So I have been meaning to post this for some time but I wanted a video. I am calling the video a wash because I can never get it. Maybe one day. Anyways, I think this is my first stint in bragging about my kid. I know 'every kid is special' blah blah blah. My kid? He rocks at signing. His comprehension is even growing too. One day I was at Ollies over in Cary just looking around and there was a book for beginning signs. It was $2 and came with flash cards. I figured 'heck, it is worth a try'. Once I brought it home, he loved it.
Now he knew signs before I got this book. They teach them the basics at school and he also has a little friend since infant class that is hearing impaired, so the teachers have learned some more as well. I have also picked up some from shows on nick jr. Anyways, he loved the book from minute one. It is about 10 pages with a picture of a kid doing the sign and what it is. Then there is the word and an explanation on how to do it plus an adult. At first he liked looking at it and doing the few he knew(milk, more, eat, etc). Then he was doing them all...proudly. We got out the flash cards just as a distraction one day and it was like baby crack. He just kept doing them and trying so hard on the tough ones. This boy LOVES accolades. So as of now he can do all of the following:
Hug
Socks
Bath
Coat
Dog (and we taught him to pant with it. So cute)
Sleep
Cookie
Shoes (he looks at his feet...so kinda)
Duck (and he quacks)
Big
More
Book
Daddy (he tries...it is tough but then he sure as hell can say it)
Eat
Water
Toothbrush
Hat
Fish
Ball (tries and can say it anyway)
Cat
Milk
Car(showed signs of it today)
Diaper
Please
Thank you
Drink
So yeah...my kid rocks. Hopefully one of these days I can get a video!
The next cool thing is that we don't have to say them anymore...he just does them. I can hold up a card and he will do it! Amazing. I am so excited for him to communicate with us without all his words yet.
P.S. We also just found a show on PBS kids called 'Signing Time'. It was awesome and we learned more to try with him.
This week's installment is about my new favorite obsession...Baseball ABC. Each page is a letter of the alphabet and baseball terms to go along. I like to pick out all the balls on all the pages. Mommy and Daddy find this obsession strange, it seems. There are no real sentences or rhymes. But I just love it. I could read about "headfirst slides" and "pitching machines" all day. Sometimes, when mommy is running my bath, I go get this book and sit in between the chair and ottoman to just look at the pictures. Maybe this means I will play baseball when I get older. That would be fun....though I don't know if Grandmommy could contain herself.
Anyways, I really like this book but somehow it has disappeared lately. That's odd. Maybe I will find it soon....it still gets 4 out of 5 cheerios!
So...yeah...a little late. I was putting this off because I couldn't just slap up photos and a video and call it a day *sigh*. Well Christmas this year was a lot better than last...not gonna lie. The dog is in good health, the baby sleeps, I am no longer a food source, and he can actually play with stuff. O and it snowed. Yippee!
Christmas Eve, Kevin, Landon and I took the day off and putzed around. That night, we went over to Craig's (the guy who married us) house for his annual bash. We had to go early because SOMEONE'S bedtime....but he even held out and we didn't leave until 8! He was having so much fun chasing his new friend Caroline(see below). I was so proud of him because Craig has a lot of little nick nacks around and Landon never tried to touch ANY of them...even the lit candles!
Even though Landon likes toys, he still doesn't "get" Christmas yet. That being said, we weren't going to do much. We decided we would get him 1 "big" thing and then just some books and a few small toys. Our big gift was a sit and spin. He is still a little small for it...but he is getting the idea. We figure it will grow with him for a bit. We also got him a few little board books. These were more for us in the hopes that he will choose them over some he likes. We are only kidding ourselves. He also got some play doh. We know he likes it at school and heck...it's fun to play with. He plays somewhat with it but doesn't have that much of an attention span.
Now we also knew that we should go small on Christmas because we would be outdone by the grandparents. Boy were we right. As you can see from the photos above, he hit the jack pot at Grandmommy and Grandaddy's first thing. Holy hell. She scored big on a bunch of second hand toys on the Bulletin Board at work. It wasn't wrapped...just a sheet over them all...like we were unveiling a car or something. Geez! We had to leave some of the stuff at Grandmommy's because we don't have the room at the house. We did take the table set home along with a few of the smaller classic toys. We had been sitting him at the dining room table for crafts and coloring but it was messing with my feng shui moving stuff all the time to make room. The table has been fantastic and it only took him about a day and a half to figure out how to climb in the seat himself. He loves to color at it and is learning to put his crayons away when he gets up from the table. So cute.
