Over 95° F for how many days?

What’s a little boy to do when he can’t sit down or stand still for more than a few second and it’s pushing 101° F outside day after day after day after day.   It’s even too hot to go in the pool.

Here’s what Mom and Grandma do for me.

First off, Mom takes me for my walks (she walks, I ride in the wagon) in the morning.  She’s tries to get out and back before about 10:30 AM while it’s still “cool outside.   Of course cool is a relative word.  Even at 10:30 in the morning the temperature is already pushing 86°.  Yuk!  But it does me out of the house for a few minutes.  Every little bit of fresh air helps to tire me out a little.

The second thing Mom and Grandma do, and this one is a biggy, they make sure there’s always a couple of sippy cups (glasses) setting around filled with nice cool water.  I love drinking water.  Water is probably my beverage of choice and the one I get the most of.   However, keeping sippy cups around filled with water means that anytime I get even the slightest bit thirsty I can help myself to a nice cool drink.   Grandpa has even ordered me a few sippy glasses, not sippy cups.  I don’t need those silly handles any more.  They just get in the way with us big kids anyway.  They’re Disney Cars and Thomas & Friends insulated 9 oz sippy glasses.  Because they are insulated, they help keep my water cooler even longer.  And the part Grandpa likes is that they are BPA free (whatever that means) and they don’t get all wet on the outside when it’s really hot outside so they don’t slip out of my hands.

Here are two photos of me with my new sippy cup.

Finally, Mom buys me these great little mini Popsicles called “Slow Melt Mighty Minis™”.  They contain just a very small amount of gelatin so they don’t melt very quickly.   That along with their size and they are perfect for a active 21 month old.   I can easily finish one without make a mess, or at least not a very big mess, and they do a great job of cooling me off on a hot Texas afternoon.

Well that’s it for tonight

Thanks for stopping by

Anthony

Update on swimming vest

A few weeks ago I told you that Grandpa bought be a swimming vest to help me learn to swim.   Here’s a photo I used in that post of me wearing that vest.

Well, the vest does work.  However, now that I’ve used it, it is a bit uncomfortable; it pushing up under my arms.   I also not used to just floating in the pool on my own yet so some of the uncomfortable could be because I’m still a little nervous about using it.

The vest is a good idea and I am hoping that it starts to fit me better soon.   I want to give it a fair chance.   The vest is made by a company called Konfidence.  The vest I have can be found at the website for The Original Konfidence Jacket.

BTW, floating in the pool on my own in no way implies that I’m IN the pool alone.   Whenever I use the pool. Mom is in the water with me and Grandma is watching over me from a chair by the side of the swimming pool.  I believe you can’t be too safe (or have too many people watching you) when you’re around water.

Well, that’s it for now.

Thanks for stopping by

Anthony

What an interesting Saturday

You never know what’s going to happen on a Saturday.   Sometimes it’s a sit around the house day and on other occasions, it’s time for an adventure.    Last Saturday it was time for an adventure Saturday.

First off, I had gym class.   They moved me up with the older group for this session.   Now that I over 18 months and bigger than most of the kids in my previous class, the older kid’s class seems like a good idea.   A few of my friends from the earlier class also moved up so I still know kids.

The gym class is pretty much the same as the old gym class, just some different kids and a lot of different parents.

In this first photo I’m climbing stairs to get onto the balance beam.  I do the stairs by myself of course.

To minimize the chances of me breaking something, Mom helps me once I make it to the balance beam.

From gym, we drove past our house and dropped off Mom and pick up Grandpa.  Grandpa is going to be driving us downtown to a music store.  This will be my first trip to a music store.   I could hear Grandma and Grandpa discussing bringing me into a store filled with expensive musical instruments, all at a height where I can get to them.

The ride there was very cool.   We passed about a dozen places that all had millions of balloons flying around.  Grandpa said they were car dealerships.  I’m not sure what that means.  All I know is they had more balloons in more colors than I had ever seen before.   And they were bouncing all over in the wind.

I also discovered that my feet finally reach the back of the front seat in Grandma’s SUV.  That means I can kick the back of the seat whenever someone sits in front of me.   How much fun does that sound like…

And I wanted to show you I could reach with both feet also.

Driving to the music store was about a 45 minute ride.  Grandma sat in the back seat and talk to me making me laugh at all sorts of things.

