Congratulations on your first year, my son. You are officially no longer a baby, but instead well on your way to manhood. So let me take this moment to share with you (to the best of my womanly ability), the Man Rules:
Keep the safety on until you pull the trigger.
At the ballpark, never start the wave. But never let it die, either.
You can people watch, but don’t stare.
Walk it off.
Don’t linger in a doorway: it’s in or out. (Your father has yet to master this one.)
Offer your date the seat with the better view in the restaurant.
Never swing at the first pitch.
Go barefoot. It toughens the feet.
It’s not enough to be proud of your ancestry. Live up to it.
And the pleats on a cummerbund face up.
There now, you’re all set. Your father can cover the few things I overlooked. And if you need anything else, please know I’m here for ya.
Wow, kudos to Vimeo for taking TWENTY THREE HOURS to upload my 50-second video. Goodness. They must have been having an off day...
Anyhoo! It's been a day since my posting of the weekly update, so I thought I'd post Peter's baton-twirling routine separately. I mean, it's totally deserving of a separate post anyway for that intricate move he does where he twirls the duster between his legs.
Way back last year, before the Doots Man was born, Scott and I (like any other couple soon to be blessed with the birth of a child) were out shopping for some baby-type items. While at Target, we came across the Infamous Duckie Tub.
Have you seen the Duckie Tub? It seems like every single person I know who has had a child in the past few years has the Duckie Tub. In a circle of KC friends, it is like a Rite of Passage for New Moms when they finally move their babies to the Duckie Tub.
So we bought the damn Duckie Tub.
Anyhoo: fast forward to like, now. I had shoved the Duckie Tub package to the back of the bathroom cabinets, forgot about it a bit. Then, it got warm. And I remembered, oh yeah! The Duckie Tub! You know what, I bet it would make a nice beginners pool for this summer! So, I blew the thing up (no small feat, my friends). I found a soft blanket to use underneath so we didn't get any holes in it. I set it up in a shady-yet-warm part of the yard, filled it with water, tossed in some toys. I got the boy child in his shark swim trunks, grabbed some baby sunblock, found a nice fluffy beach towel and his sunglasses and out we went into the beautiful sunny warm afternoon, to take a dip in his new "pool".
And here's the closest he would get to the thing:
At first, I thought to myself, "Okay. While he loves the bath, this is outside with like, Nature and Birds Screaming and Sun and it's cold, not warm, and it's just not what he was expecting" so we drained the "pool", then set it aside to dry and cleaned up the area and put all the "pool toys" in the house and yeah I'm a sucker, then I still let him have his cupcake while basking in the warm sun of a weekday late afternoon.
Fast forward to the next day, the Duckie Tub is hanging out in the dining room waiting for the Next Try At Pooltime, and Peter spies it. Um, and his eyes get big and around and he turns around and I am telling you, I've never seen anyone crawl away so fast. Then peek at it from around the corner. So I try to warm him up to it, we inch closer every few minutes and once we're near I pet the duckie and yeah - no. He's not cool with the duckie. I think it's the giant Head and Eyes and the Maniacal Quack it emits when you squeeze the beak.
So, yeah. He's officially Sort-Of-Afraid of Duckies. Which, I find a wee bit hysterical. And kinda sorta maybe make the duckie chase the Doots around the house every once in awhile. I think he likes it though. Or, uh, that's what I tell myself so I still sleep at night.
PS: This video editing, there is a definite learning curve (like, HOURS OF LEARNING CURVE). My apologies now for the terrible editing butcher job. Next time, I'll get the cuttings and the music to somehow sorta match up. And won't unintentionally pop in 30 seconds of footage I was going to leave out because it was Totally Not Interesting (dudes, there was this awesome little portion where the cookies whipped around his head and he screamed and got all godzilla on them but I kinda accidentally left it out). Oh well, you get the general idea.
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