He Speaks

Rooney...Life of the Party
Originally uploaded by Q.

After finally uploading all of our Christmas-time photos I realized we really didn't take that many. We've been so bad about taking photos when family is here. I assume it's just because so much is going on, but this really is the time to take them. I did not get one photo of my mom, Rooney w/my mom, Kristi, Andy, Dan & Kim. Well I guess their feet are in alot of photos. Anyway I'll like our Christmas and Christmas Eve photos here. If you have any photos you'd like to contribute I'll add those to the sets.

Besides Christmas, car break-in's and new houses there have been some other exciting things going on...specifically with Rooney. Over the last few days Rooney has really increased his communication. He has started to let us know he wants specific things by pointing and saying "Eh, eh". So that might not be "exciting" but it can be very helpful and frustrating at the same time. Not only has he started pointing for what he wants but he has also started to shake his head to let us know when he doesn't want something. I have found this new move very helpful. Now I can ask him 'Do you want...?" and he can clearly answer me! So nice.

He has also picked up some new verbal communication. He has started saying "Hi" to everyone and everything. I think it is so cute when he bends down and says "Hi" to the dogs. Just yesterday I noticed that he is starting to say "this", as if he's saying "What's this?". Finally, he has started to grab my finger and lead me to where he wants to go. I think this is very sweet...right now. I've had a lot of experience, through my nieces and nephew, with this little maneuver. It's cute now but can become really annoying soon because he'll have me up every 2 seconds to look at every piece of lint on the carpet.

I'm going to have to brush up on my distraction techniques.

One last little development that is in the works...I'm getting Rooney off the bottle. This is something I've been kind of trying to do, but not really, for awhile. I just decided this weekend to just stop giving him the bottle and use a cup this weekend.

So far, so good.

Santa Came, He Saw and He Conquered

So it's been awhile since I've posted. Alot has happened since then. I think I should talk about Christmas first. Rooney's Grandma Peggie, Grandma and Grandpa Wade (seen in picture) , Aunt Kristi and Uncle Andy all came to visit. They came under the guise of the holidays but Rooney knows it was really just to see him (I would have done the same thing). Rooney still hasn't discovered the joy of opening gifts but as you can see he enjoyed playing with the gifts (these are electronic drumsticks from Gma & Gpa Wade). Rooney is still learning where and what are appropriate surfaces for banging drumsticks on (Courage asked me to send out a personal thanks). Oh poor Courage! They're pretty sweet drumsticks though. Maybe Mom plays with them when Rooney is sleeping.

Of course we had a great time and it was wonderful to see so much family. If Rooney plays his cards right, maybe one day, all of them won't have to fly in to visit...they'll just be able to drive over.

Big news since I last posted...WE FOUND OUR HOUSE! Mike and I decided to put in an offer on a nice house that we first looked at a several weeks ago. Seems we should have stopped looking after the 1st house, but it took looking at all the other houses to tell us that. Anyway despite the windstorm and a 5 day power outage we were able to get into the house again, decided we liked it even more the 2nd time (and the 3rd) and put in our offer the next day. Thankfully it was accepted and we should be closing mid-January. Yikes! That was fast. I would like to show you a picture but it appears once it is off the market it vanishes from the internet. Just picture a nice,big house in your head.

So that's the good news. Of course the world needs to be balanced out, so once you have good news, there inadvertently has to be bad news. I'll post the picture first:

As you can see some jerk-off's broke into my car and ripped out my stereo, Sirius receiver and the brand new FM transmitter I got from Mike's parents! They also got my Wolfmother CD!

Jerks!

I got the last laugh though...I've still got the stereo remote control!

'Tis The Season

As you can imagine the last 5 days have been really rough for Western WA. We lost our tree which was sad but so many others have lost their houses, cars, power and sadly lives (using BBQ's & generators in their houses to keep warm). Rooney's Uncle Dana was on day 5 today without power, but as he was emailing me telling me about it, he heard from Renae that it came back on! After hearing everyone else's horror stories the loss of our tree, without any further damage, is really nothing. We have been counting ourselves very lucky.

