Words!!

Words!!! Buster can communicate (albeit a little haphazardly and needing a translator i.e. me). When we went to his last well check-up the nurse asked how many words Buster can say, which had me panicked. I never counted, I never thought about it. How many words is he supposed to say? Once I started paying attention, he can say a lot! And he learns new words every day! He can understand about 99% of what we say (which means no more swearing), but he can't quite form all the words. Below is a list of the words he can say and the rough meaning behind them. Most of the meaning behind is speaking has to do with where he puts the inflection as well as how long he holds out a syllable:

1. Teeth (said when he wants to brush his teeth and/or needs Tylenol)
2. Kitty (said while maniacally chasing the cats around)
3. mmmmma (milk)
4. Mama (either me or one of the grandma)
5. Dada (Jim - he gets his own name without sharing)
6. Bu-pa (Grandpa Neumann)
7. Bum-pa (Grandpa Mason)
8. no
9. again
10. yes
11. this
12. puppy
13. Out
14. Cheese (Cheers - I taught him how to toast - it's very cute)
15. nom-nom (food, he's hungry)
16. Raisin
17. Cheeerrss (Cheerios)
18. TV
19. tree (learned after we put up the Christmas tree)
20. shoes
21. boots
22. juice
23. book
24. ball
25. Big Bird
26. Bert
27. Elmo (which sounds like Melmo)
28. bye
29. bed
30. night night
31. Hot!!

This never happens on the Housewives of Orange County

Oy! What a weekend. The terrible twos have overtaken our home much like the snow outside has taken over the roads. I am so glad to be back at work and have some quiet, non-Buster time. Where to begin? Well...the biting has begun again. We're doing everythign we can to curb it, but it seems Buster has other plans. He's also teething again. The cool thing, though, is that he can tell us now that his teeth hurt so we can give him Tylenol. Gone are the days of trying to magically figure out what's wrong! It's very helpful that he's so communicative. On Friday, during my first snow day of the year (which I usually love), Buster and I did nothing but fight. I'm pretty sure he purposely did everything which he knows he shouldn't do. Cognitively, this is a huge step - he's learning and pushing his boundaries and seeing what he can and cant' get away with. Parentively (not a real word, I just made it up), it's a nightmare. Both Jim and I hate ourselves. It seems like the only things we said this weekend were "no" "please stop" "don't do that", etc. Let's just say that both of us were extremely grateful to go to work today.

The title of the blog comes from Jim who said it when we were all in the kitchen and Buster was yelling and throwing stuff around.

Publish or perish

Ahhh...it's as true in the blogging world as it is in academia. I have gotten yelled at twice over the weekend for not blogging. There will be updates soon!

Awesome!

Parenting is full of moments that make your heart swell. I had the biggest swell of my life the other day. Buster was playing, stopped, and ran over to me to give me a kiss. An unprovoked kiss! Because he wanted to, not because I said 'give me a kiss'! It was way cool.

Another cool thing he does is whenever I say "I love you", he'll turn around and give me a kiss. Adorable!

And now, great parenting moments in history

Apparently, when Jim was visiting our friend Tim yesterday he saw a photo of a baby tacked to Tim's refrigerator. The following is a rough transcription of the conversation:

Jim - "Oh, who's the kid?"

Tim - "That's your kid"

We might possibly be the worst parents ever...again...

Okay, I was told I had to blog about this, so I am.

A couple of weeks ago we went out to dinner with our dear friends Becky and Adam. We had three kids between the four of us (B&A have 2, we have 1). So...we decide we're going to be adventurous and go out to eat. We settle on the Chancery since they are relatively kid friendly. We get there and it's a half hour wait. Rather than wait a half hour for a table, we proceed to spend the next hour finding a restaurant that can seat us immediately. We sit in our cars and talk...we come up with the Cheesecake Factory. We get there only to find out it's a 45 minute wait (at 8:30 at night). We talk some more. We end up at BW3's across the street. We have to wait about 15 minutes there. Okay, fine. Whatever. We finally get to our table and proceed to have the worst service ever.

