signs of the times

I can't believe my little bruno (all we knew him as a year ago) is going to be ONE next week! He has grown and changed more in one year than he will in all of the years to come. And it has been so awe-inspiring to watch. It has, as everyone said it would, flown by. And yet it has been a fabulous day-by-day adventure. . . .
They say that the use of Baby Sign Language helps them to communicate before they are able to talk. But with Christian, it seems as though signing and talking go "hand in hand" -- :)
I started using signs for 'eat', 'more' and 'all done' when he was about 7 0r 8 months. But he didn't start actually signing until he started talking... b/w 10 and 11 months. And today, for the first time, he signed 'more' and then said "book"... and somewhere in that sequence also said "Popp(y)" (which is now the word for about 5 different categorical objects: The Salad Spinner, My Dad, The song "Pop goes the Weasel", his new book called Poppy the Puppy, and his toy truck that has little popping balls in it)... it boggles my mind that he knows the difference between each "Pop" object and never gets confused when distinguishing between them. And he loves them all!!
Anyway-- the sign and the words together practically made his first sentence... unless you count "bye bye, Daddy" as one. I couldn't believe it. He wanted to read the book about trucks (again!!). I went to a kids' sale today and found a big Tonka Dump Truck for $1.00, which his eyes lit up upon seeing (he immediately put his little dump truck in the back of it). But it is the My First Truck Book that he is obsessed with... every page is "Poppy! Poppy! Vrooooom! Poppy!" ...EVERY page. Poppy the Puppy is a close second. You can imagine what he says for every page with that one too...
Did i mention i hope to have a girl someday??

Weeeee!

Poppy hung a swing (what Poppy does best!) and Christian went to try it out today-- i THINK he liked it.... :) The breeze helped the 90 degrees to not feel so hot...
These are from Gramsy's camera--and computer-- i figured i'd get something up on here while i had the chance!

Feels so good to be clean!

Then off to the showers he goes-- it was a sunscreen and dirt kind of day-- having gone to the park earlier, and then with the swing, etc...
Bye bye sweat and grime-- Hello baby cuteness!

Caputz and Cavelling

my laptop died over the weekend-- just completely ran out of power-- right as i was about to post pictures from our Longwood outing with Isaiah. :(
so i am waiting for the new powercord to arrive, and hoping to be back in business soon. i'm using dave's laptop in the mean time, but it's just not as easy to blog for some reason, when i'm not on my own computer. how spoiled of an American am i?
but for the sake of documentation of our little life ...
we had a nice, relaxing weekend, with the beautiful (hot!) weather. dave was home on thursday for his day off (he's now working 4 10hr days). while we really liked the 2 or 3 weeks he had monday's off, it's nice to have a pre-weekend weekend.
friday i went to the chiropractor (my back is much better PTL!) and then to Longwood. It was SUCH a beautiful sunny day! The boys played in the fountain, and C was so excited to have wide open spaces to explore, he practically ran from one flower to the next!
friday night we tried going out for ice cream to celebrate the early summer weather. stood in line at Maggie Moo's for about 40 minutes! Bubby did pretty well-- as long as i kept offering him raisins and cheerios. we saw a family with 3 young children, and one-month-old twins! i couldn't stop staring, and thinking, "how in the world did you make it here, stand in line, and finish your ice cream??" God bless'em!
Saturday C and i were on our way to visit gramma peg, aunt joan and cousins, when we happened upon a FREE car wash and rummage sale at a church. i have this cheapskate thing about getting my car washed-- i view it as frivolity of some sort i guess-- so you better believe we high-tailed our dirty Civic right into that parking lot. And while they scrubbed the coffee stains off my window from my Dunkin Donuts incident a couple months ago (! cheapskate !) , Bubby and i rummaged, and found some GREAT fun deals. . . an old -fashioned wooden rocking horse with leather ears, which C got right on and started rocking like he does it everyday! (how do you pass that up for $3?) . . . 2 brand new boxes of Crayola Markers... a little race car that zooms across the room... some cool kitcheny items... and a HUGE box of kiddy books (good ones!) for $3.00!! And a clean car for free!! woo hoo!
sunday we tried to walk around the yard and pick up the billions (seems like) of sticks in our yard that fell over the winter-- but C had a hard time walking on the uneven hilly ground, and it was too hot for his little cheeks. they got SO red! he is so cute, i am finding it hard to express how much i love him other than the corny "i find myself more and more in love with him each day", but it's true. he's trying to talk all the time now-- babbling at everything, and trying so hard to communicate. he LOVES his book about Daddies, and even says "Bud-dy!" when we get to the page where the daddy comes home from work and opens the door. I always say, "Hey Buddy!!" (imitating dave) when we read that part, and now C does too. it's beyond adorable. and of course melts his father's heart!
We've been grilling every night-- it's so nice to have fish again. Giant had a special on Tilapia Imperial (stuffed w/crab stuffing) and that was a fabulous feast! Tonight it's sausages (or as we call them 'round here, saucy's)-- yay summer in April!!
looking forward to posting pics soon...
for now, we're going to try to beat the heat and get a stroller walk in before it's 90 degrees!

