musings of Mother Hood

Gobble 'til you Wobble

I can't remember the last time the Martins had a "traditional" Thanksgiving. It's always been that holiday that at least one of us is traveling or deployed or working or who knows what else -- and we haven't spent a Thanksgiving Day all gathered round a beautiful turkey in our own home in YEARS.

So why start now??

My sister Laura and her husband Leo invited us to celebrate with them in Dallas this year, so the Hoods made plans to make the trip. We would spend a few days with the Martins then a few days with the Hoods. Dallas to Arkadelphia -- and back to Fayetteville -- isn't too bad for a long weekend. So off we went.

But with my race coming up I wanted to make plans to run that week, too, and I've been thinking it might be fun to do a Turkey Trot. So I found this:

 

Only the biggest Turkey Trot in the whole freaking country! Perfect! 40,000+ people at this thing, you guys. And they encourage dogs and families and strollers. It's a whole thing. AND this year they were aiming to break the Guinness World Record for most people dressed as turkeys -- 661! (In hindsight, I am wishing we had participated in the world record setting turkey-ness, but there's always next year.)

Somehow during the last few months I convinced my sister Laura, her husband Leo, and my Dad to join me in the Trot. Such good sports, aren't they? And Mom, Jeff and Colt came along as the cheering section. The race took place right downtown so we decided to forego the traffic scene and take the DART. Colt L-O-V-E-D "the train".

Not quite knowing what to expect, we got to the race really early. It was fairly cold, but the turkey watching made up for it. There were even dogs dressed like turkeys! And oh my gosh, there were SO MANY PEOPLE.

That is the face that happens when you yell, "CHEESEBURGERS" at the camera.

 

After goofing around for about an hour trying to stay warm, it was time to head toward the start line absolute mob of people covering the start line.

That picture reminds me. It was cold -- and super foggy. The weather forecast had said it would be a sunny, beautiful day but the fog never lifted and the whole event had a nice, mysterious feeling to it. Runners appearing in and out of fog.

But there we are! Team Hood/Martin/Rangira! Our agreed upon "uniform" was red, white &/or blue -- but it appears we all settled on red. This was the last picture our cheering section took before they headed back to the hotel for more clothes. We would see them again at the finish line.

The race was scheduled to start at 9am, but -- as you can tell from the photo above -- it was a little crowded so the "start" was a process. The gun went off right at 9, but we didn't move an inch. We were shoulder to shoulder with 44,000 of our newest friends. Ten minutes went by and we hadn't moved, so Dad started to investigate. He noticed there were portions of the crowd moving more quickly so we maneuvered over to the side of the street and tried to keep moving. Sloooow progress. It eventually took us a full 30 minutes just to GET TO the start line! And even after that, the crowd didn't thin much. The amount of people was unreal.

I split off from our group at the start line, and deployed my best crowd management strategy to find a way to actually RUN in the midst of all those people. There were actually two races -- a 5K and an 8 mile distance. I was doing the 8 mile while Laura, Leo and Dad were trotting the 5K. Both races were together for the first 3 miles so it was like an urban obstacle course -- zig-zagging across the street, looking for openings in the crowd, jumping up on curbs, hurdling fire hydrants, avoiding getting tangled in dog leashes, trying not to trample slow-moving baby strollers. It was wild.

It was a beautiful thing when I saw the fork in the road and I got to take the 8 mile route - the road less traveled. The 8 mile race took a detour over the Trinity River. Here I am smiling on the Houston Street Viaduct around mile 5:

By this time, the cheering section had made it back with warmer clothes and they were ready to cheer us all across the finish.

Jeff captured a few shots of the finishers while they waited for me. A turkey/pilgrim duo, a very sweaty Christmas tree, and a guy who makes me never want to complain about sore feet or legs ever again.

Wow.

And eventually - I could see the finish line! Hi family!

Finish Line! My goal was 1:20, an even 10 minutes/mile. But -- even with the crazy slow first 2-3 miles -- I beat my goal! AND all the zig-zagging through the crowd added over 1/10th of an extra mile, so yay me! Extra running! Ha! My 1:19 made me 164th in my age division (out of 309 females 25-29) and 919th overall female (out of 1779).

I'm so glad I did this race, and it was perfect timing with my half marathon being just over a week away. Doing a longer race meant I had to keep a race pace for a longer distance, and I think it helped to know what that feels like. And doing a really big race was good, too, since the Vegas half will be just about the same number of people.

