"PB" & J Time Photos

Please open and play this while looking at the photos

I took some really cute photos showing just how much Rooney was enjoying his "PB"&J sandwiches:

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

One of the nice things about having friends with children around Rooney's age is that we are all basically going through the same thing at the same time. We all have our "issues" with our kids, but we can pretty much relate to each other's problems.

My "problem" with Rooney has been getting him to eat solid foods. He was such a great little jarred baby food eater but once we moved on to chunkier foods he's been hesitant. I've written about little accomplishments we've made and how I have to be creative with Rooney but there are times where I have been so excited because I got Rooney to eat eggs or diced apples, and wanted to post about it. However I thought it might make for dry reading and chose not to. These events I am grateful to be able to share with my mom friends and they understand and are excited for us.

Along the eating lines, I have a Rooneyism I feel I can share with you. This definitely should have been an R2R, but I'm really the only one posting these days, so it gets its own spot. Anytime you try to feed Rooney a new food or put something on his tray to self feed he touches it with his index finger. It seems the food has to pass some sort of touch test with his highness and if the food is too soft (he does not appear to like self feeding soft foods such as peas, noodles etc.) it gets tossed to the lions (Courage & Rocco) or smeared across his tray. Often to bypass the finger test I have to sneak something into Rooney's mouth so he can taste it before automatically dismissing it and waving it away.

This approach has only been minimally successful and sometimes takes several days for one food. Last night I was able to get him to eat spaghetti easily but I have tried since last weekend to feed Rooney Sunflower Seed Butter (tastes just like PB but without the allergen worries) & jelly sandwiches. He has picked up the sandwiches, he's ignored the sandwiches, he's smeared the sandwiches across his tray, fed them to the dogs, gotten PB&J in his hair and finally yesterday, when I got a dab on his lips and then put some on a Baby Mum Mum, Rooney ate his nouveau PB&J... and loved it!

To Sew a Bunny: The Saga Continues

Rooney with tubes
Originally uploaded by Q.

This is a picture of Rooney from this morning. He just looked so cute in his jammies that I had to snap some pics. He's playing with some wooden blocks my friend picked up for me from a consignment shop. This may have been the best $4 I ever spent. He loves banging stuff with these, especially these tube-ish blocks. He bangs the floor, the window and his favorite thing to bang on...the TV! Ahhh he can't break that we'll need it as a babysitter pretty soon!

Yesterday I went back to my friend Krista's house to work on Rooney's bunny. Krista assured me the bunny pattern was idiot proof. Oh boy did I prove her wrong. I love when I'm right! (Here's a picture of Krista "fixing" my bunny).
Anyway, according to Krista the bunny will be fine and we'll just have touch up a few spots. Supposedly no one will notice. I'm a little dubious but I am still hoping that it will come out OK. That pattern on the fabric is really cute, although, I did get razzed a little because his bunny will have a dog pattern on it. In reality though, my fabric selection was no surprise to anyone.

So what was Rooney doing while I was creating this masterpiece for him? Click here to see how Rooney entertained himself while I toiled.

To Sew a Bunny

Wow what a difference a year makes. With Rooney's impending birthday I can't help but reflect on where we were a year ago. A year ago today we were officially past both due dates we were given for Rooney and I was very uncomfortable (see What's It Going To Take? Sept. 21, 2005). It's amazing to me that a year ago I could barely walk because someone's little head was in my pelvis and today I can run around freely and am able to prep to play soccer. Rooney has been so fun and we've done so much together it will be sad when this chapter of his life closes. We have many pictures and the blog of course, so at least I (and eventually Rooney) will have something to look back on and reflect.

Speaking of things we do together...the Moms Club has come up with a new club within the club called the Sewing Club. This club was formed by my friend Krista so I decided to participate. She promised to teach me how to sew and I thought that knowledge might eventually be useful. Maybe I'll even learn to iron one day...although we just sold our iron & ironing board in our garage sale...anyway I did do a little sewing and here's a picture as proof! I am working on making Rooney a stuffed bunny. This is supposed to be a pretty easy project but we had a lot of problems and I will have to redo some of my work. Nevertheless Rooney will one day have a little stuffed bunny that was made with love for him by him Momma.

