Rooney Esponga

Oh man are exciting things happening with Rooney! Granted, the average person might not find the next few things earth shattering, but being Rooney's mom, they are making me giddy. First, Rooney ate a shrimp! This wasn't a little tiny Bay Shrimp either. This was a "stick-me-on-a-skewer-because-I-am-a-meal" shrimp! And he ate the whole thing. Just this last week he started eating his whole 1/2 of sandwich...outside of the car! He has been sitting at the table and wolfing down his pb&j in like 5 minutes. Then just Friday, for the 1st time ever, Rooney chose to eat a piece of cheese. Oh how I was envious of my friends who could hand their kids a cheese stick and the kids would happily chomp away. Now I can be part of the crowd, because not only did Rooney eat the cheese on Friday, but he ate it again yesterday. This means he didn't forget he liked it. Woo hoo!

In addition to a new advanced palate Roonster is expanding his vocabulary. As you saw from the video he has "No" down firmly. He is also saying "Night, night Daddy", "Annie", "Natalie" and is starting to sing. I will try very hard to get this on video because it is really sweet. He is starting to learn the Spongebob Squarepants theme song, as it is fastly becoming his favorite show. We try not to let him watch too much tv, but sometimes you just need to get a blog post done or Dad is in charge.

I have also started having Rooney use paints in the house. I've been leery of this to tell the truth but these washable paints and crayons are great. It took Rooney a few minutes before he would get his hands dirty. Once he did though...oh boy watch out! Maybe there is a hidden talent in there. Maybe inherited from Grandpa Bob. Who knows. As long as he doesn't get any ideas about being a very young interior designer than I will be happy.

YouRoon

Ah! I cannot believe Felix beat us to this new Blogger feature...video upload! I mean Felix rarely updated his blog, how did he beat us to this? Oh well, no matter, his post was cute and worth posting first. Mike and I have been taking footage recently of Rooney. I do not think I could adequately put into words how swiftly Roonster is growing and developing lately. It is so amazing, frustrating and fun at the same time. These are just a few glimpses into our daily lives...

(click on the black box 1st, then click the play button)

Cell Phone Moments

Cell phones are great...at least they are becoming great. For a long time I did not want one. They were quite large, expensive and did I really need to be in constant contact with anyone? When I moved to the PNW I started to see a positive side to them. The size of them had shrunk considerably, alot of the PNW is rural and my car was older than myself. In LA breaking down on the side of the road was an inconvenience but there are call boxes everywhere- not here, so I started to see a necessity.

Now that I have a child I would be absolutely lost without my cell phone. My cell phone is not only a lifeline with all my friends, but all MD phone #'s are stored there and with the amazing invention of the camera phone alot of really great moments are captured. Now that Rooney is older and more mobile I do not always keep our digital camera on hand and this slim, pink little phone has picked up the slack wonderfully. Granted some of the pics may be a little grainy and you forget to change settings, so the color may be off, but I would never have been able to get a picture of Rooney "comforting" Courage (on his way home from a vet appointment)in the back seat of my car, with a big bulky digital. That look of frozen fear on Courage's face is not from the vet's office, if you catch my drift.

Here are a few cute pics I was able to capture. These have been taken over the last couple of months and it is saying something to me that most of them are in the car and Starbucks...something like...


Wake up and keep your eyes on the road, lady!

Summer of Rooney

Things have been busy for Rooney lately. Summertime always means we have a packed social calendar. Mostly thanks to Rooney. This week has been especially hot so on the hottest days we tried to plan activities indoors. On Wednesday Rooney and I went to a concert held at a indoor play area. This was really cool and I ultimately passed on our usual Storytime at Barnes and Noble because Rooney enjoys music so much. At first he was a little afraid. We were sitting up front and I think the music was a bit loud, so we moved to the back. We played wiffle ball soccer in the open space behind all the seats and as Rooney got acclimated and the drums started, he moved closer.








In the last 2 photos Rooney is boogieing down to the music. He was hopping to the Hop Song (pic 4) and doing his patented floor dance (pic 5). Rooney's really changing alot lately. Physically he is not changing that much to me (although I know he is) but he is starting to do more. That hop dance was the 1st time he has been able to jump. He is speaking alot more. He is clearly saying "Doggy", "Hot", "No" and "Daddy". Just yesterday, I heard him say clear as a bell "Where's Daddy?". I still don't know where Daddy was. Not only is he speaking more but Rooney is attempting alot more words also, like: Annie, Rocco, Natalie, I love you. Although his moods are getting tougher and he is becoming more demanding, I think it might be getting a slightly easier to get him to try foods. If he just touches the new food I consider that an accomplishment. Historically he would have just knocked the plate or fork on the floor.

Some changes are a little sad. Within the last couple of weeks Rooney has found a new lovey. He received this puppy stuffed animal from one of our friends from Mike's work. It is a cute puppy but Rooney never even noticed it until recently and now they're best buds. Where does this leave Cheesie? His fate is undetermined at this point. I would suspect that Cheesie will always be the ultimate bud, but you never know when he'll be "accidentally" left somewhere by Rooney.


Poor Cheesie!

The Rooney's New Clothes

The sad thing is that one day this won't be so cute...








hopefully by then I won't still be giving him a bath.

What's A Picasso To Do?

You might be wondering to yourself "What is Rooney doing?" and "Why is he all slimy looking?". Well the answer to both of your questions is that Rooney is painting himself with ketchup.

As you can see Rooney has tater tots (or just tots for you Napoleon Dynamite fans) on his tray. I am pleased to report that this is a new food in his repertoire. I am sure some other food got dumped, we just haven't been alerted yet. Anyway, since Rooney is eating tots I thought ketchup was the natural yin to the tot yang and I filled his plate with both.

We were having a very pleasant dinner when I look up and I see Rooney smothering himself in ketchup. He dipped his whole hand into the ketchup and just used it like a brush. Of course I was alarmed but once the first paint stroke is on the canvas what are you going to do? We let Picasso finish his meal and then sprinted to the clean up...


Things are so much easier with a boy...






(In interested of full disclosure this photo was taken several days later and that pregnant woman is not me)