April 2008

April 2008
You know you are a Daddy when you have reached this level of Fashion Faux Pas. How many other hip Dad's out there wear shorts, black socks and black shoes to grill dinner on the patio?

OK, you can put your hands down now.

Hair

Andrew's dislike of getting his hair combed continues. I think in the past year I have combed his hair less than a dozen times in the morning. But I think we might have found the trick. One night one of our friends, Lauren, was coming over for dinner. I asked Andrew if he wanted to comb his hair, which he replied with an immediate and emphatic "NO!". Then I said "Lauren is coming to see you". And we came running over and said with a sweet little boy shy voice "Comb hair please". when Andrew is not running from hair combing, he hides out under the sink with his brother, and their favorite orange plunger.

Words

James is still the quiet one, although it is a challenge to get a word in edgewise with chatterbox Andrew. He now points to the kitty cats and says "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" which is James-Speak for "Kitty". He is a man of few words, but he does like his broom.

Worms

Sometimes the rough and tumble boy in the dirt has girlie moments. One morning after a night time rain shower we walked out to the mailbox. The driveway was littered with worms. He squealed like a little girl when within 5 feet of a worm, demanding they were chasing him. OK, I can understand being afraid of mice because they move fast. But a worm? You need to be real patient to watch them move, let alone believe they are attacking you.

Chow Time

No one ever said meal time would be pretty with kids. James has taken to strategically wearing his food, like this "banana shoulder" day. And there is no finer sign of a good meal than showing off your belly.

One night Andrew had waaaaay to much to eat and his belly was quite large. At bath time when he stripped off his clothes he looked down and said "Hey! Where did my p*nis go ?" The next morning after his tummy had processed dinner, he found his dear old friend.

My Money

Andrew's fascination with coinage continues. Here's are some action shots of discovering a coin, then safely stowing it in his pocket. Unfortunately he would take the coins to daycare and we have received several notices that he is not to bring coins to daycare....and they tape the offending coins to a 3x5 card, tormenting Andrew since he can see the money, but can not touch it.

Potty Time

We had major milestone this month. After a dinner chock full of Bush Baked Beans Andrew delivered his first yule log on the potty in over a year. This anomaly was met with much joy, celebration, high fives and hopes that more will follow in the near future. Andrew was just as excited as we were. Although when I said "Andrew Poop In Potty", he quickly returned with "Noooo, Andrew Poop on Mommy". Not a pleasant image for anyone involved. Most of the time we catch Andrew squeezing one out under his table with a quite concentrated face.

Two weeks later, he had another potty delivery. I am trying to contain my excitement.

Girl Watchers
A while ago when Girl Scout Cookies were in season, the boys would run to the door when the doorbell rang. They were delighted to see the Girl Scouts and would watch the little girls walk down the driveway....then down the street.....then around the circle.....then up the street. they would not say a word, they would just watch them from afar.

Rocks

With spring time comes the much awaited "outside time". At the mention of the "O" word, James will run and get his shoes and got and hop up and down. I thought only puppies behaved like that. With all of the rocks we have in the backyard now, there's not much need for toys, except maybe a dump truck to haul the rocks.

Books

Recently we went through the book archives from the books we had as kids. I can honestly say they just don't have books like they used to. I ran across the "Ice Cream Cone Coot" book which one of my sisters used to read to me. Andrew is fascinated by the drug-inspired art work and verbage from the 1970's. Apparently the book was a favorite among other kids too, and some whackos think it's valued at over $200.

Until Next Month, the Taylor Brothers Say Bye.

March 2008

March 2008

Another month and the boys continue to keep growing. James can now get up to the play table by himself. One day we caught them playing nicely together....for about 15 seconds. But as long we have a camera we can freeze these moments in time.

James is getting bigger and stronger and can now hold his own against Andrew, and we are finding James initiating the wrestling bouts with Andrew more and more often.

They must have been watching some college wrestling because we see James take the Wrestling stance on all fours, allow Andrew to try to hold him down, throw him off, and then when they get too far from the starting point, they return to the place and stance that they started. Better they wrestle the real way than that goofy WWF stuff, but i will draw the line at wrestling tights.

Money
Andrew’s new fascination this month was money, more precisely coins. We were at Bennigan’s one night for dinner and he disappeared under the table (yes, our threshold for acceptable behavior has been recalibrated with children). He emerged with a penny and announced “money for college”. I guess every penny does count, no matter how far it goes. He put the penny in his pocket and checked on it frequently to ensure it was still there. Now before he goes to bed he takes out his ‘college coin of the day’, puts it on the bathroom counter, then retrieves it the following morning.

Store
Andrew is starting the connect the dots, sometimes to our chagrin. One morning I was pouring the Rice Chex (preferred 9 times out of 10 by Taylor boys over Cheerios) and ran out. Andrew looked at me and said “No more Chex? Need to get more at the store?”. So any time we run out of something, be it pellets for the wood burning stove, bath tub soap or vitamins he will say “Need to go to store?”. May not sound exciting to you, but to us it is thoroughly amusing.

