Blog This, Baby!

I'm finally experiencing life as a big one-year-old, and it is awesome, mostly. As I mentioned in my previous post, Dad took last Friday off so that we could go to the Cumming Fair. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting; first, it was freezing, which shortened our visit considerably. Second, Dad took me to something called a petting zoo where they actually expected me to pet stinky, scary animals. I'm no dummy, people! I am not petting anything that has a tongue longer than my entire arm, i.e. the camel, and I sure as heck let him know it too. Mom fed the animals from her hand; she really must be crazy. I latched on to Dad as tightly as I could and refused to even lean towards the animals. I mean, the goats wanted to eat me alive; I could see it in their eyes. When we finished with the stinky animals, we walked around and looked at everything. I found the rides fascinating but couldn't ride any this year. Perhaps a little hair might have helped me reach the height limit, but c'est la vie. A pushy politician gave me a balloon; doesn't he know that I can't even vote yet? Oh well, the bribery is still much appreciated. The best part of the entire fair was the deep fried Twinkie that Dad got on our way out; it was delicious, and I could not get enough. The Cumming Fair only gets one thumb up; maybe, next year it will get two thumbs up if I can ride something and taste a deep fried Oreo.

Last weekend was a free-for-all for me; Grandma babysat! She lets me get away with anything, and I love her for it. It was Mom's birthday, so Mom and Dad spent the weekend in Atlanta with all of their friends. Rumor has it they went to the GA Tech Homecoming tailgate. Then Mom went to a nice dinner with Mrs. Teri and Mrs. Lisa while Dad watched the game with the guys. After the game, Mom, Dad, and a bunch of their friends went out together in the VA Highlands. Meanwhile, Grandma, Opie, and I had a ball at home. We were supposed to go down on Sunday afternoon to watch Dad play in the GA Tech Alumni rugby match, but Grandma decided that it was just too cold for me. It's probably a good thing because apparently Dad didn't play his best due to Mom and Dad's night out on Saturday. Grandma babysat me again on Thursday so that Mom and Dad could take Dad's new employee out to dinner. I had a bit of a rough night because I was really tired, so Grandma ended up letting me sleep in her arms on the couch for three whole hours, during which she couldn't even move. I love you so much, Grandma, and thank you!

Mom got an awesome, new professional quality camera from Dad and me for her birthday, so I have gotten my picture taken even more than normal this week, which means that I have gotten my picture taken constantly. Mom hasn't taken the class for the camera yet, so she is still just playing around with it to see what it can do. I don't mind being her muse. The beginning of this week was the calm after the two birthday storm. It has been really cold, so I have finally gotten to wear my new winter coat and try out all of the cool winter clothes that I got for my birthday. We've stayed at home a good bit this week where I've just been playing with all of my new toys, giving Tigger some love, and finding new ways to enjoy my old toys, like doing head stands on my singing chair. I have also learned that my princess chair can be used as a step stool to climb up onto other pieces of furniture; that's going to result in new bruises. Speaking of bruises, I look like I have been in the boxing ring. I am just stretching my walking abilities to see how fast I can really go. I guess sometimes I exceed the speed limit. Mom and I even played a good ol' fashioned game of hide and seek the other day, and I hid behind the column every time, very original if you ask me. I even spent a little time hanging out on our huge pumpkin in preparation for the big, upcoming holiday that apparently revolves around candy. Sweet! Overall, it was a nice, relaxing week. On Monday, I did, however, have a very exciting experience; I got to ride in my new forward facing car seat on the way to and from the grocery store. I am so grown up! I literally rode both ways with my mouth wide open like I couldn't figure out what was going on. In the days since, I have gotten used to the new ride, and I love it. Mom even put a mirror on the seat in front of mine so that I can check myself out while we drive. I like to put things on my head and stare at myself in the mirror. I'm a regular Adam Sandler, but even funnier, in my opinion. My new car seat even has a snack holder, a cup holder, and a toy holder. I figured the cup holder out immediately; no more dropping my cup and having to wait until we stop to get it back. Mom decided that the new car seat warranted a car clean out, which resulted in my very own toy box in the car to keep things neat, at least for a couple of weeks. I am also able to walk to and from the car now instead of being carried like a baby. Mom and Dad were all impressed when I stepped up into the doorway from the garage without any help on my very first attempt; it's a step, folks, and I know what to do with a step. Duh! Yay for grown up me though!