I must interrupt here to remind you all that B&A have 2 kids - a 3 year old and a 3 month old. Odds are in our favor that we will have the good kid. Apparently, the odds were not with us that night. Tori (the 3 year old) quietly sat at the booth playing and coloring and sporatically talking to us (the cutest was - Leslie, you're my Godmother!). Ferris slept the entire evening. That left our...bundle of joy. To say that demons invaded Buster would be an understatement. There was nonstop screaming. So, I give him my orange off my daiquri. He seems to love it. Until I realize he's sucking the daiquri off the orange and not actually eating the orange. He wants to double dip. I argue with him. After 5 minutes of screaming, I cave. He happily dips his orange into the daiquri. At this point, Becky and Adam are cracking up. Jimmy and I are not. Finally our food gets to our table. I had ordered Buster a kids cheeseburger since the Dude loves meat. He hates it that night. He must, without a doubt, or he will surely die, have my hot wings. I try telling him he does not went them. He most assuredly replies he must. I try reasoning with him. It's 9:00 and well past his bedtime -- there is no reason. So...again I cave and give him a hot wing. Becky and Adam and Jimmy are in shock that I would be so mean to my kid. He barely gets it to lips when he shrieks and throws (no embellishing) the wing across the table. I try to give him a sip of milk. He's not taking anything I have to give. At this point, everyone at the table is laughing except for Buster and Ferris (because Ferris is still asleep).

But I'll tell you one thing - he hasn't asked for a single thing off my plate since :)

We might possibly be the worst parents ever

Things I will never understand

Such as...why is Buster sleeping with a shoe??

Pumpkin Farm!

I consider this to really be our "first year". Yes, technically last year was the first, first. But this is the first year James/Jimmy/Buster/the Dude/little Man/Pooper can really enjoy and become involved. A few weekends ago we did the most traditional of fall activities (besides raking leaves, which will come later) - we went to the pumpkin farm! Buster was unsure about it at first, but he really got into it and did not want to leave. We ended up at Apple Holler, which those of you Wisconsin/Illnoisians know is a mecca for yuppy families. Considering none of the three of us like crowds, we got our overpriced pumpkin and booked it out of there with promises of ice cream.

"Hi Pumpkins!"

This one's as big as he is!

We played with this grass for a solid 5 minutes.

Buster's still ready to go look at pumpkins, while Jim is just ready to go home.

Whew! Pumpkin buying is hard work!

Too long

How do I know it's been too long since my last post? I just downloaded 365 pictures off my camera. Yikes! I'm going to try to post at least once a week (I'll start small and work my way up). It was easy to post when Buster wasn't doing anything, but now he's so much fun and always on the go and wants to play. But he is usually in bed by 8:30 so I have no excuse not to post then. Anyway...enjoy a gratituous Buster picture from his baptism (yes, we gave him Tylenol)...

Heard

Jimmy to Jimmy:

"How many times a day do I smell your butt? I'd guess 3 or 4."

Milestones

There are certain milestones in an infant/toddler's life that "they" don't tell you about. Here are a few of them in no particular order:

1. No more spitting up after a meal


2. "Wow! I have a nose! And I can pick it!!"


3. Parents no longer get to eat a meal by themselves. Instead, Buster must try everything.


4. Life stops for television. A.k.a. "the babysitter"


5. Able to point out where his head is.


6. Able to walk up stairs, but not down.


7. Able to take own socks off...repeatedly...


8. Somehow the word "no" become the funniest word ever.


9. Pretends using a phone. However, somehow his ear is in the back of his head...


10. First word = "baaa", which can mean book, ball, Beaker, "I'm hungry", "I have a wet diaper", cat, "look over there", bottle


11. Ability to turn the TV, DVD Player, XBox, anything with a button - on and off...repeatedly


12. "If I stand up in the bathtub and then plop down, I can make an even bigger splash!"

