One, Two...

One, Two
Buckle my shoe
     C'mon Robin, time to get your shoes on!

Three, Four
Shut the door
     Mommy's going to lock the door, we're going for a walk!

Five, Six
Pick up sticks
     At least one for every house we pass.  There are awesome sticks ALL OVER this neighborhood!

Seven, Eight
Lay them straight
     Picking up sticks isn't enough, we must stop and play with/arrange/draw in the dirt with them!  Again, once for about every house we pass

Nine, Ten
A big fat hen goose!

     Did we remember to bring any lettuce today?  Let's feed the geese!  Those three sure are bullies, I wish we could feed the two weaker ones more often.  Look Mommy, the goose took the lettuce right out of my hand!  Ouch, it nipped me!  What fun, can we do it again?

These geese live about a block and a half away from us, and it has become part of our routine to go visit them whenever we take a walk.  A few months ago I finally met their owner and asked whether it was okay to feed them.  He talked a lot and had a very roundabout way of getting there, but eventually he told me it would be okay to bring them lettuce.  So we often do!  They even recognize us now, and come running up to the fence whenever we appear, hoping for some food.

I honestly can't think of any other possible origin for this rhyme, can you?

I Spy

Robin and I went to the library on Tuesday, which we've been doing every few weeks lately.  Next month, he should be old enough for their story time, and we'll probably start going weekly.  But for now, it's been nice to get some fresh books from time to time.  We had to return the one that has been, so far, his favorite.  It's called "Where Does It Go," and it's got five pages with lift-up flaps.  The first page says "Here is a baby," (with a picture of a naked baby from behind,) "Here is the baby's diaper," (with a picture of a diaper,) "Where does it go?"  You lift up the flap and it has a picture of the baby wearing the diaper and is says, "On the baby's bottom."  It does the same thing with a hat, shoes, teddy bear, and book.  We probably read that book to Robin more than ten times a day for the first two weeks that we had it (he slowed down last week.)  It turned out to be a great learning opportunity, because we started asking Robin where the items went, and he was readily pointing to the locations of the first four (he never quite grasped the concept of where the book goes, "On the floor so the little girl can read it.")

While we were at the library this Tuesday, Robin grabbed a book off the board book shelves and handed it to me (okay, so he did that a lot, but this book in particular...)  It was a simplified, board book version of the "I Spy" books.  Each page has only two items you're supposed to find, and there aren't very many items in the picture, so they're relatively easy to identify.  I hadn't expected Robin to find the items, but I started reading it to him anyway.  I pointed to the picture on the left, showing him the item he was supposed to be looking for, and then asking him if he saw it again on the next page.  He didn't get all of them, by any means, but he pointed to quite a few of them!  Well, of course, I had to check the book out at that point!  At home he found even more of the items, and when we got to a page that had a door on it, he ran to the front door and pointed at it, and then ran to the garage door and pointed at it.  Later in the week, when we came to the page with a telephone he would point to the picture, and then get up and dig through his toybox until he found his Fisher Price telephone.  It's so awesome to see how much he learns!  Now, if he could just get the language thing down...

Although on the language note, he's definitely saying "teeth" now (sounds more like "th," but hey) and on Tuesday he also started signing "eat."  So we're making some progress.  I thought perhaps I should keep a list updated here on occasion, to help myself (and everybody else) see his progress.

Robin's spoken words:
Mama
night night
uh oh
quack
hi
teeth

Robin's signed words:
milk
more
all done
water
eat

Buried in my laundry

Happy Easter

Robin got spoiled for Easter this year. The Easter Bunny came at home, of course, and left a chocolate bunny and some other candy, but then it just kept coming.

At my parents' house, Robin got to go on an Easter Egg hunt, with eggs full of chocolate and goldfish crackers (kudos to my parents for the crackers, a nice way to break up the sugar.)

He also got some candy, some plates and bowls, and a bunch of toy gardening tools from Grammy and Grandpa, and then some more plates and bowls, a flashlight, a toy frog, and more candy from his Aunt Kat. Sugar Overload! Actually, he didn't eat too much on Easter (unlike some of the kids of Dean's coworkers, from what we heard on Monday) and now he's got lots of new toys, and candy to last a long time (gee darn, he'll probably have to share. Not that we didn't get plenty of candy ourselves...)

Playing with snow in the bathtub

Playing out in the snow

At Grammy's, and then Great Grandma's birthday parties.

