Dear Playschool,

Congrats! You have quite possibly created the loudest and most annoying toy ever made. Your Busy Ball Popper has proven to be quite entertaining for my son, however I do not share in his enthusiasm and love of this toy, quite the opposite in fact. From the box, I thought this would be a perfect, developmentally appropriate toy for my then 6month old. Kudos to you, and your marketing department on their genius, because they had me thinking your toy will encourage physical development (through crawling) as well as mental development (through all the colors and music). Good trick marketing department, because let me tell you, my son is an avid crawler, and never has he crawled off and chased the balls that are forever rolling under couches and tables. You may want to replace the "encourages crawling" with encourages parent led couch spelunking. Also, the music.... WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? Yes, that's me shouting, not out of anger, but hearing loss. The noise level on your toy is DEAFENING! Did a volume button ever cross your mind?

Your loyal, yet annoyed and now hard of hearing customer,

Stephanie

*the video just doesn't do this stupid toy justice, it's so much louder and the balls almost always are flying around the room from the start*

Just in case you're wondering

this is what I've been up to.

Any pinch hitters available to give me a much needed break......? no....no one? Oh wait, yes, you the saint in the back......

Praise the Lord for my mother. I would not make it through this parenting gig without her!

I know I know....

It's been forever! In my defense, trying to catch back up can be a daunting task. Kind of like vacation laundry, so huge a task that you know will take forever, so you shut the door and live in laundry denial. *ask me how my "get my act together" resolution is going.

I plan on easing back into it and hopefully I'll get some Christmas pics up sometime soon because this kid is getting cuter by the second.

My sweet gorgeous baby is 10 months old today (I need to check back, but I think this may be the first time I have ever done a monthly update on the actual date....I think I can put this accomplishment towards the getting my act together part of life )

At ten months Ambrose you

* are a cruising machine. The list of things you have gotten into in the past few weeks include but are not limited to...

1. the living room lamp. You pulled it down on yourself today.

2. the drawer of Ziploc bags. Stuffing those baggies back into the original box is impossible, thanks for the lesson.

3. the bath tub knobs. You now can turn the faucet on and off.

4. the toilette. Just today you threw your dad's name patch in, I'm sure he will be investing in a new one.

5. The dryer. As I place the items in, you promptly pull them out.

* are able to stand unassisted but only if you don't notice. the second you realize you're on your own, you're on your bum.

* have a few tricks up your sleeve. You give people a high five, show "so big", wave bye bye, rawer when asked what sound a lion makes, and clap your hands when we say patty cake.

* you say both mama and dada, but I have to say, mama comes out much more frequently than dada and I don't even feel a tinge of guilt because your father is still your favorite person in the whole world.

* eat everything. You scoff puree'd foods, and really only like feeding yourself.

* have two teeth and another 4 on the surface. It should be a wonderful next few weeks.

* are in the beginning stages of transitioning to one nap, which, hallelujah because might as well throw all your short naps into one long one already :)

* know the meaning of no, but rarely actually stop doing whatever it is you're not supposed to be doing.

* play "chase". If I even look at you, you think I'm playing and you're off like a shot, squealing and sprint crawling away. I usually can't resist and get on all fours and play along :)

*oh ya, you're still huge, but holding fairly steady at 27lbs.

Bye Bye

While he's not 100% consistent with his new trick, and certainley doesn't use it at appropriate times, like when leaving someone or someplace, it is stinkin' cute.

All I want for Christmas....

We started out ok

but he quickly changed his mind.

* and no, these are not from the camera; the cord is still lost. I have started looking into buying another one. I'm thinking about having my New Years resolution being something along the lines of "get my act together." I'll let you know how it goes. *

Lost

This post has been waiting forever for me to publish, but because my camera cord is lost I've been holding out thinking I'd find it any day now. That hasn't happened, so you'll have to use your imagination on this one....sorry.

Ah, the Japanese are in the inventors of many ingenious items, however these.....

**insert a picture of a red apple outlet cover

and blue car outlet cover**

are not one of them. When Ambrose was about 6 weeks I purchased these from the 100 yen store (the equivalent of our dollar stores, but WAY better....except for this item) in the anticipation of little curious fingers finding their way into our electrical outlets. As many of you know, I'm not exactly a planny planner or remotely organized (hence the lost camera cord), so getting these outlet covers so early is quite out of character. I would have never purchased these this early except for the fact that my ONLY memory of kindergarten (can't even remember my teacher, which for a prior kindergarten teacher is a little disheartening) is of a classmate standing behind me, sticking her finger into the electrical outlet and getting shocked. I hope to never see that again, and definitely not with my own child.