On Thursday, Mom and I went to playgroup/Moms' lunch. This week was basically just playtime for Lucas and me at Mrs. Lindsi's house. Jackson was asleep most of the time; Mrs. Sindy and Selina are in the Virgin Islands, about which I am totally jealous, and Mrs. Alisha and Tyler were getting ready for his birthday. By the way, Happy Birthday, Tyler! Remember, have no mercy on that cake, like we practiced. Anywho, Luke and I had a great time, especially now that I can walk and kind of keep up with him. Together, we love to get into things that we are not supposed to; I mean can the Moms really get that mad at both of us!? Just look at those faces. We emptied Mrs. Allison's wallet and tried to pull all of the plates off of Mrs. Lindsi's little shelf, which really was all Lucas that time. Now that we can both walk, we can tackle each other, and there was no shortage of tackling on Thursday. We couldn't stay off of each other; that is until one of us got sick of it and screamed at the other, which would only initiate a few minutes of break until the tackling resumed. We do love each other, but we totally fight like siblings. At one point, we were both in between Mrs. Lindsi's chair and ottoman, and we both wanted to pass each other; however, there wasn't enough room. Instead of one of us just backing out, we both decided to be stubborn, so we just kept pushing on each other and screaming until one of us gave up. By the way, he gave up first; did you really think that I was going to give in!? Ha! Thank you, Mrs. Lindsi, for a wonderful afternoon.

I thought that was going to be my only Lucas-time this week, but surprise, surprise, he got to come over and play on Friday while his Mom signed the papers for their new house. They are moving right down the street from us! Hooray! Lucas and I were wild on Friday. He played the guitar while I danced, and we emptied out the toy basket together. I love to 'talk' on the phone, which is a trait that I don't expect will go away anytime soon, so we made a few phone calls; I now use my hand as a phone when no other phone is available. I showed him my new head stand moves, which didn't really seem to impress him, and he hit me over the head with a paper towel roll, which I thought was hilarious. I shared all of my toys and even showed him where the secret stash was inside the new ottoman. At one point, I had to tell him that "nobody puts baby in the corner". We then chased each other tag-style all over the living room and kitchen, which ended in disaster, at least for me. I was trying to go really fast to keep up with him, and we were both holding our sippy cups when I crashed onto the hardwood floor. I started screaming, so Mom came over to comfort me, but when she picked me up, my hands were full of blood. Mom rushed me to the kitchen and started putting wet paper towels in my mouth to stop the bleeding, but it wouldn't stop, which didn't bother me much. In fact, as soon as she got me to the counter, I forgot that I was hurt and started emptying everything off of the bottle rack. I screamed at her every time she tried to fuss with me, and she was freaking out a bit. Lucas was a little upset as well because he didn't know what was happening. Mom quickly gave him a granola bar, which appeased him immediately. She thought that I had knocked out a tooth, but after finally getting the bleeding to stop, she realized that I had just gotten a cut in between my two front teeth and a gash on my top lip. When she called the pediatrician, the nurse said that she couldn't advise her and that we would have to wait for a callback, which took an hour and a half. Mom was none to pleased; however, Grandma saved the day and told Mom to get something cold in my mouth, and since I wouldn't let Mom hold anything on my lip because I wanted to keep playing, I got to eat an entire Tupperware full of mango ice in the living room. This getting hurt stuff isn't so bad, except for the lovely fat lip that I am not sporting along with my multiple bruises.

This big kid stuff has its ups and downs, but the ups definitely outweigh the downs!