Miscellaneous Pics

Reading With Daddy...

Tumblebugs...

Hanging Out at Dad's Office...

Sharped Dressed Man...

Easter

Hunting eggs has provided hours of fun for Gulliver over the past month. He lights up when he spots a hidden egg. Then he toddles over to it, picks it up, and then brings it back to drop it in the basket. He just loves it!

By the time Easter Sunday arrived, Gulliver was fully prepared for our at-home egg hunt with friend, Hadley. We also broke out the hard-boiled eggs and tried our hand at dyeing. They both did a great job!

 

You've Come A Long Way, Baby!

After holding my hand and taking no less than 10 laps around the family room together, Gulliver still hadn't had enough walking time. So he ventured out on his own and took another 6 laps or so all by himself. It's the longest stretch of walking we've seen yet. Then he proceeded to walk up and down the hallway (as seen in the video). Last night was the very first time I've seen him go from crawling to standing all in one motion, without any help. He's come so far!

Happy Birthday to Dad...

Today is Mark's birthday. Happy Birthday to you... happy birthday to you...

We played in the annual Icebreaker Golf Tournament yesterday. Our little mascot brought us good luck and we tied for 1st place. Thanks to our friends, Jay and Kate, for encouraging us to bring along our "fifth" player. Gulliver made it through the first 12 holes without even taking a snooze. He fell asleep for about 30 minutes as we finished up the last 4 holes. And then hung out in the clubhouse afterward. Everyone had a wonderful time!

Bigger Everyday

Sometimes I look at Gulliver and just think he looks SO BIG!!! He's certainly not a little baby anymore. He's 100% toddler! And he is acting older all the time.

Gulliver had his last bottle about 2 weeks ago. He gave it up and never looked back. I've been holding on to them - just in case. But I finally packed them all up today. Bye bye bottle!

I turned his car seat around this week, so now he faces forward. He's only had 1 roundtrip ride that way, but he seemed to enjoy being able to see what's ahead. And I enjoyed being able to see him in the rearview mirror and knowing whether he was awake or asleep.

We finished our 3-week swim class last week. Went to the pool this week on our own and Gulliver had a blast. He really enjoyed sitting in the floaty that I brought with us. It fits him much better now than in did last fall (when we last used it). Every time I took him out of it, he would just reach back over and try to climb in. He spent lots of time laughing, watching the other kids, and smiling.

Walking continues to progress. He still spends most of the time on all fours, but he continues to dabble with being a two-legger.

The last two days, I could swear Gulliver has been calling, "Mom, Mom, Mom..." from his crib after naptime. But of course, when I go in there, he won't repeat it for me.

This One's For You, Dad!

Mark and Gulliver have this little head-turning game they've been playing together for many months now. Sometimes Gulliver can be a real ham!

A Delightful Day of Nothing

Today has been a truly delightful day... filled with absolutely nothing. It is one of those days where I can just sit back and watch Gulliver be Gulliver.

He continues to surprise me with his impromptu walking. Here you can see him in action:

He spent most of the morning laying on the dog beds and playing with his new Hot Wheels monster truck that my friend Kate brought him when she came over for lunch yesterday. Man, he loves that thing!

I didn't clip Gulliver's nails in a timely manner, so he awoke from his nap with a very large scratch down his nose. When I attempted to clip his nails while he was sitting in the high chair before lunch, he cooperated 100%. It usually requires a team effort between Mark, me, and puffs to get the job done. But not today. Do you think he finally realizes that trimming his nails will help keep those scratches away?

Typically when Gulliver eats, he is very good about keeping food on his plate and the plate on the tray. Today he decided to pick up his plate, dump it over, and lick up what was left. It was pretty humorous and done in the name of exploration, not frustration or naughtiness.

We put rubber boots on for the first time and headed outside to enjoy the nice, sunny day. Instead of loading up in the Chariot as we usually do, Gulliver led me down the driveway. Guess these boots were made for walking! We walked all the way down to the end of the street together. I tried to get him to turn around, but he insisted on going his way. When we reached a driveway several doors down, he turned and started walking up it. I don't even know those neighbors, so I have no idea why he wanted to go there. But he was on a mission. And so we walked...

When we got home, we spied the first sign of spring in our yard... a crocus! So of course we took a little time to smell the flowers...

I had left the camera lens cap on the table. While I was hanging up our jackets, Gulliver picked it up off the table and played with it. I sat down in the chair with the camera in my hands. He walks over and places the lens cap on the camera.  I was stunned. He knew exactly where it was supposed to go.

With a little luck, the little guy may turn out to be neater than his mom. We had been playing Legos earlier in the day and left them laying about on the floor in the play area downstairs. Gulliver proceeded to head over to the play area and put every Lego back into the bin. Every. Single. One. One at a time. There must have been 50 of them laying around. Why do I get the feeling this tidying up won't last???

Anyway, it's been a delightful day. Our little boy is growing up a little bit more each day. I'm so glad I started this blog and have a way to keep some of the simple, special memories we share.

Reading

Reading has climbed the ranks on Gulliver's list of favorite things to do. He will pick up a book, come over to Mark or I, hand us the book, and crawl into our lap. It's so sweet!

His very favorite books right now are books with flaps... Where's My Sweetie Pie and Winnie the Pooh Easter Egg Hunt. He's very good at turning the pages... sometimes too good. And he loves to find what's hiding under the flaps. But sometimes he gets a little too eager and tears the flaps. Some are just barely hanging on. Time to get out the tape and do some repair work!

He also enjoys the Miffy Likes To... book that has removable pieces and books that have dogs and other soft animals to pat. And The Three Bears and Sandra Boyton's One, Two, Three. And can't forget the sing-along book, Five Little Ducks.

Golf

Gulliver joined us on the golf course yesterday for our first outing of the season. We played the back 9 and he was entertained the entire 2 hours. The weather was beautiful, although the wind picked up quite a bit as the day went on. I don't know how long he'll put up with this, but it was fun to spend the afternoon on the golf course with our little guy!

In other news, Gulliver is starting to walk! Last weekend, he took his first few steps all by himself with the help of a couple maracas to distract him. Each day he continues to progress. Mid-week, he took 2 to 3 steps walking back and forth to mom and then to dad and back to mom, etc. Yesterday, he climbed down from my lap where we were sitting in the rocking chair in his room and walked all the way to his door. That was probably a good 10 steps. He's so proud of himself (and so are we)!

I can finally feel molars coming in on both sides in the top of his mouth. Thank goodness! Put that milestone behind us at last.