You know you have big cheeks when....

your mom accidentally buckles them into your car seat buckle.

Sorry buddy.

In other mother of the year news if I had a penny for every time this kid somehow finds/eats an old cheerio or cracker on the floor, I'd be rich.

Despite me, Ambrose is still growing and thriving. He's recently started to stand on his own. It makes me smile every time I see him do it. And just a few hours ago, when I called his name, he walked from the wall over to me (which truthfully was only 4-5 steps). He's still got a ways to go until I consider him a walker, but we're getting there :)

Oh happy day

f you read my last post your familiar with the idea that Ambrose hates the gym....STILL.

My time at the gym usually goes something like this....

I arrive at the gym, and Ambrose immediately starts to fuss even at the sight of the place. As I walk in I begin to take my water bottle out of the diaper bag in preparation to make the fastest get away possible. I take him down to the child care room (where I swear I see the child care provider sigh at the sight of us) and I don't even bother signing him in because that will take precious minutes away from my already short workout. I place him down on the floor (where I used to gather toys, set them around him, talk to him sweetly, try and distract him....the whole nine yards.....all the while he is crying) and sprint out of there to the nearest treadmill. On the jog to the treadmill I'm getting my i-pod set knowing that I have no time for dilly dallying because it will be mere minutes until the gym staff comes to get me to go and get my son. Once there, I take about a 30 second warm up(warm up's don't burn calories, so I don't have time for them :) )and then crank up that incline and run as fast as my out of shape legs will take me. I know the other patrons must think I'm slightly crazy or suicidal, but when you have 20min max on the treadmill, you've got to make it count. To get us much enjoyment out of the experience, and stifle as much of the crying as possible I wear headphones, therefore I can't actually hear him crying, but a dead give away that he is, are all the people continually looking over the half wall of the second floor, where they can see right into the child care and are probably wondering who in the world is tearing that poor child's arm off because surely that's got to be the cause of all that crying. After about 20 minutes a gym staffer starts to make their way over to the cardio equipment, I don't' even wait for them to get to me, I know they're coming for me and I make eye contact, they give me a smile of pity and off I go.

Today, though imagine my surprise, when at the 28 min mark when the gym staff hadn't even looked my way, and nobody has looked over the half wall. I cautiously take my headphones off and .....SILENCE (other than the cheesy gym music). I could not believe it! I keep chugging away, and at 34 minutes (which was all I could go at those speeds) I got off and made my way over to the wall and looked down. To my amazement and complete delight my wonderful son was crawling around, playing with toys and chanting dadada. Seriously people, I got tears in my eyes!!!! It was that wonderful. It was like a switch went off in his brain, these people are nice to me, they have great toys, and every single time my moms come back. I know tomorrow that magic switch may switch back, but I will celebrate every success I can get.

11

Sweet boy,

Your transformation from infant to big boy seems to go by faster and faster with each passing month. The glimpses of "baby" are fewer and fewer and everything about you seems to scream little boy. You are not walking yet, and while we practice and make a big deal over attempts, I hold tightly to these last few weeks/months of crawling because it is the last milestone before you cross the line from infant to toddler.

You are a beautiful boy and people love your blue eyes. Your cheeks, while still chubby, no longer sit on your shoulders. You have started to grow hair, but only people who are around you consistently seem to notice. You still love the outdoors and will play there fairly independently for long stretches of time. You will try any piece of food put in front of you, and have yet to spit anything out (throwing it on the floor however is another story). Just today I ordered you food off the kids menu, and you devoured 95% of it. You'll drink water out of a sippy cup like a champ, but will spit formula out the second it hits your tongue. You are an early riser, but will lay content in your crib for an hour before calling us to come and get you. You have a will of steel and will not be convinced to do something you don't want to (you STILL. still scream the gym down when I workout). You have 8 teeth, 6 of which you got in a total of seven days.

Life is great with you!

Splish Splash

Bath time has become slightly more challenging (and wet).

Let me introduce you to

Mr. Hoarder McEverythingAmbrose has become a hoarder. He takes anything that I have either left out on the floor or kept in an accessible drawer, and crawls it to the bathroom, takes this stance.....

and throws the items into the bathtub

a few of the items found in the tub include, keys, name tags, food, an alarm clock, random socks, a rock......anything this little guy can get his hands on has been found in this tub. Oh ya, and he knows how to turn the water on, so many of the items are pulled out of the tub soaking wet.

Not exactly what I had in mind when I bought a house with a jet tub.

Thumbs up

Somehow in the last few moths this has happened........

Ambrose has become a thumb sucker. Up until a couple of weeks ago he was more of a thumb "chewer" ,but somehow in the last few weeks he has started sucking that thumb with gusto. I'm sure all my dental hygienist sister in laws are cringing right about now.

Ambrose the adorable lion.

I thought you'd enjoy the "out takes."