I'm a Travelin' Man, yes I am!

My family and I just returned from a trip to Atlanta. Dad had a sales meeting to attend there, so mom and I jumped on the opportunity to visit all of mom's family and friends. She gets very homesick, you now.

Anyway, I am not sure what changed between now and the last trip to Atlanta in November, but let's just say mom didn't give me a gold star for air travel this time. Don't mom and dad understand that I just have absolutely too much energy to be expected to sit in my car seat on a plane for 4-5 hours? Obviously not, as they seem surprised that I didn't just go to sleep on the plane for three hours like last time . All in all, I didn't think the plane trip was that bad, but I guess 4-5 hours of fussing and stomping all over one's parents in a crowded airplane could color anyone's assessment.

I loved my visit to Atlanta! I got to see my Grandpa and Grandma, my Aunt Julie and Uncle Bob, my mom's cousins Anne and George (I guess this means they are my cousins as well, but I am not sure). My cousins Christina and Eric came by for a visit as well as my newest little cousin, Sydney. I also got to see lots of mom's friends and play with their children as well. Fun was had by all.

By the way, I LOVED baby Sydney. I just love babies and I loved to pet her and talk about her little toes and point out to everyone that she is a "baby". She was a sweet little girl and I can't wait until she will be able to do more than just lay on the couch, drink milk and sleep. Mom and Dad were pleased at my reaction to her as most of you know that we will have our own new baby in about 5 1/2 months. I hope I like our new baby as much as I loved Sydney, but more on that later.

Attached are a few pics of me at a park in Alpharetta called Wacky World. Also attached is a picture of me with my Aunt Julie. She gave me this cool tractor book that had wheels on it. Sorry, but mom failed to get a pic of the grandparents or my new little cousin Sydney. We will have to fix that on the next visit.

I've got the Fever

My mom made me sick! Well, she didn't make me sick on purpose, but over the last two weeks the Fletcher household has been a very unwell place to be. Mom started out with laryngitis and a cold and she coughed and coughed for days. It seemed that my strong little immunity system would once again save the day, but it was too much. I came down with a very severe cold and cough that lasted for days as well. I was a miserable little boy and we had to go visit the doctor as I was coughing so much. The diagnosis was "just a bad cold" but once that all quieted down, unfortunately, it all settled in my lungs and I got bronchitis.

Let me tell you, I was not happy. I would just cry and lay my head down on my blanket on the floor. I didn't eat much at all (YES, ME) so you know I didn't feel well. When I coughed, it sounded awful and you could hear the fluttering in my little chest. Then to top it all off, I had my very FIRST FEVER. Yes, that's right, I waited until 19 months to get a fever. Boy, mom and dad sure have had it easy with me. Well, at least the terrible twos are coming soon, so I can give them a hard time that way:)

Anyway, after a second trip to the doctor on Friday, I received a prescription for Amoxicillin. No kidding, about 3 hours after that first dose, I was feeling better already and I finally ate a good meal for the first time in about a week. I ate a whole slice of bread, three chicken sausages, eight grapes, a strawberry and a few cookies and a glass of milk. We are definitely on the road to recovery here.

Mom didn't take pictures of me sick, of course, but attached are a few pre-Peanut-illness pictures of me in my new "outdoor" vehicle. It is called the Cozy Coupe, but I think it is a truck. I love it and will just sit in it and play for a long time. I love to get in and out and open and close the door.

Child of Nature

I just love running around our backyard. Now that warmer weather has arrived, all the flowers and trees are in bloom and there are lots of things to explore and learn about. My current favorite activity is to pick mom's flowers and steal lemons off her coveted lemon tree. No wonder she follows me like a hawk when we are out back, but I think it is all a fun game. She is quite funny when she is annoyed (ha, ha). There are purple, red and yellow flowers (of course, no matter what color something is I will always tell you that it is "YEWO")!

There are also lots of rocks in our back yard. We have the really big rocks that are great for sitting on and taking a little rest. Of course, there are also lots of little rocks, especially around the drains in the backyard, that are just the right size for collecting in my bucket. Mom says that the gardeners must really love the little piles of "rock surprises" that I leave about the backyard for discovery with the lawn mower.

