The Artist

Yesterday, Ping Pong swiftly went from drawing scribbles to drawing people! This happened in a matter of seconds--one moment his little hand was wildly moving across the page, then carefully drawing a face the next. Here is one of his "men."



I think it looks like a lion, but he insists it's not. Maybe it's a beard?

First Steps!!!

That's right, folks! My mom has miraculously been able to capture both of her kids taking their first steps on video!

I've been standing independently for some time and I took one step on Friday, so Mom knew I was ready and has had the camera attached to her hand like 24 hours a day. Her obsession has finally paid off. Check it out!!!



Woo-hoo! Yay me!

A Room of One's Own

Despite his unhappy face here, we are beyond thrilled to announce that Ping Pong's brand new room is complete! He just didn't appreciate his mom interrupting the bedtime routine to document this momentous occasion.



ps
You'll notice this is tagged as a milestone. Heck yes it is! Hooray for privacy!

A Milestone of Sorts

Poki woke up this morning and told us he'd had "the most scariest dream ever." The amazing thing is that he actually remembered all of it--every detail. The poor kid. It really does sound awful, but also extremely creative. I just love this kid's mind. This is what he told me:

I dreamed that Mommy and I were sleeping in beds at the Air and Space Museum. Raleigh and Daddy were at home and we were at the Air and Space Museum. We woke up from sleeping and wanted to watch a TV show, so we left the room and went to find the TV. We couldn't find it anywhere and we walked all over the Air and Space Museum looking for the TV. Then we got lost from each other. It was really scary because I couldn't find Mommy and she couldn't find me. I was really sad and she was really sad. Then I found some goggles. When I put on the goggles, I could see Mommy. She was wearing a helmet. When she was wearing the helmet she could see me. So we wore the goggles and helmet and found each other. Then we went to the beds again and the TV was right there in the bedroom.

Ha Ma Ka!

(You'll understand that title more after you watch the video)

Mom has been trying to catch my latest milestone for days and days, and now...well... she's still not exactly succeeding, but at least you'll get a tiny taste of it. You'll also get to hear my awesome work as Mom's parrot.

Love At First Bite

Mom has been trying to get me more interested in finger foods, but so far, the only things I've been interested in are bananas, crackers, cereal puffs, and waffles...that is...until today. See, Poki had a very special lunch today and I got hold of some leftovers. It's abundantly clear that Mom just wasn't giving me the right kind of finger food.



(And yes, Mom listed this as a milestone. How could she not?)

Poki's Christmas Program

The ham doesn't fall far from the...um...tree? Well, whatever--today I proved this fact by performing beautifully in my preschool Christmas program. Well, except when I announced to everyone that I didn't feel like doing it anymore...or when I sat down while everyone else was standing, explaining to the audience that I was getting tired. Okay, fine. So, I'm not the ham my parents thought I was...at least not in the way they were hoping. Frankly, Mom was a nervous wreck all morning because she knew if any kid was going to change the words to the songs to make it extra silly or take a flying leap off the stage, it was going to be me. Fortunately for her, I sat perfectly the whole time...even when I wasn't supposed to be sitting.

Here are some highlights from the performance. (Don't be fooled by the star on top of the tree--the real star appears around the 50 second mark.)



Truth is, most of the time, I was bored out of my skull.



Or just plain mad...like when they sang The Dreidel Song. I wanted to sing that song, but NOOOO, I had to sing Oh, Christmas Tree.



For those of you who don't already know, I'm so obsessed with dreidels right now, I've asked for one for Christmas AND I've told Mom that I want to be a dreidel for Halloween next year.

Then it was time for our adorable send-off!



Pretty cute, huh? Aren't you amazed by how well behaved I was? I mean, I was like a perfect little angel! Okay, okay...Mom might have left out one small detail. This was her real favorite part of the performance...and the video that will be broadcast on a big screen at my wedding rehearsal dinner. There is really only one way to describe it: Classic.



After our amazing performance, we went downstairs for a reception (aka: fancy snack) where guess who was waiting for us!? You'll never guess. It was none other than Santa's much older and skinnier brother, Feeble Claus!



