Spartan boys

Peter looks a little wiped out after cheering on the Spartans to victory over Northern Colorado yesterday.



It's hard work crawling around and bellowing while your daddy watches football.

All sorts of new fun games

Peter has decided to become a professional pain in the buttinsky lately. Yes, he is truly a happy, sweet little boy, but he is creating new games that will take him far as an obnoxious toddler. The first one is specifically aimed at his big sister.

A few times recently, we have let Peter down out of his highchair before the rest of us are done with dinner. He loves to crawl around with Connie the dog and play unmolested by his sister. Last night, poor Charlotte suddenly exclaimed, "Peter bit my toe!" The little knucklehead pulled up on CJ's chair and decided to try out his chompers on her tasty little piggies. When Corey and I had finished cracking up (yes we know this was not good parenting), we extricated Peter from beneath the table and tried to convince CJ that we did not approve of cannibalism at the kitchen table. Here is little Peter at it again this morning:



The other new game is something he must have learned from Cousin Quinn, because Charlotte certainly never did this. Peter loves to push the Pack 'n' Play (aka the toy prison) all around the room. I foresee drywall repair in our future.

Crazy Pete

Petey turns into a certifiable MANIAC whenever you put him in water. Tonight, it was the baby pool out on the back deck.





Is anyone else worried we may be raising a little demon? I love how unconcerned Charlie Jo looks. For her, it's just another day with a nutty younger brother.

At the car wash...

Charlie and Daddy decided to wash the "Blue Mustang Car."



Poor Peter felt left out.



So, Peter bear-crawled over.



He didn't come over to help, though. He came over to supervise.



"Hey, you missed a spot."



Charlie really enjoyed spraying the car off.



The Blue Mustang Car is now sparking clean!

Happy 35th Birthday, Corey!

You can never have too much Michigan State gear!



Charlotte tried out Daddy's new recorder and Peter made a beeline over like the Pied Piper was playing.



Charlotte helped her Daddy open every single present.



This turned out to be a very strange book.



I had to get Corey some Weebles after all the stories we heard about his mother carefully counting the Weebles after Corey and Stephanie went to bed each night.



Alicia really outdid herself when she made this cake!



I have seen wedding cakes that weren't this beautiful.



For some reason, Peter was belly laughing when Corey jumped up and down with him.



It's a requirement for every two-year-old to help her daddy blow out the candles on his birthday cake. No exceptions can be made.



Happy birthday, Corey! We love you!

Bazinga!

My little Petey Pie may be a future Sheldon-style physicist. I swear he rolled around a little and squeaked "Bazinga!" a few times.

Glamour

Yesterday I painted Charlotte's toenails. I expected all sorts of admiration and gushing from her about how beautiful her toes were. Instead, the first thing she said was, "Mommy, I want my toenails back."




I have thus far avoided tackling the job of using polish remover on her because I want to enjoy her cute little pink toenails for another day or so. At the rate we're going though, it will all be chipped off by tonight. Hey, I may not be the world's best hairstylist, but I was hoping I could gain a little notoriety for my toddler toenail painting skills. Looks like I'm going to have to find a different model.

Peter takes grooming into his own hands

No longer satisfied with my lack of hairstyling ability (or the fact that a comb hasn't touched Peter's head since, oh, birth -- because he doesn't need it!), Peter has recently decided that his food makes an excellent substitute for the styling products I am denying him. Today at lunch, he tried cheese sauce and bananas. You may need to click on the photos to see them big enough to witness what little baby-fine hair he has all styled up like Albert Einstein.





It may come as no surprise to anyone who knows me well that I have discovered letting the food dry in his hair and then combing it out later actually works far better than trying to mop it off in the immediate aftermath of the event. It should not, however, come as a surprise that Peter is attempting to style his own hair. A quick review of the terrible hairdos I have given Charlotte must wait for another time, though.

Fun with laundry (aka who needs toys?)

Why do I even TRY sorting laundry with these two around?

Who's that hiding behind Daddy's gym shorts?



It's the Laundry Pile Destroyer! Notice her sidekick, the Laundry Pile Mangler, crawling around in the background.



She almost looks like she's helping in this picture, but...



...the armful she was holding ends up on top of her sidekick instead.



Whew - mangling piles of laundry is tiring work. The Landry Pile Mangler takes frequent little rests with his head on the nice stinky laundry.



Aaaaaand this is what my neat piles of color-sorted laundry looks like after the Destroyer and Mangler are through with their dastardly deeds.

A photo I should have posted of our Adonis...

... and his amazing physique!

Petey Pie at 9 months

Tank, aka Peter, weighs a whopping 20 pounds, 7 ounces! How on earth is that only the 50th percentile? His height (28 inches) is also the 50th percentile, but that seems a little more reasonable. He had a blast at the doctor's office, even when they did the pin prick to get some blood to test his iron. Unfortunately, it took a ridiculous amount of time to stop bleeding and we got it all over the place (including my clothes, his ear, his clothes, the exam table, the mirror above the exam table, the wall, his face, the diaper bag, the Kleenex box, the floor, and some other places I'm sure I'm forgetting). Otherwise, it was a great check-up with no shots. Dr. Hood said Peter looked "perfect". What more could a mother ask?

The handsome baby in the mirror is always a big hit.



Why do they even bother giving us a pad to put the kid on? He only stays there for 1.5 seconds and then the pad is trashed.



QUIT LICKING THE MIRROR!



What? It tastes good!

Charlotte's dental adventure doesn't exactly go as planned...

Charlotte visited the dentist for the first time this morning. Although the hygienist and the dentist were each able to coax her to open her mouth just long enough for them to get a quick peek, there was no way in heck Charlotte was going to allow anyone to clean her teeth. I guess it's still a little too scary for a two-and-a-half-year-old!





The monkey was the only one who got his teeth cleaned today!