Giving Thanks for Little Boys

First of all, our apologies to you loyal blog checkers out there who have patiently waited through the long weekend and the first three days of this week for the Thanksgiving post.  We've got plenty of excuses, but we'll spare you and get straight to the photos.

Mommy hosted book club last evening and needed several hours to prepare the house and the meal for the big night.  Walt, as he has taken to doing lately, graciously occupied himself in his room and its vicinity with some books of his own and his many toys.  I'm not sure exactly how long he had been unsupervised, but Ginger assures me he arranged his toys like this all by himself.  I took this photo when I walked in the door from work.  Keep in mind that the ottoman glides very easily at the slightest touch and most of those toys have wheels on them.  Impressive.  And a bit frightening.

I can't say enough about this photo.  Note the blocks and shapes on the back of the truck in the upper right hand corner.  Also, note the train with the blue wheels in the upper left hand corner that he has cantilevered off of the edge.   This worries me a lot.  Mainly because I'm afraid he gets this from me.

For the more traditional photos we offer this series of Walt and his cousin Collier, who had the grandest of times at Gram and Deedaddy's on Saturday and Sunday.

Playing in piles of leaves has become one of Walt's favorite activities.  Collier is not quite as willing to get down and dirty.

Not to worry, the hammer in the next photo is made of very soft foam.  Collier brought one for Walt, too.  When he and his parents arrived Friday evening, Walt had already gone to bed.  Collier was carried in the door asleep and limp as a rag but with one foam hammer firmly in each hand.  His first act on Saturday morning was to sleepily hand Walt his hammer.  Very sweet.

Before Walt arrived in Murray, he spent Thanksgiving Day with Putty and Nana at Aunt Tutu's.  There were plenty of cousins, aunts and uncles (and uncle's trucks) available for photo ops.

That's cousin Drew.  Those two kids have some blue eyes, don't they?

Uncle Larry's "reh kruck" was a popular destination all day long.  And of course, there was a short trip with Putty to see the cows.  Mooo.

That's about it for the second Daddy Post this month.  Since I've got the keyboard, hopefully you'll indulge me a few lines of photo-free text to go on about that for which I'm most thankful.  Today, I had lunch with a friend who has a six month old.  He expressed how it still doesn't feel real.  It feels like he's babysitting someone else's child.  Fatherhood hasn't set in, yet.  I remember that feeling exactly.  But I can say without a doubt that it is now fully set with me.  And I dig it.  No matter what goofiness has happened at the office or how idiotic the Memphis drivers have acted on the way home, each day when I come to the front door and he leaps off the sofa and runs to the front door clapping all the while, well . . . if you can't be thankful for that . . .

Weekend Report

Since I came perilously close to death last week thanks to some evil death virus, I decided to maximize the Waltytime this weekend.  Friday night we made a routine visit to Meredith's house for dinner and some fire pit time.  Unfortunately, Walt and Meredith didn't get a lot of time around the fire, but their parents had a nice night.

Saturday morning is was all Walt all the time.  Who knew that YouTube could be a parenting tool?  For those of you who don't know about YouTube (maybe you heard that Google recently paid two lucky saps $1.7 billion for it), it's a website that hosts thousands of user-uploaded videos.  It's like the Wal-Mart of video.  If it was done in the vicinity of a person with a camera and a hand, there's a video of it.  For example, the operation of construction equipment:

Needless to say, Walt was ecstatic.  Also, needless to say, Daddy didn't think this one through. Now, every time there's a lull in the action, Walt points to the computer and says, "Wah guh kruck."  Or, "Watch dump truck," in English.

Next, I was able to convince him that he was running low on air in his head and tummy.  It took us a few minutes to fill him up.

Once we'd had our fill, it was out to the yard for some raking of some leaves.  And then . . . and then . . . it was back about two yards and into our best four point stances.  "On your mark.  Get set.  Go, go, go."

