Sleepy, sleepy Morgan

Morgan's regular sleeping routine is thus: wake up around 8-8:30, take an afternoon nap around 1-2 for 1 1/2-2 hours, and then to bed around 9-9:30. On Wednesday he woke up at the normal time, then my niece and nephew came over to be babysat and at 10:00 we headed to playgroup. Morgan is a pretty active boy; not hyper necessarily, but busy. He always loves to play at different houses because there are new things to see and toys to play with. Wednesday was an exception. Morgan was very sensitive, and cried passionately about things that normally wouldn't bother him. So I held him in a little rocker and he cuddled and fell asleep. !!! This is behavior that is very strange for Morgan. Later that day he took his regular afternoon nap. Then at almost 6 in the evening he crawled up onto the couch by me with his bottle and went to sleep again. So I put him in his crib. He didn't wake up until 7:30. In the morning. And then he went back to sleep at 8:00 and slept for another 2 hours. CRAZY! He had a little bit of a fever sometimes, but other than that he just seemed very tired. But now things are back to normal.

Reading Morgan

Morgan loves to have books read to him, and he loves to look through them by himself. He's been read to almost every day since he was born. Actually, Aaron even read to my stomach every night while I was pregnant with Morgan. The story he read was, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear, by Don and Audrey Wood. That has always been a favorite of Morgan's and is now pretty thrashed.
Anyway, he has a little book case in his room next to a glider chair. That's a reading chair.

So, with a book in hand, Morgan climbs up into the chair.

Then he looks through a book or two and jibbers away, since that what Mom and Dad do when they read.

And when he's done, he scoots off.
Ta Da!

Yummy

Morgan ate a green crayon yesterday. I didn't know that eating a crayon would color your whole face green. In fact, when my son approached me with a green mouth I was very confused about what he ate, thinking it was something sloppy and messy. But further research led me to the firm conclusion that it was a crayon. I couldn't get a good picture of it though. Oh well.

Also, Morgan loves bead necklaces. He had a couple from the 4th of July that he would always play with and wear around the house. So the other day I was at the dollar store and saw a pack of 6 bead necklaces. I bought them. Aaron was definitely not thrilled. I guess he doesn't want me to encourage anything remotely feminine in his son. :) Whatever. There is no harm in them. Plus, if you'll notice in the picture below, Morgan often wears them over one shoulder. Perhaps he is pretending that it is an ammo belt thing, like Rambo would wear. :) Of course, his adorable pose there isn't very Rambo-ish. :D

Valentines Day

You know those candy-bar poster things that people make and they substitute some candy with a word? I've always thought that they were fun and cute and delicious, so I made one for Aaron for Valentines day. But I needed to present it to him in a good way, not just hand over a big piece of cardboard box with chocolate taped all over it. So I came up with what I will call a brilliant idea. I rigged it up so that when Aaron came home from work and opened the garage, it would be hanging there in his path. Even the idea made me gleeful. I was pretty proud of my crude engineering to make it work.

The poster reads thus: (I will italicize the words that are candy.)
Dear Mr. Goodbar, (Aaron)
It would be Outrageous (a doctored Nutrageous) if you would Be My Valentine. I know I'm a Lemonhead and create many a Rocky Road for you to Rolover, but you're my Big Hunk! I don't care that you're a Nerd and don't bring home 100 Grand on Payday. You're my Idaho Stud (I taped a t where the p was) and always make me Snicker. And I know that when I'm a Butterfinger you'll be there as my Lifesaver. You are Too Cool (the heart box of chocolates said too cool) and I really Skor-ed big with you. I'll love you Now and Later, your Runt, Melanie.

I'm pretty sure that I liked it better than anyone else, but that's okay. Oh, and when I was at the store buying the candy, I had to get chewy runts, because they are a favorite of Aaron's, but I had a terrible hard time figuring out where to put it in. Eventually, I called myself his Runt, which I know is incredibly silly. Oh well.
Also, the Be My Valentine thing was a box of Little Debbie's snack cakes. It ended up being to big to fit it nicely on the poster, not to mention too heavy, so I cut out the words and taped the cakes to the Happy Valentines Day sign. :)

