Merry Christmas in September!
Oh look! My "friend" has lots of Christmas cards available on Shutterfly!
Gullie gets a pony
Worth the 50 minute wait? Yep.
-- Posted from my iPhone, with apologies for any typos.
-- Posted from my iPhone, with apologies for any typos.
By the way...
A "friend" who has a LOT in common with me has a framed print for auction (to benefit Gulf Coast restoration efforts) up on Ebay! Check it out!
The Baby Snatcher
Today I was lying down for a leisurely nap while Gulliver was napping. I'd been talking on the phone with my mom, and was just about to settle down to sleep when I heard Gulliver cry and whimper a little. I kept listening, but he didn't make any more noise, which meant that he woke up briefly and then went back to sleep.
Then I heard the front door open and realized that Murray was home. So I got out of bed and crept downstairs to let Murray know not to make a peep, since Gulliver was just barely falling back to sleep.
Except Murray wasn't downstairs.
No one was downstairs.
And the front door was unlocked. I NEVER leave the front door unlocked. So naturally I assumed that I HAD left the front door unlocked. I peeked outside and didn't see anyone. I shut and locked the door, assuming that a small neighborhood child had mistakenly come to our door instead of his own house and was probably stopped immediately by his parent.
And then I had the sickening thought that maybe when I'd heard Gulliver whimpering and crying, there was, in fact, someone ALREADY in the house which I had foolishly left unlocked, and that Gulliver was no longer THERE because a BABY SNATCHER came and stole him.
So nap-be-damned, I rushed up the stairs and swung Gulliver's bedroom door open to find...
...a very sleepy Gulliver waking up and looking at me.
As any mother would in this case, I scooped up my precious baby boy into my arms and rocked him back to sleep in the rocking chair.
Only then it occurred to me.
What if someone was STILL IN THE HOUSE?
So as I rocked and thought about this, I heard the door unlock and open again.
To my GREAT RELIEF because I'm not so paranoid as to believe that someone other than us has the capability to unlock our door besides us.
When Murray came upstairs, I scolded him (softly because Gulliver was napping in my arms) for all the anguish he put me through. Apparently he had come home from work, opened the door, and realized that he hadn't gotten the mail. So he closed the door, got the mail, and then was pretty confused to find the door locked again when he came back.
The end. No baby snatcher after all, and also, I DON'T leave the door unlocked when I'm at home. Murray used his keys to open it both times.
(As an aside, it drives me nuts that whenever I leave the house, Murray bolts the door. I think that during the day, the lock on the door handle is enough. So I recently asked Murray why he always bolts the door and he said, "I always bolt the door when I am [indisposed] because I'm always afraid that if I don't, someone will break in and steal Gulliver while I'm [indisposed]!")
Then I heard the front door open and realized that Murray was home. So I got out of bed and crept downstairs to let Murray know not to make a peep, since Gulliver was just barely falling back to sleep.
Except Murray wasn't downstairs.
No one was downstairs.
And the front door was unlocked. I NEVER leave the front door unlocked. So naturally I assumed that I HAD left the front door unlocked. I peeked outside and didn't see anyone. I shut and locked the door, assuming that a small neighborhood child had mistakenly come to our door instead of his own house and was probably stopped immediately by his parent.
And then I had the sickening thought that maybe when I'd heard Gulliver whimpering and crying, there was, in fact, someone ALREADY in the house which I had foolishly left unlocked, and that Gulliver was no longer THERE because a BABY SNATCHER came and stole him.
So nap-be-damned, I rushed up the stairs and swung Gulliver's bedroom door open to find...
...a very sleepy Gulliver waking up and looking at me.
As any mother would in this case, I scooped up my precious baby boy into my arms and rocked him back to sleep in the rocking chair.
Only then it occurred to me.
What if someone was STILL IN THE HOUSE?
So as I rocked and thought about this, I heard the door unlock and open again.
To my GREAT RELIEF because I'm not so paranoid as to believe that someone other than us has the capability to unlock our door besides us.
When Murray came upstairs, I scolded him (softly because Gulliver was napping in my arms) for all the anguish he put me through. Apparently he had come home from work, opened the door, and realized that he hadn't gotten the mail. So he closed the door, got the mail, and then was pretty confused to find the door locked again when he came back.
