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).

He Speaks

Rooney...Life of the Party
Originally uploaded by Q.

After finally uploading all of our Christmas-time photos I realized we really didn't take that many. We've been so bad about taking photos when family is here. I assume it's just because so much is going on, but this really is the time to take them. I did not get one photo of my mom, Rooney w/my mom, Kristi, Andy, Dan & Kim. Well I guess their feet are in alot of photos. Anyway I'll like our Christmas and Christmas Eve photos here. If you have any photos you'd like to contribute I'll add those to the sets.

Besides Christmas, car break-in's and new houses there have been some other exciting things going on...specifically with Rooney. Over the last few days Rooney has really increased his communication. He has started to let us know he wants specific things by pointing and saying "Eh, eh". So that might not be "exciting" but it can be very helpful and frustrating at the same time. Not only has he started pointing for what he wants but he has also started to shake his head to let us know when he doesn't want something. I have found this new move very helpful. Now I can ask him 'Do you want...?" and he can clearly answer me! So nice.

He has also picked up some new verbal communication. He has started saying "Hi" to everyone and everything. I think it is so cute when he bends down and says "Hi" to the dogs. Just yesterday I noticed that he is starting to say "this", as if he's saying "What's this?". Finally, he has started to grab my finger and lead me to where he wants to go. I think this is very sweet...right now. I've had a lot of experience, through my nieces and nephew, with this little maneuver. It's cute now but can become really annoying soon because he'll have me up every 2 seconds to look at every piece of lint on the carpet.

I'm going to have to brush up on my distraction techniques.

One last little development that is in the works...I'm getting Rooney off the bottle. This is something I've been kind of trying to do, but not really, for awhile. I just decided this weekend to just stop giving him the bottle and use a cup this weekend.

So far, so good.

Santa Came, He Saw and He Conquered

So it's been awhile since I've posted. Alot has happened since then. I think I should talk about Christmas first. Rooney's Grandma Peggie, Grandma and Grandpa Wade (seen in picture) , Aunt Kristi and Uncle Andy all came to visit. They came under the guise of the holidays but Rooney knows it was really just to see him (I would have done the same thing). Rooney still hasn't discovered the joy of opening gifts but as you can see he enjoyed playing with the gifts (these are electronic drumsticks from Gma & Gpa Wade). Rooney is still learning where and what are appropriate surfaces for banging drumsticks on (Courage asked me to send out a personal thanks). Oh poor Courage! They're pretty sweet drumsticks though. Maybe Mom plays with them when Rooney is sleeping.

Of course we had a great time and it was wonderful to see so much family. If Rooney plays his cards right, maybe one day, all of them won't have to fly in to visit...they'll just be able to drive over.

Big news since I last posted...WE FOUND OUR HOUSE! Mike and I decided to put in an offer on a nice house that we first looked at a several weeks ago. Seems we should have stopped looking after the 1st house, but it took looking at all the other houses to tell us that. Anyway despite the windstorm and a 5 day power outage we were able to get into the house again, decided we liked it even more the 2nd time (and the 3rd) and put in our offer the next day. Thankfully it was accepted and we should be closing mid-January. Yikes! That was fast. I would like to show you a picture but it appears once it is off the market it vanishes from the internet. Just picture a nice,big house in your head.

So that's the good news. Of course the world needs to be balanced out, so once you have good news, there inadvertently has to be bad news. I'll post the picture first:

As you can see some jerk-off's broke into my car and ripped out my stereo, Sirius receiver and the brand new FM transmitter I got from Mike's parents! They also got my Wolfmother CD!

Jerks!

I got the last laugh though...I've still got the stereo remote control!

'Tis The Season

As you can imagine the last 5 days have been really rough for Western WA. We lost our tree which was sad but so many others have lost their houses, cars, power and sadly lives (using BBQ's & generators in their houses to keep warm). Rooney's Uncle Dana was on day 5 today without power, but as he was emailing me telling me about it, he heard from Renae that it came back on! After hearing everyone else's horror stories the loss of our tree, without any further damage, is really nothing. We have been counting ourselves very lucky.

