Picture Post

Happy Easter. Enjoy these pictures. I could make some printed copies appear at a ritz camera if you have one nearby.

Blue is the New Two

Squeaker is just starting to get a sense of some of the categories we give things. She has the sense that two is a number. We also think she knows that blue is a color. However every crayon is equally likely to be described as blue and she knows that when we count objects, two is a good guess, but she doesn't know that two is two.

We tried on her easter dress during March Madness on Thursday. She rubbed her hands on down her dress and smiled sweetly at the daddy person as to say, "Look how cute I am in my dress."

She immediately then pointed at the TV and said "Ball Ball" as if to say, "Don't worry Daddy, I am excited about the basketball game too."

We've had a busy weekend fending off diaper rash and watching ball ball. The daddy person is going to get some sleep. I'll put up some pictures in the morning.

18 Months and Away We Grow

Squeaker survived another trip to the doctor this week, but as you will hear it was kind of hard on Hopa. She's still on the 90th percentile in height. As these pictures show, she is getting to be a big fan of playgrounds. You should zoom in on each of the pictures so you don't miss various small details. My favorite is the shot of her 'eye spots'. One day they will terrify her children, but for now they keep the other kids at bay. We're up visiting her other grandparents this week, so we have a special guest host this week, Aunt Brite, who has a funny story for y'all.

Squeaker's 18 month check up was on Thursday and the Daddy person and I decided it would be best if we brought Hope bunny along. Squeaker doesn't just like "Hopa", she considers her to be an appendage. For example, she talks to Hopa in the morning before we go into get her up. She bends down to tickle the Bunny just like we tickle her. She hugs her and pats her back like we've done for Squeaker so many times. When she's coloring, she always asks me to draw an Hopa. Whenever Daddy or Aunt Brite say no, Squeaker whimpers for Hopa. I guess Hopa never tells her anything she doesn't want to hear.

The other factor in our decision to take the bunny to the doctor is that
Squeaker ends up crying a good portion of each appointment. She has
made it very clear that being weighed, having her temperature taken, and
especially those awful shots are just plain unnecessary. The Daddy
person and I were amazed by how much more smoothly the appointment went
with Hopa by her side. We got to the dreaded shot without any melt
downs at all. Then Daddy, being the thoughtful father he is, asks the
nurse to pretend to give Hopa the shot first. Squeaker watched intently
as the nurse gave the shot and then put on the dog bandaid. She still
screamed after the shot was put into her own little leg, but the
recovery was much faster. We considered this to be a great success.

However there is another chapter to the story which I will entitle "The
Aftermath" I was putting Squeaker down for her nap with the beloved
Hopa when she discover the dog bandaid on the bunny's leg. She tried
very hard to pull it off and so I gently reach down to help. Well most
of it came off easily, but one side of the adhesive just refused to
loosen. There I am, standing over the crib yanking it with all my
strength when I glance up to see Squeaker's horrified face. She
actually bent over and gave Hopa a kiss because she was so concerned
that I was hurting the bunny! Eventually I got the scissors and you can
barely notice the spot where it was. As I left, Squeaker was continuing
to console Hopa by hugging her through.

Well, later that night as I gave Squeaker her bath, I saw the little dog
bandaid on her leg. So I wait till she has soaked for a long while and
then nonchalantly leaned over and ripped it off. Having read the story
above, I am certain you realize the strength of this adhesive and the
cries that followed. I cuddled her in the towel and she was fine. But
a little while later as I she was sitting in her crib we had a little
"conversation". (Each time she says hmmm, she made a little sad face.)

"Brite?"
"Yes, baby"
Pointing to Hopa's leg she said, "Dog dog Hopa hmmm"
She repeated the words and the action until I said,
"Oh do you remember when I took off Hopa's dog bandaid?"
She nodded and then, while pointing to her own leg she said, "Dog dog
Baby hmmm"
She did the same thing and repeated her baby sentences twice more.
Each time making that little pained face when she said hmmm.
"I am sorry that the bandaid's hurt you, but look Hopa feels all better
now. Do you feel all better?" She nodded, smiled happily and buried
her face in Hopa to go to sleep.

