Early Morning

Hmm, where was I?  Oh yes, raising Ruckus!  Back to it then...

We have been happily going about our daily routines lately.  We get up with the sun and the birds while the house is still quiet.  I change his diaper and he helps me make coffee, and then we play.  Toys sound very loud at this hour.  Why do they make children's toys so loud?  I have to turn the TV up to 12 to drown them out.  Ruckus likes to watch the news with me in the morning, as he tries to bat the coffee cup out of my hand so he can stick his own hand inside of it, and smear it on his clothes.

If it is hot in the house I open up the door and Ruckus will stand there, against the screen door and bang his hands on it, as though he were a prisoner trying to get the guard's attention, and maybe be let out.  I think he would like it very much if I would please open the screen so he could explore the front yard, and the road that leads Away, to parts unknown to him except from the back of a car, facing the wrong way round.

After the news I sit him in his booster seat, and he watches me prepare his breakfast, which is usually fruit and yogurt.  He cheers all the while, hooting and hollering and most of the time waking everyone in the house with his enthusiasm.  Sometimes we listen to music while we eat and if I am cheery I dance for him, which he finds amusing.  He likes to take the yogurt coated fruit out of his mouth and play with it for a minute or so before putting it back in and eating it.  This tends to be a little messy.  Luckily breakfast is served while he is still in his pajamas.

If it is a weekend we do not have to rush so after breakfast I'll clean him up and get him dressed for the day.  He likes to chew on the hairbrush after I'm done combing his hair, so I let him as this is a good distraction for him and helps me dress him with less struggle.  Clean clothes, clean face and hands, combed hair.  He looks like such a gentleman!  Now it is time to play.  He will start at one end of the room and make a circle around it, visiting with each toy he can reach for a moment or two, making his rounds.  When he has run out of toys to say hello to he has to make a choice.

Shall I go back to the kitchen?  The dog's food and water is there, and the trash can.  Maybe I can have a bite, or tip them over?

Shall I smack the window and try to scare a cat out from under the bushes?

Shall I tug on the trunk of the tree in the corner, and snack on the potting soil beneath?

Perhaps the bathroom door has been carelessly left ajar?

Sometimes he is very good and ignores all of these distractions, and heads for his toy box instead, where he carefully selects a toy to drop on the floor.  He doesn't really want to play with that one.  He reaches in again for another, and repeats the process, pulling out each toy one by one.  It is scary when one of them has been left on and makes noise in there all by itself.  If he can get enough of the toys out, he can tear at the paper which lines the box, that makes the most fun noise of all!

After play time with Mommy it is time to play with Daddy, while Mom heads for the shower.  Lord knows what goes on in this time.  When I am done I open the bedroom door and I can hear little thump, thump, thump noises as Ruckus crawls toward my room.  He's coming to see me!  He comes around the corner and watches me putting on my makeup.  Soon, he is bored with this, and begins to browse the contents of the bathroom. 

There isn't much interesting going on from my point of view, but he finds joy through slapping and banging on the toilet lid, and trying to eat my magazines.  Poor Better Homes & Gardens has seen better days!  Soon enough, he is tugging quietly on the toilet paper roll.  He's quick!  30 seconds is all it takes for the roll to be unwound onto the floor.  It takes much longer to reel it back up.  I hurry up and finish, and scoop him up so I can carry him somewhere more child friendly. 

Back to the living room, where his toys wait quietly for him to make his rounds again.  He ignores them and heads for the plant.  He seems to just be looking at the dirt but don't be fooled!  His mouth is already full of it and so is his tiny fist. 

It seems as though he is getting into the most trouble when he is tired.  Suddenly the toys have all lost their shine and only tugging the dog's ears will do, or splashing in the dog water.  He will actually cry if you take the TV remote away from him, or your cellphone.  Surely, it is time for a nap now.  After a little convincing, an hour of peace is had so that you can 'reset' the house and get ready for round two, which starts at around 10 a.m.

Running Out of Firsts

Yesterday was Independence Day, and I spent it with my husband and son.  Nobody else.  It was awesome!  We weren't really trying to avoid anyone, it just worked out that we had no definite plans and decided to stay at home and take it easy, and this ended up being a very enjoyable way to spend the day.

Ruckus is a handful so it was nice that I was able to stay at home and help my husband with the things that he normally has to handle by himself.  I took a bunch of pictures of the baby to commemorate the holiday and many of them turned out great.

We set up the baby's first splash pool on the patio out back and filled it with water to warm in the sun while I fed Ruckus his lunch.  He likes squash!  A little while after lunch I dressed him in his swim trunks and we trundled out back to get the playtime started.  Although he was confused at first he got the hang of the whole outside-bath pretty quickly and enjoyed himself.



After about an hour we decided to wrap it up and go inside, as I seemed to have missed a bit of the babies back with the sunscreen application so he was getting red in patches and I wanted to avoid a sunburn.

After that Ruckus had a glass of milk the hard way which mostly ended up in his lap.  We'll need to practice this a little more, or I should say that I need to practice this more, as I'm the one holding the cup as it pours down his face.