Missed a month...oops!

As many of you know, I am hip deep in studying for my next board exam, but I thought I'd put up a few quick pictures just to tie you over since I missed last month. Oh, did I mention that I still have to file my taxes?

It was a complicated weekend. We went out to dinner last night at one of our favorite Mexican places and the tire-low warning came on. I figure it was just a little low because it was not driving funny or making that flub-flub noise. Well, it turns out the the Prius tires don't ever make that noise and by the time we drove the 20 miles to the restaurant, the tire was toast! Now, what is poopie is that these tires only have about 7k miles on them. Well, we quickly put on the spare and had a nice dinner. I managed to get two equally good replacement tires on Craigslist ($20 for the pair) and got one of them mounted today for another $20. I did leave out the fact that the spare only had 25 PSI and it was supposed to have 60. We figured that out pretty quickly. Hooray for Craigslist! Saved me at least $80. And, if I get my hands on the right rim, I can have a full size spare, too, instead of the doughnut.

Saga aside, here are some pictures:

Richie had made a little hat out of play-dough. Okay, Mama helped. While it was still in one piece, he really enjoyed wearing it. I thought it was cute with his multicolored lollipop with the backdrop of his multicolored world...


At JCC Messy and Messier they made a bus. He actually did play with it a little! I think I liked the box more than he did, but then again, I didn't have my own computer until I was 8 and there was only pong....no iPod.


We drove down to Cape Coral for the Holidays and took Richie to ride on this cute train. I say little, but the track was over a mile long! The movie will have to wait until after my board exam. That, by the way, is in mid-late May. I did not ride the first time around because I assumed I was too big. But once I saw the guy sitting behind Ning-Ning on their first time out, I decided that I would probably be okay.


And, so, here we all are!


We took Richie out to the beach several times during the trip. Here we were at Ft. Myer's beach. He really warmed up to it as the trip went on and became much more comfortable in the water.


At some point during the trip we were having some difficulties getting Richie to nap and he was really getting behind. Unusual for him, he fell asleep in the car. We were afraid that if we tried to move him we would wake so I grabbed an extension cord and set my computer up on the arm rest pointed at Richie. In the lower right hand corner, you can see me taking a picture of the computer screen of Mama's computer which we used to watch Richie while he napped in the car!


This is back at the science center for the New Years at Midnight Noon celebration. I couldn't go this year, but Mama and Richie were able to make it.


Last year Richie and Mama went to the Baltimore car show while I was on call. I got to go this year and watch Richie try out all of the cars....

Fiat 500 convertible



Mustang conv.


Mazda Miata...or whatever it's called now...


The trunk of some Subaru SUV that he insisted going in...


Some funky green subcompact...you can see a bit of me in the passenger's seat...


Mustang Boss 302


I think this was the Volvo S80...


I don't remember which car this was....



Chrysler 300 conv, which replaces the Sebring...


This may have been a Cadillac, maybe...

Hooray!

Hey! Richie finally used the potty for number one all for just one M-n-M!
Hooray!! (Yes, my first thought was to grap the camera.)

Almost forgot

We woke Richie up to go see the fireworks for New Years. After we went home, we opened a bottle of sparkling grape juice and offered some to the boy. We did warn him that it was "bubbly." He took a sip, made a horrible face and then said, "I LIKE the bubblies!" And took another sip! And, yes, he came up with the pronunciation "bubble-ee's" on his own.

Phrases

While at the beach in Ft. Myers, we asked Richie if he was hungry. The usual answer is, of course, “No.” But that day he provided an enthusiastic, “Yeah!” Mama asked him what he would like to eat, to which he responded, “What does the beach HAVE to eat?” (Ultimately, it turned out that the beach had French fries.)

If we’re asking Richie to do something he does not want to do, or saying something he doesn’t want to hear, we will hear, “Mama/Gaga not talk.” For some reason that does not bother me as much as I imaging it will the first time he tells me to “shut up.”

Frequently, we will have to ask Richie to repeat himself. He still lacks in enunciation, but age appropriate. Sometimes a big long string of gibberish spews out of his mouth to which we will ask him what he was saying. Frequently he’ll respond with a, “Oh Mama/Gama, I’m just talking.” Which means “I’m not talking too you so I don’t expect you to understand me.”

