Bunky's First Haircut... so to speak

There's something sweet and innocent (if at times very frustrating and time-consuming) about a young child who wants to be just like the big people around him and do everything himself. Bunky can unlock anything, memorize the names of five major bridges of NYC by photo, start the car, and dress himself (not to mention having his own sense of taste).

So it stands to reason that after Daddy attempted to cut his hair with the trimmer one day - to which Bunky, at the time, declined - that he would have the presence of mind upon seeing said trimmer one day while going potty to then unplug the electric toothbrush, plug in the trimmer, plug the other end into the trimmer itself, and then proceed to trim his own hair.

Yep. And this is how it came out. A partial reverse mohawk. And one very embarassed and mortified mother.

The really funny thing is - my boss's three-year-old did the same thing a month ago (except with scissors, I think) and she, too, was mortified!

Ah, our little man...

Happy Holidays!

Earlier in the month we went to the Disney Christmas Party which is a private evening in Disneyland. Bunky enjoyed all the rides you would expect and more. At 39-1/2 inches with his boots on, he was just shy of going on the fun ones. Since Toon Town was closed, and that roller coaster was the ONLY reason we went to the party, we had to find other entertainment. So Bunky went on Space Mountain (40" minimum) and Star Tours (40" minimum). He loved them both. I'm sure he would have gone on Space Mountain 500 times if we had not decided that would be the last ride of the night.

Later in the month, Grandma & Grandpa Harwood came to visit. They stayed with us through Boxing Day and cooked us lots of good food. They're fun to have around.

On Christmas Morning we opened presents. Bunky had so many presents that he eventually got distracted by what he'd opened and refused to open any more. However, I eventually got him to open them all.

As with everything in his life, he enjoyed trying to open things himself. "No, I do it!" His favorite puppy was from cousins Logan and Nathan.

Isabel's Bane, that's what I named this guitar. She gave it to him -

and she can listen to him rock out on it all day long ;) It comes with a microphone which he loves.

Another guitar from Grandma & Grandpa Moon - I like this one better because it plays real songs and has actual strings. He liked it too but I didn't get any photos yet.

All in all we had a fantastic Christmas. I wish we could have also shared some time with my parents but that's what life is like these days... they are even making movies about it now! :P

Happy holidays to all!

Level Up! & Legoland

Okay first Bunky leveled up. For you non-geeks that means he went through a developmental leap (or is still kind of going through it). He is so much more like a boy than a baby. His speech is more complex, he has 59/64 pages memorized of a long book (not to mention all the other books), he is starting to (but not quite) make the connection between letters and sounds vs. letters and their shapes (upper & lower case). Reading by 3.5 for sure... Anyway, he's just more mature all around, and it's fascinating to see this change in his behavior and play and needs and so on. Yay!

Now for the Legoland part. It's been there some 12 years or so and I've never been. Yes, me, the legomaniac who would die and go to heaven to be a master builder (or even to have the time to build), the obsessive collector who doesn't open boxes but must have must have must have.

Anyway, the Nanny had a doctor appointment on a Friday so Mark was going to take the day off and stay home / work from home, and so on Thursday I pretty much decided I would too, and then Friday morning we pretty spontaneously decided to go. We got there around noon and by 4:00 had hit every ride he was qualified for. There were no lines, no crowds, no waiting. What took the longest was getting him off the roller coasters without a fuss. So much to see! It wasn't until about 4:30 that afternoon that I got to do a blitz through Miniland seeing the amazing intricate mind-blowing displays. I love that stuff. I can't wait to have a Lego studio of my own to set up my movie studio (though mine will be mini-fig scale). Too bad they close at 5.

Anyway, this is about Fintan, not me and my Lego OCD, so here are some photos.

Airplanes that go up and down!

Yes that Triceratops is entirely lego. Amazing.

Daddy & Bunky on Safari. This was a pretty kewl little ride, better than Jungle cruise with all the animatronic Lego animals. However, it was pretty much African except for the out-of-place pandas. I might have bought into it if they had been last, but they were second to last, just before the pride of lions.

After a fairytale cruise. I was surprised at how many fairy tale characters I could name, even though I don't know most of the stories. It was modernized; the prince had a cell phone.

My two heroes! Well, one hero and one replica.

