Things we do...

I am learning to be a "laid back parent" and am very thankful for my close friends who have children and can help me not sweat the small stuff.  He fell while trying to scale the bathtub wall to get to the soap dish and got a bruise? He's a boy, he'll have more of them.  He's stuffy and has a little cough but no fever? All babies are snotty, he'll be fine (exact words from his daycare provider). And on and on.  But Wednesday night I realized that there are things that I do (or don't do) to allow myself that extra few minutes to make dinner or take a shower or eat in peace that I NEVER thought that I would do as a parent.  Wednesday night we let Daniel sit on the dining room table while we ate dinner so we could have a few minutes of eating in "peace" (just like he had done on Saturday).  He was done with his dinner and done with sitting in his high chair and wanted to be with us.  At first he started out in the third chair and then he made his way up on to the table and would ask for bites of our rice and chicken as we ate.  We all sat there for about five minutes as we shoveled food into our mouths until Daniel said "uh oh" and the rice went flying from our plates.  Oh well at least we ate dinner as a "family".  Here are a few other examples of things we do...

Allow the lovie to be brought into the high chair and get covered with food
just so he'll eat (a mini cucumber in this picture)

Play with the blackberry all he wants if it'll make him happy and mommy
can have her morning coffee in peace

Climb and ride the suitcase so the other suitcase can be unpacked

Play in the cooler (and eat the car keys) so I can finish packing for the beach

Carry around pots and pans (and scratch up the floor) because they're fun to bang. I found this

pan under the couch a few hours later

Take me out to the ballgame

I got Chris tickets to see the Nats for Fathers' Day, thankfully they are really good this year or else it would not have been a very nice gift.  And thankfully Daniel isn't really old enough for a father-son outing to the ballpark, so I got to go too!  Yeah!  We took the metro downtown, Daniel's first ride not in utero.  He seemed to enjoy the moving scenery, but he especially liked going into the tunnels and seeing all of the lights flashing as we sped past.  It was a fair nice summer day (read: not 100+ degrees like it has been for the last few weeks) and it was a Sunday afternoon game so there were LOTS of families there.  

We ended up eating at one of the first food vendors we saw since we were starving, but Daniel would only eat a few of the overpriced potato chips.  I knew we were pushing the nap time, but I figured he could sleep on one of us when we got to the seats.  We had fantastic seats right off of 1st baseline and under cover.  Daniel slept for a few innings, but he was definitely getting hot and cranky so I took him for a walk and he explored the breezeway and the metal gates.  When we started to get hot and realized Daniel wasn't going to go back to sleep, we decided to leave.  Didn't hurt that the Nats were up 8-2 and scored another run as we were leaving.  Go Nats! 

 Daniel ended up falling asleep on the last leg of the metro ride home end Chris was able to get him down for another hour.  Unfortunately he was still hot when he woke up, and not from being in the heat this time.  Poor buddy had a 101.3 fever and was CRANKY!  Didn't even want the tylenol that he normally loves.  Of course that didn't stop him from playing in his car outside, but only after I made him eat half of a peach and some bites of pb&j.  He doesn't usually eat much when he doesn't feel well, but I wanted something in his belly.  He went down without a fuss tonight, but hardly took his bottle.  Hopefully all of this is just exhaustion from an awesome day at the ballpark.  And hopefully the poor little guy gets a good night's sleep and feels better in the morning\.

Passed out with the hand in the cookie "jar"

Exhausting...

Chasing a full on toddler is exhausting!  But it is rewarding to watch him be so proud of himself as he walks down the sidewalk and then turn around to make sure I'm watching.  But as I've mentioned before he was also climbing before he was walking so add the mobility of being able to walk away (usually with a toy in each hand) with the ability to climb up stairs, chairs and tables and you can't leave him for a minute!  Good thing he's so darn cute.

Saturday morning table climbing...

He walked from the car up the stairs before I had a chance to grab the camera

He loves to climb into the stroller and get ready to ride!

Ready to drive...just fast forward 15 years...

It's only a close second to things that make noise when banged together, but Daniel LOVES to "drive" the car.  After our Saturday morning runs I will usually change him in the back trunk area and if the backseat is half down he will crawl all the way to the front and get into the driver's seat.  No messing around along the way, it's a straight shot up and into the drivers' seat and pulled up on the steering wheel. Once in place, he'll play with the gear shifter, the turn signal, the wiper control, adjust the mirrors and of course, steer the wheel.  He LOVES it. I can't figure out if when we do get him in a front-facing seat if he'll be fascinated with watching us drive, or mad that HE can't do it.  See the video below of him "driving" my car a few weeks ago.

On my way back from a baby shower yesterday for Baby Girl Murphy ( aka "girlfriend #10"), I passed a garage sale that had a number of baby items for sale and had to stop. I flipped a quick U and picked up this new toy so Daniel could have a car of his own.  I'm such a good mom. In addition to the car, he also got a plastic shopping cart, two small plastic chairs and the popper "vacuum" all for $11! The kids who were selling it were so excited to hear about the toys' new home and helped me by carrying everything to the car. Nice to know they came from a good home.  I got home right before a rain shower so Daniel never got to see his new toys until this afternoon when we celebrated Grandma Corrinne's birthday today and spent a little time outside.  Daniel toddled right over to the car opened the door and got right in.  As far as we know, he's never been in a car like this before but he knew how to open the door, close the door, turn the wheel, honk the horn and eventually figured out how to stick his feet down, Flintstone-style, and move the car forward!  He's such a brilliant boy.  Maybe he'll be a NASCAR driver instead of a football player.  

Peachy

Daniel's auntie Susann (mother of his wingman, Robbie) has been blessing us with a box of the best peaches each summer for the last two years, so you can imagine my delight when I got home tonight to a box of the sweet SC goodness. Daniel couldn't wait so in the two minutes that it took me to get out of work clothes he broke into the box and took a good sized chunk out of this peach. I'd say he approves.

More Vacation Fun

Daniel loves the ocean but is having some sort of allergic reaction to the salty and sandy air.  He has gross goopy eyes that we've researched over and over checking to see if it's pink eye.  Most likely not.  Daddy walked with Daniel through the surf and they played a bit in the sand...and then promptly fell asleep on the blanket.  We've also had lots of fun with cousins, one who is only 5 months older and is walking like a champ.  We're trying to get Daniel to teach her to babble more and trying to get her to teach Daniel to walk more. Next year it will be a crazy toddler tornado!

Ohhh, water....

Playing with sand crabs with cousin Bailey

Napping with daddy

Swim lessons!

Blogging from vacation! Daniel is loving the pool! Tomorrow we'll visit the ocean for the first time.