So what if it's almost Christmas?

Ok, so they are selling Christmas trees accross the street and I don't have Halloween pictures up yet.  I'm not sure if I should continue the blog, now that everyone is on Facebook, or not?  Thoughts?  Anyway, here is our Firefighter at Halloween:

He had a great time trick or treating with Lili next door.  This was the first year the kids made it up all the way through Trick or Treating and had a blast playing out in the driveway.  It was a bit cold, but they didn't seem to mind.

Robert is very, very chatty these days and is starting to understand grammar.  He corrects himself sometimes and is mostly saying "you and I" instead of "you and me"-- very cute.  We had a rough transition to the Preschool Room at school, but he seems to be settling in and they are doing lots of pre-reading work.  He knows all his letters and is starting to associate the sounds that some of them make with the letters.  

Friday we take him to see Santa-- maybe I'll get some pictures up from that before Valentine's Day.

Why you little...

Last night, Robert related this little gem:

"When Daddy puts me to bed, he sings LOUD songs and then I laugh.  When Mama puts me to bed she sing quiet songs, and then I laugh at her."

He's a charmer, that one.

In which Mama turns 35 and take some pictures

Robert and I were goofing around Wednesday and took some pictures.  I should hold onto them and post again later on this week, but, let's be honest, I won't get around to it, so here we go:

Visit!

So this last weekend my cousins Catherine and Rachel, with Rachel's two boys in tow, stopped by the Farm on their way to Indiana.  Robert had a great time playing with Ellis, and loved having a "big boy" to play with.  They especially had fun on our ghetto version of a waterslide, which involves duct taping a running garden hose to the top of the Little Tikes slide that is set in the baby pool.  Classy.  But, apparently, fun.

Not that it was all fun and games.  We made sure to get some work out of the boys.  Here they are helping Rob put away the hoops from the raspberries...

Finally, it was interesting to watch Robert interact with baby Maddox, who is 6 months old.  He was very good with Maddox, and didn't even mind when Mama held the baby... too much.

He's kissing Maddox, not biting him.  I promise.

Daddy Who?

So Robert has this giant rubber duck (that used to be MY rubber duck, BTW) that is the Mama duck of the approximatley 523 rubber ducks that live at our house.  Incidentally, there is no apparent Daddy duck (which will come later in this story), but somehow this unwed mother duck continues to reproduce with apparently different Daddy ducks from such places as "Jamaica," "Nashville," and "Firefighter."  Anyway, (and I am hoping for some kind of personal responsibility program for wayward Mama ducks from the Party of No any day now before there is no where left to sit in this house) Robert informed me tonight as we were getting ready for bed (well, Robert was getting ready for bed... actually, I was getting Robert ready for bed... with 4 jobs and only 2 days of daycare a week, Mondays aren't a day I get to go to bed, but back to the story) that Mama Duck had a baby.



Robert:  Mama Duck has a baby.
Me (trying to sound remotely interested): Does she?
Robert: Yes.  He's two-and-a half.
Me:  Really?  What's his name?
Robert: His name is.... Kyle. (Delightedly pleased-at-himself-for-being-so-subtle look on his face.)
Me:  Is that so?  What's his Mama's name?
Robert: Wizbet Felder.
Me: And what's his Daddy's name?
Robert: Tuba.

Beach!

More pics to come soon, but I forgot my camera's cord, so these are some pics from Mom's camera.

It's on like Donkey Kong

Tomorrow morning Robert and I head off to the beach with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Carol (in one Buick--pray for us).  Rob, Spot, and Tucker will follow along on Saturday.  So expect a plethera of posts (of course, everyone who reads them will be at the beach with us) this week.  With cute, sandy pic goodness.  I can't wait!

Best. Quote. Ever.

On the phone tonight, as I was saying good bye to Robert, he said (and I am NOT making this up), "I love you.  See you soon.  Everybody poops."

Just so I don't forget

I keep meaning to write down some of the cute things that Robert says in his baby book because I know I will forget them when he moves on to the next cute thing.  I also mean to post more here, so two birds+ one stone= this blog post.  If you are just looking for pictures, then scroll down.

Two of our favorites right now are "I no wanna be sack-mo-tatoes" when he gets thrown bodily over someone's shoulder (we've decided that "Sack-mo-tatoes" should be Robert's Native American name), which is so cute we often make him the sack of potatoes just to hear him protest, and "May I peas be a goose" which is what "May I please be excused" sounded like the first few times he said it and we've laughed so hard at it that now he'll probably never say it correctly.  Another of his current greatest hits is, "No, I wanna make GOOD choices" which invariably comes 10 seconds after a very BAD choice for which a consequence is afoot.    He also apparently thinks that Rob and I are total narcissists, because he sings the Barney theme song (yes, Barney.  Ugh.) as "You love you, You love me."  I don't have the heart to correct him-- at least, until I get him on video at least once.

