Goodbye 2010

If there is one thing that I've learned about my Grandpa this year it is that he is dependable but just not in they way that you think he should be and definitely not on your time table.  My vision, when I started this blog, was that Grandpa would update it for me about once a week - not every six week or seven weeks.  What can I say; Grandpa is still a bit of an enigma to me.

So in the last seven weeks a lot has been going on.  I've gotten this walking thing down to a science, Zach came home from The Citadel for Thanksgiving and then again for Christmas, I'm starting to use more and more words and I had my very first orange yesterday.


Grandpa has me hooked on some You Tube videos.  My favorite is the Duck Song trilogy.  Have you seen them?  Mommy is so mad at Grandpa because now she can't get the duck song out of her head.

Here is another one of my favorites (well Grandpa's favorites).  It is the Annoying Orange.  This one drives Mommy crazy because she hates Orange's laugh.



My First Birthday

Grandpa pulled me aside Saturday and said, "Pumpkin, I want to tell you something.  This may come as a surprise to you but someday it won't be all about you."  I looked at him like he was a bit loony because that makes no sense to me whatsoever, but then he continued saying, "...but don't worry Pumpkin because today is not that day.  Today is your first birthday and today, more than ever, it is all about you!"

Boy!  Was my Grandpa ever right.  Grandma and mommy worked very hard and decorated the house with balloons and signs and posters.  They threw me not one, but two birthday parties! We had all kinds of food and special tiaras for everyone to wear.  Grandpa even wore one but he said after last week's posting with him wearing a wig he was done putting pictures of himself on this blog that make him look like an idiot.

All kinds of people came.  I can't count that high yet but Grandpa said there were almost 30 people that came to see me on my birthday.  There were mommy and daddy's friends and Grandma's friends (Grandpa doesn't have any friends of his own) and my Paw Paw, Grammy and Great Grammy all came.  There were little kids like me.  And guess what? 

They all brought presents!!!! 

My First Halloween

 I am nearly one year old.  Can you believe that?  In this past year I have learned quite a bit. 
Grandpa says that I've been hitting all the important developmental milestones.  I've learned how to sit up, I've learned how to crawl, I'm learning how to walk and getting better and better each day.  I've learned to say ma ma, da da, pa pa and quack quack.  I've learned that Wal Mart is an inherently evil corporate giant and an icon of corporate greed making the privileged few wealthy at the expense of the hard working proletariat.

But what I am increasingly coming to realize is that my family is more than just a little bit goofy.  My Grandma is the only normal one of the bunch.  Take this last weekend for example.  Out of nowhere mommy, daddy and Grandpa pull out this silly purple wig and take turns wearing it.  Then Grandpa pulls out his guitar and starts playing to Todd Snider's "Alcohol and Pills".  Now I completely agree with Grandpa that Todd Snider is one of the greatest singer-songwriters out there but come on.  "Alcohol and Pills."  What kind of music is that to be exposing me too.  Grandpa, can you say, "age appropriate"?  Have you ever heard of Raffi?  I'll admit, I started to get caught up in the moment and broke out the bongos but in the end I just had to plead with him to stop.

After the little jam session they dressed me up in this silly costume that they said was cute.  Truthfully, I'm not sold on how flattering it was but like most things that go on around here I didn't have much say in the matter.  Once it started to get dark they started dragging me all over the place going up to complete strangers' houses and begging for food!  And the gyp of the matter is that everything the people gave us was stuff I'm not old enough to eat.  I really think this entire thing was just an excuse for Mommy and Grandma to get treats for themselves!  What do you think?

I'm Back!

My grandfather is so lame.  Can you believe it has been more than a month since he last updated this blog for me?  Good grief, I mean, like get it together old man.  Sorry Grandpa, I guess that's not too respectful.

