Squeaker can't possibly know its Saturday.

Can she? Squeaker and I woke up about the same time this morning, 7:30. I took cold medicine when I went to bed last night, so I think we woke up a the same time. We have a routine in the morning. She wakes up. I drink some coffee. I add four ounces of whole milk to one quarter of a cup of Quaker Oats. I cook the oatmeal for 70 seconds and I drink some coffee. I get her out of bed. I drink some coffee. I change her diaper. I drink some coffee. I put her in the high chair with some oyster crackers and a sippy cup full of milk. I add fruit baby food or apple sauce to the oatmeal and feed it to Squeaker for breakfast. The main exception to this routine comes on Saturdays when I make pancakes instead of oatmeal for breakfast.

This morning, Saturday morning, I was a little hazy thanks to the cold medicine, but I followed the routine. I made oatmeal for Squeaker, drank some coffee, etc. It was all I could do to get her to eat more than a few spoonfuls of the stuff. She fussed and signed more food. I tried to give her more oatmeal. Tears came. She signed more food. I gave her more oyster crackers. More tears came. I tried to give her more milk. Bigger tears. So, I put the milk and oatmeal in the fridge and put her down on the floor with her books. Fewer tears. I drank some coffee. Squeaker plays, but keeps giving me the food sign. I drank some coffee. A lightbulb (in the shape of a coffee pot) appeared over my head. Pancakes!

I pulled the high chair into the kitchen, got out the griddle, mixed the batter, and away went the tears. I put Squeaker in her chair and whipped up the first batch, gave one to her and got the more sign in return. She ate almost half the pancakes, drank more milk than usual and all together had a great breakfast with her daddy. Now, I ask you dear reader, she can't possibly know that today is Saturday, right?

Squeaker went to the doctor this week, she's a couple of pounds heavier now and just a little bit taller. I was working so I can't report this first hand, but Aunt Brite came away from the appointment wondering, "She can't possibly remember getting shots last time, can she?" Let's just say that Squeaker Fussypants knows her checkup routine pretty well also.

Squeaker's been busy this week doing research. She's a fellow at the Bedsore UNderstanding Network , or BUNNY for short. As part of her research she has been probing the limits of how much a little person like herself can sleep without falling victim to the onslaught of the dreaded bedsores. Wednesday night she went to sleep around 7:15 pm. 7:15 am came and went with nary a peep from her test facility. 8:15, all quiet. 9:15 gentle rustling of the blankets then silence. At 10:15 Aunt Brite checked the monitor and confirmed that it was working. Finally at 10:35 she seemed to be waking up. Aunt Brite went in the test facility, but Squeaker didn't seem to be that interested in getting up despite having been in her test facility for over 15 hours. Those bedsores must be lurking out there at 16 or 17 hours. Don't worry BUNNY, Squeaker is on the job.

That's all for now Squeaker fans. Good luck with your shopping. If you look closely at the second picture you can see a new tooth.

Squeaker Piano Trio

These pictures this time are from our family reunion Saturday. Squeaker and the other young children found their way to the piano, where they performed an enthusiastic, if not exacting trio. She enjoyed playing with her cousins. What you can't see in these pictures is that she's wearing her first pair of 'big girl' shoes. They are dressy, like her outfit, and heavy, like concrete. The first time she wore them, Squeaker just stood in the kitchen as if her new shoes were glued to the floor. She eventually started walking in them, rather than just standing there. She brings them to me when she gets up now, wanting to wear her new shoes. Squeaker's development has continued on the same path as the last few weeks. She's running Aunt Brite ragged reading books, her walking is stronger and more confident and she spends much of the day pointing at objects and wanting to know what hey are called. My plan to travel at night worked like a charm. Squeaker was asleep not long after we got on the road. Squeaker and I do share an appreciation of a proper mixture of Steppenwolf and horsepower. She was rocking back and forth and giggling as we drove to lunch today. Awfully hard to love that Squeakerpants. That's all for now. Enjoy your week. Make sure to read the other half of this weeks post.

Blanchet, Hepburn, Swank, and Pants

That would be Cate, Katherine, Hilary, and Squeaker, in case you're not sure.  Before I explain that grouping, my apology to our Saturday night readers, since this post is going up late on Sunday morning.  Squeaker's dad went to a holiday party friday night and a family reunion yesterday and has lost his voice.  I thought it was from yelling over the band, but it turns out I just caught a cold.  Figured out what those ladies have in common yet?  Do I need to keep rambling on about my week some more? I suggest you watch this slideshow then.

Still guessing? I don't know about you, but Squeaker makes a pretty cute, albeit somewhat prissy boy in her orange fleece and jeans. Of course she's not giving the snowmen, ahh, women no snowmen, mouth to mouth...

I have more to add to this post, but squeaker is up and needs lunch. Check back this evening as she goes to the other end of the fashion spectrum and gives her first piano concert.

GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY!