A boy and (someone else's) dog

Robert had the double treat today of Uncle Jonathan AND his favorite giant dog, Mabel.  Much cuteness ensued.

Golf!

Maybe there's more to a name than Shakespeare gives credit, but Robert has been obsessed with golf since he was less than a year old.  Which is why it was so great that he got to go to the country club with his Meema and Grumpy the last time we were in Lancaster.  (Rob and I had forgotten to pack our country club duds and were therefore forced to stay home and drink beer.  I'm considering some kind of civil rights suit just as soon as I stop liking an afternoon of free babysitting and beer.)  Robert had a good time, though something spooked him about the golf carts.  He keeps saying, even a month later, at random times, "there were people on the carts."  Not sure what that was all about, but, hey, what's a little trauma compared to the afternoon of free babysitting and beer?  That's what I was thinking.  So thanks to the Felters for both the trip, and the pics.

And I'm back

Ok, I know, I know.  And I have nothing in the way of excuses.  Except that not that much has been happening here.  Or maybe a lot has.  I don't really know anymore.  Robert is just chatting up a storm now, and starting to make up stories.  Which is pretty cute.  I'd tell you one, but I can't remember any of them.  Needless to say, we're in another bad sleep stretch.  My only hope is that eventually it will have to be his girl (or boy) friend who is up with him in the middle of the night.  Does Match.com take toddlers?

We've been enjoying the good weather by spending a lot of time at the farm.  Robert has a regular play ground there now with a sandbox, swingset, and slide.  Poor Carol's yard may never be the same, but Robert adores it.  Here's a picture of a very spoiled grandson in his new frog raincoat, standing in his sandbox-- all courtesy of his Grandma Beth.

And, of course, some obligatory Easter Pics...

                                                

Happy Birthday, Grandma

Snowpocolipse 2010

We've had a busy but home-bound week with the 26" inches of snow we have accumulated (8" more on the way!) and a bad cold-turned-ear-infection-turned-sinus-infection-turned-pneumonia. Suffice it to say that Robert and I have spent pretty much every waking hour together for the last 2 weeks and I have a new-found respect for stay-at-home moms. Or, it has increased my assertion that they all need to be put in asylums, I can't decide. I know I would willingly go to the asylum myself if they promised, on pain of death, that I would NOT have to watch Little Einsteins there. Anyway. Robert's response to the 3' piles of snow that line our driveway was "Holy Cow!" and he has pronounced walking on the snow to be "crunchy." Where do they learn these things?!?!

OK, you can stay for a little bit longer...

We're down in it here with a nasty chest cold and ear infection, replete with antibiotics and breathing treatments, all worthy of a much longer and funnier rant than I am capable of putting together after 5 days of very interrupted sleep. But tonight as I was fixing dinner Robert asked me for milk. And when I said, "Do you want chocolate milk?" (because I'm bribing him with ANYTHING to get him to drink right now) he looked up at me and said, "Yes, please, ma'am. And I love you, Mama."

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

And I carried you for 40 weeks...

The following took place between 7:48 and 7:49 am:

Me: Hey Robert, do you want to go eat some coffee cake that Mama made?"

Robert: Yes!

Me: What kind of coffee cake do you think it is?

Robert: Burnt.

Niiiiiiice.

We're so lucky

It's hard to post about all the cute things that Robert is doing right now when I think about all the 2-year olds ( and everyone else) in Haiti. It is so heartbreaking to think about. Robert would like to urge you all at go to www.redcross.org or www.mercycorp.com and donate. We did and it was easy.

That's it, I'm goin' to Grandma's

The stomach flu edition

We've all been down with the stomach flu so here's the short version of the last couple of weeks:

• Christmas was good, though Robert was very impatient with the whole unwrapping-presents thing, and spent a good bit of the time under the dining room table playing with tissue paper. People foolishly bought him nice presents when they could have just wrapped up boxes with tissue paper.
• Robert is talking up a storm. "Come over here and sit down, Mama." "I put a banana in my pocket." "That's so silly, Mama." (This in response to me trying to put his socks on his hands, which, was, in fact, too silly. But so is putting a banana in your pocket, little man.)
• His sleeping schedule has been really screwed up since the whole stomach flu. Last night he didn't go to bed until 11, and it's 9 am and he's still asleep. And, of course, I should go wake him up, but 90210 is on...
• We've had 4 weeks of sinus infections, ear infections, the stomach flu. I'm ready for a little bit of healthy, happy Robert time.