New House, New Rules (18 months tomorrow!)

Good evening and Happy Father's Day to all the daddies out there. I had a great day with my daddy and also my Grandpa D! I'll tell you all about that later.

This is me playing in my new (old) play house. Mommy has been really into garage sales lately and found me some really fun stuff to play with. A lady was closing her daycare and was in the mood to get rid of all her stuff. I got a play house, a climber, and a fun boat all for 38 dollars. My backyard is so much fun now! Luckily by the end of the week it finally quit raining and I actually got to play with my stuff!


Daddy has been calling me, "Rocky" this week. You can see why in this picture. I got my first black eye this week. How did I get it you ask? Well...hmm.... I'm a bit embarrassed to say! I wish I could say I was defending someone's honor or something noble like that but I was being a bit of a turkey (again..) about getting my jammies on one night. Mommy was trying to put my arm through the arms of my jammies and I took off running with my jammies on my head. Unfortunately I ran smack into my dresser knob. YOUCH! Learned a good lesson there! I cried for a little bit but was fine after a few minutes and some milk in my sippy cup. My black eye is nearly gone which is good because I have my 18 month well baby visit tomorrow and my parents don't want to be turned into child protective services.

Here's some of the back yard fun I was telling you about! It rained and rained and rained for pretty much a week and a few days. Basically it has rained every day since we moved into our house and so I didn't get much of a chance to play with all my new toys. It was a bummer for me and for mom as well, as entertaining me these days can be a challenge indoors. This is me and my water table. It was a house warming gift from my parents. It was new and not from a garage sale so we got to play with it right away instead of waiting for mom to clean it with a bleach/water solution like the other toys.

Here is me (a.k.a. Daddy's Little Cupcake) on my new (old) swing set! It was sure nice of the former owners of our house to leave it for me!

This picture is for Grandma V that lives in Texas. She doesn't get to experience my tantrums since she lives so far away so Mommy thought she'd document all aspects of my personality..not just my smiley, silly self. This look happens a few times a day. Usually when I don't get my way. Or if I want to do something right now and Mommy says that I need to wait a little bit. I hate waiting. It's for the birds! [Side note: Do birds like waiting? I doubt it!]

Speaking of being unhappy, Mommy has a new declaration that is really annoying. It is "New house, new rules!" Apparently some of our bad habits we had in our last house are being remedied in the new house. They mostly apply to me and the kitties, and probably Daddy (I think we should come up with some new rules for Mommy!). For instance, I no longer can just whine when I want something and say "eh eh eh eh eh!" Mommy said she's had it! So since I don't like to use my words very much, I have to do the sign for "please" whenever I want something. After a few days, I'm really getting the hang of it and it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm also signing 2 word sentences like "more, please" Also, the kitties no longer get breakfast, afternoon snack, and late night snack. They just get a bigger breakfast and late night snack. And they have their own room in the basement. Since this new institution of meal times, they are hungrier at night and go down to the basement without so much "monkey business" (or cat business more accurately). Having hungrier kitties works in the new house because Mommy no longer walks by their food dish (like in the old house) so the cats don't annoy her to death with their meowing for food since their dish is all the way in the basement now.

Daddy was sad last week when all the pictures were either of me or of me and Mommy so we made sure to get some good Daddy shots in this week in honor of Father's Day.

More backyard fun! Nolan and his family came over to our house for a BBQ on Friday night. Nolan and I had a lot of fun playing in the backyard. We played mostly separately. According to "the books" we're still in the toddler "me" phase where we are mostly concerned about ourselves and not with playing with other kids. Hence, why there are few pictures of Nolan and me playing together as we usually have two different ideas about what we should be playing with at any given time.

But aha! Nolan was curious about the swings and Daddy was quick with the camera! Nolan had lots of fun with the water table. He got a lot of water on himself. Next time he's going to wear his swimming trunks I think!

Saturday morning Daddy and I hung out together so that Mommy could have some time to herself to do some shopping. She hadn't gotten Daddy a present yet for Father's Day so Daddy was really willing to hang out with me so he could get a present! Daddy had all kinds of outdoor plans made for us but unfortunately it started raining! So we went to the indoor park first, then ventured outside when it stopped raining.

Mommy and me took Daddy out to dinner Saturday night for a Father's Day eve meal. We went to Red Lobster because Daddy really likes seafood and Mommy does not. So whenever it is a special daddy type day (basically his birthday and father's day), he usually picks seafood.

Someone said something really funny at the dinner table! Hehe..actually Mommy tickled my neck. That always makes me giggle a lot! Mommy and I shared the Cajun Chicken Alfred0 (one of the few non-seafood things on the menu) except we always say "hold the cajun" as we don't like spicy food. I really liked it and even ate chicken which is rare (I'm not much of a carnivore!). Daddy gave me some shrimp but I wanted nothing to do with it. I guess I take after Mom. Daddy was disappointed I think. He was probably hoping that the seafood lovers in the house would have a majority but I think I'm more of a land-lover for now. Turf no Surf is what we say!

Today we went to church. My separation anxiety has hit an all time high. According to "the books" it peaks at 18 months so Mommy says I should show improvement after tomorrow. I only made it in nursery for 5 minutes before Mommy got paged and had to come get me. I got to join Mommy for the singing part of church (Daddy had nursery duty). When it came time for the sermon a.k.a. "the quiet part" we went downstairs and Mommy signed in for nursery duty and she just stayed with me. The nursery workers were amazed at what a different child I am when my Mommy is in the room. I played with all the toys and was smiling and having a great time. I wasn't clingy to Mommy either. I played independently but just kept a watchful eye to make sure she didn't leave the room. After church we headed to the cabin where Daddy and I got our Father's Day photo taken.

I wore this dress today because Grandpa D picked it out for me. Who knew he had such fashion sense?!

After my very short (1 hour!) nap (yikes!) it was time for more playing at the cabin. I really liked going on the dock and throwing rocks in the lake. This is me and my grandpa and grandma.

It was really bright so I had to borrow Daddy's shades! I looked really cool.

Peek-a-boo!

After all that excitement at the lake it was time to go home, take a bath, and get into my new whale jammies. Oh and steal Daddy's glasses case. That is a daily must!

Time for bed!

Megan