We also have this beautiful Japanese maple next to the patio and it has really filled out. It was just a giant twig a few weeks ago. As you can see in the attached picture I decided to plop my little Peanut self right under it and create Japanese Maple hair for myself. Aren't I cute?

Easter Eggs and Bunny Hugs

I really love this holiday called Easter! What an exciting weekend I had with mom and dad. On Saturday we went to the Danville Eggstravaganza where I went on an Easter egg hunt. At first, I didn't get the whole concept and I picked up one egg and proceeded to examine it closely...I would have been happy just playing with that one egg forever; however, Mom suggested we look for other eggs and I became a crazy baby egg finding machine. We were limited to picking up 6 eggs, but that didn't stop me. Little did I know my mom was as busy throwing eggs out of my bag as I was putting them in to keep us to our limit. It was all quite comical to onlookers I am sure.

Before leaving the Eggstravaganza, I was able to sit with the Easter Bunny herself and mom has included that picture above for your amusement. Mom and Dad were a little concerned that I would be afraid of the Bunny, but I thought she was great and I just sat there and smiled with her Bunny arm around my shoulders.

To top off the Easter weekend, Mom and Dad invited our Aunt Lori and my cousins, Lindsey and Justin over for another egg hunt and dinner. See the last picture of me taking a rest in our yard and contemplating my egg hunting strategy for next year.

Happy Easter.

Shark Attack

Dad has been dying to take me to a San Jose Sharks hockey game since I was born, but unfortunately, until this last game of the regular season, the games were always too late at night for me to attend. This past Sunday, the game was at 3pm, so we went!

I got to wear my very own Sharks jersey and I found it all very exciting (well, some of it, please read on...). I loved the walk to the arena as I got to sit on Dad's shoulders and wave and say hello to virtually everyone. Then we actually entered the arena where I could hear the crowd and I immediately snapped to attention and started to become a little concerned as to where we were going. When we walked into the actual interior arena and I saw all the people I was just in awe and fairly happy. We sat down and got comfy and then the Sharks scored! Yeah for the Sharks, but not really so great for me. A big horn went off, all those people stood up and screamed and the big shark on the ceiling breathed smoke from it's mouth and it's eyes glowed red. Let's just say I had a little meltdown, but after clinging to mom and laying my head on her shoulder I composed myself. The snack cup of goldfish crackers seemed to help as well. Hey- I never resist a little snack.

We watched about 10 minutes of the game, saw the Zamboni resurface the ice and then I was ready to go! We walked around the arena, visited some friends, watched a little more of the game and then headed for home, but not before mom and I purchased a chocolate ice cream to share.

All in all it was an exciting day, but I think I need to be a little older for my next game.

Physical Comedian

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted an update. It's Mom's fault. She has been having a problem with a very sore neck over the last 6 months and it got really bad over the last few weeks. I can't imagine what she would be doing that would cause such an issue... I mean it is not like she is picking up a wriggling 23 pound human a million times a day. Needless to say, she wasn't really up for sitting at the computer and transcribing dictation from a 19 month old!! All is better now and she is on the mend:)

So on to the update...Mom re-discovered this little wooden red chair that her grandmother Julia gave to her as a little girl. I got to play with it for several days and boy did I have fun. I created this whole comedy routine with the chair and it got lots of laughs. As you can see in the above pictures, I would first sit in the chair and look very composed and cute. Next, I would say "ohh" and start to rock the chair back and forth until it would start to tip over. Next, I would fall in a very exaggerated and dramatic way all the while continuing to say "ohh" as if I were really accidentally falling. I did this about a million times. It was absolutely the funniest thing!

Unfortunately, this chair mysteriously disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Why? Well, Mom said she got to looking at this approximately 40 year old chair and noticed that the paint was chipping off. (This MAY have been right after I decided to BITE the chair). Then she quickly determined that a chair as old as this one had probably been slathered with good old lead paint! Yikes!