Kitchen Helper

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Mid November Post

So if you are paying attention you'd be thinking to yourself - Hey What's up?? The lil' Monkey hit his 18 Month Anniversary & I haven't seen any numbers - no height, no weight, no cute little head circumference. Well, that's my fault - I let a few weeks go by after our last Dr. appt before I called to schedule the 18 month check up & by that time the entire month of November was gone & we got slotted for early December. So if you all just wait patient then you'll get those numbers just as soon as we do. What I can tell you is that the lil guy is just smart as a whip. He is so much fun & also funny - whether its hitting Em on the head with a board book when he should be napping or reaching through the slats of my chair cackling "Tickle, tickle, tickle".

He has also tossed out his old habit of bobbing forward and nodding "Yes" to everything we say in favor of testing the power of his "NO!!!" and getting some practice in the fit-throwing department. He is a little bit of a bully sometimes commandeering a favorite toy and giving a push or shove to keep ahold of it, but all in all compared with the other 18 month-ers he is pretty chill. He can still be distracted and his fits when he has them are short-lived bursts.

He is still super active and getting more agile. He enjoys the "circuit" in our park which consists of a two step climb to a platform, another couple of steps to another platform then sitting & scooching on his toosh to the edge of the slide and sliding down WHEEEEE. He also likes the suspended bridge bouncy thing as well as going up the BIG ladder (probably about 8 steps) and sliding down the covered slide - which does Really Fun things to his hair - crazy static electricity.

He is showing a small bit of the OCD - he takes all the push toys in the park and lines them up or parks them in order under the table or under the slide. He also likes to clean (????) - Em and I have no idea where this trait comes from. He will take a cloth or sponge and wipe off the dirty place-mat after he eats, he takes the broom or mop and tries to clean the kitchen floor - sadly he doesn't love the vacumn (I blame this on Mabel since she has a habit of barking at it.) He has even begun to follow a big person (ie Me) into the loo so that he can pull all the toilet paper off of the roll & then sweetly offer it up to you as he says in baby voice " pp ??? poo poo?? "

It is starting to get colder here so we have been discovering more indoor play spaces - sadly coffee shops are too small to contain him, but the library and the childrens museum are most accomadating. Also a few friends are hosting play groups at their houses. He is playing more with Lila - the big gal upstairs (22 months old!!) and we see our buddy Gabe almost every day. The challenge now is trying to figure out how to time the naps to the much shorter days - its dark now between 4 and 4:30 so it feels bad to sleep away the last couple hours of daylight which means I either try to get him down early (before 2) or we wait until after 4 - like today which means he's asleep at dinner time --- but will probably be wide awake & rearing to go at around 10 pm. Oh well.

I am missing Family & our SF Friends a lot right now - Happy Thanksgiving to you all & plan a trip to the East Coast for the coming year!!!!

Fall Walk with Mommy & Grandma

We had another weekend up in the shire with Phancy. The lil' monkey loves his house in the woods, he was playing with all the toys for hours entertaining himself and loving long walks up the leaf covered driveway with Grandma, Grandpa and Mommy. I loved the time away too - I read almost the ENTIRE Sunday NY Times for the first time in I don't know how long. Yummm....

Now its back to a week of real life & then the grandparents are in Boston for a wedding over the weekend so more N. family time.

Dream On....

Yup my boy ROCKS

Fall at the Shire

We went out to the shire this weekend to visit the GParents... & got a really cute shot of the lil monkey in his fancy Patagonia vest playing in the fallen leaves. He had a great time getting lots and lots of attention & I had a good time getting to do some soduko puzzles and lay on the couch. Mabel & Monito both enjoyed running in circles around the house & we luckily avoided a massive rainstorm that blew through Boston. All in all a good weekend & Next weekend mama Em gets to come out to play too.

Trick or Treat

the kids

This time last year...

Too cute II

World Series (of cleaning)

I cleaned our oven today.

I think that this is the first time in my life that I have cleaned an oven.

Back from Seattle

So we got home from our vacation on Sunday morning (6am sunday morning - ouch). We were lucky on the flight home that the lil guy got his own seat so we could set up his car seat & he is able to sleep in it really good. He slept from a few minutes after take-off till about half an hour before landing with one semi-conscious nursing break in there somewhere over the great lakes.

As for me ---- well I discovered that VH1 "classic" shows a couple hours from the 120 Minutes vault of 1980's punkrock and alternative videos ... so at 3 in the morning I was enjoying watching the old Courtney Love followed by Suicidal Tendancies and getting scared by Flock of Seagulls. Em --- well she's a plane sleeper so she did ok.

Our trip was really good. Blasto got to meet KINGSTON - his new cousin, as well as seeing Doron & Raffi in Portland and seeing his cousins in Seattle & Ali & Rhys who went out to Whidby Island for 3 days with us (poor kids had to miss school days and play on the beach instead!!)

We also got to spend a morning with Aunt Suzan and see the Salmon Ladder which was kinda quiet on the day we went but pretty cool nonetheless, plus we got to watch a sailboat get lifted up to go through the ballard Locke.

Anyway here is a link to some photos from the trip:

Seattle Pdx Trip 2007

Hiking

We went up to the Fells today with Kath (& Gabe) and Jeff (& Lila) and let the kids hike around in the falling leaves. Mikey, Lila's dog came too and it was so funny to listen to Lila yelling "Mikey Mikey" as she tried to get him to come to her (which he has the sense not to do).

These three are pretty adorable together & its really nice to watch how they are learning to interact with each other. Lila is totally the leader of the pack and ready to tell Gabe & the Monkey what to do. They are all more interested in someone else's snack & water bottle than they are in their own which makes for some fun pushing & pulling but all in all they are good at sharing for 16 - 20 month old kids. Look at how good Gabe is at sharing his leaf with lil R.

Talking to Aunt Mel on the telephone

Sentences

Okay not quite, but the little monkey is beginning to put two words together. So far he has come up with "Where Da?" when looking for me and "Bye Doggie" to the neighbors little fluffy dog.

Watching the Marching Bands

Honk! Fest today

Here you can see Em and Monito waving their Simchat Torah flag for the marching bands... probably not the most popular sentiment.

oh well & oy vey

A shout out to Mama Kathy in SF

As you can see from this photo even just a little time spent with Mama Kathy in SF pays off big time. The lil guy has been walking for only a couple months now but he's already learned how to put that skill to use & pick up a mop or a broom. Thank the gods, cause you all know that Emily & I are incapable of cleaning house.

Let's hope our little taurus keeps on doing it for us. & Kathy - next visit lets teach him what that toilet scrubber thing is for.

Falling for fall II

Because one video just isn't enough I added this one too.

Falling for fall

Hanging out with Lila

Lila from upstairs has begun to hang out more & more with the lil monkey. Here he is showing her everything there is to know about snaps.

The lil monkey enjoys RiverSing

A few weekends ago on the Charles River at the Weeks bridge a bunch of choirs performed at Sunset - this is an annual beginning of fall thing. I think the lil guy liked it.