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...

Updates

(Gratuitous Rooney Pic)


I was planning on writing a whole post about my post-op Lasik. Well, I should say Mike was going to write a post, but as you can see he hasn't, so I was going to write it. However, I remembered that he said that he had something all planned for the picture he took of me so I'll give him a second chance.
In the meantime I thought this picture of Rocco would help appease you until Mike finally decides to write. (Honey, you've been called out!)

So while we're waiting for Mike I decided to fulfill another request. I've been asked to take some photos of the house. Our house has been such a mess, & still is for the most part, but I got a few shots in so everyone can get a general sense of the house. The house is a split level with the kitchen & livingroom/playroom on the main floor. Upstairs are 3 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms. Downstairs is the family room & laundry room & downstairs from that is the basement. To see the pics click here

One Hand, Two Hands Drumming on a Drum

I just love this picture of Rooney. I took this recently, in his new big boy bathtub, while he was playing his water drum. Of course right before I took the picture he was banging on the drum in a very impressive fashion. I think his Uncle Casey would be very proud. Once I got the camera out though, the drum was upside down & he was pretending he was on Iron Chef.

Everything is still progressing with "the move". We're really at the stage of just needing to hang stuff. This is always the longest stage, especially when someone does not want to hang stuff. Even though we are still in the throes Mike and I were able to slip away for dinner this weekend (thanks to Aunt Annie). Our dinner out was a belated V-Day dinner which left ample time for Annie and Rooney to cuddle.





I'm not sure she got all the cuddles she wanted out of the deal (boy, do I know how that feels) but she did work on her name with him and by the time she left she was pretty convinced he was trying to say it. I was pretty surprised because even though Rooney may be strugging to say her name, apparently he has no problem writing it (see picture).

I Can See Clearly Now

Hey! I didn't know Bono was in town


(Mike at the MD's office)

Rooney has no clue who this guy is, but those specs are really cool!













Today Mike had his Lasik surgery. As you can see by the pictures he made it through pretty well and he is already watching TV. He said his vision is already better than it is when he wears contacts, so I'm anticipating x-ray vision pretty soon. Those goggles are his "sleeping goggles" and he has to wear those, to bed, for the next few nights. So there may be alot more photos coming.

But let's catch up with Rooney. What's going on with this little guy?

His new loves? Mini Wheats and Goldfish crackers

Here's a picture of Rooney waving me down for more Mini-Wheats

When is Rooney the happiest? When he's goofing around with Daddy or when he's biting Momma





What is the new name for Rooney's security blanket? Cheesie (name submitted, with love, by Aunt Annie)





What is Rooney's new favorite toy (other than Cheesie who willalways be on top)? His Little Tikes Gas Pump

Rooney received this toy on his birthday. Other than a few playdates he never played with it. All of a sudden...he loves it.
Roonster is done with his swim lessons for right now, and Kindermusik finished recently as well. He's been attending Shake, Rattle and Roll classes at the community center but at the same time he also started to go down for 1 nap a day...at the same time as class. We canceled the next class because of it.

Now that we're all caught up with Rooney, and if Mike's eyes are not too sensitive, maybe I can take some close up's of his "flaps" for tomorrow's post.

Keep your fingers crossed.

We're Back!

I finally found the camera! It's been so long since I've posted and there are tons to have posted about. But it was to overwhelming for me to go over again, so I'm just going to give a tidbit. We have moved and I officially never want to do it again. We are still unpacking and we still have to get our old house ready to rent. I officially do not want to go back there either. Seems once I'm out I'm really out. Rooney and the dogs are adjusting well to the new place. I swear on the 1st day the dogs got to play in the backyard I could literally see smiles on their faces. It took about a week for us to fully get our cable & internet and in the process of moving I lost my cell phone somewhere, so now I have a new one coming. During all this Rooney and I got sick and we are just feeling better this weekend. I still wake up feeling like I need an aspirator but after coffee & sitting upright for awhile things start to loosen up. Here are a few pics of Rooney in the family room (right after I found the camera) & one or two of the backyard. If you look real close you can see the dogs but they are in the foliage.

Grease It Up

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with what I am going to post about...but I thought it was cute how he was reading the cereal box.

Things have been going well with the house. Mike has been over most nights this week prepping or painting. So far the master bedroom & bath have been painted & Rooney's room is basically done. I will have to go over mid-week and add the paw prints. We are doing his room the same as it is here. We like it plus we thought it might make the transition to the new house easier. We don't think the main bathroom will be painted before we move it but...what are you going to do?

I was over at the house on Sunday. Roonster and I went to visit Mike. While we were there I noticed that the kitchen was kind of dirty. I decided I would start cleaning while Rooney was eating his lunch. Wow! I really opened a can of worms there! I cannot believe how disgusting the kitchen turned out to be. On the surface it looked OK but if you looked close you start to notice the cabinet doors were kind of scungy as were the outside of the fridge and stove. As I started getting in there with a little elbow grease it became more and more evident there must have been a jelly fight at some point. It also became evident these people never looked lower than eye level. There was splattered food and grease everywhere. I even had to clean the dishwasher! Yuck. I pulled out all the drawers from the fridge, cleaned the hood of the stove & even underneath the kitchen sink.

