Daddy's Little Scientist

Keith has started to call Seth Daddy's Little Scientist because he's just constantly trying to explore and test everything. He loves to crawl all over the furniture, create forts with the throw pillows, wedge himself into any nook or cranny to see if you can find him, feel everything for texture, open cubboards and empty the contents, tip his sippy cup upside down emptying the liquids onto the floor, food tray...whatever have you to smear it around like finger paints, and so much more.

The car seat is our greatest challenge. Rarely does he go into it willingly. The normal reaction is throwing his body about, screaming at top volume and fingernails being thrust at your face, arms or grabbing for hair...as if he'd been cast in a horror flick or a poster child for "My Parents are the Worst". I swear sometimes I think he's trying to call Child Services on his Elmo phone and telling them how I don't heat his milk just right, I make him take naps, and that I make him get out of the bathtub even though he's only been in it an hour, his fingers are pruney from being in so long, and the water is starting to turn cold. Every once in a while, you can latch him in the carseat with very little effort, but these times are so few and rare that when they do happen...I find myself sitting there with a stupid wild eyed look on my face completely stunned by the whole situation that I wasn't kicked or something thrown at me. whew!

Seth attended his first wedding. It all started well with him looking sharp in his argyle sweater and cord pants. But shortly after the ceremony began, his patienced wained. Suddenly, everything the woman next to us had was completely fascinating and something he must have- umbrella (yep she brought the popup style), purse, and of course her digital camera and cellphone (I think every child has some weird homing device that can locate any cellphone within their body length). I started to get sweaty constantly pulling him back and trying to retrieve him from under the chairs, handing him a bottle, game, anything to try to keep him quiet and try to show what a good parent I was to bring such a well behaved child. Ha! We hadn't even gotten to the exchange of vows before I had to exit the area in lightening speed when my latest retrieving him from trying to walk on top of the chairs made him mad and start to scream at capacity that I was afraid would stop the ceremony. The rest of the even was spent in the child play are of the church. The finale of the evening came when I went to put him in the carseat in the back of the Jeep, it was started to rain something fierce, and Seth started to kick at me....enough movement on the back of the Jeep that the back window panel came down from where it was rolled up and smacked me in the high cheek bone area with the metal bar. Somehow I remained calm and got Seth situated ( I think he too was stunned by what he just witnessed). My cheek swelled immediately and good size knot stayed there for days. Lucky for me I had Burt Bees Bump and Bruises Balm in Seth's backpack that I applied immediately (this stuff is amazing and everyone should keep handy)...I think it's the thing that prevented me from ever bruising up. Next time I have a wedding to attend, I'm taking someone with me to help run defense.

He's starting to add words to his vocabulary. Him and I have a special routine that I do during our commute...picking categories and giving a word for each letter of the alphabet. i.e. Outdoors A- Alps B- Boats C- Cabin ....have to say that X and Z really create the brain cells to go into overload trying to come up with words...and Q. Ugghh.