Best Week Ever?

What a fun week we've had! We celebrated Rooney's birthday on Saturday at the Bouncy Place. Not only did the kids have a good time but most of the adults had a blast too. I've received some photos from Dana and Renae. To view them check here.

On Tuesday we continued our annual pumpkin patch trip with our AMAT. We were so relieved to have great weather and the kids really enjoyed mucking it up in the mud.



Today was a really cool day. We did our monthly tot trek at a nearby Seattle park. We meet with a Naturalist through the Parks Dept. and we always have a new theme. Today's theme was Spiders. Of course just in time for Halloween. All the kids really seemed intrigued. They listened to the Naturalist speak about spiders and their webs with their mouths agape. She showed the kids big rubber spiders, then a real tarantula shell and then the kids were able to pet a live tarantula.

At first Rooney was afraid but once he saw the other kids do it he wanted to try too. My little follower. I think he thought it was pretty cool though.



After our "class" the Naturalist took us out into the park to look for spiders and webs with magnifying glasses. Rooney had a meltdown in the middle but by the end he had perked up and soldiered on for a little more spider knowledge.

How many people get to pet a tarantula...and live to tell about it? Pretty cool week. To view all the pics from the pumpkin patch and the tot trek check here.

In The Year Of The Big Boy

This weekend we celebrated Rooney's 3rd birthday. It's tempting to go through the whole sentimental roller coaster about how fast he is growing up but I'm not going to do that. This is definitely the year of being a Big Boy.

On Friday we took Rooney to his favorite restaurant for dinner...Red Robin (or as he calls it Big Red Bird). We decided not to make a spectacle of him at this point and didn't mention to the staff that it was his birthday. He'll thank us later. We had a good dinner then came home and opened gifts from Mom & Dad, Grandma and Pop Pop and Grandma Peggie. Rooney liked all his gifts and they were all pretty different so it worked out well. No cake on Friday night but Roon got a little ice cream.

Saturday Rooney had his big party at his favorite place on Earth...The Bouncy Place. He got to invite several of his good friends (and mine) and the kids bounced & then pigged out on junk food for 2 hours. Rooney got a lot of really nice gifts and thankfully he did not get too overwhelmed. When we got home we let him play with one of the toys (a fire breathing dragon) until nap time. It seemed that toy would be his favorite but he's against discrimination so he's giving them all a fair shake.

This year was the first year Roonster really got it. He talked about his party before he even knew there was going to be one! He talked about the cake and presents for months and would ask periodically "Are we going to my party?". Now that it's over he seems pretty happy to share the experience and is talking about Mommy's birthday and Parker's.

Rooney is so into birthdays that he is even talking about Nannie's birthday (Aunt Annie), which is in January, and according to Rooney she'll be turning 5.

I'll post more pictures on Flick when they come in!

R-O-O-N-E-Y

(Super Rooney with Power Ranger Sword)

Now that Rooney is almost an official big guy (he's 3 next Friday!) his maturity is really becoming evident. He has entered the stage where he really wants to be independent. We are constantly hearing "I wanna do it!". Sometimes this is great and makes life easier like when he can climb into his own carseat and booster seat at the table or that he can also comfortably traverse the stairs by himself. Of course with the good there is bad and Roonster is now wanting to push the grocery cart instead of ride in it, he wants to walk everywhere including parking lots and he has started the dreaded talking back. So far it hasn't been bad. We are very lucky because he is a pretty sweet kid. Most of the time, although it seems almost counter instinctive, if I get down to his level, speak in a softer tone and explain to him:

a. he is too little for cars to see him when walking in a parking lot then he will hold my hand.
b. that we consider him an "official big boy" once he is potty trained. That means he will have a big boy bed, he will no longer have to sit in highchairs at restaurants, he will be able to walk in stores (not the cart) and finally he an go into the ball room at Ikea.
c. I am the boss and I do the bossing

Point B normally covers most areas and he gets it. He will list all the things that will happen once he's a big boy and potty trained (which he is definitely in the process of). If Point A or C don't cover the rest we rarely, but sometimes have to, resort to dreaded Point Z...timeout. Ugh!