So, a lot has been going on since I updated you last.  Here are the highlights:

• Grandpa, Grandma and I took a day trip up the Illinois River Road to Hardin, Illinois
• Grandpa has taken me to the Botanical Gardens; twice.
• I got my ears pierced!
• Sad news -- my great aunt Diane found out she has cancer Grandpa, Grandma and I went to Iowa for a weekend to go see her.
• I Skyped with my Great Grandpa and Great Grandma from New York.
• Grandpa and Grandma left me for three days and went to Charleston to see uncle Zach.
• I have an obsession with ducks and love to say Quack, Quack.
• Grandpa told Mommy that he thought it would be fun to teach me all the animal sounds wrong.  Like a pig says "meow" and a cow says "oink oink".  Grandpa's a putz.
• I got my very first hair cut and Mommy colored her hair red.
• I've taken five steps before gravity took over.

Here are some random pictures that Grandpa has taken of me over the last month.  Hopefully he will get his stuff together and keep my blog updated on a more regular basis.

A Memorable Day

Grandpa and I were talking the other day.  Grandpa says that if a person lives to be 78 years old they will have lived 28,470 days.  He says that the funny thing is, that as you get older you don't remember but a handful of them.  He says that you will always remember the important ones like when he married Grandma or when they adopted daddy and uncle Zach.  He says he will always remember when daddy and mommy got married and the day that I was born.  He says that he also remembers some of the stupid things he did in his life like when he was 12 or 13 and peed on Mark Fairbrother from the back of a hay rack.  Or when in first grade he took his mom's pearl necklace and gave it to Wendy Hogan and how embarrassed he was when Wendy Hogan's mom returned it to his mom that same night.  But Grandpa says that except for days like that or other really important days like when President Bush finally left office that all the days of a person's life just kind of run together and it is hard to remember one day from the next.

Well the whole point of my telling you all this is that I will always remember my 10 month birthday, September 6th, 2010.  It is the day that I discovered that toilet paper comes off a roll!  How cool is that! It is the best thing ever.  I don't think I've found anything quite so fun in my entire life yet.  So here are some pictures from that historic day.

An Unexpected Play Date

Grandpa says that he has a few very simple rules that govern his life.  One of them, he says, is that when it comes to parenting there should never be more kids than adults.  Well yesterday I think I found out why grandpa says that.  Yesterday, while mommy and daddy were at a garage sale and grandma was at school, grandpa got a phone call from our friend and neighbor Sara.  Sara asked if someone could come down to her house and help watch a couple little babies for a little while.  Sara had to take the babies mommy to the urgent care because she was really sick. 

So grandpa and I walked down the street and met Currel and Curnice.  Currell is a year old and Curnice is only 10 days old!

Personally I think Sara was nuts to think grandpa could handle a 12 month old, a nine month old and a 10 day old all by himself and apparently grandma did too because as soon as grandpa called her to tell her what he was doing she left school to come help.  At least someone in this family has some common sense. 

Actually Curnice slept at first so Grandpa probably could have managed for a while.

If you remember my blog posting from my trip to New York in May you will recall that I kind of have a thing for older boys.  But things with Nathan didn't work out because of my drooling issues at the time.  So this time I was resolved to being a little more cautious.  At first I was very shy around Currel and wasn't sure what to think.  But he was very nice and shared his binky with me.  I think that is very important.  You can tell a lot about a boy when he puts your needs before his. 

It took a while but before you know it we were playing together like we had known each other since we were babies. 

     

OK everyone, even though I'm only 9 months old I know the stereotype that all girls have a thing about a boy having a nice butt.  I'll have you know right here and now that this is not a Kenny Chesney moment.  This is a Currel wasn't smelling to good and grandpa needed to change his diaper moment.

Then grandma came to the rescue.  She brought lunch.  Chicken tenders and french fries.  Grandpa said it was just like growing up on the farm when he had to go out and feed the pigs.  I'm not sure what he meant by that but I don't think it was too complimentary.   

Currel must have gotten his fill because it was nap time for him.  Grandpa?  Well, it's always nap time for Grandpa. 

New Teeth, Kisses and Lots of Pictures

I'm back!  I know that I always seem to be making excuses for Grandpa but the truth is he has been really busy this last week.  Uncle Zach went off to college in South Carolina this last weekend and Grandpa was really busy making sure he had everything he needed to start school.  Grandpa and Grandma both say that is important to become a good reader so as you can see I am working very hard at that.  I just love books.  I can even read them upside down!