a word from buster

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa V SYVSaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaA,m nbb b9mfg gv jndg rf . vmwxl..hbv zx.ulk,,aaaa.[''/

and now a word from grandma neumann

Molly - I don't know how to blog on Buster's site. When you have a chance, could you please put this on there.Hello everybody. We've heard and seen all sorts of wonderful stuff about Buster. But, I would like to tell you what its like to be his Grandma. Long long ago my mother told me having children was wonderful and a true fulfillment in your life. But, having grandchildren was the ultimate prize. As a grandma you no longer have to worry about if they have enough food, teaching them right from wrong, instilling good morals and principles in them. You only enjoy them, spoil them (which I really don't do much of, I try to keep Leslie and Jim's wishes in the forefront). Being Buster's grandma is great. He brings me so much joy. Like when he sees me he always smiles. When I talk to him on the phone, he won't talk (to young yet) but he does laugh and giggle. Leslie tells me whenever he talks to me on the phone he smiles. Funny story - Leslie, Jim, Buster, Grandma and Grandpa Mason were all driving back from Florida. I had called Leslie for some reason. Apparently Buster was playing with the phone when I called. So he and I had this little conversation until Leslie realized she was hearing a voice on the phone. Buster apparently was smiling, laughing, giggling the whole time (which I what brought all of this to Leslie's attention). She then took the phone away from him. He just seemed soooo happy to be talking to Grandma Neumann (oh, by the way, my new name from his is MaYa). He also plays this little game with me. He pretends he wants to come by me, then pulls away laughing. Then it starts all over again, He even gives me this little smirk just before the game begins.Just watching him grow has been such a delight. I remember when he came home and I can't believe the progress he has made. He is really trying to communicate, he's walking, he has a much longer memory. When I became Leslie and Cari's Mom, I thought there was no greater pleasure in the world, but I was wrong. This Grandma thing rivals anything I experienced with my own children.Everyone please remember my mother's words - they are true. Buster has the ability to make me smile and laugh even when I am in a bad mood or don't feel well.

Grapefruit

Great Grandma Mason has not one, but two grapefruit trees in her backyard. This has always been a treat for Jimmy and I since we usually come down in January/February when the fruit is ripe for the picking. There is nothing better than fruit straight from the tree for breakfast. Great Grandma Mason would always make me fresh grapefruit juice mixed with cranberry juice - it is a delicious treat. Unfortunately being August the fruit is not quite ripe for the picking, however there was one loan fruit ready to be picked and Buster was the lucky one to get it down. His first fruit picking experience!



Here Buster is picking the grapefruit.


He held on to the grapefruit for quite a while before losing interest. Here he is with his Uncle Chris

Oceans of fun

Here are some more pictures from our trip down to Florida. On the way down, we made a stop in Daytona to visit the ocean. Thanks to it being off season Big Jim was able to find a hotel on the beach for only $66/night.

This is his first time on ocean sand. From farthest to closest is Jimmy, Big Jim, Rose, and Jimmy. I'm not in the picture as I am taking the picture :)



First steps into the ocean!! Shortly after this picture was taken he decided he was unsure of the water and demanded to be held. However, he warmed up quickly enough to the water. Out about 100 yards or so there were some dolphins swimming - scary but cool! That is our hotel directly behind us. After swimming we cleaned up and went to dinner - we ate at the Bonefish Grill, which was amazingly tasty. Then we all went for a walk on the beach after dark with drinks (and cigars for the guys (except for Buster of course, we're bad parents but not *that* bad)) Buster was having so much fun he did not go to bed until close to 11 that night! Yikes!

Welcome to Florida

On this past Monday, Jimmy's grandmother passed away peacefully. She was 86 years old and had lived a good long fulfilling life. What can I say about Grandma Mason? She was a rare breed, old south, and a loving and doting mother and grandmother. Jimmy and I tried to visit her once a year and except for this past year, we succeeded. We had planned on visiting her over Labor Day weekend so that we could have a vacation and she could meet her great-grandson, Sweet Baby James. Unfortunately for Buster, he never got the opportunity to meet his Great Grandma Mason. So...thanks to very understanding companies and bosses/team members we are in Florida at the moment to honor Grandma (her memorial service is Monday at 2pm), help Grandpa Mason, and generally be with family to relive our collective good memories. We are also trying to vacation a little and enjoy our time here in Florida. So, without further ado (adieu?) here are some pictures of our trip so far.

We drove down with Jimmy's parents, which helped us all to save money. Here we are at the Florida welcome center:

As you can tell, buster is very excited to be here!

Where do red-headed babies come from??

