To Quote a Beloved (bad) Movie…

“It’s better to get pissed off, than pissed on!” – Achoo, Robin Hood: Men in Tights

You know, as a parent, I expected some excrement.  Really, I did.  When Justin was itty-bitty I had some good adventures in Diaper-Land.  There was the time I took his diaper off to change him (1-month-old and had a cold) and he shot poop about 18 inches across the changing table.  Then there was that first Pascha where a diaper leak led to me getting poop all down the front of my shirt and no clean shirt to change into at Church.  At his first visit with the pediatrician, I went to get him in his birthday suit to be weighed and he peed straight up into his hair, down his face and across his belly.  Lately though, these adventures have been generally limited to diapers being over-saturated first thing in the morning resulting in the need to change all our sheets or the occasional poopy blow-out.

Excrement happens.

Last night, my little boy didn’t want me to put a new diaper on him when I was getting him ready for bed.  This is not new behavior.  Daddy does diaper changes, Mommy is to be toyed with.  So there I am, sitting on the living room floor in my jammies trying to get Justin into his.  He, naturally thinks it’s hilarious to run around me in circles in the buff occasionally stopping to pull my hair.  But this time, that wasn’t all he had in mind:  he suddenly stopped running long enough to lean into my back, bury his face in my hair and pee.  That’s right, pee.  Standing there, in the living room, right down my back.  I’ve never been so horrified to feel anything warm/wet in my life.  Shirt, jammy-pants, undies – all soaked through.  The carpet?  fortunately left unscathed due to the amazing absorbent power of my own, personal pajamas.   Nice.

That’s another adventure for the books, or at least the running list of stories I could unleash upon a teenage boy in front of a girl he’s trying to impress.  I don’t know a mom who would do such a thing… but it’s an option to consider. 

The Fair!!!

Last year, we weren’t able to go to the NW Washington Fair in Lynden because we were busy going to Justin’s godparents’ wedding in California.  That was a wonderful trip, and I think that Justin enjoyed the Fair better this year than he would have at the 5 months old he was last year.

Mostly we went for the animals.  Justin LOVES animals. 

Our first stop was at the cattle barn:

This little bull’s owner actually let Justin touch her cow, but needless to say, the cow wasn’t terribly impressed when Justin poked his finger in the cow’s eye and enthusiastically proclaimed, “That’s yo’ eye?!”   Forgiveness was granted (I’m sure the cow promptly forgot) when we moved on to the next pen:  sheep and goats!

I’m sure he’d have ridden this one if we let him…  except the part where Justin kept putting his finger in the sheep’s water and making the sheep look more and more suspicious of this obsurd pink bi-ped on a leash.

Then it was off to have a bit of lunch.  Justin LOVES grapes, and Poppa and Nanna brought grapes.  Needless to say, the three got along nicely.

I can’t say much for the other entertainment while we were eating though.  Here we are, in Lynden, WA of all places at a county fair and what’s the hour’s entertainment?  Well, how ’bout an offbeat klezmer band with an improvisational hula-hoop-dancer with hot pink hair putting on a show together?  Wow.  How random is that?!  I tell you, I never expected to watch a hot-pink-hair girl dancing in a hula-hoop to Hava Nagila anywhere, much less Lynden (the Dutch town that’s so Dutch -and therefore Reformed – that you get cited if you mow your lawn on Sunday, not to mention that it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for greatest number of churches per capita).  And yet, there we were.

Then it was off to Justin’s favorite part of the whole fair – the chicken coop! 

At first we didn’t think he was enjoying it.  Then I thought I heard something.  I leaned over the stroller and put my ear down close to Justin.  What did I hear?  Very quiet repetitions of “oo OOO!”

I tried to catch it on video, but he was already on to us that we were listening so my video doesn’t catch all of his enthusiasm for it, but alas, I have some video, and to me, it’s priceless.  Enjoy.

What was cool was the fact that at home we’d taught him “Cock-a-doodle Doo!”.   And when he copied us he’d say, “Cah-doo-doo”.  But here he was in the chicken barn at the fair correcting himself on what we’d taught him: roosters don’t say, “Cock-a-doodle-doo”! they say “oo-oo-OOO!”.  Oh, and he liked the baby chicks too:

Little yellow chicks still say “Bock! Bock!”, by the way.  Oh, and they’re awesome. 

Of course we adults wandered around the goofy salespeople at their booths, looked at over-priced kitchy crafts (Justin wanted a wooden flute SO bad!), and walked ’till our feet were sore.  Definitely a great day. 

Thanks for coming with us, Nanna and Poppa!!

Summer Fun!!

Sorry for the long absence.  Working at 5:30am each morning and having to go to bed when Justin does hasn’t left me much time for telling all that’s been going on!  This has (so far) been a fun and exciting adventure of a summer (and lots more to go!).  Justin has made lots of discoveries:

1. Outdoor water – generally in the form of fountains and sprinklers:

 

2. Penguins are awesome.

3.  Shopping carts can be bent to the will of this toddler.

(You’ll note that he’s buckled in.  When we first put him in the cart he was facing the appropriate direction.  He has toddler powers I’ll never be able to understand.)

4.  “He-Man Day” is the best day of the month.

Each month MattyCollector.com releases a new Masters of the Universe Classics figure.  Justin loves He-Man and the MOTU more than just about anything.  He has endearing names for He-Man (Bubba), Battle-Cat (cat-cat!), Orko (oukkg), Mer-Man (“gtgrr” is the sound Mer-man makes), and Skeletor (pronounced “skeh-toe” and frequently followed by an open mouthed “he he he”). 

5.  I can use my words to get what I want:  One morning, repeatedly handing Momma one shirt after another and demanding “And this!” got me to have 6 shirts on at once.  Also, shoes are to be applied simultaneously, not one at a time.

More to come!!  (especially since we’re going to the Northwest Washington Fair on Monday afternoon with Nanna and Poppa!!!)