And she brings me snacks to help with the long ride…

Today, it was one of my favorite snacks…  GERBER® GRADUATES® YOGURT MELTS™ Snacks.  Sorry no picture but they come in a big yellow bag that I can spot a mile off.   I think Grandpa thinks if I spell out the product name, someone will mail us some coupons… LOL

Boy, I hope no one tells me these things are healthy…

When we finally arrived at the music store, it was really neat.   There were guitars every place; standing on the floor, hanging on the walls, hanging from the ceiling, stacked on the counters.  Of course, Grandpa lets me touch his guitars at home so I assumed it would be OK to touch them at the store.   I strummed every guitar I could reach as I walked past it.   I even climbed up on a few of the display stands.   The only really exciting minute of two was when I squeezed behind a row of amplifiers and got stuck.  Grandma had to come to my rescue.  I lost a shoe, that was later retrieved, but all else was fine.    I think I was making my Grandparents just a little nervous although the store guy said I was doing just fine.

No pictures in the store; Grandpa was busy.   We did leave with another bass guitar for Grandpa’s office though.

On the way home we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse for some lunch.   I had mac and cheese, strawberry lemonade, and rolls.

It was tiring day.  Half way through lunch I just put my head down on the table and relaxed.   I didn’t fall asleep but came very close.   I did node off about three houses from our house on the ride home.

That it for now.  It’s almost time for dinner…  funny how often food comes up isn’t it…

Thanks for stopping by and tell your friends to visit

Later

Anthony

Water and climbing

Good morning all

I had a pretty good day yesterday, right up until the time I had to go to bed (more on that later).

Yesterday morning Mom and Grandma took in swimming pool before it the Houston heat became unbearable.  This is the first time we have made it into the pool so far this year.  I’m hoping we do it a lot more.   It’s such fun and great exercise.

Grandpa bought me a swimming vest in the hopes it would help me learn to swim and prevent me from drowning when just playing around.  The vest is very nice, fits well, works as advertised, and I don’t really mind wearing.

The vest fits very snugly and has pieces on the insides that can be removed as I learn how to swim.  It allows me to gradually become less dependent on it.   Grandpa said it is going to take a few weeks to find out how effective the vest really is.   If nothing else, it makes it easy to find me in the pool.

After a while, Mom took off my vest and moved me into a floaty thing.   I wasn’t really swimming that much and I was not letting go of her arm so we moved on.

I like this contraption.   It allows me to do other stuff and I don’t have to hold on to Mom.

There were also a couple of these long blue tube things floating around in the pool.   They were fun to catch and try dragging around with me.

After almost an hour in the pool, Mom brought me in the house.   She said we had to be careful not to spend too much time in the Houston sun.

Once in the house, a whole new set of problems arose.   I started climbing on every thing.   I guess being in the pool did quite tired me out as much as everyone was hoping.

First, I had to climb on my Lego table.

Nice action shot, right?   It only takes me a second or two to get up now.   It’s kind of cool because I can sit up leaning against the wall playing with my Lego’s.  What else could you ask for?

Well, for starters, being able to get to Grandpa in his office when he is working.   There’s a fence with a gate that prevents me from climbing the stairs when there is no one around.   That same fence also keeps me out of Grandpa’s office.  I’m not sure if that’s coincidental or by plan.  Of course, being the smart little toddler that I am, I think I’ve found a solution to the fence and how to finally get into Grandpa’s office.

Yup, you guessed it.   I push my Fisher-Price activity table across the family room, through the hallway and put it up against the fence.   If I climb onto the table, I can just climb off on the other side of the fence.  Of course, this all assumes I don’t fall OVER the fence an break my neck.   If nothing else, it gets everyone’s attention when they see my trying this.

Going to bed last night was a whole different story.   Mom put me to bed around 8:00 PM.   All went well for about 30 minutes.   Then I woke up screaming historically and no one, not even Grandma with all of her nap time sleep magic could calm me down.   Every time they thought I was asleep and tried to lay me down in my crib, I was back up again in just a few minutes.   This went on to well past midnight.   I don’t know what was going on.  I didn’t eat anything that I haven’t been eating for months.  Mom and Grandma couldn’t figure out what was going in either.   I just hope it was a one time thing and this evening every thing is back to normal.  Or at least as normal as things can be with me around… LOL

Well, thanks for stopping by

Talk soon

Anthony

Look out, here I come

If I could talk, I’m sure that would be my battle cry.    I am pretty sure I am either driving Grandma and Grandpa crazy or terrifying them; I’m not sure which.   For one, Aunt Lauren calls me a bill goat.  At only 20 months and I can climb anything in the blink of an eye.