Even better, when the gibberish comes out, one of us will ask him what language he’s speaking. The most frequent answer is, “German.”

Recently we made a road trip to south Florida. When we’d pass an 18 wheeler, Mama would ask Richie what he thought was in the truck. The most common response was, “Yummy Lollipops.” Occasionally we’d here, “Yummy Lollipops and Clean Underwear.” Once in a great while it would dirty underwear in a truck.

For the first 2.75 years of his life, we have been trying to teach him how to throw, so he would not end up like his Gaga. Since he was not that good at it, we did a lot of training in the house. Three weeks ago, he figured it out and decided to show off by throwing one of his wooden activity table chairs. Clearly now we have a zero throwing tolerance in the house and that has resulted in many episodes of timeout. By his reaction, you’d think we were eviscerating him by putting him in timeout. When we were visiting GG’s, he kept throwing his wooden trains at GG. I think he spent more time in timeout and sleeping than he did in free play because of that. Really, he was just ready to play catch!

While visiting Mama’s Mama (AKA Ningning) Richie was scolded for putting his bottle on Ningning’s coffee table without a coaster. It was explained to him that it would damage the wood and it was not polite. Later, Richie was putting his feet on the coffee table and he was told that was not polite, either. So he put two coasters on the table and plopped his little feet right on them!

Catching up while on Vaca

Ninya and her boys came to visit earlier in the summer and we tried to get the cousins together for a picture. This was the movie leading up to it!


Well, this gets me caught up with movies through September....
I'm not certain, but this may be a repeat movie of Richie pushing Mama on the swing this fall.


Mama swinging with Richie next to Richie's friends Julie and her Daddy on that same day.


Here is Richie singing Happy Birthday to me! Yes, this was late September for those keeping track. :-)


Eli loved to hear Richie sing this little song...


Eli was selected to run the color guard one of the evenings we were visiting Atlanta.


Most of you know by now that papa-Nat had a subdural hematoma for my birthday and ended up in the hospital requiring burr hole evacuation. When he finally went into surgery, Ninya watched him having initial anesthetic before being taken into the operating room. After she witnessed this even, she arrived in the waiting room in tears and somewhat hysterical from what she saw...she thought he was dieing. But, as Honey tried to convince her, this was an event that took place every night when papa-Nat fell asleep! Watch and enjoy! And lend your condolences to Honey for having to listen to this every night.


Richie and I will periodically leave Oma a message that we called. Oma had the wherewithal to save the messages which nicely shows how much Richie's speech has progressed over the half year.


We also cut Richie's hair over this trip in September. We donated it to Locks of Love. Here are each of the curls.





The longest of which was 12 inches. 10.5 inches is the minimum to donate it.


Here is the "edited" movie of Richie getting his hair cut. Those of you who were there known what I mean. :-)


That brings me up to October. I'll try to get another big post up before I start studying heavily for my last board exam. Some day, Richie will be able to do this himself!

Quick Post

I know it's been too long, but time is getting very tight. I'm working on a grant submission, an IRB proposal and I have to start studying for oral boards....on top of everything else that normal life provides.

Apple Picking in early October: Back in October, we took Richie to go apple picking and went on a hay ride.


I think he had fun, but it was tough get catch a smile on camera.


Big lines to pay for the apples!


Hay Ride!




He got to sit in the tractor!



Pumpkin stew, anyway?


This was the first (and only) time where I've seen 100 MPG on the Prius. Of course, it's been in the shop for almost a month. The 2011 Camry loaner is nice, but I like the Prius better.


Pumpkin Picking in late October: We went to a pick-your-own pumpkin farm North of the city.







They had some train-type setup at the pumpkin farm!


This was a very tight fit!





Here is Richie and his friends at a little Halloween party. He still fit in the chicken costume so we eeked one more year out of it.


Cupcakes and Candy Corn!


I need a nap!

Could not wait....

So, it's no surprise that I'm still way behind on my posting, but this one could not wait. Halloween was great! But it was two weeks ago. A few days Richie started this chant, but listen to what I uncovered at the end of the video clip (yes, Grandma, it's another movie).



Thanks, Ninya.