I decided when I got home to check out our kitchen, in case I was being too harsh. In all fairness there were a few splatters underneath the hood but I felt vindicated when I opened up our dishwasher & there was no crumbolis! A ha! They were huge slobs! I will be the 1st to admit our floors get pretty gross now with a 15mo. constantly throwing food on the floor and 2 dogs, but nothing like this.

Anyway, the house has a base clean. I think we have several more days ahead of us.

All Wet!

Last night we went to Rooney's swimming lessons. I love that Mike and Rooney can do something together where they can bond. What a trust builder...on Rooney's end at least. Rooney did really well but got a little cold near the end. Thank heavens we're over the Arctic Blast we had recently.

Mike and I went for our final Lasik pre-op appointment before the lessons yesterday. It has been a long time since I've had my eyes dilated. Being dilated so long kind of made me nauseous. Also, when I was taking pictures at the pool I couldn't really see the picture on the display after I took it. I just had to hope some of them turned out well. The good news is that Mike and I are both scheduled for our surgeries. Because of the amblyopia I have, it was not clear if I would be a good candidate, but I got the call this morning that the surgeon thought everything would work well for me. I was even told that after a year or so they may consider doing my left eye (I was previously told there is no way they would touch that eye). Our appointments are on Feb. 15th & the 22nd. Oooooo I'm excited and nervous already. Mike is going 1st so I can see how it goes with him.

Alot is really going on this month. We are currently getting our new house ready. We plan to move in Superbowl Saturday. Mike has been over the last couple night and started painting. We are having issue with installing baby gates but hopefully Jim & Mike can get something worked out. Sorry I haven't really taken any photos yet. I've been having to keep a hold of Rooney when I'm there. Photos coming soon I hope.

Amlyopi...what?

Yesterday we took Rooney to his first optometrist appointment. Taking a 15mo old may seem early to alot of people. It was very important to me that his eyes get checked and as you will read we had good reason.

Some of you know that I am severely nearsighted in my right eye. I was diagnosed with "lazy eye" (as I've always known it) when I was 5 years old. I wore glasses, a patch over my eye and I remember getting eye drops. My understanding was my eye was as strong as it was going to get when I was 13 and I no longer had to wear glasses full time. When I was a kid that was the extent of my knowledge of my condition. All I knew, or cared about, was that I did not have to worry about a patch or glasses again.

When I was pregnant I read somewhere that children, who have just 1 parent with "lazy eye", have a 50% chance of getting it. The earlier it is caught, the more they can do for the child and it was strongly suggested that children of parents that have this condition have their eyes checked in infancy. The good news is that Rooney inherited Mike's eyes. The MD said it would be very rare that Rooney would now develop "amblyopia". If you click on the link you can read about the condition and read that, even though the treatment is the same from when I was a kid, they feel that prolonged use of those techniques could have positive results. Rooney not having this condition was such a relief to me but I have to admit I was made a little sick to my stomach to think there was possibly more that could have been done for me. Mike and I are planning on having Lasik surgery soon. Mike should be able to come out it with 20/20 vision but for me they will only do surgery on my "bad eye" (my right eye) for fear if my good eye was traumatized in some fashion I would basically be blind. Also, after surgery my vision will only be somewhat better but it should push off the need for reading glasses to a bit later in life. Any better vision is better vision as I see it though. So look for updates about that surgery!

Anyway, Rooney could still develop other eye problems such as nearsightedness but not amblyopia. The MD suggested we bring Rooney back when he is 4 years old so that he could actually measure his sight.

Below are two pictures I found that show how a person with amblyopia sees things if they were to look through each eye independently.

Our Best Friend

Today we did it! We finally signed the papers to our new house! There were many obstacles and I was dubious at many points if we were actually going to do it, but it's done. So where's the keys?

Ok onto a completely different subject...for a long time now I have been hunting for a new blanky for Rooney. His current blanky is in desperate need of a vacation. The nose is being sucked off! I have bought two other security blankets, so his favorite could be washed once in awhile, but he doesn't pay them any attention.

Part of the problem in finding this exact, "My Best Friend" blanket, is that Carter's has discontinued making it. What were they thinking? I thought I would scour the Internet and see if I could find one floating around. I found several on Ebay. They were NWT and I was pretty jazzed until I saw the prices. The lowest priced one was $24.99! Yikes I think this was $7.99 when it was in the stores. I'm afraid to ask why they are so expensive now. Is there some weird group of people that collect baby security blankets? I think there might be...and that scares me.

In the meantime, while these weirdos are collecting their little obsessions they are jacking up the price on our sanity!

Hee Haw

I'm not sure if you've heard but Seattle was hit with another snow storm. Wednesday night was awful. Mike left work at 4:30pm and was then stuck in traffic for the next 5-1/2hrs! I couldn't possibly imagine. Everytime I spoke with Mike on the phone he was so calm and cool. While I'm talking to him, and he is telling me it took him 1/2hr to go 1 mile, I was picturing myself in the car, banging my head against the steering wheel. The only thing Mike asked for was to be home before his birthday.

