Saturday, October 31, 2009

Sorry for the Delay


John has been ill this week with some stomach issues, so I have been a bit too preoccupied to update the page; however, I do have an interesting teaser for you:


1. John has a new fun game we like to call, "Trapped in the Closet." I'll post video tomorrow.

2. John enjoys to sing. I don't have video of that, but I'll try to get some.

3. John's going trick or treating. If I get video, I'll post that. At least, I'll get a shot of him in his costume.

4. John's going to a birthday party tomorrow at a miniature golf course.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

He's Climbing To The Top

Yes, John will rule the world some day, but he's getting really good at physically climbing up the stair. I was a bit of a Cautious Claude and asked that he not do it, but Maureen and Grammy said it was safe enough.


This weekend was full of fun and adventure. Saturday was pretty boring, but Sunday was a day full of fun. The best part of the day was that he slept in until 7:30 AM. That was the best gift he could have given us. Later, we went to the Larchmont Family Fair. There were rides, a petting zoo, and a bunch of food booths. (Most of the food booths were serving Korean barbeque. Honestly, do we need 5 Korean barbeque booths? Some people like regular barbeque. And, why didn't some of the restaurants set-up booths? We could have really done with a slice of Village Pizzeria.) Enough of my woolgathering, we didn't think that John wanted to ride the rides and I sure as heck didn't want to let the creepy old guy at the pony rides touch my boy. You just never know what diseases these carnies may have. We figure that John will be old enough next year to truly enjoy the rides.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Lil Scraps


Of late, we have taken to calling our John by the name, Lil Scraps. If he sees us eating something, he'll come up to us and growl. That's his way of saying he'd like a bite. When he is finished with his little bite, he'll growl for more. He really like buffalo mozarella and prosciutto.


He has also started to call every meal "Dinner". If Maureen or I say dinner, he goes over to his high shair and starts to say, "DINNA." He also says something that sounds an awful lot like "I like it" whenever he eats something that he really likes. He's either saying that or Maureen and I are hearing things. I'll try to get a video of both. He's very difficult when I pull out the camera to shoot him these days.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Puzzle King

John's gift to Maureen was a puzzle of a photo of his. He figured that Maureen and he could put it together some day.

Coincidentally, John was given some puzzles by the Norton family. We give special thanks to Cate Norton for sharing her puzzles with John. That was most kind of her. Please watch the video and see John as he plays with his super cool puzzles. He even puts one of the pieces in place. There must be extra brain power in his larger than normal head.


Happy Birthday Mama


Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sunday

Guess who decided to wake up at 3:30 this morning? Actually, he'd just completed a bowel movement, so that really woke him up, but he didn't want to go back to bed after that. Maureen and I decided that we had earned a breakfast at Fiddler's Bistro after our early morning wake-up. John was very good. He ate my pancakes and rejected Maureen's eggs. It seems he has my taste in food. Let's hope he grows out of it.

We were determined to find a Halloween costume for John. Last weekend, we were chagrined to discover that The Children's Place was sold out unless we wanted him to be a flitty pirate.

We headed to Toys R Us to see what they had. Sadly, they had nothing that would fit John aside from pumpkin costumes. We were disheartened. We decided to go to Taco Bell on Beverly for a quick bit, but we couldn't go because of the stupid AIDS Walk LA. I have nothing against people with AIDS, but why do you find the need to shut down main thoroughfares? Poor Maureen didn't get her Taco Bell that she wanted.

After a brief nap, we decided to head over to the Grove to Pottery Barn Kids. Maureen called earlier and the clerk said they had pumpkin costumes and spider costumes. It was a madhouse. There were tons of people and I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. PBK did have costumes. John is going to be a puppy. I don't know if the head piece will fit on John since he has quite the large head, but he'll be a darned cute puppy.

