19 months old

I've gone high tech with my workouts! Now, at Curves, I have a card that I insert into each machine that tells me how many reps I need to do, how many I've done, and whether or not my range of motion is enough for that machine. At the end, I get a rundown on what was good, what was not so good, how my workout compared with the previous ones, and the best news of all: how many calories I burned in the workout! And for my birthday, David bought me a Nike + iPod receiver to track my mileage and time on my walks. This is a supercool gadget with a sensor that goes on my shoe and a plug-in that hooks up to my ipod nano (for once it's good to have the nano--it's the only one that works with the Nike system except for the ipod touch). I play the music in my workout playlist and during the walk, I get encouragement from a voice telling me how I'm doing. I can press a button on the ipod and hear how far I've come at any time. At the end of the walk, I can read how far I've come and what my pace was and how it compares to previous workouts. Now I need a gadget that monitors my food intake and punishes me for my transgressions...

Tonight, I tried out the Nike gadget. Dennis and I went for a stroll under the full harvest moon, just here around our neighborhood. So I had two voices encouraging me. One pleasant female voice in my earphones, and one sweet little Dennis voice saying "walk. walk." and also pointing out the moon and trees and dogs along the way. What a beautiful fall night it is! We live very rurally, so we enjoyed the sight of the moon on the fields at the end of the road. So peaceful until we had to cross in front of the house where the Rottweiler lives, but all he did was bark threateningly tonight while Dennis pointed to him and called him a dog. No harm done.

We are having a touch of the October creepies around here, especially this week. I found a baby copperhead snake in the kitchen when I went in for a late snack (maybe this is actually more effective than a techno gadget to limit my food intake--a snake in the kitchen!), slithering around in front of the garbage can. I'm very glad I turned on the light instead of trusting my instincts to find the refrigerator in the dim room. David dispatched of the snake with a large pizza knife and I had a serious talk with the cat about falling down in her duties. As an apologetic gesture, she left a dead chipmunk right in front of my car door. I hope this means she's back on the job. The snake was enough, but today, when I was driving home, an albino jumping spider accosted me in the car. I don't know what breed it was, but it was colorless and medium-sized, and when I went to swat at it, it leaped 5 inches off the dash, prompting a girly squeal from me and causing me to do a very interesting car maneuver. Tonight as we returned from our walk, all the neighborhood dogs were howling at the moon. Halloween is clearly just around the corner.

We have a 19 month old now. It's almost unbelievable! His teeth are finally easing up a little bit and we had a day of nice and sunny personality. He slept until after 11 this morning because it was a difficult night for him, but then he ran and played happily all day and ate his meals with gusto (and significant mess). We made the obligatory mark on the door to measure his height, and he's at least a half inch taller than last month (the tape measure is still at David's job site so I don't have the accurate details). He knows so many words now, most likely near 100, possibly more. He reads to us now, pointing at animal pictures and identifying the animal and making the appropriate animal noise, pointing at faces and identifying the parts. He understands all of what we tell him, and he sat on the potty again today and used his diaper while sitting there. He's getting so smart so fast!

The picture shows him relishing his birthday Oreo cookie, with orange creme filling for Halloween (and for a more colorful messy baby face).

it's a delicacy

While we were all wrestling on the floor today, I heard a terrible noise from David and I looked up to see his toe in Dennis' mouth. Yes, Dennis eats toes. We knew he ate his own toes, and once he went after mine, but my toenails were painted a scrumptious shade of red at the time and I presumed he mistook me for food. We didn't know his toe fetish extended to other family members as well.

Naturally we yelled "STOP!" (while trying to control our horrified laughter), but he caught on that what he was doing was kind of funny and kept after it. Poor David was scrambling to recover his big toe before it became a snack! His foot was covered in drool. Yes, we know he's teething something fierce, and he's woken up the past several nights in severe mouth pain. We've been treating it as best we can, attempting to offer him suitable chewing items, but this was just too much!

Otherwise, our little piranha had a nice day playing at home. He even helped us clean his room tonight before bed, putting his cars in one basket and his farm toys in another. He's even been putting his books back on the shelf. I have hope that, aside from the toe issue, we're raising a civilized little being.

