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?