Toodles is 8 months and JD will be 3 tomorrow!
Wow, how time goes crazy when you're not looking.
Toodles is a great joy to us. At 8 months, her favorite things are finger walking, playing with action figures and blocks, and eating real food. I don't recall whether I blogged about this, but at about 10 weeks or so, she was creeping, as much as 10 or 12 feet at a time. I think that stopped when she got too big to push herself easily. Or it became boring for her. She is doing it again, moving to get toys she wants or to face her mother, brother, or me.
At the table, she went from pureed baby food to finger food in less than six weeks. As soon as I started giving her Cheerios she was hooked. Back to pureed carrots, squash, and peaches. No way! So I've had to change my routine to having various veggies and fruits ready to go. This becomes challenging in two ways. First, having the things on hand while keeping a variety. Second, the time it takes to prepare. I went from pre-packaged food to having to cut everything, every time. Green beans, grapes, banana, avocado, nectarine, blueberries, carrots, zucchini . . . But in the end, when I'm putting a piece of food up to her mouth and she attacks my fingers gums first, well it's all worth it!
JD is a typical 3-year-old. He loves attention and misbehaves when it doesn't come his way. He knows his ABC's, single digits, and his way around the keyboard. We used Fisher-Price's website to help teach him the alphabet. This morning, I asked him to find each animal, from Alligator to Zebra, and he got the letter on either the first or second try. I've learned that counting to 10 every time there's a countdown is bad. Now, he only knows to count to ten. When I'm being extra-conscious, I will count to 7 or to 13 or any other variation. The next step will be to count to 100 by tens.
JD continues to love playing hockey, but his sports repertoire includes soccer, bowling, golf, and baseball. When I take the time to figure out posting video, I'll show you. He's a big boy, too - when asked what size clothes to buy him for his birthday, I'm telling people 5T shirts and 4T pants. Crazy! He sill loves playing peek-a-boo, though in more sophisticated and high-energy ways. Some of those include the beginnings of hide-and-seek, while others are more like meteors colliding. He also loves when I throw him in the air (we get about 2 - 3 feet of separation, much to my wife's dismay) and wrestling.
When we take the time to read and write, he's made his first intelligible drawing and, for a while, was obsessed with drawing people riding skateboards. I don't understand why, but he would always tell Wife or me, "Draw Mommy riding skateboard. Draw Uncle Matt riding skateboard," etc. He would try, too. Markers over crayons, unfortunately, is the preference. He loves reading, though we have inadvertently made it a bedtime thing, not an anytime thing. He's memorized about 15 books, including Dino Hockey by Lisa Wheeler and Barry Gott, Too Many Toys by David Shannon, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss, Thump, Quack, Moo, Click, Clack Moo, and Giggle Giggle Quack by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.
The kids are great and give me great, big headaches. Well, I don't get headaches, but if I did, they would be great big ones! But when they wake up and are talking to each other (JD talks, Toodles coos) it's so sweet, I forget about the nagging, the crying, and the messes and can only think of hugs, kisses, and laughter.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Best Couponing Blog On the Web!
Want to win a $50 nfl.com gift card? How awesome would that be? Just follow this link to my friend Couponing for 4 and follow the directions. It couldn't be easier! Also, read the blog to find out the many ways you can save money and even make some cash on the side. Fun and informative. What else could a person want? :)
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Windshield Nightmare
It started off a good day. I had gone to bed early. Got up to the sound of Wife taking a shower, around 5:15am. Went downstairs, made coffee, started planning my day. Kissed Wife good-bye at 5:45am.
Then the phone rings 10 minutes later. Sobbing. "I've been in an accident." My mind flashes white. Adrenaline pumping. Mind racing.
Are you OK?
Yes. I think so.
What happened?
Something flew into my windshield. I'm stopped on the side of the road. I don't know what to do.
Neither did I. Two kids, sound asleep upstairs. A wife on the side of the road at 6am.
She'd called 911. They told her to move from the left shoulder to the right. Fortunately, there was little traffic, or a little traffic as you get near downtown Chicago. This happened in the Southbound lanes of the Kennedy expressway between North and Division.
I'll cut to the chase. Another car had changed lanes in front of her. Not dangerously or anything. A moment later, something flew up and lodged into the dead center of her windshield. A metal grate about 5 feet long by 1 foot wide.