The end. No baby snatcher after all, and also, I DON'T leave the door unlocked when I'm at home. Murray used his keys to open it both times.
(As an aside, it drives me nuts that whenever I leave the house, Murray bolts the door. I think that during the day, the lock on the door handle is enough. So I recently asked Murray why he always bolts the door and he said, "I always bolt the door when I am [indisposed] because I'm always afraid that if I don't, someone will break in and steal Gulliver while I'm [indisposed]!")
One More Thing...
There are certain things about Gulliver that I know I will never understand. Like the scary elephant. I can just say to him "scary elephant" now and he whimpers and looks at me with sad eyes. (I'm not a mean mom. Usually the context is, "Don't choose that one! That's the one with the scary elephant you don't like!" Cue sad eyes.)
The other thing I don't think I'll ever really get an answer for is the whole toothbrush thing. Gulliver loves my toothbrush. He loves it so much that every time I brush my teeth, he throws an absolute fit because I have the toothbrush and he doesn't. What would you do if you were in my situation? Oh, right, you'd give him his own toothbrush, right? So one day I took another adult toothbrush out of its packaging and gave that to Gulliver. His very own toothbrush. And he loved it.
But.
He still wanted mine.
So one toothbrush was no longer enough. He needed two.
So I went out and I bought him a real kiddie toothbrush, with a lion and a suction cup on the bottom and everything.
And he loved it.
But.
He still wanted mine.
I do not understand this at all. He starts crying the moment I start brushing my teeth, and the crying doesn't stop unless I eventually give him the toothbrush. At times, I try to just distract him with something new, but this is something that he allows himself to get so worked up over that distraction doesn't work. He just cries and cries like I've betrayed him in the worst way.
So I've just given in. Letting Gulliver chew my toothbrush after I'm done with it is now just a part of my toothbrushing routine. And the routine begins with searching the whole house for where Gulliver last dropped my toothbrush.
By the way, check out Murray's blog for some awesome photos. And rest assured that we do actually clothe our baby. Sometimes.
The other thing I don't think I'll ever really get an answer for is the whole toothbrush thing. Gulliver loves my toothbrush. He loves it so much that every time I brush my teeth, he throws an absolute fit because I have the toothbrush and he doesn't. What would you do if you were in my situation? Oh, right, you'd give him his own toothbrush, right? So one day I took another adult toothbrush out of its packaging and gave that to Gulliver. His very own toothbrush. And he loved it.
But.
He still wanted mine.
So one toothbrush was no longer enough. He needed two.
So I went out and I bought him a real kiddie toothbrush, with a lion and a suction cup on the bottom and everything.
And he loved it.
But.
He still wanted mine.
I do not understand this at all. He starts crying the moment I start brushing my teeth, and the crying doesn't stop unless I eventually give him the toothbrush. At times, I try to just distract him with something new, but this is something that he allows himself to get so worked up over that distraction doesn't work. He just cries and cries like I've betrayed him in the worst way.
So I've just given in. Letting Gulliver chew my toothbrush after I'm done with it is now just a part of my toothbrushing routine. And the routine begins with searching the whole house for where Gulliver last dropped my toothbrush.
By the way, check out Murray's blog for some awesome photos. And rest assured that we do actually clothe our baby. Sometimes.
Let Me Be Clear
Apparently in my last post, the line about Gulliver not being the cutest baby in the world for much longer gave rise to some speculation that I might be pregnant.
Let me be absolutely clear.
That line meant that Gulliver is growing up so fast that he is not going to be a baby much longer. He walks. He runs. He climbs steps. He says words (a word I forgot was waffle---pronounced faffle). And he gets more and more personality by the day.
That line did NOT mean that he will no longer be the most adorable baby because a MORE adorable baby is on the way.
The farthest I would go would be to say that the baby on the way will be EQUALLY adorable to Gulliver. But, you know. At six weeks, it's very hard to tell.
Let me be absolutely clear.
That line meant that Gulliver is growing up so fast that he is not going to be a baby much longer. He walks. He runs. He climbs steps. He says words (a word I forgot was waffle---pronounced faffle). And he gets more and more personality by the day.
