Desean Vivo Los Dos Cheesies!

(Can you tell the real Cheesie from the fake Cheesie?)

We finally did it! We were able to purchase a second Cheesie for Rooney off of Ebay. I was starting to believe we would not be able to find and purchase a 2nd one. I kept getting outbid on Ebay because we absolutely refused to pay $49.99 for a baby security blanket. However, I was recently lucky enough to find one on there that was lightly used. Obviously this drives the price down quite a bit and I was able to purchase Cheesie #2 for a more reasonable price. Rooney has not yet born witness to the two Cheesies. I was afraid his little head might start spin and his whole world might implode, so we decided to reserve #2 for #1's bath time and as a stand in if #1 , god forbid, were to become lost.

I think Christmas just came early for this branch of the Wade family.

Feliz Navidad

What Smells Like Jam But Is Cheesie All Over?

Through the moms groups, playgroups, and other mom/baby activities Rooney and I participate in, we've made alot of friends. The amount of little friends Rooney has is great, more than I could have asked for, but nobody seems to come close to his best friend...Cheesie. I've written about Cheesie many times before but this little blanket really is his best bud. I took some pictures this morning to illustrate just how close they've become.







Best buds in deep conversation









Sharing a little breakfast










Remnants of breakfast








Not only a great conversationalist but also a very dapper hat





Parker, Rooney's other best bud, need not worry though. Cheesie will never be able to talk, but Parker can say "Roon, Roon".

Here Come the ABC's...again and again and again...

Rooney has become obsessed lately. He has always liked his They Might Be Giants cd's but recently that's all he wants to hear or see. We own both the cd and dvd for their Here Come the ABC's release. I will normally play the cd in Rooney's room, as his "play" music, when I need to take a shower or be Rooneyless for a few minutes. However it has progressed and all he wants is his cd, or most beloved dvd, playing in every room. To be honest it has its benefits, this is how I am getting this blog post written but we do have our limits and I have to get him distracted with other things sometimes. Besides They Might Be Giants Rooney also really loves his Megablocks. We will often sit on the floor and create huge towers. I love these moments because you can actually see his little brain working figuring things out. So I took a little photo shoot...



Still in the ABC Zone









The masterpiece begins to take shape









Sometimes you have to tear it down and rebuild to get it right








Attempt #2










The sign of a real artist...always re-examining




We used every block creating Rooney's masterpiece (twice) and then it all got torn down to start again the next day. Rooney seemed relived and right away asked for the ABC's!

I think we need an intervention.

If You're Enough Lucky to be Irish...You're Lucky Enough

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and we made sure to celebrate in a very traditional fashion. We had Rigatoni and Meatballs (a rustic dish from the North) and lemonade in Guinness glasses for dinner (little know fact: lemonade has been the drink of choice for St. Patty's Day for centuries). Rooney really got into the holiday by putting on his "Irish" shirt and digging into some garlic bread. It feels so good to keep traditions alive.

Earlier in the day, Annie and Cuyler came over to babysit Roonster for Mike and I. We went over to our old house to clean & fill in the big hole left in the front yard from our downed tree. Rooney loves his cousin Cuyler so much. He always smiles when he sees him and when we are at Annie's house, Rooney will grab Cuyler's photo off the shelf, and carry it around with him. Annie said that Cuyler was really good with Rooney too. He kept him calm when I left and read books and played with him to keep him entertained. In a few years I will have a great babysitter!

Rooney is really digging the new house. His playroom (also know as the livingroom) is right next to the kitchen. He likes to cruise through the kitchen with his walker and do laps back to the livingroom. Lately he has started to give rides. In this pic you can see Cheesie hitchin' a ride. Cheesie soon moved up into cuddle position but made it around the kitchen once or twice in Rooney's sweet ride first.



Afterwards, Rooney went for his own sweet ride.

March Madness

During the months of February and March it seems everyone has a birthday! Besides family, Rooney (and thus Mike and I), has been invited to several birthday parties. We've gone to a few, didn't go to a few, and by the time the end of March rolls around we'll be pretty sick of birthdays. Since Rooney is going through his "hitting" phase, these parties tend to be more stressful than enjoyable.

Recently we went to a little girls birthday at Rooney's old-Kindermusik place. This was familiar territory so I thought he would enjoy himself. Hmmmm...which one is our kid? When Rooney got there he seemed to notice that everyone looked a little different. It was actually kind of cute because he was just looking at everyone. He did have fun at first but he was the youngest kid there and the activities progressively got harder and for older kids. I can pinpoint with a picture when he stopped having fun. Oh here it is... he might have a smirk but he was trying to squirm out of my arms. I had to sit farther back, out of the circle, because Rooney was swatting at the kids sitting around him.