The unexpected benefit of doing a longer race like this was the soreness in my legs. I could barely walk on Friday. It was good to figure out what to do AFTER a race, too - to recover. I'm much better prepared for what my legs might feel like after this weekend. I hope...

While we walked around a bit after the race, Colt managed to find something to entertain himself. Ponies!

One more train ride and we were back at the hotel, ready for a shower and a nap.

We all crashed. Hard. And then we were ready for Round 2 of Thanksgiving with quick dinner and yummy dessert at Laura and Leo's house.

And there was a bit of relaxing, of course, iPhone in hand.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Martins!

After a few days of foggy, cold togetherness in Dallas we packed up and headed north for a few days of football and food in Arkadelphia. I never take enough pictures of our time there -- I need to be better at that, but here are Colt and Pop coming back from a "hike" in the backyard. (You'll notice he's wearing the same outfit. This was not the same day. It was his unofficial Thanksgiving costume...)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Birthday! Again!

It's true. We are low maintenance birthday people. No big parties and no fuss. I suppose it's fair to say we "observe" birthdays rather than "celebrate" them.

But somehow, this year, we managed to celebrate twice. Once when my parents were here for Mother's Day back in May. And again when we went to Jeff's parents' house for Father's Day this weekend.

I still can't believe he tolerated that hat!

Colt's cousin Will is having a birthday soon, too. So we had a joint party for the two birthday boys.

I don't think I got a photo of the two boys together, but here is Will with his Dad. Happy 12th birthday, Will!

Will wasn't feelin' the candles, so Colt pinch hit for him after he took care of his own.

Possibly my favorite pictures of the day (other than the Three Year Old Club gang sign photo above) are these next ones. I have no idea why people insist on taking photos like this. You know - the "ok, hold up your present so Mama can see." photos.  As you can see, he humored me. But didn't even try to conceal his impatience.

But the last present was the kicker. He couldn't help but smile for this one!

Golf clubs! Legend has it Tiger Woods started playing when he was three, so we thought we'd see what happens -- though we'd be happy with a #2 Golfer in the World who manages to stay out of the gossip headlines!

Another birthday in the books. Thanks to Ninny and Pop, and Aunt Sarah & Uncle Frank for helping us celebrate. It was a special day, indeed.

We rounded out our weekend at Ninny and Pop's with some playing outside (in short, sweaty bursts - it's HOT in central Arkansas!) and some bedtime stories with Ninny.

Happy birthday to Colt and Will! And Happy Father's Day from all three Hoodlums!

The Rest of the Story

I got all excited and started to tell you about our long weekend with family, but only got as far as Thursday. Whoops.

But better late than never, right?

It's true. I was off work Thursday and Friday last week to drive to Cabot and back (Thursday) then entertain the fam in Fayetteville (Friday and beyond). Which may or may not seem monumental, but around here -- it's a pretty big deal. All Martins in the same place at the same time -- doesn't happen that often. Especially not in Fayetteville!

My Dad came from San Antonio and picked up Laura and Leo in Dallas on his way. Mom flew in from Virginia and Erika flew in from Georgia. Becky is here in Fayetteville, too and that rounded out the group.

We joined The Harbor at Faith & Family Night with the Arkansas Naturals Friday night -- and let Colt enjoy his first baseball game.

He spent every minute of the pre-game festivities (well, until the fireworks) hanging on the edge of the fence, waving to the baseball players warming up. IN LOVE.

And remember what I said about all those Martins? All in one place?

Front Row, Left to Right: Laura, Leo, Erika, MawMaw, Colt, PawPaw. Back Row, Left to Right: Becky, Creed (Becky's boyfriend), Jeff, Sarah.

In this next photo, my friend Nancy managed to capture the perfect culmination of several notable factors:

1. I am constantly on the Quest For The Perfect Family Photo and I rarely pass up an opportunity when we are all showered and dressed (and sometimes not even that...) and doing something fun.
2. Colt is in that stage (that I assume will last for about 18 more years...) in which he looks anywhere but at the camera and makes my Quest For The Perfect Family Photo a lesson in patience and creativity instead.
3. "Got your nose!" is endlessly entertaining. I don't care who you are.

The Double Nose Get! We never saw it coming!

