Doggie Kisses

Daniel has learned to love his dog or is at least really really fascinated with him. His first word after "mama" was "og" (dog).  Connor has learned to tolerate Daniel mostly because there is food involved.  Daniel is learning to climb and pet (gently...sometimes). Connor is learning to stand/lay/sit there and take it...mostly because there is food involved.  I think it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

Connor has never really been the protective type of dog, unless you're the mailman, and then you're the devil, but the most he'll ever do is come stand next to you and get between you and the "offender".  For example Chris and I could be sitting on the couch watching a game and Chris yells in excitement.  Connor will stand up on the couch and get between us, usually leaning on me and putting his face next to mine.  This past weekend I was playing tickle monster with Daniel on the couch and he was squealing in delight.  Connor not knowing what to do came over and put his nose next to us, whined and looked at me and then Daniel and then back at me.  I continued to tickle Daniel, he squealed and then Connor barked at us, which of course caused Daniel to startle and say one of his new favorite sounds "Ooooo" and then crawl away.  I can't figure out who Connor was protecting, me or Daniel, but I like to think it was Daniel and he was just saying "hey mommy, what are you doing to my baby?"

One of Daniel's new tricks is to give kisses.  He even knows to plant kisses on the lips, but he generally just likes to the make the "mwah" sound.  Every morning when I get him from his crib we walk by Connor, who is usually on our bed by that point, and give him a good morning kiss.  Here's a video of him giving Connor a prompted kiss, though usually all we have to say is give the puppy a kiss and he does. 

Bigfoot

Catching the illusive bigfoot on video is just about as challenging as catching a toddler taking his first steps on video.  Daniel had taken a small unassisted side-step over a week ago, but he definitely took a few steps over the weekend (a couple of different times).  Trying to catch it was a whole other story.  Here are a few attempts.  They second, longer video, goes into one of Daniel's new favorite activities, dancing.  We found the toddler tunes station and he likes to pull up on the standing and do a little bop.  We have found that he prefers the kids station with the faster music and is true to his latin roots and boogies like crazy to that station too.

First Haircut

As much as I wanted to hold out on cutting Daniel's hair I starting to notice how shaggy he was looking and how badly felt that his hair was always in in his eyes.  Of course that shag sometimes helped to cover up the bumps he's been getting on his noggin from his many adventures, climbing up on to the table, falling off the table...same for the couch, bed, bathtub...my hair stylist had said that he would cut Daniel's hair for the first time and not knowing that most babies freak out when having their haircut for the first time I decided to bring Daniel late on a Saturday afternoon.  But Daniel was SO good.  He seemed to cling to me in the "I don't know what this place is" sort of way, but he said quietly on my lap as Sammy snipped away.  He would turn his head from side to side to look at things (hair dryers were fascinating) but otherwise not a peep.  Again, supposedly this is rare.  I'm glad that the hair is out of his eyes, but he does look like a different little boy to me.  I'm seeing hints of future curl (maybe) and he definitely has nice thick hair like the both of us.  Hopefully he'll stay blonde so all I have to say when I go in for highlights is "match Daniel's color!"

The shaggy mullet ready to be snipped off!

Daniel just hanging out letting Sammy do his magic.

After (trying to get Daniel to smile)

A better shot of the front, no more hair in his eyes.

Longest Day of the Year

Daniel has never been a pukey baby.  Sure he spat up, but compared to most, he really wasn't that bad.  He had chugged a bit too much water on Sunday and threw up some of it on my shirt (while we were in line at a store) and that was the first time in a long time since he's done that. 

Then this morning when I was kissing him after he woke up, he smelled....pukey.  He seemed chipper enough, but he's pj's were damp and I saw evidence of pukey on his sheets.  Chris and I discussed a bath, but opted to just wipe him down with a wash cloth.  And then he took his morning bottle, drank 2/3rds of it and puked a little on his pj's.  Concerned we cleaned him up, took him out of his pj's and stupidly gave him the rest.  We were all on the couch and fussy baby crawled over to Chris, turned and proceeded to puke all over Chris' arm and the blanket and pillows.  Daniel was more upset not knowing what just happened than the actual puking part, but we decided three times in one morning warranted a day home from daycare. 

After consulting the facebook peanut gallery (friends with kids and doctor friends) we opted for the pedialyte and BRAT diet plan of action.  Pedialyte is like baby crack.  It may be good for his system, but it's way more sugar than he normally gets and he was bonkers all afternoon.  He even climbed up the dining room chair, onto the table and them tumbled back down.  A little bruised, but nothing a hit of pedialyte couldn't fix!

