Little Tom

This is Grammie Perkins dog Fudge. I guess he was saying--I'm 14 and if I want to lie in the snow for an hour then I can do that.

(Note for grammarians I checked with an expert and was told that chickens lay (eggs) and people lie (down) so that my usage above is correct. I was also told that dogs do not lay eggs.)

This is one of my favorite all time pictures of my mom and me. (I used to say I in this situation but this is something that my friend Chip taught me.)

I think I look fat in this one....

This last one is from a hike that Heidi, Amelia and I went on this afternoon. It was supposed to be about 20 minutes but we wound up following these snowshoe prints that we thought were the trail. Long story short--we were not on the trail and and hour later we finally made it home.

Feb. 21

Yoda and Champ have a way of harassing each other every moment they are together. Well, Yoda causes most of the trouble truth be told. Yesterday we did find a good way to separate them though. Yoda always wants out and Champ always wants back in so this "zoo" arrangement really works well--and we know exactly where they both are.
Saturday was my birthday--I'm shown here with one of my presents from Heidi. It is a scrabble board that--spins--so you can turn it on the table, has little ridges so the tiles don't move, and folds up into a briefcase so you can take it anywhere and not loose the pieces. This board is way better than the ones that my friends Tucker and Matt have--I just want to rub that in.

My 27th birthday was on a Saturday night and we went out to diner with a bunch of friends, then went to a band where we stayed out until 2am. Almost 10 years later I'm happy to say this birthday was a little more tame. We stayed up what we thought was really late but realized that it was actually only 9:30. It was very nice to be at Grammie's bed and breakfast though.

Tom--Age 36

Amelia with Fudge. She doesn't always realize that he is the dog that doesn't play quite as much--he is 14 after all.

Our new Wii

Tom surprised me yesterday and bought our Wii we had promised each other as a Christmas present...

No one will be shocked to hear that my arms are really sore this morning...

...and Tom called me from work to report that he can't concentrate because all he wants to do is come home and play Wii with me!

Amelia Walks....ish.

Hello,

Here is a walking sequence.l

First standing in the snow with Yoda.

Almost walking.

Really walking.

The Noise

Not to quibble with my dear wife on Valentine's Day but I'm not sure that she accurately represented Amelia's first word fragment.

While most dictionary sites agree with Heidi's use of \gu\ to describe Amelia's sound I want to make sure that you all weren't thinking that Amelia was saying goo, goo, goo. Which could be the interpretation of GU, GU, GU.

In fact the noise Amelia is making sounds more to me more like gah, gah, gah. But the exact sound can be replicated if you pronounce the word gutter and just drop the -tter.

I knew you would all need this explanation for your cocktail chatter/square dance chatter tonight so I got it out ASAP.

Side Note: Congratulations to our friends Tucker and Liz and Haley and Walker who are having their engagement party tonight. We wish we could be with them in Charlottesville.

Gu Gu Gu Gu Gu

Amelia has spoken! Her first "word" is "gu" which means dog. Every time she sees or hears the dogs she says "GU GU GU" and we say, "Yes, Dog" over and over again. When we get home she immediately looks towards the basement door (where the dogs are barricaded) and says "Gu." When she's in her high chair and they aren't hovering attempting to catch some food she will say "Gu." In the first video you can hear her say it while she watches Yoda play outside. And in the second video (admittedly a little too long) she is playing on and around Fudge - who, by the way, is a 14 year old lab. He's a rockstar. (minus going to the bathroom in the house).

"I'm stealing this potato off the floor...they can't see if it if I hold it like a football..."

"Now I am going to chew on it. Haha you can't catch me! "

"Wait, hey guys! This thing tastes terrible!"

We've got the "big girl" car seat installed complete with drinks for Amelia! What do you guys think? :) **

**Tom thinks people won't realize we are kidding in this picture. We're not going to put her in the way back with a 6 pack of beer...

The Cabinet

No, not Obama's cabinet...the kitchen cabinets at Grammie's! Amelia spends a lot of time exploring...sometimes with Yoda by her side...

Heidi's Saturday...

Michael walks in his walker while Amelia tags along from behind...


Amelia has stolen Michael's pacifier and thinks it is very funny!


I swear they are both smart little kids...but they sure don't look it here! :)

Amelia and I had a fun day together while Tom was hiking with Yoda and friends. I am glad he went but I was very glad to see him come home. Amelia has been challenging us the past few weeks and I have been exhausted. And sick. I learned this week why it is so much harder to be a stay at home mom and sick at the same time. Because there is no 8 hour stretch of sleeping on the couch, drinking fluids, and watching tv dozing in and out of naps. I can't wait to return to work next year because when I'm sick, I"ll send her to preschool and stay home by MYSELF.

Anywho, Amelia had a fun playdate with her friend Michael today and they were SO cute together. Leslie (Michaels' mom) and I have had fun watching them play a little bit more in the past month or so. They really seem to notice each other and are interacting a little more. It's fun!

