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.

Happy Holloween

Since Anthony has such an amazing growl I decided months ago that he was going to be a grizzly bear for Halloween.

He doesn't "get" Halloween or trick-or-treating, but he seemed to enjoy visiting the neighbors to beg for treats. In fact, he had a seat right on Miss Kathryn's stoop and started eating the animal cookies she gave him.

Halloween, Part 2

I decided that we (Bob) needed to carve Anthony's pumpkin into a Teddy Bear. (Note: Anthony is actually a grizzly bear, not a Teddy Bear, but they're closely related.) He was a good sport about it, and I think it turned out pretty well.

When I was younger, my dad was always in charge of pumpkin carving. In retrospect, my demands were a little high--I always wanted LOTS of teeth. Dad was a good sport about it, even though he refused to do quite as many as I wanted.

Halloween, Part 3

Anthony did wear his costume for awhile at daycare, but the rest of the day he wore his "scary ghost shirt" and pumpkin socks. Fortunately the other kids at daycare are older so they weren't afraid of the ghosts!

His jeans are all a little big. He's outgrown the 12 month size (they are all high water on him now), but his 18 month jeans are a bit long. I roll the cuffs, but then the length of the rolls increases throughout the day so now he's wearing high water cuffed jeans.

In the bottom pictures he's playing with his favorite toy--the stereo receiver. We have glass doors on the entertainment cabinet with magnetic latches. For a few weeks those have been pretty fun. Now he likes to open the doors and twirl the volume knob. (I need to be sure to check the volume level before I turn on the television!)

Meeting Aunt Kara

Bob's step-sister Kara was in San Francisco for a few days, interviewing at the California Academy of Art. At the end of the trip she came down and spent the night at our house before she flew home to Colorado the next morning.

She and Anthony had a nice time playing together. The ate cheerios and read stories. Fortunately Anthony didn't notice her dangly earrings, boy would he have wanted to pull those!

Not what he expected

Anthony's favorite treat in the whole wide world is a glass of water. (Sad, but true.) Its even better if its a sip out of Mommy's glass. We don't do it that often because: a. its a bad habit, and b: he backwashes something awful.

We were at his buddy's birthday party yesterday and I was drinking sparkling water. Anthony begged me for a taste and it was clearly not the pleasant experience he was anticipating!

A New Cousin

Anthony is *very* excited about his new cousin Joshua. He was born last Saturday.
He came in at 7.5 lbs and 19 3/4 in. Dave and Julie are with him in Milwaukee and hope to be able to bring him home to Colorado soon!

About Anthony's clothes... Bob's Aunt Vickie was known for the beautiful hand-smocked dresses that she would make for her friends' daughters. When they adopted Kevin she made him a beautiful little outfit too. Vickie passed away two years ago, but her memory and talent live on. (Kevin is 17 and it cracks me up to think of him wearing this!) We plan to pass it on to Dave and Julie next year!

Not quite standing

Anthony isn't quite standing independently. He thinks its a lot of fun to let go and stand for a few minutes before laughing hysterically and falling into my arms.

Bye-bye

Anthony has become a real pro and waving bye-bye. He started a few weeks ago, waving to himself in the mirror. Then he progressed to waving to other people. Now he'll do it pretty reliably, often without being prompted.

(Note: this is far from his best example of waving. As usual, he isn't at his best for the camera. He always does the full-arm wave, never the hand waving at himself.)

Life is Good

(clearly, otherwise why would it say so on Anthony's tooshie??)

12 Month Check-up

Obviously this photo wasn't taken at Anthony's 12 month "well-baby" visit.

And yes, "well-baby" is indeed in quotes for a reason. When we came in for his appointment he had a runny nose from catching Bob's cold. He also was wheezing so we bought a nebulizer. We rented one when he was sick a few weeks ago, but I think its time for us to own one so that when he's sick in the night again we can treat him immediately. Oh yeah, he also had a black eye.

He weighed in at 23 pounds, 7 ounces which is about 55th percentile. He was 30 1/2 inches long, 75th percentile. Essentially he's slimmed down a bit for his height. Its funny, he doubled his birthweight in 3 1/2 months, but in 12 months has not quite tripled it. I knew his weight gain would slow, but boy did it!

Anthony got his MMR, flu shot and chicken pox vaccinations. He didn't cry at all for the first two shots, but the MMR did make him scream. The nurse offered him a sticker when we were leaving, but I don't think he needs to be eating stickers quite yet.

As for what he's playing with in this picture.... I asked Bob and he said, "It is Super-Binky." Of course I had no idea what Super-Binky is. (Its the lid to a Nubby sippy cup.)

Baby in a basket

Sorry, I've been a little lax updating Anthony's blog.

The other day we were doing laundry. Lots of laundry. (Bob insists on wearing clean underwear every day!) Anthony pulled up on the laundry basket and pushed it over to our bed. Then using the footboard for support he climbed into the laundry basket and proceeded to make himself at home.

Look closely, you can see Anthony's first black eye. (I was in the shower, Bob was folding laundry. I heard a crash followed by WAILING. Little dude pulled my reading lamp down.)

One Cute Kid

Bob thinks I'm biased, but I think our little guy is awfully cute. Like maybe one of the cutest out there even.

Gap is running a casting call for models and I entered Anthony in their photo contest. (I recognize the chances of little dude getting chosen hover somewhere around zero, but I'm having fun.) I also entered the photo of him crawling in the bounce house at Pumpkin Day.

Pumpkin Day

Back in April the facilities crew at my work planted an enormous pumpkin patch at one edge of campus. The pumpkins finally ripened and they hosted "Pumpkin Day" for all the kids yesterday. All the kids got to go into the (consolidated) patch and pick out a pumpkin to bring home.

They had lots of other great activities for the kids--coloring, remote control cars, and of course, a bounce house. The families with little ones waited until the bigger kids cleared out so we could take the little guys in to play. Anthony really wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole thing and had a clear lack of interest in the pumpkin we helped him pick out. He'd also taken a very abbreviated morning nap which probably didn't help.

He did seem to enjoy meeting other kids and I enjoyed showing him off.
He also waved bye-bye to the organizers when we thanked them for a neat event.

In the spring there is an Easter Egg hunt. I bet he'll enjoy that.
(We missed Family Day last month as we had other plans. They had a petting zoo there, I bet he would have really liked that.)