Also now that Rooney is getting older it's time to start learning even more things like spelling his name. I came up with this little song awhile ago- maybe even a year ago where I spelled out Rooney's name! This kid has a great memory (and I know that will come back to bite me) and he remembered it. So this is a short clip of Rooney singing the spelling of his name and letting everyone know its Rooneytime!

The Monster Within...the House

The other day I was casually walking through our office to let the dogs outside. As I was walking back across the room something caught my eye...this something was something large. I gasped and nearly screamed when I saw the biggest, ugliest and strangest looking spider I had ever seen in real life. I suddenly found myself in a real conundrum. How was I going to get this monster out of the house? There is a small child and two small dogs to protect. I'm sure they would have been small appetizers to this thing! I quickly thought "how do you get rid of such a large spider"? Normal spider eradication means would not work. He was much too large to crush, I was way too afraid to get close enough to capture him and even the thought of vacuuming him up left me uneasy. However, the vacuum method seemed the least likely to go awry and I decided to get him with the shop-vac. I know there is a chance of reemergence but I just couldn't see any other way. I got the shop-vac out and was all prepared to take care of business when I realized he was as big, if not bigger, than the hose opening. It was too close for comfort so I decided to get the wide hose attachment. I mustered up all my courage and put the hose over the beast. He struggled a bit but it appeared he was gone. I was relieved and all the small inhabitants of the house were safe...so I thought.

The very next morning, in the exact same spot, there was either the same spider or his brother came out looking for him. Thankfully Mike was able to handle this one. I don't know if my heart could have handled it. Whoo!


This is also really a bittersweet week for all of us. We've been seeing alot of Grandma and Pop-Pop (which is great) but I am sad to say this is their last week with us. I'm still so amazed how fast the month has gone.

In the last week or so Rooney has spent the night over at Grandma and Grandpa's...twice, had several meals with them (along with Mike and I), we got to go to the fair, had a beautiful trail walk and Rooney finally got his great canoe ride on the lake with Grandma and Pop-Pop. Not that Grandma wasn't excited but Rooney and Grandpa seemed really jazzed. You know what they say about men and their boats (although no one has shared what that is with me). We all have such wonderful memories of this summer, that I think it's safe to say, we are kind of dreading Saturday when they leave us.


Finally, my last update on baby# 2 for awhile. I have been scheduled for minor surgery on October 22nd. Once I am healed from this hopefully we will be able to progress with the program. We will know more about how to proceed next month.

Smashmouth

As promised I have updates from the last blog post. Mike and I had a reconference appointment this week. There was news. I would not really call any of it good but there is alot of it. First, the semi-good news is that the MD believes the PCOS I was diagnosed with over a year ago is a mild case (as I suspected). My OB felt this is the reason that we have been having problems with baby #2, but after having it confirmed that this case is mild, I am dubious. I am quite certain this is something I have had a long time and not a new development. Now for the series of bad news. We appear to have issues on both sides here. It is really almost laughable that we could have obstacle upon obstacle. To further the bad news, the MD believes that I should have surgery to remove a fibroid they found on ultrasound. Earlier this month I had an MRI to find it's exact location and size. Wow that was kind of a weird experience! Anyway, it looks like the size is small but the location is bad. A small percentage of it is basically in the way and the MD's feel it should be removed. I have recreated the exact picture the MD drew for us so you can get a clear idea of what I'm talking about.

I'm sure that explains it all, but if not email me and I'll see if I can draw some more pictures. Mike is going to have to endure some unpleasantness also for his issue and has started to use a pillow when using his laptop. There were also more pills given to me to do various things. The pharmacist was really selling them to me while going over all the possible side effects and grimacing. She ended the lengthy consultation with a happy "I hope you won't have to take these very long". I think I will try to stay positive about this and find her honestly refreshing.

It's not all bad news here though. Since my last post I have run two races. I did a 4+ mile on Labor Day and I completed my first 10k on Sunday. The 10k was pretty tough and the race photographer actually got a picture of the exact moment I died. However they are charging $35 for it so you'll have to use your imagination. I was able to get a picture from the 4+ race though. It's almost sadistic that they take these. Does any one's turn out well? Maybe the marathoners know how to smile while trying to suck in precious air, but I haven't grasped that yet (as evidenced by this picture). If you are really curious I think you can view the 10k photos temporarily here.