Another view on that airplane ride.

Up up up in da 'ky! Faster faster!

A bouncy thing... I was surprised he liked it. Since there was no ride, we rode like 4 times in a row.

A different airplane ride. Mama was ready to bust out the blackberry and do email and work on this ride ;) But he clearly liked it.

An amazingly huge all-brick Thomas the Tank Engine.

Daddy has the photos of me & Bunk with R2D2 &Darth Vader.

Photos - we love photos!

Some recent photos of my "little man"...

All Hallow's Eve

Ahoy, mates! Another night of spirits roaming between the Earth and the Netherworld - and collecting loot from strangers!!! We had a great time! Woohoo!

Arrrr! The things I be puttin' up with fer candy!

I grabs me a beautiful pirate wench to accompany me!

And me daddy comes along too, arrr!

That scary ghoul don't scare this here pirate!

Say cheese, wench!

New York New Yoooooork!

In October we went to NYC. We go upstate to Warwick and go apple picking. I missed out on that part this year, but the boys had some fun. I don't have daddy's apple photo yet but it's a doozy (slathered with cuteness).

Daddy & Bunky in the city.

Bunky rides the subway. "F for Fintan!" F is the train to the Island.

At the Transportation Museum... sitting in an ancient subway car.

Don't let the toddler drive the bus!

How many tickets would you like?

I think Fin really enjoyed the turnstyles and the hands-on aspect of the Transportation Museum. He loves riding the subway, holding on, directing me to sit down, stand up, hold on. (He's getting really good at giving orders. At home now we only take orders from him if he's wearing his pirate hat. Bring that one up in therapy in a few years!! :P Aaarrr!!! )

RED ALERT!

I upgraded my blog and lost all the links to everyone else's blogs. Please help! Rori, Jenny, Dean... ack!!!

More photos coming!

Mark just pointed out that all this time i have had a card reader built in to my laptop. *sigh* No more excuses to be lazy and not download images. :)

Here are a few to start with... click to enlarge!

He's as much a cat as our other four cats...

He loves to ride the swing ride!

Replacement tire: $13.42

Kid's helmet: $26.27

Toddler bike seat attachment: $182.34

Finally finding something Bunky and Mommy can do together: Priceless

Rrrooooooaaar!

Mom is away on another business trip so here I am trying to provide updates to the blog. Unfortunately, the network is acting up a bit so I'm not sure if I'll be able to add any pictures.

Since Comic*con, Bunky has pretty much mastered the use of his potty. We still put a diaper on him every night, but that's mostly just a precaution - I think he's only used a diaper once in the past few weeks. Of course, this makes outings slightly more problematic since he doesn't quite have timing down yet. If it's time to poop, it's time to poop NOW and there better be a bathroom nearby. He also doesn't like the look of certain public restrooms and will refuse to use some of them, instead claiming that he just wants to wash his hands.

His reading has also improved alot, or at least his interest in books and his memorization. He got hooked on a PBS show called SuperWhy and since then he's been much more interested in his books. He's memorized "Goodnight Moon" and will read it to us at night, along with 3 or 4 others. Sometimes he'll start reciting a book we didn't know he had memorized and it's causes a bit of a double take.

He's also taken a renewed interest in hockey and skating and will drag me out to the front of the house to play a bit of ball hockey a coupel times a week. We took him back to the rink last week and he actually SKATED for nearly an hour and a half. He's beginning to get his balance better and not hang on us nearly as much, and didn't even visit any of the arcade games that normally attract his attention for most of our trips to the rink.


Grandpa and Grandma just came to visit and give me a hand while Mom's away, and also left lots of food so we won't starve. :) It was a shorter trip than usual, as they stopped in on the way to somewhere else so we didn't get many pictures. Which is to say, I didn't take any, and the few that Grandpa took are still in his camera. But here's a portrait from their last visit.

Bunky goes to SD Comic*Con

In the world of Geekitude, Bunky is a rising star. Today we took a day-trip to the expo floor of Comic*Con, the world's (I think) biggest convention for comics, movies, tv shows, fan stuff, more comics, etc. etc. [these shots are all from my Blackberry.] We saw lots of famous people but... yeah whatever. The exciting part was the trolley ride and the Dalek (below).