For dinner, we picked up some pizza at Patsy's at the Farmer's Market. Maureen was worried that the pizza would be too thick or hard for our John. When I gave him his first piece, he immediately asked for more with his "More" grunt and face. He really is daddy's boy. He loves pizza. Next week, we're going to the Larchmont Village Fair and we'll pick up some Village Pizzeria for him.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Mr. Bones' Pumpkin Patch


We took John to the pumpkin patch today. It was hella hot. It wasn't quite Africa hot, but it sure was hot enough to limit our visit to about 20-minutes. John had his fill of stomping about the grounds and looking at the children. Plus, there were these really annoying Middle Eastern people that kept on moving into all the areas that we were visiting. Honestly, some manners would be appreciated in a public place. Your friends and relatives may own all the oil in the Middle East; however, that doesn't give you an excuse not to be polite.
Maureen says that John seemed to enjoy himself. We picked up a few pumpkins for John and Nicholas. Yes, even the baby that isn't here gets a little pumpkin. It was free with our adult paid admission. Next year, we'll be sure to go when it isn't so hella hot. John will be running around and Nicholas will be overwhelmed. It'll be resplendent.

15-Month Check Up


We took John to visit Dr. K for his 15-month check up on Thursday. Not much to report, he had 5 shots, but he took them like a trooper. He cried, but eventually stopped. He knows that it is a matter of public health for him to get his vaccinations. Shame on those who listen to people who say that vaccinations are not needed. They've helped eliminate diseases.


As for stats, our John is normal in height at 31". His weight is a little low at 22-lbs. If you look at him, you can tell the weight is all in his belly and his big melon head which is in the 96th percentile. That means he has a ginormous head. Oh well, it must be that he needs more space in his head for all those great ideas that are floating around in there.


His behavior during his visit was a bit mixed. He loved the play house in the waiting room. He loved the little truck in the examination room. He just didn't like the examination part. He actually freaked out. Dr. K said that was normal for his age since he really doesn't quite know what's going on and he has no other way to express himself.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Fun Updates

Superboy aka John has made a few strides lately. His vocabulary has grown to include dinner and quack.

Monday night, Maureen said, "Ok, it's time for dinner." He walked over to his high chair and said, "Dinna". Now, I don't think he's trying to say "did not" with a Scottish burr, so we are taking that to be his term for dinner. Plus, he's taken to eating new foods like chicken and peaches quite well. He's like a little bird in that he just keeps on opening his mouth for more.

Quack has a different story. John enjoys watch Oswald. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a show about Oswald the Octopus. He has a friend named Daisy who is a walking Daisy. Anywho, a little duckling got lost and latched onto Daisy. Oswald attempt to locate the mama duck by quacking. It's a pretty weak quack, but John picked up on it. So, he's either saying quack or duck. Either way, Superboy is expanding his horizons with words.

On a side note, we shot some video of John in the laundry room. Enjoy his antics as he speaks and runs around the laundry room in his new shoes.



A Boy and His Trains


What is it about a little boy that makes him love trains? I don't remember liking trains. I remember liking Hot Wheels, not Matchbox. Lately, John has really taken to playing with trains. The other day, we went to Kiddieland USA in K-Town and he just gravitated toward the train table. He sat there and played with Thomas and friends while Maureen tried to find a bathroom (she was unsuccessful). It kept him entertained for a good 20-minutes.
About a month ago, we went Ikea and we bought some nice inexpensive toys for John. One was a train set. He wasn't crazy about it at the time, but now, he just loves it. He'll sit there and talk to himself, or it's his little ghost friends with whom he speaks. I hope he never learns the name Thomas the Tank Engine because that would be VERY expensive for us. I hope he takes after me and like Hot Wheels. I can dig up my old pillow case full of cars from my parents garage and John and I can play freeway accident on the coffee table. It'll get him ready for traffic in Los Angeles.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

He Doesn't Know What To Think

We exposed John to one of the greatest Halloween songs ever, Halloween Spooks, by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. As you can tell, he is stunned by their vocal gymnastics. He doesn't know how to react.


John Surveys His Domain


For quite some time, Maureen and I have heard about a park on the grounds called Dinosaur Park. We'd just never been bothered to look for it.

Yesterday, Maureen went in search of the park with John. They found it and it's pretty cool. There are these things that look like rocks, but they are actually dinosaurs. It kind of makes sense. We live so darned close to The La Brea Tar Pits, so why not. Anywho, you can climb all over the dinosaurs, but there was a party going on at the park, so Maureen didn't want to crash.

Instead, they walked to John's fountain. As you can see, it's quite a stately fountain. John loves to watch the water go up and down. Maureen claims that he said "foun-tain" as they were approaching, but I chalk it all up to her hormones at this point in her pregnancy. Either that, or she's hearing voices.