So beside the chaos kind of going on around us, it seems alot of Rooney's buddies, and himself, have been sick. I can't imagine what it must have been like for some of those people not having power and then having a sick baby on top of it. Again I am counting myself fortunate. Due to this we really haven't done much this week and have pretty much stuck to the house. I had to break out some toys for Rooney that I was holding onto. They weren't Christmas gifts but I thought I would just wait to break it out until we had a bigger place. Guess what? I found room right in the middle of the living room. Rooney was kept busy for a little while. He found the box it came in interesting too!

Mike, Rooney and I will be out today house hunting. I have a list of 5 good candidates. Hopefully we'll find our future home today. We are looking in a blackout area though. I'm hoping that Dana's good fortune of getting his power back on today means that the houses we're looking at also got their power back on.

I don't want to seem greedy with good fortune though. I think I'll pack a flashlight.

A Mighty Wind

Let's just start out with the Big News...we had an awful windstorm last night (gusts up to 69mph) and our beautiful Twisted Willow fell victim. Mike and I were pretty devastated because we felt this tree added alot to our house. Thankfully no one was hurt. When the tree fell it miraculously missed the house, my car and the power lines! However, my car was blocked in the driveway and our tree partially covered our neighbors driveway so Mike wanted to clear out some of the smaller branches before anyone needed to go anywhere. He's been out there all day with a handsaw cutting off branches (it's partially my fault he was not using a chainsaw. I told him the Darwin Awards were full of men trying to do/use stuff that they didn't know how to).

Let me tell you times have changed. It took over 4hrs before a neighbor came over to offer Mike any help. The neighbor that finally came over was gone all afternoon and to give him credit I think he would have come over alot sooner had he been home. Plenty drove past and gawked but none even stopped to say "Man that really sucks about your tree". We did have some come by to take little twigs for their flower arrangements though. I was pretty appalled by this. Seemed like the vultures were circling a bit. Mike was very gracious though and of course anyone that wanted any twigs for their flower arrangements were allowed to pilfer. They rummaged around and Mike didn't even give them any attitude.

I can't say I would be the same way. I suppose that's why Mike handles all the family "PR". Here's your Post Picture of Rooney (it is his blog afterall):

It's Starting To Look Alot Like Christmas

Things have been a little crazy around here lately. I haven't written about this yet because everything has kind of been up in the air, but it looks like Mike and I are shopping for a new house! Tiny house no more! So that is exciting and of course searching for houses has consumed alot of my time...besides MOMS Club events, toy parties, Christmas shopping etc. I managed to come up with a list of 25 houses to look at, but our realtor was on vacation and we were still trying to figure out how we wanted to handle our financing, so the list shrank to 19. The last 2 weekends we have driven by some of the houses on the list and edited (also shrinking our list). Hopefully we'll be out this week and actually get to see the inside of some of these houses.


Today is the big MOMS Club Cookie Exchange. Renae has graciously agreed to host this event at her house. She may be sorry about that decision now. So far we have 17 moms signed up as "for sure's". With kids that means there are going to be 33 people in Renae's house plus a few extras she invited. Yikes! Wall to wall cookies! What was I thinking agreeing to this? Truthfully Mike talked me into doing this (not that there was alot of arm twisting). I think he wanted to make cookies again (there has been a pre & post pregnancy ban) and it was too hard to resist 16 other types of cookies. Here's a pic of Mike burning the midnight oil and baking 5-6 dozen cookies. The apron is mine but I let him borrow it. I taste tested the cookies & they are pretty good. Thanks for the recipe Mom Wade!

Finally we got our Christmas Tree this weekend. I am embarrassed to report that we opted for a fake tree this year. I am very Pro real Christmas tree and normally the bigger the better. We decided that for 1 year only, since the tree area is so cramped, and since Rooney can reach pretty far these days a small, fake tree made more sense this year. I decorated the tree last night while Mike baked. I tried to make it look as pretty as possible. Since the tree is so small our tree topper did not fit. I had to improvise & put a picture of Courage and Rocco with Santa on top. Those ingrates. I don't think they even noticed.

