So getting ready in the morning is a daily cirucs...I have a baby gate set up so Russell can only wander between his and my room while I shower and dress. These rooms are baby proofed enough, I figure, that he'll be fine entertaining himself while I shower and make myself presentable for the day. Or so I thought.
This is what happened a few days ago:
If you can't tell, that is a metal hair barrette behind the adapter. I was right next to him, only my back was turned. I suddenly heard this big POP!, Russell started screaming, and I smelled burning. He had found the barrette on the ground and started playing with it...I have no idea if he intended for it to go there or if it was some random accident. Luckily, he was fine...only a little soot covered and frightened. Getting the hair clip out from behind that electrical adapter was quite electrifying. It was essentially a live wire...I used a silicone oven mitt to try and unplug everything and sparks flew each time I jiggled it. It was scary! Poor Russell was beside himself. I've never seen him so scared, not even with the vacuum. I had to give Brandon another frantic call and he suggested I turn the power off, which was the perfect solution. The outlet still works fine, as does everything that was plugged in. I don't think Russell learned his lesson as moments later we were in the living room and he started tugging on a plugged in cord.
Yikes!
Some of the soot came off his fingers before I could get a good picture.
This is the "To Top it All Off" part. While I was talking on the phone to Brandon, trying to figure out what to do, I put Russell on our bed. Our bed is his most favorite place ever. He loves to touch the buttons to my alarm clock, flip through the books on my nightstand, and basically mess with every possible object Brandon and I have near our bedside. That activity can keep him occupied for 15 minutes at a time. It drives me nuts, but I needed him occupied. It was during that portion of our morning that he pooped. And since he was only in a onesie (remember we were still in the getting dressed stage of the day), some of the poop got out of his diaper and smeared all over the bed when he got himself sandwiched between my bed and my nightstand. Luckily it was also laundry day and so the bed was stripped of sheets...but still. I wasn't planning on washing the mattress cover that day.
Morning light, morning hair, and some Picassa editing.
M:Many visitors. We have been visited by several wonderful friends this month with more visitors to come which is such a treat. March Madness (take a guess who's watching).
A: Apple! One of Russell's newest words. Adorable and awesome also come to mind when describing him...Aroma. Our orange and grapefruit trees are bursting with blossoms right now and the scent wafts through the kitchen window on occasion.
R: Red red! red? I'm trying to teach Russell colors and it is going slowly...I can tell he differentiates between colors but he isn't too keen at showing me. Redirecting. Russell is slowing becomming a bonafide toddler with the behavior to prove it, with mini tantrums, toy throwing, and biting himself or other objects just to prove how mad he is. Yikes. Tips on toddler redirecting? Rattlesnake Killer. At least that is what they call me. True Story--the other day I was driving with my friend and drove by a rattlesnake. We watched it hiss and sidewind for a bit which was kinda cool and kinda freaky. A few days later, my friend found it dead in about the same spot. I must have run over it (I knew that was a possibility but it didn't seem mortally wounded when we watched it). So yes, I'm a rattlesnake killer.
C:Commitment. We are about to get new phones and we have been debating this since before Thanksgiving. Computer. We need a new one, but getting a new one is also like the cellphone ordeal. Arg. Decisions decisions decisions. Cheap! That is the main culprit, actually. Decisions would be a lot easier if I didn't second guess everything. Can I get a better deal somewhere else? Will it be worth the money? Do we really need it? Cookies. We still have a box of Candy Cane Joe Joes in our cupboard and it totally comforts me to know that it is there. Just one is actually a perfect treat about an hour after dinner since we try not to indulge on dessert on weekdays.We have one more Somoa left. Don't worry, I'll let Brandon have it. They are his fave. As far as the homemade stuff goes, we have three varieties on our freezer. We are aficiandos if you couldn't tell.
H:House cleaningand house projects. Our garage sale was a success and I'm already plotting another. A ceiling fan, some new flooring, adding some new trees and other plants to our yard, and more painting are in the works and it feels good to change it up. Hair. Mine is getting cut on Saturday and there are still no plans to cut Russell's. His mullet and bedhead are quite the sights! Brandon wants it to get out of control and I think I'll just cry when it is finally trimmed. I want my Russell to be a baby forever. Heat. We just had the first day of spring, which in Arizona means, "Hello summer!" The days are getting longer and temps have dabbled in the 80s. I'm just crossing my fingers that our first day over 100 is still along way away. At least the pool is heating up!