More ballgame pics of families from The Harbor on Facebook - or RIGHT HERE.

I can't remember exactly, but we made it to inning 6ish before the munchkin's bedtime came calling. He really seemed to like it (except for the blasted fireworks) so we might look for a day game to check out this summer. 

All that fun and the actual weekend hadn't even started yet! Saturday morning we headed over to MawMaw and PawPaw's hotel to mess around in the pool.

The water was a little chilly and his teeth were chattering out of his head, but he didn't care. He splashed around until lunch time. Lunch, nap and a trip to the bookstore to show MawMaw the train table -- and it was time to get ready for supper!

I mentioned that the family doesn't get together all that often. So we decided to squeeze every drop out of this weekend -- and celebrate everything within 100 miles. Yes, it was Mother's Day weekend, but my Mom and Dad put their heads together and came up with a "Celebration!" that included EVERYONE. We celebrated birthdays, graduations, Mother's Day, Father's Day, green cards, and memorials.

And we ate.

I love this. It allllllmost looks like Jeff and I could be on a nice little date. But then you see the sippy cup peeking over the edge of the picture. Yah family life!

And one with the monkey himself.

And after a few more family photos outside the restaurant (courtesy of the cute prom kids waiting for their table) --

(-- and a quick stop in the parking lot to capture THIS --)

-- it was time for the real Celebration!

Remember? Birthdays, graduations, Mother's Day, Father's Day, green cards (and driver's licenses and SS cards!), and memorials. We celebrated it all!

I know that's more pictures than commentary, but I hope you can tell that we had a really good time together. We ate, we swam, we enjoyed America's pastime -- we celebrated.

And it totally wore out these Hoods. Everyone left early Sunday morning and we played hooky from church just to regroup a little. And I enjoyed what is now my favorite day of the year - with my two favorite people.

Happy Mother's Day to me.

This Christmas

"We still do both," I answered in the weeks leading up to Christmas when asked about our plans.

I would usually get a scrunched face and a knowing, sympathetic look. Evidently, it's the thing to do now to swap holidays with your different families to cut down on travel time and such. You know, visit Dad's family for Thanksgiving and Mom's family at Christmas -- then switch for next year.

Apparently, we're old school. We do both.

A perfect storm of circumstances got us into this predicament and, honestly, I don't think we mind. All the Hoods only get together once a year, so we want in on that. And the Martins all have ONE little boy to spoil!

So! Two Christmases!

But first, there was the pre-party. I sent a camera to school with Colt in hopes of capturing a few gems from his class Christmas party. Mission: Accomplished.

Please notice that the frosting is being enjoyed as a mess only. Very little of it made it into his mouth. That's my boy!

 

I would have been there myself if not for this pesky conscience of mine that kept me and my flu-like germs at home. We'll be there next year, Buddy.

Stupid flu also derailed my plans to procrastinate all holiday shopping and baking till the weekend before Christmas. Yeah. That didn't work AT ALL. We didn't get to our gingerbread house, but I have half a mind to do it this week anyway. Stupid flu.

While I was procrastinating, Santa's elf (a.k.a. Grandpa Martin) was hard at work. I loved getting 
periodic photos with Grandpa's progress in the workshop. You'll see pictures in a minute, but my Dad built a Lego table for Colt that is perfect perfect perfect. He's played on it every day since we got home.

In fact, he's been in overdrive. I think he opened more presents at Christmas this year than the number of toys we previously had in our entire house. But I'm pretty sure we got through the entire week without opening a single toy that requires batteries! God love Hot Wheels and Legos. (Aunt Sarah: I WILL find a way to repay you for giving my two year old cymbals and maracas!)

Ok - one last thing before we get to the deluge of Christmas pictures. This is too good not to share. We usually play games at both the Hoods' and the Martins', but the Martins tend to be more... animated. The game is Rigamarole. And it's kind of a combo of Charades, Pictionary, and Taboo. The teams were Grandma/Grandpa, Laura/Leo, Becky/Sarah. Colt and Jeff cheered us on.

Martin Family - Rigamarole. Christmas 2010 from Sarah Hood on Vimeo.

So! Two Christmases! Puzzles and cars, lots of football and lots of cousins at the Hoods'. Legos, Bass Pro, and new family members to introduce to the Razorbacks at the Martins'.

Christmas 2010 from Sarah Hood on Vimeo.