North Pole or Bust

Today was Mom & Rooney Day. We went to Factoria Mall as part of a MOMS Club event, but I was the only one that could go in the afternoon, so we went by ourselves.

First, Roonster and I took in the huge clearance sale they were having at Osh Kosh. Rooney didn't seem too jazzed to be clothes shopping though so we headed over to KidsQuest Childrens Museum. This place is great. Rooney can run around, throw toys around (and I don't have to pick them up), touch everything, get wet and play with other kids for a mere $3 (thank you Prime Card). Jeez I should take him there everyday!

After playtime Rooney and I thought it was time for some serious shopping. We got a few more Christmas and birthday gifts out of the way before we made our final stop to visit Santa. This also was great. There was absolutely no line, the Santa had a real beard and despite there being tears when Roon first sat on Santa's lap, I think we got a successful picture. So this is Rooney's first real picture with Santa Claus.



(Christmas 2005)




Not that I am downplaying how great his picture from last year was.

This Christmas Cheer Makes Me Feel Like Dancing

A day or so ago I posted a link on this blog of Rooney's Elf-y Christmas Dancing. This link seems to be a big hit with my mom (Rooney's Grandma Peggie) and passing the Elfmorphasis link around the family has been cracking her up. I received the link for 2 of Rooney's Great Grandparents Elf-y Christmas Dancing and thought it would be fun to post them here. If anyone else wants to create themselves and wants their link posted here let me know.

Great Grandma Morse's Elf-y Christmas Dancing

Great Grandpa Morse's Elf-y Christmas Dancing

Grandma Peggie's Elf-y Christmas Dancing

Winter Wonderland

Last night, as promised, it continued to snow. Mike, Rooney and I had just left Seattle and stopped by our local grocery store when the snow started. We didn't really think much about it. What was falling wasn't big, fat flakes but seemed like little chunks of ice. We were supposed to leave the house again later, but when the road was covered in white we decided against it. Turns out we got out of Seattle and home just in time. Not too much later last night the roads turned into absolute chaos with cars slipping and sliding all over. Some areas people slept in their cars, and some even abandoned them on the roadside. When we got up this morning the streets were still covered in ice.


Thankfully Mike did not attempt to go to work today (and worked from home) but with all the streets remaining icy during the day Roonster and I were stuck to the house. With Rooney getting older, even more mobile and inquisitive, it is getting more cramped in this house. He can now reach countertops, climbs tables and when bored throws toys.

We had to get out of the house. When Dad was done working we decided to take a walk up to Fry's and purchase a new external CD-R for Mom (a whole different story). Rooney seemed pretty thrilled to be getting out of the house and was absolutely wonderful on the walk. I snapped a few pictures of him in his winter gear. We used his Bundle Me from last winter in his stroller. He only 1/2 fit into it now but I think it kept his tootsies pretty warm.

Cabin Fever

Yesterday Mike and I took Rooney to the Children's Museum. I believe earlier we had accepted that we were just going to bum around the house but it turns out Rooney had other ideas.


If there were toe holes he probably would have literally climbed the walls. After a morning of climbing the furniture and tormenting the dogs, we decided to get him out of the house. Rooney seemed to have a good time at the museum, but was very interested in climbing a slide they have there, the wrong way, while kids were trying to slide down. So it seems we had to keep him distracted with something else at the place that was supposed to be distracting him from climbing the furniture.

On the way home it started to snow! It's the first snow of winter. Thankfully it didn't stick around much but we are due for some more and colder weather. That means ice, so I think we'll be sticking close to home a bit more this week.


I think that will be just fine with Rooney...


poor Courage and Rocco.

Hide boys!

Short and Sassy

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house. I would never had done this if 1: my whole family was here this year and 2: if my sister did not agree to cook the turkey (in retrospect, she even confirmed, she had the cheapest and easiest job). Rooney's Aunt Annie, Uncle Jim, Cousin Cuyler, Aunt Kim and Uncle Dan all came over. Unfortunately, due to the tinyness of our house everyone had to sit in the livingroom, plates on lap, to eat. We had a lot of food and thankfully everyone went home with at least a few containers. Thanksgiving really isn't my holiday but I generally enjoy the day after quite a bit...Black Friday!

