Our Baby Size Life!

Archive for January, 2009

Last weekend, Melissa’s sister came over to make some chicken pot pies.  It’s a bi-annual tradition the sisters do to fill our bellies with piping hot chicken pie goodness.  Needless to say, the pies rock and so do the girls for going through all the trouble and making them! So, a BIG thanks is owed to them for their efforts!

So, while they were cookin’ up a storm in the kitchen, Sam and I were having some intense toy playing and crawl racing nearby.  Then suddenly, just as I’m about to win my first race of the day, Sammy pulls up lame!  I’m thinking he’s taking a poo break, but no, something in the kitchen as caught his eye… Then and there, he abandons me in pursuit of greater conquests. I’ve chronicled the events that followed below.

Enjoy! (click pic for larger version)

My last post had Sam facing off against his mortal enemy for the right to defend his nanny.  Well, that whole story line didn’t just come out of the blue!  A couple weeks ago now, we went to my brother’s girlfriend’s house for a birthday dinner.  It was my brother’s and a family friend’s birthday, so we had one big evening to celebrate them both.  Sam has seen animals before, mostly dogs, but this cat had the best attitude.  Sam and the skin-cat were both curious of each other, but very apprehensive at first.  So we just placed both of them on the floor in front of each other and let them discover.  It wasn’t long before Sam had his hands on the cats “fur”, laughing cause it tickled his fingers.  The cat would then get startled and jump away… which in turn startled Sam and made him lean back and lift his hands in a “I’m not touching that thing anymore” pose.

All night, they would go back and forth playing and scaring each other.  We had some good laughs at their expense. One time they both came around the opposite ends of the couch at the same time   The cat jumped straight up and ran back the opposite way, and Sam stiffened as upright as he could, wobbled, and blinked ten times before peeking around the corner of the couch again!  Most of the night was easy, harmless fun like that, so where does the “mortal enemy” stuff fit in?  Well, like all heroes and villains, they always fight over something, and in this case it’s Sam’s Nanny!  He loves his Nanny and this cat was infringing on his turf and eating up most of his quality time with said Nanny.  Thus, a rivalry is born: Sam Vs. The Skin-Cat.  Hopefully this will be the only time he fights against a shaven pussy Har! Har! I know, I know… a little risqué, but I’m all for a little fun folks!

As it turned out, Sam won most of Nanny’s time until we put him down to bed.  When that was done, and it didn’t take long in Granpa’s experienced hands, the cat was back in Nanny’s arms for some tender lovin’! As you can see from the pics, this cat, yes a male, was all over the ladies all night!  Playing his feline charms, he managed to get some “in close” snuggle time with all the women.  Sheesh! Maybe I should get my entire body shaved… Even worse, this cat is being babysat by my parents, Nanny and Grandpa, this week.  Can you say spoiled kitty?  That cats gonna get the rub down so often, it won’t walk again.  They both love animals, and the skin-sac, while a little arresting to look at initially, has a great, friendly attitude.  He’s only a year old, so he’s still got some of the baby kitten spring in his step, which will keep the babysitters a little busy

Maybe this will convince them to get a furry, or fur-less, companion of their own? Time will tell and I am sure Sam would love to have a little friend to “play with”: slap, punch, pull the tail, spin in the air, bite, smush and kick! Kids can be so… well, kids!

That’s it for tonight… Oh and by the way, my parents are cat-sitting because my bro and his girl are gone DOWN SOUTH… as in TROPICAL ISLAND… Yeah, well enjoy the cold and snow everyone!

Hey Everybody!  Last weekend was my brother and a friends’ birthday, so we had a great supper / get together, which I’ll post about soon.  But for today, I wanted to share a little something with ya, in comic form…  You see, we did this get together at my brother’s girlfriends house and she owns a cat… but not just any cat!

