Juggling the lung butter

He's had a nasty cough for the last couple of days. Deep down, gurgling, raspy coughs that make me want to put a rag on a stick and swab it down his throat to get at the junk that's plaguing him. Sounds like a jet trying to take off in a giant vat of gooey molasses. Poor lil' monster. It doesn't matter though, that nasty cough can't slow him down any more than anything else that life has thrown at him so far. Just one more pitiful obstacle to be pushed aside on his way to world conquest. Sometimes he'll cough and stop to put value to the taste then continue forward with a look of contempt for a sickness that could do no better than that.
We visited Ollie and Andy last week for a little while. it's so good for all four of us when we hang out. The little ones love the interaction, even if they seem to spend most of their time trying to take toys from each other. On this last visit Baron found something that may be more powerful than he; hugs. Yes, hugs. Adorable little Ollie approached Baron several times with his arms spread out and tried to give Bam Bam Baron a bear hug. I could tell by the look on Baron's face that he now has a definition for cooties. He wanted no part of that action. Priceless.
A time honored law among men is that you do not talk with other men in public restrooms. That's just the way it is. No "hello"'s. No "hey, that shirt looks good on you". No "do you have an extra hair tie I can have?". If a man has a heart attack or falls and hurts himself in a public men's room he had better hope he's got enough charge left in the battery to make it out the door or he will be on his own until he is face to face with his maker. Unless a man is in the men's room with his child. Then we become a gaggle of chatty Kathie's. It's very weird. Baron and I were in the restroom at Target a few days ago and we had to wait for our turn at the changing table, which NEVER happens, and then another father came in with his own dirty monster to change and we just started shootin the stuff like it's not a forbidden activity. We laughed! Kids, they change all the rules.

Baron takes on 2011!

Crazy, crazy kid. He has a mountain of toys now. A monument of blinking, chirping, whistling, whirring plastic things. After a wonderful holiday season I find myself glad that I packed some of his toys away a month ago in anticipation of just such a situation. The funny thing is, he likes 'em all. He's still getting around to the shwag he received at his birthday and now he has even MORE and he really does get around to most of them. Papa gave him a set of lazer combat remote control vehicles and he's geekin out over those. He doesn't quite get how to make them go forward or backward, but he sure knows where the lazer trigger is. He will keep firing the that thing off over and over and over again until that 'beew-beew-beew' is the only thing I can hear. Over. And. Over.
Thanx again, Papa.
But yeah, who do you think Papa really bought that for? Yeah, that's what I'm thinkin' too.
I can't express how happy I am that he will sit still through his favorite book without going off to do something else. Really. I just wondered there for a while if he would ever slow down for a book. But. Buuuut, and I hate to complain, but if I have to read 'It's not easy being big' with Big Bird and Elmo more than four times in a row again, I might hide it somewhere for a little while. It's the only book he wants to sit through. And he will sit still for every page, pointing at the different characters while I say their names as I read the story and he really loves it. But as soon as that last page is flipped over he demands a re-read or else. Ugh. Soon.
He's full on testing his boundaries now. He understands what we say very well. He knows of the few things that will get him in trouble. Like using his drum sticks on the wall. So, sometimes he will grab his drum sticks and run over to the wall, look at Mommy or myself, and raise his arms in preparation for the strike that he knows should not be struck. And sure enough, if we make eye contact, he more than likely will hit it, just once, and as soon as we raise our voice or start to get up he'll throw the sticks one direction and run off in the opposite direction. He doesn't do this all the time, but it's a few things like this and as a group it seems like he's testing us in one way or another most of the time. Admittedly, it probably doesn't help to dissuade him when I see that look of inquisitive defiance in his eyes and I can't help but grin. He's a tiger in a small cage, wanting to go out and find something new to pounce on. We were expecting to raise a small, fragile child that we would have to protect from the world and instead we have a monkey minded wrecking ball information sponge that we have to protect the world from. Can't wait to take him hiking. Let him take down a deer or maybe a mountain goat.
Gets me thinking about what sports he will be interested in and what he'll be good at when he gets older. I expect that he's going to be very competitive and strong. Like, gorilla stong. He's already sprinting at cheetah speed and he can climb anything, even well cleaned glass. So what will he want to play? I was never into sports. I did it because it was expected, not because I wanted to. I think Baron is going to be the opposite. I hope so! How else am I going to live vicariously through him?
Heh.

