Month 9 - Recap

Oh my sweet, funny little Bear,
You are now dual-toothed and impressively mobile.  You've fully adopted the Sliding-On-Your-Tummy Method, deciding that the ol' Hands-And-Knees approach is passe.  Your method is a mixture of an Army Crawl and a I'll-Ignore-My-Left-Leg-So-I'll-Just-Use-My-Right-Knee-and-Right-Toes-To-Help-Propel-Me-Along.  You like to get up on your hands and knees and you'll sometimes crawl a few steps like that, but you always end up flopping down on your belly and continuing on your merry way.  You're a kneeling rockstar and you can also pull yourself up to a standing position.  How is it that you, my tiny little bear, are already pulling yourself up?  I swear I was JUST writing your birth story.  Which I now have to go reread ...

I think you're going to be a climber.  A mischevious little climber.

You still roll your feet.  You did this when you were itsy bitsy and you still do it now.  When you sit someplace where you can dangle your feet, you roll your feet around and around at the ankle.  It's really funny.  It's also an excellent Good Mood Detector.  The faster you roll your feet, the happier you are.

I'm enormously impressed with your pincer grasp.  It seems like the first time I put some Puffs in front of you (three or four months ago), you immediately knew what to do.  It only took you two or three times before you figured out how to pick them up and successfully deposit them into your mouth.  You're a Smith boy, and Smith boys love their groceries, so it only makes sense that you would be an excellent food picker-upper.

Hey, you know what's annoying?  How you rip off your bib every single time you eat.  Every.  Single.  Stinkin'.  Time.  [Seriously, Bib Manufacturers, is it possible to make a bib that's Velcro can withstand a 9-month-old tugging on it?]  Daddy finally suggested that I safety pin the ends of the bib together.  And I did.  And while that stops you from ripping it off, it does NOT stop you from turning your bib over and upside down and sideways and whatever else way you can think of to make a mess.  You also like to drop food on the floor.  See, I had a girl first.  And she wasn't messy.  When I put a bib on her, she kept it on.  She didn't like to get messy.  She rarely dropped food on the floor on purpose.  But you?  YOU?  You're a yuck bucket.  A messy, messy yuck bucket.  A cute yuck bucket, sure, but a messy, messy yuck bucket nonetheless.

Speaking of the girl, you ADORE her.  You couldn't think of anything more fun than playing with her.  She's a great sport and does really well at bringing you toys to play with.  And she lets you play with most of her toys (I firmly believe that she should have one or two special things that are just hers and she shouldn't have to share.  I'll have the same rule with you - you get to pick one or two toys that you don't have to share.  However, those toys shouldn't be paraded around the other one to make them jealous.  You have to play with those toys in your room.)  Anywho.  You get so excited when she bounds into the kitchen in the morning, squealing "Good MORNING, Charlie Bear!  Did you have a good sleep?  Didja?  DIDJA?!!" And you two giggle at each other while you're eating.  It's slightly aggravating as meal times take forEVER now, but it's also ridiculously adorable.  I love that you two are so amused by each other.

You hate baths just like your sister.  That can't be a coincidence, right?  I must be a bad bather.  I'm thinking of hiring someone to take over Smithkid baths.  Because really, this is just ridiculous.  You have a cute yellow duck and the water is the right temperature.  I'm using water and not hydrochloric acid.  Your washcloth is nice and soft - not made out of glass shards.  All of these are ingredients for a good bath, right?  Negative, Ghost Rider.  You scream the whole time.  And the acoustics in the bathroom make your screeches sound even more terrible.  I've got the speed of a NASCAR pit crew come bath time.  Get in, get out, be done.  Because munching on freshly-bathed baby cheeks is way more fun than listening to you regale me with how much you hate baths.

You're still not the best sleeper.  You're definitely better than you were (Mr. IMustGetUpFiveTimesEveryNightWhenI'mSixMonthsOld), but I hope you continue to get even better.  You tend to, um, evacuate your bowels at the most inopportune times (like 5am), and you appear to be extremely sensitive to sitting in your own filth.  Makes sense, sure.  But so does evacuating your bowels when the sun's up.  Silly head.

You're jabbering a lot lately.  You love to say "dadadadadadadadadadadada" and you always seem enormously impressed with yourself when you're done.  I'll have to look back through Natalie's recaps to see when she said "Dada" on purpose - I think she was close to your age.  I wonder what you'll call Natalie.  "Natalie" seems like a big feat for a munchkin.  Maybe "Na" or "Nat".  As long as you call her something nice, and as long as you refer to me as "Dearest Mother, Fairest Lady, and Best Cook in All the Land", you'll be A-OK.

Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy

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Headlines for August 9, 2012:

• Bolt, Blake set for 200-meter showdown
• FBI: Sikh temple gunman killed himself after being wounded by police
• Walsh, May-Treanor Win Gold in All-American Final
• High School Sweethearts' Class Ring Recovered After Nearly 40 Years
• Olympic Competitor Kirstin Holum Gave Up Gold for God
• Mars Crater Looks 'Earth-Like'
• Wallenda Books Major Tightrope Walk

July 2012 - Recap

So you read your first non-memorized word earlier this month. It floored me. Absolutely floored. You're kind of a letter and spelling freak anyway, spending much of your time sounding out letters and reading out loud the books you've memorized. But this was the first time you, on your own, saw a word, pronounced each letter, and then strung the sounds together to make a word. We were watching Good Morning America (Momma loves her some GMA) and for the weather segment, they showed a map of the US. It's been annoyingly, achingly, and miserably hot this summer and on the map was the word HOT (complete with little flames shooting out of each letter). You saw the word and proceded to break it down. "Huh ... Ahhh ... Tuh ... HuhAhhTuh ... HuAhT ... Hot ... HOT! Hey MOMMY! That says HOT!!!!" Perhaps I went a little overboard with my excitement (it's a big deal, kid - back off!), because after the 3rd or 4th "I'm so proud of you, baby girl!", you said "Um, Mommy. It's okay. Take a deep breath."