Here’s a photo of me on sitting on my Lego table.  It only takes me a few seconds to make it to the top.  In fact, you don’t even need to turn your back.  You just need to be 15 feet away and I can climb on the table before you can get to me.

I have also become extremely proficient at emptying my toy box and storage containers.    The next picture is what Grandma’s family room looks like normally.

And this next picture is what it looks like after only a few minutes of me playing.  When I play, I play hard… Look out, here I come…

I’m so good at redecorating a room.

Remember I said I can just terrify a set of grandparents?  Well, wooden table way in the back of hte room under the photo is the Lego table I was sitting on in the very first picture.

In the middle of the picture and to the left, is a Fisher-Price play table.   It only takes me a second to be standing, yes standing, in the middle of it dancing…

And the race car on end in the front and center of the photo?  Well, it has wheels and rolls very well.   Yet, it hasn’t stopped me from trying to stand on it also.   There are no photos of my standing on the race car because everyone is too busy trying to catch me… LOL

Finally, I thought I through in a photo of me in my new Harley T-shirt.

Tell me I don’t look cool, cute, and tough all at the same time… (smile)

Well, that’s it for now

Thanks for stopping by

Anthony

IMG_0292.JPG

IMG_0292.JPG, originally uploaded by williefavero.

Hi All,

I’m trying to share one of my white grapes with my Grandpa. For some reason, he doesn’t seem all that interested in it.. LOL

Thanks for stopping by

Anthony

So what have I been up to lately?

Yesterday was a good news bad news kind of day.   It started out pretty cool.   Mom bought me these really cool markers and finger painting sets (Crayola Color Wonder Fingerpaints &  TaDoodle Tub Crayons).  Both are made from paints that do not mark on anything other than the special paper from Crayola.   I dipped my fingers in the paint and made lots of goofy lines and circles on the paper.   All the time Mom didn’t have to be concerned about me getting paint on my cloths, the furniture, or anything else.  The TaDoodle Tub Crayons worked in a similar manner.   They’re little egg shaped animals with markers inside.  The markers only draw on the same special paper as above.  There shape makes it very easy for me to hold them also.  Of course, at first I thought they were strange balls.    After pounding them on the floor for a while and tossing them around, Mom was able to show me how they really worked.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to scare the heck out of everyone.   We were all playing in the family room while watching television.  I managed to crawl up on a chair, climb up onto the armrest.  As I was triumphantly standing there,  I fell.   Somehow I managed NOT to get hurt, nothing.  A friend of my Grandpa says there are angels that watch over us.  Well, when that happened, Grandpa said that there must be a couple of dozen angels watching over me.   Even I’m not sure how I didn’t get hurt.

Climbing seems to have become one of my favorite pastimes.   I climb on my Fisher-Price table, my Lego table, and my St Louis Cardinals’ toy box.  Mom tries to get me to sit but I have to stand in the middle of what ever it is I’m climbing to let everyone know.   In fact, I love climbing the kitchen chairs because they have slats I can grab onto and I can climb it a matter of seconds.

This afternoon I watched NASCAR with Grandpa while we munched on Chester’s Butter Flavored Puffcorn.  You hardly have to even chew them because they just melt in your mouth.  The race was OK also…  the cars are really bright colors and go around and around in circles.  In fact, watching the race was almost as much fun as playing with the TV remote controls.   I can make the TV program stop, start, go backwards, and change the station.  Very cool.

I had a chance to play jump and Grandpa this afternoon.  He laid on the floor and I stood on his stomach and jumped up and down.  He would then pick me up and spin me around in the air like an airplane.  It was really fun.

I also figured out how to take my diaper off.  You just pull on the side tabs, and it falls right off.   I made this discovery this morning  just prior to Mom coming in to get me.  Unfortunately, when she came in to get me and tried to get me to the changing table, I got a bit of a chill and found it necessary to tinkle in mid air.

I have also been sleeping through the night most nights now.   I did start to cry at about 3:00 AM last night and Mom came in and took care of me; or at least that’s how she tells the story.  She said I wasn’t even awake so maybe I had a bad dream.  If it was a bad dream or nightmare, it’s just as well with me that I didn’t wake up.

BTW, for Memorial Day Grandma made me pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast.   I was hoping we would get to go swimming but Mom said that the water was still a little too cold for me.  She said she would rather not have blue baby.

