Today was a day to remember!
Spencer, Daddy, and Mama went to the mall..( okay so THAT'S not the memorable part, chris had to replace his phone...) and Spencer got to ride the train...a really big one that circles around a museum of sorts for Merry Go Rounds, very cool... AND the fear of riding a quarter driven ride was conqured! Spencer rode the fire engine,( a much more welcome ride in a fire engine than a few enteries to go) and the "Hot Dog" cart. ( the second being kind of odd, but he still liked it....he even put the money in himself...a feat I am not sure if I happy or fearful of)...suffice it to say, it was a fun day, capped off by a trip to the park where we all tetter tottered and rode the slides, Spencer even going down by himself more than once, an activity he is just getting a hold of. Days when Daddy is home are FUN!
He is so like his mama..when were cloud gazing/airplane searching in the backyard this weekend, he looked at me after a while and said with all sincerty, "can we go back in and get a book to read?"
that's my boy! (heh)

Although Spencer does indeed have a strong sence of self esteem, today this was challenged by a babe a whole 15 months younger than he. Perhaps age is what provoked him, as we all seem to be so proud of our wisdom and abilties earned with our growing years, but somewhere beneath it all that illustrous grass on the other side has just sprung up anew, fresh and green.
Making us feel as thought our side in turn looks like the Midwest circa 1930. This freshly laid grass belonged to our former neighbor ( Amber) son, Cash.

You have to see that last we saw of Cash he was barely able to sit up, essentially quite unless hungry, and only interested in his Binky. Today we saw Amber in a much needed reunion and Spencer, to say the least was a bit dismayed at the physical and mental prowess Cash had accomplished. He can know stand, goo-gahh, crawl with lighting speed, and unfourently for him, enthralled by the "big boy" Spencer.

He who can walk! He who can talk! He.....who can carry a cracker AND walk at the same time??
And look at that! HE's climbing into his Mama's lap.....WITHOUT help!!!! It was adorable of course,and the cuteness that comes graces all ten month olds was displaying it's self to the nines.
(i.e. mama asked a lot of questions about him, talked with him in her special high, high voice, smiled at him.....TOO MUCH!!)

Spencer went into full ..." I am acting like I you don't bother me, because I mean hey, you are a little baby and I'm a BIG boy, but ..please don't notice that I am going to crawl up in mama's lap and pout for a while.....yeah.......that's what big boys DO!"

Cash even tried to "talk" to him a few times and Spencer began to cry, just a little.
When Cash and Amber began to leave, Spencer immediatley, (and I'm sure in his eyes very polietly) began to say, VERY loudly and happily....goodbye, goodbye,goodbye, goodbye.
He then looked at me, his eyes stern and perhaps a bit humbled; and said"
"You have a baby at home, you have a baby at home." Much like he is told when a new monster truck reaches eye level with him at the Freddies.
I concured with my baby though, and let him know that I would only have one baby at home-forever.
okay just a small sentimental yarn to make up for the ones before......

The duck/devil below is to be charged with the possesion of the little angel face that you see below.
Really, what happens to them?
My only excuse is that possibly, fowl from the netherworld, such as those seen below creep through the drainage system and take over the gooing and the gahhing and replace it with the tortured screams of harpies. It is the only explanation that I have, and Spencer will now only recieve his baths outside, in a protected tub WHERE NO DUCKS ARE ALLOWED.

Okay. I feel a little better.
Ahem.
As always, more later.

jen

p.s. Spencer knows almost all the words to the 1st verse of Animaniacs! Cool!
p.p.s. he prefers to sing Baa Baa Blacksheep and Itsy Bitty Spider.

