a typical drive home from school

"Want to go that way?" Spencer asked pointing to a group of houses we passed on the drive home.
"No, Spencer we don't live there, we're going home now."
"Want to live there?"

Just a few short minutes later:
"Want to hear thunder?"
"Spencer, we hear thunder when it rains. It's not raining right now."
"Want to make it rain now?"
"Well, we can't make it rain, but if we wait, it might rain later."
"Want to wait in the car?"

just a box

For those who missed the annoucement earlier in the month, the cardboard box has made it into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Spencer is a lucky dude because we happen to have come into a very large box last week, and yesterday Jim turned it into a play house, complete with doors and peek-a-boo windows. Spencer loves going in there to play, to read books, and espeically enjoys hiding other toys in there.

Zoo Day

Today Spencer learned a few new things during our outing to the zoo. He now knows what an okapi is, and if you ask he'll tell you that it looks "a little like a horse, and a little like a zebra!" He also learned a lesson at the petting zoo, "watch out for poo poo!"

Yesterday we saw some raw emotion from Spencer's conscience poke through. Jim offered him some milk during lunchtime, and Spencer said "no!" while shoving his hand forward and knocking the cup of milk over on to the table. "Oh no!" we said, "Spencer, that is not good!" And he looked at the milk on the table, and he heard the disappointment in our voices and saw it on our faces. We demanded he say sorry for his actions. Suddenly we could see tears welling up, and his lower lip jutted out and began to tremble. He looked so pathetically sad, Jim and I were trying so hard not to laugh. He was sooo upset. He signed 'sorry' and we thanked him, and quicky got him out of his chair to end the meal. Lesson learned, but I'm told we'll likely have to go through it about 60-70 more times before it really sinks in.

teething sucks

With Spencer's second birthday right around the corner, he seems to be right on track for getting in his second year molars. This process of teething has been going on for nearly a month now. His fingers are exploring the back of his mouth all of the time, and rarely can he get through bedtime without some type of pain reliver. Poor guy. He's so unhappy. The bright side is that these four molars are the last baby teeth he'll get. But for now, we're trying to make Spencer's life as comfortable as possible as he struggles through this last hump.

momma's boo boo?

It definitely does not start your morning off well when your toddler points to an acne spot on your face and says "boo boo on mommy!"

fabulous friday

Friday was great. Even with Jim out the door early for class, I managed to get myself showered and ready before Spencer woke up. Definitely starts the day off right when you don't have to shower with your toddler. In the morning I held one of the most efficient, productive and cooperative meetings in weeks on a particularly tricky topic. That feeling of accomplishment was was a real charge. We had our holiday team party in the afternoon, and it's always good to get away from the office and socialize with co-workers. We even won prizes! After a brief shopping stop in the Woodlands, I picked up Spencer a little early and headed to Open Gym at the YMCA - his favorite place. He played and played and played. At home, quesadillas did indeed delight the boy, before we wrapped up and called it a night.

Our big outing on Saturday was to ride the trains at Zube park. Spener had a blast, and we ran into one of my co-workers with his sons Spencer and Archer.

taco night

In our house, we never say "we've having tacos for dinner," instead we say "it's taco night!" Well, last night was taco night, and we decided that Spencer was going to graduate from his usual 'deconstructed' version to joining in the messy fun. He watched with great anticipation as we ripped a tortilla in half and began to load it up with good stuff: meat, cheese, avocado, tomatoes and olive. By the time we folded the sides in and rolled it up tight, he was so excited. "Two hands!" we told him, and he grabbed on and took a big bite and said "MMMM!" with a big smile on his face. Occassionally we would tell him "take a bite from the bottom" to help contain the mess. He loved them so much, he ended up eating TWO ENTIRE TACOS (half at a time!) and loved every single bite. As is customary here, we will be having quesadillas tonight with leftovers, but I can't wait until it is taco night again!

accomplishment!