That line did NOT mean that he will no longer be the most adorable baby because a MORE adorable baby is on the way.
The farthest I would go would be to say that the baby on the way will be EQUALLY adorable to Gulliver. But, you know. At six weeks, it's very hard to tell.
The elephant in question...
In case you were wondering this
Is the terrifying elephant that Gulliver is so afraid of that I mentioned in the previous post. I don't understand why it's the source of so much fear, but I do know that he hates the sound it makes. Which is funny because we make elephant noises to him all the time. I don't think we will ever understand why Gulliver hates this elephant so much. I mean he has literally shrieked in terror at the sight of it. Maybe it plagues his nightmares? Maybe it's the red eye?
-- Posted from my iPhone, with apologies for any typos.
Is the terrifying elephant that Gulliver is so afraid of that I mentioned in the previous post. I don't understand why it's the source of so much fear, but I do know that he hates the sound it makes. Which is funny because we make elephant noises to him all the time. I don't think we will ever understand why Gulliver hates this elephant so much. I mean he has literally shrieked in terror at the sight of it. Maybe it plagues his nightmares? Maybe it's the red eye?
-- Posted from my iPhone, with apologies for any typos.
Let's Pretend I've Been a Good Blogger
I know, I suck. And I can give you all the excuses. But mostly, the biggest excuse is that I'm busy at work and when I'm not working, I am not on the computer. But I will try to be better!
So here is the update on Gulliver who is getting bigger and bigger and is the most adorable baby (not for much longer) in the whole wide world.
Gulliver Loves...
... the backyard with its kiddie pool. He plays naked in it several times a week.
... the fountain at Lagoon. We went to Lagoon twice in the last week. Gulliver was very good on the rides, although he did have the classic kid-ride reaction that we failed to get on camera. Basically, we loaded him up into a helicopter with Vee and Bean and everything was normal until the ride started and it took off in the air, and THEN you should have seen Gulliver's face---his eyes and mouth got as wide as they can possibly go for the first two rounds. And then he just started clapping. Classic. At the end of our first trip to Lagoon, we let the kiddies play in the fountain, which is the type of fountain where the ground is dry and all the water shoots up around you, coordinated to music. I think that Gulliver just about died and went to heaven. I could tell by people in the audience laughing that I wasn't the only one getting a kick out of him. On our second trip to Lagoon, I budgeted more time for the fountain (since the first time I had to drag him away, soaking, and kicking, and screaming) and someone commented to Captain Fabuloso (who was watching him for a while) that his best entertainment of the day was watching Gulliver play in the fountain, since every time the water hit him, the shock and delight was exactly the same.
... Cookie Monster, Grover, Ernie, and Sesame Street in general. We have the 40th anniversary DVD and we are always watching the first one. I'm just struck at how clever and legitimately funny it is---the influence of Jim Henson is very obvious in the early days of Sesame Street. We love watching it with Gulliver and hearing him laugh at all the different things.
... counting. Gulliver loves numbers. He's been a pro at two and three for a little while now, but today he added a few more to his repertoire: five (aye), eight (aie), and nine (niiiiiiine). He is so smart. He likes to count his toys.
... the iPad. No screen time before 2? Well, we certainly suck at that. Gulliver loves the iPad and I've got it fully stocked with the best kids' apps. Gulliver is, however, terrified of a certain elephant in a certain app. I'm working at getting him used to it, but it is going to take a little more work. We have NO IDEA why he is so afraid of the elephant.
... bananas. Still.
... trucks and big vehicles. When he sees a big truck go by, he says, "Wow!" Not drawn out. It's quite staccato, actually. Wow. It's a pronouncement.
... kisses. And I love kisses, too. He took a little kissing hiatus, but now his kisses are back in full force. They're extra adorable since he usually says "Mwa!" when he kisses you. He has lots of different kisses, like the sloppy kiss (not my favorite), the head-butt kiss (also not my favorite), the succession kiss (mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa), and the Godfather kiss where the grabs both sides of your face and lays one on you ("You broke my heart!"). He also likes to sneak in a zerburt (sp?) kiss every now and then, which legitimately makes the both of us laugh. I find that Gulliver makes me laugh all the time.