Momentous Event

Today while we weren't really paying attention to him, he did a fabulous thing! I was taking a nap and David was in his room with him reading a book while Dennis played. David heard him rummaging around in the corner, and looked to see him sitting on his potty. Then there was a noise, and a smell, and we deduced that he pooped while sitting on the potty. He was still wearing his diaper, but we're pretty excited about it! He made a real connection there to figure out where he was supposed to do that.

We aren't really teaching the potty--he's a little young. Our doctor said we could go ahead and try but he wouldn't really get far until he had words for what he was doing. So every night we let him sit on the potty without his diaper and read books, but so far nothing has happened. Last week I bought a movie for him starring Elmo, his favorite character, entitled Elmo's Potty Time. We've let him watch it a few times to distract him from his teething pain this week when nothing else would work. Apparently Elmo has been able to explain to him how the potty works, because he certainly used it with intent today. Thank you, Elmo! Now if only we could rent an Elmo to teach him how to wipe himself...

we rode the train!

We started our day at home, skipping Dennis' flu shot appointment and having a nice morning to get ready for our big day out. We skipped the shot because a) he's going to the doctor in 2 weeks and can have it then and b) he was up half the night with tooth trouble and we just didn't want to give him another painful experience to add to the teething. We had a nice lunch that David cooked for us and then had to rush out the door to meet the Gallmans in Calera.

We arrived at the train depot to find people EVERYWHERE and we worried that the train was going to be very full. This was not the case, though. We were among the last people to board, and it turns out that many of the large crowd of folks we saw had been on the previous ride. We were pleased with the Pumpkin Patch Train. Our local railroad museum runs train rides every weekend, and during holiday months will run special rides (Easter, Halloween, Christmas...). The train took us through the woods for a while until we arrived at the Pumpkin Patch (which we think was on the back part of the Ozan Winery). Costumed people waved as we were pulling in and greeted everyone getting off the train. There were pumpkins all around, inflatable jumping structures, a hay ride, face painting, pumpkin coloring, and snacks and drinks available. We had elected not to purchase a pumpkin since Dennis had picked out a nice one at our first pumpkin patch visit.

Dennis and Chloe had a great time running around on the grounds and picking out different gourds and squash to show us. Dennis really wanted to climb into the jumping structure but the kids in there were all so much bigger than him, so we didn't let him. He kept running back over there, so David let him walk around and around it, watching the kids inside until he got his fill of the thing. Then we went on a hayride through the vineyards, returned and let the kids play around until it was time to board the train again. Chloe and Dennis enjoyed climbing around on the train seats and looking out the window, and Dennis briefly escaped and headed down the aisle to the front of the train car with David close on his heels. We heard a cry of "loose child!" from one of the train conductors, but he was laughing because David was chasing him pretty close. No harm done, but I wondered how many times in my life I would be the mother of the 'loose child'. Maybe he'll grow out of this running phase?

After the train ride, we shopped for a bit in Alabaster before heading to the Gallmans' home. Once there, we all loaded up in their van and went to Dave's brother's new place for a big cookout and barn dance. Dennis had a great time there, meeting the horses and dancing along to the karaoke singing of many of the guests, clapping his hands every time a new song started up. It was a beautiful night, and Chris has a wonderful big barn, and we all had lots of fun. We were out way too late, compounded by the fact that when we returned to Dave and Ellen's place, we had to check out their beautiful new (to them) pop-up camper. The kids just giggled and climbed all around in it and were reluctant to say goodbye to each other when we finally loaded Dennis in his carseat to come home. He stayed awake for half the ride back, just looking around contentedly. And then he cried hard when we put him to bed, having slowed down enough to finally notice how bad his teeth were hurting him. Once the motrin kicked in, he got to sleep, thank goodness!

This was an unbelievably fun day. I can't think of the last time we smiled and laughed and enjoyed the outdoors so much in one day! Dennis was one happy little man today.

all he wants for Christmas is his 4 back teeth

Today necessitated another trip to Lowe's. I don't love Lowe's. I don't hate it, but I don't love it like I used to. It reminds me of how many projects I'd like to do on our house. This used to be fun, but now is stressful. Who has the money or the time to do all those things to your house, especially when it's FALL outside and there are so many fun places to go?