Today I walked around feeling pretty good all day. Still on a bit of a high from the Baby Signs® workshop I delivered at San Jacinto College last night. Before yesterday, I think my largest audience for a workshop was about 12 people, and last night I was on stage of an auditorium speaking to a crowd of nearly 100! It was a huge rush, and a huge sense of accomplishment to enlighten such a large number of people about the many proven benefits of signing with babies.

Last free flight

For Spencer, that is. This weekend's trip to visit Tracy in Atlanta was the last time Spencer will get to fly for free as a lap child. Of course we're not eager to begin paying for seat, but it will definitely be nice to not have him on my lap any longer. We were not lucky enough to get an empty seat on either flight, but Spencer was an excellent passenger so it worked out just fine in the end. I do worry about DVT sitting still with 35 pounds pressing on my thighs, but I try to be conscious and do the exercises they suggest in the in-flight magazine. (How geeky - does anyone else actually do them??) I don't really care, the consequences are too worrisome.

Here are pics from our weekend with a few more details in the captions!

cooking time

I love cooking. I love watching Food Network. Tonight I played an episode of Good Eats recorded earlier and watched Alton Brown whip up some fresh ravioli. It looked so yummy, and of course it looked so easy to make from scratch at home. I know deep down I will probably never own a pasta machine, but it did make me wonder when Spencer will be old enough to help in the kitchen, and will he enjoy helping? I really do think he will - he's big on following directions and putting everything in its place. Maybe, just maybe, he'll grow up to be as great a cook as this dad from DadCentric blog thinks he is.

ABC's

While Spencer has been able to identify all of the letters in the alphabet for a few months now, he has only recently started to sing the ABC's. And here is how Spencer's version goes:
A, B, C, D, F and G, (pause) Q, R, S, Y and Z, (pause) W, X, Y and Z. Yeah!
We applaud and say 'Yeah!' along with him, but now we are also trying to encourage more singing the alphabet WITH mommy and daddy so we can help him remember to include some of the runs in the middle! However, there are few things cuter than listening to your toddler sing a song.

Happy Birthday!

Today is Bonnie's Birthday!

where did it go?

One of our favorite games to play with Spencer is to ask him to find something. He's a quick study, and has recently turned the tables and now asks us to find something which he has hidden. But there is one flaw - Spencer is lousy at 'hiding' things. Last week in the bathtub he held one of his brightly colored neoprene letters under the surface of the water to 'hide' it and asked Jim "where'd the Z go?" Uh, Spencer, it's still in plain sight. He certainly gets the idea, but details are still lacking. And yesterday morning he wandered into the kitchen with his hands behind his back and asked me "where'd the flashlight go?" But he failed to realize that the flashlight he was holding was ON and was shining on the floor. Another good try, buddy! It's funny now, but I have a feeling that he'll get really good at this game pretty soon and our stuff may end up hidden in some pretty strange places!

Monday morning update: Spencer came in the bathroom and stuck his finger in the middle of the bristles on a brush he was holding and asked "where'd the finger go?"

23 months!

Holy cow, Spencer is 23 months old. I can't believe that he has been a part of our lives for that long. I know it's hackneyed to say, but where did the time go??

I haven't even blogged about the fact that it's been about a month or so now that Spencer can FINALLY say his name! Yeah! It comes out sounding like "ehn-sur" but that is head and shoulders above the earlier pronunciation of "bobbin!" It's even funnier to hear him talk about himself in the third person. "Spencer did it!" or "Those are Spencer's shoes!"

Speaking of talking, Spencer has been cracking us up lately with the sentences he puts together. Monday he was watching me cook and when he spied the gas flame on the stove he said "No, no touch fire! Might be hot! Hurt Spencer!" And when I brought dinner to the table in a large serving bowl and Spencer's eyes got real wide as he said "That's a big bowl! Be careful!" Um, ok Spencer, we'll be careful with the big bowl. Despite the fact that he reiterates our warnings, the kid really has no fear. I'm just trying to brace myself for what lies ahead when he becomes a ulta-mobile, and fast, two year-old.

And at teh risk of creating a circular reference, I thought it was cool that Blogging Baby actually cited me for giving them a lead.