... going into closets, closing the door, and coming out again (no jokes, please). This is a big delight to him. Except that he can't actually open the door to let himself out, so sometimes to make the game more interesting, I leave him in there for a while.
... going up and down stairs like a big boy. Sometimes Gulliver likes to be carried up and down the stairs. But sometimes he likes to hold my hand and walk up and down like a big boy. What he loves the MOST though is to find a step that's just his size and go up and down and up and down and up and down to his heart's content!
Gulliver says...
..."bye!" Finally! It's the cutest most sing-song "bye" you've ever heard. And he waves occasionally. Sometimes with one hand. Sometimes with both.
... car, which he pronounces, "cah?" or occasionally "cahy?" It's always a question. And we ask him, "Do you want to go in the car?" And he'll say "Go go! Cahy?"
... no for nose, tee for teeth, eye for eye(s)
... cackle! for tickle! He is a pro at giving tickles. We tell him whose feet to go and tickle and he goes and tickles that person's feet, saying, "Cackle! Cackle!"
... it's Ootsie! Since I want to foster as much of a relationship as possible with Gulliver and my parents who live in Maryland, every time my mom calls or I call her (almost every day) I announce excitedly, "It's Ootsie! It's Ootsie!" Gulliver has started saying this now, too. He says "itsitsy."
... cool! This is new as of a couple days ago. But Gulliver is clearly saying "Cool!" now when he sees something cool.
OTHER MILESTONES
In July Gulliver has his first night of throwing up. We were at a hotel and he was having trouble sleeping so I had him in bed with me and at a certain point, he threw up in the bed. So I cleaned him all up, took off all the linens from the bed, threw them in the hall and called the front desk, requested more linens and towels, and tried to rock him to sleep again. And then he threw up again all over me. So we washed up again, I changed my clothes, we put more soiled linens in the hall, and got him settled in on the other bed. And then he threw up again. So we stripped the bed, got him all cleaned up, got a bunch of towels from the front desk again (by this time, Murray was on a first name basis with the front desk lady) and the fourth (and final) time Gulliver threw up, at least it was completely contained by towels. Lesson learned: Just get a bunch of towels in the first place and if at all possible, try to have your child get sick at a hotel with an endless supply of clean linens, who also have to do your laundry for you.
Gulliver is now in nursery at church. So far it's going okay, but he's not the champ I thought he'd be. I thought that he'd be in there playing oblivious to our absence the whole time, but apparently sometimes he gets sad :(
Gulliver had his first "owie." And it was all my fault. He got a pretty bad sunburn on his arm and a small part of it had blisters. So for a while I had a band aid on it. When asked, "Where's your owie?" Gulliver would make a sad, sad face and point to his band aid. And then he'd want a kiss for it. Now if I ask him where his owie is, he searches desperately on both arms for it, but can't find it anymore! He still wants a kiss.
Which reminds me, maybe this isn't a milestone, but today, Gullie showed us fake crying. It all started with this foam fan that his grandpa got him---it's a toy where if you hold down the button, the foam blades of an airplane spin and the middle lights up. It's pretty fancy to be sure, but I was watching Gulliver playing with it, and any time he put his hands in the way of the blades, he'd make a sad face and say "ow." So I tried it out, and of course it doesn't hurt at all. I guess it just looks to Gulliver like it SHOULD hurt. So being the good mom that I am, helping my baby son to man-up, I chased him around with it, trying to touch the spinning blade to any part of him I could catch, like his hands, his arms, his legs, his belly, etc. Every time I'd catch him, he'd make the sad face and say "Ow." I'd keep reminding him that it didn't actually hurt, and he thought the game was fun anyway. Well, a little later I was reading a book to him that is all about building vocabulary so there are lots of pictures with one or two words underneath. All of a sudden, Gulliver was fake crying, and I looked and he was pointing to a picture of a baby crying. He is so smart. Now he knows how to fake it. (But because I'm mom, I know when he's faking.)
And speaking of "Mom," you'll notice that Mom, Mommy, and Mumma are all missing from the list of things that Gulliver says. Because he STILL doesn't call me anything.
