Keep on Truckin....

If you know anything about me by now, you know that I LOVE trucks. Well, last week, you could say I was in virtual truck heaven. You see, they re-paved our street and for TWO WHOLE days I had a ringside seat to all the exciting action. Each time I heard a truck outside, I would cup my ear to alert everyone that I had heard it. I was so excited that I would just about explode until I was able to get through the kitchen baby gate, run to mama's office and watch all the action through the window from her office chair. I got to see scrapers, bobcats, pavers, dump-trucks and the list goes on and on.

My mom keeps telling everyone that I am now under the impression that we are supposed to have lots of trucks on our street everyday. Why does she think this? Well, based on the fact that I yell "truck" everytime I hear a vehicle pass outside should be some indication. Thank goodness we still have mail delivery, a weekly trash pickup and the neighbors across the street are putting in a pool...that should keep some truck traffic on our street for a little while longer.
See the above picture of a very excited Peanut. Here I am in my ringside seat (mom's office chair) staying abreast of all the action outside on the street. Keep on truckin......

Cars - Don't drink and drive (and talk on the phone)!

I love cars! Whenever I see one, I have to point at it and I either yell or say "Ca" to ensure that everyone in close proximity is aware that a car is in our presence. When I am out with my mom and dad in our very own car, sometimes, I will just say "Ca" over and over and point to each one as it passes. Once I get started, this activity can continue for MILES! Mom says this reminds her of that Billy Crystal movie, where the elderly grandfather reads all of the billboards and merchant signs he sees from the backseat as they are traveling in the car. She says to tell you that if you saw the movie, you will know exactly what she is talking about and chuckle.

Anway, since I LOVE cars so much, my mom and dad bought one just for me. It is the red car from the movie "CARS" and it's name is "Lightning McQueen". I just LOVE this car and frequently yell "DOOOO" and "OOOOH" as I am playing with it to show just how excited I am. Mom is concerned about what is going on in the attached picture. You see, I am not only driving my car, but I have a drink in my hand as well as a phone. Yes, it is true, I am obviously not demonstrating how to be an alert and safe driver. Don't worry Mom, I won't be a teenager for a while yet...you still have some years to relax and FYI, this car only cost $19.99!

Baby Hygiene

Being a toddler, I could really care less if I am bathed, dressed or even somewhat presentable. Food on my face - no worries. Food or dirt on my clothes - just brush it off. Hair sticking straight up or matted - who cares! Clothes - who needs them - I find great freedom in runnning about naked as a jaybird. Unfortunately for me, but FORTUNATELY for the rest of you, my mom says that I have I have to take baths, brush my hair, brush my teeth and wear fairly clean clothes on a pretty regular basis.

As far as baths go, if I have to have them, then I guess I am okay with that. I have never really minded taking a bath as long as I have my tub toys and cups. Recently, I started to try to drink the bathwater out of my cups which I find hysterical, especially when I gurgle and blow the water to make bubbles. The fun ends, however, when I actually get a taste of the yucky water and get choked:)

As to brushing my teeth...this certainly has NOT been an activity that I enjoyed until recently. This all changed a week or so ago when my mom made tooth-brushing a new and exciting activity. You may ask yourself "Gosh, she is so darn smart - how did she do that?" She simply introduced a little wooden stool. Now I get to stand on the stool all by myself in FRONT of the mirror, play with the water in the sink and brush my teeth while looking in the mirror. Of course, she steadies me on the stool and does an initial brushing of my teeth herself, but still this new routine is a hit with me! I just love it and now actually ASK to brush my teeth SEVERAL times a day. No problems here! Thank goodness as I have 11 teeth with one more popping through anyday now.

In the above picture I am proudly standing on my stool, showing off my new green Winne the Pooh toothbrush and giving you a lesson as to how to brush your teeth like a Peanut too!

Where's the baby?

