Cousin Wheezy

My sister and brother-in-law came to visit us last weekend, which means Cousin Wheezy had to come along as well. My sister is due October 30th, and they're calling their baby boy "Wheezy" until they figure out a name. Her other nephews christened him that after watching too much Toy Story. Anyway, we had a good time with them! We sent her home with a bunch of Daniel's baby clothes. When Daniel saw his racecar shirt leaving, he wanted it back. We convinced him that Cousin Wheezy needed it, and he's been saying all day, "Cousin Wheezy wear your racecar shirt." What a good sharer! He did keep looking at Aunt Pam's tummy every time we said there was a baby in there. I think he thought we were crazy. :)

Summer Fun

We've done a couple fun things this week.

On Tuesday, Daniel and I made our first trip to the public pool! They have a little baby pool that we hung out in the whole time. Daniel wasn't even close to being ready for the big pool. He sat on the edge for a long, long, long time before I could convince him to get in the pool. I finally talked him into it by throwing his ball in. He had to follow! He wanted to get out right away, but I sat him on my knees and did "the grand ol' duke of york" which was, apparently, super fun in the pool because I heard "again" about 20 times before we did something else. He finally got brave enough to walk around by himself in the pool - which freaked me out just a little. I was worried some of the bigger kids would accidentally knock him over, but he held his own. It was fun!

On Thursday, David took us to the "party on the patio." It's a weekly summer party sponsored by the Harley Davidson store in Abilene. So Daniel got some good cultural awareness because there were a lot of bikers and other interesting people there. We took a picnic dinner, and there was a live band, which Daniel loved. He danced and danced to the music. Even when he was sitting down, he wiggled his upper body. David taught him to stomp his foot to the music, and he really liked that. He loved seeing all the motorcycles up close and was fascinated with a yellow and black one, in particular. To top it all off, we let him share shaved ice with us - huge treat in our house! He loved that and had a big, red stain around his mouth to prove it.

Let the Year of 2 Begin

We just endured one of the longest tantrums Daniel's thrown to date. Hooray for us! We're still alive!

Poor Daniel's had a rough day. He woke up at 5:45 am, and his first words were "Eat breakfast," but they were said in this long whine that sounded more like, "Eeeeat breaaaakfaaaaaaaast????" I said, "What would you like for breakfast?" He replied, "Raisins and cinnamon and nuts and nutmeg in oatmeal." We had a lot of whining during breakfast, and I felt a little bad about leaving him for the sitter, but a little glad to be done with the whine 'til 5:00.

Then this evening, when it was time for bath, the tantrum began. Daniel didn't want to help clean up his toys, so he started crying. He screamed and screamed while David and I helped him put his toys away with hand-over-hand help. Then he screamed and screamed while I took his clothes off him. Then he opted not to run around "like a naked wild monkey" like he enjoys doing most nights, so I attempted to plop him straight into the tub. The screaming continued as I held him in the tub. He stiffened his little legs and screamed and screamed while we waited for him to settle down. David attempted to lighten the mood and blew a few bubbles in the tub, but to no avail. Screams continued for the entire bath, well into the lotion, diaper, and PJs. Then when we sat down to brush teeth, it miraculously stopped. I guess he realized that he was going to bed whether he wanted to or not. He put up one more little fight at the end with a "No nap!" But as soon as I laid him in his crib, he was out. I believe it's time for a little wine.

I Can Do It Myself

I think we're entering the "I can do it myself" phase. I thought that came later, but I think we're edging up on it rather quickly. Of course, Daniel doesn't actually say "I can do it myself." He screams, "NOOOOOOO! Daniel do it!!!" So that's way more fun.

The cool thing is that he's learning how to do all kinds of things by himself now. He's recently learned how to take his shorts off and part of his shirts (he needs help getting his arms through, but then takes it off his head by himself). He's getting so much better at cleaning up his toys, building bigger towers with blocks, opening anything that has a twist-off top, putting on his own shoes (slip-on crocs), and eating cereal with milk without spilling an obscene amount. He's also learned how to pull doors closed, though we're still working on opening them. I'm hoping that takes a long time to figure out, and I'm definitely investing in those doorknob covers when he gets it.

