Toddler or Puppy - is there really a difference?

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between human babies and puppies? I'm beginning to think that the answer is NOT MUCH. See if any of these ring a bell...

1. They chew on everything
2. They have trouble walking in a straight line at first
3. They knock things over
4. They get into the trash can
5. They pee when/where they're not supposed to
6. They can only tell you what they want through crying
7. They accidentally injure those they love

I'm sure you were nodding along in agreement up until #7...let me explain. Last week, Aunt Jo called us to tell us that she had a black eye. And no, unlike Michelle on the Bachelor, how it came about was NOT a mystery. Turns out her 7 mo. old "puppy" Hershey the newfoundland had gotten himself all caught up in a ball of knitting yarn and was THRASHING all about. When Jo went to untangle him, chaos ensued, and he head butted her smack dab in the eye. Looked like someone had hit her square in the eye. Now, you're probably thinking "what does that have to do with toddlers?"

Well, Wednesday night, Casey, Robert and I were playing tickle time on the bed. Tickle time always brings peals of laughter and much flopping about by the Casey man. It is our evening ritual that happens shortly after the boys get home. Well, instead of flopping, HE decided to head butt me square in the nose. Much swelling ensued, along with a short debate about whether I should have it looked at. Casey, no worse for wear.

And, there you have it...toddlers and puppies are exactly the same.

On another note, we are up to 16 teeth, which REALLY explains Grumpy McGrumpypants. Last night we were playing in the tickle zone, the ultimate way to get Casey to open his mouth and show off the chompers, when lo and behold, we spotted the top two molars that erupted. All that are left are his very back molars, which are not supposed to come in until two years. We can only hope that Casey is going to get a reprieve from all the pain. He has been one clingy, grumpy, unhappy boy lately (for good reason).

Fourteen, fourteen teeth...ha ha ha

Yes, that's right, somehow in the excitement of eating, crawling, and walking...I forgot to give the tooth update. Casey is up to 14 teeth, including 2 dreaded molars. After they are all fully in, he'll have everything but top molars and back bottom molars.


Right now, he is looking a little like the Count...since all you can see of his top cuspids are sharp vampire points.

And you may ask, for what does he use these teeth??? Well, last night, he finally conceded and tried something I made him homemade. AND, it was meat no less. Robert and I were having chicken cordon bleu. So, I cut a few pieces of mini nuggets and breaded them with bread crumbs and parmesan. And guess what, after a few reject bites, and being left alone with them and no fruit on his plate, he actually ate a few bites of homemade chicken nuggets!

Small victories!

Snowmaggedon 2011

Last week's snow storm is the perfect example of first time parent syndrome attacks. Thursday afternoon Robert and Casey made it safely home around 3:30 pm, before the massive commute disaster occured. We were tucked in safely for the night, just waiting for the snow to begin, foolishly thinking that the snow would come and the roads would be clear in the morning to get Casey to daycare.



Silly us, things were going fine until 7:30 when we heard a HUGE explosion and saw red light reflecting in the snow falling outside. Then, the power went out. And stayed out.



First time mom here decided it was time to panic! I wasn't worried about how cold I would be during the night, but how Casey would manage. So, after much panic, and no news of when we would get power, we cozied Casey into footed fleece pajamas, covered him with a blanket, and put him to bed.



3am rolls around, and I wake up. Note: Casey did not wake me up, I woke up on my own, stressed out. I went in to check in on him, since well, the condo was getting chilly. He was still covered by the blanket and sleeping soundly. So, I tried to go back to sleep. And tossed, and turned, and tossed and turned. I finally got back to sleep around 5am. At 6am, when Casey woke up, we still had no power, BUT, daycare was open as the roads had cleared up. So, we decided to pack everyone up and go to Robert's office where we could all work, and Casey could go to daycare.



And, Casey, warm and snug as a bug in his footed jammers. His face and hands were nice and warm. He, however, was cranky that there was no light and couldn't have his morning books. So, he got a great night's sleep and I stayed up tossing and turning. Silly, silly me.



Our power came on in time for us to head home for the night and give us a chance to break out our inflatable sled for Casey. Here's a video of him "sledding" in the snow outside our house.

ROAR

I am Casey, hear me roar! And jabber, and scream like a teradactyl. Casey has most definitely found his voice. He has moved from Hi, to Cat, to Uh-Oh. Lately, Uh-Oh is his favorite word. Sometimes, we get a word that really means something, and other times, we get rapid, cave-man pointing and screeching. Hard to imagine when you're looking at the cute pictures below.



We were able to find this cute bear suit at Old Navy before the holidays. I ask myself, how much longer can we dress him in a bear suit before it becomes undignified? Right now, still super cute...

