Catch Me if You Can

Spencer took his first steps a month ago. He has toddled around with one or two steps for the past couple of weeks. Last week it was 4-5 steps at a time and then the light switch came on. He was off. He walks mostly everywhere now and only crawls when he wants to get somewhere really fast. This is two videos that Justin captured in a matter of minutes, while I have been trying to get a video for about three days. Go figure.

Discovering the laundry room.

Coming out of the laundry room.

Secrets of the Y Chromosome

As most of you know I have worked with DNA for the past nine years. I see all kinds of things that can be detected using DNA. I think I am going to do a research study on the Y chromosome and its secrets. Yes it has secrets.

The first secret is that all boys are born with a hollow leg. This hollow leg is for hoarding food. They can eat you out of house and home. Justin is ready to buy a padlock for the refrigerator. Spencer who still only weighs 20 pounds wet, can eat and eat and eat and EAT. We honestly don't know where he puts it (the hollow leg of course). For instance he decided he wants to be in college, why might you ask, his lunch on Sunday consisted of a entire grilled cheese sandwich and 1/2 hot dog. Most starving young college students would be full after that meal. Spencer was not. Boys do not have "full meters." They are hungry all the time.

The second secret isn't much of a secret to boys, but rather disturbing to girls. For boys, the whole world is a urinal. Enough said.

The third secret is electronics. Boys are drawn to them. They have buttons and gadgets; things light up and make noises. Sadly, the fascination with electronics never ends.

I am positive there are more yet to be discovered secrets of boys that have yet to be written on this blog. Some I can already think of, but will not share those details with the world. I will just shake my head and think, "Madison wasn't like this."

Spencer LOVES spaghetti and macaroni and cheese. He DOES NOT know how to eat piece by piece, he eats by the handful.

ENJOY your laughter for the day!

Imagination is an Amazing Playground

I have only bought one toy for Spencer since he was born (not counting books). All of the toys we have came from family or friends. The toys were all "baby" toys and so Spencer was loosing interest in toys and wouldn't really play for any period of time. I tried rotating toys to see if something "new" would appease him, it didn't.

We were back in Iowa for a couple of days to pick up Madison from my mom's house and my brother gave us a big bag of toys. Once we got home and dumped out the bag, Spencer immediately latched onto a couple of toys that he thinks are really fun. Madison started building all kinds of things with the duplo blocks.

First is an Elmo doctor's kit. The stethoscope plays Cookie Monster and Spencer just smiles when the button is pushed. Justin now talks like cookie monster and he thinks it is just funny!

Next is an Elmo cell phone. Spencer quickly grabbed this and hasn't really let go of it. He was playing in the pile of toys and turned to look at something else when big sister Madison grabbed the cell phone to look at it. Spencer turned back around and started looking for the phone. He saw that Madison had it, crawled over to her and yanked it back from her, dirty look and all. She tried to take it back from him and he disagreed with that attempt by screaming! Needless to say I would have never thought that our 11 year old and 11 month old would be arguing over the same toy!

On Thursday night, Spencer sat in the living room surrounded by all of his new toys and played for over an hour by himself. This was definitely a first for him.
Thanks to Uncle Chad and Aunt Julie for the awesome toys!