Check it out below and enjoy! (click image for larger version)

Sam is getting to be quite the little character. He’s always been a smooth kid when it comes to women. Anytime we go out, whether it be shopping or visiting family, he will always do everything in his power to get some young Chiquita to look at him. He’ll stare and stare at her until she notices him, then he tilts his head and leans to one side smiling… This just absolutely melts the hearts of all these young ladies and they come over to coo at him. That’s when he tucks his head into the person carrying him while staring at the young lass from the corner of his eye! A total charmer!

Yeah I know, the kid’s gonna break some hearts… just like his Dad!

He’s also a little clown. He sometimes gives us this big, wide mouthed grin while squinting up his eyes… and he does this regardless of what’s in his mouth at the time. So, we’ve gotten full, uncensored views of many types of chewed food, mashed into gums, caked into his two teeth and totally smeared over his bulgy cheeks! A clown I tells ya! I guess he’s just mighty proud of those two killer choppers he’s got there. I call them killers, because he knows how to use them! When Melissa and I are playing with him, we have to keep alert as he likes to clamp down on anything soft… Like a teddy bear, a chew toy or our hands and arms and legs! Who knew babies had such strong jaws!

Then, on New-Years Eve, like Derek Zoolander, he sprung his latest look on us… and it didn’t disappoint! There he was, just sitting, minding his own business, when my bro-in-laws teenage daughter called to Sam. He looks up at her, like she’s bothering him while he’s playing with the Wii remote, and he shoots her this look:

Yep, he was givin’ her the sexy stare down! The whole room erupted with laughter that kind of startled him at first, but then when he realized that it was because of him, he smiled and gave the look again. Now, he lays this look on people often enough, looking for that big laugh again. He usually gets it too I have to say seeing Sam’s character and attitude emerge is truly an amazing experience. I just can’t wait for the next surprise… and I ain’t talking messy diapers folks!

That’s it for now, have a great weekend everybody!

One day, I almost broke my back hauling big Sammy out of our bathtub.  It’s one of those extra deep, extra long suckers that requires a step to get into… for shorter people anyways. Me, being the giraffe of the family, I have no problems stepping in and out of the thing,  but when we give Sam a bath (as written about here and here), it’s a tough gut-wrench to get him out!  I am usually sitting on the bath step washing him, and then while sitting, I get him under the arms and pull straight up to get him out of his bath chair, then over and around into a waiting towel.  He likes the ride, but Mom can’t do it anymore, and Dad is finding it ’s getting tougher to pull off… Well Sam’s over 20 lbs now! He’s a good sack of potatoes! Plus he’s wet! So that’s gotta count for something! I know, I’m getting old!

So, one night, I was feeling a little lazy and decided to give him his own shower.  Now while I was feeling lazy, I didn’t just open the shower door, turn on the water, throw him in and shut the door! Come on folks… I turned the light on first! Kidding aside, I was actually pretty pumped to see his reaction to the shower head and whether or not he’d like it.  Back in July, in Wildwood, I had brought him into the shower with me, and the shower head scared him something good!  So, this time, I was a little weary.  I didn’t want to stress the little guy out… or clean a bunch of poop out of the shower drain.

Sliding Sam into his seat, his interest in the spewing shower head was immediate… and he loved it! He just wanted to swing the dangling shower head back and forth.  He even tried to get a couple sprays on Dad, but I was too quick to him… this time.  Next, he kept trying to drink from it.  The water temperature was a nice warm/hot and was approved by his temperature telling rubber ducky!  Which Sam promptly stuck in his mouth when I wouldn’t let him drink any of the water.  The shower was a success!  Sam loved being gently sprayed with the water while chewing on his toys.  I foamed up his loofah and got to work scrubbing the little guy down, which he also found interesting.  Of course, as soon as he saw bubbles on his skin, he just had to taste them!