As was the trend with infancy, Casey is still rejecting all homemade "mommy" food, in typical toddler fashion. He gives me little glimmers of hope when he eats a piece of cooked vegetables from whatever we've cooked, but he has yet to embrace an entire meal now that he has decided he does not like spaghetti anymore - our old faithful. We are still trending towards a little vegetarian, who continues to reject most meat. He did eat a small piece of panko breaded chicken with parmesan the other day, so that was a small highlight. Thankfully, he does love his fruit and yogurt, so he's getting plenty of good vitamins. Although, on New Year's Weekend, he did eat a homemade puff pastry with spinach and gruyere. So, there is hope!

He is now running everywhere he can, and stumbling only occassionally. It is sad when he gets tired and does a face plant, but our fearless boy just gets up and keeps going.

We had an interesting food adventure the other night. We wanted to take Casey to a restaurant where he could be entertained, so we could have a nice meal ourselves. So, we thought Benihana! Well, apparently, there is an age range that works for Benihana - and that range is any age BEFORE they are old enough to know what is going on, and AFTER they are able to be aware of fire. When the chef came to start, and he began banging the cooking tools on the cooktop, Casey looked a little skeptical. Then, when the chef lit up the table with fire, everything fell apart. We saw Casey afraid for only the second time in his life. Poor little guy, I haven't seen tears like that come out of our little man. Needless to say, we didn't have any more fire at dinner that night. And, after some time cozying up to his daddy, he did finally become entertained by the rest of the chopping and cooking.

Our little man has FINALLY hit 20lbs, so one of these days, he will get to be a front-facing boy!

Happy Birthday to Our Little Cruiser

I have been very excited about the toddler days, as it means that there will be fewer bottles of formula to prepare in the future. Sadly, I'm not so sure when that future will be, as Casey spit out his first taste of real milk. Guess he really is his mother's son. Hopefully he will begin to like it after a few more tastes.

He also received his first haircut shortly before his first birthday. I have to admit, I'm a little sad, as his hair is now very precise and not quite as rock star as it was before. I look forward to it growing in a little uneven.

Casey has rapidly advanced from cruising to testing out the waters on his own. He is very eager to walk on his own, but hasn't quite realized that it requires STANDING on his own first. However, he may find the concept a bit easier with his new birthday toy. The video below shows him walking in the hallway with his new learning walker.

Casey Crawls

Well, we knew the day would come, and on July 29th, it happened. Casey crawled. There is some good news and bad news that comes along with this.

Good news - well, it's pretty damn cute. Also, he now crawls over to us when he wants something instead of screaming.

Bad news - well, we have a really small space and he has managed to find ALL the places that a little man should not go. Also, he has figured out how to crawl OUT of the strap that used to keep him strapped to the changing table. Diaper changing time has become quite an adventure.

So, the video below was taken on Sunday as we enticed him with the computer on the floor. Enjoy.

Four, Four Teeth, ha ha ha

Yes, yes you should read that with the Count Von Count voice. So, Casey now has all four of his front teeth. The second top one is coming in slowly, but has broken through. We are hoping this means we'll now have a break before more teeth come, since the poor little man has been on and off miserable the last few weeks as these teeth have been coming in.

We took Casey to his first live concert during 4th of July weekend...The Gipsy Kings at Wolf Trap. We weren't so sure how he'd handle the crowd and the noise, but he had a great time. We danced to the music, played in the grass, rolled around on the blanket and played with our friends Scott, Mike and Stephanie. He enjoyed the show until about 10pm when it was time to sleep, but it was too loud. He was asleep before we left the parking lot. Here are some pictures.


Here he is listening to the music sitting in Mike's lap. As you can see, he was checking out the crowd and all the people dancing around us. As is typical with Wolf Trap, there were people dancing in front of us that shouldn't have been dancing.

Unfortunately, he got a hold of Mike's Mets hat. We'll have to help him understand that not all teams are created equal. Baseball hats come in two colors only: maroon and gold AND Nationals navy. Mets hat aside, we got some great pictures making faces with Mike.

We finally decided to lower the crib to the middle level. Casey was able to pull something off the edge of the crib and down, so we concluded his reach has expanded enough to merit the effort required to move the mattress. He is not yet trying to stand up on his own, but if we stand him next to the coffee table, he is enticed enough by the remote controls found there to hold on and try and reach for the elusive items. I think he is learning he has the body control necessary to hold on without mom or dad holding him.

Food has been an interesting adventure. Casey is still happy to eat finely milled baby purees AND table food. However, if you try and give him anything in between, forget it. At first, I thought he just didn't like homemade food, but when we moved to thicker items in the pre-packaged foods, he rejected those just the same. Needless to say, that made me feel MUCH better. We finally got him to eat a homemade meal the other day, after thinning it out with much liquid: Chicken and potatoes AND Brocolli! Apparently, unsweetened apple juice is the magic thinner. He loved them both. But the chicken had herbs and other spices, so it was exciting to see him venture into something with spices for the first time.