But Gulliver is a pro at certain animal noises (lion, cow, monkey, snake, horse, elephant, and train...which I realize isn't an animal). The other day it was raining and I said to Gulliver, "It's RAINING!!" And he said, "Choo choooooo!" And yesterday Murray was in the car with Gulliver listening to Led Zeppelin's "Move On Down the Line", and Gulliver said, "ROOOOOAR!!"
Needless to say, we are both utterly in love with Gulliver, who entertains us endlessly.
So here is the update on Gulliver who is getting bigger and bigger and is the most adorable baby (not for much longer) in the whole wide world.
Gulliver Loves...
... the backyard with its kiddie pool. He plays naked in it several times a week.
... the fountain at Lagoon. We went to Lagoon twice in the last week. Gulliver was very good on the rides, although he did have the classic kid-ride reaction that we failed to get on camera. Basically, we loaded him up into a helicopter with Vee and Bean and everything was normal until the ride started and it took off in the air, and THEN you should have seen Gulliver's face---his eyes and mouth got as wide as they can possibly go for the first two rounds. And then he just started clapping. Classic. At the end of our first trip to Lagoon, we let the kiddies play in the fountain, which is the type of fountain where the ground is dry and all the water shoots up around you, coordinated to music. I think that Gulliver just about died and went to heaven. I could tell by people in the audience laughing that I wasn't the only one getting a kick out of him. On our second trip to Lagoon, I budgeted more time for the fountain (since the first time I had to drag him away, soaking, and kicking, and screaming) and someone commented to Captain Fabuloso (who was watching him for a while) that his best entertainment of the day was watching Gulliver play in the fountain, since every time the water hit him, the shock and delight was exactly the same.
... Cookie Monster, Grover, Ernie, and Sesame Street in general. We have the 40th anniversary DVD and we are always watching the first one. I'm just struck at how clever and legitimately funny it is---the influence of Jim Henson is very obvious in the early days of Sesame Street. We love watching it with Gulliver and hearing him laugh at all the different things.
... counting. Gulliver loves numbers. He's been a pro at two and three for a little while now, but today he added a few more to his repertoire: five (aye), eight (aie), and nine (niiiiiiine). He is so smart. He likes to count his toys.
... the iPad. No screen time before 2? Well, we certainly suck at that. Gulliver loves the iPad and I've got it fully stocked with the best kids' apps. Gulliver is, however, terrified of a certain elephant in a certain app. I'm working at getting him used to it, but it is going to take a little more work. We have NO IDEA why he is so afraid of the elephant.
... bananas. Still.
... trucks and big vehicles. When he sees a big truck go by, he says, "Wow!" Not drawn out. It's quite staccato, actually. Wow. It's a pronouncement.
... kisses. And I love kisses, too. He took a little kissing hiatus, but now his kisses are back in full force. They're extra adorable since he usually says "Mwa!" when he kisses you. He has lots of different kisses, like the sloppy kiss (not my favorite), the head-butt kiss (also not my favorite), the succession kiss (mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa), and the Godfather kiss where the grabs both sides of your face and lays one on you ("You broke my heart!"). He also likes to sneak in a zerburt (sp?) kiss every now and then, which legitimately makes the both of us laugh. I find that Gulliver makes me laugh all the time.
... going into closets, closing the door, and coming out again (no jokes, please). This is a big delight to him. Except that he can't actually open the door to let himself out, so sometimes to make the game more interesting, I leave him in there for a while.
... going up and down stairs like a big boy. Sometimes Gulliver likes to be carried up and down the stairs. But sometimes he likes to hold my hand and walk up and down like a big boy. What he loves the MOST though is to find a step that's just his size and go up and down and up and down and up and down to his heart's content!
Gulliver says...
..."bye!" Finally! It's the cutest most sing-song "bye" you've ever heard. And he waves occasionally. Sometimes with one hand. Sometimes with both.
... car, which he pronounces, "cah?" or occasionally "cahy?" It's always a question. And we ask him, "Do you want to go in the car?" And he'll say "Go go! Cahy?"