Having Sam on the bottom of the shower just makes sense.  He’s easy to ship in or out and we don’t have to worry about accidental drowning or other creepy stuff like that.  He’s certainly not crying about it, so we won’t either! One thing we;ve noticed , however, is when Sam’s in his towel for the drying off phase, he just has to have something in his hands.  If you don’t give him something, he will make your life a living hell!  He’ll kick, squirm, punch, slap, twist, jiggle, bend, sit up, roll over, yanks, pick, reach and eventually crawl away… naked over the cold tile!  He simply doesn’t care!  We’ve got a little libertine baby on our hands here folks!  As long as he doesn’t “pull it out on the playground” I think we’ll be OK.

Winter stinks… and thanks for reading!

Sam’s nutritional development is a never ending adventure for us.  From the bottle, he hit the easy grain cereals.  Then he started the veggie purees, and followed that with some fruit purees.  When Sam had become comfortable as a vegetarian, we totally threw every kind of meat down his little gullet… and the little porker packed it all in with a lustful appetite better suited for a fully grown human, like an NFL linebacker, let alone a 9 month old pamper killer.  Now a days, he’s progressed off the baby purees and into the chunky puree territory.  So, instead of eating a nice smooth mixture, he’s basically eating what looks like a good night of drinking, finishing the wrong way…  It doesn’t help that most of these pre-made baby suppers all have this orangey, beige type coloring… with little green pea chunks… yeah, gooood stuff! But as a concerned parent , I taste everything we feed Sam at least once, and if I don’t like it, well Sam doesn’t get it! Sometimes I feel like those taste testers from medieval times, you know the ones who tasted the kings food for poison before they fed it to the king?

All that to tell you that recently, Melissa has been introducing Sammy-boy to manual food.  He now has half a multi-grain toast every morning and some cut up banana pieces for lunch and dinner. He loves eating like this.  I guess he sees us eat finger food, so he’s glad to be like the adults! I decided to put up Sam’s typical banana eating result for you to enjoy!

I swear, this was all Sam without any adult interference… but Sam doesn’t believe me, maybe you won’t either!

Take care all…

On with the rest of the Christmas pictures!  Melissa, Sam and I are lucky to have two great families to spend every Christmas with.  On the evening of the 24th, we had great fun with Melissa’s family for a traditional “réveillon” as you saw in my last post.   Sam had a great time and ended up fast asleep in his “mamienounes” bedroom, no doubt dreaming of what Santa would bring him in the morning… or maybe he was dreaming of whatever babies dream of… a bottle? Milk? Nipples? Toys? The birth canal? Who knows!

After we got home from Melissa’s parents at around 1 in the morning, Melissa and I put Sam to bed and we had our own little gift exchange… hehehe But seriously, we actually traded gifts so get yer mind out of the gutter (but just for a little while)!  We then hit the sack ourselves around 2:30 am  only to be up again at 7 am to pack the car and head over to my parents house, which is about an hour’s drive away.  I think we were the only car on the road.  It was dead.  We got there in just under 40 minutes. Sweet.

We had a great day full of good family fun, including our annual Toronto Vs. Montreal street hockey game, which Montreal won again, for the tenth year in a row… go HABS! Mom and Dad had all kinds of food out all day long, so we naturally stuffed our faces silly.  I took it upon myself to cook everyone our traditional “Big Christmas Breakfast”, which I did not mess up too badly, dishing out bacon, sausage, eggs, ham, etc. In the early afternoon, we had our secret Santa gift exchange that brought us some good laughs and plenty of picture opportunities.  Then came supper with a gorgeous and scrumptious turkey with all the fixings. Mom and Dad have really mastered the Christmas dinner, it was beyond excellent and they are to be commended in the efforts! Sam, however, did not taste the turkey as he was busy puking up his own meal… Poor little guy, we’re guessing there was a little too much excitment for him, so he projectile vomited all over his high chair!  He was fine after, even managing to score some nice fruit puray for dessert.

