Growing!

The Daddy person got focused on school and basketball and forgot to put up the post again last night. Squeaker continues to be eating like she skipped her last meal. The first picture is a not too small kid sized portion of spaghetti that she ate on Thursday night. Unfortunately she also has the bruises to go with her misplacing those new extra long arms and legs. In the second picture she's helping the Daddy Person make blueberry pancakes, which also disappeared quickly and ended up divided almost equally between the two of us. Well maybe not almost equally, but she kept up pretty well.

Potty training is pretty well over now. Although we did have accidents two days in a row this week, right before dinner time in each case. Both because Squeaker has developed a knack for waiting until the last minute, Characteristically the first of the accidents would have been prevented had she not stopped to pick out a book on the way to the potty. Likewise, the worst wipeout of the week occurred on the way to the bathroom. Lets just say Squeaker misses the padding once afforded her by her diapers...

Have a good week. Also, for the record, those of us here at Squeakerpants.com are very disappointed in the NIT selection committee.

Snow Day Play

Sorry this post has arrive this morning instead of last night, but the internet was not good to me this weekend. I put together this movie of Squeaker playing in the snow and spend most of the weekend trying to get it uploaded. It finally got there last night!

It seems surreal to be posting a video of her playing in the snow just a week ago. It was in the low eighties here yesterday. Potty training continues to go well. Today makes two weeks without an accident. We continue to be sure that Squeaker is growing. She has been really clumsy of late. We were discussing this at dinner on Friday night. So as not to hurt Squeakers feelings, Brite spelled c-l-u-m-s-y. Squeaker started pounding her fork on her plate. She's figured out that this spelling thing is deliberately designed to keep information out of her hands, and she doesn't like it.

Enjoy the video. It is big enough that it will look pretty good in full screen. The downside is that it will take a while to load. Have a good week.

Squeaker Sings

The Daddy person has gotten his computer up and working (again, never, ever share Gatorade with your laptop). I upgraded a few of my programs and it is much easier not to get video online. So, without further ado, here is Squeaker's audition for American Idol.


She has been feeling much better since she got home on Sunday. Her potty training has been going full speed ahead. Unless we have a bad morning tomorrow when you're reading this post, she will have gone a week without having had an accident. We haven't had to continue with the 1, 2, 3 Gummy Bear system either. Getting sick last weekend had everything to do with her having made that choice. I noticed last weekend that she's also gotten the hang of not using her diaper during nap time. I don't think we're going to make that transition any time soon. In a totally unrelated note, Uncle Mack and the Daddy person are finishing off the rest of the Gummy Bears.

Brite and the Daddy person have been having a lot of trouble coming up with good Squeaker quotes. It certainly isn't because she isn't talking very much. She seems to have forgotten that she can breathe without using the exhale to say something. Much like Elvis, she's started singing her much of her dialog. Other than the alphabet song, I don't think she knows more than the chorus of any song, but she's learned the chorus to a whole lot of songs and nursery rhymes. In a totally unrelated note, the Daddy person spent some time this week pruning songs from the list he plays while he is in the car with Squeaker.

Aunte Brite had birthday this week. Squeaker has been quick to suggest cake as a nice compliment to breakfast, snack time, lunch time, nap time, dinner time, and bedtime. We think she growing again too. The last couple of months she has been eating just the usual three meals a day. Brite says that it is because she's asleep half the day and that's all of her awake time that she is willing to devote to food. Since Wednesday, days after she started feeling better, she's been eating four full meals. Breakfast this morning was a bowl of oatmeal and two eggs (instead of 'or').

That's all I have to report this week. We're getting snow tonight. If we get enough snow that classes are canceled, I'll head out in the morning with her and get some video of her chatting with a snowman.

"Why I throw up?"

