Just Because

Today, the first noise Monkey made when he woke up from his nap was laughter.  I swear, I heard it over the monitor.

Monkey's Cute Things

To catch you up I thought I'd share with you some cute things that Monkey now does at 17 months old:

1. He shares his snacks with you.  Really, whether you are interested or not, if you are just sitting around, chances are a goldfish will be shoved in your mouth.  You just pray it isn't one he has already tasted.
2. He shares his juice/milk with you.  Thankfully for this one he hands you the cup so you can pretend to drink from his straw.
3. He takes off his Daddy's socks and puts them in the laundry basket.  It's true.  The boy has some sort of obsession with taking off socks, his and everyone else's.  So if you visit and you aren't wearing shoes... I've warned you.
4. When it's time for us to leave he brings me my shoes to put on.
5. If we are on a playground he finds a boy a little older than him and mimics almost everything the boy does.  Early hero worship.
6. He asks for and rubs in lotion on his hands (although sometimes he eats it so you need to keep an eye on him).
7. He will choose to eat strawberries over brownie.  I swear this is true and was tested the other night.
8. When you say "one" he holds up his index finger.
9. And lastly... he breathes.  I mean, seriously, everything this boy does.  Well, everything but the new and daily improved temper tantrums as we get closer to 2.  Seriously, he threw himself on the pavement at the zoo last week.  I was so surprised I just laughed.

Mr. Poopy-Pants

I want to start this post out with a quote from Brian.  After I told him the story I'm about to tell you he said, "Our little baby is growing in to a toddler."  Just think about this as you read.

It's also important for you to be aware of a few things before I tell you this story.  First off, there are no pictures or videos and you can thank me for that in the comments.  Secondly, if you have a weak stomach then just stop here.  You can know that the story is really funny.  And I think that's it.

So, this morning around 7:30, I decided it was time to wake up Monkey.  Normally he wakes up around 7:00 but some mornings he sleeps in (no rhyme or reason so I can't replicate it when I want to), and it's usually around 7:30 that I start to get nervous. You know, that maybe he threw up in the middle of the night and asphyxiated or that he tried to climb out of his crib, fell, and broke his neck.  All completely plausible.

I walked in to his room, turned on the light, and this is what I saw.  Monkey was standing at the edge of his crib, like he always does, but that was where normal ended.  I put Monkey to sleep in feetsie pajamas that zipper up the front and then snap at the top to cover the zipper.  His pajamas were unzipped all the way down to his feet with the snap still in place.  One foot was out of the pajamas and, as I got closer, I also noticed that half of his diaper was undone and hanging down.  And now for the fun part.  There was a smell in the room that didn't make sense until I was on top of monkey.  You see, that half opened diaper had a poopy in it.  And Monkey had decided to investigate.

His hands were caked with poop.  His mouth had poop smeared on it (which I have decided to believe was simply because he touched his mouth not because he ate anything), one leg was streaked in a rather Jackson Pollock way, his belly was covered, the sheets were smeared, and the inside of the crib had poop all over the rails. 

At first I was rather surprised and impressed since he had never opened his pajamas before (or his diaper).  Then I asked him if he could wait a few days in between new things... like did we really need to learn how to take off our pants, tops, pajamas, and diaper all in a few days?  And then I realized I had to deal with it.

So Monkey went in the bath tub and got scrubbed.  His bed got stripped and is being washed as we speak.  I momentarily convinced Monkey to keep his diaper on while I put him in new pajamas (I say momentarily because I'm sure that the diaper will come off many more times) and I wiped down the wooden rails of his crib with Clorox wipes.

And then I made the decision that today we are going to Gymboree and buying some one piece outfits since he can't take those off... yet.

To return to Brian's comment... I think we have left the baby months (short, went-by-way-too-fast, wonderful months) behind us and have aggressively moved into the toddler years (as unknown and as scary as that sounds).

Good morning y'all.

Update to Mr. Pants-Less

So, last night Monkey decided it was time to try another article of clothing.  He easily put his shirt over his head, struggled a little bit with the arms and voila - topless baby.  I convinced him to put his shirt back on for bed but when I went in to get him this morning he had started the process all over again

And now my baby is running around the house looking like this:

I'm assuming at some point he will get cold and want to put it back on since I've done it twice already and he has undone it. 

Mr. Monkey Pants-less

No, this is not a baby that escaped from a diaper/clothing change.  Nor is it a baby that started out his day without pants. 

This, my friends, is a baby who just figured out how to take his pants off (you can still see his pants sitting on the floor right behind him).  Yup, armageddon is next.

(America's next underwear model... move over Mark Wahlberg)

And I'm thinking he has no intention of putting them back on any time soon.