Catching Up

It's been 17 days since my last post, but so much has happened that I'd get very behind if I didn't post now.

I actually have news of my own! I interviewed for and accepted a job with a rival firm. This past Wednesday, I turned in my resignation and fought tears all afternoon as I told close friends that I was leaving. Everyone was supportive and wished me well. It helps a lot that I'm going to a company that works closely with them and people had nothing but good things about which to say. It's really because of this new firm's attitude toward family that I'm leaving - they allow flexible schedules and comp time, and encourage you to do things with your family. All very important to me. Thursday I had to hand off my work and found out at 2:30 that it would be my last day. But I got to go out to lunch (ooh, Peruvian!) with two close coworkers. I stopped by the new firm on the way home after getting Felix to see my new office (!). I spent Friday happily unemployed, taking Felix to day care and having the day to myself. I can't remember the last time I could do what I wanted all day long. I did meet Nick for lunch at Plaka Taverna. We stuffed ourselves full of Greek and had to fight a food coma all afternoon. I start my new job on Monday.

Last weekend, we celebrated the wedding of my cousin, Jimmie. We drove up to Medina/New London for the fun. Felix looked so dapper in his little outfit, and had a great time running around with his first-cousin-once-removed, Erik. I loved seeing toddlers on the dance floor.













Felix has developed some good and bad habits lately. The bad would be screaming/shrieking for fun inside. Oh, our poor ears. This has lead to quite a few time outs, and hopefully he'll grow out of this phase soon. The good would be his language skills. He's started using "the" in his sentences, and now when he talks, they are mostly complete, coherent ones. It's amazing to hear what he comes up with. This morning, it was "That is not the house, that is the barn!" and "There are cows in the barn" when talking about the house behind us.

We've seen lots of family lately, too, and that's always nice. :o)

Felix: 2 yrs

Crooning

Felix has taken up singing at every occasion. He has a repertoire of most of the toddler standards (Old MacDonald, The Wheels on the Bus, ABC, Itsy-Bitsy Spider, etc.), for which his memory impresses me greatly. He does, however, miss a number of the words and the notes, which can make it a little tough to endure, but it's still so darn cute. He also will do a mash-up of songs while singing them. I'm trying to get him to sing On Wisconsin in its entirety (currently he just sings "On 'Sconsin, On 'Sconsin U-Rah-Rah!"). I enjoyed a moment this week when I started to sing a song and he interrupted me with "No, Mama. Felix sing it." And he did. :o)

Nick is teaching him left and right, and he's starting to figure it out. He's about 50-50 guessing which shoe you're holding out to him.

He also has been showing us that he may have a future as a valet, parking his vehicles with great precision:

Felix: 2 yrs

What a Weekend!

We had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday, we went out into the rain and got family pictures taken in the studio at the Babies R Us in town. Felix started out slowly, but eventually, we got a few smiles out of him. If I can scan our pictures, I'll post a few here.

In the afternoon, we went to my company picnic. Felix had a blast, going on a wagon ride, eating cotton candy (which he heard as "hot 'n' candy"), and seeing animals and tractors.

Today, we had a small gathering of friends over with their kids. It was nice to introduce one set of friends to another. We waited out the rain, then went outside, where Felix and his daycare buddy Alana went swimming fully clothed. Nearly 6-month-old Sophie didn't go swimming, but I'm sure she wanted to. :o)

Felix: 2 yrs

Weekend in Rapids

We took Felix up for a weekend in Rapids with Grandma and Geepa for the first time since Thanksgiving. (You know it's been awhile when Nick gets close to the house and says, "Is this the right one?") It was a nice, relaxing, albeit hot, weekend. On Saturday, Felix got to play with new toys and we grilled out. Sunday, we went out to the course, where Felix got his first rides on golf carts and greens mowers (cue the photo op). Then we drove up to Marshfield to look at crazy metal sculptures. Back home for Felix's nap before the long drive to Madison. All in all, pretty lovely.

Felix is showing his independence with a vengeance. He started saying, "No, no, no, Mama, " indicating that he wanted to do it (or just not me). Whatever, kid. :o)

This morning, I asked Felix what he wanted to be when he grew up. "Divvy tuck diver" (delivery truck driver) and "semi diver" were his responses. I'm very interested to see how this changes over the years (although I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up...).

Felix: 2 yrs

Pretend

Felix has started to play pretend, and it's quite cute! There's a step about a third of the way down to the basement where he can reach through the balusters and touch the basement ceiling. He's started pretending to take a handful of the ceiling and eat it. I asked him what it tasted like the first time he did this (on Monday, I think). "Banana bread," he said. He has since also said pizza, and asks to "eat banana bread ceiling" when we're carrying him up- and downstairs.

Also, I'm slightly less concerned about becoming a mother for the second time. On Saturday, I had the opportunity to watch a friend's 4.5 month old as well as Felix all by myself for a few hours. Considering that you get to know what your own baby's cues and not knowing this baby's, I think I did pretty well. I had one little stretch where both were crying, and I calmly handled that situation. Felix was also very good. He liked to be a helper (though he did attempt to hand her the rattle via the back of her head) and hug the baby. Give him another year and he'll be a great big brother when the time comes. :o)

Felix: 2 yrs

Self-Destruction

Felix is hell-bent on self-destruction lately. He fell off the seat of a picnic table onto his back on Saturday. Sunday, he fell off a chair in the kitchen while holding a veggie peeler and cut the back of his left hand. Yesterday, we noticed a quarter-sized bump on his forehead. Thankfully, nothing's ended up being serious, but he's in a bit of a black-and-blue phase. He's figuring out what his body can and shouldn't do, and hopefully he'll grow out of it before we end up at Urgent Care. I hope so, anyway. In the meantime, we're going to have lots of band-aids, ice packs, hugs and kisses on hand. :o)
 
Edited to add that he fell halfway down the stairs this evening. We'll see what bruises pop up in the morning. Good grief. 

We went to the spray park this evening. Unfortunately, it cooled off and left Felix a shivering little man in less than 5 minutes.

Felix: 2 yrs

Two years ago tomorrow...

...our little man was born! I can't believe it's been two years now. Felix continue to amaze us and try our patience, as any little toddler should.

Felix has developed some serious selective hearing (or just wants to figure out how far he can push things when you say no), become very sensitive (bursting into pouting lips and tears when you don't allow something), and become a bit of a naughty boy. We're hoping turning 2 allows him to do a bit more at daycare and have a bit more going on in his day there. In any case, it's just a phase...

We had Felix's birthday party on July 9th with aunts, grandparents and great-grandparents present. Felix had a great time with all the attention. He didn't do so well with the presents, though. He was torn between seeing what was in the unwrapped presents and wanting badly to play with what he just opened. He got lots of sports gear, cars/Cars stuff, and clothing, among some other terrific toys. We got through it and ate cake. It was all good.











Because Nick's going to be gone tomorrow night, we did Felix's birthday picture tonight. Enjoy!

Felix: 2 yrs