Wrestlemania

AJ and Joe have started to wrestle lately. I don't mind because it is a way to get AJ's energy out now that we are cooped up inside during this long Midwest winter, although it usually seems to happen right around bedtime and I find myself saying things like "now don't get him all riled up!" Joe and I grew up in the era when WWF Wrestling became popular, so Joe gives AJ moves like the piledriver and the bodyslam. I am unfortunately familiar with these tortures, as my older brother used to practice his WWF moves on me and my sister when we were kids. I distinctly remember two moves: the Boston Crab and the Figure Four. My sister and I claimed to hate it but secretly loved that our older brother was paying attention to us, even if it was just as wrestling dummies. AJ seems to love the attention from his dada as well. Below is a little pictorial reenactment.



In this corner, weighing in at around 35 pounds, it's the Fireman. The kneehigh socks are for extra intimidation.

In the other corner, weighing in at an undisclosed weight (come on, we're over 30 years old now, I'll cut him some slack), it's the Dreaded DaDa...The Fireman takes on the Dreaded DaDa and gets an over-the-back bodyslam.

Water break for the Fireman. And then bedtime.

Spaghetti Head

AJ still loves his spaghetti, as you can see. Like son, like mother, I guess. Here is a similar picture of me circa 1978.

Fill'er Up!

I found this adorable little outfit at the outlet mall for $6.99 and couldn't resist. The car is attached to a gas pump on the back, right above the baby's rump. Joe and I found it amusing, particularly since this little guy is all burps and gas with his acid reflux.

Wind Clock

For a few weeks now, AJ has been helping his Papa to "wind clock" on the weekends. AJ's Papa and Grandma have a beautiful grandfather clock in their entryway that they bought at an Amish clock shop in the Amana Colonies in Iowa. This gorgeous clock is one with chains and weights that is wound once a week using a key. But instead of me telling you more about it, I will tell you AJ's version of events: "Wind clock! Papa! Key! 'Round and 'round! Ding Dong!"

Uncle Andy Hat

The other day I convinced AJ to wear this hat, and Joe commented that AJ looked just like his Uncle Andy, who is known for wearing knit stocking hats. I half expect AJ to drink some coffee and talk about how funny Stephen Colbert is when I look at this picture.

All Smiles

Captured on camera--the smile that melts his mama's heart. Check out those dimples! This guy is gonna be a heartbreaker.

Acid Test

In an effort to help David with his acid reflux, I have invested in two contraptions--the Tucker Wedge (top) and the AR Pillow (bottom). Both involve ridiculously overpriced foam wedges that elevate the baby and a diaper-like contraption that holds the baby to the wedge. I say overpriced based on the cost of materials that go into the product. Before I purchased these items, I read in an online product review by another parent that an enterprising person could just go find medical-grade foam and some cotton fabric and make one of these themselves. I spent 15 minutes online trying to locate medical-grade foam at a store near me before I gave up and paid the $120. Who has time to do something like that when you are trying to soothe a baby with acid reflux and entertain a toddler? David will sometimes nap for two or three hours on the Tucker Wedge, which makes it well worth it to me. (Justify, justify, justify...) Being a parent makes everyone into a wannabe inventor once we see how much money is charged for simple things like this. I wish I held the patent to these two items.

Warm Up

We were lucky enough to get a warm up recently that let AJ go to the park in just a vest--no coat! AJ is one of those kids who needs about an hour of running around a day to get the energy out of his system. Even in the womb he would kick all day long. Here's to spring being just around the corner.

Baby Brudder

Here is my new favorite picture of AJ and his "baby brudder". Note the massive size of my 7 week old baby, who is currently wearing some 6-12 month clothes. As my maternal grandfather would have said, Uff-dah!

Dewdiver, dewdiver, dewdiver

AJ's obsession with tools continues. As I told Joe the other night when he got home from work, I am not exaggerating when I say that AJ talks about tools 11 out of the 12 hours that he is awake during the day. We read about tools, play with tools, and (most importantly) he must be clutching tools in both hands all day long. I finally negotiated with him to put some of his tools on his dresser during naptime and only take two to bed with him. When I go into his room in the morning to get him out of his crib, he says "Hi, mama! Dewdiver?" Dewdiver is his pronunciation of screwdriver, so he is basically saying "Good morning, where is my screwdriver?" He has also been heard wandering around the house muttering to himself "dewdiver, dewdiver, dewdiver" as in "where in the heck did I leave that darn screwdriver?!"

This obsession has become somewhat dangerous for David for two reasons. First, AJ loves to turn things over to "fix" them and has attempted to flip the bouncy seat over with David in it to tighten up the screws. I had to explain to him that he cannot "fix" an occupied seat. Second, AJ today decided that he wanted to "share" his tools with David and was insistently pushing a hammer into David's hand and then when David did not grab it, pushed it insistently into David's tummy, as if to say "what are you, slow? take it! it's a tool!" More explaining from mom on why babies can't hold tools.

If you want to be remembered and loved by AJ, just come to our house once and work on a "pah-ject" (project) with him using tools. He will talk about you endlessly for weeks and months to come after you are long gone. We had a window treatment installer come a month ago to install several curtain rods, and AJ still talks about Doug daily. "Doug! Cu-tin wod! (Curtain rod) Tools! Drill! BIIIG Drill! Dews! (screws) Tep-tool! (stepstool)" and on and on.