Also in the last post I made no mention of Rooney's 2 Grandma's and 1 Pop-Pop visiting. My mom was here for a long weekend but Mike's folks have been here about 3 weeks so far. Rooney really enjoys his time with Grandma and Pop-Pop. I really feel like he has a special bond with Pop-Pop and I love having Rooney spend time with them. On Tuesday night he did his first sleep over with Grandma and Grandpa. I think we were all a little nervous, but Mike and I turned off our cell phones and had a great date night! (Just kidding we didn't turn our phones off for the whole night). I think Rooney had a really wonderful time and wants to do it again real soon.

Finally, yesterday was another first for all the Wades present...we went to the Puyallup Fair. I have lived here 13 years and I have never been. I don't know if it was worth waiting 13 years for, but Rooney had a great time (for most of it). He got to go on alot of rides and really enjoyed them until he smashed his face on one of them. He trooped on to do one more though but by that time the tears had already been shed and so the end of the day had begun. Most of the day was happy times though and here are a few pics. I'll try to post more photos soon on Flickr.

The Specialist

Now that Roonster is going to be 3 soon I am sure many of you are wondering when is little Mike Wade numero dos is going to be announced. I'm not making that announcement today but we have decided to share what has been going on in the sibling department for the last 1-1/2 years. We are having trouble. I'll save you any gory, TMI details but I will share that on August 5th we started seeing "the specialists".

Some people reading this blog may not want to read about this. I've been told this is a "happy blog" so why depress everyone with this unhappy news. I thought about it and just had to decide that this was important to me. This is our blog, our lives and everything we are going through is shaping this family. When I started this blog it was a way for me to document what was going on in Rooney's life (and ours at the time). Even though Roon is not really aware of having a sibling at this time, the difficulty we've had during the past 1-1/2 years has surely effected him. When Mike and I decided to start planning for baby #2, shortly after moving into our new house, several of the moms in our moms group were also planning their 2nd children. Most of those women, two of which are now Organizers for our new group, have become pregnant and already had their children. That was really difficult for us, especially me. It seemed I was coming home every day telling Mike a new person was pregnant. It was not difficult because these women were pregnant with their own children, but because I was waiting every month to make our own announcement, and I have yet to be able to.

Eventually I decided I had to focus on something else and just stop expecting news. We are not exactly sure what the problems are right now. It could be one of us or it could be both, it is still inconclusive. For awhile there, I was so sad about not having a new baby and probably wallowed in it. We don't really know if the reasons we are having problems now were present when Rooney became a bun in the oven, but after we saw the specialists and started having tests done I realized Rooney could be our "miracle" baby. Although I have always loved him more than anything, I realized that despite the difficulty, we really did need relax and focus on him (then ourselves). Accepting that Rooney may be our only child is hard (we're not ready to start thinking about having someone else's child), but thinking we may have been close to a life without him is even harder and makes me love and appreciate him even more.

Now I remind myself that he may be our only one so I better damn well enjoy him and be enjoyable for him!

Follow ups to come

Try It You'll Like It

Rooney being "funny" doing his best Quarterback pose
Originally uploaded by Q

I think there is a point in everyone's life when they realize they sound just like their parents. That is always a chilling moment. Recently a similar experience happened to Mike and I, but in this case, it was the moment we realized our kid sounds just like us! Thankfully what Rooney said was funny (we know because he told us) and can be repeated here.

We were sitting at dinner the other night. Mike and I had finished our meals and of course waiting on Rooney. He had actually managed to eat a considerable amount of this meal and just had his diced apples to go. Before they were yummy in his tummy (something else new he is telling us), he had Morningstar mini corn-dogs that he dipped in his beloved ketchup. These days everything is requiring ketchup.

Anyway, some of his diced apples had spilled over into his ketchup. He stuck his fork in the ketchup apples and Mike and I both cringed. I was about to stop him when I thought "Oh well, if he likes it". But oh no, Roonster was faking us out, and he was trying to get Mike to eat the apple while saying "You'll like it". Oh boy did that ever sound familiar!