This year just my sister and I went shopping. I am kind of upset because alot of the stores just had "Doorbuster" sales which started at 5am. I love shopping, but I do not love it that much. So by the time we got out to shop a good portion of the sales were already over and the stores were cleaned out. It was a pretty disappointing shopping experience. Seems I will be doing most of my shopping on the internet this year.

While we were gone Mike kept himself busy and gave Rooney his 1st haircut...all by himself! Oh Rooney looks so cute. I think Mike thought I would be mad, but I didn't love the long hair, I just did not want to attempt to cut it myself. Rooney cries when I turn on the vacuum or blender, so I did not think he would enjoy a buzzer near his ear. Mike said Roon really didn't care for it but he was a good boy and Mike was able to get the job done. As you can see there was quite a bit of hair on the floor, maybe enough for a ponytail! I'm am also glad to report that Mike did have the foresight to save some of the baby curls. Also notice the cracker Rooney has in the 1st picture with his haircut. Mike was trying to use these crackers to bribe Roonster while he was cutting his hair. This plan only half worked. Rooney held onto the same cracker the whole time Mike was cutting.

Finally here's Rooney showing off his new doo. I loved when his hair would stick out all crazy behind his ears but I think short and sassy fits him pretty well. Rooney seems pretty happy with the results.

Typical Wednesday Morning

I'll admit...I love shopping for Rooney. Shopping for Rooney is more fun than shopping for myself. I don't know if it's because any clothes I purchase will look cute on him or if it's because I know he will be a sponge with any toy, book or musical instrument I buy. Thankfully I'm cheap too, so consignment shops and sales racks is where you'll find me.

Here's Rooney modeling his new winter hat. I bought him a different hat about a month ago but seemed to have lost it. I don't know if it's gone gone but I was pretty heartbroken when I could not find it. Plus, we are in the middle of the rainiest month...EVER so I thought it was a good idea to get him another one. Unfortunately I could not find the same hat (probably because it was on clearance) but I found this sweet little number. It's not exactly a "rain" hat, but who cares it has poof balls!

I also found a little musical instrument set for Rooney recently. I was very jazzed to have found this little set and Rooney seems to enjoy it. It has a tambourine, cymbals, guiro, egg shaker and triangle. I'm not sure of how safe the cymbals are but this is how we learn, right? Here's a pic of Rooney getting down on his guiro.

Who knows he might end up a percussion man, just like his old man.

Hammin' It Up

This post is really an extention of yesterday's post. I did not write about it but the Roon and I went to a Web Committee meeting over at Krista and Parker's house. The Web Committee meeting is for Moms Club and we should have been talking business, but of course, we all have kids so they ham it up for our time quite a bit. Yesterday Rooney and Parker were playing all over Krista's lounge chair (sometimes falling off) when I snapped this pic. Krista and I both thought it was such a cute picture and is possibly on both of our blogs. Oh well, I thought it was so cute I would risk it being posted twice:

Do Re Me & Roon

It's been awhile since I've posted. It's not that things haven't been going on, it's just that I haven't taken any pictures. And I really feel like I should post pictures.

I took these pictures this morning of Rooney playing with his Leapfrog Magnetic Frig Farm. I don't really know if that's the name but it's something along those lines. Rooney really loves this toy. When you push the button it plays little songs which Rooney kind of dances too. He hasn't quite figured out how to match the animals on the toy, which is the real point of the toy, but that doesn't seem to matter. He loves it just for the music.

I have also been building up Roonster's instrument collection. He likes music so much I thought it would be nice if he could play with the instruments and learn how to make music. So far he stands in his tambourine but he really likes to hit the triangle and he bangs out rhythm on the TV with his drumstick (Courage's head too I think!).

Speaking of toys! I decided to throw a Discovery/Do Re Me & You Toys party. What was I thinking? I hate throwing parties, they are too stressful. I hate when people whom I have selectively invited say they can't come. Plus my house is too small. How am I going to fit a handful of people in here plus toys? Anyway I am hoping to get some Christmas shopping done for some little kids I know (maybe a new baby gift for others).