After all the fun, we really did pick up the leaves.  Walt was quite a big help.  It's terrifying how much he copies me.  We even got him a miniature rake.  He took just about every step I did.  And when I was shoveling the leaves into the bag by the handsfull, Walt was bringing me leaves two at a time.  One in each hand.  Classic Walty.  I think he was a little bit upset that we left a few stragglers out there.  He wanted to pick up every last teeny tiny leaf.  That's my boy.

22 Months: Mr. Smarty Pants

Walt may only be 22 months old, but I think he's already realized that he's got a lot to learn because the first thing he wants to do every morning is look at his shape/color/number/word books.  Sometimes before Daddy is quite ready to get started.

Thanks to his dedicated studying, Walt now can tell you all of his shapes (semicircle "hemi-hurka" included), most colors (still a little shaky on green, but has purple down pat), and tons of words out of Richard Scarry's Greatest Word Book Ever. 

He's also very good at following directions.  Here, I've told him to show me his tongue . . .

. . . but he can also do useful things like go get a kleenex, find his shoes, and vacuum.  Okay, so maybe his vacuuming is just pretend, but as soon as he's old enough to use electrical appliances, you can bet we'll put those domestic inclinations to good use.

Walt is still a music lover and likes to play his drum along with whatever song is playing on Daddy's computer.  However, his newfound talking skills have also spurred a singing career.  His greatest hits include "Happy Birthday" and "The ABCs" (although he just kind of says random letters to the tune of the song).  Here, Walt listens to Putty's running music, which I believe is some kind of army marching song. 

Walt has gotten considerably better at using his fork and spoon, although his choice of what foods to put on those eating implements is still questionable.  Here, he uses his spoon to eat the sour cream that I put on his tray to dip his quesadilla in. 

Let's see, what else has young Walter been up to this month?  Well, in an attempt to get him to expend some energy indoors on rainy days, I've set up a big pile of pillows covered by a blanket next to the couch in the back bedroom.  On days that we can't make it to the playground, Walt can spend a long time (and a lot of energy) jumping off the couch onto those pillows. 

This month has also been the first time that Walt has shown any preference as to what he should wear.  Some may think that it's a little early for him to be concerned with fashion, but given the fact that Josh is his father, I was surprised it took this long.  Here, he sports his new slippers, or his "frog shoes".

I'm sure I'll think of more stuff I could tell you about Walt's development this month, but as usual, Mommy is tired.  We're still having a lot of fun and are quickly closing in on the (sniff) two year mark.  Over and out! 

Bipartisan Appeal

Welcome to a special post-Election Day post.  Walt's World Chief Political Correspondent, Daddy, here.   Well, Walt is not even two years old, and he's already looking at his first Democratic Congress (I know; Virginia is still up in the air, but it's not looking good for the GOP.)  It's a good thing he's been co-sponsoring legislation with his friends from across the aisle, the Bush twins.  No, not those Bush twins.  These Bush twins.  I said they were from across the aisle.

It's no secret that we and the Bushes typically lean in opposite directions when it comes to politics, but when it comes to cute babies, it's easy to put politics aside.  These pictures are from a trip to the park with the Bushes several weeks ago.  As you can see, the Bush boys have been busy eating and growing.  Their parents?  Well, they've just been busy.

Halloween Report

After his successful bovine debut on Saturday at Rock 'n Romp, Walt was eager to get back into character on Tuesday for Halloween.  First, Walt and I headed over to First Baptist to join his classmates for trick or treating around the church offices.  (Despite it not being a normal school day for Walt, Ms. Krista invited him to come anyway.  I think she was also looking for some toddler wrangling help from me!)

This is Ms. Ophelia's best attempt at getting all the kids to sit still for a picture for me:

Have you ever heard the term "herding cats"?  Definitely applied here.

Later that evening, the whole family headed to the Cooper-Young little kids' Halloween party . . .

. . .  and then back home to give out candy to the trick-or-treaters.  But Walt wasn't content just to wait for them to come to him.  Oh no, he held the candy out as an enticement.   And who can resist a tiny cow offering tiny boxes of Nerds?  No one, I tell you.

Of course, there was also a little candy eating going on.

It was Halloween, after all.