More and more terrible by the minute...

Only his second day as a two year old and he's already acting like a big kid! Today for the first time he slept on his big boy bed, we both heard him say 'red ball', and he found his belly button! Can you imagine? One day you're just looking at your stomach and the next thing you know you find this knot of skin that, apparently if you untie it, your guts will fall out of!!
I was a little freaked out by my belly button as a kid. Didn't want NOBODY touching that thing!
He's played with a bunch of his new toys today. He really likes his Mr. Potato Head, thanks again Sis! He really likes sticking pegs in holes and things like that. He's really good with his Mega Bloks, and also his eight little square blocks that fit inside of each other. He's got really good hand coordination. And he's so determined when he plays with his hands like it's a challenge for him and he'll keep trying until he gets it. I love that about him. His favorite thing to do with his books and toys in the living room is to throw them all, ALL, in a big pile. and then walk away. !
Christina just put him down to bed in his big bed for the first time at night. We have our fingers crossed that he'll stay in there through out the night. He hasn't slept with us in our bed since he first went into his crib, but I have a feeling that we can expect a little visitor from time to time from now on. Or we'll be woken by the sounds of him playing with his toys in the living room or by him turning on the light in the living room. which he can easily reach. He gets a real kick out of turning lights on and off. A new phase, a new era, is dawning in Baron's life. Hang on.........

Has it really been that long?.....

Yep. Little man turns two years old tomorrow. I can't believe it's already been two years. But if I stop to think about all of the events that have transpired since his dramatic entrance into our lives it makes my head spin! A couple of days ago he started saying "uh-oh" and it just cracks me and his mother up! It's so cute. I hate saying that, but it really is cute.
We're hoping for a good turn out for his celebration. I know his grandparents will all be there, which is always cool. I know grandparents can be just a tad, tiny bit competitive when it comes to the love of a grandchild, not that I've ever seen that in any of his grandparents, but I think there's a really good chance he's gonna be spoiled silly. We should probably borrow a truck to lug all the loot home in. His mom and I are really excited.

Our first hike.

We rode with Mommy to work and then took the car over to Andy's house where he loaded the car seat into his awesome mini van and we drove out to Tryon Creek for a beautiful morning stroll. That was the idea anyway. The little boys had other ideas about what the definition of 'fun' is when in the out-of-doors. But really, we've come to expect the unexpected from our spawn. See, I was talking to a new guy at daddy's group this last Tuesday about where there are good places to introduce toddlers to the wonders of just walking for the sake of walking. I'd read that Tryon has a 'toddler' trail and he said that he loves to take his little boy, Aidden(?), there. So, I told Andy and we decided to head out the next morning.
It was great having Baron in a vehicle with another kid. Ollie's car seat is rear facing and BAron's is forward facing so they were really able to see each other and interact better. They actually high-fived each other!!! It was so cool! They're awesome.
But hiking didn't really worked out the way we had hoped. Baron and Ollie were much more interested in sticks and leaves on the trail and things that were off the trail than actually getting anywhere. If they had their way we'd probably still be there, playing with sticks and leaves. Oh well, it's a start.
But THEN.... Andy took us to the Elephant playground up by the zoo at the Rose Garden. It was the most awesome non-wood structure playground I've ever seen! It was HUGE!! Baron loved it. He started on the swings and then went right up the steps to the top and ran and ran and went down the slides and then climbed up the slides and ran and ran and laughed and wore my butt down to nuthin'. I definitely need Mommy to come with us next time. Andy was busy with Ollie and Baron wanted down the slides and I couldn't really go down the slides with him (believe me, I tried and it wasn't pretty.) so I'd set Baron on the slide and try to jump down to the bottom before he could slide off of the slide. I'm not as graceful as I used to be. And I wasn't that graceful then, either. So, yeah, Mommy's going next time.
The Daddy Play Group is going on a field trip to OMSI next Saturday, but that's also the weekend when my dad is coming down to visit. We'll see if we can work something out. Maybe Papo and Nana Mentzer would like to watch Lil' Bear tear OMSI down! I've wanted to take him there for a while now. And it's the place where I'd really like to get a membership so we can go play inside anytime. But, we've never been to the Children's Museum and I hear that it rocks. We'll just have to save our pennys and go to the Children's Museum before we make a decision. Soon......