"Where did my little baby go?" is a phrase that seems to come out of mom's mouth at least once a day now. I am not sure why she keeps saying it as I am literally standing RIGHT IN FRONT of her EVERYTIME she says it. Maybe her vision is deteriorating or she is just losing her mind from old age....you know she is hitting one of those "big" birthdays this upcoming February.

I am attaching a few pictures in which mom says I really seem like a little man...no longer her little baby. These were taken at Gymboree just this week. For those of you who are not "with it", Gymboree is an establishment that has organized play gym, music and arts classes for kids. In the attached pictures I am proud to be riding atop the rocking horse (I got onto this all by myself, if I must say so), crawling through a tube and lastly, looking through a cut-out on the baby bridge. I especially looked like a big boy with my overalls, mock-T and new "Stumpcrusher" shoes when I arrived to play, but more on the shoes later. They deserve a blog entry all their own.

Please have a seat

Mom says it seems like I am figuring out something new every day now. Little does she know that I already know everything, but I am just pacing myself to keep her amused.

My latest realization is that chairs are for SITTING. Up until now, chairs were just another item that I would carry here and there, push around the kitchen or use as a shelf to put my things upon. Now I realize that I can take a mini-load off and rest myself when I need a break from playing during the day. Unfortunately, not all chairs are low enough for me to hoist my Peanut self upon, so it requires me to say"up" to whoever is in close proximity to gain a helping hand. No matter....as it seems to delight whoever gets the chance to help me out.

As you can see from the attached pictures, once I am in one of our kitchen chairs, I sometimes like to yell, spin around or pretend that I am in baby jail by looking through the poles on the back of the chair. Another discovery of mine is that chairs are not the only things that are good for sitting upon...I find that your ordinary colander works well too.

Later.

I am the Stair-Master!

Good news for me, but bad news for mom and dad....I have become a very good climber. For a while now, I have been able to go UP the stairs all on my own. I am getting faster and faster and more sure of my every step, but Mom is still always close by. My newest skill, however, is that I can "scoot" DOWN the stairs all by myself too. It's actually very simple...I just sit down on one step, scoot myself to the edge and then drop my bottom down to the next step and repeat. Every once in a while, I get a little ahead of myself and try to take two at a time, but then I "tumble" back to reality and decide to go a little slower. I am so delighted about my mastery of the stairs, that I often stop mid-climb and give myself a big round of applause. Of course, between me and you, I'm really not doing it to give myself a pat on the back...the show is for mom...you see it adds a whole other level of cuteness to the situation.

Now that I have added the basics of going upstairs AND downstairs to my long list of Peanut accomplishments, I now often feel the need to add new levels of difficulty and challenge to the exercise; therefore, I often insist that I carry my sippy cup, my horse "Neigh-Neigh" or my blanket along with me for the climb. It slows my ascent and descent, but it increases the "burn" if you know what I mean:) Burn, baby burn!

Long story short, you should give it a try too...it is an excellent exercise for toning up those buttocks and thighs (and your arms as well if you are as short as I am).

See you at the top (or the bottom)!

Running Man (Baby)

I guess it is in the genes, because I like to run. I say this because Mom used to run a lot and has just recently started running again in the last week or so. Not just running after me, mind you, but the kind of running where you just go out and run for no reason other than to run. Just the other day, she had some of her things out and I was inspecting them. The items included on my inspection list for the day included her running water bottles, GU (for those of you who are not into running ,this is an energy gel) and running shoes.

Regarding the water belt and bottle - I ran across this strange looking contraption as I was unloading and reloading a drawer in the kitchen the other day...you know, my usual job. As you can see from the attached picture, I tried to wear this in several ways, but it seemed to fit best over the shoulder and sideways down the front of my body. I also tried to wear it upside down over my head, but that is just plain silly, isn't it? Hey, does anyone know if these come in 12-18 month old size?