So beside the chaos kind of going on around us, it seems alot of Rooney's buddies, and himself, have been sick. I can't imagine what it must have been like for some of those people not having power and then having a sick baby on top of it. Again I am counting myself fortunate. Due to this we really haven't done much this week and have pretty much stuck to the house. I had to break out some toys for Rooney that I was holding onto. They weren't Christmas gifts but I thought I would just wait to break it out until we had a bigger place. Guess what? I found room right in the middle of the living room. Rooney was kept busy for a little while. He found the box it came in interesting too!

Mike, Rooney and I will be out today house hunting. I have a list of 5 good candidates. Hopefully we'll find our future home today. We are looking in a blackout area though. I'm hoping that Dana's good fortune of getting his power back on today means that the houses we're looking at also got their power back on.

I don't want to seem greedy with good fortune though. I think I'll pack a flashlight.

A Mighty Wind

Let's just start out with the Big News...we had an awful windstorm last night (gusts up to 69mph) and our beautiful Twisted Willow fell victim. Mike and I were pretty devastated because we felt this tree added alot to our house. Thankfully no one was hurt. When the tree fell it miraculously missed the house, my car and the power lines! However, my car was blocked in the driveway and our tree partially covered our neighbors driveway so Mike wanted to clear out some of the smaller branches before anyone needed to go anywhere. He's been out there all day with a handsaw cutting off branches (it's partially my fault he was not using a chainsaw. I told him the Darwin Awards were full of men trying to do/use stuff that they didn't know how to).

Let me tell you times have changed. It took over 4hrs before a neighbor came over to offer Mike any help. The neighbor that finally came over was gone all afternoon and to give him credit I think he would have come over alot sooner had he been home. Plenty drove past and gawked but none even stopped to say "Man that really sucks about your tree". We did have some come by to take little twigs for their flower arrangements though. I was pretty appalled by this. Seemed like the vultures were circling a bit. Mike was very gracious though and of course anyone that wanted any twigs for their flower arrangements were allowed to pilfer. They rummaged around and Mike didn't even give them any attitude.

I can't say I would be the same way. I suppose that's why Mike handles all the family "PR". Here's your Post Picture of Rooney (it is his blog afterall):

It's Starting To Look Alot Like Christmas

Things have been a little crazy around here lately. I haven't written about this yet because everything has kind of been up in the air, but it looks like Mike and I are shopping for a new house! Tiny house no more! So that is exciting and of course searching for houses has consumed alot of my time...besides MOMS Club events, toy parties, Christmas shopping etc. I managed to come up with a list of 25 houses to look at, but our realtor was on vacation and we were still trying to figure out how we wanted to handle our financing, so the list shrank to 19. The last 2 weekends we have driven by some of the houses on the list and edited (also shrinking our list). Hopefully we'll be out this week and actually get to see the inside of some of these houses.


Today is the big MOMS Club Cookie Exchange. Renae has graciously agreed to host this event at her house. She may be sorry about that decision now. So far we have 17 moms signed up as "for sure's". With kids that means there are going to be 33 people in Renae's house plus a few extras she invited. Yikes! Wall to wall cookies! What was I thinking agreeing to this? Truthfully Mike talked me into doing this (not that there was alot of arm twisting). I think he wanted to make cookies again (there has been a pre & post pregnancy ban) and it was too hard to resist 16 other types of cookies. Here's a pic of Mike burning the midnight oil and baking 5-6 dozen cookies. The apron is mine but I let him borrow it. I taste tested the cookies & they are pretty good. Thanks for the recipe Mom Wade!

Finally we got our Christmas Tree this weekend. I am embarrassed to report that we opted for a fake tree this year. I am very Pro real Christmas tree and normally the bigger the better. We decided that for 1 year only, since the tree area is so cramped, and since Rooney can reach pretty far these days a small, fake tree made more sense this year. I decorated the tree last night while Mike baked. I tried to make it look as pretty as possible. Since the tree is so small our tree topper did not fit. I had to improvise & put a picture of Courage and Rocco with Santa on top. Those ingrates. I don't think they even noticed.

