Auntie

Today is my Auntie Crystal's 22nd birthday! This year, it is one day after Thanksgiving but some years it is actually on Thanksgiving Day- how lucky is she!!  My Auntie Crystal is very nice and funny and has long pretty hair that I like to grab a hold of.

I hope that she is having a fun time in Colorado and that I get to see her sometime soon!

Tofurkey

Today is Thanksgiving. Last year, I was old enough to eat a few things but not the yummy Tofurkey that my parents eat. I ate lots of potatoes, cranberries and, especially, pumpkin pie.

 Here I am with Steph, I was about to burst from all of that pie, but man was it good.

 

 

I am not sure what happened to my pants because earlier I was wearing them. See, here I am wearing a matching sweater with Grandpa AND pants!!

Last year during this time I could not hear much of anything. Now I dance to music, follow directions and say "Mama". I am thankful for my bionic ears, my family and my friends. Oh, and my kitties, of course. I am a lucky boy.

Mad Skillz

My life has been pretty hectic lately. Mom has been keeping me very busy because Dad has all of this work to do, I guess that his term is "winding down" (whatever that means). To me, it means that Dad always has all of these cool art supplies out and he even lets me help him paint once in awhile.

Here I am working on a masterpiece..... Dad is always very complimentary of my skills, apparently I learned to hold the pen/crayon/colored pencil and brush the proper way at an early age (he even brags to his professors about my love of art). Dad also loves that I know the difference between circles and lines and can draw, or paint them on command. I love to impress him.

Today, was exciting because Dad busted out the watercolors, which I had yet to use- how fun!!!

In other news, Friday I had an appointment with Don at OHSU. Mom, Grandma, Grandpa Jim and even Angie were all there to give me support and make me feel more comfortable than I had in the past. It worked!!! I went into the hearing booth and played and when Don did a hearing test on my "new" (left) ear, I responded all the way down to 15db!!!!!! Everyone was pretty proud of me and this got me so pumped up that I had to show off some of my other skills. I said "uh-oh" lots of (appropriate) times, "up" when I wanted up and walked my fingers "up, up, up" the wall and then they went "wheeee" down. On the way home, we stopped at Trader Joe's where Grandma bought some yummy cookies and shared them with me on the way home. A pretty good day in my world.

Change is Hard (I Should Know)

Grandma had this AMAZING fireplace insert, with all of these awesome knobs and handles that I loved to play with (when it wasn't burning anything, of course).

Here's a photo of me lounging in front of it (notice what a bald baby I was, now I am such a big boy!)

Well, apparently, Grandma did not have the same appreciation for the magnificent fireplace that I did because when I went over there yesterday this was in it's place:

I was like "what, is this some kind of joke?!?"

 

So then Grandma explained to me that it was here to stay and that it would be very nice and keep us warm. She took me closer to it so that I could get a better look, but I was still very suspicious.

 

 I kept my eye on the thing while we walked past, I mean I didn't want it to attack us or anything.

And then when I turned around, Grandma was gone!

I panicked, worried that Grandma had been eaten by the new fireplace- "MOM, help!!!!!"

I heard some noise in the kitchen and decided to go investigate. I made sure to keep my eye on the evil contraption as I made my way through the room.

As I raced into the kitchen I was terrified about what I may find.... But as I rounded the corner I saw my beloved grandma, she was smiling and unharmed!!!!

The world was safe and complete, once again.

And I was back to being King of the Living Room!!!

 

Name Dropping

Today I was REALLY ready to get out of the house and have some fun. As usual, Mom was rushing around the house and getting our stuff together while I was following her, feeling whiny and bored. Anyway, she took me downstairs so that she could get dressed, which is always super fun because I get to play in all of her crazy clothes and explore. Well we went back upstairs and then she realized that she had forgotten something so she locked the gate and asked me to wait there for her and she ran back downstairs. When she was out of my sight for a second I called out "Mama?" and she appeared immediately, grinning and repeating "Mama" over and over. Apparently, calling out to her is a great way to get her attention, and she seems to like it as well..............

Best Face Forward

So Sunday when Eliana rode with me to the kid's club I discovered what my parents had been hiding from me- other kids my age have their carseats facing forward!! I was soooo shocked and jealous. I had heard my parents talking about how it was time to turn me around but I never realized they meant in the car, I always thought it was about me in general. Like "we have got to turn this kid around, get him back in line" or whatever. Anyway, I guess that it was the push they needed because Monday, after a super fun chase time, Grandpa took me out to Mom's car and lo and behold- my carseat was facing forward!!!!!! I was super, super pumped and felt like such a big boy cruising around the town and watching the rain and the cars go by.......

Daylight Save Nothing Time

This whole daylight savings has really thrown me (and my parents) for the the loop. I was really used to my seven a.m. wake up time and then everything had to go and change- baahh! Now I am ready to get up way before my parents and they just aren't having it. What am I supposed to do? I wake up, I am ready to get out and begin my day. Why does this lame daylight savings have to  happen to me?!?!

Not even Beary can help me through this one....

p.s. Mom really screwed the text and underlining on this one, I guess that Beary couldn't help her either.....

What's So Great About Halloween Anyway?

Well I survived another Halloween. After last year's ridiculous monkey costume I tried to explain to my mom that I was not, under any circumstances, going to wear anything like that again. Of course, she didn't listen to me and after my Halloween nap, she brought out this stupid poofy spider thing and tried to strap it on me- um, no way Mom!!!! She even tried to put it on herself, like that would work. Anyway, I convinced her that wearing my "Junior Space Man" shirt, black leggings, my skull babylegs and my new (big boy!) Converse would celebrate the day quite adequately.

It was only after I saw Eliana in her super cute ladybug costume that I realized how wrong I had been about the spider costume.....

Here we are on a skybridge at the mall, this was pretty much the highlight of my Halloween (well besides the chocolate and the little ladybug).

After this we went over to Grandma's house where I ate dinner, took a bath and went to bed so that Mom and Dad could go over to Kelsey's for adult time. I was so tired from the day that I went to sleep instead of running around all night long....

P.S. Today on Sesame Street, Feist sang a song to me about counting to 4, she is almost as cute as Eliana.