And here's Russel looking especially round and comfy in my latest garage sale find.
Anyways, here are Russell's obsessions. Bet you thought I wouldn't get it in this month, eh? I didn't quite know myself.
I wrote a lot of this post several weeks ago (as evidenced by the publish date), and everything is still pertinent today. So it is proof that he's certifiably obsessed.
1.) Lights. Now in addition to flashing the light sign constantly, he says, "ites, ites, ites." Several times through the day we go to various rooms to turn the lights on and off, and each time he is just as fascinated. Things get even better for him when we pick him up so he can flip the switch himself. Not letting him play with the light switch at church has caused many a tantrum. Oy. The other day I gave him a headlamp to play with and he was in heaven.
We still have not cut his hair and sometimes it is pretty awesome.
2.) Keys. This one is perhaps the most annoying. His favorite, of course, are the ones with buttons on them. At first, I thought it was harmless to let him play, but when I found that his playing had opened my trunk from inside the supermarket, I put an end to that game. I thought I came up with a clever solution by putting my car key on a carabiner so that I could easily detach it from my other keys. Of course, the instant that carabiner is off, he is no longer interested in the other keys. Although just two days ago, I used the boring key ring to open our house door and he was instantly like, "What?! Those keys are important too? Give them to me NOW!"
What makes this obsession the most annoying is that he thinks perfect stranger's keys should also be his. Many a time has he has begged a stranger for their keys after he's noticed them in their hands or chased after someone upon seeing or hearing some keys dangling from a purse. Now that he's talking a bit, he'll also say, "ees, ees, ees..." in the most pleading, desperate voice to prove how badly he wants them. At friends' homes, I've discovered him roaming around with random key rings...as happy as can be while the other children are busy destroying the toy room. I get worried we'll be responsible for someone being stranded because Russell has unknowingly displaced their keys or because Russell has pressed the buttons to their car key so hard that it broke. Can I apologize in advance?
3.) Cell phones. Pretty much the same description goes with this obsession as with the one above. The only difference is he is better appeased with fake phones. We have 3 toy phones and he likes them all. He even thinks a calculator is a phone and if you spoil that secret, I will kill you in the night.
Sometimes I make him wear that hat inside because it is so cute.
4.) Doing What We Do. This is the newest one and it is to be expected, although I am again surprised at how early in his life it has happened. It shows how thoroughly he knows how things work and wants to be apart of it. He loves to help us unload the dishwasher, he begs to throw his dirty diaper into the outside trash...so much so that we often have to let him hold the folded up dirty diaper for the duration of the change so that he knows he will not be denied the privilege of taking it outside. If we don't, he whines and wiggles so incessantly that it makes it really hard to get that diaper on. Feeding himself is his newest obsession at meals and let me tell you...it is messy and tedious as he can't really do it at all! But he will not let us hold the spoon any longer.
All by myself!
I could go on and on about this topic...and I actually I will. If I am getting dressed, he immediately takes my dirty clothes and puts them in the hamper. If we are grocery shopping, he loves for me to give him an item so he can throw it in the cart behind him. If we are out with the stroller, he loves to be taken out of it so he can push it. He loves to press the button on the fridge that fills our water glasses. He has found my hair clips and asked me to put them in his hair and has been seen trying to put on his dad's slippers. If I wipe something off the floor, he does that same motion with his hand. If I have come out of the bathroom, he immediately goes to the toilet to try and flush it. A funny story: The other day I caught him playing in the bathroom. This doesn't happen too often because the door is usually closed. As I approached, I said, "Russell...we don't play in here." When he heard me, he started to frantically unroll the toilet paper roll. Just before I snatched him up, he yanked off as much toilet paper as he could and stuffed it in the toilet, as if to say, "Boo-ya, Mom. I got to do it anyway! Take that!"
And most of this stuff is stuff he just randomly started doing on his own. This video is another example...it is what happened after he got into an open cupboard.
So there. That is our February life. Wildflowers are blooming throughout this city of ours and the highs are in the 60s and 70s. We are loving it (but not the weeds) because we know it won't last long!