Following dinner, we had our “5 dollar just for laughs” mini gift exchange, which is always full of suspense and “gotcha” type moments.  The only rule that applies is that the gift you buy has to be of a 5$ value.  So it can be anything… and that may not be a good thing if your left standing with a crappy gift!  This year, I actually stole my Godson’s gift: a giant universal remote control.  I’m a geek. It was cool. It was mine. Then we had some dessert (Mom baked four types of pies!!!! Pumpkin, coconut, chocolate and lemon! They were filthy good folks… F-I-L-T-H-Y G-O-O-D!

We then polished the evening off with a fun little tradition we started last year, which consists of wrapping a gift 50 times with all sorts of boxes and paper.  The letting people have a chance at trying to unwrap it with oven mitts!  This game rocks people! The rules are that you must put the gift in the middle of the floor and all the players must sit around it.  One person takes a pair of dice and throws them. If they roll a pair, they can put the mitts on and start to unwrap the gift. If no pair is rolled, the dice are given to the next player and the gift remains unharmed. The next player then rolls for a pair as well… and so on and so forth.  Whom ever successfully and completely unwraps the gift gets to keep it.  It’s nothing but fun and hectic times ahead if you try this game, as the pace quickens as the gift is unwrapped.

As you can see, it was a busy Christmas on my end, and I am thankful for every moment.  Sam had a blast playing with his aunt and uncles, grand-parents… and, of course, his cousins!  Here are some pics from the day, as I am out of words… and tired of writing!

The family tree with the gifts being guarded by my nephews	My bro and his daughter, a proud irish girl
My nephew with Sam	My godson after he won the oven mitt gift game!
My sis and niece take a quick picture break from the frantic oven mitt game	My bro-in-law sweating with the effort... he really gave it his all!
Next it was my brothers turn, he hit the duct tape!	My sis taking care of Sam as she always does when she's in town!
The frantic family dinner table	Sam and his uncle sharing a ribbon
Me in my new Irish colors...	... and my niece in hers!!!
Grand-parents with the grand-kids!	Three generations... I've waited a long time to take this picture!
Sammy rockin' it with his cousins... he later beat them up!	The grand-parents fightin' over Sam... like usual!
Sam makin' a move for a tree ornament!	Nanny with Colby, my sis's dog.
Me acting stupid... what else is new

As always, thanks for reading!

Well folks, as I write this, my holiday vacation has little less than twenty four hours of life to it, but don’t get me wrong because I’m not complaining.  It’s been a very busy, wacky and wild two weeks, and maybe a little relaxed, slacker time at work is just what I need! My bosses read my blog on occasion, so I really hope they picked up the sarcasm there! If not, I may be staring an unemployment related blog soon, stay tuned

Our Christmas festivities started off in the evening of the 24th, over at Melissa’s parents house.  The whole gang was there dressed to the nines and Sam was at his attention grabbing best.  Being passed around from adult to adult without the slightest frown or sob, Sam soldiered on until Mom plopped him down in his retro 80’s feeding chair that his “MamieNoune”, Melissa’s mother, had bought for him. The buffet was laid out and Sam was eating like the rest of us. He seems to enjoy that, I think it makes him feel like one of the big people. That when Sammy boy decided to shake things up a bit, and when Mom wasn’t looking, that’s when he struck! Mom’s head was turned and out flew his hand.  The slap completely knocking over his bowl of chicken pot pie and pea puray… all over his bib, the retro 80’s chair, the floor… and Melissa’s black dress pants! Merry Christmas Mom!

The rest of the evening went really well, except for the abrupt end that hit around 10:30, when my God-Son Jeremy, after an understandably exciting and long Christmas-Eve, was strung out and tired. So much so in fact, that after getting his “big gift”, the train set pic, he did what any five year old pooped out but over zealous kid does on Christmas when told by his parents he can’t open the “big gift” now:  complete meltdown! Quite the tantrum, so the family packed up an left with the little guy steaming… oh well we had some good fun anyways. Besides, if I’m still blogging in five years time, I might be writing the same thing about Sam!

Here are just some of the pics from the evening, enjoy: