Weekend score at the Grand Rapids Moms Sale

This Saturday there was a huge mom garage sale at our local arena. This meant that all the tables were teeming with baby clothes and stuff for wee ones up through pre-school. Plus, there were sold by moms to moms, so the prices were excellent. The down-side was that I had to be at a research meeting an hour south of the city and couldn't make the shopping event. It was a day of presentations from undergraduate researchers, including my student from this past summer.

Family to the rescue!

Mom and Shelly came out on Friday with the intent of taking Tam and hitting the sales as soon as they opened. I rigged Shelly up in the back-pack carrier for the little guy because strollers weren't allow in the arena before noon. I guess the strollers would clog up the mom traffic in the aisles. We didn't think to snap any photos of Shelly in the harness...maybe next time. Oh, and Tam still loves the contraption but has begun to play with the hair of the person carrying him. I packed them a diaper bag, gave them a list of Tam's sizes, and sent them on their way while I went to listen to ecology research.

Oh what a haul they had at the end of the day! I came home to see a pile of gently used clothes for Tam, a few classic kids books, and several new cloth diapers. Score! Mom, Shelly, and Tam had a great day shopping around. Shelly loved getting compliments on her cute little "son" and neat purple carrier. Mom had a good time wading through the massive amount of girl clothes to choose outfits for our dude. Can't wait to get them in the wash and have Tam try some of them out. Brian really liked the little leg-warmers with pirate skulls on them. And I think some of the pajamas are just too cute. Thanks guys :-)

Oh yeah...It's one of those weekends!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Has it been that long? Life just got more busy here in our household. Contributors to this have been my going back to school to teach, Brian discovering the FaceBook world, and Tam figuring out how to crawl.

Now it is hard to believe it is mid-September and Tam is turning 10months old! He is getting so big so fast. And he is still making Brian and I smile so often. Just last night, I came into the house from work 'round 6ish and was greeted with squeals of delight from our little guy. It was quite the Rock-Star welcome. He hasn't totally figured out waving "hi" or "bye" yet, but he sure can show it when he's excited by something :-)

And lately, Tam's favorite toys have been anything with wheels or buttons. He has gotten very good at flipping his little Fisher-Price push cart over, just so he can spin the wheels on the bottom. He has also just learned that he can push play cars along the floor and then crawl after them. As to the buttons, these are gadget buttons that hold his fascination. We've already given him a couple of old TV remotes and an old cell phone. The phone even has a bit of charge so that it lights up when he turns it on (accidentally). Ah...simple pleasure (and cheap).

Brian has decided to join the modern world and get on the Internet, specifically FaceBook. He has been delighted lately with being able to connect with friends from High school, College, and Yellowstone. It definitely is interesting to hear what everyone has been up to in the past 10+ years. (Mostly procreating). Good thing we have two computers in the house so I can bump him off the laptop when I need it for school work.

As to teaching, the year has started off fine. I'm teaching two courses with their accompanying labs...which means I'm seeing about 80+ students this term. The grading hasn't been too overwhelming yet. And if my planning works out, I won't be giving exams in both classes at the same time at any point in the year. However, I've already thought ahead and have stocked up on several wines to help with the grading :-) mmmm....wine

Oh, and I totally thought of the ol' gang yesterday in my lab (And the Beavis & Butthead movie). We were talking about trees and the formation of wood...
"You may wonder how does wood get so hard"...
Snicker...
Snicker...
Wood
:-)

Quick post while should be working...

I know I've been lax here, but I promise to write a flourish of entries in the next few days.
On a different note, I've heard great things already from They Might Be Giants' latest album for kids. It is all about science and the little nerd in me is going ballistic.

Check out the opening song, "Science is real."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m2ANSDNFKIMUXO

Might be a Christmas gift for our little one :-)

Tam pulls himself up!

Had to share this next milestone of kiddo-bean's growth...

He pulled himself up from sitting to standing all by himself today! I was watching him crawl/roll around on the floor and he ended up near our trunks (which hold his toys). Then, all of a sudden, he went from sitting to crouching, to standing while pulling on the trunk! I was at first way shocked that he did it, and then way proud. My final thought, was "Dear Lord, we have to finish baby-proofing the house now." He's already quite proud of this trick, except he doesn't know how to go back down again and ends up usually toppling over.

I'll have photo/video as soon as I can catch him doing it again. He's getting so big so fast :-) Any bets for when he takes his first step or starts cruising around the room?

Cat and Tam

Our cat may be smarter than we give him credit for...

Brian heard Tam at the glorious hour of 5:00am this morning. Tam wasn't crying but, murmuring and thrashing around in his crib. Wonderful hubby went to check on Tam and noticed our ol' cat sitting in the hallway to the baby's room. Tam was easily soothed and back to slumber...or so we thought. Our cat got a couple of pets on the head too.

Again, we hear Tam murmuring and giggling around 6am. No crying (thankfully). Good hubby again, goes to check on the baby and see if he'll fall back asleep for another 30-60minutes. Tam's usual wake for the day time has moved back to 6:30-7:00am. This time, Brian finds our cat sitting in the doorway of the baby's room. He doesn't think anything of it since the kitty is often hanging around upstairs where the people are. He gives Tam the pacifier and he curls up and knocks back out.

At 6:30am, Tam again is giggling and babbling in his crib. Okay, he's up for the day. When Brian goes to check on our kiddo he walks in on the scene of the crime! Our cat is sitting on the rug right next to the crib. He's meowing occasionally but not too loudly. Tam is ecstatic to see the kitty! He's reaching his little hands through the crib bars desperately trying to pet the cat. The cat was sitting (smuggly) just out of reach.

Ah-ha! Normally, we ignore the cat's meows during the night, especially since he is a totally indoor cat. However, we nearly always get up if the baby cries during the night. Has our cat figured this out? We think he's going into kiddo's room, meowing to wake him up, and then waiting for Tam to wake US up, and then getting the extra attention after we check out Tam. WTF! Maybe the cat's going to banished to the downstairs for the night hours for awhile.