If you're viewing this post via email or a reader, please click on through to enjoy the videos.

I took pictures of everything but the food.

There are probably families out there that ate more food and watched more football and spent more time doing absolutely nothing than we did this week, but there can't be many.

We spent about 80% of the weekend on the floor playing. Cars, Legos, cars, dominos, cars. Ninny dragged out some of the Matchbox cars Jeff had as a little boy -- and Colt was all over it. 

The lovely people (some of) you may not recognize in these photos are my in-laws: Jeff's parents Ninny and Baw (Granny and Pop to the layperson), Jeff's sister Sarah, her husband Frank, and their three kiddos.

If you'll notice, most of the people in these photos are not looking at the camera. There are a handful of reasons for that, actually. Most likely, they are minding their own business and not paying a lot of attention to my incessant picture taking. Second most likely is that they are busy watching football. We watched A LOT of football.

It eventually warmed up enough for us to brave the outside world. So after a short trip to the Arkadelphia Walmart for some Black Friday People Watching, we bundled up and headed to the park. We were glad to get Colt out of the house for a bit, and the boys stayed home to watch - you guessed it - more football.

We made it back to Fayetteville in time to watch The Game. Honestly, does the LSU/Arkansas game have to be so outright stressful EVERY year? Per the usual, Jeff paced the house but the tension of such a big game was somewhat lessened by our favorite little Hog fan - cheering right along with us. And it's always nice when such a big game happens to end on a high note! Go Hogs!

I can only hope you had as much fun this week. Happy Thanksgiving 2010 from The Hoods.

The Great Family Vacation of 2010

I honestly don't know what it is that allows me to believe it's possible to go away for a week with five other adults and one energetic two year old and do any relaxing. But relaxing is boring, right? AND, at the last minute, we had three more join our crew! My Mom's youngest brother Jan and his two kiddos - Elliot and Jessica - drove down from Sioux Falls to hang out for the week. And, as evidenced by the 1,121 photos I took, we had A BALL. (That number is actually NOT an exaggeration. I got a little shutter-happy.)

I'll spare you (and your computers) the heartache and TRY to post only my favorites -- but it's still a lot, so click below if you have the stomach for it.

Define "normal"

This is not the first post I've written about Normal. It's not even the first one I've written about Routine. And how much we love it and depend on it. And naptime, snack time, blah blah blah.

 

Well.

 

We had a Grandparent Weekend. It was a Mother's Day slash Birthday slash Graduation slash Grandparent fiesta. And we loved it.

 

But it was a Grandparent Weekend.

 

Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. While enjoying every minute of bathtime with Grandma and dog walking with Grandpa and all the other off-the-routine, abnormalness that comes with a Grandparent Weekend - we ever so gradually and ever so subtlely deviated from our beloved little dance. Our normal.

   

We were playing outside one afternoon while Grandma and Grandpa were here and joking that they were experiencing our everyday life of entertaining a toddler in that hour between supper and bedtime. And that it really is as fabulously exciting as it appears in photos. Bubbles. Brooms. Sticks and dirt and puppy dogs. Bedtime. Repeat.

 

Normal.

 

Grandparents left Tuesday morning. It's now Friday. And we're not quite there yet.

 

Back to normal.

  

The 'being poked and tickled with brooms while sitting in a bush in the front yard" kind of normal.

 

But what's normal anyway?

  

Overrated.

 

That's what.

 

 

Grads and Mamas and Family, Family, Family!

After six years, four schools, and (at LEAST) two changes of the major... Becky is a graduate! Becky is a graduate!

 

She decided not to walk, but we celebrated anyhow. Mom and I planned a party for Becky and her friends, and we had such a good time celebrating her latest and greatest accomplishment. The cake - above - is the Journey 'O Becky. It starts at Fremont High School, winds through various community colleges and part-time jobs, and ends with one very successful Razorback!

A few group pics from the grad party:

 

  

We've all but given up on getting a family pic that includes a looking, smiling, not-squirming Colt. I don't even remember how many "takes" we did to get THIS one.

Grandpa Martin is always trying to put Colt to work. Some of you may remember when he taught Colt how to make coffee back at Christmas time. This time, it was dog walking. And - true to form - it didn't take Colt long to catch on and start taking his dog walking VERY seriously. He "walked" Chip all weekend! Here they are taking a little stroll during the graduation party.

