Eating snow

A pattern?

I'm sitting here next to my second son, watching his favorite show. He smells nice. He has shampoo all over his hair. It looks greasy. But it smells nice. What's that you say? Why does he have shampoo all in his hair? Oh, that's just his daily routine of dumping out shampoo all over the bathroom, or at least the past two days, anyway. You'd think I would learn to keep things up and out of his reach. But we are talking a higher level of mischief that I have yet to figure out how to predict! His motivation usually includes amusing his brother or just plain old curiosity.

This post is for my own record keeping. And if any of you out there have any suggestions for me or see any patterns that I can't recognize, please share!!!

1. Getting into my mascara and "painting" with it. Found it a day or two later because he put it all nicely back together when he was finished.

2. Dumping baby powder all over the baby's room--soooo cliche, give me something with substance!!

3. Ingesting an unknown number of zinc supplement tablets--result: a tummy ache all day.

4. Getting into my Viactiv calcium chews. We were finding wrappers in his bed for weeks. (We finally put a child lock on the cabinet.)

5. Dumping out the gripe water on the kitchen floor. That stuff is like gold!! A lock was put on the fridge.

6. Pumping out all the hand soap into the sink. (I don't know how many times.) Sometimes it becomes a painting session all over the mirror. Sometimes it is a full-on bath in the sink! I made both boys run laps last night outside as a consequence.

7. Dumping out the healthy blueberry-pomegranate smoothy I made all over the kitchen floor, stamping purple hand prints on my wall, and skating around in it. Where was I, you ask? Well, one of the downfalls of living in a townhouse is all the floors. I was putting the baby to bed upstairs. The consequence: they were both put straight to bed, the next day they cleaned all three floors of toys, and spent an hour in solitary confinement.

8. Getting into my travel-sized deodorant and rubbing it all over his legs and face and carpet.

9. Getting into my lotions, countless times, and rubbing all over his face.

10. Getting into Burt's Bees coconut foot rub. He always smells nice, why am I complaining?

11. Getting into the toothpaste.

12. If it has a lid that screws off and has stuff inside it, he has dumped it out.

13. If there are treats of any sort tucked away on the counter, left over chocolates from Christmas, expensive chocolate I gave to Dave for Christmas, Andes Mints, Tic Tacs, or gum, the wrappers have been taken off and it has been ingested.

14. Ripping pages in books, destroying anything Charlie prizes, wrecking puzzles.

15. Peeing on the floor.

16. Dumping milk, splashing cereal, dumping jumbo-sized baby shampoo in the tub...

17. Waking up early in the morning, getting the camera, and taking countless pictures of his sleeping brother.

18. Getting into my lip stuff, digging it out and rubbing it all over.

19....I could keep going.

But let me just tell you about Pete's redeeming qualities. I often find myself defending him because I often think his is misunderstood.

1. He has empathy for someone feeling sad.

2. He has a sweet singing voice.

3. He is most affectionate and always has a wonderful, sincere hug and kiss for anyone who asks.

4. He snaps out of a bad mood in .5 seconds, wipes the tears away and says, "I'm fine!"

5. He shares so well.

6. He has very nice manners and remembers his salutations.

7. He has recently potty trained. He just figured it out one day. I don't have to remind him or ask him to go. It was so all of the sudden such that I have a whole bunch of size 5 diapers left over, which Rosie is getting good use of.

8. He is the best nose blower!

9. He always smells nice. (see reasons above)

10. When you ask who he is, he replies emphatically, "Peter John!"

11. He adores his other brother and younger sister.

12. His favorite color is yellow!

13. He is a tough cookie and takes most things like a man, including all of his consequences.

14. He responds so well to verbal praise and it just makes him beam with pride!

15. He tells me he is my "Sweet Pete"

16. He loves to snuggle.

17. He has a fascination with eye brows.

18. He connects to people on a personal level. Many people say they have a special connection with Pete.

19. This kid is a born professional wrestler.

20. He loves him some soy milk.

21. Life would be so dull without him.

Lucha Libre Anyone?

Pete is growing up (sniff, sniff)

Pete is progressing in leaps and bounds. It was maybe over a month ago when Pete was taking his first steps. I kept waiting, with camera in hand, to get a good video. He would maybe add one more step to his repertoire every week. Slow progress but he's full blown now and getting a huge buzz out of it.

Yesterday and today, he won't let me feed him anything with a spoon. Where he was perfectly amiable before, now he wants to do it ALL BY HIMSELF. And it is taking me all morning to clean up after him. I couldn't resist the face-stuffing, though. I love a kid who stuffs his face!







And here is the "Pete walking video", much overdue but well worth the wait: (excuse the different video formats. I'm experimenting with different ways to speed up my uploading.)

Indulge yourself

1st birthday

What a guy, Pete. We have thoroughly enjoyed having this little man in our family. He is such a joy, always happy, very lovable. Cliche, I know, but this year flew by! Here are a few highlights of our day:

I love the toes in this picture.

The famous chocolate cake pictures:
I found a allergy-free cake recipe online, with no milk and no eggs. I used vanilla soy milk instead of just water. It was actually pretty good. It became more of a toy, though, than a yummy treat.

He makes this funny squinting face sometimes. I'm not sure what it means, but it is funny and I finally captured it.