North Pole or Bust

Today was Mom & Rooney Day. We went to Factoria Mall as part of a MOMS Club event, but I was the only one that could go in the afternoon, so we went by ourselves.

First, Roonster and I took in the huge clearance sale they were having at Osh Kosh. Rooney didn't seem too jazzed to be clothes shopping though so we headed over to KidsQuest Childrens Museum. This place is great. Rooney can run around, throw toys around (and I don't have to pick them up), touch everything, get wet and play with other kids for a mere $3 (thank you Prime Card). Jeez I should take him there everyday!

After playtime Rooney and I thought it was time for some serious shopping. We got a few more Christmas and birthday gifts out of the way before we made our final stop to visit Santa. This also was great. There was absolutely no line, the Santa had a real beard and despite there being tears when Roon first sat on Santa's lap, I think we got a successful picture. So this is Rooney's first real picture with Santa Claus.



(Christmas 2005)




Not that I am downplaying how great his picture from last year was.

This Christmas Cheer Makes Me Feel Like Dancing

A day or so ago I posted a link on this blog of Rooney's Elf-y Christmas Dancing. This link seems to be a big hit with my mom (Rooney's Grandma Peggie) and passing the Elfmorphasis link around the family has been cracking her up. I received the link for 2 of Rooney's Great Grandparents Elf-y Christmas Dancing and thought it would be fun to post them here. If anyone else wants to create themselves and wants their link posted here let me know.

Great Grandma Morse's Elf-y Christmas Dancing

Great Grandpa Morse's Elf-y Christmas Dancing

Grandma Peggie's Elf-y Christmas Dancing

Winter Wonderland

Last night, as promised, it continued to snow. Mike, Rooney and I had just left Seattle and stopped by our local grocery store when the snow started. We didn't really think much about it. What was falling wasn't big, fat flakes but seemed like little chunks of ice. We were supposed to leave the house again later, but when the road was covered in white we decided against it. Turns out we got out of Seattle and home just in time. Not too much later last night the roads turned into absolute chaos with cars slipping and sliding all over. Some areas people slept in their cars, and some even abandoned them on the roadside. When we got up this morning the streets were still covered in ice.


Thankfully Mike did not attempt to go to work today (and worked from home) but with all the streets remaining icy during the day Roonster and I were stuck to the house. With Rooney getting older, even more mobile and inquisitive, it is getting more cramped in this house. He can now reach countertops, climbs tables and when bored throws toys.

We had to get out of the house. When Dad was done working we decided to take a walk up to Fry's and purchase a new external CD-R for Mom (a whole different story). Rooney seemed pretty thrilled to be getting out of the house and was absolutely wonderful on the walk. I snapped a few pictures of him in his winter gear. We used his Bundle Me from last winter in his stroller. He only 1/2 fit into it now but I think it kept his tootsies pretty warm.

Cabin Fever

Yesterday Mike and I took Rooney to the Children's Museum. I believe earlier we had accepted that we were just going to bum around the house but it turns out Rooney had other ideas.


If there were toe holes he probably would have literally climbed the walls. After a morning of climbing the furniture and tormenting the dogs, we decided to get him out of the house. Rooney seemed to have a good time at the museum, but was very interested in climbing a slide they have there, the wrong way, while kids were trying to slide down. So it seems we had to keep him distracted with something else at the place that was supposed to be distracting him from climbing the furniture.

On the way home it started to snow! It's the first snow of winter. Thankfully it didn't stick around much but we are due for some more and colder weather. That means ice, so I think we'll be sticking close to home a bit more this week.


I think that will be just fine with Rooney...


poor Courage and Rocco.

Hide boys!

Short and Sassy

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house. I would never had done this if 1: my whole family was here this year and 2: if my sister did not agree to cook the turkey (in retrospect, she even confirmed, she had the cheapest and easiest job). Rooney's Aunt Annie, Uncle Jim, Cousin Cuyler, Aunt Kim and Uncle Dan all came over. Unfortunately, due to the tinyness of our house everyone had to sit in the livingroom, plates on lap, to eat. We had a lot of food and thankfully everyone went home with at least a few containers. Thanksgiving really isn't my holiday but I generally enjoy the day after quite a bit...Black Friday!

