The Perfect Storm: Day 3

Day 3 was all about activity ... and whew, was I tired by the end of it!

We decided to start things off with some self-portraits.

"Geez, Mom!"

Ah, now that's more like it!

Then there was a little work to be done at the tool bench. Those nails just aren't going to take themselves out, you know?

Smile break!

Oh, and there was mischief galore! Must get up on the office chair! (Note: both feet are off the floor ... he's getting close!)

Then he took a break to play a little music, making himself at home all wedged in by his couch.

Upon realizing the coasters had been put back on the side table, he decided to put them back in their proper place.

"Riiiiight abooooout, here!"

Then it was time to sit and chat with Elmo and Owl. And for a kid who doesn't like having blankets on his lap he sure was determined to unfold this one.

He got slightly frustrated when he couldn't get himself up on the chair with Elmo in his hand.

It was also laundry day, so we headed off to the laundry room to get things switched around.

We moved the towels over to the dryer but realized we didn't have anything to put in the washing machine, so we headed upstairs to collect the sheets.

While I stripped the bed, Baylor inventoried our hangers.

He was pretty excited to come across the rare "blue" hanger and carried it around with him the entire time we were upstairs.

He went to inventory my purses, but when he went for my fancy green beaded one I put the kibosh on that.

Then we worked on our descending skills ... not too shabby, little man!

We got the sheets going, and by then it was time for lunch. Baylor got apples and cheese and a slice of bread, as well as his usual pureed vegetables. He topped it off with a nice full glass of milk. And then looked at me and proclaimed, "pu-ple plate". Needless to say, I beamed.

Finally it was nap time, but sadly he only slept for about an hour and fifteen minutes. In spite of the relatively short nap (lately he's been going for 2+ hour naps), he seemed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when he awoke.

Lately he has taken to orally dismantling the beautiful blanket my mom made for him. Some mornings I find him chewing on pieces of yarn he has deftly pulled from his blankie. *sigh* At least he loves it.

"Nigh-nigh."

Ha, ha! Just kidding. It was time for a good hug for Mr. Bear, though.

While the little man was sleeping, the sheets finished in the wash, so we mosied on over to Mommy and Daddy's room to make the bed. He recovered his trusty blue hanger and worked on turning on my side of the electric mattress pad, one of his favorite master bedroom activities.

Also while he was sleeping, I brought a couple tubs of infant clothes up from the basement so I can start putting the unisex stuff in Paco's drawers. For Baylor, though, these were new things to climb on.

"I've got it, Mom, don't worry!"

I felt a little better after I unstacked them. He just looked so cute there, swinging his legs about.

And then he stood up.

After that, the tubs were quickly moved up to the nursery for unpacking at a later date.

Bryson soon got home and while I worked on dinner, he and Baylor worked on the alphabet.

Baylor just loves the trumpets in this one particular Raffi song ("Robin in the Rain"), so Bryson got out his Skatelites CD and played a little trumpet music for our little man. And the little man thought that was pretty cool.

We had cowboy casserole for dinner, which while delicious turned out to be a messy endeavor for Baylor. Sooooo, he spent the rest of the night sans pants.

When he first started teething, he had a penchant for using books as teethers. Hippos Go Berserk was one of the victims at that time, and Baylor finally figured out that his saliva had weakened the binding ... enough to be torn anyway. So off went one of his favorite books to Mommy's Book Binding Service. It's amazing what a little packing tape can do!

He inspected my handiwork and deemed it sufficient, and then had us read the story to him several times before bed.

All in all, it was a good but exhausting day. I swear, the farther along I get in this pregnancy the more energy he gets and the more he can get into. I won't lie, I felt like a bad mom all day, telling him no excessively (and very sternly) and generally failing at keeping him out of trouble (at one point he tumbled off one of our chairs head first, then got up to try it again). But we'll get the hang of it and find a way to better communicate so the "nos" become less frequent, and try to keep as much exploration in our day as possible. Hopefully someday soon.