The Life of Little Man

I have no "news", per se, but thought I'd quickly update you on the world of Little Man these days. This is mostly for my own memory; feel free to skip this one.

• He is still obsessed with cooking. Getting him his own kitchen did not help to get him out of mine. And now he pulls the step stool over to the drawers and takes everything out of there, too.
• He really likes to sing. He personally sings "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "Who Stole the Cookie," and "Mr. Alligator Can't Catch Me." He often requests me to sing "Bee Song" ("I Caught a Little Baby Bumblebee"), "Happy Song" ("If You're Happy and You Know It"), "Child of God," and the "Grumpy Song" (which I made up).
  
• He is bilingual! Last night, after helping him with something in the bath, he looked up at me and said, "Gacias, Mom." All of those hours of Dora are really paying off!
• He know his shapes. I discovered this last night at story time, when he rattled off all twelve shapes in the book we were reading.
  
• His new favorite word seems to be "Don't." I hate this.
• He asks for a piece of candy almost immediately after waking up every morning. He even tried to order candy at a restaurant last night.
  
• Our bedtime routine has a new ritual. Instead of laying on the floor very nicely while I rub his lotion on him, he now does a running jump onto my lap, throws his arms around my neck and proclaims, "Tall Mountain!" while I quickly try to slather him up. I'm still not sure if I'm the tall mountain or if he is.
  
• In order to go to sleep at night, he has to has Osie (his stuffed dog, whom he named himself), Duck, Tigger, Froggy, and Mike Wazowski in his bed with him. These stuffed toys must be laying down and be covered with a blanket before I am allowed to leave.
• Every afternoon, he gives us a running dialogue of everything he both said himself and heard others say while at daycare that day.
  
• He loves dinosaurs. He will often "roar" at us while pretending to be a dinosaur. And he can pick out and name T-Rex and Triceratops.
  
• He really likes reading his stories. Most evenings, he will climb up in his rocking chair and read stories to himself for at least half an hour.
• He loves to count. He can count from 1 - 3 and from 8 - 11. I'm hoping he'll get the ones in the middle someday soon.
  

I know I've said it before, but I really think I've got the cutest, smartest, and funniest boy around. I sure love that kid to pieces.

My New Favorite Picture

Little Man and I spent a good chunk of our evening together drawing and coloring. Maybe it's been a long time since I sat down and watched him color, but all of a sudden, he's COLORING! He's concentrating very hard and only coloring certain parts of the picture; suddenly, those lines on the page mean something to him! I was astounded, but you probably aren't. This is a picture right before bath time tonight. The sight of Little Man in big-boy unders makes my heart flutter a little. Also, notice the marker on his belly and the Coco Puff sludge on his face. Does it get any better?

The Evolution of Little Man

Has it really been a month since I blogged?? I won't bother to make excuses... I'm sorry.

In the last month, my Little Man has really grown up. He kicked the sippy-cup habit, and more importantly, he said bye-bye to diapers. Most people think I'm absolutely nuts for trying to potty train so early (including my husband, I found out two days ago) but he had his first accident-free day today, exactly two weeks into the process. Not bad, I say. He still hasn't got the hang of telling us when he needs to go, but as long as you get him to the potty, he'll sit and do his business (and then exclaim, "I did it! Pee-pee potty toilet!"). I'm so, so proud of my little guy.

Christmas has also come and gone since I last posted. I just found out that someone **clears throat and casts a meaningful glance across the room at James** deleted all of our Christmas pictures. I'm feeling pretty devasted about losing the pictures of Little Man's second Christmas. He got a play kitchen which he adores. We had it set up when he walked out into the living room Christmas morning, and he walked straight to it, grabbed the play food, and started "cookin' ". A few days later, I asked him if he liked his new kitchen, and he looked at me and said, "Mom, I lub it!" He also got lots of other presents, including some new blocks (which he uses to build "Gramma's house" and "tall mountains"), a Magna-Doodle, some books, a potty and underpants, and lots of candy. And now that we've lost the pictures, there is no evidence to prove how overboard I went, so there is nothing to prevent me from doing it all over again next year.

I do have a few pictures of life around here from the last week or so. Isn't he a cutie?

Showing me his big smile.
Hugs at bedtime.

One of Little Man's new favorite foods is pudding. He would eat it all day if I let him.

Lookin' sharp in his new Sunday clothes.

A Very Quick Update

I haven't updated in awhile, mostly because I've been deathly ill two times now in less than two weeks. Here are a few pictures of what's been happening around here.

Little Man has turned into quite the monkey these days. He climbs on everything and has even figured out that he can drag baskets and boxes around to help him reach things.

We had a lot of fun playing in the snow on Saturday.


On Sunday, we put up the Christmas tree. Somehow, Little Man knew just what to do.

Thanksgiving Tricks

These days, Little Man...

• is obsessed with markers.
• is learning to count. He gets all the way to two!
• loves cooking. He gets the bowls and cans out almost daily.

• is starting to pretend. The other day, he brought me a stacking cup with a block in it, and said, "Eat. Nugget."
  
• is obsessed with barbecue sauce. He is SO is father's son!
• calls his drink a "voom voom." I have no idea where it comes from and I wonder how long he was calling it that before I figured it out.
• love scaring people.
• thinks the snow on the ground is bubbles.
  

Here's some quick videos that prove just how smart, sweet, and silly my little one is. Enjoy!

Thankful Turkeys

Tonight, we did a family craft. We made turkeys out of our hands (well, actually, we all used James' hand) and wrote what we were thankful for on them. This activity kept Little Man occupied for much longer than I expected. Here's what they look like:

Little Man is thankful for candy, colors, family, and outside.

I am thankful for my family.

James is thankful for Mommy, Little Man, Duane/Jimi (as in Duane Allman and Jimi Hendrix), and his guitar.


And here's a video of Little Man from this week. He learned to tippey-toe and what a baby says.

A Very Harry Halloween

Halloween is way fun when you have kids. I just decided that. And I've also decided that we should have Halloween at least twice every year. It is way too fun to have to wait all year!

Little Man dressed up as Harry Potter this year. I made his costume myself and my friend Jodi let us borrow the glasses and the wand. Personally, I think he's the best Harry Potter there ever was. I'm think about sending a headshot to Warner Brothers.



Little Man actually got really into the festivities yesterday. By the end of the day, he was saying "Trick or Treat" and "Potter." He was even waving his wand at people and casting spells on them.

We took Little Man downtown yesterday to go trick-or-treating at the stores on Main Street. Everyone that saw him just gushed over him and said that he was the favorite costume of the day. It made me wish I'd entered him in a costume contest!

We made lots of visits to family and friends yesterday. Little Man got candy everywhere he went. "Candy? Please?" was the most uttered phrase of the day.


My niece (who was a scary black cat, not a cute black cat) was not having as much fun as the rest of the kids.Posing with the Jack o' Lanterns after all of our visits.
Hanging out with Mommy at our friend Liz's.
Little Man had his first high-level dose of sugar this weekend. My goodness, that kid is a candy fiend. He was bordering on obsession. My favorite candy moment of the weekend happened on the way home on Friday. He had gone trick-or-treating at daycare and threw a fit when I set his pumpkin bucket next to him, not in his lap. So I caved and let him hold it, thinking he couldn't possibly do any damage. Within thirty seconds, I heard a squeal of laughter coming from the backseat followed by a shriek of "Candy!!". He had managed to get a Twix bar opened and was shoving the whole thing in his mouth.