ABC's

Daniel can name a lot of his capital letters, thanks to Aunt Cristi and Uncle Brian's cool Christmas present. His little magnet toy names each letter as you put it in and then sings a little song about the sound that the letter makes (S says sssss, S says sssss, every letter makes a sound, S says sssss). Anyway, Daniel's been quite interested in letters this week - we checked out Dr. Seuss' ABC book, and he's in love with the "zizzer-zazzer-zuzz" at the end of the book. So we've been practicing the sounds of the letters. He'll bring me a magnet letter from the fridge or point to one in his book, and we'll practice making the sound. Then I try to come up with some words that he knows that start with that letter. So I tell him, "That's a D, for d,d,d,Daniel or d, d, d,dog." And Daniel replies back, "D says d,d,d. For d,d,d,pillow. For d,d,d,sandwich." I think it will be awhile until he gets the whole phoneme concept..... :)

Scary Sheep

We frequent the Abilene mall because it's got several things Daniel likes. He's especially been enjoying going to Books a Million lately because they have a Thomas the Train station. They also have a barrel full of stick horses that he enjoys riding (even the purple, sparkly unicorn ones). It's nice to sit there and flip through books while he plays for awhile. This week he also found a stuffed sheep in a bin next to the train station. He brought it to me to show me its funny glasses and scarf. I saw there was a "try me" button, so I pushed it. The sheep started singing "We wish you a merry Christmas," and Daniel was smiling excitedly. When it finished the song, it started saying, "Baaaa" and shaking crazily. Daniel dropped the sheep and started screaming at the top of his lungs! I picked him up and tried to calm him down, but he cried and cried for about 3-4 minutes. There were several customers looking on and laughing because he got so scared. Poor kid! He finally stopped crying and said, "That sheep shaking. That sheep scary. He sing Christmas song." He's been talking about it all week, and I think he might be ready to try it again soon. Cross your fingers!

Pam's visit

Last weekend, my college roommate (who now lives in SC) came to stay with us. We hadn't seen her since November 2008, so it was a big deal! Daniel fell in love with her pretty quickly.....She had sparkly clothes and jewelry (always a big hit), though I think he liked Pam just because she was Pam too. He followed her everywhere! Of course, he frequently does this with guests.....What he doesn't usually do is lie on the floor in front of the bathroom and wait for guests to come out of there! He did this about every time Pam went to the bathroom, and he would even wait out her showers in the mornings!

We've been working on getting him to call adults by Mr./Mrs. (last name). Pam's last name is Gonzalez, so that's a tricky one. She quickly became "Ms. Salas," and was dragged around the house to see everything Daniel thinks is interesting (e.g., walls, kitchen, windows, cribs). Pam brought him a sweet book with animals in it and a pilot teddy bear, and Daniel's been enjoying them all week.

We had a couple other highlights while she was here. 1) Daniel's first frog (or toad maybe?). David found it in the backyard, and we had a lot of fun with him - even getting to bathe with him one night (Daddy's idea - not mine). 2) We went to Rosa's with the Calvo's. Apparently Daniel loved this because we've passed by Rosa's twice this week, and each time, Daniel has requested it by name.

We had a wonderful time with Pam, and it was so sad to see her go since we probably won't see each other again for quite some time.

The Budding Entomologist

I'm not sure if Daniel will become an entomologist like his Uncle Brian or not, but he's showing quite an interest in bugs these days.

While Grandma and Grandpa were here last week, he made them laugh by stomping on all the bugs he could find outside. He'd slide his shoe across them to make sure they were really squished. (I guess you know what I do when I see a bug!)

This week he called me into the guest room and said, "Look! Daniel has a bug crawling on him!" There was a nasty little earwig crawling right on his arm. Eew!

A few days ago, he spent quite a bit of time trying to catch that "peksy (pesky) old fly" in the kitchen. He'd let it land on the floor, and then he would try to smash it with the swiffer sweeper. He's not quite fast enough yet.

Today he enjoyed picking up 3 big grasshoppers that were apparently "hurt" according to David. He enjoyed lining them all up and putting them in a pile.

He is 100% boy.

Spoiled Part 2

My parents came this weekend to spend some time with Daniel, and I think they spoiled him as much as his abuelos did a few weekends ago.

The highlight of the weekend was probably the ice cream though. Grandpa was pretty insistent that we were torturing Daniel by not allowing him to have many sweets, so we went to Dairy Queen. Daniel got to share an Oreo blizzard with Grandpa, and he was in heaven from bite one. About midway through, he looked up and said, "There's crackers in this ice cream!" Poor kid - he doesn't even know what an Oreo is!

Daniel also had a lot of fun playing in the water hose with Grandma and putting together the "people puzzles" that she brought. I think he asked her to play with the puzzles at least 10 times a day. His other frequent request was for her to sing "John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt." That was a big hit this weekend!

I was at work when my parents left for home, but David said that Daniel bawled and bawled when they were leaving because he wanted to go with them to Albuquerque to "see the llamas." We'll have to plan a trip home to see those neighbors' llamas one of these days.