WHERE DO RED-HEADED
BABIES COME FROM?????
After their baby was born, the panicked father went to see the Obstetrician.
"Doctor," the man said, "I don't mind telling you, but I'm a little upset because my daughter has red hair. She can't possibly be mine!!"

"Nonsense," the doctor said. "Even though you and your wife both have black hair, one of your ancestors may have contributed red hair to the gene pool."

"It isn't possible," the man insisted. "This can't be, our families on both sides had jet-black hair for generations."


"Well," said the doctor, "let me ask you this. How often do you have sex??? "
The man seemed a bit ashamed. "I've been working very hard for the past year. We only made love once or twice every few months."


"Well, there you have it!" The doctor said confidently.
"It's rust!"

In honor of Germanfest this weekend

I am a person very proud of her heritage (both German and Polish). For our wedding we incorporated a Polish tradition and my favorite cooking style is German. I don't know how this proves that I am proud of my heritage, but there you go anyway. So, in honor of Germanfest I present you with Dana Carvey and Steve Carrell as "Germans who say nice things". I dare you not to laugh.

Happy Birthday MoPo!!

We're sorry we couldn't make it to the 3rd (?) annual MoPo/Yep birthday extravaganza. We miss you and think of you often!!!

Swimming!

My goodness it's been a while since I got pictures off my camera! On June 14 we all stopped by my parents' house for some fun in the warm and sun. Buster got to swim for the first time!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the fun times!!

Sam helps Buster get used to the idea of the pool. Grandpa was awesome enough to fill it with warm water for the guys!

Buster loves to splash!

Jimmy loves his Auntie E. Notice how he holds on to her shirt for dear life :)

Whew! All that swimming wears us out!

And you thought eating was easy

Buster is a very independent little dude. He is quite content to sit and "read" a book by himself. He hates getting kisses and affection has to be on his terms, not yours. Part of this independence is his new predilection for having to feed himself. He hates to be fed and will usually sit still for about 4 spoonfuls and he's ready to take the reigns. Unfortunately, until he gets better at feeding himself I'm afraid he's going to be wearing his dinner more than eating it...

Another first

Ahh...the joys of parenthood abound.



Yesterday Jim and I experienced a first with Buster. We both got pooped on.



That is all. I want to shower...again...and again...and again.

When you've just got to fight

Put this down into the annals of ridiculousness.

As anyone with kids will tell you, dear readers, having a kid(s) is hard/frustrating/thankless/etc (but still amazing...at times). Sometimes you have pent up frustration that you just want to get out. Last night both Jim and I were feeling a little squirrely and up for a good fight. But...we had nothing to fight about. Seriously, we've been getting on famously. But we were still itching for a good brawl. So what did we argue about? Chaucer. I wish I could say I was lying, but there it is. In a moment of desperation we argued about Chaucer.

It started like this - Jimmy was harassing me for my reading skills. I am a much faster reader than him, but unfortunately my years of grad school trained me to read only the "important" parts thereby skipping over a lot of detail. So we argued about whose method of reading was better. This then transitioned into me (like always) telling him that I've read much more difficult works than him, including Chaucer. He said he had read Chaucer in high school. Ha! I replied, I read it in college and wrote a paper on the feminist undertones of the Canterbury Tales.

Jim: "I don''t like the Canterbury Tales"
Me: "What?!? They are pretty darn good. I doubt you really read it.
Jim: I did, it's all one big fart joke.
Me: What?!?! It is so not!!
Jim: Yeah, here's a direct quote 'Then he put his butt in the air and farted. hahaha'
Me: You are so full of it. You've never actually read it.
Jim: You didn't read it. What's your favorite tale?
Me: The Wife of Bath
Jim: (silence)
Jim: I am so pissed at you!! How can you say that it's not a big fart joke?
Me: How can you say that it is?! You've never even read it obviously!! You probably read the English translation whereas I read the actual Old English version (I tend to get a little arrogant when arguing)
Jim: There is no english version! It's all Old English
Me: Oh my god! You have no idea what you are talking about!
Jim: I'm so pissed.
Me: I'm going to bed.

Crap, what has Buster done to us. Even our fights have gotten absurd (and more nerdy than I'd like to admit).