Interpreters needed

All day today, Pete can't stop talking about "guck". I don't know what it means because he uses it for everything. Even as we re-watch this video he says it over and over again.

It sounds a lot like:
book
duck
truck
sock
dog...maybe
drink???

Charlie says it means "walk".

Tell me what you think and add your interpretation:

Little tid bits

...About Pete:

Signs: bird, dog, juice, milk, eat, all done, more, please, thank you, turn around (we made up this sign--actually Pete mimicked us waving a circle with our hands, telling him to turn around to go down the stairs)

Words: cracker, mama, dada, this, that, 'ish (fish), hi

Some of Pete's favorite things:
His big brother, Charlie
Blankie (he stuffs it in his mouth as far as it will go and sucks on it. It gets stinky and I have to wash it every couple of days)
Birds
Fish
Trucks
Playing on the stairs
Climbing on anyone sitting on the floor
Wrestling
Waving out the window at whoever is leaving
Riding in the wagon
Dancing to any kind of music
Unrolling the toilet paper
Snuggling and giving hugs
Pulling books off the shelves

Things Pete doesn't like so much:
Getting his face and nose wiped
Getting his diaper changed
Being ignored (pretty much like anyone else)
Not being allowed to play with Charlie's toys

This video was taken a few weeks ago. Pete is doing a favorite task of pulling books off the shelf. I love that he was excited to find his favorite book and was really interested in reading this particular book. Please ignore the mom obsessed with getting him to say "Hi" to the camera. Its just that he is so sweet when he waves and says "Haaaa". Oh well.

A week of Pete

Petey turns 1 on Friday. I'm going to dedicate this week of blogging to him. Maybe I can help you appreciate this great little guy for who he is.

I think he was just looking extra cute to me this day, sitting in his high chair. That is soy formula dripping down his chin. We have yet to get to an allergist to get the official diagnosis on his milk allergy but he is enjoying the soy formula in the meantime.

"Onesie buns"

"Cupboard climber"

"Electric personality"

I took this video on my iPod with the b/w effect, pretty neat.

A day for milestones

Hot off the press:

All in one day, on a day that he is very sick and cranky, mind you, Pete has decided to climb and crawl. Take a look:

I came downstairs from putting Charlie down for a nap and found Pete had climbed up a step. Time to get our second gate.

I took a series of videos of Pete crawling but unfortunately this is the best of the bunch. But you do get a nice rear view of the cute little swivel bum.



Clarifying Note:
My husband told me I made it sound like Pete is just now getting around. On the contrary! He has been doing the "army crawl" for about 4 months. He has just chosen to change his mode, that's all.

Featuring...

PETE!! (9 1/2 months)

He chews on this pacifier because I think it feels good on his teething gums. He normally doesn't use a pacifier.

He woke up with a little bit of crazy hair. It looks like a little horn.

Pete signs!

Pete will be 9 months old in about a week and a half. He is such a delightful baby. Always with a smile and so easy to please. He loves to wrestle and goes for the hard stuff: pulling hair, biting, and pinching! But that can be deterred with a good retaliating tickle. Still not sleeping through the night but mom is wanting to start a regiment soon. He army crawls all over the house and takes pit stops where he hops up on his knees and rocks a bit. He even gets up on his toes London-Bridge-style but then plops right back down on his belly when he wants to go anywhere. He loves his brother Charlie so much. Always up for a good laugh. We have so much enjoyed Pete in our family.

Pete sits!

The "chill baby" Pete has finally decided that sitting up might not be so bad after all and maybe worth giving it a try. Turns out he's pretty good at it.

Bouncy bouncy

The Sweet Sounds of Pete

4 months, man!

I'm paranoid that I'm not documenting Pete like I did Charlie. I wanted to make sure I got lots of pictures and short clips of Pete on his 4 month birthday. Of course, it just so happens that he's not in any sort of smiley mood, but we did manage to capture some good stuff.

A little about Pete:

Pete is just a chill sort of kid. He smiles at anyone who will look at him. He is very ticklish and full of giggles too. He loves his brother, Charlie and watches him like a hawk. He loves to get his diaper changed, I know, weird. He loves to lay on his back and play. He's a great sleeper during the night and is getting the hang of daytime naps. He also sucks on his lips like they are a pacifier. It looks funny, kind of like an old man with no teeth. Super drooly and likes to suck on his fist or his dad's knuckle. Already in size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothing, he is growing like a weed! However, he hides his weight well, like his dad. He must have bones of iron or something. He loves his little square Taggie while in the car seat and is a great traveler. His skin is a bit sensitive so I'm always putting Baby Aveno on dry patches and on his scalp. He has lost most of his baby hair and new growth has sprouted, coming in blonde!! All in all, he is a very congenial baby, easy to please and pacify. Feed him and sleep him and he'll have nothing to complain about.

His foot looks huge in this picture.

"Smack!"

(Yummy waffles, strawberries and cream for breakfast.)

The days just fly by with Pete. He is growing up too fast!

Pete man

He's a soul searcher.

And laughing!

Chubby Cheeks

Look closely for the ripple effect.

8 week Pete

Brotherly Love.

Super squishy legs!

I had to break up this next video into 3 clips because it was kind of long and there was a glitch I had to splice around.