Big Kids Tattle

Little dude is back to enjoying daycare again. He loves his two girl-pals that are his own age and finds the big kids fascinating. The big kids, on the other hand, like to tattle on him.

Last week I picked him up and I walked into the room to choruses of "Anthony's Mom, Anthony's Mom, Anthony was splashing in a puddle!" Yes, there was a small puddle in the yard and he made a bee-line for it. The witnesses, of course, wanted to make sure that the offense was duly noted.

Yesterday I picked him up and A came rushing to tell me that he knocked over their tower and kept emptying the box of Tinker Toys that they were playing with. I made him apologize. Well, I told him to apologize. Not quite sure exactly what was expected of me in that situation.

And yes, my title to all the kids at daycare is "Anthony's Mom".

And speaking of tattling, here's my tattle to all my readers. This morning when I was putting together Anthony's snacks for the day, I heard the sound of the toilet seat. I went running and saw Anthony innocently standing in the bathroom clutching his truck. Alas, the truck was dripping. Yuck! (We made an emergency trip to Target after work for toilet locks.)

Who wants to go camping???

Before Anthony, Bob and I went camping a lot, probably 6 or 8 times a summer easily. (Two of our vacations were also week long camping trips.) At the time our tent of choice was Bob's 2-3 person Sierra Designs backpacking tent.

We took Anthony camping twice last season and he shared our little tent with us. It was cozy. Quite cozy as he can take up an amazing amount of square footage for a little dude. We started looking for a family camping tent and our plan was to buy one with my REI dividend this year.

Well, we were at REI this weekend and Bob saw the tent he liked on super-duper clearance. We are now the proud owners of the Sierra Designs Bedouin 4+2 monster tent. The original price was $450 (gasp!), but we got it on sale for $188. How's that for a bargain? (Its cheaper than the REI brand 4-person tent and is a really good quality tent that will last us a long time.)

Key features in our new home away from home:
1. The main tent sleeps 4, but there is an attached screened-in annex. The annex can sleep 2 with the rain fly on, or you can take the rain fly off for a screened-in playroom.
2. Cup-holders. Yes, we upgraded from a backpacking tent to one with cupholders!
3. An interior clothesline.
4. More storage pockets than you can ever imagine needed.
5. 99 square feet of living area, I kid you not!

Now all we need is spring and a camping trip or two to test it out!

"Its Called Rain"

That was the headline in the newspaper this morning. I bought Anthony this cute raincoat in the fall and we've barely had a chance to wear it. We've had 3 straight days of clouds/rain with a few more to come.

I already miss the 70 degree weather we had last weekend!

(I think I'd rather play in the sun and let the raincoat go unworn.)

Hats

The days of little dude happily wearing hats are long gone. I remember at the beach last summer lecturing him that "Babies Wear Hats!" He didn't listen and would immediately rip it off his head.

Today we got home and he immediately helped himself to Bob's grubby hat and stuck it on his head.

More Weekend Fun!

Saturday we biked to Rancho San Antonio to visit the animals at Deer Hollow Farm. We liked getting to meet Luna the cow. Anthony wasn't terribly impressed by her, but he did enjoy watching the chickens. He also had a great time just tromping around the farmyard.

Fun Weekend!!!

We just had the best weekend!

My friends Don and Sarah from Carleton (and their boys) came down from Berkeley for the day. They live in Pittsburgh, but are here for a year while Don is on sabbatical.

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and took our kayak out to Shoreline Park. Everyone (except Anthony) took turns paddling the kayak and while we weren't paddling we were playing on the playground. Its was a lot of fun! Bob and I even got to take a spin on the lake together while Anthony played on the playground.

Anthony didn't seem to mind wearing his pfd too much. He didn't get to go in the boat but did get to see the lake up close. He found it very interesting.

We spent the afternoon playing at our house (and the backyard) while various children napped. Anthony LOVED Joshua and Anderson. They did a great job entertaining him!

Cieran's Birthday

Today Anthony's friend Ciaran hosted a playdate in celebration of his first birthday.

Anthony seemed to enjoy his cupcake. I fed it to him as I really didn't want Anthony to make an enormous mess. After he finished his cupcake he went and scouted out other people's to make sure that there wasn't seconds.

(One cupcake is plenty for a little dude, I think.)

