Using A Walker, Chuck Woolery, and Zombies...

Fatherhood Friday is a community of dads and moms sharing their stories and experiences on fatherhood. This community is part of dad-blogs. Stop by if you haven't checked it out...

A.D.'s starting to kinda walk, but only if he uses a walker. But not your regular little kid walker that they put their feet into, bash around the house, and scare the bejesus out of the cat... but a walker like Grandma used to push around. This one just happens to have some bells and whistles...

He really enjoys having the freedom of mobility, but I can tell he's getting a little frustrated in the fact he can't really walk yet. In fact, just this afternoon, after we were watching the Game Show Network (he has a man-crush on Chuck Woolery... I can't really blame him) I caught him trying to dial the Scooter Store to get him a Hover-Round.

Here's the little man cruising in the hallway upstairs.

(I realize now that I asked "where are you going" twice. Poor editing on my part. Sorry.)

On a side note Tiff has to work tomorrow, so I think I'm going to take him shopping at Wal-Mart for a cultural experience. I'm starting to worry a little bit about his safety though. Not because anyone will take him, although he is pretty damn cute. I'm more worried that...

We will be strolling through electronics when I stop to point out to him how he is absolutely forbidden to one day listen to Miley Cyrus when I get distracted by the plasma TVs... I then think about plasma and remember that I need to donate blood soon... Speaking of blood we are low on Band-Aids... where the hell are the Band-Aids? Hmm... should I get the ones with Elmo or Larry the Cable Guy... Who am I kidding, thats a no-brainer! Speaking of brains, was that toothless hunched-back employee a zombie? Let's find the bike helmets, just in case they are a zombie. He won't be getting my brains, I might need them someday (or was that zombie a she?)...

Then all of a sudden I'm standing in the middle of the Wal-Mart, holding a pack of Elmo Band-Aids and a bike helmet, saying to myself "didn't I come in here with a kid?"

I think I'll put a GPS transmitter on his Hover-Round, that way I can track him down when I lose him.

-- Tim

Tales from a Sunday Morning...

A.D. has been battling a viral upper respiratory illness since Friday and has definitely not been himself. He has morphed into a cranky, not eating, drooling baby. And I do mean drooling. We changed his shirt at least 3 times on Saturday and it probably should have been changed more. So the whole morning started off innocently enough when Tim wanted to go fishing just for the morning, I thought why not, I can catch up on some sleep while little man naps. That had to be one of the last sane thoughts that entered my mind until Tim came back at Noon.

A.D. did, bless his heart, take a great nap for a good hour which allowed me time to take a 30 minute nap that I was very glad to have taken especially as the morning unrolled. After his nap, A.D. finished his bottle (something he had not done since Friday morning) so I was extremely happy thinking that we had turned a corner. Oh, no. Promptly after finshing, a coughing fit began which ended with A.D. gagging himself and emptying his stomach of most of the bottle onto my somewhat clean floor. Hmmm, guess we'll try this again. I stripped him down to his diaper and debated momentarly what to do. The bathtub sounded like a good idea at the time. I mean, A.D. was dirty, it was clean and he loves a bath. If I knew then what I know now.

The bath started off great. Much splashing, giggling, and general happiness exuded into the room. Until I noticed, quite quickly, I had just witnessed another first of parenthood. The poop in the bathtub. Hmmm, quick thinking (not intellegent, just quick), had me pulling A.D. out of the tub before he decided to try to eat anything floating around. I drained the tub and allowed A.D. to stand beside the tub watching. After I had cleaned the majority of the tub, I realized that A.D. was now standing in a new puddle of more poop. He thought this was great though...using his feet to spread it around the floor and pulling the toys placed on the side for cleaning onto his new designs on the floor. OH, .... I am not a neat freak, but all of this grossed me out. So what do I do...

I decide to put back on his diaper and fill up the bathroom sink with water to wash him off. I should have known by now that my thinking today was always in error. No sooner did I have his feet and hands washed then he pulled himself, diaper and all into the sink to play.... Now, I have a utterly disguesting bathroom and a baby in the sink in a wet diaper, and for the record, no towel that I hadn't tried using yet. Ughhh. I decided to abandon the bathroom for his bedroom.

I think he must have picked up on my mood of utter helplessness because he decided that all he wanted to do from the time he was dried off and dressed was cry until Tim came home. I've never been so happy to see my husband come back from a fishing trip. The day should have quickly improved since this freed me up to Clorox the bathroom, but belatedly, I realized that Cloroxing a white floor only in one area is very noticable. Oh, well. That will have to wait for another day.

-- Tiffany

Fatherhood Friday and the Greatest Kids CD Ever...

Fatherhood Friday is a community of dads and moms sharing their stories and experiences on fatherhood. This community is part of dad-blogs. Stop by if you havent checked it out...

This is my first post for Fatherhood Friday, hopefully there will be plenty more.

