First Ride in a Shopping Cart

It's a whole new world...

Irish Festival

This September we went to the Irish Festival, the Renaissance Festival and the Penn’s Colony Festival over three successive weekends. Malcolm danced at the Irish Festival, watched a joust at the Renaissance Festival and covered his ears and cried during the French and Indian War skirmish that was reenacted at Penn’s Colony, but in all he enjoyed each festival enough that for weeks he asked to go back.

Here's a video of Malcolm and his buddy Noah, running and dancing to the music of Gaelic Storm.

Since the band hadn't sung his favorite of their songs, "I Miss My Home," during the show, they sang him the chorus while they autographed his shirt.

Michael Phelps ain't got nothin' on him

Today we went to a swimming party at our friends Danny and Christine's house. When we told Malcolm we were going, he declared "I love parties!" (He's big on enthusiastically declaring his love for things these days). Then he told us, "I need to go fwimming. I need to put on my best and my babing soup."

But when we got to Danny and Christine's, Scott convinced Malcolm not to wear his "best," but instead to wear a pair of "swimmies" (or floaties or bubbles or whatever you choose to call them). Usually he wants to wear his life vest and have one of us "float him," but today Scott encouraged him to float by himself. And eventually, Malcolm was swimming by himself.



So the little boy who while he's in the pool usually, for extra security, wraps his arms and legs around whoever is supporting him was declaring "Don't touch me! Get away from me! I want to fwim by myself!"

Bubbles

Baby Pics... Finally

More to come.

Named

His name is Simon Frederic. (I know you're wondering, "And what part of that took two days?")

More pictures to come soon...

He's here!

But he still has no name...

Born on 5/29/08 at 11:23 a.m.
8 pounds 1 ounce, 20 1/2 inches

What a difference eight and a half months make

Countdown

As of today, this baby is full term. No preemies this time!

The Discerning Critic

As any parent knows, toddler-hood is a period of extreme contrariness. Most suggestions that we make to Malcolm are met with a resounding, "No!" He routinely rejects food choices, suggestions of entertainment, clothing options, diaper changes, and especially bedtime.

Recently, however, he's added explanations to his rejections. When he's offered, say, dry cereal as a snack, he'll tell you no, but then will add, "It's too big." For the last week or so, the reason that just about everything didn't meet his approval was because it was "too big." In the last few days, though, some things have been refused because they're "too little" or "too heavy." (Last night the yogurt I offered him as his snack was "too heavy.")

It's nice that he's finally offering reasons why things don't meet his standards, rather than leaving us to guess. What would be nicer would be if they made sense.

Less than five weeks to go

Getaway car

The other night, when Scott told Malcolm it was time to go put his jammies on and get ready for bed, Malcolm yelled, "No!" Then he ran for his car, climbed in and tried to quickly drive away.

Oscar

Oscar died the weekend before last. We assume it was his heart, because we found him in the backyard where it looked like he had collapsed. He turned nine in January. The life expectancy of a Boxer is usually about 10-12 years, but Oscar had some chronic health conditions that probably stressed his organs and shortened his life. He will be missed.

Why We Love Our Daycare Center

Long time, no post

We've sort of been at a Mexican Standoff here; I've been refusing to post until Scott posts something (since he agree to help with the blog when I started it) and he's just been refusing to post. But I guess he's won, because I can't take it anymore. The real motivator is that I let two of my friends here at work (*waving* "Hi, Barb and Becca!") know about the blog and they've been asking when I'm going to post new pictures.

We have lots of news, which I will try to write about over the next few days and weeks. Here's a quick update ...