When Nature Calls

This past weekend we took Joseph to the Nature Museum at the park near our house. It's not anything terribly exciting - just some exhibits of creatures native to Charlotte (like a raccoon, opossum and skunk - basically anything you can see in our neighborhood on the night before trash pickup), a small botanical garden where a bunch of varieties of butterflies live and a large play section with some "earthworm tunnels" (i.e. your garden variety tunnel found at any play ground), water table and puzzles. Joseph seemed to like it. He didn't get super excited by anything, but he stayed in his stroller without complaint for close to an hour (that's a big deal in this "I want to crawl and climb non-stop" thing he is going through right now).

Here are some pictures of Joseph with the native creatures:

A skunk

An Owl

Much to my dismay, the exhibit Joseph got the most excited about were the snakes. I seriously hate snakes. They scare the crap out of me and even the mention of one will make my skin crawl.

Notice him pointing - this is a new skill. When he is excited by something and wants to touch it, he starts pointing. Isn't he sooooo smart! (Yeah, I know, they are supposed to be doing that at this age).

The best part of the trip for Joseph was being let out of his stroller to crawl around. He had fun trying to play with the "big kids" (the 3 and 4 year olds) and putting anything that wasn't nailed down in his mouth. This toy lizard was a particular favorite:

After we crawled through some tunnels and splashed on the water table (made to look like a river), we headed out to the park for a little stroll and people watching. There was some weird activities fair going on and kids were having a dance comepetition, people were fishing in the pond and a bunch of old people were doing water color painting. It was an odd scene. Joseph did get to meet "Ray", the mascot for the Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation Department. Apparently this department's motto is "Mecklenburg County - Recreate All Year!". Whoever they paid to come up with that should be fired.

Boo!

Around our house we play a little game called Boo! with Joseph. It's basically a higher energy, louder version of Peekaboo (if you have spent any time around Joseph - or read this blog - you would know a normal version of Peekaboo just wouldn't hold his attention). This game basically involves us hiding behind some furniture, peeking around and enticing Joseph to come crawling at high speed to attack us. When he just gets there, we yell Boo! and get up and run to another hiding spot. He chases us all over the house, giggling and squealing.

As you can see, Joseph is a big fan of this game. He could play for hours....of course, Rich and I are tired out after 20 minutes.

After a game of boo, Richard and Joseph both needed a nap today:

I don't think Joseph has slept on our chests since he was about 4 months old but last night he slept horribly. Rich was up with him from midnight until 2 am and then Joseph woke up at 5:30 to start his day. This is incredibly unusual for him these days. This morning at about 8 am, he just crawled into Rich's lap, laid down and went to sleep. My child NEVER does that, so he must have been exhausted. Richard was more than happy to let him stay there while he watched ESPN and nodded off to sleep himself.

Missing Child

MISSING: One fussy, temper-tantrum throwing, nap refusing, middle of the night party throwing, food boycotting 10-month old. He was last seen about 2 weeks ago, looking somewhat like this:

FOUND: One happy, content, crawling, 12-hour a night sleeping, big eating, nap taking 10-month old. Recently pictured like this:

I can't decide whether to reward the person who switched these babies or punish them for taking my kid.

After 9-months of having a fussy, difficult to handle, constantly frustrated baby, I have suddenly become the mother of a happy baby. At first, I thought crawling was a horrid curse someone put on my child....and he was horrid for several weeks when he started crawling...but recently this whole mobility and independence thing is really agreeing with him. He can crawl around between toys and actually entertain himself for 20 minute stretches. He is happy to go wherever I take him and all this moving around is clearly helping him sleep long stretches at night....we've been managing 7:30 pm until almost 7 am the last 2 weeks.

This whole happy baby thing is quite an adjustment. When friends complain about their fussy babies, I don't even know what to say anymore. I used to be able to chime in with 16 stories about Joseph's fussiness that would top anyone else's story, but now I just kind of offer reassurance (I still remember wanting to stick a sock in THOSE mom's mouth when I was frustrated with Joseph's fussiness and all they could do is talk about how GREAT and EASY their kid was - so I won't even go there!). I don't feel like a liar anymore when someone says "Oh he's so sweet" and I respond "Yes, he is."