A Little Fishy

One of our local fitness clubs invited us to spend a free day with them (how thoughtful!)-- so Christian and Gramsy and I went to try out the pool! At first he was a little hesitant-- taking everything in with much seriousness. But pretty soon he warmed up (literally) and decided that he was born to be part fish.... either that, or he was having fond memories of the womb! He especially loved floating on his back and holding on to the barbell (which he kept calling a 'ball'). When we first arrived, we tried out the baby pool, where he discovered a beach ball floating around -- he couldn't have cared less about the water and all that was around him-- he just wanted that ball! After a few minutes of ball time, we decided the big pool was much warmer, and much more conducive to actual swimming. I don't know who enjoyed the "first swim" more-- him or me or Gramsy. We were all very excited-- and now looking forward to the outdoor pool this summer at Allison Wonderland. Hopefully that water will warm up quickly!



I was more excited than he was...


First moments in the big pool...


Floating with Gramsy...


A natural...

Chef Christian

Christian has decided to take up cooking-- or "kuh-ka" as he says. He walked around the other night with his mixing bowl and spatula, stirring as he went-- falling down all over the place, and getting back up, finding his balance w/something in each hand, and trying to walk around the room, stirring all the way!

Yucky/Dirty

'No, don't touch. ... No, it's not "hot", it's dirty. Yuck!...' --- this is our ongoing dialogue these days. the latest sign for 'dirty' and 'yucky'-- he now sticks out his tongue when i tell him not to touch the trashcan, eat dust bunnies, or taste the doorstop. it's quite the funny expression. the only other time he does it is when i ask him what a lizard 'says'. not sure it gets any cuter than this...

other new words this week: bounce & bouncy ('bots' & 'botsy'), jump, pea, grape, strawberry and blueberry (basically the same word; 'bah-bubby'), box ('bops'), basket, back (he likes to walk behind me and pat mine).... and the all important 'poop' (he now says it when he's doing it)!

Gramsy to the rescue!

So I have not been able to walk completely upright since sunday. But thanks to Gramsy and her willingness to be here for chiropractor visits, and just to lift Christian in and out of his crib and high chair, we are managing just fine! One day she even brought her hair dryer-- and what a fun toy that turned out to be! Christian affectionately calls her "Popsy", since Poppy is always on his mind, and Gramsy is too hard to say still. It's quite endearing... especially if you're Poppy.

All Aboard!

I'm behind again. These pictures are almost a month old-- but they were on Mom's camera... so I am just getting around to downloading... editing...and uploading-- ahh, technology...
Our little engineer LOVES his new train (well, slightly used) from the childrens' sale. Poppy helped him discover all of the fun little sounds it makes. He's even wearing his conductor outfit -- priceless.

(this pic is an uncanny Uncle Seth look-alike shot)

Vroooooooom! (4.10.09)

A "vroom vroom" of his very own! Thanks Cousin Silas, for letting Bubby use your old wheels! They are the talk of the town (or at least of Bubby!)
It was like he knew exactly what to do-- even tho he'd never really seen a steering wheel other than in Poppy's truck. He grabbed ahold, steered away, and even beeped the horn... then he decided to sit back and cruise (perhaps in cruise control?) and let Gramsy do the work. These were from last week, and as i was uploading the photos earlier tonight, Christian saw them, and got veryyyyy excited. He first said "Vrooom!!", and then whispered..."Poppy"-- since EVERY vehicle is now referred to as "Poppy", simply b/c Poppy's truck is his absolute favorite vrooming "thing" on earth.

the classic Christian 'scrunchy face'

Hoppy Easter

It took a few ridiculous tries (lots of whooping and tickling and "look over here"s) --
but we got some Easter shots of the 3 of us before he lost it. and before my back went out. the kid's getting heavy!

The guys out for a brisk Easter walk...
Christian didn't have a jacket so we bundled him up w/blankets
and he almost fell asleep in the little car!

His little "hoppy hop hop" wind-up toy bunny

Due to the unfortunate events of the day (with my back), there aren't any pictures of Bubby's first Easter Egg Hunt at the Janes's. Apparently he was getting the hang of picking up the eggs, putting them in the bag, and actually leaving them in there! I was sad to have missed it! :(