Frank and the PB Pie

What do you do with your antiquated computer equipment...



give it to your kids as a toy, they were going to play with it anyway.





Talk about antiquated, Mike and I went (with Dana & Renae) to a Frank Black concert Monday night. Halfway through the opening act Mike was looking for somewhere to sit because his back hurt (to be fair he did just help Dan move his storage locker stuff around). He left me with Dana & Renae in front of the stage. A very enviable position. Thank god for technology though. Mike was able to text message me that he found a stool, in the back of the venue, with very limited visibility and I hot footed it over to him. Going to a General Admission concert with a hurt foot was not the brightest idea. I was starting to get toeaphobia when the crowd kept moving in closer and closer. I was protecting my foot like a newborn baby.

Tuesday afternoon Roonster and I went to a Thanksgiving Potluck at another moms house. It was a great turn out; kids everywhere! I made a point of bringing somewhat healthy food so I would have something I did not feel guilty about eating. I think I was doing really well until I saw it. There is was with a spotlight on it and angels singing in the background...the Peanut Butter pie! I could not resist it's temptation and had a small sliver of a piece. It was absolutely delicious but afterwards I felt like I had eaten the whole thing. It was so rich and peanut buttery. How do people eat like this all the time? Oh who am I kidding I could get used to eating Peanut Butter Pie real quick.

Come back to me Peanut Butter Pie!!!!

Rubber Chicken Lunches

Even though I'm still licking my soccer wounds I thought it was time to get out of the house and go to the Regional Luncheon for MOMS Club. MOMS Club members from CA, HI, OR and WA all converged on Bellevue, WA. Children in 4 states were running amok. You may have seen the news reports.

We had a good time, met some new friends and as you can see came home with some prizes! MOMS Club of Renton seemed to be big winners and came home with 4 gift baskets. One of our members won 2! I happened to win the gift basket made by the Renton chapter. There seemed to be alot of alcohol in our basket. The theme was Date Night...makes me wonder how alot of our moms met their husbands and/or became moms.

If MOMS Club wasn't enough I have finally joined a Renton Moms Meetup. A few of my friends have already joined and really enjoy it. After attending a Discovery Toys party at one friends house (who quit MOMS Club and exclusively does Meetup's), Sherry and I (my partner in crime in the red jacket) decided to enlist Krista and all join together. We haven't done anything yet but keep checking back to keep posted.

Don't worry I have not given up on MOMS Club and I have even agreed to take over as Newsletter Editor. I don't believe I can post the newsletter here so everyone can see my handiwork (confidentiality issues) but there maybe a blog post about it every once in awhile.

Lucky You!

Urgent Care Blues

Will somebody get this kid a haircut?

This week has been kind of different for Rooney. Monday Roonster went with his mom (me) to an Urgent Care. Sunday while playing soccer my left hand and right foot were injured. My hand got hit very hard by a soccer ball. The ball kept going after it hit me, and since it was kicked by one of my team mates, I was saddened when my body didn't at least deflect it into the goal. I have no clue what happened to my toe but I'll attribute any injury to getting older or from being pregnant with Rooney. I haven't found a link with being pregnant and my feet yet so it must be attributed to age. (Yikes! I can't believe I can start saying that) Good news is nothing appears to be broken. Bad news is we still lost the game.

So Roonster and I have been hanging around the house the last couple of days. Mike was home 1-1/2 days to take care of us. The week before I bought Rooney castanets (to build his band) and they became very useful while Mike was home. Since he didn't want me up on my foot, he had me use the castanets to call him when I needed something. I felt really silly using them but they worked and Mike didn't get mad at me for getting up.

I think the Urgent Care may have made Rooney sick though. While we were waiting forever in the waiting room, I let Rooney run around and play with the toys they have out. God knows the last time, if ever, those toys were washed and how many little snotty hands have played with them. Plus I'm sure any clinic is just cess pool of germs. Rooney has since become a snot factory. There is more than one type of flooding going on in Western WA!

The Pea Soup Incident

He looks so sweet and innocent in this picture but you can tell...there is something lurking behind that smile.