This went on for awhile and Rooney was having a laughing fit thinking he was being so funny (which he was). Finally Mike thought he would outsmart Roon and said "I'll eat one, if you eat one first". Rooney seemed to think about the deal Mike had on the table for about 1 second when he turned to Mike and said "You're weird".

Who could argue?

Glimpses of Summer

Although Rooney is nowhere in this picture I thought this was a great shot of our Butterly Tot Trek I wrote about in the last post. (There's Felix's best bud April!).
Rooney and I hit the farm. We had a great time at Farm Tots on the South 47 Farm. (Hey there's April again!).
This picture was taken at the "Toddler Baking Class" (although we are doing more eating than baking) we've started with our group at Aunt Renae's house. This months theme: Dirt Cake.
One of summer's best benefits: 50 cent cones! Here's Rooney with his first cone. He ate almost the whole thing...or was he wearing it?

The Wades Descend on Microsoft

So far this has been a pretty good summer. I think I have finally committed to this running thing and I am currently training for a 10k. So that's great and I feel good about it. Active Moms and Tots is doing exceptionally well. We have over 75 members and making all sorts of new friends and going to cool places. Rooney went on his first art tour of a sculpture exhibit recently. He probably does not remember what he saw but maybe some hidden talent will be sparked. Also, our group recently had a private class through the Parks Dept and got to go with a naturalist through the park and see bugs, butterflies, bees, dragonflys and even a snake! That was a great experience and we are fortunate enough to be able to set up more classes for our group. Next one is Tide Pools. That should be really interesting. Rooney is already familiar with Starfish (thanks Patrick Star).

Beside AMAT events we've had a few family days in there too. Near the end of last month was Mike's company picnic. Of the 6 years Mike and I have been together we have never attended this. This was so cool. A few pics...

Mike's Company Picnic June 20, 2008





There's more to be written but Blogger is giving me issues. Check back soon!

Piss or Get Off The Pot

Ahhhh! Finally a moment to catch up on my reading.

Piss or Get Off The Pot
Originally uploaded by Q

A Boy's Life

(This is poor cell phone footage. So sorry.)



There's is something happening. This something has been happening for awhile. Despite keeping my head in the sand about it, it has become evident to everyone...

Rooney is a boy!

I know I'm stating the obvious, but I mean he is really a little boy. He is no longer my little baby. He is fidgety, starting to climb trees, loves rocks, dirt and water puddles. He has very little fear when it comes to feats of boyness and I'm already embarassing him with my singing. He is getting bored alot faster when we're shopping and holding onto a cute little pair of pink shorts isn't making it more enjoyable. He knows the name of almost every type of large construction machine and dog wrasslin' is a pretty good past time (I don't think Courage would say the same thing though). If there is a most difficult way to do something he is definitely going to do it.



Although it is hard to have him grow up so fast it is also exciting and fun. I love his fits of giggles, spazzy running in circles and love of all things that seem fun. No matter where he is, he can locate the nearest stash of pillows and make a "pineapple" (toddler speak for pile of pillows) & then proceed to jump in it. If he lands on his head it only adds to the experience. His knees and shins will forever have bruises and now with summer, road rash. Sometimes his feet don't move as fast as the rest of his body and sometimes it's vice versa, but the subsequent falls hardly slow him down.

I always wanted a boy as my first child. I am not sure why that is but as we get more and more of these "pure boy" moments with Rooney I am really starting to get it.

Summer Fun

Things have been moving slow in the basement to playroom conversion. Not because Mike hasn't been working his little heart out, because he has, but of course obstacles just keep coming up. Mike had taken a few days off of work to try to get things done in the basement and that means Rooney and I made sure we were long gone!



Last week we had a mini-heat wave. It was in the 90's a couple of days. We're not really used to that type of weather here in the PNW. However, this gave us a great opportunity to try out a new sprinkler park that was built in a near by town. Rooney loved this place! He had so much fun getting sprayed with water. Of course he didn't want to leave when it was time to go. It took some coaxing but I finally got him in the car but not before being asked several times if we could go back?



