as we confirmed Anthony's tendency towards motion sickness. Enough said on that.)

Anthony got this toy airplane from my Andrea (and her family) for Christmas. We exchanged presents a little early as we were all together. Anthony LOVES it. He can't ride it yet, but it has lots of buttons to push.

Fortunately for Bob, Anthony is showing some signs of liking airplanes. While Bob was putting the airplane to bed, Anthony and I hung out watching the airplanes take off. He was really truly fascinated. He watched them zoom down the runway and then clearly followed and pointed at them as they passed. Bob was thrilled to no end!

Is this fun??

We took the boys to see Santa Claus today. Anthony really didn't quite know what to make of the experience.

From his point of view: Mama plunks me on this crazy guys lap. Then a whole bunch of people wave and call at me. I think I'll just retreat until they become normal again.

We did get a decent picture of the three grandchildren together. Bob took a zillion shots. Either Kurt was making a face, Anthony was looking blank/overwhelmed or the baby was crying. I think the bottom one is the best of the bunch.

La Habra Children's Museum

Today we went to the La Habra Children's Museum with Anthony's cousins. Anthony had a GREAT time! He loved playing in the "grocery store". He got to put fruit on the scale and in the shopping cart. Then he spent a long time pushing the carts around the room.

In the animal room he got to pet all kind of stuffed (taxidermied, my mother points out) animals. We ALWAYS pet the grizzly bear nicely.

Then we went into the little kid play area. Anthony and his Daddy had a nice time playing with the legos.

Visiting with his Cousin

When we saw Erik in June he was only 6 weeks old. Its amazing how much he has changed!

Erik came over and spent the morning with us so that my sister could work on Thanksgiving dinner. We had a nice visit, but he was a little bit fussy, something about not taking a proper morning nap.

Anthony's already getting a little bit grabby with other kids toys. He's chewing on Erik's keychain and Erik has Anthony's Sophie.

Haven't you always wanted a monkey?

We're visiting my parents in Orange County for Thanksgiving this year. Paw-paw has lots of great toys at his house for the grandkids to play with.

Anthony's current favorite toy is Blackie's crate. He loves just hanging out in there!

I love my Aunt Erika!

Anthony took an instant liking to his Aunt Erika. (Usually he takes awhile to warm up to strangers.) I think he recognized her as a gentle soul.

He toddled right up to her and gave her a big hug. Erika thinks he is pretty neat too. She loves hugging him!

Two Handsome Fellows

Beautiful Day!

Yes, I have Anthony wearing a sunsuit in mid-November. It really is that warm!

We're still doing OT for Anthony's motor delays. (He's mostly caught up, but we want to make sure that he stays that way!) Janet suggested bear-walking as a good way to work on his walking skills, specifically wait transfer from leg to leg. I asked, "How do you "force" him to bearwalk?" Her one word answer: grass. She was right!

Communication

Anthony doesn't have any real words yet, but its amazing how much he can communicate with gestures.

For months now he's had the ability to signal up and down and whether or now he wants to go to someone. He's also been pointing for a month or two. More accurately, he'll point (with his whole hand) and ask, "Guh?" i.e. what's that. Of course, he'll also wave bye-bye, often unprompted.

Yesterday, he added to his repertoire. He'll shake his head no. Sometimes he'll do it just for fun, but there are other times where he clearly means it. I'm sure I'll get tired of it soon, but right now I think its pretty cute.

New Shoes

With winter coming, we realized Anthony needed new shoes. His summer sandals still fit, but he looked like a dork wearing them with socks.

He has a pair of baby Robeez for daycare and indoors, but for outdoor play he needs real shoes. I wasn't a big fan of Stride-Rites offerings for boys. Robeez last year started making shoes with real soles for outdoor use, marketed as Robeez Tredz. The selection isn't the greatest, but I think Anthony will enjoy wearing his dump-truck shoes. (We have a pair of airplane shoes in the next size up, too!)

Children's Discovery Museum

This afternoon we went an explored the Children's Discovery Museum. All I have to say is "Wow!!" Bob and Anthony spent awhile exploring the fire engine while I purchased our membership. Then we went straight upstairs to the little kid area. We pretty much hung out in the crawler room. They had fun activities on the ground level, and then a ramp to crawl up (and over, there were steps, rollers, etc.) to a balcony. Anthony LOVED the balcony. He liked smashing his face into the glass. He liked peering into the hidey-hole windows. (Behind the face smashing picture.) There were a bunch of windows to peer through and see the other parts of the museum.

Once Anthony was up on the balcony, I could NOT get him to crawl back down. I knew that down is hard for him, but I was amazed that he wouldn't try. Then I started to wonder if he didn't WANT to go down. So, I carried him half-way down the ramp, and he turned around and crawled straight back up. Repeat process. He did eventually crawl down on his own power, though.

After Anthony was pretty much worn out from the crawling room, we went and explored the rest of the museum. Wow! The water play area looked like a ton of fun. They had several areas of art projects, for little kids and big kids. There was a great room of pretend play--a pizza cafe.

I think we're going to get a lot of use out of our membership!





Bottom pictures: practicing stepping up, using the convenient handrail. Looking at Daddy through the window.

Don't Forget to Vote

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday!














Anthony would like to take this opportunity to express his opinion of Proposition 8.

We'd also like to extend our congratulations to Robin and Nancy (Aiden's Mommies) and Caden's Daddies Dave and John on their recent nuptials. We are very happy for all of you!

Baby Loves Disco

Today we took Anthony to Baby Loves Disco. Basically, they take over a nightclub one afternoon and make it a baby party. They had a dance floor with a real DJ, kid friendly snacks and some fun stuff like scarves and shaker eggs/tambourines for the little ones. Elmo also came and danced for awhile and stayed for pictures.

Anthony didn't enjoy the dancing part as much as I had expected. He did enjoy playing with the musical instruments and scarves. They also had some crawl tunnels and tents to play in and he enjoyed those, too.