The Birthday Plan

Well Rooney has recovered nicely from his illness. It seemed like he was really only sick 2 days. I kept him home for almost a week other than visiting his friend Parker (who was sick previously). Last week was a hard week because Rooney had to be so homebound. I am kind of thankful that Parker was sick (sorry to say that Krista) because it was nice to be able to escape someplace & know it was safe. I've come to this conclusion several times since living in this house, but when we were home all week I realized this house is just way too small. I found myself perusing the real estate listings when Rooney slept.

Other than Rooney being sick a few other things have been going on. I've been talking about signing Rooney up for Kindermusik for quite a while. Well we finally did it. Mike is still skeptical that it is worth the cost, but I've heard nothing but good things about this program and we both know if sports were involved there would be alot less skepticism and complaints about cost. Rooney and I had our first class today and we had a good time. The teacher, Mrs. Lauren, has a beautiful singing voice and Rooney would just stop and watch her when she was singing. You'd think he never heard good singing before. Which is surprising because I sing to him all the time. Anyway we got to move alot, sing and play with instruments plus Rooney got to hang out with Parker and those two seem to love being together.

Mike and I have also been planning Rooney's birthday. We kind of hemmed and hawed about what to do for his 1st birthday. I really felt I wanted a party for him, although the trend these days seems to be not to make a fuss. However, since Rooney is my 1st child and it's his 1st birthday, I decided I wanted to make a fuss...so we are going to have 2 parties. Now I know that sounds excessive but it's really only because our house is so small. We decided to have family over to our house on Saturday for some food & cake and then have a kid's party at Kindermusik on Sunday afternoon.

I was a little stressed over what to get Roonster for his birthday. He has alot of toys, but I love getting him toys. He could use clothes and pj's, but from his parents, that is not a very memorable gift. I decided to get him one toy that could be somewhat memorable & a few things to wear. So I hunted for the toy. I found this really cool doggy pull toy. I was pretty jazzed about it and couldn't wait to give it to Rooney. Here's a picture of the toy: I should have looked at the dimensions I guess, but from the price and how the toy looked in the picture I thought it was normal sized. However I was surprised when I opened the toy and it looked like a Christmas ornament! I decided to send it back and thankfully found him a comparable toy. So the party is planned, Rooney's gifts have been purchased and now I just have to get a cake. I really hope sugar isn't going to be an issue.

Rooney's First Official Word?

There is a small debate between Mike and myself on what and when Rooney has said his first word. It is my belief that Rooney has already said "Mommy" and meant it, a couple months ago, when he was crying in his crib. Mike and I both heard it over the baby monitor, Mike even asked "Did he say Mommy?", but he is denying Rooney actually meant me.

However, there is no denying Rooney has already acquired comedic timing. Tuesday night, Mike and I had just finished dinner and I was feeding Rooney in his highchair. Mike was still sitting at the table with us and I noticed a funk smell in the area. I asked Rooney, "Did you fart or was it Daddy?" knowing full well who the originator of the funk was. Rooney answered clear as a bell and confirming my suspicions..."Da-ddy"!

Mike couldn't deny it and I couldn't deny Rooney meant it. The debate remains whether this was Rooney's first official word though.

Mr. Pathetic

Rooney sicko
Originally uploaded by wade0016.

Rooney is sick again. Monday he seemed to have a slight fever and wasn't as frisky as he usually is but he seemed to eat OK and he kind of bounced back later in the afternoon. I thought maybe he was just teething or getting a cold but that night he was awake all night! Mike and I got about 3 hours of sleep each. We kind of took turns staying up with Roonster. Each time I would get him to sleep in my arms and try to put him down in his crib he would wake up crying. It got to be so frustrating...for both of us I'm sure.