A glimpse into our evenings

Our evenings as a family are usually low-key. We go for walks, go to the playground, eat dinner together and talk. We talk a lot. So last night as we were finishing up dinner and talking our conversation led to...well...Buster's predilection for eating cat poop.

(Let me aside here for a moment - we do not have cat poop lying around but as anyone with cats knows sometimes the cats trail a little poop out of their box. We're good about catching it, but sometimes it slips by until we walk past and notice it. We are not dirty people or crazy cat people with poop everywhere. Back to the story...)

Buster has a sixth sense about if there happens to be a small turd near the litter box. We've talked with our doctor about this and he says it's a phase all kids go through and he'll eventually stop being so fascinated with cat poop. What I don't understand is how he thinks it tastes good. So the other day I'm reading a magazine in the living room and I notice it's quiet. Too quiet. I call for Buster. No response. I get up to investigate and there's Buster sitting by the litter box. "uh-oh" I think to myself. He's facing away from me. I still have hope that all is well. I turn him around and (I'll save you the nastiness) but all is definitely not well. I yell "GROSS!!" he starts to cry (because I took the poop away from him) and I run upstairs with him to give him toothpaste (despite the fact that babies are not supposed to have toothpaste because they can get flouride poisoning, but desperate times called for desperate measures).

Okay, so back to last night. This is our family dinner conversation:

Jimmy: "Buster, I always thought our first serious discussion would be the sex talk. I never imagined it would be about how you can't eat cat poop"

Buster: "bababa...mamamama..."

After this serious discussion he decided it would be great fun to throw the parmesan cheese around the table. He laughed so hard he threw up.

Ahhh...parenthood is fun.

A better pictures of the mohawk

Do you know what I miss?

I miss Buster's natural mohawk when he was younger - check it out!

Also - how freakin' hilarious is this? Sam put his skateboarding helmet on Buster. I should mention the Dude is only a few days shy of 2 months.

I've been going through pictures (finally backing them up - we had a major laptop scare which catapulted me into moving backing up my computer from the bottom of the list to the top of the list) and came across these, which totally made me laugh out loud! I can't believe how much Buster has changed! To compare, here's what he currently looks like:

Favorites Take 2

Can you believe the Dude is almost 11 months old! My goodness! I honestly didn't think we'd last this far (not that we had much of a choice in any case.) You may recall in a previous post that I had listed some of Buster's favorite and least favorite things. It's time to revisit that and see what's changed! (see here for the 7 month list http://lifewithbuster.blogspot.com/2008/02/favorites.html)

Loves: Bathtime (this hasn't changed)
Hates: Getting dressed (this also hasn't changed)

Loves: The swings at the playground
Unimpressed with: The slide at the playground

Favorite Food: Whatever we happen to be eating (gone are the days of enjoying a quiet meal)
Least favorite food: Nothing. The kid will eat anything (including cat poop)

Favorite Cat: Beaker (because she has longer hair, which is easier for him to pull)

Favorite Toy: Drums (thanks Becky...)
Least Favorite Toy: the Jumperoo

Favorite activity: Walking/crawling
Least Favorite Activity: Sitting still

Loves: Mornings
Hates: Bedtime

Loves: Biting (that is, he loves biting other people. He doesn't like it so much when people bite him)
Hates: Kisses

Favorite TV show: None (it requires sitting still)
Favorite Book: Dr. Seuss' ABC

Strange fact about Buster: He enjoys being the bathroom when one of us is showering.

Best friend: Sammer

Loves: Going for walks in his stroller
Loves even more: Going for walks in the Snugli

Favorite Political Candidate: Obama (he gets bored easily so he likes "change")
Least Favorite Political Candidate: Ralph Nader

Loves: To yell
Hates: Being quiet

Loves: To help us cook (he will gladly get the spices for you)
Hates: To help us clean (as soon as you put something away he will gladly get it back out for you in case you may need it later)

Loves: Singing
Hates: the word "no". A mere utterance of this word will cause a temper tantrum the likes of which you have never seen. It's pretty hilarious

Favorite outfit: None. He prefers to be naked. (This has not changed)

What have you noticed are his likes/dislikes? All comments are welcome!!

