Anthony's Airplane Magazine

Anthony has become quite the reader. He sits at the table with us now for meals. At breakfast we traditionally read the paper and Anthony joins in with his own reading material. His current favorite is "AOPA Pilot". He's pretty seriously attached to that magazine. He likes to flip through the pages and point to pictures of the airplanes. I think he's working pretty hard at saying "airplane", too.

Another View

Grandma Taught Anthony a New Trick

Bob's mom came last weekend for a short trip. Somehow, we didn't get a picture of the two of them together. :-(

They had so much fun together, it was great watching. He thought she was the funniest thing EVER. She even taught him a new trick.

Mama is so proud!

Pumpkin Boy

I meant to post this one a few weeks back.

I sent Anthony off to daycare every day dressed very nicely. Most of his outfits are name brands and they always match. (I have to dress him nicely to counteract the long uncombed hair.) His bag, of course, always has one change of clothes in it. As always, the change of clothes is also a coordinated outfit.

Here's where Maria and Kathleen mess with my plan. When little dude requires a change of clothes, they only change the offending article of clothing. Sometimes it works, a week before this he came home wearing his jeans with his gray "peas" t-shirt. The matching gray yoga pants were safe in the bag. But he still looked okay.

Then there was the day he came home dressed like a pumpkin.

Earth Day on the Bay

While Bob went flying on Saturday, Anthony and I went up to the Marine Science Institute's Earth Day on the Bay. Honestly, little dude didn't enjoy it quite as much as I had expected.

He seemed to appreciate getting to "pet" the fish. He also enjoyed wading in the bay for a few minutes. He didn't enjoy the Banana Slug String Band at all, though. Kind of surprised me--they put on a good show and who doesn't enjoy kid oriented music?? We decided not to wait around for the mud-grab. I'm not sure he would have appreciated the texture, anyway.

What he DID enjoy was begging for food from other families. We had our own snacks, but other people's are clearly better.

The Grown-up's Easter Basket

Donna and I tie-dyed eggs this year. They came out fabulous. (yet no pictures, sense a theme). I did make a point of getting a photo of the cookies that I made for the grown-ups basket. Yes, I made them all by myself. Bob helped me assembled them at the very end, though. He did a good job, I think he might be better at this than I am!

Anthony's basket contained: one box of animal crackers, an airplane pull toy and a new toothbrush.

Easter Duds

Anthony is wearing his new Easter shirt with LAST YEAR'S pants. They are now more of a board short than a cargo pant, but they look great!

This year's pants had already fallen off of him, so we changed. They're styled very similar, though.

(If pictures were taken of different days, its easier for me to make separate blog entries.)

Too bad we didn't get pictures of the whole family dressed up!

Happy Easter!

Better late than never....
(Of course, the answer to that is "better never late!")

We didn't get many pictures from Easter, I blame Bob! Oh well. Vince, Donna and Jessica came out for the weekend. We had a lovely time. Saturday we all went to the California Academy of Sciences. It was very crowded but we had a nice time. With no pictures. Probably my fault.

Sunday we went to church. Anthony got kicked out of the sanctuary to the nursery even before the service started. Overflow seating was in the garden and Jess quickly abandoned us to go sit in the sun. (There are large sliding doors that open the garden to the sanctuary.)
The Easter Bunny was very good to Anthony. He got several new books, including "Hands, Hands, Fingers Thumb", one of my new favorites. Donna also gave him some new dude duds. He needs to gain wait to keep the pants up, though. I'll get pictures soon.

Anthony's First Apple

Anthony's pal Robert has been chowing on apples lately, so today I gave one to Anthony to try. I had to start it for him, but then he had a lovely time chowing away.

This picture is *very* mis-leading. He did most of the apple eating in the front yard with Robert, who had his own apple. There were a few mishaps and I had to wash it off with the garden hose a few times. Yes, I'm that kind of Mom!

The funniest thing was watching both boys check out the neighbor's sprinklers. They are the same size, standing side-by-side munching on their apples watching the sprinkler go like it was the neatest thing ever!

By the way, it took him a good hour to eat the apple that far down. We gave it back to him for some pictures after dinner.

Dinner was last night's leftovers--gnocchi and pine nuts in a brown butter sauce. He liked the gnocchi okay, not as much as the apple!

Mama's little ragamuffin

I think that Maria at daycare is sending hints about Anthony needing a haircut. I picked him up today and all his hair was in a pony tail on top of his head, Pebbles style.

I made him keep his hair that way until Daddy came home.

He has peanut butter smeared all over his shirt and in the hair. Pediatrician gave us the okay to try it for the first time. Not exactly a success so far. He doesn't appear to recognize it as food.

Yes, I know he needs a haircut. Probably a big-boy haircut. I just love his wild hair, though.

18 Months Old

Sorry, I've been bad about posting lately.

Anthony is 18 months old now.
At his check-up this week he came in at 31 1/2 inches, 34 lb, 6 ounces.
He's still 75% for height but has dropped to 25% for weight. He's an active little dude.
And skinny, his jeans tend to sag.

Let's see, what is he doing now:
1. 1 word: Mama. I think that's a most excellent first word. There may be more that we don't understand. Pediatrician isn't worried that he's not talking yet as he uses "advanced jargon" and clearly understands everything we tell him.
2. Books: he loves books and will pull his favorites off the shelf for you to read.
Current favorites: "The Pigeon Wants a Puppy", "Planes" and "Goodnight Gorilla". He'll also sit down and flip through the pages checking out the pictures.
3. Favorite toys: his plastic slide, his lawnmower and Mom's shoes.
4. Favorite food: kiwi fruit is number 1 by a landslide. He's also been enjoying black beans lately. He pretty much eats them straight out of the can. (Rinsed first, of course.)
5. He's figured out how to make his riding toys go.

By the way, if anyone wants a gift suggestion, more of the "Pigeon books" by Mo Willems would be greatly loved. I love reading "Pigeon Wants a Puppy", especially the line, "I'm a puppy loving pigeon!" Its one of my current favorites.