He also loves to run around in the grass. He doesn't like to fall down and play in the grass. He gets that from me. He just walks around and surveys the situation. He runs around. He actually ran around so much that Maureen is exhausted from all his running around.
On a side note, he's not a fan of wearing jeans. He feels they are too stiff and unforgiving. As soon as the jeans were on his legs, he started pulling at them like he didn't want to wear them. He likes wearing sweat pants that a big, roomy, and comfy. This is what I say. Get used to wearing pants. In school and life, you'll have to wear long pants unless you become a delivery man or high school football coach during practice.

Yummy Sandwiches


John had a great day on Friday. He got to spend the day with Maureen. They went to the park and he talked to all sorts of little kids in his gibberish like Sugar and Spike (Sal y Pimienta for those of you who speak Spanish). He also got a special treat and went to Fiddler's Bistro for a grilled cheese sandwich. As always, he delighted the wait staff with his charm, wit, and smile. His favorite waitress played with him. I'd have to say that was a good day.

When John went down for his nap yesterday, I popped out to pick up the dry cleaning. Before you freak out, Maureen was home. After a brief chat with Art, I decided to go to the Larchmont Village Wine Spirits & Cheese shop to pick up some sandwiches. If you haven't tried the sandwiches from the LVWSC, you are really missing a treat.

When I got home, John was running around with his Julius the Monkey toy. Maureen was just trying to keep up. While mom and dad were lunching, John was doing his laps around the couch. Eventually, he came up to us, so we started giving him little pieces of cheese and prosciutto. Sure enough, our boy has a taste for the finer things in life. He just kept on asking for more and more.

So, if you are in the area, stop by the Larchmont Village Wine Spirits & Cheese shop and pick up a sandwich or two. They are located at 223 N. Larchmont Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90004 and have more than just prosciutto sandwiches. Remember, John approves, so you should go there.
I'm sad to say he didn't have sandwiches for lunch today. We went to Chipotle and the food there may have been a bit too spicy. Nonetheless, we are ever so pleased with his transition to big people food. He still loves his yogurt and fruit bowls, but it's nice to see that he's eating more and more foods. Sure, we won't be able to tell Dr. K some of those foods since Dr. K is quite the Food Nazi, but we'll curb our enthusiasm and make sure he eats healthy foods.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

John's First Sprinkles Experience

Since we were out in the area, we decided to stop into Sprinkles to get a vanilla cupcake for John. As you may remember, John didn't really know what to make of his birthday cupcake. Either that, or he just didn't like Crumbs cupcakes. As you can see, he just went to town with his desert. Also, you may hear the dismay in my voice over his shenanigans.

I now know why my mother got so upset when we gave Jimmy and Dillon pixie sticks as party favors. She had to clean up the mess that those two boys made. Belive me, cleaning up frosting is no fun. Thank God for the Hoover vacuum that we picked up. It just sucked everything up. Sadly, I then had to clean the dust tank. Oh well, I get what I deserve for giving the boy his cupcake.

BTW, he did turn into a bit of a spazz about 30-minutes after the video was shot. He didn't go full on Cornhoolio, but he was running around and speaking more gibberish than normal

John: A Future Architect

Lately, I've been telling our John that he's going to be the US ambassador to the Holy See because that would put us one step away from the Pope. I have told him he has no other choice, but I think he may have other ideas. While playing Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimber this morning, John showed me his building skills. Take a look at this. At the end of the clip, I defy you to find a better constructed tower of soft blocks. Go ahead. I triple dog dare you!!


Breakthroughs

This weekend, we had two big breakthroughs with our John. First, he allowed me to brush his teeth yesterday while he was taking a bath. You have no idea how pleased we are with that latest development. I was beginning to think that he was going to be like one of those third world children in the commercials with Sally Struthers that have no teeth or they have silver teeth all through their mouth. Hopefully, John will continue with this good attitude. He can be quite mercurial at times much like myself.

Today, he took a sip of some juice from his sippy cup. Mind you, we've been trying to get him to drink from that darned thing for a good 2-months now. He has resisted at every turn; however, we have a new weapon in our parental aresenal. If we want him to do or try something, we'll give him some Gerber Lil' Graduates cheese puffs. That puts him in a good mood. And, truth be known, the zesty tomato ones are really good, so give them a try.
Maureen would also like to add another breakthrough: Little John ate his first waffles! He tried a little bit of one and then demanded more. What a good eater boy!