As to GU's....I discovered 4 packets of Vanilla Bean GU (with caffeine, of course) in my mother's stash. Mom was delighted, as she only told me what it was called one time and now I yell "GU!" every time I see the packets. This seems to amuse my mother to no end..not sure why. Based on the attached picture of myself, my mom indicated that I must be destined for long distance running as you can see that I am using my mouth to practice tearing the packet open instead of using my fingers....she mentioned something about how this was the way to avoid sticky fingers during a marathon. I am not sure what she is talking about but, whatever she says generally makes sense, so I just nod my head:)

As to running shoes, mom bought a new pair in order to restart her running routine. As you can see from the above pictures, I was more interested in the box and I felt a sense of urgency about putting the box on my head to ensure she had made a good purchase.

Happy running!

Lego Heaven

Our last adventure in San Diego was a trip to Legoland. I really had a lot of fun here and want to go back again soon. I have a feeling that there will be more for me to do in a year or so, but it was fun anyway.

We first stopped at a building where there were huge bins of duplo blocks and legos for me to play with and give to mom and dad. I had fun carrying blocks from one bin to another and even sat in one of the bins and played amongst the blocks. Hey, why don't we have this at home?

Next we went to a section of the park called Miniland. Miniland consisted of replicas of entire cities....Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco.... all made of Legos. There were even little cars, trucks and trains running around on the little streets. I was so intrigued, but VERY frustrated as well, as I had to stay on the outside of the fence and I couldn't touch anything. Hello?...don't these Lego people know that touching is what being a toddler is all about? Mom kept saying that if I managed to get over the fence it would look like Baby Godzilla destroys Washington D.C. Oh well, I will have to figure out a way to get over that fence next time.

Lastly, we visited a huge playground with lego themed cars and trucks. I had a blast playing on the various lego structures and even got to "drive" a few Lego cars.

See the above pictures of me playing in the block bins, taking in some sights of "Washington D.C", and "driving" a car and a fire truck.

Me and my Shadow

On the morning of our second day in San Diego, we visited a park by the ocean. We met a friend of dad's who lives in the area and she brought her two nephews to play with me. We had a blast running in the grass, dancing, watching a kite fly and playing with some really cool sticks and leaves. The ocean was very exciting to see and we saw some seals on the beach too. (I am not exactly sure what a seal is but from a distance it appeared to be big, brown and very lazy).

As we were playing in the park, I discovered that I have a Peanut twin. Now before you go and get all excited thinking that there are actually two people as cute and wonderful as me in the world, just pull yourself together. What I mean it that I discovered my SHADOW (or at least that is what mom told me it is called). There I was, in the park playing on a sunny day with my new little friends, and I noticed that I had a little body that went everywhere and made all the same movements as I did. At times, he was very tall and stretched out, but at other times he was about my same size. I was amazed, and as you can see from the above picture, I couldn't figure out who this little person was. Notice that I am signing with my hands (see my shadow) to say "Who and what the heck is that?"

I had so much fun and was exhausted after my trip to the park, so I had to leave and go back to the hotel for a little nap. I was sad to say goodbye to my new little friends and I hope to see them again soon!

See the pictures above of me in the park by the ocean, with my new little friends, watching a kite with dad and lastly a picture of me and my shadow.

Flying Fish

I talked Mom and Dad into taking me to San Diego to visit Sea World and Legoland. This will be the first of several posts to tell you about all the exciting things I saw and learned over the past few days.

To start things off, we flew down to San Diego. Now, everyone knows what a wonderful little Peanut traveler I was when I took my first flight to Atlanta earlier this year. Unfortunately, I heard mom say that I didn't exactly earn a gold star for this trip. I was so tired, but yet, I just couldn't get myself to go to sleep; therefore, I was a grump-a-potamus for most of the flight down. I quickly realized that I needed to humor everyone and and win back some love in the last 10 minutes of the flight so I decided to be a little cutie and flirt and woo the airline attendants. They just sat in their jump seats and I smiled and cooed at them. After this Peanut display, all was forgotten and luckily, in the end, everyone survived, including mom and dad and the other passengers. Once we got off the plane and into the car, I fell asleep within a matter of minutes, so we took a little "Snooze Cruise" so that I could get pepped up and ready to move on with the day. Next stop - Sea World.

