Saturday, October 31, 2009

Pumpkin Patch

In honor of Halloween, I've decided to create a post of Casey at the local pumpkin patch. He was most fascinated with... the hay on the ground. We held him so he could 'walk' on the hay. Well, he was slipping and sliding all over the place, so he got curious and tried to inspect the hay and figure out why he wasn't gaining proper traction. Nonetheless, we tried to introduce him to pumpkins...

Here he is, trying to figure out what this big round orange thing is...


Posing in his 'I love daddy shirt'


Compare the size of this pumpkin to Casey.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Conversation

Mommy was away enjoying a Mom's Night Out. So, Casey and Daddy had guys night in. I want to share the exchange between father and son. To give some background, it was getting late, about 8:30pm. I was going to give Casey a bottle of milk and put him to bed. So, I heat up the milk, and bring the bottle over to the couch. Casey is on the ground, and he sees Daddy with the bottle... and he fixates on the bottle. I set the bottle down, and pick up Casey and lay him in my lap. I reach behind his head, and get the bottle. He must be hungry, because he attacks this bottle. He finishes about 1/2 the bottle, and I take it from his mouth. (And set it on the table, behind his head) All I wanted to do was quickly burp him. Casey starts crying, and while I pat him on the back, I say, "Its ok baby, burp for Daddy". And he looks at me and wails... He doesnt have the vocabulary to say the words, but the expression and the sounds said it loud and clear.. " Gimme the d^%^$ bottle... F&&^% burping, I want the d*&^ bottle. Stubborn me, I keep trying to burp him. His next expression/cry said, "OK a*^hole, forget you, I'll get the d*&^% bottle myself"; and with this, he turns his head, locates the bottle, and starts twisting and crawling to reach for the bottle. Being such a reasonable guy, I give in, and get the bottle for him, put it in his mouth and let him finish.. He slurped the rest down FAST. Now, the contents are all gone, so I take the bottle from him again. He starts crying, so I tell him, "All done baby, good job". He basically says, "F&$& that, I'm not done, I'm still hungry".

"Thats it, there is no more, see the bottle is empty"
"Well then, make me some more"
I see this is an argument I can't win, so I do the logical thing... I take him upstairs, distract him, and get him settled down and ready for bed.
I can't imagine what our conversations will be like in a few years when he develops the vocabulary to replace the censored words above!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Race

Red alert! Little Casey is fully mobile! I had a moment last week when I realized it was time to child proof. I was on Casey-watch. We were downstairs, in the living room. Casey was on the floor and I was on the couch... and I had to pee! Ever since Casey was born, there has been one constant. If you leave him somewhere, and later come back.... he'll be in the same place as you left him. Umm, not anymore. Knowing this, I put him in the far corner of the room, and took off to the bathroom. For those of you who dont know the layout of Casa Wang, the living room, dining room and kitchen take up the bottom floor of the Casa. There are stairs leading both down to the garage, and up to the bedrooms. Directly in front of the stairs headed down, there is a bathroom.

So, I set Casey in a far corner, and take off for the bathroom. I am standing up, doing my business, and I hear Mommy call out, "Here comes Casey!". Testing my flexibility and control, I attempt to continue aiming the stream while leaning left, and poking my head around the corner to find Casey. (Right about this time, I stop hearing water splashing, and begin hearing porcelain...) Anyhow, Casey is CRAWLING over towards me... and the stairs. The race is on! I re-focus on the task, re-aim to water, and increase the pressure to increase flow volume. Finally, finish, shake twice and zip.. And Casey is literally 1 foot from the top of the stairs! I scoop him up, and reset him to the far corner again...

A few days later, we got the safety gates installed!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Olympics

Casey just celebrated his 8 month birthday yesterday. He is developing his own personality more each day. From what I have seen, he's a pretty active, daring kid. He loves it when daddy throws him straight up in the air.. err, I mean , gently moves him in a vertical direction, in a controlled manner. (See, no need to to alert CPS). He also loves to do plyometric jumping exercises. But, for all I know, this might well be normal behavior for a boy of his age. But Casey takes it a step further. He loves doing back-flips. Who knows, maybe its something he got from his daddy. After all, daddy made an ill-fated attempt to learn back flips... when he was 35 yrs old... Yup, landed flat on my face. Thats when I was told, "gymnastics is something you learn when you are 5 yrs old, not 35!"

Casey just might be competing for a spot on the 2028 Olympic team.. Wait, what am I saying.. He's part Chinese. He can represent Team China in the 2016 Rio Olympics.. He'll be 7 yrs old.. Perfect age for the Chinese gymnastics governing body to claim he is 'of legal age' and produce a birth certificate to back the claim.

In these photos, all we do is support his armpits, and give him something to rotate around. He does the rest; note the perfect landing!