Are We There Yet?

My favorite blog is written by my friend, L. Occasionally, she will write a post about her beautiful daughter, S's eating habits. Sometimes, these posts include pictures of S with whatever happened to be on her plate smeared across her face.

When I see them, I usually think to myself, "I'm glad we are not there yet."

Until yesterday that is, because we have arrived "there."

Bradley's new "game" at meal times is to grab the bowl of the spoon as it is headed to his mouth and take the food into his hand and "squish" it.  He transfers the food from hand to hand and continues to "squish" it while he eats. Usually, this only results in messy hands and high chair tray.

Until yesterday that is, because yesterday he was tired.

When Bradley is tired, he rubs his eyes.

Do you have a mental picture yet?

When he was done eating, I looked at my messy little guy and thought, "You look just like S!"

They must be having secret meetings in the church nursery or something, because S has also taught him to blow raspberries.

Yes, he blows them with food in his mouth.

Picture collage generated with Smilebox

Mostly Bradley; Only One About Running

We bought a new car recently and since it is registered in Michigan, we don't need the Maine inspection sticker.One day, Adam went out to take off the sticker.  When he came in he said, "I also took off the dealers plate from the front, do you want a [Detroit] Tigers plate for the front?"

"Does it have to be a Tigers Plate? Can I have a Hello Kitty plate, instead?" I replied.

"Do you want me to drive you places? Because I'm not getting behind the wheel of a Hello Kitty car."

So, I guess I'm getting a Detroit Tigers plate.  Maybe I can find a compromise.

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Bradley is perfecting his pincher grasp.  He is starting to feed himself some Puffs.  I really need to take some picture or video.  As soon as he decides which one to grab, he opens his mouth.  He keeps it open the entire time he picks up the puff until he gets it into his mouth.  Then, there is a big smile and chewing.

He has also started to feed himself banana pieces.  It reminds me of the scene in Pretty Woman when Vivian is in the fancy restaurant and she flips to food over her shoulder and the waiter catches it, "Slippery little suckers."

Those little buggers get everywhere.  As with the puffs, he opens his mouth while he is reaching for the banana piece.  He keeps it open while he chases the slippery little sucker around his tray.  When he finally gets it, is usually slips out of his grip and somewhere onto his hand.  He then, with mouth open, scrapes his hand along his face until the banana gets into his mouth.  Or falls in his lap, or the floor. He has about a 4 out of 10 success rate.

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Bradley and Caramel have had an interesting 9 months.  At first, their interactions were all Caramel initiated.  She would come over to where he was, swing, infant seat, tummy time and start licking what ever she could get to.  At first, he just kind of took it.  As he learned to smile, Bradley would smile and eventually laugh when Caramel came by.

When Bradley started to jump in his Jumper-roo, Caramel would come by and start licking his face.  This was met with smiles, laughter and more jumping.  The jumping would usually make Caramel nervous and she would get away.  Sometimes, Caramel would bring her ball to Bradley to throw for her.

Soon, when Bradley was jumping he would stop and hold out his arms out towards her.  Bradley would let out a happy squeal over and over again.  We think it was his way of calling Caramel.

Now, Bradley is mobile.  He has started to Army crawl.  He is getting pretty quick, too. Bradley will often crawl over to her and grab her feet, tail or anything else he can. Caramel usually runs away.

Caramel and Bradley have started playing a new "game". It starts with Caramel playing very nicely with one of her toys.  Bradley crawls over to join in.  When he gets too close for Caramel's comfort, she finds a new place to play.  Bradley changes direction and goes after her, and the cycle starts over.  They play for quite a while like this.  Caramel usually gets too stressed out and abandons the toy.  Then, one of the adults moves the toy before Bradley can get to it and redirects him to a baby toy.

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I ran another 5 k recently.  It went well.  It was a "there and back" race which is nice.  I made note of landmarks on the way "there" so that I would know when I was getting to the finish.

The way "there" was pretty nice, the wind was at my back and the sun was shining and I was getting hot!  I had unzipped my jacket and pulled my sleeves up and was about to take off my hat when we turned around. 

Then, the wind was at my front.  It was SO cold!  I zipped back up and pulled my sleeves back down.  My teeth even started to chatter a little!

As we were lining up to start, I noticed a runner in bright orange shoes lining up behind me.  Other than his shoes, I noticed that he was wearing a tank top and shorts.  I knew he'd be fast and he was.  He quickly past me and he past me going "back" while I was only about half of the was "there."

I was about a mile away from the finish and he past me again, going "there", like he had started the race again.

I could see the school we started at when I heard someone passing me, it was Bright Orange Shoes!  He ran 10k in the time it took me to run a 5k!

But, this isn't about his time (first place of the whole race), it's about mine.  Two minutes faster than my last 5k!  And a victory!