Lately, Rooney has been trying to exert his independence when I'm feeding him. He will start grabbing at the bowl and spoon but when he can't get them he will throw a little fit in his chair. So I started to give him his own spoon. This worked great and he would play with it, dip it into the bowl I was holding or pretend to feed himself. This worked well and we were both happy...at least I thought we were.

Who would have thought that the sweet little boy in this picture would turn into a little demon a few hours later when he dumped pea soup all over his Momma? One minute he was eating the soup and loving it and the next I was wearing it. I wouldn't have believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes and have to change my pants.

Of course he does have his lovey moments and there have actually been more of them. He will now just run up, give me hugs and then be off again. I love it. Now anytime I am on the floor means it's time to wrestle. He will jump on my back and start laughing. I'm assuming he learned wrestling from Dad and I'll play along. The wrestling is really cute and Rooney really likes to do it but secretly I really just use it as an opportunity to get even more cuddles.

Halloweenies

Halloween 2005

The Cutest Little Chicken
Originally uploaded by Q.

It's really been Halloween week around here. Rooney's had so many costume parties to go to and getting pumpkins, cleaning pumpkins and finally carving pumpkins became a very long affair. I love Halloween though and I love Rooney in this costume! I wonder if it would be too much to put him in it everyday?

Last night we did not take the little chicken trick-or-treating. Mike and I are trying to avoid candy, and Rooney doesn't eat it yet, so it seemed a little pointless to us. He was fascinated by everyone coming to the door though. He even flirted with a few. Thankfully where we live there are alot of kids and we had a pretty good turnout . We actually had more kids than teenagers, dressed as teenagers, ringing our doorbell.

We do have leftover candy though. However, we devised a foolproof way for us not to get into it...we decided to store it in Mike's car. If you saw the inside of Mike's car , believe me, you wouldn't want to eat anything that came out it.

Chicken's Coming To Get You

I'm coming to get you
Chicken Costume Pictures

Originally uploaded by Q.

We kind of had a running joke this weekend...you have a kid and you become a social butterfly. Saturday Mike, Rooney and I were invited to 3 events. We could only stretch ourselves so thin though, and only committed to two.

This weekend Rooney's bud Parker celebrated his 1st birthday! Welcome to the Big Boy Club Parker. All the kids were dressed in their Halloween costumes. Oh man they were so cute! What was kind of funny is that none of them seemed to fight the costumes either. I've decided Halloween and the custom of dressing in costume has become instinctual. Possible "Survival of the Fittest"- whomever has the weakest costume gets the least amount of candy. As we all know, when you're a kid, whomever has the most candy runs the schoolyard.

The second event we went to was a Costume Party at Mike's friends' house. Everyone that was invited seemed to have kids. So many little kids and so many costumes. Yikes they were adorable. To our embarrassment their was another little blond boy in a chicken costume though. What were the chances?

The pictures will tell the story

Sybil

When Rooney was a baby I found it very difficult to get out the door to start our day. Working around his sleep schedule to get ready proved to be difficult at times and then trying to get him dressed, changed and packed to go always threw me off time wise. I had the hardest time working his "getting ready time" into my time management. It's been a year now and for the most part we've got our rhythm worked out although I am still running short on time every once in awhile. Generally it's just when I have to be anywhere before 10am.

Now that Rooney is getting older I've noticed it's a lot harder to get out the door for new reasons. The window is getting so much smaller these days between happy Rooney and Not-So-Happy Rooney. Some days I would believe it is non-existent. I did not want to be one of those moms that was chained to their houses for hours while their kids napped but I find myself doing just that. And once Rooney wakes up the clock starts it's countdown. However, before we can go anywhere he's got to eat and be changed. Ahhhhh! He can take 45min. to eat and sorry to be crude but it's all gone to hell if he has a load in his diaper. That window is half closed now.

I used to believe that having Rooney nap in his carseat was unfair. I believed it wasn't a "real nap" but as our window closes quicker now, and being as Rooney can turn on a dime these days, I'm starting to understand that maybe any nap is a "real nap". I finally had to make the decision that if I wanted us to go anywhere these days Rooney better be prepared and start bringing his little dog blankie along for the ride.