Whatever. He gave me a candy cane. He's cool.

And that's that, folks! Happy Holidays to you all!

Signature

Sure, this is a beautiful leaf rubbing...



but look a little closer...



That's right, folks! I wrote my name all by myself! As you can see, I need to work on my S's and N's, but we think it's pretty darn good for a first effort!

Giving Thanks For New Tricks

First Tooth!

I guess there isn't really more to say after that post title...I got my first tooth! I had a sleepless night last night and Mom just noticed why. It's on the bottom right (my right), and the left one looks like it will be coming in any day!

Yep. I'm turning into a big boy...right before my mother's tear-filled eyes.

Hey! That Looks Like Something!

A few weeks ago (I know, I know...shame on my Mom for waiting to tell you until now), I was drawing on my kid's menu at the Ruby Restaurant (aka: Ruby Tuesdays), when suddenly, my mom realized what I was drawing looked like something. Like...a real something. And not my usual 100 swirls I claim is a tornado. No, this looked like a person! She couldn't believe her eyes!

She asked me what I was drawing and I said, "This way it's a guy with legs..."



"And this way, it's a guy with antennas!"

On The Move!

As some of you might remember, my Mom predicted that I would be crawling by my 7 month birthday. Surprisingly, I didn't. I mean, I've been scooting around in circles for a while now, but only in circles. Recently though, I started doing this:





Which made my Mom think I was just days away. Then I started moving backwards, like this:



But not really forward...until now.



I believe this is what they call the army crawl? I'm putting those elbow patches on my outfit to good use!

All Done!

Okay, you'll never believe what I'm doing. Mom doesn't even believe it. She thought this was a total coincidence until this morning when I closed my mouth tight and put my hands in the air to tell her I was "all done" with my breakfast. Mom has been signing with me for months, especially signing "more" and "all done" while feeding me solids, but she didn't expect me to start signing back so soon. She immediately ran to get the camera and this is what she caught on film:



Addendum: Aunt La La said she thought Mom was doing the sign while this video was being taken and maybe I was mimicking her. We should have mentioned that Mom was not signing while she was saying "all done"--she was just saying it. Cool, huh?

Småland

You might think it's strange that my mom felt compelled to document this milestone, and frankly, I agree. But she and Dad have been waiting until I could do this since I began making shopping difficult...which is like...since I was born.

See, there is a little place in Ikea where parents can leave their children while they shop. This glorious place is called "Småland." Children that are fully potty-trained and 37″-54″ tall are welcome to come into this exclusive club. (It's exclusive because parents and their younger siblings are not welcome). After signing a bunch of forms, then getting matching bracelets and hand stamps and one of those electronic pagers chain restaurants give you when waiting for a table (basically everything short of a retina scan and urine sample), parents can leave their little critters and shop in peace. Ahhh...peace. Now do you see why my parents have been waiting for me to reach this milestone?

So, last night, Mom and Dad (with Ping Pong happily bouncing around in the baby bjorn) left me to color, run around, and dive into a ball pit while they sat on every sofa in Ikea.

When I came into my folk's room this morning, the first thing I said was, "Good morning, Mommy. Can we go to Ikea this morning?" Then when Daddy was watching the news (ahem...Saved By the Bell) while we ate our cereal, I asked, "Daddy, when you're finished watching your show, can we find a show to watch about Ikea?" In fact, our excursion was such a success, Mom is thinking of taking me there once a week just for fun. She can leave me in Småland and go sit in the Ikea cafeteria with a cup of coffee, a book, and a sleeping Ping Pong. What? Does that sound bad?

Here are some pictures of this momentous occasion:

Tall/short enough? Check!



Bracelet? Check!



And he's off!



Straight for the ball pit! (Big surprise).



Thank you, Ikea. Not only do you offer inexpensive furnishings and delicious cinnamon rolls, you babysit too. God bless you.

First (Real) Day Of School!

This morning, I came into my parents room and asked if it was time to go to school yet. Unfortunately I still had a couple of hours. I guess you could say I was pretty excited...

