Butt butter

Everything that goes on bread with a knife, Bear calls butter. Peanut butter, miracle whip, cream cheese, and of course butter. Last week while I was changing his diaper, I dipped the tongue suppressor(way easier application) into the jar of Desitin(the tubes last about 1.5 days in our house) and started to spread it on his butt. He looked at me and said, "butt butter. butt butter." He kept saying this over and over and I just looked at him so confused. I had no idea what he was talking about. He was saying it clear as day, I just had no idea what butt butter was. He finally pointed down at his bottom and said, "butt butter!" like I was an idiot for not knowing what I was spreading on his toosh. I could not stop laughing.
He still calls it his butt butter. Maybe the kid is onto something. I should come up with my own line of diaper rash cream(you would think I would have already) and we will call it Bear's Butt Butter!

I thought I had been doing a good job

I was worried that with out that "manly" influence in Bears life every day that he would turn out kind of girly. It has been almost 7 months now that it has been just the Bear and me and I really thought I was doing a good job of being both mom and dad and providing the loving nurturing side and the "suck it up kid" side. Until today. First, while I was cutting the grass (with scissors of course) I look up to the porch to see Bear in tears. I stopped cutting and went up to see what was wrong. In between sobs I got a "flowers bye-bye!" He had loved standing at the kitchen window looking at the flowers every day. Yes that's how long my grass was. I almost lost Tela when she went out the bathroom last night so I decided it was time for a grass cut.
Then, after the lawn was done, I brought him out to play in the grass and play on his slide. There was a little bit of dirt on his slide, it is an outdoor toy, and all he would do was stand there shaking his head adamantly saying "Oh no! Oh no!" and refused to go on the toy. I even tried to brush it off with my hand to show him that a little dirt would not hurt his little hand. He would not go on it until it was completely dirt free.
Next, while I was sitting on the steps watching him run around, I saw a snail and thought he would get a kick out of it. Heck I used to eat them when I was a kid. I called him over and showed him the snail, and touched it, and asked him to do the same. He looked at me like I was nuts, said "no thank you mommy," and ran away to play on his clean slide.
And the final straw that convinces me that I am not manning him up enough happened tonight while I was preparing dinner. A fly had gotten in the house and was zipping around the kitchen. I figured I would just deal with him later after I got some food in our tummies. Bear was standing there watching me when he noticed the fly across the kitchen. I thought he was going to flip his lid. He jumped in the air and started screaming. He bolted from the kitchen and refused to come back in. He stood there at the entry watching the fly and if he came with in five feet of Bear, he would start screaming and jumping around. I wasn't sure what to do. Part of me wanted to comfort him and tell him it was okay, but I also didn't want to reenforce his fear. So I started making a big ruckus chasing the fly around being silly. He did not think this was funny. So I just decided to kill the darn fly and be done with it.
I guess I need to step up the "manly" part of his upbringing.

Cali pics

Bear did so well on the flights down to California. We had a layover in San Jose and he got to run around a little bit. He grabbed the cell phone, put it to his ear, and just started walking like he was off to an important business meeting dictating notes to his Secretary. I followed close taking pictures of my little seasoned traveler!

Of course he was slathered up with SPF 50 the entire time.

"Uh, Mom, there is no room left on your lap! Where exactly do you expect me to sit?"

Cousins!

I can hear him laughing when I look at this picture.

Finally I get it on camera

He has been singing his ABC's and counting to 16 for a couple weeks now. I just could never catch it on camera. Until tonight... I finally got him in the right mood, kind of. He gets just fine to 16 and then he just kind of loses it. He continues on with 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. And 13 sounds like 14.

Here he is with his ABC's, he still misses some of the letters, but gets the majority of them. This is not the best he has done, but it is the best I have caught on tape, and I really think it might be the cutest thing in the world.

The things he absorbs

We went to California this last weekend, to visit family. While we were at the airport waiting to board the plane, I took Bear to the window so we could look out and look at the airplanes going by. We were there for about 30 minutes looking at things and talking about them. We talked about the luggage truck and how they work and we talked about the little trucks that push the planes backwards, and we talked about everything on the planes. The wings, the engines, where the pilots sit, where the passengers sit, and then I saw a hose coming from the bottom of the plane, so I told him that this was how they got the poo poo off of the plane. People have to use the bathroom while they are flying and now they are emptying out the tanks so more people could use them. And from there we just kept talking and pointing. I didn't think anything of it, until we landed and my sister asked him about the airplane trip, and he very seriously told her, "poo poo airplane!" And every time he asked now about his airplane ride, he tells about the poo poo on the airplane. I am so glad that out of the whole speech I gave him, this is what he remembers. I will post pictures later of the trip.