You were on a big Super Why kick a few months ago, and while you haven't seen an episode in a while, you still sing one of the songs from the show. One character (Wonder Red) teaches about rhyming. She'll say a word, like HAT. Then she'll say something like "Oooh, HAT is an AT word, and I love AT words. It's time to rhyme. AT, CAT, BAT ... wonderific, you're terrific ... FAT, SAT, MAT ... wonderific, you're terrific ... AT!" So you like singing that song a lot. Except that you take some creative rhyming licensing. Case in point: JESUS! You say "Oooh, JESUS is an ESUS word, and I love ESUS words. It's time to rhyme. ESUS, MESUS, BESUS ... wonderific, you're terrific ... WESUS, MESUS, FESUS ... wonderific, you're terrific ... ESUS!" I can't say I blame you, though. Jesus IS the best ESUS word.

The Olympics are on, and let me just tell you this straight out - I am an Olympics FREAK. I love them. I'll pretty much watch any and every event (though I'm not jazzed on boxing), but my favorites are gymnastics, swimming, and diving. We don't watch a whole lot of TV during the day - a show or two after breakfast and another show or two after naptime is the max I'll let you watch. But when the Olympics are on? Well, that rule gets shoved under the rug for a few weeks. Because there's Water Polo to watch! And Badmidton! And let's not forget Table Tennis! I have to admit, though, that you aren't all Olympic-y like I am. Only diving and gymnastics hold your attention. And that's A-OK with me. You think it's awesome when "those big girls dive into the water all by themselves. Look, Momma, they're not scared!!" And you get SO excited to watch the gymnasts fly though the air. You wonder why the gymnasts keep switching between the high bar and the low bar. You think balance beam dismounts are equivalent to falling and want to know what the gymnast's mommy is going to do to make her feel better. You love their sparkly leotards. One of my most treasured memories is watching the women's gymnastics team compete in the 1996 Olympics with my two best friends from kindergarten. Remind me to tell you about that one day.

Okay, I don't know what's gotten into you (besides simply being three and a gigantic wackadoo) but you're on this kick of taking things from people - not necessarily 'hiding' since it's usually out in the open or easily find-able, but you take things from one room and put them in another room. It drives me BANANAS. (Hm ... I guess I've answered my question as to why you do it ...) You take the hand soap, your toothbrush and toothpaste, your dental floss, your hairbands, and whatever else you can find from your bathroom and put them in your room. Sometimes the things are just sitting on your bedroom floor, other times they're stuffed in your dresser drawers. You take Daddy's hair brush from his counter and put it in the kitchen. You take the hand sanitizer and put it your toy box. More recently, you took the cheese from the counter as I was making grilled cheese sandwiches. I don't think you quite understood (or maybe you did ... because, as I've said often, you're a punk) what you were doing. The only thing you accomplished was to have grilled buttered bread for lunch as opposed to grilled cheese sandwiches. 

You've started calling Charlie "Chuckie Banana". You find this positively hilarious.

You're starting to pronounce your Ls!! I'm a little heartbroken since I think there are few things more adorable than hearing your Ls as Ys. But I knew it had to happen eventually. And I'd so prefer you start doing it now rather than be potentially teased for it when you're older (don't worry, there are plenty of other things you have to be teased about when you're older ...) You speak a lot slower when you pronounce your Ls properly. You're not used to speaking in this new fashion, so you're very deliberate and focused when you do it.

You are such an amazing big sister. Oh sure, you still yell when Charlie cries (my rule of "If you can't say anything to help Charlie, then please don't make any sounds" is a hard one for you to remember), but seriously, kid, you floor me with your sweetness. More than once, I've found you on the floor with him, reading to him or singing to him or letting him grab your hair. And you insist on coming in his room with me when I get him from his naps, and seem genuinely excited to see him. The look on Charlie's face is too much for words. It's a mix of pure admiration and pure enjoyment (and also pure slober, but that's a given when you're dealing with the Bear). He is verrrrry interested in your toys now. You're usually okay with it (there are those moments, of course ...) And at least temporarily, I've kept you from freaking out if (who am I kidding - when) Charlie knocks over a tower you're building. I can see you're about to whine, but then I clap my hands and cheer "Yay Charlie! You did it! Good job, Buddy!!" You start joining in the cheer-fest and immediately begin making another tower for him to knock down. I know that's not completely fair to you - you worked hard building that tower and I essentially gave Charlie a high-five for knocking it down. But I'm trying to teach you to roll with the punches, to relax, to be good natured when things don't go as planned. And in trying to teach you these things, I'm trying to teach myself these things too. We'll learn together, you and me.

I've decided to make a new rule - you and your brother must be tickled to the point of belly laughs at least once a day. Your belly laughs are so good for my soul, and on those days when I feel like a bad mommy or you're acting very, um, three, hearing you and your brother laugh is like a little shot of adrenaline. A little reminder to stop taking myself (and my mothering skills - or lack thereof) so dang seriously. Love covers a multitude of sins. And I submit that the Bible should have a little footnote after 1 Peter 4:8 to say "Also a good cover-er? Belly laughs." 

Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy

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Headlines for August 1, 2012:

• Chick-Fil-A Supporters Plan Appreciation Day
• Another Needle Found in Airline Sandwich
• Obama campaigns in Ohio
• Olympic gold was their destiny after all (Go Women's Gymnastics Team! Woo hoo!)
• Lochte, Phelps advance in 200 IM at Olympics