Toothbrush & Stroller

Lesson Learned:  Do not give your child a toothbrush - more importantly, your toothbrush - in the bathtub. 

 

Frank & I brush our teeth while trying to get Frankie to brush his - which means that he inevitably wants to steal our toothbrush from us, and because we (ok...I) are usually pushovers, we oblige.  In the morning after getting dressed, we go into the bathroom to brush our teeth.  And in the evenings, during bathtime, we brush our teeth - in the bathtub.  (To clarify, just Frankie is in the tub, not Mommy & Daddy!) 

Now that I think of it, who brushes their teeth in the bathtub?  Why were we having Frankie brush his in there?  (In our defense, we started with a wash cloth at bath time; I guess in our heads it made sense to transition to the toothbrush right in the tub still.) 

Anyhoo - during tonight's bath, Frankie decided to brush his pee-pee with his toothbrush & MY TOOTHBRUSH.  And got the biggest kick out of it.  Despite my jaw dropping to the floor, how could I not laugh?  I will be replacing our toothbrushes immediately and tomorrow night we will begin to brush our teeth before bathtime.
 

On an unrelated note (but almost as traumatizing for Daddy), Frankie discovered his love for strollers over Christmas while we were in New York and his cousins shared their stroller with him.  He was then lucky enough to score one of his own as a hand-me-down from my cousin Angela's daughter.  Frank loves when I suggest that they go outside to play with it.  Usually, you can find Frankie doing laps around the table, pushing his doggie. 

 

Climber

Look out Mommy & Daddy - You've got a climber!  Give our little guy something to climb on and watch him smile! He loves climbing from his step stool to the guest bed, from the foot stool to the couch and last night, discovered the fun that comes from climbing from a box onto the couch.  I can only imagine what he'll be climbing on next! 

 

Water Baby

When registration time came for Arlington County classes, Frank wanted to sign Frankie up for swim again in hopes that we can groom him into becoming the next Michael Phelps.  Kidding!  He really wanted to continue to encourage his love of water, so why not?  This past Saturday our 8am swim classes kicked off!  Class at 8am means we had to wake Frankie up so he was a little off his game but hopefully next week he'll be more into it.  There weren't any tears - He just wasn't his usual active self.  (Neither was Mommy since I didn't have a chance to grab my coffee before heading out the door!)   

The end of class songs got laughs out of him!

 

Snow!

This week we've had two very small snows - each under one inch. (I'm still holding out hope for a big one before winter is over!) Yesterday, we bundled Frankie up and went out to play in the snow and bitter, bitter cold. The temps this week have been in the 20's.  Brrrr.  He wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow and was not a fan of the sled. For some reason, he seemed scared of it. He would not sit in it - even after Mommy & Daddy demonstrated! (Frank pulled me around the yard which must have given our neighbors quite the chuckle.) 

I did get laughs when I threw handfuls of snow in the air.

Our 15th Month Old

Frankie is so much fun!  At 15 months old, he is extremely interactive and I love watching his personality develop.  He is very good at understanding basic commands - "Frankie, please close the door", "Let's go upstairs for bathtime", etc.  He knows where his head, ears and feet are (and sometimes his nose and eyes).  He loves music and frequently requests to turn on the radio and dance - He will stand in the living room and point to the radio or the remote and say "uh, uh, uh" which is our queue to turn on some music.  Over Christmas, he was obsessed with the Christmas music station on TV and especially loved with Frosty popped up.  "FFFFFFF"  He has a few words in his vocabulary - Of course, "Da Da" but he also says what sounds like "da" for down - meaning downstairs.  He sings "eeee-a" during Old McDonald, knows that a sheep says "baa baa" and will quite regularly try to make a "ruff" sound when seeing a doggie.  He has "hi" and "bye" down and is very intrigued by eye glasses but for some reason thinks they go around your neck - In this picture, it looks like he's trying to put them on correctly, but they only make it around his neck.  It's cute because he will try to hold them there while he walks around.  We've started to try to phase out the bottle and have had some success with getting him to drink from his 'big boy' cup during the day, but we haven't even tried to take away the night time bottle yet and I'm still nursing him in the morning.  Frankie does really good trying to feed himself with his spoon and fork and has recently moved on from baby cereal at breakfast time to regular oatmeal and rice chex (thanks for the suggestions, Megan!).  He's recently had a few molars break through and another bottom, front tooth.  We are really struggling with brushing those pearly whites, though - but we still try every morning and every night at bathtime.  It's hit or miss if he'll let us put the brush in his mouth - sometimes we're lucky and he'll do it himself - other times, we have to force a wash cloth in to brush.  At his 15 month check-up, Frankie's stats were:

 

Height:  32 inches (77%) - However, I don't think his head was quite all the way to the top of the measuring paper

Weight:  24 lbs, 14 oz (57%)

Head:  18.75 inches (64%)

 

Frank Thomas - Every day you amaze me and make me smile.  Mommy & Daddy love you so, very much!



2012: That's a wrap!

I can't think of a better way that I could have spent the end of the 2012 - with my family.  With our nanny going home to Bolivia for three weeks over Christmas, instead of hiring a temporary babysitter, Frank & I decided to coordinate our work schedules so we could watch Frankie.  The week leading up to Christmas was filled with a Christmas breakfast at our house with friends, multiple cookie exchanges, touring Christmas lights, Winter Wonderland at Market Common in Clarendon, shopping and fun with Frankie...at his gym classes, at the park, at the library...

Early on the morning of Friday, 12/21, we scooped up Frankie from his crib and plunked him in his car seat and headed to Long Island.  That evening, Frank and I took the train into the city along with Laura, Jon, Uncle Mike, Aunt Dale and Dad for dinner and to catch the Rockettes 85th Christmas Spectacular Celebration.  On Saturday, the Garone's celebrated Christmas with dinner at the Milleridge Inn - complete with carolers that we actually recognized from the last time we were there about 10 years ago - and gift opening back at Grammy & Grampa's. 

 

Because we were spending 5 days in NY, we were actually able to relax - on Sunday we even went to the park with Frankie, Kate & Emma!  Although, I think Frank would prefer to forget that part of the trip - or maybe he did. :) (While playing tag with the girls, he ran smack into one of the bars at the playground and ended up on his back!  Poor guy!) 

 

Frank's parents hosted Christmas Eve, where the kids got a special visit from Santa!  We opened gifts at Frank's parents on Christmas morning, had dinner at Danielle's and dessert at my grandparents.  The next morning, the car was packed with fresh bagels (and Christmas gifts) and we were off for another 8 hour (urgh!) trip home.

 

I cherished the next few days with my boys at home - we went to the US Botanic Gardens to check out their amazing Christmas display.  Frankie could have spent all day there watching the trains.  I could have spent much longer there...It was really something else!  We walked around DC, oooh'ed and ahhh'ed at the National Christmas tree, spent New Years Eve with good friends - I loved every minute of it.

Watching the trains at the US Botanic Gardens

To cap off our Christmas season, we spent the weekend of January 5th in Winchester for Christmas with my Mom, Andy, Laura and Jon.  More delicious food, holiday memories and overly generous gifts.  We are blessed. 

With Frankie's recent birthday and Christmas, Frank & I have been discussing how we can instill gratitude in Frankie.  Our family and friends are so generous and we are worried that Frankie will become inundated with more stuff than he can use - or worse - appreciate.  As he gets older, we will work hard to stress the true meaning of Christmas and the spirit of giving.

What a wonderful end to 2012!

Goooooaaaaaal

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by going through our 500+ Christmas pictures and blogging about our numerous celebrations, so for tonight, I am just going to post a picture of our soccer superstar, who says "Go Go Go" (goal in Frankie speak) every time he sees any kind of ball.  Daddy is brainwashing already.  Sigh.     

Trying on one of Daddy's medals