We finished up our swim class last week, and Dean took last Thursday off so he could attend one. Robin really warmed up to the water by the end. He still hates being on his back--we can't get him to float on his back, he'll curl his legs up above himself (which would cause him to sink if he were unsupported) and fusses when we try.

But he enjoys himself otherwise, and will leap forward into the water from a sitting position on the edge. We made a new friend, too, who we will hopefully meet with from time to time. It hadn't occurred to me to keep going month after month, but I guess some people do. And it was good to get out of the house and spend time with other moms (and dads) and babies, so we may sign up again.

Lastly, here we have Robin helping us to decorate eggs. This first photo is Mommy showing him how to gently lower the eggs into the dye using the wire lifter.

And here's Robin showing Mommy a much faster (and more fun) way to do it.

And teaching Daddy how it's done, as well.

Our Home Listing

Here is the promised link to the listing of our home.  Enjoy, and feel free to share with anyone you know who might want a nice house in northern Englewood.

http://www.cohomefinder.com/p/80110/855050.htm

It has been a while

Yes, it's been a while since I posted. We have been extremely busy. For those who do not know, we are trying to sell our house. It's funny, but after we purchased this house five years ago, I felt something open up inside me that said, "we can have kids now, we have space for them." And it seems like the day we brought Robin home from the hospital, that same voice said, "I want to move, I don't want to raise my kid in this neighborhood." I really just want a similar (or bigger) house to what we have in a better school district and in a neighborhood without trash littering all the yards, industrial stuff (including a junkyard for scrap cars) just a few blocks away, with fewer rentals, and with no broken glass on the streets. We'll be looking at foreclosures in addition to regular listings in hopes of finding a great deal that will get us into more house (or a nicer area) than we could afford otherwise. In this picture, Robin is "helping" us fix some tile in the bathroom.

Circumstances kind of came together during the last few weeks (we've now been here long enough to qualify for the tax credit, if we can somehow get a contract on this house and get a contract on a new one by the end of April) so we've been busy packing knick knacks, decorations, pictures, and extra items, and cleaning so our house looks good for showings. It was exhausting work. We got it listed yesterday (I'll provide a link as soon as the link has pictures, for the curious) and are celebrating not having to spend our days and evenings packing anymore.

We celebrated last night by playing in the basement with the lights off with four glow sticks to toss around and play with. Robin had a ball. I don't know what was going through his little mind, but he definitely enjoyed it, and so did Dean and I. It was so nice to be able to play with our son without having to take breaks to clean up the house or pack something. Robin has not been taking the change in his environment very well, and has been very fussy and clingy of late. It doesn't help that he's cutting his ninth and tenth teeth (he skipped the cuspids and went straight to the first molars.)

But on to news of Robin's amazing growth. I haven't measured him in a while, but he often seems bigger to me. He really did leave babyhood behind a while ago. Probably his biggest accomplishment of late has been successfully feeding himself with a spoon. It's messy, but he doesn't require help getting food on the spoon first. It's been great for me, because I can feed him things that require a spoon and can eat at the same time, without having to take turns.

Taking a ride with all of this friends

We started taking a swim class last week, and have had four (of eight) sessions now. He was a little barnacle the first day, but eased up after that and is actually smiling, having fun, and willingly entering the water under his own power now. Part of the idea is to get him to flip on his back if he falls in the water on his own (water safety, to keep him from drowning until someone can get him) although that's a ways off still--he doesn't like being on his back. It's been good to get out (even if it's earlier than we would normally venture out into the world) and spend time with other babies while learning something.

He really likes books lately. We've been to the library several times, and we keep those (and his own) books handy so he can grab them. He usually brings them to us, holds them out for us to take, and then climbs into our laps once we grab the book. His attention span is still short, but it's nice (and great to sneak in a few extra snuggles.)

Look at the leprechaun we found in our yard on St. Patrick's Day!

We found out that Robin still doesn't like lettuce because he didn't want to eat his Ceasar salad on Monday (had it for dinner in honor of the Ides of March!) He doesn't mind the dressing though, so we decided his salads would consist of steamed broccoli until more of his molars come in.

Today he showed real progress in playing in the snow. In the past, he's been very tentative and doesn't want to stay out very long, but today we went outside and he struck out into virgin snowfall on his own, stopping to pick up and eat pieces along the way, and just going all over. He went up and down the steps of the deck about a dozen times. I tried to give him a ride using the snow shovel as a sled, but that didn't work too well. Going inside was my idea, and he didn't want to go in when we did. It was awesome to see him having fun out there. (No pictures, sorry, I thought it would be easier not to wrestle with keeping the camera dry.)