The Pumpkin Patch

He Loved the Pumpkin Patch! Auntie Shelley treated us to a trip through the corn maze at Kruger Farm on Sauvie Island. It was so great! We were a good little group; Auntie Shelley and her friend Jade, the Mentzer Family Unit and Nana and Papa. Oh, and Jade's cute little dog, Jack. Eight of us. In a corn maze. It was crazy. At one point, Baron was leading us through! Everybody took turns carrying him or holding his hand but when he got the chance to hit the ground without anybody holding him back he put his head down and charged forward like a pint sized rhino, knocking anything in his way into the corn stalks on either side of the trail.After we made it through the corn maze we hit the pumpkin patch where Lil' Bear picked out his very first pumpkin. He really seemed like a little bear as he jumped into a pile of smaller pumpkins off to the side of the patch. He tossed pumpkins in all directions, not so much looking for a pumpkin but more just enjoying the satisfaction of decimating a pile of pumpkins. Watching him destroy things sparks a small feeling of what that was like. Little kids can't really build many things, but they can create something new by destroying something that has already been made. It's not malicious (well, not all the time.), it's just fun. Until you get in trouble. And one of the great Unfair Truths' of the universe is that, if you're a little boy and you're having fun there's a good chance that you're going to get in trouble for doing whatever it is that you're having fun doing. Dat's jus' duh troof!

That boy's got him some soul...

One of his most favorite things right now is watching Sesame Street music videos on Youtube. As you can imagine, there are tons of Sesame Street music videos out there. The show's been around for forty years. But of all the videos, he likes the soul singers the most. His top three favorites are; Destiny's Child singing 'I got a new way to walk' (With Elmo, or course), India Irie and Elmo singing the ABC's and the one that really gets him movin and groovin is Patty LaBelle singing a gospel version of the ABC's. She really wails it out and a bunch of the characters come out to help her sing. Seriuosly, it's friggin awesome. He, like most little kids, love to watch the same thing over and over again (if you let them!) and we've watched quite a few vidoes over and over and over, but I think I could listen to Patti LaBelle singing the ABC's at least seventy six more times without getting tired of it.

But he still rocks out to Pantera. He knows his stuff.

He loves Sage, our spastic new kitten. They play great together. They'll both be mindin their own business and out of nowhere Baron'll call out his berserker battle cry and Sage'll jump to her feet with her back reaching for the ceiling and he'll make a bee line for her as she tears down the hall into his room. Then, once there, the tide is turned and Baron will come running back down the hall with Sage bouncing sideways with her back arched, right at his heals. It's great. But I still have to keep such a close eye on him because he's grabbed her tail and pulled a few times and he likes to lay next to her, where ever she may be, and try to roll over on top of her. She's way more careful with him. Despite their rough housing she's only given him a couple of scratches. Far fewer than he deserves is you ask me.
He loves sloppy joes.
And oatmeal raisin cookies. (what?)
And macaroni and cheese.
He likes a lot of things, just not at meal time.
Kids.