I can't remember how it got started, but one of us let AJ sit on our lap at the computer while did an image search in Google for tools, and this is now one of AJ's favorite pasttimes. If I dare to log onto the computer, he hears the tapping of the keys and comes running while shouting "tools! 'puter! tools!" He loves it when I print out the pictures for him and will carry them around the house for days. Here is a link to his favorite picture, which almost caused AJ to have a stroke when he saw it.

The other day AJ's Chicago grandma and I took AJ to the Chicago History Museum. They have a huge real steam engine and a replica of an elevated ("el") train car, which are probably the highlight for most little boys his age. AJ, on the other hand, was most excited about the two union electricians who he spotted in a side hallway working to replace a lightbulb. "Tools! Guys! Tools! Ladder! Dill! (drill)" he shouted as he nearly tripped over himself to get closer. The guys thought it was cute that a little boy had such an interest in what they did. They also thought it was a real coincidence that AJ was wearing a shirt with tools on it and was clutching in his hands his own drill and hammer. I was thinking in my own head that it's not really a coincidence when he takes them everywhere with him, more a matter of time until he finds someone, somewhere using tools.

Here are two of our favorite tool pictures--AJ working at his new tool bench (complete with a drill press and a saw that make a *lot* of noise), and AJ and dada doing a "pah-ject" to replace a "lie-bub" (lightbulb).

Super Bowl

I am catching up in my posts on old activities, including the Super Bowl. We now have enough guys in our family living in Chicago to fill up a couch during the Super Bowl.

Pat Your Tummy

AJ had a visit from his Grandma Julie this weekend, a.k.a. "Gamma Dooley", as AJ puts it. AJ was psyched to show off his new tool set to Gamma Dooley who indulged AJ with many, many hours of pretending to drill through the coffee table, body parts and the like. My mom had a birthday this week, and we were able to celebrate with an outing for tea. David accompanied us and slept through the entire afternoon tea. Joe told David afterword that Joe would have slept through an hour of chitchat over tea as well. We were wise enough not to take AJ to tea. The tea shop had delicate $35 tea cups that made me think the phrase "bull in a china shop" would be interchangeable with "toddler in a fancy-pants tea shop" if AJ ever set foot in there.

The other fun part of the visit was seeing my mom and AJ enjoy the Patty-Pat Song from an old Sesame Street record that I used to listen to as a kid. This is an old Bert and Ernie song, and Bert and his buddies sing a silly tune about patting your tummy, wiggling your fingers and spinning around in a circle. My mom is great with activities like this because she really gets into it and makes it seem like the best time in the world. It felt like watching a clip of my childhood.

For his part, David charmed his grandma with his desire to have hours of snuggly shoulder time. David is happy as a clam as long as someone is holding him and snuggling him. This is more doable when there are three adults in the house at the same time.

First Friend

David has his first friend, M., the daughter of my good friend, also M. Little M is two weeks younger than David, but we had a good laugh about how much bigger David is than little M--see photographic evidence above. One of the partners who I work with at the firm told me about seeing a 12 pound baby in the nursery at the hospital when his daughter was born, and he said the baby looked like it was from a different animal species than his 6 pound daughter when the two were side-by-side in their bassinets. This photo captures the same idea.

Retakes

In case you are wondering why you haven't received a birth announcement from us, we are waiting for picture retakes this weekend. Take one look at the hair in this picture and you will know why. David has the coolest hair--it stands up all over the place like he has Hollywood hairstylist who spent hours and a pound of gel working on it. However, in the first group of pictures, it somehow looked creepy like he was a possessed baby--not at all as cute as it does in person. The new pictures are set for this weekend and we will get the baby announcements out before he turns 1, we promise.

One Month Update

As with AJ, we are taking the monthly pictures of David in the same rocker with the same props (phone and pillow) so that you can see his growth as we go. The top picture here is of AJ for comparison and the bottom two are of David. We had David's one month checkup, and I was shocked to learn that despite the fact that he was born a pound and a half lighter than AJ, David was 4 ounces heavier than AJ at the one month point, weighing in at 11 lbs, 12 oz. David moved from the 59th percentile on the growth chart at birth to the 97th percentile at the one month mark. Quite a jump. The doctor was not concerned and said we just have big kids, but I have read online that this could be related to David's acid reflux problem, which counterintuitively makes some babies want to eat all the time. That also explained what I have been doing with my time for the past month--feeding this kid!

The G-Man Returns

Last weekend we had a visit from AJ's Pops (a.k.a. "G-Man") and Susan. AJ had a great time and has been asking hopefully "Pops? Sus-san? Come?" ever since. I tried to explain to him that we can call Pops and Susan on the computer using Skype, but AJ just gives me a blank look like what are you talking about, mom?

They came right around the one month mark after David was born, and I hadn't been out of the house other than for pediatrician appointments and occasional quick grocery store runs, so I got a bee in my bonnet that we were going to take the kids to the Garfield Park Conservatory to get out of the cold and gloom. As a side note, I was not surprised to hear the weather guy say that this January was the 10th coldest on record (mom and Arlene, note that the coldest on record was the January of 1977, when I was born and when Joe was 1 month old!) and the average temperature was 15 degrees. Ugh. Dad and Susan gamely agreed to participate in this outing. I will make a long story short: bundle up two kids for below zero weather, pack them in the car, walk around a giant garden for an hour, bundle them up again, decide to take a different route home and sit in traffic for an hour, change what the diaper wearer touted as a "biiiiiig poopie!" at a gas station only to find that there was no poopie involved at all, and return home to wonder why I ever wanted to leave in the first place. The good news is that Pops and Susan are still speaking to us and that it quenched my thirst to get out for a good two weeks.