This weekend was Felix's birthday. The first 2 hours were for kids. Many of Rooney's friends were there but I think right now, it's too much for him. He did several time outs. Once most of the kids left & it was just family Rooney did alot better and had a better time. There are some cute pictures of Felix opening gifts. It was a little hard to get him interested because one of the girls' had a real cute pair of little pink shoes and he was more interested in those. The solution? Let Felix wear the shoes while opening gifts.



Here's Felix opening Rooney's gift to him:



Hopefully this will be it for awhile. Once Super Dave is born (Rooney's impending cousin) then the birthday season will be stretched a little further. Of course by Dave's 1st birthday I hope Rooney will be out of his "phase". Plus, all the kids will be much smaller so he can just step on them.





Signing off,
Rooney & Momma

Mensa Man

In yesterday's post I mentioned that it appeared that Rooney was understanding things that I would tell him or ask him. This is really great and as I was giving him his bath last night I remembered what the event was that made me realize that he is understanding things I say.

Last week after I had given Rooney his bath we were in his room getting him ready for bed. He has these little dog pictures on his wall, that previously I started naming when he would point at them. I had named one Ralph and another Bob I believe. Anyway, Rooney was pointing at the pictures when I said "There's Ralph (a Rottweiler rolled over onto his back)" and started to name the others when I noticed Rooney had started pointing across the room. On a shelf is his Ralph Wiggum doll from The Simpsons! I was so impressed that a. he remembered that dolls name was Ralph (I used to tell him when he would point at it) & b. that he put the 2 together.

I'm not really sure if this is amazing but I thought it was and proved yet again to me, that Rooney is the smartest little boy ever (I will accept that I am biased).

Bad Behavior

There is alot to write about in this post. I have been trying to update Rooneytoons for many days but time is limited to when Rooney is sleeping, I'm not wearing my patch and we are home. Last week we had snow! In this picture Rooney is staring at the snow falling. As you can see, it did not stick at all, but it was still interesting to watch. Later that day we also had a very loud hail storm. Springtime in the PNW can be a real weather event. After 11 years I'm still not used to the weather here. If we got any of this weather in So. Cal I would have thought the sky was falling or something.

I am sad to report I believe Rooney has entered into his "terrible 2's" already. He had started biting awhile ago. I hated that Rooney was going to be known as a "biter" but I accepted it & knew it was a phase. Well now he has started hitting. Ahhh! This has become very difficult for me, because 1. you don't want your kid to hit but 2. one of the mom's in our playgroup is very sensitive to her son being bullied. So now I am worried that Rooney is going to be labeled a bully, when he really isn't. Sometimes he just wants to play alone and it really doesn't help matters when the other kids take toys away from him. Anyway this has been stressful and we have started implementing "time-outs". I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, and once Rooney can communicate a little more, we may revisit how we'll handle discipline.

Along with this new phase Rooney has also done some exciting things. I have tried since Rooney was probably 6 months to do some signs with him. Admittedly I have been really lax on using the signs lately because he really didn't seem real interested in using them. Last week Rooney, out of the blue, pulled out a few of these signs to let me know what he wanted. One if which, the sign for milk, he never used before! I was so amazed. It also appears that Rooney is understanding what I am saying to him, even if he does not verbally respond. Lately, when I give him verbal commands, such as asking him to stand in the bathtub when I need to rinse him off, he will stand up. Very helpful!

Rooney has also started mimicking some behavior. Man this is cute. A couple times Rooney has tried to give his Cheesie drinks of water from his cup. I have also witnessed him doing this with a stuffed dog he has. Then this weekend at Kim's baby shower, I was feeding Rooney a yogurt, and he kept put Cheesies face into the container like he was eating! Oh my god it was the funniest, sweetest and cutest thing I have seen in a long time. He's becoming such a big boy. So big in fact that he has decided to go down to one nap a day. This has been real hard for me. I really relied on the 2 naps. We have come up with a pretty good schedule for us though. Rooney gets up every morning at 7:30am, he plays w/dad for an hour or so, I take over, feed him breakfast, we go to the family room & play/read books. At 10am Sesame Street comes on (which Rooney loves). Rooney watches Sesame Street, I wear my eye patch (I am strengthening my right eye by patching my left eye- no pirate jokes please!) and then at 11am Rooney goes down for his nap. In the 2 hours he's down I should shower, answer emails & do anything around the house that I need to get done without him. I normally get my shower in & answer emails. Weekends have been busy with the other stuff.

That being said I should jump in the shower or get some laundry folded...