Gametes In Love

Uhmn… G has a mobility update:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxK9j-GiY9s]

It’s not true walking, yet, but we’re getting there!

If you were anything like me as a child, you had a fine mess of a room to be proud of. In addition, your parents sighed in desperation as they picked up after you and you had many a “Go clean your room!” arguments discussions. It wasn’t until I was in my teens that I saw the light and realized that a clean room is actually a good thing.

Well, it appears I’ve fully embraced my “parent” role. As expected, S and I now do our round of toy pick-up, nightly, after G goes to bed. It’s in our futile attempt to reclaim the living space of our home from the invasion of toddler toys.

What IS interesting though is G’s response to our cleanliness efforts. Take last night for example. S and I were up in G’s room (with G of course), as we were approaching bed-time. S did the daddy-thing and picked up all the scattered toys and arranged them on/in their respective pegs/boxes. G meanwhile was getting  a diaper change. As soon as I let the little monster go, he scurried over to the now-straightened line of toys, and proceeded to dismantle everything that S spent the last while putting away. EVERYTHING.

S sighed, saying “Buddy you just undid my work!”

To which I replied “No, you just undid HIS work, and now he’s putting it back”

And it felt so true. G was just determined to disassemble every wooden piece off of it’s peg, and pull every felt-food item out of it’s picnic basket. He was almost annoyed at S for putting it all together.

So yeah, it’s a loosing battle at this stage. Honestly, at this age, this is as expected. If I had a well organized/clean baby I would be worried as to what was wrong with him (and run for the woods as he would be FAR more anal than either his father or I). So for now, his room now has a corner of well-scattered wooden blocks and play-food items. Go mess!

Do you remember Picture Day from school? I won’t date myself here, but as it’s been awhile, I had completely forgotten all about it… until G started at his new daycare. Since the new digs are part of the public school district, even the infant/toddler class gets their “mug-shots” taken for Picture Day. The other day, S brought home the proofs.

They’ve gotten pretty fancy, I must say. I remember being placed in front of a blue background, which only helped the “deer in the headlights” look I invariably acquired as the flash went off in my face. The result? Years of terrible ID and year-book pictures. Of course it never helped that I never could remember when picture day was coming, so I invariably wore the wrong thing, or had a pimple, or bad haircut. I’ll spare you (well.. really… ME) the embarrassing images, ‘kay?
G on the other hand gets the nice foliage background with a little bridge to troll over. Cute, no? Although, I will say that he seems to have inherited his mom’s “deer in the headlights” look when it comes to that final snap. Oh, Child, I pity your high-school photo future!

My favorite photo in the set was that of G’s class. Yes, yes, the pictures of him are adorably cute, but for some reason the plain photo of all his classmates and teachers is so much more rewarding to me. No, I don’t know all the kids’ names (I know — bad parent over here — I blame it on the fact that G’s the 2nd kid to show up at school, and I leave before the others arrive), but it’s neat to see who he interacts with during his day. Unfortunately, not all the teachers are in the photo, which is a bummer.

P.S. Psst — It’s illegal for me to scan these, but you won’t tell… right?

“Here Mama, have a coaster!”

Yes, this is what a temper tantrum looks like

“No, Daddy! You’re too heavy to push”

G got a great toy from his Grammie a few months back: the Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby’s First Blocks set. He loves this thing and plays with it all the time.

When he was little I was really proud of him taking the blocks out of the bucket. Then I got proud when he started putting the blocks back in the bucket, as this demonstrated a mental development milestone he had reached.

Then imagine my awe this week-end when he started using the bucket lid to try to get the right shape through the right whole. He was passing the circle through the round hole for a good two minutes. I got all giddy thinking that my kid was a genius and already recognized his shapes. Alas, I was wrong as he spent the next two minutes trying to cram the circle through the square hole.

Eeeh, at least he’s figuring it out!