Of course with sun being out it meant that some yard work had to be done. Who knows when you'll be able to get to it again? Mike decided to teach Rooney how to mow the lawn. Rooney's mower wasn't really doing a great job so they had to switch to the big guns.








Rooney has recently become very infatuated with his Uncle Jim (or as he says "M'uncle Jim"). He's already been very attached to the rest of the Hoovers and would flirt with Jim but now he talks about him all the time. He is always so excited to see his car and/or motorcycle. This weekend when Jim came over to help Mike paint the basement Rooney decided to do a little painting of his own...

after he was all done painting his arms he kept saying very proudly "like M'uncle Jim". If anyone hasn't seen Jim in awhile he has a full sleeve dragon tattoo on each arm. Reminds me a little bit of when my dad drew the little birds on my chest that matched his bird tattoos. I'm not sure if this is when the desire to have body art starts but Rooney seemed pretty proud of himself and his new "ink".

A Day in the Life (part 2)

Okay, Father's Day was 2 weeks ago, but I still have more to share (I won't go into too many details about what I was doing instead of writing a blog post, but it involved a little of this, a bit of this, and a whole lotta this). The entire day was chronicled via our camera, so no words are necessary (well, except for the incredibly witty captions I wrote). The full set of photos is available on our Flickr account, and features gems like this one.

Speaking of gems, it's time for some stories that I've been saving up for a little while but never had the proper forum to express them (well, except for this one).

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You may recall that a couple of months back, the three of us visited Susan's grandparents near Chicago. At one point during the visit, Rooney was being especially rambunctious, so I moved him into a different room to read him a story. Unfortunately, all of his books were in the car, so we were limited to Grandma and Grandpa's selections. None of them were very kid friendly. Well, I pulled down a copy of A Christmas Carol. I explained to Rooney that this was a very special version of his Chick-Boom book that Susan wrote about. I started reading this book, just like it was Chick-Boom: the same words, and flipping the pages in the right places. Rooney was still completely able to follow along, and made the exact same comments he makes when we read it at home: "Coconuts fall down", "hugging the babies", "they're crying", etc. So I thought that was pretty neat.

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Sometimes its too late to let Rooney take a full bath before we put him to bed, we give him a shower instead of a bath. But the regular overhead shower is too scary for him, so we use a very special kind of shower. Yes, technically its for dogs, but he doesn't know that. He stands in the tub, I sit outside the tub and spray him down. Rooney likes to practice being a fireman: we spray down one of the walls. He'd hold onto my wrist while I pressed the button to squirt the water and waved it at the wall. One time, he put his hand on the shower head, and was spraying down the wall with maybe only a little help from me. "I'm doing it, Daddy! I'm doing it!" He was so excited and proud, I couldn't help but feel the pride as well. I gotta admit, it got a little dusty in the bathroom that night.

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Well, those are all my stories for this time around. See ya next year!

25 Minutes To Go

(The woman in front with the short red hair is my running coach and I am in the back row in black with blue hat)

I know everyone is anxiously awaiting the next installment of Mike's post. If he ever gets around to it I think it will be good. The concept is sound. As usual we have tons of stuff distracting us from being able to sit down and spent a chunk of time working on Roonster blog, but it's all for the benefit of the family, so we're justified. One of the distractions has been sports...my sports. I know some of you have probably fallen out of your seat upon reading that but it is true I have been trying to find my inner athlete since Rooney's been born. Last year I played indoor soccer. Although I wasn't a star at it I was able to land a goal and I felt good. This year I have been playing softball with my brother Dana and niece Natalie. We had a rocky start on this team, but it has been fun and we might be in the playoffs! No one thought it would happen.
(At the starting line. I'm in black with blue hat)

As many of you know I also started running after Rooney was born. At first I could only do about 5 minutes at a time. Eventually I built up my speed, stamina and confidence and I have been running about 3 miles consistently for awhile now. I ran primarily on the treadmill and only about 6 months ago ventured outside, in public view. Everyone always told me it was easier to run outside and they were right. In May I signed up to take a running class. Mostly to build more confidence and to make sure I was running correctly. Through this class, another student and a fellow Active Moms and Tots member, got me to sign up with her for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K. I have never run an official 5K and I don't think I would have chosen this one to be my first (there is so much hoopla and way too early!) but it was for a great cause.