I also wanted to make sure I posted at least one photo.  Here’s one of me playing my Guitar while wearing my rock star T-shirt… how cool is this…

Finally, I am having one small problem that my Mom, Grandmother, and Grandfather are all looking into for a possible solution.  I wake up in the morning with a very large, and very nasty looking bite on my forearm; the bruise hangs around for weeks.   If you want to know what an impression of my teeth might look like,  then this will give you one.  The bite looks terrible; all black and blue and very pronounced.   Everyone seems very worried.   I’m not sure I even know that I’m doing it.   It could be happening while I’m dreaming or something.  All I know is that everyone says the bite looks terrible.  Grandpa suggested putting me to bed with a long sleeve shirt on.   Grandma and Mom both said it’s way hot and humid now and I would never tolerate something that warm.  I’m pretty sure it’s happening in my sleep.  But who knows.   If anyone has suggestions, this would be a good time to come forward.  And YES, it is definitely me biting myself.

Well, that’s it for tonight

Thanks for stopping by

Anthony

Hey kids, Pick up your toys

First, I’m feeling better today after my doctors visit on Monday.   No side effects (or ill effects) from the shots I received and I managed not to catch anything from sitting in the waiting room; or at least I don’t think I caught anything.

Another big things that I forgot to mention is I have slept through the night the last three nights in a row.   I don’t usually sleep all night.  I usually get up at least once or twice, mostly because I start coughing.  At least that has been the reason lately.  Mom has started to give me a little bit of Zyrtec before I go to bed for the evening and it seems to be having a positive affect.  I’m coughing far less and sleeping much more.   It was the doctors suggestion and he wants me to take it through the end of spring growing session.  Once all the “stuff” is out of the air, Mom is supposed to stop giving it to me unless I continue to cough.

I did have one small mishap today.  I was running full speed to Grandma, I have no slow or normal speeds, when I stepped on one of the small balls belonging to one of my toys that was accidently left laying in the middle of the family room.  In a split second I was laying on my back screaming with everyone in the house running to my rescue.  Fortunately, I was hurt, only frightened.   However, I am (or least Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa) are going to have to do a much better job of picking up after me.

Speaking of trying to keep me safe, it seems grandpa figured out how to get me to stop opening and  slamming shut the doors between the kitchen and the dining room.   He completely removed them.  In there place there is now a temporary child’s safety gate.  It doesn’t look great but it is effective.    With no doors to play with minimizes the chances of my mashing a finger in them.

BTW, one of my fish seems to be missing.   Grandpa has not been able to find him for days.   I hope he shows up soon.

Well, just a short post today

Thanks for stopping by

Anthony

What a crummy Monday

After such a great weekend, Monday turns out to be a real bummer.   Mom and Grandma took me to the doctors this morning for my well baby visit.

Things started out well enough; we were going for a ride in the truck, something I really enjoy.  Little did I know what our final destination would be.

When we arrived, a little boy already sitting in the waiting room immediately voiced his displeasure with my presence.  That was not a great way start.   However, later, I got to play with a little girl (she appeared to be just slightly younger than me) and we had ball.   I was able to teach her how to bang on the glass door and make lots of noise.

Then comes the visit.   First off, I get “that nurse”, you know… the one no one likes.  So I was immediately ticked off and made sure everyone knew that I did not like her coming in our little room and trying to do anything with me.

Once we were through all of that preliminary stuff, we got down to the measurement portion of the experience.   Trying to get my weight and height never goes over very well.  When they finally figured out how (or at least sort of how) to do, I was already wound up.   The vital statistics are: I’m now a whopping 33 inches tall.   However, my weight came in 22 pounds 2 oz, a full 2 pounds less that than it did a few weeks ago when I was in to have my cold checked out. I’m pretty sure the nurse messed up.

I also must be getting a cowboy hat because they measured my head size.  It’s 19 inches.   I have no idea what that measurement is for.

Like all well baby visit, their goal I think, is to make me miserable.  Yup, you guessed what came next.  They went and gave me two shots, one in each leg.   The first shot went OK mostly because I had no idea it was coming so I wasn’t prepared.  However, when I saw that needle a second time, I tightened every muscle in my body.  Later I found  tightening ones muscles while getting a shot is not the best of ideas.     One shot was my DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) booster (that’s the shot Grandpa dislikes for some reason) and the other was hepatitis A.   They both hurt, but the second shot was a killer…  Fortunately for me, Grandma gave me some Tylenol just before we went into see the doctor.