What a happy dude.

Finally some pictures!

A few weekends ago we had the pleasure of working out in the yard. We took Buster out so he could play. We were a little nervous since he's still in the "let's put everything in my mouth" phase of his life, but it seemed to work out alright.

"Thanks for the cool sunglasses, Grandpa Neumann! They finally fit!"

Note: We really need to sod the backyard.

Bath toys

Okay, I apologize once again for not having any new pictures. Apparently I hurt my leg worse than I thought and it was way too difficult to walk up and down stairs (my computer is on the second floor). Plus American Idol was on and that's Buster and my favorite show (he will sit quietly for the duration of the show and woe to any commercial that dare come on and interrupt him.)

So, in lieu of a picture for you all I have a cute Buster story for you. We *try* to give him a bath every night (sometimes he falls asleep before bathtime. other times we're simply too lazy.) When we give him a bath he has little cups to play with while in the tub. He loves the cups because they allow him to make big splashes. Plus they are fun to bang on the side of the tub. So this morning I take him into the bathroom with me while I shower for work so Jim can sleep a little longer. Buster stands next to the tub and throws his cups into the shower so I can have somethign to play with. Cause and effect indeed! Bathtime=fun with cups!

And we all fall down!!

I had every intention to post pictures yesterday, I really did. We were going to go for a walk, I was going to come home and then update update update! But, the fates had other plans. As I'm stepping out on to the porch, holding the baby, I managed to fall through our front porch (no comments from the peanut gallery). My left leg has a huge bump on it and it's feverish. I'm guessing I have some internal bleeding, but I could just be embellishing (It's been known to happen from time to time).
Here is what I learned through the whole debacle though, maternal instinct trumps survival instinct. As I fell, I held on to Buster even tighter to ensure he wouldn't get hurt and fall as well. Then I had Jim take care of Buster while I (literally) pulled myself out of the whole that used to be our porch. The only thing that hurts worse than my leg is my pride.

So, since i won't be running or working out any time soon (seeing as i can't put pressure on my leg) there will be pictorial updates tonight!

Teeth

And now for your viewing pleasure...TEETH!!!

James has 4 teeth now, 2 on bottom and 2 on top. "The better to bite with you with!!" he says.

An evening at the park

Let me extol the virtues of our home. We are in a ridiculously awesome neighborhood with ridiculously awesome neighbors (who gave us lots of free baby stuff). We have a home we can be proud of, that is the walls aren't crumbling, the floor doesn't tilt, and it's larger than the (cough, cough) 4 rooms we previously had. Best of all, we are within walking distance of lots of cool stuff - coffee shops and restaurants, bars, the lake, and best of all the park! The park with the playground! We've been waiting all winter to be able to go outside and play and we have definitely taken advantage of it this past week or so. Every day after work we go for a nice long walk. We love the exercise and fresh air, Buster just loves it.

Today we headed to the playground for some much needed goofing around. I love the playground still as an adult. And best of all, now that I have a kid I can play at the playground without people looking at me weird (as long as I have the kid with me, that is). We went on the swings today. Buster was definitely the giggliest little boy, or I should say kid in general, at the park. His laugh was so robust it was contagious. We both laughed for about 10 minutes straight, I'd say.

Can I just reiterate how much I love this little guy? Even looking at the pictures that I just took a few hours makes me smile!

9 month stats!

Okay, my apologies for being gone so long. It's been hectic both at work and at home. I promise to post some pictures over the weekend.

In the meantime, we had our 9 month check-up and I'm proud to say that James is doing just great! I dont' think our pediatrician is used to having laid back parents though because when we told him we didnt' have anything to talk to him about, his response was "really?" Then he proceeded to tell us basically everything we already knew (baby proof the house now that James is more mobile, time for a bigger carseat, which we upgraded months ago anyway, wear sunscreen since he's so pale). The one thing we learned that came as a bonus is that James can now eat whatever we eat as long as we cut it up and it's somewhat mushy. So that's a bonus. But what we're always excited to learn is height and weight and what percentile he's in. And this time, we've even controlled for gender so the following are among boys only:

weight: 20lbs, 40th percentile
height: 29 inches, 75th percentile
head: 19 inches, 95th percentile (he's obviously got my big brain :) )

Lessons from the trenches

Weekends are full of learning for all of us. Buster continues to learn how to be a baby, we continue to learn how to be parents.

