New Year's Resolution in March....

Is it too late to come up with a New Year's Resolution?  Or call it what you will, something I want to do differently.  I can indeed be quite a lazy bum.  After working a long day, going to a class twice a week, coming home and helping with dinner, cleaning up, throwing a load of laundry in, playing with William before he goes to bed...let's face it, I'm beat.  I'm still trying to make it routine to work out after little man goes to bed too.  Whew, I'm exhausted just typing it. 

That's not my resolution though. 

I want to make sure we are getting off our bums and getting outside to play...like everyday if we can.  I judged my own parenting when the weather got nice and I took William outside and he was terrified to walk in the grass.  My kid was afraid of the grass.  Oh my goodness, I have failed.  Of course my kid won't walk in the grass, I haven't taken him outside in it since he started walking.  (judge away...judge away...)

So I've been making it a point to take him outside.  (don't worry....he's not afraid of that green stuff anymore)  I try to point out the birds and show him the sound they make.  I try to teach him that when he walks down the driveway towards the street, he has to hold my hand.  (read: teaching a one year old to hold you hand just leads to a melt down every.single.time)  We have been going on family bike rides since we bought one of those buggy thingys.  We walk into the field across the street from us and let the dog run around.  It's been awesome so far and it's barely into spring!

I just want to make a promise to myself and to William that we will make a point to get out and explore and get dirty and learn together!

How could I resist this....

Ahw Gah and a Little LMFAO

I'm pretty sure my husband and I offer no hope to our son being able to learn to talk.

It started with "uh oh."  It came out of our son's mouth and we both couldn't believe it!  It was adorable and 100% in the correct context!  He's a little genius.  Then to show everyone how adorable our child is that knows how to say "uh oh" we tried to get him to say it all the time.  At first I'm guessing he was thinking, "Mom...that's totally not the correct context.  There's nothing to be uh-ohing about."  Then I'm sure he finally got to the point where, yup, this is a really cool thing to say and people think I'm cute when I do it.  What does it mean again?

Then he said it all.the.time.  Totally losing any idea of what it actually means.

Then we wanted to teach him to tell us when he was done with his meal or to let him know when he needs to calm his shit down because the yogurt is, indeed, all gone.  So we would say it after every meal and at the end of every yogurt cup.  All gone.  Then our adorable William said it back - "Ahw gah**!"  Holy crap, he's adorable.  Once again - totally in the correct context.  Then we ruined another phrase by saying it all the time to hear him say it because, well, it's frickin adorable.

Now he says it all.the.time.  Again...totally losing any concept of what the context is. 

Then there is the song by LMFAO - "Sexy and I Know It."  My son.  Yeah, the cute one in all of my pictures, yeah him.  Totally says wiggle because we sing that part all the time.  Another word that will add about no value to his speech skills but it's hilarious and so cute I want to kiss his fat cheeks. 

That is all. 

**It is totally hard to spell out all gone in the way a 16 month old says it.  This was the best I could do. hehe

Good thing he has a cute behind...

William is on the move.

I mean, like, constantly. 

People would say - "Watch out when he starts walking!" and I would think - "Umm...he does a pretty dang good job of being a non-stop mover getting into trouble now and he's crawling...I know what I'm doing, yo."

And now I wish to go back to my past self and slap her across the face because I should never assume I even had a clue.  Seriously.  And that makes me scared of what's to come. 

So moving on - I take a lot of pictures with my cell phone.  More pictures there than with my camera these days just because it's handy. 

Cell phone pictures plus toddler on the move all.the.time equals lots of pictures from behind (or fuzzy because who has time to stop a pose for a picture, mom...).  Here are some of the priceless gems recently. 

Mr. Independent at the pool last week.  Mom who?

OK, he's not moving in this picture, but that didn't last for long.  If I can't get one from the front, I have to sneak up behind him to catch one.  On another note, my kid is in love with American Idol and Glee and anything that has music.

Yeah...he's the cool kid with a box on his head and one pants leg up.  What of it?

He's too cool to sit and watch a basketball game, he'd rather dance in front of this audience that obviously was assembled just for him...

Exploring during a trip to the mall.  He spent about 25 minutes running circles around this magical, musical and talking vending machine. 

The dog has a bit of holiday weight....

Some people are cat people.  Me?  I'm a dog person.  I have always grown up with dogs and having one of my own now, I can honestly say that he has added so much value to our lives.  He cuddles and plays and is such an amazing big brother and companion for William.  He's our "other" baby - Tressel. 

I recently took Tressel to the vet for his annual vaccinations and check-up.  Tressel is a black lab and had previously weighed about 79 or 80 pounds.  Big boy is now up to 86 pounds.  That's quite a steep jump and I could see their vet, judgy eyes looking at me as if I'm a horrible dog parent that let their child's weight get away from them.

They took us to the tiny room where Tressel roamed and sniffed and I was feeling guilty that my dog had let himself go (which means I suck as a doggy mommy).  The questions come.  Any problems since your last visit?  No.  What kind of food do you feed him?  Oh boy, here it comes.  Does he get exercise? Well, yes, but umm, it's been cold and we've been busy...  Does he get table food?  Umm...why yes, we do have a one year old.....

I blamed it on William....

As you can see, Tressel claims his spot immediately next to William for all three meals.  It didn't take long for him to figure that one out.  Makes for the floor clean-up quite easy after meals....

Just act cool, Tressel.....they are watching.  You can have some of my food in a minute....