Now Joseph is certainly happy, but I still can't say he's easy. He is the most active little guy. I can barely get a diaper change and bottle in him in the morning before he's wriggling off my lap or crawling off his changing table to get crawling and moving for the day. We are non-stop movement ALL day long. My policing his fussiness has been replaced by me policing his climbing on things he shouldn't and opening doors and cabinets he shouldn't. We have at least 6 full out falls everyday that result in crying, screaming and comforting needed by mom. He is currently sporting a huge scratch on his nose and a bruise across his cheek from two separate attempts to climb furniture yesterday. Taking him out to eat is not an option at this point. I mean, really, would you want to sit in high chair and just look around if you knew you could crawl? But I will take the high-energy, happy little guy that has suddenly arrived over my little fussy guy any day.

Here is a video of his crawling skills that are the reason for his happiness. This was at the park this past weekend. The camera work gets a little crazy because Joseph was headed straight for some bird poop and I had to divert him. Eventually the camera turns off quickly when he makes a dash straight for the poop.

Home, Sweet Home!

The last few days have been a little crazy around here. We essentially moved out of our house and in with friends for the last two days. We got a big snowstorm (ok, big by Southern standards - my family up north would call this storm nothing more than a dusting) on Sunday night. As usual the hint of snow turned our local newscasters in a panicked frenzy to see who could have the most over-top, unnecessary coverage of storm prep being done by the city of Charlotte. They were predicting 3-6 inches of snow and a "disastrous" Monday morning commute. I laughed it off - this sort of over reaction down here usually comes with 20 minutes of snow flurries and absolutely no accumulation. But about 5pm on Sunday when it started coming down hard and by 7pm when we had an inch of snow already, I was starting to get excited about the prospect of a real snowstorm.

My enthusiasm was tempered when around 8pm I heard a crash and our whole house shook. I looked outside saw this:

A power pole completely down in our backyard. In my head, I was like "whoa, the power pole is down" and then suddenly I thought "but our power is still on". So then I look in the driveway and the power line running to our house is sitting across our driveway.

So now I am freaking out...I'm thinking having a live power line running across your driveway to your back door is not such a great thing. We call the power company and are told not to leave the house and they will have someone out in 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, no one is there so we call back. Now we are told they have no idea when someone can come out and that we can leave the house, just don't touch the line. With snow accumulating (probably 2 inches at this point), the thought that when the power company does show up we are probably going to be without power and that we are now having power surges with a live wire running into our house, we made the decision to find other housing for the night. At 10 pm at night, in driving snow and on snow covered roads, we headed out to a friend's house about 15 minutes away.

My mother-in-law has a wonderful friend and former neighbor here in Charlotte that was kind enough to let us come over. She has a super cute little granddaughter, Braxton, and therefore, has a whole nursery set up at her house for her visits. Here is a picture of Joseph and Braxton during a recent play date:

We had our own little suite with two bedrooms and a bathroom and couldn't have been made to feel more at home. It was a blast from the past for Richard as he spent a lot of time there as a kid (he grew up just a few houses down the road). Joseph took it all in stride although it was a beast getting him back to bed at 11:30 pm after being forced to wake up and head to someone Else's house in the middle of his sleep. We woke up in the morning, to this paltry little snow covering:

(This is clearly from our friends house - you will not find a pool and pool house in my backyard!)

Joseph had a great time playing with all the toys and crawling around such expansive square footage (a luxury our house does not offer!). He discovered a staircase for the first time and set a personal record for climbing the whole staircase (17 steps) in just 1 minute 20 seconds (we have a video of this to be posted soon). As much fun as we had, we were very excited when we got word late this afternoon that our power was back on. Our house is just now getting toasty warm, but its nice to be on my couch and getting ready to sleep in my bed.

Thanks to Vicki, Charlie & Logan for their amazing hospitality!