So then we came home and the "poop" hit the fan. Literally. I know we have talked a lot about poop this week - but these stories seem too good not to share. Amelia needed a nap but first I wanted to change her diaper. I take the diaper off and let her air out for a MINUTE while I turn on the tv and put hot water on for tea. Amelia is playing in one of the kitchen cabinets happy as a clam. I do not notice any strange grunting, smells, or sounds. I go over to retrieve her and see some strange things smeared on the floor, the cabinet, and all over her leg. I quickly realize what it is. Amelia pooped on the floor, then crawled into the cabinet and pooped in there, and then sat in it, and then crawled around in it. I am standing there stunned... what do I clean first: the floor, the cupboard, or the baby? I decide on the floor, then the cupboard, then the baby. I decide to just pick her up to get her off the floor, which means that I am now a poopy mess, too...but I digress. The hardest thing to clean was Amelia who was like trying to pin jell-o to a tree she was wiggling around so much.... I finally finish and I put her down for a nap, come back into the kitchen and use bleach to clean the cabinet and then I mop the floor (and change my clothes and start laundry). I pour my cup of tea... I start walking out of the kitchen towards the tv room so I can sit down for a little bit...and I what do I stumble upon?

Dog poop.

Hiking Weekend

We had a hiking day today. I couldn't do much to help Heidi with a sick Amelia but I could take Yoda away for the day.



We began the day early--at midnight. Grammie came in and told us that her dog Champ and Yoda had run off. She had been looking for them for an hour and had almost gotten stuck on a snowy road. I got dressed, spent 10 minutes trying to find my glasses and then went out to start my car. While this happened Edie had gone out in her car again. As I was leaving the house Heidi said why don't you just call for him.

I gave one call--a bark responded.

I gave another--another bark.

In about 30 seconds they came back.

But now we had lost Grammie. We tried calling her cell phone but there isn't great reception near her house. We finally found her and we all went back to bed.

Amelia was now screaming and continued to scream for about an hour. I told Heidi to go sleep on the couch and finally Amelia calmed down--for a while. She was up again at 4am and I sustained her screaming for about 45 minutes when I realized that I was clenching my jaw so much that it hurt. I got Heidi and we traded off.



The rest of the day went very well. The dogs ran like crazy, the views were good and we had a great lunch at Biederman's.


For all of the pictures from hiking to ice fishing later in the day--check this out.
http://picasaweb.google.com/crumlives/FishingDerbyWeekend2009?authkey=3KFlRGTheCY##

More videos for Aunt Becky

Aunt Becky requested more videos... so here are a few from yesterday and today!

Amelia on the move

For those of you who are still grossed out by Tom's previous post, I am hoping to win you over with cute pictures and video :)
Amelia gets ready for her first superbowl with her terrible towel...

Grammie tries to get Amelia to hold her own terrible towel. Nope. She thought we were nuts.

And lastly, she practices walking with her new walking toy! :)

Natural Chocolate

My friend Chip once told me a story where he was about 13 and went for a walk in the woods with two of his younger cousins. As in most NH woods you often come across droppings from deer and moose and things like that. So, one of the young cousins asked Chip what this small robin's egg sized brown sphere was.

Now you need to know that Chip is a story teller. Not a fibber or an amateur but a real professional story teller. He has written several children's books and at one point worked at LL Bean headquarters as their story teller in residence. He would put on story hours for kids where he would read work but also make up stories on the fly. He also has a mischevious side where he makes up voices and leaves phone messages--the most famous of which was when I had just moved in with new room mates and he left a message in the voice of the Concord sheriff saying that I needed to call immediately and then come down to the station. Needless to say my new room mates were concerned at that one.

Back to the tale. Chip told his cousins that what they had found was natural chocolate. And he even encouraged them to take a taste of the wonderful stuff. When they bit in and then scrunched up their faces Chip just let them know that natural chocolate wasn't quite as sweet as regular chocolate.

Why do I mention this? As many of you know while our bathroom is being remodeled we are staying with Grammy Perkins. Grammy has two wonderful dogs one of whom, Fudge, is nearly 14 years old. Needless to say a 14 year old lab has a little trouble with getting to the door in time to go to the bathroom. So from time to time he has accidents indoors. Tonight he had a little accident and I didn't see it. Amelia was playing on the floor in one room. I was trying to tune in the news and Yoda was barking to go out. You need to know that I had no idea Fudge had had the accident. So when I came back from letting Yoda out I noticed that Amelia had crawled a few feet and was holding one of her many toys. She was in a shadow and I didn't think much of it and I turned my attention to the news. But in the back of my mind (this is all happening in a few seconds) I thought, "Was that toy?" I quickly looked back and noticed that what she had was not a toy but a ping pong ball sized ball of....poop. I moved quickly to keep it out of her mouth and grabbed it myself--oops that wasn't great. Then I threw it out and moved to get antibacterial spray on her hands. But then I realized that that had alcohol in it and I used soap to get that off. The soap I used wasn't baby soap so when she put her hands in her mouth she cringed and cried at the taste. And on and on.....

Just another day in the Crumrine Household.

Amelia does some destruction.

Amelia tore the house apart - I could not keep up... so I just gave up until naptime. - this was last Friday but we've been busy moving in with Grammie while we get a new bathroom!