As I have mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of kids music. But a little while back I realized that me not playing kiddie music for A.D. isn't fair to him. So I decided to pick up a few CDs for him to see how he liked them.

First of all, not playing music while driving around, or cooking, or cleaning the house isn't an option. I have to have it on in the background... that's just how I am. And I figured that he's about at that age where I worry about him listening to some of the music I like.

The first CDs I got was a collection of Little Tikes CDs. There are four of them... and they are awful. One of the CDs is "Toddler Dance Favorites," which includes The Chicken Dance and Baa Baa Black Sheep... Another CD is "Nursery Rhyme Favorites," and includes Little Teapot, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Three Nice Mice. Oh yeah, you heard me... Three Nice Mice, a politically correct version. Apparently violence towards rodents in the form of chopping off their little tails isn't condoned by Little Tikes.

But honestly, the songs wouldn't be that bad if they didn't sound like they were recorded in a garage by a mom and a few of her kid's tone-deaf friends. So I started thinking about some music that I like that I think the little man would like too... So here's a short list of some kid-friendly music that is both worthy of him learning, and certainly recorded by some talented people (complete with YouTube links in case you want to hear the song).

• We're Going to be Friends - The White Stripes (yeah, that's the song from Napoleon Dynamite)
• Under African Skies - Paul Simon & Linda Ronstadt (because everyone needs to know a song from Graceland other than You Can Call Me Al)
• The Christmas Song - Dave Matthews (because Dave tells a quick little story about Jesus)
• Return to Pooh Corner - Kenny Loggins (because, what kid doesn't like Pooh?)
• If I Had A Million Dollars - Barenaked Ladies (because I can't wait for him to yell "Ha-vent you always wanted a Mon-Key!?")
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants (because TMBG crack me up... sorry, no good video for that one)
• Upside Down - Jack Johnson (because the video has Curious George in it... and we like Curious George)
• Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez (because it's a perfect lullaby song)
• New Shoes - Paolo Nutini (because it's a good dance song for a little one)

Honestly, it's been a long Friday and that's all the music my brain can muster up right now. Any other good ones that you can think of, please shoot them my way. One day I'll post my final list of the greatest kid's CD of all time...

-- Tim

An Afternoon in the Life...

You ever had one of those times where you aren't really quite sure whether you are coming or going? You don't know which way is up? You don't know if what you are smelling is what you are stepping in?... That was my afternoon yesterday... And all of which was for 15 minutes of fun in the pool with the little man. Here's a recap of events...

• Head home from work to pick up A.D. from daycare. I'm feeling pretty good because I am going to take him swimming over at his Papa and Grandma's house.
• Go into daycare where I immediately have to sign an "Uh-Oh Report" because he whacked his face on a bookshelf while trying to get a toy. Nothing new there.
• Head home and start getting stuff ready for the pool and dinner...
• Marinate chicken breasts.
• Search the house for A.D.'s swim suit.
• Change into my own swim suit in the middle of the kitchen, then realize the blinds were open... crap.
  
• Get food together for A.D. and put all into bag.
• Throw everything in the car and head over to Papa and Grandma's house.
• Realize that I am locked out of their house... double crap.
• I break into the house, grab the kid and all his stuff and go inside.
• Change kid into "L'il Swimmers," which by the way don't go on like diapers, so it was like wrangling a cat into... well I don't know where I was going with this analogy, but it would be somewhere a cat wouldn't want to go. Got that?
• Realize I left his bottle at home... crap again.
  
• Inflate his little float thingy and put sun shade canopy on it.
• Fight with A.D. as I try to slather sunscreen on him.
  
• Take him out to the pool just to realize the back yard is shaded after 4 PM... no sunscreen or sunshade needed on his float thingy... sonofacrap!
  
• Play in pool for 15 minutes until he gets cold...

Reinforcements arrived when we were just about to get out of the water. I was then able to hand him off and let mommy get him dry and changed. In the mean time, I drank a beer.

He had a blast for the short time he was in the pool. And any time you put a kid in the pool and he doesn't leave a floater behind has to be considered a successful trip.

Tonight I get to install kid-proof latches on all of the kitchen cabinets... I can't wait.

New 'Doo & Tantrums...

Well we finally broke down and trimmed the little dude's hair. It was about a 1/4 inch over his ears, which was way too long for Tiff. So she grabbed the scissors and took some off of his bangs and around his ears. I think it looks pretty good. She could have a future there, if she wants to deal with cutting the hair of squirmy, snotty nosed kids whose only goal in life is to NOT get their hair cut. A.D. cooperated though, and sat through it like a champ.

Yesterday, however, he decided he did not want to cooperate with anything. I think we had our first full blown tantrum, and I'm not really sure what triggered it. I think it was a combination of being a little hungry, tired, and getting the 10-month clinginess. I was pretty impressed with his extreme defiance towards authority, especially for a 10-month old. It was so funny that I had to grab the camera.

I'm pretty sure that he'll soon be ready to run away and join that loving wolf-family, since we are such horrible people.