I really didn't know what to expect so I thought it was best just to have my MP3 player and zone out of the race and into the music. I have my Running Playlist on shuffle (so I'm always anticipating the next song) and I thought it was kind of funny that as I started the race Queen's "We Are The Champions" was the first song to play. It kind of felt like that as you saw the mass of people race up the very first hill. I know somewhere in there Johnny Cash's "25 Minutes to Go" came on. It's like my Zune was reading my mind. Finally coming down the last hill I decided to sprint. I knew the finish was coming up and I really wanted to reach my time goal.

As I started to descend the hill another Queen song came on, "Another One Bites The Dust". That is exactly what was happening as I was flying past people down the hill. That was a wonderful feeling. Mike and Rooney came down to support me and it really felt great coming around the last corner, down the straight away to the finish line and seeing those two. I just couldn't wait to cross the finish line to see them (and for other various lesser reasons like being able to breathe again). I was absolutely elated after the race and thus my love/hate relationship with running goes on. I am already planning my next race.

(Reaching the finish line!)

Before I give my official time, I want to thank everyone that supported me and donated for such a wonderful cause. It really meant alot to me and it was really moving to see so many survivors and women running for other women stricken with breast cancer . I really didn't solicit many people but if you would like to donate I think you still can. Just click on the donate link.

Over the PA this morning they said there were over 15,000 people participating in all the run, walk/run, walk activities. I knew being in first place was out of the question, so after that I did not know how track myself. I decided to come up with a time goal that I wanted to complete the race in. My personal goal was 35 minutes but my official time was 30min 51sec.

That's respectable.

A Day in the Life (part 1)

It's just about time for my semi-annual post to Rooney's blog. And how apropriate that it's coming on Father's day!

Let's start off with a little quiz action. Rooney sent off a father's day card to my dad, or "Pop-pop" as Rooney knows him. I asked him to draw some pictures of him, Pop-pop, and Grandma on the card before we sent it out. Let's see if you can figure out who is who.

Clearly, that's Pop-pop, Grandma, and Rooney. And I know that he recognized each mini-masterpiece: The next morning, I asked him again, and I got the exact same answers.

I'm pretty amazed at times about how smart little kids can be (I guess its possible that Rooney is some sort of super-genius, but I doubt it). His memory is really sharp. For example, when we pull out of the driveway a certain direction, he'll know that we're going to his Aunt Annie's house. (Technically, other people live at Aunt Annie's house, but she's generally the one he mentions.) Or the other day, we were watching Spongebob, when this picture pops up on the screen. Rooney pipes up "Secret box!". Yessiree, the boy is a chip off the old block: a Spongebob fanatic to the point of unhealthiness.

We have other examples of his eerie memory, including some video evidence. But sorry, that's just another thing you're going to have to wait for. Look at it this way: just another reason for you to keep watching this space.

Roller Skating Outtakes

Greatness can be lonely









Playing foosball with Parker's Grandma



The great ones never really lose it

No Owie Skates!

Rooney and I do alot of fun things during the week. When you have an active toddler, you've got to be active (or go out of your mind). One of the really fun activities I started going to was Toddler Roller Skating at a local skating rink. For $4 your toddler can skate or you can skate and push your kid in a stroller. We've been going for a little while now and Rooney would never let the roller skates anywhere near him. He kept thinking he was going to get hurt so I would wear the skates. I don't think I've worn roller skates in at least 20 years (I can't believe I can say that!) and being at the skating rink really reminded me of jr. high. I was starting to get delusions of being the Dorothy Hamill of the roller skating world again.

This time was different. I don't know if it was because Aunt Annie was with us or what but Rooney wanted to wear the skates! He said to us several times, in a reassuring tone, "No Owie Skates". He had himself convinced. Once I got him on the floor he was off. He really didn't want me to hold him and once he finally fell he seemed to enjoy it. So much so he started doing it on purpose.