Once the doctor finished checking me out and giving me a clean bill of health, Grandma brought this thing about me walking funny.   She thinks I favor one leg sometimes and that I act like one leg “fell asleep” or something when I sit a while.  So the next thing I know they want to take an x-ray.   Ever have an x-ray?   They expect you to lay flat and not move while they do something with this big machine.  Fat chance of that.  I don’t even understand the concept of being still.  They did get their e-ray but I really made them work for it… (smile)

We finally finished at the doctors and went home.  When we got home I was a wild man.  Between the examination, the shots, and the fact that I was really tired, Grandma said I was completely out of control.   When I put my hand in the dog’s drinking bowl, Mom decided she had enough and took me upstairs for a nap.

Nap went well.   When I finally woke up, it was lunch time.  Mom and I had lunch while watching the Ellen DeGeneres Show.   I was eating properly for Mom until Grandpa came in.  He made a bologna sandwich.   I just love bologna so I had to have some with him.  Two slices later, Mom had me back eating noodles with her.

Well, that’s it for my doctor’s visit.   What I need to do now is get Grandpa to take me for another ride in my new wagon and get me back into a better mood.

No more for today.

Thanks for stopping by

Anthony

This week has been a big week for cool stuff

Where should I begin.

First off, Grandma bought me a toy box.  But not just any toy box.  It’s a St Louis Cardinals toy box.

Not only is it a great looking toy box, I can climb up on it.  You can’t see in  the picture Grandma took, but the light switch is within reaching distance if I stand up.   I can flip the light on and off and on and off and on and off and… well, you get the idea.    When I start flipping the light on and off, everyone gets really excited because everyone (except me of course) is sure I’m going to fall OFF the toy box.

BTW, have you seen me in my Cardinals jacket?

Pretty cool, right?  I’m all ready for to go the Cardinal – Astros game this summer when the Cards come to Houston.

The next big thing that happened was extremely cool.  Aunt Lauren’s in-laws bought some new patio furniture and they gave ME the box it came in.  I’ve spent the last two days crawling into it and through it.  I’ve even brought a few toys into the box and played with them in there.   This is top notch fun.   I’m not too sure how long the box is going to hold up, but I’m planning to get maximum use out of it while I can.

And now to today’s big adventure.   Yesterday morning (Saturday) on the way home from picking up Grandpa at the airport (he was in Denver), he wanted to make a quick stop at Toys R Us.   We waited in the truck while he went in.  He was only in the store for a few minutes.  When he came out, the store person was carrying a really really big box with red writing all over it.   It sat in the corner for the rest of Saturday and I almost completely forgot about it.  Then today, after I woke up from my nap, Grandpa cut the box open and started to put something together.  It was big and red.   After he finished reading the paper that came in the box, he started to pound on the tires.   That was great fun because he made lots of noise.   When he finished pounding he announced that I now had a wagon.  At this point I’m not really sure what a wagon is; other than its big and red.   He was excited, so I was excited.

Here’s a photo of me directing the wagon’s assembly process.

Here’s a photo of the wagon in the back yard.   It’s a Radio Flyer.  I guess that’s good because Grandpa seemed really proud of himself for buying a wagon with that name.

He said the biggest reason he bought this particular Radio Flyer, rather than a retro metal one (what ever that means) is the seat belts.  For some reason he thinks that the  first time someone turned their back I might fall out…. but we all know “that” would never happen… LOL

Just after he took the above pictures, I found out what a wagon is for.  It’s for me to ride in and Grandpa to pull.

We immediately went for a walk around the block.  Not only is it great fun riding in my new wagon, I think we may have found a way of getting Grandpa to shed a few pounds.   Now if we can just figure out how to get him to stop eating ice cream, I think we may be on to an excellent reduction program… (smile)

Here are a couple of pictures of Grandpa pulling me around the neighborhood in my new wagon.

First, Grandpa had to buckle me in and adjust the belt so I couldn’t stand up.   Standing up sounded like it would be great fun, especially while moving.  Now I guess we’ll never find out.

Here’s Grandpa pulling while Mom watches out for me from behind.

More of Grandpa pulling me.   I put a couple of these photos in here because I know a lot of our friends are not going to believe I was able to get Grandpa to actually get some exercise.

Just one close up of me in my wagon.

Heading up our driveway after a successful walk…. and Grandpa didn’t even pass out.

When we were finally done with our walk, Grandpa let me play around in the wagon for a few more minutes.   It turns out this is even a better toy than I thought.  I can even be fun when we’re not moving.

That’s it for today’s update.

And as usual, thanks for stopping buy

BTW, don’t forget to mention my site to you friends and check out some of the other sites listed in my blog roll.

Thanks

Anthony