After a change of plans from the weather, Grandma Judy came up Christmas day instead and brought MORE stuff. He got some new clothes, books, a dinosaur that wiggles and a stuffed Grinch dog(did he have a name?). He is in toy heaven. Grandma stayed with us until Tuesday and we did some shopping and bopping around Raleigh in the snow. Woot!
As for Kevin and I, we didn't do to bad on the Santa loot either. Kevin found a deal on Cyber Monday on a receiver and speakers for the TV and so he had ordered that. We really like it and it does a fine job. I also got him some movies on super sale, some toy story legos, and some stickers for the ipad, mac and iphone. They are retro apple logos. Neat!
I scored a new camera bag I wanted after reading Becoming Mom's post. It is from Jo Totes and it is fabulous. Super big and holds everything...including MY NEW LENS! I got a 50mm f/1.8 for taking portraits. It is taking some getting used to because with my camera body, it doesn't auto focus...so I have to go old school. First time I used it though, I got AMAZING results...see: I also got an engraved necklace with Landon's name and birthstone from Etsy with matching earrings. I got some glittery Toms.
Kevin's parents made us a cornhole set for the backyard and got us a heater for the new porch(yeah gonna blog about it soon, I promise). My mom got us a sweet gift card to GAP, a new calendar, and a swanky iPad case! We got even more but I don't want to just go on and on :).
Man am I tired writing all this out...try living it. A week at home with a toddler is a 'special' kind of 'vacation'. Speaking of...gotta wrap this up...he will be awake soon!
Yup...so we got a lot of snow...well for NC standards. This was Landon's first snow he could actually play in. He LOVED it. He loves knocking snow off the bushes, eating it, throwing it, you name it. I got some sweet shots of him and even a cute video with Grandma.
To note, Jack also had a fantastic time at Grandmama's house playing in the snow. He gets super frisky and runs around like a maniac. He loves to dig in the snow and root his nose around in it. Go figure. The boy has NO hair on his belly either!
Here are some shots(trying out Picasa collages....LOVING IT)
P.S. This snow residue is really fucking with my running schedule. It sucks.
This week's book is actually 3 books. I have this set called Monsterpops that are a trio of pop-up books. The artwork is a little scary but once again, the silly voices do it for me.
First up there is Dinner Time. This is the cold hard truth about the food chain. Each of the animals pop-out of the page and eat the previous animal....THEN they get eaten too. I think my favorite page is the crocodile. His snout sticks right out of the page. I grab it every time :).
Next is Small Talk. This was my favorite first in the series. It teaches that gossip can really change things. On every page, there is an animal talking about this thing on the roof. Each animal makes something up and it gets crazy. The book ends a little weird but there are funny looking animals like a hippo with an under bite and a funny little martian! Mommy makes all the pop-up animals talk. She is so magical.
The last one in the set is Oh My A Fly. Now get this, it is about a woman who swallows all these bugs and animals. It is pretty messed up...but I still like it. It has a lot of rhymes and mommy can read it real fast. I have no idea why she does that. Funny part in this one is (SPOILER ALERT) she keeps eating all these animals and she never dies...then the last page, she eats a horse! And then it says "she died of course". So funny. Because she ate all those other things and the horse is what did her in. Silly woman.
Well that is my review of the Monsterpops series. I would have to say that currently I ask for Oh My A Fly the most over and over. I give the set 4 out of 5 cheerios. See ya next week!
Welp I got tagged by cousin Sarah over at Zombie Running. She accompanied me for a post work run this evening...so woot!
1) What are you most fond of accomplishing in 2010? - Not going insane with an infant - Not going insane with a toddler - Learning more about photography and working at it - Keeping up with exercise even though it is really hard with a full time job, baby, husband, etc.
2) What are your running goals for 2011? - Krispy Kreme in Feb (3 doughnuts this time?) - Half Marathon in March - 27 min or less 5K? Think I can?
3) What is your favorite race? Meh I only did 2 technically because I chickened out at the KK Challenge. Gonna have to go with Old Reliable even though my pace was poopy. Got a nice shirt and it was a nice day with Jen :)
4) What is your favorite holiday guilty pleasure? Hmmm...Joe Joes? Sausage balls? My entire floor has a week long potluck of junk. Yeah I ate crap daily. It rocked my face off. BUT I did run the most that week!
5) What was your most embarrassing running moment? TRUTH TIME! This melts the mommy and running world. Since having Landon, I have had to ::cough:: train some "other muscles". Peeing while running has become my downfall. I have had to stop too many times and circle the block at home to go ...one more time. It sucks but I am dealing with it. You have been warned non-mommies.