Sorry for the delay in this post.  Squeaker's Dad joined her grandfathers at the Army-Navy game yesterday.  Despite the fact that we had a Cadet, a Keydet, and a Hokie all unified in opposition to the goat people, things did not go well for the Brave Old Army Team.  She continues to be focused absorbing knowledge from whatever sources she can find but books and walks are hard to beat.  Traveling with her has been hard for the last few weeks because she refuses to sleep in the car anymore.  We spent about eight hours in the car together during Thanksgiving.  The only time she came close to sleeping was during the last leg of our trip home, after it had gotten dark.  On the way home from the Army-Navy game I was able to test the hypothesis that she would still sleep in the car, so long as it was after dark.  Sure enough she fell right to sleep, so it looks like I will driving at night to avoid traveling with Squeaker-Whiny-Pants.  As promised, I took some video of her walking, but I can't seem to get it to upload correctly.  I'll try again when she wakes up from her nap.

Orange Crushed

Squeaker and I have been waiting to wear our new t-shirts until today.  We probably should have found a better occasion given the way things turned out.   We didn't go to the big game today but squeaker did go to her first NCAA sporting event on Sunday. We watched the UVa women beat UR at JPJ.  Squeaker enjoyed everything but the buzzer.  We started off in the second row, but after a substitution and some tears we decided to move up away from the action some.  Her favorite part of the experience was watching the blimp fly around at half-time.  My favorite part of the game was during the second half when she turned around and gave me a big hug and a kiss.  We're planning on going to lots of afternoon games this season.  I have started explaining the rules to her, but I suspect she has only a cursory understanding of the game at this point.  I thought I was pretty special getting a hug and a kiss at the game, but she does a lot of hugging and kissing now, usually when she comes across favorite creatures in her books.   Speaking of books, Aunt Brite gave Squeaker a couple of new board books on Monday. She has been asked to read each of them about seven times a day since then. Aunt Brite would like to request lots of new board books for Christmas. I am happy to relay this plea to the wider community. Don't tell Aunt Brite I said this, but I think she may not have fully considered the consequences of Squeaker having more new books, i.e. reading each of these new books seven times a day until they both have every word memorized.  One of the new signs that Squeaker has learned is "please". Unfortunately, I think she learned it not as "please", but as "PLEASE READ ME THIS BOOK AGAIN, I HAVEN'T MEMORIZED IT YET AND IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT THAT I DO!" "Please" is starting to get used other contexts, but never with less emphasis.  If you look closely at the picture, you will notice that Squeaker's hair parted in the wrong direction today.  Unfortunately it is covering her first bruise.  Squeaker is far too confident in her walking ability now and it caught up with her.  She tumbled into a door-jam around bedtime last night.  She's fine as you can see.  I think the drool has more to do with a new tooth than the knock on her head, but I could be wrong...  Blogger now has a button to post video so next week I will put up some footage of Squeaker walking.

Not now Dad. I'm Thinking....

Over the last year many things have confirmed for me the power of genetics. Squeaker is tall. Squeaker has brown eyes like her father.  Squeaker doesn't seem that coordinated when she walks.  Squeaker isn't a morning person.  Squeaker has a prodigious appetite.  Squeaker likes the outdoors, even when it is cold.  Squeaker loves books.  Squeaker takes reading material with her to the bathroom, well the changing pad anyway.  In this last case, it isn't that she takes after her parents.  However, certain of her other relatives, not to name names, but her paternal grandfather does come to mind, have been known to take reading material with them, indeed to have many years worth of the Atlantic, pre-positioned, at their disposal, as they say.  Hopefully when she's old enough to read these posts, she'll forgive me for the second picture, but when we go in to take care of a diaper, she grabs her book, I'm sorry, her libro, and tries to be helpful.  We almost made the "man bites dog" segment of the evening news today.  Since she learned to crawl, Squeaker has enjoyed shutting doors.  She was playing on the floor after breakfast this morning when our dog wanted out.  I went to the door and slipped outside to put the dog on its leash so it could do its business outside.  Squeaker crawled over with me and when I was just outside the door, she tried to shut it.  I managed to stop her just before she locked me out of the house.  I noticed this evening that she's now just tall enough to reach the door knob.  She seems to know what to do with it, but she's tall enough to get a grip yet.  I we can put off her locking me out a few more weeks, she'll be able to let me back in herself.  See you next week Squeaker fans.  

Pictures as Promised

Here are the pictures I promised yesterday. I did actually take a couple of photos of her this week. Squeaker voted and somehow ended up with her stickers on her backside. As you might guess, the other picture is from this morning. Squeaker is working on her game face. We've discussed the Cav's last game and she knows that while orange and blue go together, orange and maroon look kind of tacky together. She did have an orange and green mess in her diaper this morning in honor of the 'OB'. It didn't stink half as bad as Miami did last night.

I realized taking these pictures that she understands something about the camera now. Her demeanor changed when I took it down off the shelf and pointed it at her. I guess it is going to be hard to get those candid shots now. Remember that you can click on the pictures to see them full sized. The 'game face' shot is a full 6 MP image in case anyone wants to print it. One other interesting note. Squeaker and I had almost the same breakfast this morning. She had half a cup of oatmeal, made with whole milk, and flavored with applesauce. I had a cup of oatmeal, made with water, and flavored likewise with applesauce. I think her breakfast probably had as many calories as mine did. It looked much creamier and probably tasted a little better than mine too. She finished almost all of it. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.