Squeakerpants.com regrets to inform our readers that Squeaker has caught that virus that's going around. Other popular questions this weekend included, "Why my poop green?" The Daddy person didn't have very good answers to either question. She seemed much more comfortable with these adverse bodily functions than during the "yellow rice" incident last year at this time. She seemed much more miserable last year when she couldn't ask those questions. She's doing better now, although that's what I thought yesterday when she lost it at our friendly neighborhood Starbucks. We'll resume with a more normal post next weekend. I have some nice video of her singing with her Aunt and Great Uncles. Until then, wash your hands and have a good week.

Heart Shaped Pancakes and "The Blustery Day"

As you can see, Squeaker had holiday appropriate pancakes this morning. I couldn't bring myself to use food coloring though, but the bananas added some nice flavor.

We were headed to the bike shop (broken spoke) and the computer shop (hard drive went bye, bye) and Brite asked Squeaker if she had ever been to a bike shop. She said no, but "Froggy went to the bike shop and got a bike!" Brite pointed out that Froggy was older than her, and Squeaker retorted "I'm bigger than Froggy." She did have fun trying to ride their tricycles, but her legs are just a little too short still. Squeaker pays attention to what she is read. Winnie the Pooh is, like Froggy, a big favorite of hers. Having met Pooh and company in books, she's occasionally seen Pooh videos too.

Much of this week we've been buffeted by very heavy winds. One night this week Brite found Squeaker sitting in bed, upright and gripping Blankie so tightly that sweat was pouring off her hands. The wind hand not by itself frightened her, but the wind and the Pooh story, "The Blustery Day", where Owl's house is knocked down by the wind was a little too much for her. She calmed down after that, and we decided to more carefully monitor anything scary she might be exposed to from here on out. I for one am going to stop reading her the Wall Street Journal for a while.

Potty training continues to go well. She's made it through most days with few, if any, accidents. Although, the Daddy person wimped out on Saturday when he forgot extra clothes and bought some "big girl diapers" since she was resistant to using the "big people toilets". At church today Brite showed her that the they had a special small toilet for little people. After a long pause, Squeaker wanted to know why they didn't have them in her size everywhere.

I might need to revise the wind story a bit, but Brite and Squeaker are both in bed, so for the moment you'll have to settle for a second hand account. Have a good week.

The Education of Squeakerpants

Squeaker has had a busy week learning new things. We have learned about potty training. Thanks to the 1-2-3 Gummy Bear method, we are doing just fine with that too. She's doing a good job making it through the day without too many accidents. Saturday night she was playing and the rest of us were enjoying some pie when we heard echoing through the family room, "I went pee pee!" Squeaker had recognized a need, pulled down her pants, and taken care of business. Needless to say there was much cheering.

We also spent yesterday afternoon outside learning important lessons. Her Momzie and Granddaddy taught her about planting bulbs. She was having trouble getting the bulbs in the holes because she was trying not to get her boots dirty. Brite pointed out that the boots were made for getting dirty and only then did Squeaker get close enough to drop the bulbs in the holes. While we were outside, the Daddy person taught her to catch a football, "give it a hug when it comes to you". Lesson learned, we played catch, albeit at a range of a yard, and more often than not the ball stayed off the ground.

The last thing to point out is that I had her pose in her little rocking chair, where she hopefully learned about listening to Aunt Brite and the Daddy person. Put another way she spent a little bit more time than usual in timeout this weekend. That's about all I know. We had blueberry and raspberry pancakes this week.

Have a good week.

Road Trip!

Squeaker and I have been out on the road this weekend. In this case we headed north to visit my parents. This was a big weekend for us. We made our first of what will be many visits to the Smithsonian. Believe it or not the Daddy person actually is making her wait until her second visit to see the Air and Space Museum, though I have been talking it up some. We also got to go on a play date with Baby Sidney and her parents.

The last picture had us in stitches, because Squeaker didn't want me taking pictures. No idea why, maybe she doesn't want to tell Aunt Brite about the four wheeler.

Quote of the Week

"Smokey no smoking!"

I offer this one as a puzzle for the parents of anyone under about 15. Can you tell what TV show we let Squeaker watch this week? For the record, Smokey is one of my parent's foxy cats, not a plea to get any of us to try the patch.

Have a good week!