A state trooper helped guide her to the next exit and wrote up an accident report. I ordered a cab for her. She was home by 6:30 or 7. When Toodles woke up, I took her to see the car for myself and take some pictures.
That's when I got scared.
I was sick. All I could think about is what if . . . what if . . . one more inch; 5 MPH faster . . .
I called a glass place we used when I worked for my family business. Majestic Auto Glass went to the scene, changed out the windshield, and did an admirable job vacuuming the glass. It still needed to be detailed, but it was good. It was ready by 11am. The same day.
But a car wash and a new windshield do not erase memories.
I have, on occasion, thought about my Wife's and my mortality. The sadness. The utter sadness I would feel if she were gone. Frankly, I don't know what I would do.
We have safeguards in place, but I mean, what would I do without her?
At least I know that, for now, I can go upstairs and watch her sleep. I could go into JD and Toodle's room and watch them sleep. The night is wonderfully peaceful.
Then the phone rings 10 minutes later. Sobbing. "I've been in an accident." My mind flashes white. Adrenaline pumping. Mind racing.
Are you OK?
Yes. I think so.
What happened?
Something flew into my windshield. I'm stopped on the side of the road. I don't know what to do.
Neither did I. Two kids, sound asleep upstairs. A wife on the side of the road at 6am.
She'd called 911. They told her to move from the left shoulder to the right. Fortunately, there was little traffic, or a little traffic as you get near downtown Chicago. This happened in the Southbound lanes of the Kennedy expressway between North and Division.
I'll cut to the chase. Another car had changed lanes in front of her. Not dangerously or anything. A moment later, something flew up and lodged into the dead center of her windshield. A metal grate about 5 feet long by 1 foot wide.
A state trooper helped guide her to the next exit and wrote up an accident report. I ordered a cab for her. She was home by 6:30 or 7. When Toodles woke up, I took her to see the car for myself and take some pictures.
That's when I got scared.
I was sick. All I could think about is what if . . . what if . . . one more inch; 5 MPH faster . . .
I called a glass place we used when I worked for my family business. Majestic Auto Glass went to the scene, changed out the windshield, and did an admirable job vacuuming the glass. It still needed to be detailed, but it was good. It was ready by 11am. The same day.
But a car wash and a new windshield do not erase memories.
I have, on occasion, thought about my Wife's and my mortality. The sadness. The utter sadness I would feel if she were gone. Frankly, I don't know what I would do.
We have safeguards in place, but I mean, what would I do without her?
At least I know that, for now, I can go upstairs and watch her sleep. I could go into JD and Toodle's room and watch them sleep. The night is wonderfully peaceful.
No Posts Lately
If anyone actually reads this blog, I haven't been blogging for two reasons.
First, my laptop died. Rather, the motherboard died. It would cost over $600 to replace that and the inverter on the screen. (The inverter is the cheap/easy part.) I could get a new laptop for that price, but mine has a 17" screen and I like that. So I'm being picky. Sue me. 17" monitors from Lenovo start around $1200 (apparently their hardware is the best quality as opposed to HP which is what failed me after 2.5 years.)
Second, I've become addicted to World Golf Tour or wgt.com. It's an online golf game that has an international community. So much fun. If you go on, I'm Grissomwoods.
Yes, I have a desktop in my basement. Blogging is not as easy down here. When I'm on this computer, it's either in the middle of the day when I am trying to check email & stocks in between loads of laundry and checking on whatever is on the stove or in the oven or tending to a kid who is not napping like they are supposed to. At night, I like to play golf.
Fortunately, this isn't a job, or I'd have been fired a long time ago.
First, my laptop died. Rather, the motherboard died. It would cost over $600 to replace that and the inverter on the screen. (The inverter is the cheap/easy part.) I could get a new laptop for that price, but mine has a 17" screen and I like that. So I'm being picky. Sue me. 17" monitors from Lenovo start around $1200 (apparently their hardware is the best quality as opposed to HP which is what failed me after 2.5 years.)
Second, I've become addicted to World Golf Tour or wgt.com. It's an online golf game that has an international community. So much fun. If you go on, I'm Grissomwoods.
Yes, I have a desktop in my basement. Blogging is not as easy down here. When I'm on this computer, it's either in the middle of the day when I am trying to check email & stocks in between loads of laundry and checking on whatever is on the stove or in the oven or tending to a kid who is not napping like they are supposed to. At night, I like to play golf.
Fortunately, this isn't a job, or I'd have been fired a long time ago.
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