Rooney's friend had recently been diagnosed with Hand Foot Mouth Disease. He eventually had rashy blisters almost everywhere but his mouth. They hung out together Thursday (before anyone knew his friend was sick), inadvertently shared a sippy cup and Rooney got sick. I did not originally believe Rooney had the same thing because he did not have any blisters, however, he was drooling buckets and eventually soaked through at least 4 bibs yesterday (note the drool bib he has on in all the photos). I kept trying to check his mouth when he would open it. I was really looking for new teeth but eventually saw the blisters! Poor baby!

So as you can imagine Rooney has been very uncomfortable. There isn't much treatment for this disease but we have been trying to make him comfortable. He is very leery now whenever we offer him anything by mouth. He didn't eat much yesterday but we were able to get him to drink and finally eat dinner. Last night Rooney slept 7hrs and only woke up to get something to eat. Yay!

I took some pretty cute pictures of him roaming the house yesterday. Click here to view them.

Life As A Social Butterfly

Rooney in hair bonnet
Originally uploaded by wade0016.

I know, I know...you're probably wondering what has taken me so long to post. Believe me it was not for lack of wanting to. Rooney and I have just had a busy week. Tuesday we had a playgroup during open gym at Gym Starz. Babies all over tumbling mats and equipment! It was so cute. After the playgroup we decided to visit Aunt Annie at work. Rooney made sure he was dressed appropriately and tried to get to work. Her work seemed to feel there may have been some height issues but I think he could have done it.

Wednesday Roonster & I did a 4 mile trail walk with some other moms. It was a warm day on a dirt trail but we had a good time. I've been mulling over the idea of trying to join this non-official running group in the Moms Club. One of the women we walked with is in the group so this long walk gave me an opportunity to find out about the group and get good info on where to get good running shoes.

Thursday we had a coffee date with other Moms Club members. We all descended on this poor, unsuspecting coffee shop. Babies running amok everywhere. Rooney kept heading for the glass doors. Now that he's walking he seems to think he's some kind of escape artist. Later that afternoon Rooney helped Mom (and Aunt Annie) do a little grocery shopping.

Finally Friday! Grandma Peggie is coming for a visit! My mom ferried into town on her way home from Canada where she was Grizzly Bear watching and ziplining through rain forests. She was only here for a matter of hours but Rooney seemed to enjoy his visit. Before Grandma arrived, Aunt Annie came over and we all got coffee with Uncle Dana. Rooney seemed pretty fascinated with Uncle Dana so Uncle Dan better keep on his toes. There may be a new sheriff in town in Rooney's eyes. When Grandma arrived we all met up at Dana's house and Rooney got to play with Felix. They are so cute together! My mom's friend, Linda, summed it up perfect when she called them "little bookends".

What's a Doodle?

Did I not read my own post 2 posts ago? I said I hated garage sales! Yet, despite my lack of love, Mike and I decided to have a 2 day garage sale this weekend! Saturday we were very busy and we sold alot of stuff. Rooney was out there running around & being cute, Dana & Renae came for a visit (plus we got them to take buy some of our junk) and we raked in a decent amount of loot. Sunday was a whole different story. Where were my friends?!? Where was our family?!? Sunday was pretty slow and despite having Rooney out there like some dancing monkey it took a whole day to finally draw some people in. I have to admit I had a hard time letting go of some of my beloved possessions. I kind of felt like my whole teenage years was sitting on my driveway. In retrospect it was a good thing to purge myself of those possessions. I wish I sold them for more than $0.25 a memory though.

OK, now enough whining about my childhood...I have Rooney's to worry about now! I found out something awful this morning...absolutely horrific. I was cruising Craigslist when I saw a post for a Rooney Doodlebop Halloween costume. So of course this peaked my interest and I went to the internet to find out what a Rooney Doodlebop was. Well...here it is! Oh my god what is that? If this show takes off, and you know it will NOW, my poor son will share the same name as a Doodle and worse yet, if this show gets big, then people may think we named him after a Doodle! Please, I beg of you, if anyone asks you if we named our son after a Doodle, emphatically tell them NO!