Happy Bloggiversary To Me!

Whoa! I just realized that today is my one year bloggiversary. Wow. Things have sure changed in a year. Not everything, though; a year ago today I posted a picture of myself being distracted by the webcam while Mommy cut my nails, and today Mommy had to watch a whole DVD of Bob the Builder with me in order to get enough cooperation from me to get my nails cut.

What's New and Cool

Get this, peeps - I am taking my verbal communications to the next level: I am speaking in sentences! Granted, my audible sentences aren't nearly as complex as my written ones. But I'm going to catch the two up in no time. Some recent examples of my two-or-more-word constructions include:

• "Where Daddy/Mommy/milk cup/other object with which I am familiar but whose whereabouts are unknown to me?" (said in a quizzical tone with tilted head, raised eyebrows, shrugged shoulders, and upturned palms)
• "Nonna bye-bye." (said in a resigned tone after my Nonna walked out the door)
• "Choo-choo all gone!" (cried out in most dramatic, mournful and emphatic tone after Daddy had to pry my cousin Alex's trains from my fists when it was time to leave his house)

Does it get any more awesome than that? I highly doubt it.

In other startling developments, after scoring a 1/15 (the 1 being for "walks and runs steadily") last week on the potty-training readiness assessment (with which my parents were totally fine), I have surprised them this week by greeting them with the name of the waste product most filling my diaper (i.e. "pee-pee" or "poo") and pointing to my pants when they come to get me out of bed (and in so doing have doubled my potty readiness score). Granted, I have a number of other steps to climb before I'm in the potty zone, but I'm going to get there eventually, and that must give several people (like my G.G., at whose house I always make sure to drop a deuce, twice) considerable hope.

Another announcement I have to make this week is that I have invited my parents to contribute to this blog. I won't need them to post for me forever, and sometimes they have stuff to tell about me that I don't even know myself, so it's time to do a little tweaking. I'll still be the primary poster - after all, it IS my blog - but maybe sometimes they'll give their side of the story. Just letting you know so you're not surprised if and when you see it happen.

No new pictures this time, because the big people are absorbed in work and school and other things that divert their attention from me, but I'll stay on them until they upload and post the pictures of me in my groovy Easter sweater and matching socks in a submarine theme.

Spring Break - The Movie

As promised, I sat on my mommy until she finished and posted my spring break movie to YouTube. Sit back and enjoy:

Spring Break '08!

Jiggity Jig

I'm home again (that's flight #55, for those of you keeping count) after a wild and crazy Spring Break '08 in Florida! My mommy and I are both sick, and my daddy is worn out from taking care of us, plus Mommy has mid-term exams all week, so I won't get to dictate and post my full-on multimedia extravaganza about my trip until later this week. But rest assured that my lip and gums have healed nicely and that I am safe and sound back in my own sweet crib. Here are a few pictures to hold you over for now:

The one shot out of 63 in which Johnny and I were looking up at the same time:

Hanging with my way-cool, in-no-way-geeky, first cousins-once-removed Jessica and Alex:


Look! I'm in a tree!
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...my first Peep, off the top of an extraordinary cupcake decorated like an Easter basket, courtesy of my great Aunt Norma:

(And isn't it nice to see me in shorts again? I love to go to Florida!)

Bathapalooza '08 and Other Adventures

Hello from Jacksonville, where Mommy and I are hiding out from the crazy winter storm at home. We're here visiting my cousin Johnny ("JAH-JAH!"), Aunt Lissa and Uncle John, and Johnny and I are having the most fun ever, except for the part where I had to go to the hospital.


We have been playing with the most incredible train table and trains and tracks and bridges and all other things trainly that I have ever seen, right in Johnny's living room. I cannot think about anything else when I am in his house but the TRAINS. I never dreamed life could be this rich.

I have done a few other things besides play with trains, though. Uncle Jon came down for the day, and we went to an awesome kids' park where I climbed up the highest slide I have ever been on, all by myself, over and over again, while Uncle Jon kept me from falling off the top. What a thrill! We've also been out to Sierra Grille and to Moe's for quesadillas, and we played ball in the backyard, and we've been shopping, and Johnny and I took a bath together of tsunami proportions, and it's all been just great. Better still, I haven't worn a winter coat since Wednesday!

The only downer has been my trip to the emergency room. Last night when we got home from dinner, Johnny and I were running up the sidewalk to the front door when I tripped and banged headfirst into the concrete and then skidded into the flower bed. Boy, was I upset. Aunt Lissa cleaned me up and Uncle John got my carseat set up in Mommy's car while Mommy ran around in a tizzy, and then Mommy and I went to the hospital, which was kind of cool for a while, because I got to play with a HUGE bead table and there was plenty of room to run in the waiting room. But then it got to be way past my bedtime and I had had enough, so I slept first in Mommy's lap for an hour and then we both slept on an exam table for about three hours until the doctor came to see us. The arrival of the doctor messed up my groove, because he woke me up just to poke at me and squish my face around and shine bright lights in my eyes, and it was so not cool. At least I didn't have to have any stitches, but I have a big old fat lip, and my mouth is pretty sore. I did rip my Frenulum Labii Inferioris, which is a fancy way of saying the little part of my upper lip that attaches to my gums, but mine was already a little funky because it came all the way down to in between my front teeth, so the end result is that I gave myself a little surgery that I was probably going to need eventually anyway. I just did it without anesthesia. How tough am I?

I'm sleeping it off this morning while Johnny's at school, but this afternoon I'm looking forward to running wild with him again. More pictures later, when I have more time.

Primary Hangover

I don't know about you, but the longer the presidential primary campaigns go, the more nights my parents stay up watching primary returns. Some mornings I wake up wondering, "What happened?" No, really, what did happen? I still don't get what the fuss is about.


My parents took me with them to vote yesterday, all excited about exposing me to the Democratic process, ready to take my picture in the polling booth. But when we got inside the elementary school library where my parents vote, there was a giant wooden train that I absolutely had to climb inside. If big trains are what democracy is all about, then I'm for it! I'm also for oranges and bananas for breakfast. Other than trains and fruit, I don't understand why anyone would get all worked up. It's all a mystery.

So, the other day I went to my Nonna's (her door is the one with the big green apples on it), and she brought out a big bucket of my Uncle Jon's old cars. I was in heaven.


She also gave me a box so I would have a smooth surface for the cars, but I thought it was even more fun to climb in the box with the cars!


I enjoy the independence of manual self-feeding, but I've come to realize that the big people eat almost exclusively with utensils, so I'm giving the silly things a try. They're harder to use than you may realize, but certain foods lend themselves to being speared, such as bananas. Yesterday, I speared my first banana successfully.


Today is another snow day, which is always fun, but I was getting a little cabin fever. I kept climbing on the boxes of new blinds which just arrived for our windows, which my parents had specifically asked me not to do. But climbing around on boxes is just plain fun, so my Mommy finally got smart enough to dig out an empty diaper box for me to play with. I immediately recognized its potential as a train: I put my little plastic baby and my Curious George doll in it and pushed them around the living room while yelling, "CHOO! CHOOOOOOOOO!" I've also been climbing in the box myself and getting my parents to push my train around. Good times.


I really want to watch some more of that dog that my great-Aunt Kathy sent me, so I have to go for now.