Believe me, she can be a challenge, but she's such a sensitive,
empathetic baby. Her Mommy would've liked that.

A Fan is Born...

and let me tell you this, the Daddy person has created a monster. Squeaker's first words this morning, and yes that would be Sunday morning, were "BALL BALL!?". Ok, so she did call for me first, but once she was sure I was up, then her first words were "BALL BALL!?". We're a little obsessed and very observant. The cup she's playing with is the one I was drinking out of this morning. I did not notice that it is a basketball cup. Squeaker noticed that it a basketball cup. You can see from this video that a ball ball makes it a very special cup. I will admit that at least part of the allure of games is the music. She's sitting in her high chair right now trying to dance and asking for ball ball. Maybe I can find some ball ball music on iTunes.

We visited her grandparents yesterday. There was some disbelief amongst the females in the group, that Squeaker was really interested in ball ball. I hope that this evidence quashes any such disbelief. I am not sure what we're going to do when March Madness ends. Maybe Squeaker can get her Daddy back into following the NBA. If not, WNBA games begin in May.

Here's another time elapse video of Squeaker from this weekend. She's playing with one of her aunts in a kitchen. The thing she's holding up to her ear is a toy cell phone. Woe unto the Daddy person....

I hope y'all are enjoying the videos. I understand that they may be hard to watch on some computers. One solution would be to vist the Apple store next time you're at the mall, such as the one 8702 Keystone Crossing Boulevard in the Baltimore Colts new hometown, and pull up the blog on one of their computers. They won't mind. If they harass you tell them the videos were made on a Mac. They will like that.

I have more videos and news to post, so if you're reading this on Sunday, check back later in the day for news on "da-dee", attachment issues, Cheerios, how much food to bring for 2 days, and being back on schedule a bit too late. If you still see this message on Monday, then these stories will just have to wait for next weeks exciting episode.

Fly Like a Butterfly, Hug Everybody...

... I'm Hope Bunny and you can't throw up on me! (with apologies to Mr. Ali). Hope Bunny has continued her winning ways, dogging most of the 'punches' Squeaker has thrown at her. Alas, the same cannot be said for Blankey, who is threatening legal action under OSHA if not given proper protection while sleeping with Squeaker. As you can probably guess, Squeaker hasn't had a great week. Until Thursday, she had only made it through one day without throwing up at all. The Daddy person has forgiven her for throwing up in his car on Sunday.

In an unrelated note, Squeaker will be grounded for 9994 more days. She gave warning of the impending doom, so a blanket was placed so that it took most of the 'punishment'. Ok, so the Daddy person has almost forgiven her. This bug of hers is pretty tough. I got it. Aunt Brite and her husband both got it. Squeaker's Grandmother got it. In short, she gave it to all of the adults she had contact with this week.

Her newest bit of vocabulary is the word "No". She draws out the 'o' a bit so it sounds like a "Noh" in a way that is very cute.

Squeaker, do you want to eat turkey? "Noh"

Squeaker, do you want to eat spaghetti? "Noh"

Squeaker, do you want to eat beef? "Noh"

Squeaker, you have to eat one of them.

"Noh"

The other cute thing she's started doing this week is asking for her bedtime books by something like their names. "Mun", "Shhh", and "Barn", etc.

As you can tell from the video, the Daddy person is hoping to squeeze in a 'Ball Ball' game this weekend. We'll see you next week.

It's the Yellow Rice We Ate Last Night....

The title, in case you are curious is a rewrite of The Yellow Rose of Texas by the Daddy person. I won't finish the verse, but I suspect soon you will guess where I was going with the lyrics. Aunt Brite and I have done everything we can to try and prevent Squeaker from getting sick. We have tried to avoid hanging out with sick children, eschewed the nursery, skipped visits with her grandparents, burnt incense, sacrificed live ... Ok, so you get the idea.