Cheap Toys
The boys have once again discarded all of the purchased toys from China in favor of the most peculiar items. This month’s toys of choice are
10. Garlic peeler
9. Packaging for Garlic Peeler
8. Plastic Measuring Cup
7. DVD case
6. Colander
5. Stairs
4. Laser Pointer—they chase it like the cats
3. Bucket—placed on head
2.Magazine paper insert
1. Blanket

The blanket is quite a versatile toy. It can be used as a sled for rides around (and around and around) the whole downstairs, it can be used as a tent and it can be transformed into a Blanket Monster.

Horse
One day Daddy was trying to sneak out to the mailbox without 2 escorts so he told them he was going to “See a man about a horse”. I thought that was code word for sneaking off to the potty, but I did not question it. Andrew remained at the kitchen table, stunned as to there being a horse in the yard. When Daddy returned Andrew asked “Where’s the horse?”. Daddy told him it was in the barn, to which Andrew replied “Stuck in barn?”. This conversation went on for the rest of teh night. Poor little fella. Sometimes it’s just like torture to innocent young minds.

Hey Guys
I guess slang starts early. When Mommy and Daddy are being slow about rounding up the kids and Andrew wants to get going, he now says “come on guys!”. After dinner we often play “Run around the house and hide from the kids then jump out and yell bahhhhhr”. If we hide too well and Andrew can not find us he’ll just wander around saying “Guys?.....Guys?”. Again, cute, but torturous.

Potty Training
The quest continues. We think James will be leap frogging Andrew. One day James was standing at the coffee table and looked down at his crotch with a concerned look. I asked if he had to go potty and he tottered over to the bathroom and waited for me in front of the potty. Sometimes he will deliver and sometimes he will not. Andrew got wind of this action and now plays along without the delivery. So I have been trying to teach Andrew how to extract the APPROPRIATE amount of toilet paper from the roll and gently bunch it like a "fluffy cloud" in preparation for the day when he has something to wipe. He much prefers to make mashed down dense clouds that are destined to clog the plumbing in the coming months. Until either child masters the potty, the wall mounted toilet paper dispenser is just used as a handle for the egress from the toilet. So far one dispenser has fallen victim to the super human grip of Andrew. Take note of the heinous wallpaper I sleected years ago....Andrew refers to the wallpaper as "JAMES". No idea why.

RoShambo
To keep Andrew entertained while he passes time on the potty I have been trying to teach him Rock, Paper Scissors. He can make the 3 hand signs so far, but in his world, any of the 3 options can crush anything I throw out. Sometimes in the middle of a meal, car ride or swim lesson he will burst in with SCISSORS and make the hand sign. This thoroughly confuses the swim teacher Miss Penny. Oh what it must he like to let your mind wander and have random outbursts.

Cribless
James moved from the crib to the toddler bed, which he has already marked as his territory with hundreds of bite marks on the rails. I guess it is not intuitive how to sleep in a bed, as he chose a quite unorthodox position the first night. He also likes to gather all stuffed animals housed in his room and bring them into bed…then cry when he has no where to sleep.

Food
The boys have rediscovered fruit. They can each wolf down 3 adult servings of mandarin oranges for dessert. Peaches, Pears, Strawberries, Apples look out, you are about to become endangered species. Andrew's latest culinary adventure is to tear up toast, put it in his milk, then fishing it out and slurping the milk out of the bread and eating the bread.

Scare You
We have been putting Andrew’s improv skills to the test. Somehow Daddy started trying to “Scare” Andrew by saying boo. This morphed into “I scare you with a bat”, which Andrew replied “I scare you with a shoe”. These are the Top Ten Things Andrew Scares Daddy With
10. I Scare You With A….guitar
9. I Scare You With A….boat
8. I Scare You With A….brother
7. I Scare You With A….elephant
6. I Scare You With A….milk
5. I Scare You With A….plate
4. I Scare You With A….Bear
3. I Scare You With A….bus
2. I Scare You With A….tour bus
1. I Scare You With A….Poop

And he means it with that last one.

Personal Hygiene
Andrew’s disapproval of personal grooming continues. I have tried every trick in the book to clip his nails, but he screams bloody murder and after 20 minutes of screaming and only 2 nails cut I usually give up. As a kid I have absolutely no recollection of getting my nails clipped, so I have resigned myself to the notion that Andrew’s nails will just wear away on their own….or I will teach him to file them down on the tile grout lines in the kitchen. He is getting better with haircuts, but we usually wait until his hair looks like A Flock Of Seagulls to get it cut. For all of his lack of personal hygiene he is quite the hugger. He needs to hug his brother hello and goodbye at daycare when they part, when they wake up and before they go to sleep, and he will hug any female at daycare, including other kid's Moms. The hugs are nice, but we know their days are numbered as he gets older, so we take all the hugs we can get now.


Art

Another month and another bumper crop of Art Mysteries of the 21st century. Here we have a lady bug, which we can only discern from the colors. Next to the Lady bug is a white dinosaur, which I can only guess was inspired by the black fog monster from LOST.

March was Air Travel month at DayCare, which brought us this airplane and feathered creature. And what do you need to spot airplanes? Binoculars blinged out with colored tissue paper which Andrew is demonstrating.

Who says you need to wear a shirt or drive a car forward.

March 2008