Noise and no Noise

John went to MDO today until noon. I sprayed him down with OFF before we left because the skeeters have been SOOOO bad the last couple of days. He had a good day, although he was crying when I picked him up. I'm sure he was just doing his usual whining thing. There were at least three others kids crying, too so I didn't feel too bad. We had taken the two balls you see in his hands above with us in the car this morning. He picked them up and ran for the door when I said "Let's go!" We left them in the car while he was in school. So he had something to hold onto when we started home. He started to whine and then I asked him to shake the noisy ball. The yellow one has a bell in it. The blue one is one of those super bouncy balls. He said "noise". I'm not sure where he learned this word, but he's used it for at least a week. Then I told him to shake the other one. "No noise" I said. We went back and forth until we got home. He was pretty proud of himself that he knew that one made noise and other didn't. He even said something to Daddy about it when he got home.

I had to get most of the OFF off of him before the nap so I gave him a quick rinse and he some some clean, cozy clothes out of the deal. We played in his room a little after the shower. He always likes getting up on the rocking chair, usually pulling the pillow and the blanket off the chair first. I took tons of shots, but this was the best by far. I just love these serious looking shots when he's just gazing into the camera! I feel so connect to him. Just for the record, I removed a large red mosquito bite from his forehead. I just couldn't leave it! It was too distracting!

(You can even see it in this picture!)

I was fixing dinner when John woke up. He wanted to draw and wanted a snack. So I set him up in the chair with his drawing board (This has been worth every penny! He might even need a new one by the time his birthday rolls around!) and a box of raisins. He must have been hungry because he was definitely interested in the raisins, digging them out of the box one by one. The he discovered that he could see his reflection in the oven door. He would look and reach over to touch it. Then I caught him drawing and watching himself draw in the door. Too cute! Maybe one day he'll really vocalize that it's him he sees. He still says "baby" when he looks in the mirror.

-EBP-

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Birthday

We went to a park this morning. We stayed about an hour and came home with some mosquito bites, even though we had some OFF on. They have been really bad the last two days. I guess there's been some hatching going on. John was a little timid at first. Most of the equipment is elevated and has a open-weave grating for flooring. I didn't quite understand why he seemed to be tip-toeing very carefully, making sure to hold onto the hand rails. Then I walked up behind him and understood. Looking down, it seemed that the grating was the same color as the wood chips on the ground, leading me (and him) to loose perspective somewhat. I reassured him and then he was good to go. My only concern were these widely spaced bars on the railings, but I needn't worry. John was his usual cautious self.

After we got home, John decided that he was going to do some digging in the plastic ware cabinet. He doesn't do this much anymore, where he pulls a bunch of stuff out. What he does do is specifically pull out the colored lids and walk around like this. Today it was the green one. Usually it's the red ones, leading to lots of rose-colored glasses comments from John and me. He always mashes his nose up and wanders around the house. It's kind of funny to watch. Right up there with him wandering the house with a kitchen towel on his head.

I spent some time in the kitchen today working on a birthday cake for our friend Rick (of RNR fame). I was trying out a new scratch recipe. As soon as John was done with lunch I set him up to draw with some markers or occupy for a while. In order to contain the marking I usually put him in his high chair with a bib and a big piece of paper. I started my cake and soon John was ready to get down. He immediately ran to the pantry and started saying something that sounded like "too", but I wasn't sure what that was. He was quite adamant and since it was the pantry with a million things in it, I opened it to find out what he wanted. I was sure it would be something edible. But it wasn't. He wanted the stool so that he could see what I was doing. I set it up next the mixer and he watched me add the ingredients one by one. Then he got bored and started dragging the stool around the kitchen to see other things on the counter.



While John was napping, I tackled the frosting. It turned into a bigger job than I wished and I actually had to start over. But it got done and we headed over to SNBNA's for dinner. We sang Happy Birthday to Rick and then cut into the cake, which was very good. I might have to make it again, although it's a huge cake. Each layer was almost two inches tall! They totally filled while baking the cake pans I used. Anyway, the point of all this was that after we made it home and we were in the home stretch in the bedtime routine, JHP started saying "Birthday, Birthday". I guess he remembered the song that we had sung earlier in the night. Kinda funny how he brings stuff up somewhat out of the blue!

-EBP-

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Bottle of Mr. Bubble for sale

Don't be shocked! There is only one picture in today's post. I usually post the ones I like best and I really didn't have many standouts from today's pics. I did take more than one, in case you were wondering. The rest will be on the WebAlbums.

John's second day at MDO went fine. I made sure to get there early today to avoid the crying. So early, in fact, that he was just finishing up his lunch. He was whining and they said he was tired. He kept yawning on the way home and asked for his paapaa. I resisted the urge to put him straight to bed. It was only 1210p. So I ate when we got home and tried to avoid a meltdown (his, not mine). By 1240p, he was really whiny. I had asked him previously if he was ready for nap and he'd told me know. I was pretty sure that was just a reflex, though. Not five minutes later I asked again and he headed straight for his bedroom. This has NOT happened in a long while! So to bed he went. But it wasn't the most restful sleep. He cried out a few times and by 320p he was clamoring to get out of the crib. He managed the rest of the evening pretty well until bath time.

We have been kind of lax about starting a bath right at 700p this summer. it's usually more like 730p or later. John's been napping until 500p so he's usually fine until we decide to get started. Tonight he and Daddy had gone to get the mail and didn't extend the walk because the mosquitoes were really bad. He got bit five times! Poor thing is like me. He welts up. I saw them as soon as he walked in the door. They were already swelling. So after some Benadryl cream, we played in the living room for a while.

John just in the last couple of days "learned" to tickle. He likes it when Daddy tickles him. And we've been showing him to tickle somebody else. For now, all he does is come up and rub his hands on you, but he loves it when we react, which we do, of course. Well, tonight Daddy told John to come tickle me and he did. The he decided to go tickle Daddy. Daddy laughed and rolled onto his back. John came with him. Daddy tickled back making John laugh. And toss some cookies all over Dad! Oops! Daddy was shocked and John was silent. I think it might have upset him a bit because he didn't understand what was going on. I guess his little laugh upsets his insides. So, play time was over abruptly. It was bath time now.

John recently started saying the word "bubble". Daddy likes for him to say it because it sounds kind of odd. And during his bath he's quick to point out the bubbles that the soap makes. So it made sense to me to seek out and buy some Mr. Bubble at the store today. But alas, I was wrong, so very wrong in my assumption that he would like it. As soon as I started filling the tub, he was excited for about 2 seconds and then he wasn't any more. As soon as they started multiplying and covered his foot, he got worried. He even stood there on one foot because it had bubbles on it. We ended up washing the bubbles all down the drain and leaving the tub empty the duration of the bath. He wasn't the most upset I've ever seen him, but he was not the happiest camper until Daddy fished him out to dry him off.

Daddy tried his darnedest to turn around John's mood. As he was drying him, he was playing a little game and making John laugh. Daddy even commented out loud, "I should stop before he spits up again." But he played some more. And JHP tossed some more! Augh! Back to bath to rinse off as he'd gotten the brunt of it last time. Poor guy! He looked a little confused about getting back in the tub. Finally, without any more incident, he made it into bed the earliest he's been there in weeks. Hopefully, he'll sleep well and not get up too early for Momma!

-EBP-

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