 

  

 
Keith and Don were able to come over for the party and it was so good to see them. (We actually got to go out with them that night to see a band - which we NEVER do. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for keeping The Monkey for us!)

 

And - as a bonus - a Hood Family self-portrait:

 

Sunday, we finally got out of bed and got our act together - and headed to War Eagle for the craft fair. Mom and I decided that it was about 2 parts Craft Fair, 1 part Flea Market - but Top Notch People-Watching! Sadly, I don't have many pictures of our adventures - though I'll tell you that I don't think these people know they're strange, so I'd feel a little awkward sneaking a picture of them - but I'm happy to share this little gem with you:

 
THAT is a dog. Wearing a hat. And sunglasses. This poor little dog was "modeling" for a booth selling these things. The hat and sunglasses come as a set, attached - so the dog has very little choice but to suffer on through. Poor thing. I scratched his ears and rubbed his tummy in a futile effort to restore some of his doggie dignity.

We had fun walking through the booths and enjoying our "cultural experience". I could have taken photos of all the crafts with misspellings or apostrophe abuse - but it would take me all day to post them all...

Later on we went to dinner to celebrate Mother's Day and Becky's birthday (a little early) - she turns 24 on Thursday. Somehow I don't have a picture of all of us at dinner, but what I do have is possibly the funniest photo ever taken of Colt. I don't even know how to prepare you for this - it hurts me I laugh so hard.

The plan: A nice photo of Mama and Colt on Mother's Day. Paw takes the camera and prompts Colt to "smile!" (which we all do, but all also know is just something you say - Colt usually has zero interest in smiling for a camera.)

The result:

Not that you can tell from the mini-Mickey Rooney look and the 110% cheeseball attitude in that photo, but my kid usually looks more like this... 

Ya know, like Jeff.

Jeff snapped that shot and we all rolled. I am still laughing at it. I couldn't get him to do that again in a million years.

A few more outtakes...

  

And we got it.

 

Happy Mama's Day!

Before Grandma left town she had to squeeze in some bathtime - as she is convinced Colt's little life is unfulfilled without it!

 
 

 

We already miss you Grandma and Grandpa Martin - see you in July!  

What the heck, January?

Didn't I just write a mulligan entry a few weeks ago? It was the Christmas Break that wouldn't end when a combination of bad weather and toddler sickness had us cooped up for almost an entire extra week at the beginning of January. The work/school/eating/sleeping schedule was completely out the window and just when I thought we were solidly back on track, here life went and happened again. 

Geez, it seems like forever ago now, but last weekend I spent the weekend in Cabot as a guest judge at the Cabot Classic. In a former life, I was a drama kid at Cabot High School and their annual tournament gives me a chance to go back "home", reconnect with old friends, and brush up on my Sylvia Plath.  Oh, those days. I spent nearly every weekend of my high school tenure on a bus with 60 or so of my closest drama nerd friends traveling to various schools around the state of Arkansas to compete in tournaments. And though I'm a little rusty these days, I once knew every single syllable of RENT- like any other self-respecting drama kid of the late 90s.

Why are entire years strewn
On the cutting room floor of memories?
When single frames from one magic night
Forever flicker in close-up on the 3D IMAX of my mind.

The tournament this year was a ball, I judged a few rounds and caught up with a few old friends. And the rest of the weekend I got to spend time with my friends David and Jennie and other friends from the church I grew up in. I've known David since 4th grade Sunday School and his wife Jennie since they started dating during our freshman year in college. They were so sweet to let me crash at their house for the weekend and let me tag along to a cook-out with more old church friends on Saturday night. Who says you can't go home?

While I was in Cabot, I got the news that my Grandma had passed away in Huron. I immediately made plans to join Mom and Dad, and Becky in Huron for funeral services. Driving to Huron and back meant that I would be away from home Tuesday morning until Saturday afternoon. If you're doing the math, that means I was home for about 2 of the last 10 days.  It was a long week. A hard one. But it's always good to see family. And unfortunately, funerals tend to bring everyone home. After we dropped Mom at the airport in Kansas City - Dad, Becky and I got back to Fayetteville Saturday just in time for supper with my boys.

So at home, things are more or less back to normal. Well, they will be as soon as I get our taxes filed and figure out who taught Colt to giggle when he passes gas.