His wish was granted and the next day (his birthday) we all stayed home. So what are we going to do with this whole day? Mike decided to give Rooney a haircut (haircut #2). This haircut didn't seem to go as smooth as the 1st one. After alot of tears, and a Pringle, Mike got the job done and Rooney was back to looking like my little man. Earlier in the day we had all tried to go out and build a snowman. The snow was too powdery though and we just ended up with wet mittens. Rooney seemed to like the snow until he fell into it barehanded and then Mom insisted he wear gloves. Didn't like the gloves, didn't want them on and wanted nothing to do with them again. We all went in shortly afterwards.

Rooney is trying to communicate so much now. Most of the time his attempts end in frustration and his whole meal on the floor but tonight he was very clear. As we were eating dinner Rooney started saying "ass, ass". After several attempts of saying "ass, ass" and alot of finger pointing we figured out he wanted our juice glasses from dinner. Oh! It clicked and the "'ass, 'ass" made sense, right? So I let him hold the glass and he gets very excited. Once I give him the glass, he started to "possess" the glass, and love the glass. And then he's got so excited he started to shake the glass, and swing the glass.

So...now "ass, ass" started to make even more sense. He knew what I was going to feel like after I gave him the glass.

Baywatch...The Next Generation

Tonight Mike took Rooney to Renton Pool and started swimming lessons. It's quite chilly tonight and it really didn't seem very appropriate to be going, but that class was full. And yes, if you are wondering if that is Dana and Felix in the picture, you would be right.

Oh man did it look like Rooney was enjoying himself (Felix too). It was very loud in there, alot of kids and parents and the possibility of an overstimulation meltdown seemed just about imminent. It wasn't, thankfully. I think all the bouncing, splashing and short exercises really helped keep him entertained. Plus he got to spend time with Dad and they both got to show off their guns to Mom.

I have not posted about Rooney's 15 month MD appointment. Roonster's growth has slowed a little bit. This means Mike may have to revise his rendering of Rooney at 17 (So Big, Oct. 5, 2006). Instead of his usual 2" growth every 3 months he only grew 1" this time. The Big Guy is now 34 3/4" tall (still off the chart) and 26lbs 5oz. He's not really that heavy for his height but he's quite heavy to be lifting. This kid is already breaking my back and I realized that with more kids I will probably have a sore back the rest of my life! And then grandkids! Yikes!

Your parents warn you...but you never really think it's going to happen to you.

S P L A T!

Yuck! What are they doing? Here's Mike and I ringing in the New Year! We spent New Year's Eve with Annie, Jim, Dana, Renae and Brandi. We went to Dana & Renae's traditional spot, Salty's, and waited for the countdown. Rooney was safely being watched by Natalie and Megan. Turns out he rang in the new year himself. Wide awake at midnight he got to watch the countdown with his cousins. To see the rest of the New Year's Photos click here.

New Year's Eve was a nice distraction from everything going on. Our house is still set to close on Jan. 18th. Mike and I have been running around providing all the additional documents they always need and signing papers. It's amazing how you can forget how to sign your name mid-way through a signing session. We are still in the process of removing our fallen tree and Rooney and I are just starting to get back into our groove w/our mom groups. My car is still not fully restored but I did get a new window installed and Sirius sent me a new receiver (free of charge). I'm still waiting for Car Toys to get the console replacement piece so my new stereo can be installed. It's a very quiet ride in my car now and I hate it. I've been driving Mike's car alot lately.

But there cannot always be good news...yesterday a terrifying thing happened. Mike, Rooney and I went to Target to reestablish supplies. Rooney was getting a little fussy and wanted out of the cart. I figured we were almost done, so if he held my hand, he can walk around with us. Of course that ended up not being good enough (you give these kids an inch) and Rooney wanted to start running all over so I had Mike put him on his shoulders. Rooney really seems to like this and everything was going smooth...until Rooney was able to grab a wine bottle off an upper shelf. Of course the wine bottle was too heavy for him so he dropped it. I'm watching this whole thing unfold and I gasp, but then Mike catches it and for a second I'm relieved and Mike is really proud that he caught the bottle but then...

my eyes grow really wide and I remember hearing myself say "Oh my god!"...

when I see Rooney fall off Mike's shoulders...

and SPLAT right on the ground!

I think that second, that Rooney was laying on the ground, must have been the most terrorizing second of my life...so far (I know there will be more). He cried when we swooped him up, but thankfully, he was wearing his hat and his jacket, and I think when he fell the jacket hood helped cushion his head and he just got the wind knocked out of him. He did a low cry for a little while but finally settled down and seemed fine by the time we got to the store. We've been keeping an eye on him and we haven't observed any odd behavior.

Poor Mike. He feels so awful. He feels like he's a bad dad because Rooney slipped off his shoulders. The whole incident happened so fast and natural reaction was to catch the bottle. I tried to reassure him but he still feels awful. I think they'll both be OK though.

One day, in the far off future, we'll be able to laugh about this and talk about when Rooney was dropped on his head, but for now, with everyone, I think it's a pretty sensitive subject (literally).