Morgan's mischeif

If I don't wait to shower while Morgan is sleeping, (not till the afternoon) I usually have him in the bathroom with me. We have a fairly large bathroom, so there is plenty of room to play. But he usually doesn't choose to play with his toys. He often makes his biggest messes and has fun playing with things he isn't allowed to play with. He knows from experience that when Mommy tells him no from the shower, she usually doesn't follow through with anything. That would require getting out and dripping all over everything.
Today while I showered Morgan was in the bathroom. I looked out at him and found that he was playing with the plunger, (gross!) the rubber part even, (grosser!) Then I noticed he had something else in his hand. He was sticking it inside the plunger and then putting it in his mouth! (Grossest!) I yelled and yelled all the "no"'s and "don't play with that"'s that were required. Then I realized what it was that he had been plunging into the plunger then his mouth. A razor. He got it from a drawer. Thankfully it had the cap on. My no's increased but he didn't care. Finally, I said, "Morgan, bring that to mommy." And he did.
How dangerous is that? He could cut open his mouth with the razor and immediately get a bad infection because of the germs from the plunger. Oy vey.

Potty training chair

The other day while in Wal-Mart I suggested to Aaron that we take a look at the potty training chairs. We ended up buying one.

Morgan is only 15 months, and a boy to boot, but I want to at least give him the opportunity of being an early potty trained boy. :) I had a calling in the nursery 2 years ago and there was a little boy who either came in potty trained or was out of diapers very soon afterward. So, somewhere around 18 months. He was a really bright kid, but so is Morgan!
Anyway, I put introduced Morgan to his very own potty and he loves it! He likes to sit on it, (or stand in it, or put things inside it, or take it apart) and even learned how to say "potty". That is one of the requirements, right? Being able to tell the parent when he needs to go? Well, learning the word is a great step in that direction!

The other morning before getting him ready for the day, I decided to try Morgan on the potty without his diaper on. He enjoyed sitting on it. But then he saw a toy he had to have, so got up and retrieved it, but went right back to sitting on his potty chair. Then he would find something else that made him need to stand up or walk around a bit, but always went back to his chair. It was during one of his little expeditions that he peed. He was at least still in the bathroom, so easy clean-up. But boy was he surprised! I quickly sat him back in the chair, but was too late, and all Morgan could do was point and stare at the puddle of pee. It was quite funny. He'd never been allowed to wander around without a diaper, so he had no idea of what happened when he relieved his bladder!

Morgan has added another word to his repertoire. He can now say "no". It's about the cutest thing you could ever hear. Seriously. I don't know what it is about the way he says it, but that sound coming from his mouth is charming. Granted, he doesn't over-use and abuse the word, he doesn't tell me no yet, so I can still think it's cute. Mostly he says it when I tell him no, or when he knows he's doing something he shouldn't.
Morgan can also say:
Mama
Daddy (or, often deeda)
baby
kitty
cat
what's that?
nana (banana)
bubble
pop
beebo! (peekaboo)
uh-oh
wow
yeah
stinky
wawer (water)
baba (bottle)
cracker
stairs
and I'm pretty sure he says breakfast in his own way.
He probably says other things that I am not thinking of at the moment. But that's pretty good for a 15 month old, right?

Vaseline

Today I was playing a silly online game to entertain my niece (yeah right, Melanie!) and Morgan was playing in his room quietly. Too quietly. I should have been alerted by his lack of noise for such a long time. After awhile he came out of the bedroom with a huge grin, in one hand was the lid to the vaseline, and the other hand was jammed inside the Vaseline container! His face and hands and clothes were a huge goopy mess, and nothing could have made Morgan happier. I went to get the camera as fast as I could, hoping to picture it and then clean him up before he touched everything. Silly boy.


I don't know if you can tell very well from this picture, but he had a big glob of it on his nose. I think he must have stuck his face in the container. Is Vaseline dangerous if eaten?

Superhero day

When I was little I used to tie blankets or towels around my neck and suddenly I was a superhero. A cape, no matter it's real identity, makes you a superhero. Or a vampire. But that's beside the point.
My 4 year old niece, Anna, whom I babysit regularly, has also discovered the joy of capes. Yesterday she asked me to tie a blanket around her neck, and suddenly she was Super-Anna. Her 2 year old brother, Mattie, wasn't about to be left out. He too found a cape. Morgan watched his cousins dash around the house in superhero attire and was entertained, so I got another blanket for Morgan. He thought it was great.

It looked like so much fun, being a superhero and all, that I too donned a cape. Morgan seemed to think that Super-Mommy was super cool. It was a fun time.
Morgan has brought me his blanket a couple times since then so he could fly again. He's a super-cutie.