So as Ambrose starts to crawl we begin doing some minor baby proofing, and for once, when my husband (Mr. type A organized) mentions we need to get those outlet covers I about bust at the seams with the joy of being able to say "I already have them"!!

Prior to putting those covers in the outlets I don't know if Ambrose even noticed the outlets, but NOW, this kid is like a moth to a flame with these stupid things. I stand in my room, call him from the living room, he comes cruising around the corner with speed and determination, and every. single. time, he is deterred by the outlet covers and begins to poke at them and try and pull them out. Clearly the person who invented (and bought) these things didn't have a mobile 8 month old around!

There are days when John asks me what I did today, and more and more of those days I respond with "kept your son alive" because oh my gosh, just keeping him from crawling full speed ahead off the end of the bed, or chewing on the laptop charger *while plugged in*, splitting his head open on everything....is a full time job.

Likes/Dislikes revisited

I did this back when Ambrose was 3 months old, and thought I'd do it again.

At 8months Ambrose

Likes:

crawling: anything he can see, is pretty much at his fingertips, and he knows it. All day long my background music is his little hands slapping the tile floor as he races towards his next forbidden item or follows me around . It's fantastic.

bath: just the sound of the water running or the bath song sends him into a full on crawling sprint towards the bath tub. Once there he stands up outside the tub and yells until you put him in.

his dad: John is by far the favorite parent around here. Just John calling his name will send him into this arm flapping, sprint crawling frenzy. It is so sweet, and surprisingly I'm not jealous (yet).

being outside: from infancy he has loved being outside, and to this day still does. Now that he's crawling I'm constantly batting rocks, bugs, and plants out of his hand (or mouth if I'm a little slow on the draw). We take at least two walks a day in the wagon and he's happy as a clam the entire time.

baby Einstein: he is mesmerized by this silly movie (which I'm too cheap to buy so we watch a 5minute clip on you tube). If you've never watched it it's basically a different image, ( a face, toy or puppet )flashed every 20 seconds or so. To my kid, it's crack in video form. He LOVES it.

all foods: we have yet to find a single food he will not eat. He opens wide for every bite, even after he's reached maximum capacity. Rather than closing his mouth when I bring the spoon up, he allows me to feed him the food, but then begins an opened mouth cry and the food just sits on his tongue. Either learn the sign for "all done" or close your mouth....simple as that son.

dogs: not that we will be getting one ANY time soon, but he LOVEs our neighbors dogs. The more they bark the harder he laughs. I seriously don't get it. He lets them lick his face, nip at his hands (one is a little puppy) and knock him over, and he doesn't nothing but smile.

growing out of his clothes: the smallest size of clothes we buy is 18-24 months. He will send me (actually his grandmothers, because they are the ones who buy him all his clothes) into the poor house with how quickly he's growing out of clothes. Most of his pants are 2T, and I still can't button the button on them. I think (I know that I say this all the time....but really this time I think it's true) that he's plateaued on the growing. He's been hovering at the 25/26lb mark for about a month (which in the past he usually gained at least 2lbs per month) . Here's to hoping that he'll be able to wear all his clothes for AT LEAST another 6-9 months!

Dislikes:

In good news, I actually had a semi hard time coming up with this list, which is quite the reversal from just a few short months ago.

naps: he still is a terrible napper, and while I still hold out a glimmer of hope that maybe one day this will change, I'm not holding my breath.

spending significant amounts of time in the car: (which would be any amt of time longer than about 20 minutes). Putting him in the bigger (bagillion dollar) car seat has made time in the car so much better, however, he still doesn't love it, and will loudly request to get out if he's in there longer than he'd like to be.

having his diaper changed: now that he has figured out how to crawl, Ambrose has so many more important things to do than keep a clean bum. So the second I lay him down he is twisting with all his might trying to flip onto his belly and escape. Not even remotes, phones or singing can distract him. If he doesn't want to be there, good luck! Needless to say, I am a sweaty mess by the end of the whole ordeal. John tackles this problem in a different way. Rather than fighting him, he gets the old diaper off, and let's Ambrose make a mad dash (naked bum and all....a little risky if you ask me) to wherever he thinks is more important. John lets him sit there for a second, then grabs him and quickly throws the new diaper on. While less fussing and sweating is involved in John's method part of me just can't let this little guy think he's "won". hmmm......Maybe I should be picking my battles a little more selevtively.