... no for nose, tee for teeth, eye for eye(s)
... cackle! for tickle! He is a pro at giving tickles. We tell him whose feet to go and tickle and he goes and tickles that person's feet, saying, "Cackle! Cackle!"
... it's Ootsie! Since I want to foster as much of a relationship as possible with Gulliver and my parents who live in Maryland, every time my mom calls or I call her (almost every day) I announce excitedly, "It's Ootsie! It's Ootsie!" Gulliver has started saying this now, too. He says "itsitsy."
... cool! This is new as of a couple days ago. But Gulliver is clearly saying "Cool!" now when he sees something cool.
OTHER MILESTONES
In July Gulliver has his first night of throwing up. We were at a hotel and he was having trouble sleeping so I had him in bed with me and at a certain point, he threw up in the bed. So I cleaned him all up, took off all the linens from the bed, threw them in the hall and called the front desk, requested more linens and towels, and tried to rock him to sleep again. And then he threw up again all over me. So we washed up again, I changed my clothes, we put more soiled linens in the hall, and got him settled in on the other bed. And then he threw up again. So we stripped the bed, got him all cleaned up, got a bunch of towels from the front desk again (by this time, Murray was on a first name basis with the front desk lady) and the fourth (and final) time Gulliver threw up, at least it was completely contained by towels. Lesson learned: Just get a bunch of towels in the first place and if at all possible, try to have your child get sick at a hotel with an endless supply of clean linens, who also have to do your laundry for you.
Gulliver is now in nursery at church. So far it's going okay, but he's not the champ I thought he'd be. I thought that he'd be in there playing oblivious to our absence the whole time, but apparently sometimes he gets sad :(
Gulliver had his first "owie." And it was all my fault. He got a pretty bad sunburn on his arm and a small part of it had blisters. So for a while I had a band aid on it. When asked, "Where's your owie?" Gulliver would make a sad, sad face and point to his band aid. And then he'd want a kiss for it. Now if I ask him where his owie is, he searches desperately on both arms for it, but can't find it anymore! He still wants a kiss.
Which reminds me, maybe this isn't a milestone, but today, Gullie showed us fake crying. It all started with this foam fan that his grandpa got him---it's a toy where if you hold down the button, the foam blades of an airplane spin and the middle lights up. It's pretty fancy to be sure, but I was watching Gulliver playing with it, and any time he put his hands in the way of the blades, he'd make a sad face and say "ow." So I tried it out, and of course it doesn't hurt at all. I guess it just looks to Gulliver like it SHOULD hurt. So being the good mom that I am, helping my baby son to man-up, I chased him around with it, trying to touch the spinning blade to any part of him I could catch, like his hands, his arms, his legs, his belly, etc. Every time I'd catch him, he'd make the sad face and say "Ow." I'd keep reminding him that it didn't actually hurt, and he thought the game was fun anyway. Well, a little later I was reading a book to him that is all about building vocabulary so there are lots of pictures with one or two words underneath. All of a sudden, Gulliver was fake crying, and I looked and he was pointing to a picture of a baby crying. He is so smart. Now he knows how to fake it. (But because I'm mom, I know when he's faking.)
And speaking of "Mom," you'll notice that Mom, Mommy, and Mumma are all missing from the list of things that Gulliver says. Because he STILL doesn't call me anything.
But Gulliver is a pro at certain animal noises (lion, cow, monkey, snake, horse, elephant, and train...which I realize isn't an animal). The other day it was raining and I said to Gulliver, "It's RAINING!!" And he said, "Choo choooooo!" And yesterday Murray was in the car with Gulliver listening to Led Zeppelin's "Move On Down the Line", and Gulliver said, "ROOOOOAR!!"
Needless to say, we are both utterly in love with Gulliver, who entertains us endlessly.
Kids These Days
Today I present you with a photo story about kids and technology. I'm a favorite auntie these days because whenever I visit, I have my iPad, which is fully loaded with kids' games. Usually Gulliver is happily playing with Vee and Bean's toys while they play with the iPad, but this time, all three kids were trying to share, and Vee and Bean quickly discovered that Gulliver is quite good at pressing the home button whenever a game he doesn't want is selected....
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