An Eidetic Monday In Portland Oregon
As the entery implies, last Monday was a night that I will probably never forget. To set the stage, I must include that on this eve Spencer and I were alone, tired after a long day of playing and taking advantage of what was a few hours of sunshine we have had this "spring". Having not the cluninary skills that his father, Chris has I concoted an easy meal of Quesadillas(his favorite), PEAS, and a few yams for our main man. Ironically I cannot recall what I ate that eveing, but as you will see, the only important quaility it had was that it gave me the energy to get through what was one of the more stressful nights since our little Prince Spencer Louis has joined us.
Although I have not kept on this blog as much as I would like, I think I have mentioned to most that Spencer has become quite the character. He is VERY vocal, and seems to have picked up on what a joke "is". ( He told me today, as he poured water over his head that: "This is a joke!", but that's another entry) About mid meal, he looked up at me and smiled. Not an ordinary "Oh...that's my little baby boy!" smile, but a " Ohhhh that canary tasted GOOD!"
smile. He then laughed at my pensive reaction to this smile, picked up a pea from the plate and held it just shy of his slightly flared nostril.
"Put this pea up my nose!" he squealed.
I then informed him, in as stern a matter possible, ( he knows jokes, he can make you laugh..) that the postering of such a legume had no medicinal or scientific benifits as of date, and that tonight's dinner table was not about to turn into a lab for such puzzling inquires. He laughed, put the pea down and the rest of dinner went fine.
Bath time, fine...( I will mention here that our boy is a natural for swimming, he lies down in the tub as we drain it, and says" Swimmin in the ocean!" as he kicks his legs with MUCH vigor and attempts to blow bubbles.....it makes my imagination go overboard each time, but in my heart I am VERY excited to get him swimming....ANYWHO)
Jammie time, great, until he looks up at me again....same smile.....and says...( you know what's coming...)
"I PUT that pea up my nose!"
At first I didn't believe him, or rather, didn't want to but upon inspection there inside his nose lie a very green pea.
Okay.
I try to keep all things in order at first, I get our tweezers out, ( although this is, according to many web sites, NOT what you want to do...) and attempt to dislodge the legume in question. Spencer is still laughing at his joke, and giggling everytime I go in with the tweezers.
After about 5 mintues of trying ( it seemed a lot longer, maybe it was, I do not know) I called 911.
"I dont' know how much of an emergency is this....but ..."
At first the operator thought I meant pEE as in urine.
I'm not sure of the health risks to this occurance, but it must happen often-or our slang for using the bathroom has overturned a decent vegetables name.
With no advice to give me, they sent a FIRE truck out to help. Yes, a FIREtruck.
needless to say I was frustrated, embarrssed and feeling like the worlds most inept mother, but Spencer? A FIRETRUCK? AT HIS HOUSE??? IS IT STILL MY BIRTHDAY??
He was elated beyond belief, and I was still attempting to get the pEA out of his nose.
Firefighter arrive, ( no siren thank god) and four, yes FOUR fire fighters, entered my house to elevate my son from the obvious peril he was in. AHEM.Not only that, their crew followed us ( Spencer and myself) into every room we went to, I felt like I was a paitentbeing checked out by interns as this weeks study.. a little awkward to put it lightly....)
After trying tweezers again, ( they used my tweezers which I thought odd..) suction, and finally black pepper in the hopes that he would sneeze it out, it was decided we should head to the ER.
I should add that when the firefighters were using the tweezers, and especially the suction, he was less than chipper about the punch line his joke was causing. Especailly the suction. It was horrifying and I felt like there were 5 adults there trying to help, but in fact were only making it much, much worse. By the time the attempt at suction was over though, he was laughing again and even said as he clung to me for dear life, "That was fun.."
When we tried to use black pepper , he laughed really loud and said " Daddy likes that!" ( which is an accurate statement, Chris LOVES black pepper) with a little pencil on mushtache of said pepper just above his top lip.
While waiting for the taxi to arrive Spencer got to sit in the firetruck and pretend he was driving.He recieved two shiny stickers denoting that he was in fact a JR.Firefighter and in essence probably had the best 5-6 minutes that a 2 year old can have. The firefighters loved him and were really concerned, as was the taxi driver that took us to the hospital.
Upon arrival, ( Spencer getting a little less cordial shall we say, but still pretty hyped at riding in a taxi cab/playing firefighter) we are asked again if we mean pEE, and, vitals checked we proceeded to sit for about 1.5 hours. Sit? Did I say sit?
heh.
Excuse me, I meant run around not only the ER, but the long corridors that led to the main lobby of the hospital. I have at this time not even my CELL PHONE on my, let alone any $$ to perhaps buy refreshment( distraction) for myself or Spencer. It was miserable and the hospital we were taken to is without a doubt the MOST DEPRESSING ER in all of oregon if not the untied states. Just dreary. But once again, people tried to help me, a gentleman went to the cafetaria and brought back more black pepper, again useless. If anything, Spencer's high speed antics, ( I'm serious I felt like Wile E. Coyote and Spencer the Roadrunner) kept other paitents to be amused.
On out last escapade into the hospital lobby ( did I mention that the corridors between the ER and said lobby were long?Very very long.) I was able to catch up and finally put our little Roadrunner into my arms without having a acme anvil fall on my head. As we entered the ER proper Spencer coughed/sneezed. He had sneezed once before, and when I looked around to see our celebrity pEA there was nothing, so I figured it was to no avail. But ten seconds later he laughed that laugh, sported that grin again.
"I got that pea out my nose,yay!"
Again, as when he stated that he had indeed put it into his nose, I had a hard time believing that it was now gone. We retraced our steps though, and when I saw that shrivled little green pea on the carpet, I lifted him and restated his sentiment of joy.
"Yay! " he laughed, I informed the personel that we were going home and needed a taxi please. ( Spencer again squeals here upon hearing that we get ANOTHER taxi cab ride)

Pretty long story but all true. Everyone was SO helpful and kind, and made the situation seem not like it was unsolvable, but that maybe this was a moment that I could bring up when Spencer has us meet his first girlfirend......you know things like that?? Oh I will, I will.
I must also mention that when something like this does happen ( i.e. food stuffs in the nose) calling 911 is the PROPER thing to do, as something that is organic will swell and eventually cut off a persons air supply. And without Air Supply, you'd be all out of love.
And on that pun I will be you adieu, there is lots to write about Spencer, but there is even more to DO FOR him.

ox
jen