(On a side note - one of the wisest things my mom ever told me was when I was 10-12 and she admitted 'I'm still learning how to be a parent.' How true, how true. Just when you think you've got it figured out, BAM! A new gaggle of things to learn crops up.)

Anyway, here in no particular order are the things that we all learned this weekend.

What we learned:

1. When your pediatrician tells you to babyproof the house when your child is only 6 months old and not mobile, don't assure him you will and then later laugh at him when the two of you are alone ("Babyproof! He can barely sit by himself!") Ignoring this lesson will lead to your child pulling on cords, knocking down precariously stacked dvd's, eating anything and everything laying on the floor.
2. Once your child starts to crawl, it's a good idea to mop/vacuum your floors often. There's nothing gross than pitch black baby hands after a half hour of crawling around the kitchen floor.
3. In general, it's not wise to heartily laugh at your child as he cries. This will only lead to more and louder crying
4. Bringing a baby to a furniture store guarantees a full on barage of harassing from any and all store staff who happen to smell Johnson's baby lotion.
5. Babies can inexplicably begin to hate the thing they once loved most. At some point over the weekend Buster decided he hated baths more than life itself. This is disheartening since it was once our fool proof 'get the baby to stop crying' plan.
6. Never use the word "no" when playing a game and laughing. This will only lead your child to think that "no" indicates playtime and it is, indeed, okay and encouraged to pull on all wires in a 30 foot radius.
7. Infants' Tylenol is God's gift to babies and parents alike (we already knew this, but it's worth mentioning again.)

What Buster learned:

1. Screws are not for eating.
2. Cats are not for eating.
3. Pieces of carpet are not for eating.
4. Cat food is not for eating.
5. "No" does not mean "yes" and coyly smiling does not always guarantee you'll get your way.
6. Baths are not fun.
7. He is at the beginning stage of pulling himself to a standing position. Yay!! However, the bathtub is not a good place to practice this due to general slipperiness.
8. When in pain mom and dad will rush around to try to make you feel better (awww!)

Weirdest.Kid.Ever.

Well, it's official. I have the weirdest kid ever. Let me explain -

I was in a ridiculously foul mood last night for no real reason other than I'm just tired of the responsibility that comes with parenthood. I want to be spontaneous and reckless again rather than spend $100 on diapers and kid food. Anyway, in order to make myself feel better and have a little laugh I thought I'd give Buster a taste of the pickle I was eating. No baby likes pickles and I thought it would be hilarious to see his face. Well, the jerk loved it. As in, not only did I not get the laugh I wanted but I also lost my pickle. Seriously, what baby likes pickles?

Christmas 2007 Video

Here's some poorly shot video from Christmas 2007, but you'll get the jist:



I was lucky enough to get a camcorder from Leslie & the Neumanns and intend on putting it to good use.

We're on the move!

Guess who started to crawl? Our little guy is growing up so fast! The first crawl was technically last week Friday at my parents' house. He saw his reflection in the window of their entertainment center and wanted to check out the baby. Voila! He was off! (I guess this means we actually need to babyproof the house now instead of just talking about it - boo.)

And note the soup can from the aforementioned blog. It's a surprisingly great tool to get him to crawl more because it keeps rolling away from him and then he tries to catch it. I'd like to say "simple minds" but Jim and I sat and watched this take place, so I guess we're just as simple :) What can I say? It's beyond cool that he's more independent and moving around!!

Who knew

a can could be so much fun? Next to Buster off picture is a huge pile of baby toys...that he wanted nothing to do with. Needing to cook/clean/be generally responsible Jim and I were looking for ways to entertain Buster and get our stuff done. Jim, being the quick thinker he is, grabbed a red (Buster's favorite color) can. What ensued was over 30 minutes of fun for all. This took place a few days ago and the red soup can is still Buster's favorite "toy". Lesson learned - toys not needed, cans much needed.