Happy Birthday Ciaran!!!

Poor Cat

I have to say, Tigger is amazing tolerant of Anthony's "affections". She has never once hissed at him and often doesn't even bother to run away. We're working pretty hard at teaching Anthony "gentle". It isn't in any danger of taking, though.

Fifteen Months Old!

Little dude had his 15 month check-up earlier this week. He came in at 24 pounds and 32 inches. That translates to 75th percentile for height and 50th for weight. In the past three months he grew 1 1/2 inches and only gained half a pound. He is really slimming down. His little thighs used to be positively luscious and now they're merely thighs. His check-up went well and the nurse practicioner (we don't see the ped for this appointment) was quite pleased with how he was doing. He did NOT like getting his shots and gave the poor nurse the evil eye when she was done.

Things Anthony is doing now:
1. He walks. For real, none of this crawling business. He can also (finally) get to standing unassisted.
2. His fine motor skills are quite good. He can stack up to 4 blocks before knocking them down.
3. He can scribble with his crayons, though he would probably rather eat them. He appears to be leaning towards being a lefty like me!
4. He combs his hair with a hairbrush. (Maybe that's why it always looks so crazy???)
5. He likes to "talk" on the phone. Or the remote control. Or Daddy's HP calculator.
6. He likes to "pet" the cat. By pet I mean pulling her tail or ears. Or just banging on her side.
7. He can drink out of a real cup unassisted. Or out of a shot glass if he's partying with his Aussie friends.
8. He can turn the lights on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off.
9. No real words yet, but he does have some sounds that mean things. As far as the doctor is concerned, though, those are words. They just needed to be decoded by someone "skilled in the art" as they say.
10. His receptive language is quite good. If I say for example, "Anthony, give Mama the pacifier" he will! If I ask him if he's all done eating he will try and push the tray away.
11. On the down side. He is CLINGY. Really doesn't like Mama walking away. Daycare drop off for the past week has been pretty bad. (Of course, we did go away for two weeks so he got out of the routine.)

Christmas lasted a full month!

Another one of those "meant to blog earlier" posts.

Since Anthony doesn't get Christmas/Santa Claus we decided he would get to open his presents as they arrive.

His buddy Eoin got the Yookidoo Discovery Dome for his birthday. I thought it was pretty neat and fortunately it was on sale at Amazon so Santa Claus brought one for Anthony. Its got lots of great toys built into the sides. I love the ball-run. Anthony is playing with the keys in this picture. Those are a little advanced for him as you have to shape-sort and then turn the key. Something to grow into.

By the way, aren't his cheeks positively scrumptuous??

Winter Weather!

(This is one of those posts I should have made BEFORE our trip.)

I was a little concerned about warm clothes for little dude while we were in Omaha. I didn't own a snowsuit and frankly didn't want to spend money on one he'd wear for a week.

Fortunately our neighbor Sarah lent us hers. Of course, it was size 3T so it was just enormous on Anthony. He didn't seem to mind and it did the trick!

Aunt Jessica gave him a one piece fleece suit, which he also wore. Somehow it wasn't quite as cute as his ridiculously oversized suit, though!

Good thing Daddy is an engineer!

One of Anthony's favorite toys has been his peek-a-block train. I bought it used from a neighbor, so we didn't spend much on it. His favorite part of the train (besides the electronic music) is the ratcheting thing on the yellow car. Basically he likes to push it with his fingers while it goes. (Its supposed to turn the block around.)

That part of the toy never quite worked right. Shortly before the holidays it stopped working entirely. The previous kid probably stripped some of the gears and Anthony finished them off. Well, Bob did his best to get that part working again. He ended up getting out the BIG electronics toolkit, but still couldn't even get that part of the car open. He did manage to fully disassemble and reassemble the engine, though.

Happy New Year!

I was sick with an ear infection most of the time we were in Denver, so we weren't able to get out and have quite as much fun as I had hoped.

Anthony did have two nice afternoons playing in the local park. He LOVES the swings and going down the slide. He and Kay had a great time playing together!

We also went to the Denver Aquarium on this trip. (I don't seem to have pictures.) We started off trying to go to the Children's Museum for "Noon Year's Eve", but traffic was backed up onto the freeway. So we went to the aquarium instead and had a great time.

I love the middle picture of Anthony playing with Grandma!