By the end of the day, he seemed to be doing better and was even rocking out to some toddler tunes on the tv.  (Note: he prefers jazz/swing "three fishes" to the rock "hokey pokey")

Father's Day/Mommy's big trip

In advance of father's day Chris got to spend nearly a whole week on his own with Daniel :-)  Lucky guy.   He also got a steak dinner and tickets to a baseball game next month. But even he said that the time with D, was amazing. I was on travel for work from Monday-Saturday afternoon and Chris would send me daily pictures of Daniel's activities.  The week was hectic with work, but the pictures were shared with anyone around and adored by all.  Chris was a great and caring daddy, and we're very lucky to have him in our lives.  Here are a few of the shots:

1st night away, trying on mom's shoes

1st morning away, hmm, someone needs a haircut

walking with daddy in the park

morning bottle, yum!

Crazy baby before dinner!



someone loves mac and cheese

 

Talking Connor's ear off...

Up the slide...

Up the slide...again.

Baby cheese...looks like mommy as a baby

Waiting for mommy at the airport!

Mr. Personality

I never really understood how friends would say that they could tell their baby's personality from the womb (or very early after they were born).  I just thought my pregnancy was normal and that Daniel was a normal little baby.  I was kicked...a lot.  When the books said that you should feel at least ten kicks/movements in an hour, I'd feel that in a minute.  I had to move Daniel into his crib from the bassinet when he was two months old because he had about a 30 second fuse from when he'd get up to when he'd explode to "feed me NOW" wails and every sigh or grunt had me jumping thinking he was ready to eat. 

Now as a budding toddler, Daniel needs to be entertained.  He is not one of those kids who can sit quietly and play with a toy.  He wants your attention (and he wants it now).  And he has to know what's going on at all times.  It's a small miracle I was able to nurse him until he was almost a year. He also, still has the short fuse when it comes to food (I plead the 5th as to where he got that trait) but is starting to get sick of us feeding him.  He even took to feeding daddy today. He was highly entertained by stuffing the salad in daddy's mouth, but only let me feed him his dinner in bite sizes since we were at a BBQ and he was so engrossed in rolling a toy car across a table that he probably didn't even realize I was feeding him. I'm just thankful I get to spend the weekend with this little personality before I'm off next week for work.  Hopefully he'll remember me when I'm gone!

You rest Connor, I'll watch the neighborhood.

YOU eat now, daddy.

Creating a no-no monster

I've been using the "no" word a bit more as Daniel gets into things and he definitely understands it because half of the time he starts crying, but the other half he says "no" back to me.  I captured this video just because it was kind of cute as he shook his head and wagged his finger, but we are going to find another way to "correct" bad behavior because having a just-turned 1 year old saying "no-no" back to me makes me fear for what we have in store during the terrible two's.

Run, mommy run...my future little Mid

Chris and Daniel joined me for a half marathon in Annapolis this weekend and the race finished in the Navy Memorial football stadium.  I have had dreams since before Daniel was born that he would attend the Naval Academy and we've been asking friends who have gone there "so how do we convince our son that he wants to go there?" To many different responses such as "tell him he CAN'T go there" to "Take him to as many things there as possible and he'll fall in love."  I went for the second option.  His first time there,  I was about 14 weeks pregnant when we went to our first Navy game and it was then that I begam dreaming of him playing FOOTBALL there.   So now in addition to the conversations about how do we even convince Daniel that he wants to go there, we discuss how we sure hope Daniel is smart and ambitious (and athletic) enough to get in!  So we'll just keep exposing him to as much USNA as possible and keep him watching mommy run and daddy lift weights and hope his good genes kick in.  And of course....dress him in his Naval Academy onsie. 

Go Navy!

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Birthday Party

All I've wanted to do this week was update Daniel's blog about his birthday party, but work, travel and bad internet connections seemed to have another idea.  It was only a week ago, but seems so long ago already.  Thankfully I took pictures!  It was a very hot start to the Memorial Day weekend and there's a good chance that future birthday parties for an end-of-May baby will be the same.  But that means pool parties!  The backyard was enjoyed by all, and for the first time we were gathered around the grassy area (usually Connor's domain).  The playset was a hit as were the pools, BBQ and cupcakes! And with Grandma Mary here everything was cleaned and put back together again in less than two hours after it wrapped up.  YEAH!

"Big kids" helping to fill the baby pool

Splashing in the baby pool with friends, Carolina, Robbie, and Jess.

Discovering his foot

Before cake

During cake

After cake: red velvet, yum!

Helping to clean up after the party.