Outside, however, is a different story. Schools were closed again late last week as we had ICE STORM v.2010. Ugh. Nowhere near the damage of last year. But what a pain. And quite possibly the most snow I have seen in Fayetteville in the 10 years I've lived here. Look here, Mother Nature, I REALLY need my family to get back to school and work so let's play nice this week, huh?

 

I honestly don't know why it still knocks me off track when things aren't "normal". When's the last time I had two normal days in a row? Ha. Certainly not in the last month! 2010 has been quite the whirlwind so far. I purposely made only one quantifiable New Year's Resolution this year - no french fries. No french fries in 2010. Which seemed OK until it dawned on me about halfway through January that "no french fries" would certainly mean "no cheese fries". I lost a little bit of steam at that point, but I still haven't broken it. Though, let me be clear that I'm certainly not on any kind of health food kick. In the interest of full disclosure, I confess that so far in 2010 I have eaten a Frito Burrito at each of three different restaurants -- and now that I think of it, in three different states! *BIG sigh*

I KNOW I've mentioned my unhealthy obsession with love for Frito Burritos here before. And it's not going anywhere. Last week I mentioned it to a coworker and she sent me the link for Hungry Girl. Evidently, there's a website out there that is trying to destroy me is focused on providing fun, realistic food advice to people like me. And Hungry Girl recently posted on this very topic! Her post not only divulges the nutritional information for the Sonic version - don't worry, I looked away - but it also gives a recipe for an alternative, healthier version. But in my rudimentary food experience I have learned that the "low cal" version rarely holds a candle to The Real Thing. And what am I saving those arteries for anyway? I think eating the turkey-chili-fat-free-cheese version might break my spirit.

And then this past week I discovered that both Taco John's (in South Dakota) and Taco Bell (in Missouri somewhere... in a truck stop...) now have their versions of the Frito Burrito. What can I say? I'm weak. What I lack in physical strength, punctuality, and patience for grammatical errors I make up for in taste bud intensity. It's a curse. If only I could find a way to put a productive spin on this. I'm more than willing to sacrifice myself for the greater good that is market research. Maybe I could travel the country - the world! - testing different versions of Frito Burritos. I could write a book. I could be my own twisted and slightly pathetic version of a food critic. Oh, wouldn't my parents be proud.

But hey! No french fries!

And as for Resolutions, if the 'french fries' thing doesn't work out I always have the usual backups:

• Get more sleep and/or go to bed earlier. RIGHT. And besides, sometimes my most productive minutes of the day are between the hours of 10pm and 1am.
• Lose weight and/or eat healthier. aka - Finally fit back into that other half of my closet I try not to think about too much and try even harder to casually overlook while I get dressed in the morning. But oh yeah, there's the Frito Burrito thing. Dang.
• Save money. *Another BIG sigh* 

I better get started.

And with that, I wash my hands of you, January. Nice knowin' ya. And to you, February, best of luck.

18(ish) Months

I honestly don't know where the time is going. First of all, I'm sitting down to write Colt's 18 month update. And secondly, he's actually almost 19 months old. Somebody get this lady a calendar.

My tardiness in bringing you Master Colt's 18 month entry is easily blamed on the people who schedule appointments at his Pediatrician's office. Our first several well-child checkups with them were within a day or two of whatever milestone required a visit, i.e. birth, 3 months old, 6 months old, etc. And for some silly reason like "the holidays", his 18 month mark (December 18th) came and went and his appointment was actually today. Meh. Close enough.

They did all the usual stuff, and his height (32.6 inches - 50th percentile) and weight (24 pounds - 25th percentile) stats reinforced for the umpteenth time that the Hood is strong with this one. Tall. Thin. Some people have all the luck.

We answered all the developmental questions which - for some reason - make me chuckle. It might be because we just don't know that many other babies. So we don't know what he does that's "normal" and what he does that's completely weird. Does your child like climbing on things? Does your child ever use his index finger to point, to ask for something? Or to indicate interest in something?

Colt passed with flying colors on everything except talking. Still no real talking. But he's become much more responsive even in the last few weeks, meaning he listens when I tell him we SIT on the couch - not jump/stand/run or when I ask him to bring me something or pick up his milk cup. I don't think talking is too far away. And he's become a master pointer. His little index finger can indicate anything from "more Cheerios, please" to "turn out the light, I'm ready to go night-night".