He might not be the next Scott Hamilton of the roller skating world (but that's probably OK) but he does appear to be a chip off the ol' block. Hopefully he never experiences the big goose egg on his forehead that I did when I was a few years older than him. If he were to enjoy that well...we'd have more to worry about than a possible concussion.

Spongebob vs. The Crocodile

Now that we are back from 9 days of family bonding I thought I should get on the ball with a new post but I have been having problems getting the pictures together so the vacation post may have to wait. I do have a few pics thanks to Grandpa so I will post those here (although they won't have anything to do with what I'm writing).

Now that Rooney is older it is really much harder to write about dramatic changes because his development is not as visual but more subtle with being more verbal and developing his motor skills. A little change that I really started to enjoy is when he will refer to himself as "me". I just noticed he was doing that the other day when we were looking at pictures of him and he said "that's me!". He is also really starting to understand joking and role playing. Last night when I got him ready for bed I put him in his Spongebob jammies. I called him Spongebob and we decided that I was Sandy. We called Baby Cheesie Patrick and I said Daddy is Squidward. We both had a good laugh about that (you have to know the program). Then Rooney said "Daddy is Mr. Krabs" in which we had another good laugh together. Later when I put him down to bed he said to me "Goodnight Sandy". I thought that was really precious and of course said "Goodnight Spongebob". This morning Mike got up with Rooney and when he came back into our room a little later he told me Rooney was asking to see Sandy! I love it.

However there are some downsides to having him become a big boy (other than leaving his momma). Roonster has started to have nightmares and becoming scared when he sees things that creep him out. This is so heartbreaking and sweet at the same time. We had alot of this issue on our trip but the last bad dream entailed a crocodile trying to get him and animals in his crib. He was very brave about me putting him back in there to go to sleep but I could tell he was nervous because he put his around my neck and gave me a huge hug. It was the kind of hug you see on TV when somebody is about to do something and they're not sure if they will come back alive.

Thankfully he did and I would love to get another hug like that again...minus the intense fear.

Rooney Learns A Lesson

This is a picture of Rooney recuperating. He had a very rough morning this morning. Rooney got a big mouthful of peppermint toothpaste a few minutes before this picture was taken.

You may think that it is odd that they are now making children's toothpaste in peppermint when you can generally only find such flavors as bubble gum, strawberry or razzle dazzle blue (hmmm...I didn't think colors were flavors). Well you would be right to be suspicious and in fact you would be correct that they do not make children's toothpaste in peppermint. I'm pretty sure the reason they do not is because all the mints might seem "hot" to little kids who are not used to the flavor.

I tried to explain this to Rooney this morning when he dropped his Dora the Explorer toothbrush, that I preloaded with strawberry toothpaste, and grabbed my newly peppermint loaded toothbrush right out of my hand, and then crammed it into his mouth.

I wish I could have captured the look on his face when he tasted that toothpaste, or the wide eyed frozen look of fear that followed or even a picture of Rooney trying to wipe his tongue off with the bathroom hand towel. Capturing any one of these moments would have been fantastic but more so I would have also captured the exact moment Rooney learned a very important life lesson...Lick Before You Weep. That would have been priceless.

Daddy's Day Out

(In this picture Rooney is creating a visual representation of just how high those bouncers are)

Rooney and I are busy everyday. We have tons of fun together and get to do some pretty cools things. However, since Mike works during the week and Roon and I are off doing our thing the weekends are generally spent doing things that need to get done (i.e. chores). We would be very hard pressed to call the weekends family time so we really felt we needed a day to do something fun as a family. So of course Rooney and I took Daddy to our most favorite place...The Bouncy Place! Woo hoo!

We really had a great time and it was so fun for Rooney to show Dad the ropes and show off all his new climbing skills. Now that we have gone a few times Rooney can climb almost all the bouncers by himself and is even learning how to use a rope to pull himself up.

Rooney enjoys this place so much that frequently when it is time to leave I am chasing after him with one shoe on because he keeps trying to jump back on the bouncers! Scoundrel. Sometimes, when he's down for a nap, I can hear him reminiscing with Cheesie about it. All details are not clear but he can say "The Bouncy Place" like they were his first word(s).

We had such a fun day with Dad we can't wait for him to play hookie again!