I'm dividing this post in two. That way I'll be sure to have two posts this month.
I'm currently obsessed with:
1.) Having Pandora on my TV. We got a new TV for Christmas and while it is big and fancy, my favorite feature is that it has an app for Pandora. We now have about a billion stations. It is to the point that whenver I say, "Let's turn on some music!" Russell gets a big smile and bounces up and down in that toddler sort of way--a pre-music dance. A surprising favorite is the Raffi station because in addition to Raffi, it plays Sound of Music, Little Mermaid, Jungle Book, Oldies, and School House Rock. I learned that adding Regina Spektor to my Arcade Fire station made it not cool anymore so I had to delete it and start all over. I totally have a guilty pleasure station called All the Single Ladies (Beyonce). I 'thumbs-up' some pretty ridiculous pop songs (except for the Katy Perry ones because I hate her) and it makes mopping the floors and getting dinner ready a little funner. The Kanye West station was a bust, but I shouldn't be surprised. I just wanted to see, you know?
2.) Steel Cut Oatmeal. It is such a deal when you buy that bag at Costco! I once even got Brandon to eat a bowl sans sugar. I think it is growing on him!
3.) Game of Thrones. This one is only a maybe. I just made it through book one. It was super super long and it kind of reminds me of Pillars of the Earth which I did not like, but I find myself thinking of it all the time. What is going to happen to the Stark family? And isn't that crazy what happened to Daenerys?
And that's about all for me.
For Brandon, I'm not even sure. Football's over, so that leaves a major void in his system until next fall. He continues to be obsessed with Blue Bell ice cream and Red Robin. He found a new reality show to adore, which is fine by me because it is way better than the Bachelor. It is called, The Challenge: Battle of the Exes. You'll have to ask him. And while you do, you should tell him to start blogging again. He was so good at it, remember?
And next time...Russell's obsessions. They are very clear cut. Stay tuned!
So I loosely thought I would make a New Year's Resolution to blog 2x a month. And here I am, on the last day of the month entering the first blog of the New Year. Hmph. That's why it was a loose resolution. I never wrote it down or even mentioned it to anyone. Doing it that way means not following through with it is OK.
Anyways, this month Russell learned to shake his head to say, "No."
At first, it was actually pretty cute. See below video.
And now...I'm going to be honest...it is one of my least favorite milestones to date. He uses that skill all the time!
"Russell, do you want milk?"
Head shake no.
"Russell, should we play with some toys?"
Head shake no.
"Russell, let's go to the car!"
Head shake no.
The only thing he seems to not regularly exercise his right to head shake is to 1.) eat bananas 2.) go outside and 3.) get a blanket from his crib to play with (he loves blankets, it is pretty cute).
So lately, there's been a lot of head shaking going on...which means a lot of "No, I'm not going to do what you want." Which also means that Russell is fully aware of what is going on around him and has opinions. Although, I will say that he sometimes seems to shake his head just because he can, even though he might really want something. I have a feeling that is usually the case when I offer him milk or some cheerios, as evidenced by the fact that I will put those items in a place where he can access them and he usually does, once he realizes that I'm not about to force him to have a snack.
The thing that really worries me about this is the future...I didn't realize I was going to be navigating through "No!" starting at 15 mos...Hopefully I won't be too much of a give-inner. If I am, don't tell me right away. I might take it personally as that tends to happen. You can maybe tell my mom or Brandon and they'll (try to) brake it to me gently so I don't feel too horrible. You can tell me if I ask (although you should still use your best judgement here). You can also tell me in an indirect way, like "When this happens at our house, I do xxxx."
How is it that Christmas is in four days and then 2012 is here??
We've had quite the Christmas tree saga at our house this year. There was one person who wanted one, one person who was moderate to highly opposed to one, and one person who just wanted more sweet potatoes. I bet you can guess who was who without too much effort.
We eventually decided that a tabletop tree was the best for our needs...mostly because we could have a tree but have it out of reach for Russell. Of course, the tree that I had imagined was either out of stock everywhere or was more than I wanted to spend. I eventually found an adequate tree (that I had to exchange once because I accidentally bought one without a base) and set it up. Almost instantly I knew it wouldn't do.