Crochet

A few weeks ago my sister-in-law, Chanel, taught me how to crochet. I found the activity to be quite enjoyable and have finished my first two projects. The first one I did was a scarf for Morgan. Don't look to close. The next thing I made was a baby blanket for a friend who just had a baby boy. I kind of took forever.


Oh, and Chanel didn't teach me how to switch to a different ball of yarn, we didn't get that far, so to get the different colors going I just tied the ends of different colors together with a square knot and hoped it would stay. It hasn't. When I was making the finishing touches I noticed that EVERY SINGLE one of those knots had come undone. It didn't unravel or anything, but it wasn't going to last long. Too bad I was never a boyscout, maybe I would know a thing or two about good knot-tying.

McCall Ice Festival

On Saturday we took a day trip to McCall for the ice festival. We went with my parents. They drove us up in their expedition, so the roads weren't as scary. I'd never gone to see the sculptures, so was really looking forward to it. I packed snacks, hats and mittens and everything I thought I would need to keep Morgan happy and warm.
We left Caldwell around 8:30, and not too long afterwards Morgan was asleep.

When we got into the mountains a bit, the road became very windy and had many frost heaves to bump over. This woke up Morgan and he started to throw up. GAH! I didn't pack sufficiently for this! I used anything that I could to clean him up, but it really wasn't enough. Despite not feeling well, Morgan was very good-natured. We stopped at a gas station and I took a couple paper towels from the bathroom just in case I was going to need them.
I did. Morgan drank some water and soon threw all of that up too! Poor boy. Once again, I wasn't prepared. He was pretty wet and soon we would be going out in the cold! I didn't even pack an extra shirt for him.
We arrived in McCall and got all bundled up to stay warm. Morgan was almost immediately miserable. I have never had a problem with him in the cold before; he usually seems oblivious to it. Not this time. So we went to Paul's market, which has an apparel section, and bought him a snow suit. The only size they had was 12 months, which I thought would be okay. But it's too small. It doesn't keep his legs covered. Oh well.

We saw a couple of sculptures, and then the weather worsened. Soon Morgan was incosolable. We decided it was time for lunch. He was happier indoors, but didn't have an appetite at all. Before the food arrived though, we all noticed a pungent odor. Time for a diaper change. I went into the TINY bathroom which had two stalls and a sink crammed into it. One of the stalls, which was regular sized, had a changing table in it. I could barely fit in there with the table opened. Anyway, I commenced with the diaper change. After removing the snowsuit I quickly learned that he was soaked through with diarrhea. Sorry if this is too much detail. This was a horrible diaper to change and a horrible place to do it. People kept coming and going and the first thing they saw was my boys bare bum.
I removed his onsie, put on a different pair of pants and had no choice but to replace his shirt which was pretty disgusting. Oh, and I used all the wipes that I brought. On any normal day, it would have been plenty, but not this time. :(
We still had a lot of sculpture viewing to do, so we piled back in the car to find a place to park near downtown. Morgan almost immediately fell asleep. Also, he was stinky again. I was all out of wipes! So, I elected to stay in the car while Aaron and my parents went to see the ice sculptures. Aaron returned with wet wipes, and then went to find my folks again. So, I woke up my tired boy to change his diaper, not wanting him to get a sore bum or for these pants to get soaked through. But alas! I was too late. He ended up wearing ONLY his snowsuit. Poor boy. Before my family returned, I had to change his diaper AGAIN.
On the way home he slept well until we got to the windy and bumpy part of the drive. Then he woke up and vomited some more. He did it several times. What a miserable day for him. I think he got car sick.
Now I want to go to the ice festival without Morgan. It seems like it could be a lot of fun.

Change of venue

So, we tried Koogatoo, our website, for several months and were putting some money into it, but not getting anything in return. It was a great idea, we just don't have the know-how to get the internet traffic flowing through. So, we scrapped it. Temporarily. Instead, we purchased another website that already has a following and has been making $300 or so a month. It is a technology blog. It's not going to make us rich anytime soon, but that is perfectly fine. Aaron is a good writer and keeps up well with electronics and such, so he will do a good job. Also, he put me in charge of doing a post a week on an online game. I'm certainly okay with that. :)
The site is, www.thedailyfuzz.com
Check it out!