So what else is new?  I now have a total of seven teeth!  Five that are just coming in on the top and the two on the bottom that I've had for a couple months.  You know what? Teething sucks.  It makes me cranky.  Grandpa calls it Baby PMS.  I don't know what that PMS is but Grandpa says despite what girls say you have to be a boy to understand what that means.  I'm pretty excited tho to have my new teeth.  I can bite down on Grandpa's finger and leave really cool marks!

Another thing that I love to do is I love to give kisses.  Grandpa says he just loves baby kisses.  He also tells me to start being a lot more stingy with kisses once I become a teenager.  He thinks I should probably take a 10 year break.  We'll see.

A Little Too Much Information

 

My Grandpa must be really old.  I'm thinking this because Grandpa tells me that when he was my age people didn't have computers and there were no such things like Blogs or Facebook or Twitter or Skype or email.  Grandpa says that back in his day people actually wrote letters by hand when they wanted to share what was going on in their lives.  OK.  Seems kind of backward to me but what do I know.  Grandpa says that all this new technology makes it too easy to share too much about ourselves.  He says that people sometimes share things that no cares about or needs to know about.  So sorry Grandpa, you may think that what I'm about to tell the people is a little too much information (and it probably is) but I'm going too anyway.  Why? Because number one, the whole purpose of this blog is for me to have something to look back on and remember things that happened when I was a baby, and number two, it's just freakin' funny.

So last night night we all stayed up a little late watching a movie.  It's Complicated with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin.  Because we stayed up late we had a little trouble getting up for church this morning.  I needed a bath.  So to save time while Mommy was taking a shower, Grandpa put on his swimming trunks and got in the bathtub with me .  He washed my hair and got it all clean.  I played with my rubber duckies (they make bath time sooo much fun!) and splashed around a bit.  Then it hit me.  You know that special feeling that you get in your lower abdomen...when your intestines start to tell you something is about to happen.  Well, what can I say.  It happened.  Just like those tee shirts and bumpers stickers say.  It happened, right there in the bathtub.  I don't think Grandpa noticed it right away but as soon as he noticed those little floaters....well, I've said it before and I'll say it again...he can move fast for a big man.  We were out of that tub like a super charged dragster taking off at green light.

Now I will agree with you that is was more than a little gross, but you should have seen my Grandpa.  Talk about freakin' out.  He dumped me off to Grandma and went straight for the shower.  Then a few minutes  later you could hear him through the entire house gagging while he was cleaned out the tub.  It was hilarious!  Hilarious for everyone but Grandpa, that is.  I don't feel too sorry for Grandpa because he knows I'm a pretty regular girl and I take care of my business in the morning and also because he deserves it for not getting the flu last week like the rest of us.

OK...that's all I have to say about that. 

Remember how I said my Great Aunt Joy was coming?  Well she is here.  We are having so much fun.  She is trying so hard to use her good words but it is difficult for her.  She's being really good for the most part although she did send Grandpa a text message while he was going out for Chinese food that included some words I can't share on this blog.

Aunt Joy bought me some new toys including a new baby doll that I am calling Baby Joy.  Baby Joy is completely bald and Grandpa is very inappropriate and has been calling her little chemo baby.  I don't care what Grandpa says I love my Baby Joy.

Aunt Joy gives the best baby massages.  She's got the magic hands!

My Aunt Joy is also very silly.  If I didn't know this was a pillow under her blanket I would think she looks a little far along having only been married for two months.  

Back to Normal?

Hi there!  Can you believe how long it has been?  I want to send out a special shout out and apology to Laurene in northern Iowa.  Thanks, Laurene,  for getting on my Grandpa's case about updating my blog.  I've been pestering him too but I'm beginning to understand that sometimes you can't depend on men to get their chores done on time.  You know what I mean?

A lot has happened since my last update.  Grandma had surgery.  Again.  This time on her knee.  For a couple days she was really uncomfortable and spent quite a bit of time in bed.  That was OK with me because I love the play dates I have in bed with Grandma. 

 

Daddy and Mommy would come up and keep Grandma company so she didn't get bored.