Mom just had to take my picture outside the school.





Mom, can you pleeeease take my picture already? I want to go play!



And boy, did I play!







That last picture was just minutes before my major meltdown because I didn't want to leave. (Insert Mom's sigh here). Hey, at least I wasn't crying when she dropped me off!

First Day Of School! (Sort Of...)

Today was orientation at my preschool, which means that my folks and I went to my new school for an hour today to meet my teachers and have a little info session. So while it wasn't really the real first day of real school, it was still a big enough deal for my mom to freak out over. (Big surprise). Here are some pictures!

I woke up this morning and came right into my folks' room, yelling: "It's the first day of schoooooool!" Here I am, yelling again as we were leaving. Hurray!



My school is close enough to walk!



Arriving with the other kids.



Hanging up my down vest in my cubby. (By the way, it was chilly this morning, but was in no way cold enough for a down vest. I just wanted to wear a down vest. Period.)



Ahhhh... (My mom is dying right now).



During the info session for parents (while the kids played in other rooms), there was a long talk about how you can help your kids prepare for separation from their parents. After, the head teacher asked if anyone had any questions. Mom raised her hand and asked what we can do to help our kids leave the school, because she thought I would have no trouble with Mom leaving me, but I would have trouble going home. Sure enough, when my new teachers said it was time to find our parents and go home, I melted down.

I think I'm really going to like school...if only I could live there.

Check back on Tuesday for news about my real first day of school!

Presenting...The Lego Fire Station!

Some of you might remember that, more than a year ago, I saw a Lego fire station in a catalog and my dad told me he would get it for me when I was officially potty-trained. We even tore the picture out of the catalog and hung it up on my bedroom wall. Well, after going #1 AND #2 in the potty for 4 weeks (with NO accidents!), he and Mom agreed it was time to follow through on the promise.

We bought it last Sunday and got to work on it immediately. Dad decided he was going to help direct me, but that I would put it all together myself. The first night, it took me 2 hours to put together the smallest engine (a little bigger than a matchbox car). Keep in mind, these are big kid legos (ages 5-12), not toddler-sized duplo, so they were tiny little pieces. The next night, we built the bigger engine, which took me far less time to finish. We've built a little every day this week (moving faster and faster each time), and this morning, we finally finished! And I built it ALL on my own! Daddy never actually touched a lego, he just supervised and helped keep me from getting frustrated.

Of course, since this project was really a year in the making, Mom had to document its completion. So, ta-da! I give you...(drum roll)...The Lego Fire Station!







ps
You can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them, in case you want to see all the little details. It's pretty cool. The firemen all have accessories and there is even a little coffee pot in the kitchen.

Growing Pains

"Show me that smile again...Oooo, show me that smile...don't waste another minute on your crying..."

Yeah, the words "growing pains" used to make the theme song from a certain 1980's sitcom instantly play in my head too...until yesterday. Actually, it all started a couple of weeks ago when Poki came into our room in the middle of the night complaining that his leg hurt. I assumed his leg was asleep or something, and let him come into our bed for a minute. After a while, I asked if he was ready to go back to his room, but he said he didn't want to walk because his leg was still hurting. Andrei carried him back to bed and he was fine. Then yesterday, he woke up from his nap screaming. It look several minutes before he could say anything other than "it hurts!" between sobs. It was actually pretty scary. After about 15 minutes, he had finally calmed down enough to tell me what hurt. Again, it was his leg. We went to the doctor this morning and, much to my surprise, they said it was text book growing pains. I didn't know those were real! I guess this confirms that my little guy really is growing up.

First Real Food

Today, Mom gave me my first taste of non-cereal food: Pears! Normally, she would have given me a veggie to try first, but since I have tummy issues, she let me try pears (known to be gentle on the ol' tum-tum). I'd say it was a success, but you can certainly judge for yourselves. Oh--and in case you were wondering, I had no troubles digesting them. My tummy felt fine--no acid reflux! Yay yummy foods!

Look What I Can Do!