 

He's also started to connect some dots that have really impressed me. He knows that when he's done with his drink cup it goes back in the fridge - and he'll put it there. Before he could really understand what was going on, we would carry him from room to room when we needed to change his diaper or feed him supper or brush his teeth. But now we talk about what we're doing and he usually leads the way. This has been really impressive in the diaper arena. Just this week he's started being aware of dirty diapers. As soon as he has a dirty diaper, he points to it and then heads to his room, knowing he needs to be changed. I know this is such a baby step as far as potty training, but I've decided to take it as a good sign, nonetheless.

Our little guy is developing a sense of humor, which cracks me up. He is pretty ticklish and thinks everyone else is, too. He's a little rough (more pinching than actual tickling), but tickles our bellies when we're sitting on the couch or sneaks up behind me when I'm washing dishes and tickles my toes or my sides. He thinks it's HILARIOUS. He also tries to "trick" me sometimes with his shape-sorting game. The star shape is slightly smaller than the circle shape so it fits into the round hole (intended for the circle). He knows which shapes go where as he has taken them in and out about 700 times, but he just loves to put the star in the round hole, then look up at me and laugh and laugh. You got me!

He has also started doing this little smirk that is eerily reminiscent of one Mr. Tom Martin. Always up to something!

 

Another favorite joke is hiding. You all remember the cabinet. Well, he's recently discovered that he fits inside the cabinet! Funny, right!? Actually - yes.

The *thud* of the door closing gets me every time.

At his checkup today, he had to get a few shots. In the past, shots have been a very small deal. He always cried a little, but was over it within minutes. Not today. Today he was old enough to hate us for making him get shots. And he made the most of it. In all fairness, his mother made his appointment at lunch time, second only to naptime as the worst time of day to disrupt the schedule of a toddler and subject him to things like SHOTS. Oh man. So we got through the measurements and the developmental questions and the ear-inspecting and the heart-listening, and it was really pushing lunch time. Then came the icing on the cake. And I was the lucky one who got to hold his arms to his chest so he didn't flail around and make it worse. So I'm as guilty as anyone. And he didn't let me forget it. We drove home to feed him a quick lunch so he could make it back to daycare in time for a nap, and he SOBBED the entire way home - pointing to Jeff's car ahead of us on the road. After all, Daddy hadn't held him down while those mean strangers jabbed him in the legs with needles. When we got home, he flat out REFUSED to eat. (Reminder: This kid LOVES to eat.) Jeff had stopped to grab us some lunch, so he wasn't home yet and Colt was all alone with The Mean Lady Who Let Those People Give Him Shots. He alternated between glaring at me and throwing himself on the floor at the door he knew Jeff would be coming through when he came home. He continued the hunger strike until it was time to go back to school, so Jeff delivered an angry, hungry, late-for-his-nap toddler back to his unsuspecting teachers at daycare. Poor little guy.

When I picked him up this afternoon, they let me know that he didn't get much of a nap but had a surprisingly good afternoon. When we got home, it was obvious he hadn't yet found it in his heart to forgive me and we had an encore of the earlier loveliness during which I got desperate enough to indulge his new obsession - the coffeemaker. (By the way Dad, you've created a monster. He points emphatically at the coffeemaker about a hundred times a day.) So I gave in and let him make a cup of coffee. Only then did he agree to eat his supper. Though there was NO WAY he was eating it in his normal highchair. He would only sit in his booster seat - which usually stays in the car for use in restaurants with piss-poor highchairs. Only after I dragged a dining room chair into the den and put on some dinner entertainment (Barney) did he agree to eat a handful of green beans and a few slices of turkey.

 

So it's particularly after days like this that I wonder to myself, hmm, I sure know a lot of people with kids 2 or 3 years apart.  What is it about children this age that makes people want to have more? 

But then there's this. This might have something to do with it.

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Guess what time it is! (All together now) New Photo Album Time! That's right, Colt Fans, it's time to tie up loose ends in the Colt - 12 to 18 Months album and break ground on the, you guessed it, Colt - 18 to 24 Months album. All past photos are compiled in albums and listed along the right hand side of this page. Some of them go back to the Dark Ages - or our wedding, whatever. But there they are.

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Last thing, then I promise I'll stop. I discovered some videos I hadn't posted so I threw them up on our YouTube channel. Be sure and check them out, RIGHT HERE.