Ten Months

Today Tennyson is ten months old!

What he has been up to:
-Crawling at full speed
-Standing for a few seconds at a time (see photo below)
-Eating full meals and three times a day
-Sleeping through the night
-Sleeping in his own crib
-Going to bed at 7:30
-Clapping when we say “yay!”
-Waving when we say “bye-bye”
-Laughing at himself (he thinks he is so funny!)
-Making funny faces
-Trying to perfect his fake laugh
-Taking only two naps a day

We can’t believe that Tennyson is only two months away from being a year old. I think I say this every month, but time is just going by so fast!

What a funny kid…

Mike here-

Tonight whilst enjoying a fine jar of applesauce, Tennyson started making some faces and thinking they were pretty funny. He’s been doing this for a few days and luckily I had the thought to run and grab a camera to show his comedic stylings to the world.

The first clip is me trying to figure out how to hold a camera steady on Tennyson with one hand while spooning out and feeding applesauce with the other. Hence the poor framing.

The second clip is much better with Tennyson just showing his silly faces. Enjoy!

We’re Shrinky Dinking!

My sister got my Shrinky Dinks for Christmas. We used to play with them all the time when we were younger (I remember in particular doing a lot of Scooby Doo themed Shrinky Dinks). I saw an episode of Raising Hope a while back where they did Shrinky Dinks and I remembered how fun they were… so I told Mike and he told my sister and she got me some for Christmas.

Mike was excited because he had never seen (or heard of) Shrinky Dinks before. He is really impressed with how they turn out. We’ll be buying more when Tennyson is old enough to do them, I’m sure.

Pre-coloring:

After being colored:

In the oven:

Finished product:

I only allowed myself to use the 6 crayons the Shrinky Dinks came with because it felt more authentic that way. Unfortunately, that means that Ariel gets orange hair. And Belle’s brown hair is actually a genius mixture of orange, blue, and purple. Also, Snow White got to wear pink and all their eyes are a fantastic shade of blue. But they turned out awesome. I’ve always prided myself on my coloring abilities. I used to spend hours in my room practicing, and I think the practice has paid off.

It was a great project to keep me distracted from the buckets of snow that were coming down outside. I was so enjoying seeing grass…

Belly Laughs

Remember that ball we bought?

Tennyson still loves it.

We Have Fun Together

Today the weather was wonderful. And I tutored earlier than usual. That meant that at 2:30, I was ready to get out and do something! We figured all the parks and nature centers would be soggy and snowy still, so we decided we’d go to the outdoor mall. Our mission was simple. Every store we went into, we had to buy something.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what we should buy at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

I haven’t seen Tennyson laugh that hard at a non-human object in a long time.

We also ended up with a chore chart from Pier 1 imports and a sweater from LOFT (which I wanted to buy a few months ago and now it is on super-duper clearance, so yay!)

We also got this

at Williams-Sonoma. I do not like mustard and neither does Mike. But put some of this between two slices of bread or, better yet, an English muffin and grill it or panini press it, and it is heaven in your mouth. If you have a Williams-Sonoma nearby, I highly recommend you try this.

We went to Johnny Rocket’s for dinner. Tennyson liked to dance with all the waiters and waitresses when they came out to do a song. Also, note the fact that he is sitting sideways in the splits in his high chair. This is how he chooses to sit in every high chair. And if we make him sit normal, he throws a fit.

These are the ketchup plates that the waitress gave us. (For the record, I still hate ketchup, but I can appreciate a work of art.)

And Tennyson got to eat some of Mike’s milkshake. YUM!!

 

And that is what we did on our almost-spring day. I really wish it would stay spring, but I know in another couple days we’ll be cooped up inside again. At least we have enjoyed this nice weather while it has lasted.

My Funny Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!!

Isn’t Tennyson a hoot? We just love him to death.

It really has been a great day. I think a big part of it is because the sun is shining and it is almost 40 degrees outside.

Tennyson got a card in the mail from his Grammy.

He really enjoyed the message, even from upside down.

I also had a great lunch with Tennyson and some friends. He’s the best Valentine’s date… except he kept dropping his food on the floor. We’ll work on that for the future. (And of course I forgot my camera, so I stole some pictures from a friend… thanks!)

Plus, I don’t have to tutor tonight. So Mike and I are going to order pizza and snuggle up (okay, sit on our own parts of the couch) to watch Jeopardy… tonight is the beginning of the IBM challenge. We are super excited.

Not that we wouldn’t be watching Jeopardy anyway. It is a nightly ritual for us. Yes, we are turning into old folks and probably belong in a home by now.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

This is what the weather looked like this morning. In fact, this is what the weather looked like after it had warmed up a bit this morning. When I left to take Mike to school, it felt like –15 outside (according to weather.com).

Mike went out to the car early to start it up and to scrape off the ice. Then we bundled up Tennyson and went to the car to leave. Only I couldn’t open my door. Mike couldn’t open my door. The both of us together couldn’t open my door. So I climbed in through the passenger side.

I hate winter.

Boredom Buster: visiting Target

So I am getting cabin fever here in Michigan. The grey skies in the winter always get me super down and I get tired of being inside the house all day. So I made a list the other night of things to do during the day to get me and Tennyson un-bored. A lot of them were inspired by my Rookie Mom's book that I got and their website.

Number 8 on my list was a visit to Target (not that we had never been before, but it is something to do). We needed a new baby gate to keep Tennyson away from our TV stand and I wanted some Target chicken nuggets. They are the best chicken nuggets out there. Seriously. So we made the trip.

While I was grabbing something to buy that was neither chicken nuggets nor a baby gate (I can’t be expected to go to Target and only get what I went in for), I turned my back on Tennyson for one second. When I looked back at Tennyson, this is what I saw.

I guess that is what the seatbelts are there for.

Tennyson: the lady’s man

Last night we went to our friend’s place to watch the Super Bowl and Tennyson go to play with their daughter. She may be twice his age, but it was love at first sight. At first she made him laugh by knocking all the toys off the ottoman over and over again. Then he chased her back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. Then she shared her cell phone with him (I think this was really the moment when Tennyson knew they could be friends). Before the night was over, they were giving each other kisses.

It was pretty adorable. I can completely understand why she was such a fan of him, though. Who could resist this charming man??

Favorite Toys

 

They both play music, so Mike and I constantly have the songs stuck in our head. But he plays with these all day long. He’d play with them all night if we let him, but we make him sleep (we are such mean parents).

His other favorite toys include (and are not limited to) cell phones, remote controls, video game controllers, baby monitors, granola bars, wipes containers, empty water bottles, diapers (clean, not dirty), and magazines.

Do you want to see videos of Tennyson playing with his basketball hoop and table? Look no further. You can find them here and here.

Snowy Day

Remember that storm that came through the Midwest this past week?

This is what it did to our house:

And our fence:

Mike was a hero and went out to shovel after all the snow. He spent forever digging out our car so that we wouldn’t have to do it the next morning before he left for school. What a great guy!