Packer game (a little late)

Okay, so this is ridiculously late but anyway...Our dear dear friends came over for the last Packer playoff game. The following are some pictures of the lights of our lives getting along tremendously. Tori was the first to call Buster "baby James" and the name has stuck with me. When I'm not calling him Buster, I'm calling him baby James.

So...without further ado...I present to you the betrothed:

And just for kicks here's our favorite little Packer fan. Many thanks to Tim's parents for the wonderful Packer outfit. Believe it or not Buster is about 6 1/2-7 mos here and this is a 12 month outfit!

Phone calls

One of the many new and exciting things happening since James is getting older is being able to talk to him on the phone. It's amazing how he knows what it is. I called my mom today to make some dinner plans and Buster got all excited when he saw she was on the phone. Mom let him "talk" to me, which was totally fun. I'd say something and he'd "answer" back. Then when I said goodbye he kissed the phone.

It's amazing how fast kids learn!

Too long!

Argh! It's been far too long since I updated this with pictures! I promise I will get to it tonight. I have a backlog of pictures I've been meaning to post (including a couple from the last Packers game - how long ago was that?) I look back and when Buster was first born I posted a lot more than I do now. I think this is because when he was first born all he did was sleep and, quite frankly, he was boring. He'd just sit there. Now it's much more fun to play with him and, quite frankly, I'd rather do that than blog about playing with him. However, I promise to take 10 minutes out of my hectic playtime schedule and post a rather outdated picture of my little guy.

Handy Manny

Okay, I'm going to post another rant. I try to keep these few and far between mainly because I know that I can be overly confrontational and this blog is supposed to be about my son and not about me. But, I just can't help myself because I'm still upset about it.

Let me start by saying that Buster does not watch TV that often. But, every once in a while, it's nice to plop him in his Bumbo in front of the "babysitter" and enjoy 20 minutes of silence. Such was the case on Sunday morning when all Jim and I wanted to do was read the Sunday paper. So we turn to Disney kids because, well, it seems like a good enough choice. First up - Little Einsteins. Overall, kudos to Disney! They show a wide variety of toddlers both in terms in gender and ethnicity. Up next...my new personal hatred...Handy Manny.

The show revolves around the main character...Handy Manny. Manny is "Disney's favorite fix-it guy" with a toolbox of talking tools. Manny is also, predictably, Hispanic. While I love seeing other races and ethnicities portrayed on television (especially on children's shows) I cannot help but to be dismayed by this. Why? Well, the only way they could make the show more stereotypical is if Handy Manny were hanging outside the Home Depot. Seriously. And just to be sure that I wasn't being an overly sensitive liberal sociologist, Jim even chimed in with a "I can't believe they did this" letting me know that I had good cause to be upset. I love that they have a show revolving around someone who isn't white, but couldn't they have taken the Dora the Explorer route and had Manny be something other than a handyman? Couldn't Manny have been a doctor instead?

Multitasking

Now that's multitasking! Jim is holding James, feeding him a bottle, and playing video games. This is yet more proof that he's the better parent than I (I can seriously only do one thing at a time.)

Computers

This is a very cute picture of Buster and Grandpa Neumann playing on the computer. He loves watching Grandpa work (actually, he's playing a game...shhh!)

It's weird for me to think that James is going to grow up knowing how to use a computer and just technology in general (he also loves my cell phone.) I remember when I was in 3rd grade learning how to use a computer - an Apple (back when Apple computers were called Apples and not Macs.) The screen was black and the text was green. One of our lessons was how cool it was that we could hold down a letter and it would keep appearing (kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk). This was back when floppy disks were actually...floppy. Then I had to learn how to use a cell phone and then I had to learn how to use the touchpad on my laptop. It's very strange to me sometimes to think that these are things Buster is going to take for granted. Of course, there will come a time when he says the same things about his kids :)

Free to a good home

Free to a good home - one 7 month old boy. Weighs about 19 pounds, is 30 inches long. Beginning to crawl and babble. Generally happy and loves to laugh. We will throw in all clothes, food, and toys.

Known defects - refuses to sleep...ever.

No returns.

Tips for successful parenting

Add one part wine:

And one part totally cute kid:

And you can't fail.