Happy Day, Daddy/Happy 2nd Birthday, Joey

This weekend we went to Houston, for an Astros v. Yankees game. The Good Boys lasted several innings. I was very proud of them.

This was a great chance for Joey to see his first game, and a lovely way to celebrate the kindness, understanding, and downright patience that Mark has with the kids.

Thank you, Mark, for being a kick-ass dad.

Happy 2nd birthday, Joey. I have to admit, you're still acting the same!

Don't Love Me!

Yesterday, while driving home from school, the following conversation occurred:

Joey: Mino, Mino, Mino, Mino

Milo: Stop saying my name!

Joey: Mino, Mino, Mino

Milo: STOP!

Mommy: Milo, Joey's just saying how much he loves you.

(Milo turns to Joey): I DON'T WANT YOU TO LOVE ME!!!

Joey: (softly) Mino, Mino-

Local Toddler Shows Fear, Terror

Today was Joey's first "official" Splash Day at school.

Imagine my surprise to walk past his classroom (directly facing outside where all the fun is) to see him and another friend watching the water festivities from the inside.

What? Where is the fearless toddler that makes other quake in their toddling?

It turns out that even spraying Joey with a squirt bottle makes him cower and cry.

And I really had hopes for swimming this summer. Damn.

Notable weekend

The kids had their funny set on full blast this weekend.

I'm going to try to condense everything into a Super Post.

#1. Joey pulled of the dirt canister and turned on the vacuum... then tried to look innocent as if the vacuum became possessed and turned itself on and jettisoned it's own canister. (pic included)

#2. Milo hurt his thumb. (It got pinched in the frame of our bathroom door.) We fixed him up and the next morning I grabbed his hand as he walked by to see how it was healing and he started screaming "Ow! Ow! Ow!"... Then, realizing that I had grabbed his uninjured hand and NOT the hurt one... he reached out and said.. "Oh wait, it's this one!"

#3. Well, Milo had another poo accident this weekend. We went into the bathroom to clean up and I asked him where poo was supposed to go and he said "In the potty." So I handed him his underpants with a well-formed ball of poo inside and said "Ok, can you put this poo in the potty?" As he reached for it, the ball of poo fell out... bounced off my knee... and rolled about 3 feet across the bathroom floor. We stood and looked at each other... then at the poo on the floor... and again at each other and that interaction set off a 5 minute laugh-a-thon.

Milo said "That was funny!"

"I'm going to poop and ride my bike everyday!"

Yet another classic line from Milo...

Yesterday Milo asked if he could ride his bike on the sidewalk. This is a bit of a treat for him since we only allow it as an incentive for good behavior. However, Monday was a little rough in that Milo had not one but two accidents that each happened after he was prompted to go to the bathroom.

I told Milo that we needed to work on the potty thing... and that if he went all day tomorrow without an accident he could ride his bike as a reward.

To encourage him, I asked "Milo, are you excited about getting to ride your bike tomorrow if you go poo on the potty?"

His response was "Yeah! I'm going poop and ride my bike everyday!"
For the record... he made it today!

"Awesome, I remember I put that there!"

So I was doing some cleaning and decided to sweep off the dust bunnies on the AC vent in our hallway. Of course, it's pretty normal for me to find a Hot Wheels car or some significant toy piece that's been MIA for several months whenever I pry behind or under anything that hasn't been moved in awhile... like a couch, dishwasher, or something like that.

This is why I wasn't all that surprised when I unscrewed the last screw that was holding the vent in place and found Milo's little red toy wrench on the floor behind it. Milo at some point must have slid it through the space between the vents and forgot to tell anyone about it.

When Milo saw the toy, he pointed and said "Awesome, I remember I put that there!"

Milo has technically lived in six different apartments in his short life. I wonder how may other surprises he's left for people over the years?

Joey, eat your food at the table!

There's one tell-tale sign that Joey is trying to get away with something... it's whenever he looks at you.

Joey has the hampster-style eating thing down pretty well. That is, he'll often store food in his cheeks (or pouches if you will) long after dinner is over. So it's not unusual to find him spitting out corn 45 minutes after we've finished eating. Or he'll leave the table abruptly and walk around the house with a mouthful of partially chewed food. Neither of these activities are probably endorsed by our pediatrician.

After today's lunch I happened to notice that Joey hadn't opened his mouth in awhile... it finally hit me... Perhaps there is a reason his mouth is closed!

My investigation revealed one finding. French Fries.

Joey let me change his stinky diaper while keeping a mouthful of french fry mush hidden the whole time.

Maybe I'm not the observant parent I thought I was.