Dragonball. . .

My wife would kill me if I taught Skippy Jr. to do this and I'm such a geek for even wanting to do it, but I so want to copy this.

The singing bee. . .

This afternoon my son was getting up from his nap and his mother was changing his diaper. She was playing around and started singing "the Isty Bitsy Spider" to him. . . but there was a twist. She'd sing "the itsy bitsy spider" at normal or maybe slower than normal speed, then she's speed up for "went up the water spout." Skippy Jr. laughed. So she continued and with each stanza he laughed harder.

Throughout the afternoon and evening we kept the same going. We'd sign songs and change tempo. What is shown below is the climax of laughing, screaming and squealing after his bath. . .

Believe it or not right after this he did calm down and went to sleep.

Growth spurt. . .

The rice cakes the other night seem to be a symptom of a growth spurt. Skippy Jr. ate all day long yesterday. By my rough count a "snack" for him was 300 calories. . . a cup of yogurt, 10 teddy grahams, some grapes, and 5 mini rice cakes. And an hour later he was hungry again.

I dread when he's a teenager.

Before I forget. . .

This morning I was dressing the Monkey and he said "dada," I responded "Monkey," to which he pointed at my with both hands and went "Aaahhhh haha."

It reminded me of the "Whazuup" commercials.

Bloated rice belly. . .

The MonkeyBear's new favorite snack is cheddar cheese flavored, mini rice cakes. We got them when we were all sick. Tonight he ate about 10. His belly is so full and bloated right now it's not even funny. You rub it and it's this rock solid mass of a belly. It was even throwing his balance off.

It makes my tummy hurt just thinking about it.

Good little worker bee. . .

I've said before I believe parents—myself included—are the worst thing that can happen to a kid. Parents screw up a good portion of what they do when raising their kids. I know my own actions are to blame for some of my son's already formed bad habits. But we have done at least one thing right.

At the beginning of winter we started making our barely one-year-old start taking off his coat when he got in the house and handing it to one of us to hang up. He fell into the pattern quickly. We still put him down, unzip his coat and let him remove it and hand it to us. He also learned to take off his hat and put it in it's place.

But winter is almost over so his one chore is going away. Our solution? A new chore. We started last week. While his bath fills we take off his clothes one at a time and give them to him to throw into the hamper. Two days later he was in the pattern already.

I hope we can keep it up.

Return to the mother ship. . .

So the stomach ick lasted until Tuesday, my wife and I finally ate something on Tuesday night. Then Wednesday morning we had a new garage door installed. So by Wednesday afternoon we were chomping at the bit to get out somewhere. Being in St. Louis we decided to visit our wonderful zoo.

Let me preface the rest of this story by explaining that we made a terrible mistake a month or so ago. . . we taught our son the sign for "finished" or as we say it "all done." He doesn't do it correctly instead he looks like he's trying to touch his hand to his elbow (on the same side, try it). Since then he uses it for everything, food, TV shows he doesn't like, toys, car trips, sleep, everything. It has quickly become the bane of my existence.

We saw the elephants (one really up close) and he made his elephant noise by touching his nose, tilting his head back and humming. We saw the hippos who pooped in the water while we were pressed up near the glass. He said "waddle, waddle" to the penguins. Then it went downhill. . .

The first misstep was taking him on the carousel. My wife watched us as we went around. His first time around he was excited, the second time he was unsure, the third time he was crying and saying and signing (in his way) "all done!" Of course they don't stop the carousel for one crying toddler, so I moved him back to a non-moving bench on the merry-go-round. . . you know, the seat saved for the old people trying to feel like kids again. He was still miserable and every time he passed the operator or his mom he'd yell "all done!"

Hopefully our next trip will go better.

Then my wife wanted him to ride the train, she thought it'd be so cool and he'd love it. Haven't I told this story before? Anyway, he had seen the train a bunch of times and went "choo choo" whenever he did. He got on the train and started to ride it around the zoo. He was OK with the first 5 minutes then again, "all done." This time the "all done" was interspersed with "choo choo." When we went around curves we'd point out the train engine and say look the train. Then when it was out of sight he'd ask for the "choo choo." We insisted he was on the "choo choo" but he wouldn't listen to reason.

Stomach bug update. . .

I have been out of commission almost all day. You know how they say that it's harder to have chicken pox as an adult than it is as a kid. . . I'm guessing the same it true for any illness.

Oh and my wife is heading down the same path. . . and this week is her spring break. . . and tomorrow is her birthday.

One quick note on our little man unleashing hell in a restaurant: If he had done it earlier it would have been on the slide at the playground (how do you clean that up or abandon it) or in a furniture store. . . that's was carpeted. We're lucky it happened in a high chair over tile floor where the only real victim was his pants and his floppy seat.

EDIT: One more thing, Pedialyte tastes like Kool-Aid with Salt dumped in it. Gross.