See, Russell is obsessed with lights right now. He started noticing them a few months ago and I so I thought I would indulge his interest and teach him the sign for light. Now that he knows it, he pretty much does it every time he walks under or near one. And since we are in the age of electricity and in the middle of winter, there is a light nearby at all times. When we are out doing errands, he is constantly doing the sign as we pass by various lit objects--store clerks think he is saying hi and I usually don't have the heart to tell them that he is just telling us that he sees a light. It is kind of hilarious and a little odd. Maybe I need to teach my kid more signs or expose him to more stuff because surely there more to this great world of ours than lights.
Anyways, once Russell saw that the little table top tree had lights...he was fascinated. I put some lights up in our windows which are in the same room as the little table top tree and each time they were all on, Russell would pace back and forth in excitement, frantically doing the light sign. And each time I saw him making his way over to the teeny tiny tree, a little part of me got really sad inside and said, "You are failing him, Alison. It is your duty to give him a great Christmas and this tree is really sub par. Just think how happy he'll be with a bigger, better lit tree." And so I stewed about it, whined a little, and tried to make Brandon feel bad about our pathetic tree.
It didn't work. BUT-I did realize that Brandon wasn't opposed to a tree, he just didn't want to be responsible for it. And so I went out a bought a super cheap, medium sized artificial tree. It is no freshly cut evergreen like Leslie and Clay and Kersten and Tai have (now you guys have to post pictures of your awesome trees so that my four readers can see it), but I was able to set it up on my own during Russell's nap.
And my Child-Spoiler instincts were right--the boy LOVES the tree. The first time he saw it, he started making sounds that I'd never heard...all sorts of syllable combinations and squealing. Then there was pointing, flashing of the light sign, and some heavy breathing. He even backwards walked into my lap so that he could sit and admire it with me. Those five minutes of Russell in baby-overdrive made it all worth it.
All our Christmas Glory
Now that the tree is decorated, Russell has an even funner time because he now gets to flash the light sign and pull of ornaments and those can happen practically in one motion. To top it all off, he has learned his first word (kind of). See if you can pick it up in this video:
Merry Christmas One and All!
People keep saying, "Oh, once Russell starts walking, he'll thin right out." I keep quiet and say to myself, "Well, he is walking..."
I love this bird's eye picture of him walking...you really see that tummy protruding. Between that big head and that Buddha belly, it is amazing he is as balanced as he is! I keep meaning to do a photo shoot of him in a diaper or something to really document that tummy, but I know it will just end up looking like this:
Adorable, yes (incredibly so) but still? No way Jose. It is next to impossible to keep that baby in one place. Photos these days just end up with him either running the other way or with him running to grab the camera.
He turned a year almost a month ago. Time flies so quickly it freaks me out.
Some 12 mos stats:
21.9 lbs--56%
29.5 inches long--19% (although we are wondering if that is accurate as we recently measured him shorter)
Fave Foods: Grapes, Sweet Potatoes, Bread. He can practically stuff an entire banana in his mouth at once, too. It is amazing. We have learned to give him only 3-4 bites at a time because he'll put it all in there. He's not into self-regulating yet. But then again, neither am I.
Fave Book: Peek-a-Who? (We had to take this one away because he has almost eaten the entire cover). As Brandon said this morning, "That book is literally a part of him"
Fave Pastime: Walking, Getting into the dishwasher, trying to sneak into the laundry room, playing with a cell phone (preferably a working one), pulling dishtowels off the oven handle, seeing other kids, pointing at stuff, searching underneath his high chair for crumbs.
Fave Words: None. He jabbers baby gibberish all day...but nothing close to a word yet.
Dislikes: Getting his diaper changed before bed (torture for everyone involved!), watching Dad leave for work, the hairdryer, and the vacuum...Russell actually made up his own sign for hairdryer and uses it when he sees me getting ready in the morning as if to say, "Are you going to do that scary thing, Mom?" and when I nod and then assure him that it is OK, he starts to pace back and forth, his eyes welling with tears. It is really sad, actually. I get tempted to not do it, but don't because I think it will reinforce that the hairdryer is a scary and bad thing. He'll grow out of it, right?
Teeth: Top 4, Bottom 4, and a molar is currently pushing through on the top left side...yikes!
Happy Belated Birthday Son. We are so glad you are ours. Thank you for coming to join us.