Here's a random shot of the floor... this isn't even the interesting area.

Oooh my favorite!!!

Apparently it's Bunky's favorite area too.

NO WAY! A life-size gold Dalek!!! Bunky is absolutely THRILLED!!!

Now, i expect most of you don't have a clue what a Dalek is, but Bunky does, and that just proves his superiority over you non-geek mortal types!!! :D

We had fun, got exhausted, took the trolley (electric train) from a remote parking spot to the convention center and back, and an Amtrak/Surfrider went by (full size double decker train) just 10 feet away and blew its horn!!! All that stuff was pretty exciting :D

First Poop in the Toilet!!!

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES, COME ON!!!

Isabel informed me today that Fintan made a poo-poo on the toilet. Not his little singing potty, but the big toilet. She said he seemed to prefer it for poo-poo. The little potty is okay for pee-pee. We started potty training seriously on Monday - no diapers during the day unless she's going somewhere with less-than-accessible toilet options (like the park).

She meets me at MyGym for Mommy & Me class on Thursdays (it's between home and work) and then afterward today we went to Wendy's new home for a short visit. Fintan let me know he had to go potty and Randy (W's son) showed us where his bathroom was, and Fin held it the whole time and then did a pee-pee in Randy's toilet. Woohoo!

Then before bed he asked to potty and he made pee-pee in his little potty.

HOORAY!!! I think we're getting somewhere - and without the bribes, fuss, or M&Ms.

Michigan Family Vacation

We had an absolutely wonderful time in Michigan this past week. It was great to see everyone and for Fintan to play with his cousins. They all hit it off really well and he had a fantastic time. His vocabulary and speech has improved, and he is definitely feeling more "3" than "2" now. Making that transition, finally!

Here are the photos from my camera. I may add more as I get them from everyone else.



Click the picture to see more. This will take you to my Webshots album. You can then view them all with the next/previous buttons near the top right (under the ad).

OR... here is the slideshow.

About the house on GULL ISLAND:

According to The History of Leelanau Township, the last time the house was occupies was before the Depression. Many colorful local tales speak of the Ustick’s family struggles with the nesting bords and suggest that they finally gave up competing with the birds and abandoned their cottage. After that, it was broken into and vandalized, and over the years the gulls made it part of their island home. All that remains are the two chimneys, still visible from offshore, and the building’s foundations.

Omi's Boat

Fin loves Omi's boat. In fact, he talks about it all the time. Sometimes he cries in the car because he thinks we're driving to Santa Barbara but we're not. Here are some photos of him driving the boat back on May 5. :)




Oh and this last one is us eating dinner. The mariachi (sp?) band played and the lead singer gave Bunky a good show because he was really enjoying it.

Poop!

The first time Joshua tried to use his potty, he went - but not exactly IN the potty! ("Once Upon a Potty" book)

So last week Fin voluntarily made a pee-pee in the potty. And this week his cousin Maya, who is I believe 6 months younger, made her first poo-poo in her potty (in Virginia I think).

Today, after dinner, I got a feeling that Fin was ready to make his evening poo-poo... so I invited him to join me in Potty Time in the bathroom. We took our pants down, and I took his diaper off, and he started to sit on the potty... but... instead of doing what Joshua did the first time he used the potty correctly:

sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and
sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and
sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and
sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and
sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and
sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and
sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and
sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and
sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and sit and

Bunky decided to get up, turn around, and look in the potty to see if anything was there. He likes to play with his singing, talking musical potty (note to future self: bad idea) a little too much. So I ignored him and decided to read the latest mailing from Comic*Con and then Daddy came in to see how we were all doing and...

There on the floor between his boots under his pants was his POOP! (blech!!!)

Although he had no idea that it was his (as opposed to one of the cat's), we praised him and I reminded him that Joshua took some time to get it right too.

Pics part 2

Here we see Bunky helping mama out with some voiceover recording. You can see how carefully he checks the position of the mic, and dissatisifed, repositions it closer for optimal sound quality before putting his headphones back on.

OK, so that's not really what he's doing. But he likes to play with the headphones and mic anyway, and Ingrid actually managed to record him saying a bunch of stuff. In that recording are probably many deep thoughts and wonderful pearls of wisdom, if only we could successfully translate what he's saying.... :)