Dennis gets easily bored in Lowe's now, so I pushed him around in the stroller and we kept in constant motion until we arrived at the Christmas decorations. His eyes just lit up looking at all the pre-lit trees and colorful yard displays. He played with a snow-globe ornament that had a button he could easily push, rewarding him with one of nine songs from the Rudolph movie and 'snow' swirling around the abominable snowman in the center of the globe. He touched the furry stockings and stared at the large inflatable lawn decor items. One of these was a helicopter with swirling blades on the top AND on the back, and Dennis watched it for quite a while.

So I've seen how big his eyes get now and I've seen the wonder in his face as he looked at everything, and I've had a little preview about how wonderful this Christmas will be. I can't wait to drive around with him and look at Christmas lights. Finally I'll have someone who might enjoy doing that with me!

In other news, he appears to be growing some mastodon teeth in the rear of his mouth. We aren't due for any teeth back there for another year or so, but he's been waking up crying HARD and drooling like a fountain. What else could it be but teeth? He puts his finger in his mouth and pushes it way back along his gum line. He's hurting so bad that he wants the pacifier, but when he puts it in it hurts, so he spits it back out and cries. Our good friend Motrin is helping some, and cold drinks seem to soothe him, but I can't wait til he has all twenty and we don't have to worry about teething for two years. These must really really hurt him because he's acting so upset and touching the side of his jaw and crying. Poor little guy. At least these are the last four.

My room, my house

Dennis had lots of playhouse time today in between two big trips to Wal-Mart (ugh!). He was very good all day long, very happy and content. He bid farewell to Gran and Pop tonight as they are leaving on vacation early in the morning, and he gave them kisses and told them "bye bye". His kisses have evolved again. Instead of mucho slobber, like in the beginning, and instead of sweet little touches of his mouth against your cheek, he now gives air kisses. He makes the kissing sound and smacks his lips together but never makes contact. It's extremely cute, and perhaps it's even more sanitary this way than him kissing everyone. We didn't train him to do it, he just started it on his own.

He didn't nap much today, and he might have gotten cranky except that we served his favorite dinner tonight. He LOVES spaghetti, and he enjoyed bath that immediately followed the meal. He almost fell asleep on my shoulder as we were shopping tonight. He has a new habit when he's tired. He grabs my hand or arm and rests his head on it. He's been doing this at restaurants when he's past nap time, and tonight he pulled my hand onto the side of the grocery cart and laid his head on my arm. It's so sweet, but he usually goes for my right hand, and his little naptime renders me practically helpless. I am learning slowly to eat with my left hand. Perhaps I could market this as a new diet plan--eat everything with your non-dominant hand.

We're all tired tonight, so we're all in bed. I can still hear Dennis rolling around, trying to find just the right spot in his crib. I also hear hard sucking on the pacifier, so I know he's already in pretty deep sleep. We can tell when he's really tired, because after we tell him night night, he says it back and then says "bye bye" so we'll hurry up and leave the room so he can sleep. Separation anxiety does not seem to be a problem for our little guy!

another milestone

Today Dennis pointed out his first body part on himself. He's been pointing to our eyes, ears, noses, mouths, but never his own. And tonight, while Gran was reading his favorite book ever--I Love You Through and Through--Dennis pointed to his own ear when she got to the page about ears, and he said "ear" while he did it. He pointed to his ear several minutes later when I asked him where his ear was. I didn't know this was a milestone until the pediatrician asked me if he could do it at the last checkup. She was satisfied that he could point out David's and my noses and eyes. But now he knows about his own ear. Jennifer will be proud that his ear was the first thing he learned!

As we were getting ready for bed, he was pointing out all kinds of objects to me from his Baby Einstein First Book of Colors (a big board book from Uncle Denny), and I can't believe how much he knows. For instance, when we got to the page for the color white, which he and I haven't gotten to many times before because he's always so quick to turn pages, he pointed to the sheep and said "sheep". And then he pointed to the white microwave and white stove and said "cook". Then he pointed to the white light switch plate and said "on" and "off". I was amazed. He didn't just name the objects--he knew what they did! Oh, and he pointed to the sheep again, and said "sheep. BAA!". Brilliant!

The pictures are from our shopping excursion to Whole Foods, where he loves to drive the car around (car attached to front of shopping cart) and honk the horn at fellow shoppers (perhaps a technique learned from Aunt Ellen and Chloe?). He was a lot of fun today.