This year just my sister and I went shopping. I am kind of upset because alot of the stores just had "Doorbuster" sales which started at 5am. I love shopping, but I do not love it that much. So by the time we got out to shop a good portion of the sales were already over and the stores were cleaned out. It was a pretty disappointing shopping experience. Seems I will be doing most of my shopping on the internet this year.

While we were gone Mike kept himself busy and gave Rooney his 1st haircut...all by himself! Oh Rooney looks so cute. I think Mike thought I would be mad, but I didn't love the long hair, I just did not want to attempt to cut it myself. Rooney cries when I turn on the vacuum or blender, so I did not think he would enjoy a buzzer near his ear. Mike said Roon really didn't care for it but he was a good boy and Mike was able to get the job done. As you can see there was quite a bit of hair on the floor, maybe enough for a ponytail! I'm am also glad to report that Mike did have the foresight to save some of the baby curls. Also notice the cracker Rooney has in the 1st picture with his haircut. Mike was trying to use these crackers to bribe Roonster while he was cutting his hair. This plan only half worked. Rooney held onto the same cracker the whole time Mike was cutting.

Finally here's Rooney showing off his new doo. I loved when his hair would stick out all crazy behind his ears but I think short and sassy fits him pretty well. Rooney seems pretty happy with the results.

Typical Wednesday Morning

I'll admit...I love shopping for Rooney. Shopping for Rooney is more fun than shopping for myself. I don't know if it's because any clothes I purchase will look cute on him or if it's because I know he will be a sponge with any toy, book or musical instrument I buy. Thankfully I'm cheap too, so consignment shops and sales racks is where you'll find me.

Here's Rooney modeling his new winter hat. I bought him a different hat about a month ago but seemed to have lost it. I don't know if it's gone gone but I was pretty heartbroken when I could not find it. Plus, we are in the middle of the rainiest month...EVER so I thought it was a good idea to get him another one. Unfortunately I could not find the same hat (probably because it was on clearance) but I found this sweet little number. It's not exactly a "rain" hat, but who cares it has poof balls!

I also found a little musical instrument set for Rooney recently. I was very jazzed to have found this little set and Rooney seems to enjoy it. It has a tambourine, cymbals, guiro, egg shaker and triangle. I'm not sure of how safe the cymbals are but this is how we learn, right? Here's a pic of Rooney getting down on his guiro.

Who knows he might end up a percussion man, just like his old man.

Hammin' It Up

This post is really an extention of yesterday's post. I did not write about it but the Roon and I went to a Web Committee meeting over at Krista and Parker's house. The Web Committee meeting is for Moms Club and we should have been talking business, but of course, we all have kids so they ham it up for our time quite a bit. Yesterday Rooney and Parker were playing all over Krista's lounge chair (sometimes falling off) when I snapped this pic. Krista and I both thought it was such a cute picture and is possibly on both of our blogs. Oh well, I thought it was so cute I would risk it being posted twice:

Do Re Me & Roon

It's been awhile since I've posted. It's not that things haven't been going on, it's just that I haven't taken any pictures. And I really feel like I should post pictures.

I took these pictures this morning of Rooney playing with his Leapfrog Magnetic Frig Farm. I don't really know if that's the name but it's something along those lines. Rooney really loves this toy. When you push the button it plays little songs which Rooney kind of dances too. He hasn't quite figured out how to match the animals on the toy, which is the real point of the toy, but that doesn't seem to matter. He loves it just for the music.

I have also been building up Roonster's instrument collection. He likes music so much I thought it would be nice if he could play with the instruments and learn how to make music. So far he stands in his tambourine but he really likes to hit the triangle and he bangs out rhythm on the TV with his drumstick (Courage's head too I think!).

Speaking of toys! I decided to throw a Discovery/Do Re Me & You Toys party. What was I thinking? I hate throwing parties, they are too stressful. I hate when people whom I have selectively invited say they can't come. Plus my house is too small. How am I going to fit a handful of people in here plus toys? Anyway I am hoping to get some Christmas shopping done for some little kids I know (maybe a new baby gift for others).