Now, you may remember from an earlier post that I know how to sign for "fish". To sign for fish you basically move your hand back and forth in a squiggly fashion, (to mimic a fish swimming through water). Well, let me tell you, Sea World is definitely a place where you can make excellent use of this sign. I had a blast and went crazy. Fish were EVERYWHERE and my little arms were flinging back and forth like there was no tomorrow. Mon and dad and anyone else in close proximity certainly got "fished", but it was exciting for everyone.

The highlight of our visit to Sea World was the dolphin show. This is where I saw my first real live dolphin and it was pretty cool. The dolphin even had a name - Dolly. There were also pilot whiles and other types of dolphins to see. The dolphins jumped out of the water and performed tricks and I yelled "oooh" and "doooh" over and over. Mom and dad were very impressed that I made it through the 22 minute show and then alas, it was over. After the show, I got my very own miniature stuffed Dolly dolphin. I love it and make this "shhhh" noise and swim it around in my crib.

See the above pictures of me to document my exciting trip. The first is a picture of me upon arrival at Sea World (I had just woken up and the picture says it all - "what happened?") The second picture is of me signing for "FISH". The third picture is of Dolly the dolphin herself "flying" high over the water. FYI - You can click on the picture to make it larger for better viewing.

Baby Anatomy 101

I already know a lot of my basic body parts and I happily point to them when asked. Hair, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, hands, fingers, belly, knee, foot, and toes....yep, I know all of these. I am getting even more advanced as I now also know the difference between MY nose and Mama's nose for instance. For example, if she says "Where is Mama's nose?" I can reach over and grab her nose really hard. Sometimes, based on her reaction, this seems painful to her, but hey, she just keeps asking me to do it, so I continue to amuse her! I guess I kind of understand as sometimes she asks me where my eye is and I get so excited that I forget to close my eye before I go there and I poke myself.

Anyway, to learn more about my body, mom bought me a book all about baby body parts called "Mi Primer libro del cuerpo". That is Spanish for "My first body book". This book not only includes the Spanish words for each body part underneath each picture, but also lots of colorful pictures of babies in various situations. Mom and I love to sit together and talk about the pictures and learn.

As you can see from the pictures I have posted above, I love this book and I love to play the "body part game"! In the first two pictures, I am reading the book and then also raising my hands over my head like the baby in the book. In the next two pictures, I am using a live human speciman (otherwise known as dad) to identify teeth and eyes.

PS. Note the Chick-Fil-A Cow over my right shoulder in the top picture. Dad LOVES Chick-Fil-A, so I guess I am destined to love it as well. For now, I will just play with the toy, however.

Ringing (Banging) in the New Year!

As you probably know, I just love to make noise and play my instruments. Lucky Peanut that I am, I discovered a new drawer in the kitchen that is just filled with music makers. The look on my face in the picture above says it all...this is a grand and fabulous discovery. Therefore, in honor of the new year, I have made a resolution to open this drawer and ring (bang) in the new year by clanging all the contents of the drawer together on a daily basis.

My discovery was certainly well timed. Mom had to go out on Saturday to a baby shower and dad and I were due to spend the WHOLE day together. I located this drawer about 5 minutes before mom had to leave. You should have just seen the look on dad's face.....I am not sure if it was a look of sheer excitement or sheer horror. The real excitement took place when mom demonstrated how to clang the pans together. She then said "Have fun, boys!" and literally ran out the door while telling my dad where the Advil was located. What's Advil? Guess she must have been in some sort of a hurry:)

Anyway, best Peanut wishes to you and yours for a prosperous and wonderful 2007! And Grandma, if you hear drum beats (or clanging) from the West again, just know that it is me saying hello to you.