As was bound to happen, we failed. Squeaker picked up the flu that has been going around. It apparently has a two to three day gestation period and has a cut a wide swath through her friends and their parents (for the record, the Daddy person is about halfway through the gestation period now). Squeaker started crying at half past two Friday morning. The Daddy person went in to check on her and found rice on her sheets, rice on Hopa, rice on Blankey, rice just about everywhere. As we discovered over the next three hours, throwing up is hard on a little person. When we throw up, we know what is happening. We know to spit. We know to gargle some water. Squeaker hasn't learned that stuff yet. She doesn't know what "spit" means. I tried to explain. I tried saying it slowly and clearly. Squeaker didn't get it, which didn't make things any easier for her. Aunt Brite came over around 5 am. By that point squeaker was running on empty and slept for a while on her lap. That lasted for a little while before she got sick again. As some point she had been asleep and stable for a while so Aunte Brite put her to bed. Unfortunately stable didn't last and Blankey got a second trip through the washing machine. Hopa's reflexes seem to be better, she's has survived thus far with only one sponge bath. Blankey is actually back in the washing machine now, hopefully for the last time this weekend.

How 'bout some fun news?

As I mentioned a while ago Squeaker has gotten good at making animal sounds. She's picked most of them up from her reading. I realized recently that most children think house cats say meow, a quiet, delicate meow. When Squeaker makes the cat sound it comes across more like lion being introduced to waterboarding. If you have been to our house and met our cats you will understand why. In general she's getting good at using some simple phrases. Her "bye bye da da"s are clear and very sweet. She's also beginning to learn her way around town. In the car she'll say "Brah Mack Howse" when she realizes they are close to Aunte Brite's house.

Aunt Brite and I decided that Hope Bunny (aka Hopa) and her Blankey are too valuable to risk outside of the crib. Recently we started making a ritual of putting Hopa down to sleep in the morning. She is tired after an evening of watching over squeaker. Squeaker has picked up on this and usually says good night with a "shhhh, shhhh", so we'll remember not to wake Hopa. Squeaker had a visit from some of her relatives this week. One of them, let's call him "John", settled in on the couch while Squeaker was playing and everyone else was chatting. Squeaker noticed that "John" had drifted off to sleep so she came over to the others and said "shhhh, shhhh".

We spend a little time wandering around Tyson's Corner Mall last weekend. She enjoyed pointing out 'bay-bees' in every stroller, but the thing she enjoyed the most warmed the Daddy person's heart. The catfish and bass in the pond at LL Bean. I'll end with this video of her playing with one of our cats. Be sure to notice her interest in the camera. Have a good week.

Daddy's Little Girl

Squeaker has been running around much of this weekend drinking out of this travel mug. Don't worry, coffee was not included. I am not worried about her paternity, but it is nice to see these little signs that she is in fact Daddy's little girl. She's discovered long ago that when the cameras come out she can see pictures of the 'bay-bee', but recently she's gotten downright obsessed with seeing picture that was just taken. This second picture follows shortly on the heels of the first. You can see her mouth right in the middle of 'bay".

Sometimes this causes problems because the intended picture doesn't actually get taken. It didn't happen this time, but I would expect more pictures of Squeaker to be almost in focus and show her running for the camera.

Squeaker and I have been hanging out with some of my friends from college this weekend. I don't know if I like the way this sounds, but a couple of military school graduates scheduled a play date for Saturday afternoon. I guess if all the play-ees are prospective cadets, then it is ok. This last picture is of Squeaker's ladybug ball. She looks like she's taking to soccer, but I think she's just chasing after it in this picture. I took Squeaker to another women's basketball game this weekend. After scouring the web for games in the DC area, I came away convinced that with all these "George" colleges someone forgot to tell the people up there that we actually won the Revolution.

Mason was the George we settled on this time. I had never been to GMU before so I followed the signs for the Field House. I had been talking up the 'ba-ball' game most of the weekend and the whole way over in the car. We were a bit late so the Daddy person grabbed Squeaker and headed into the Field House. It turns out that the Field House is an indoor track facility, so their was no 'ba-ball' game in progress. I got directions and headed back to the car. Squeaker threw a conniption when I put her back into the car seat without fulfilling my promise to take her to the 'ba-ball' game. Eventually we found the game, but unfortunately the home team lost. GMU had a small but enthusiastic pep band so Squeaker got to dance. Sorry for this late post. It was another busy weekend for the Daddy person. I will try and get the post up on Saturday next week. I don't want any more complaints....