Somebody send me some gloves, I’m ready for boxing lessons.  I promise mom and dad don’t beat me, I’m just having quite a time without my helmet.  Today as we were talking through the yard I strolled through the rock/mulch bed and tripped and fell right into the faucet on the side of the house.  Man!  Usually my helmet would bounce me off of things like that, but BAM, my second black eye!  Luckily I only cried about like ten seconds until I realized we could continue on our walk and I wanted up on dad’s shoulder.  Gray hair/no hair for mom and dad is soon to follow!

Grandpap, Grandma, and Aunt Beth came down for a visit today.  We had tons of fun pointing out body parts, walking around the yard, chasing bubbles, swinging, and eating at the Pine Tavern.  I was a little slow to warm-up but I gave them all hugs when they left and said “bye-bye” several times.  Hopefully they will come visit me again soon!

I’ve been improving my balance, especially since the helmet has come off.  I practiced walking across one of our landscaping beams, I did a pretty good job too!  I needed help from dad, but I moved my feet without any prompts.

I’ve also collected several new bruises since I graduated from my helmet.  You can see mom point them out in some of the pictures.  I am just so used to running into things with no consequences, standing up underneath the table knowing I’ll be protected, or diving into my toys full force, but I’ll learn soon enough to slow down!  I just wouldn’t be Canton if I wasn’t full speed!

Well, we’ve come a LONG way, but I am finally helmet free!  I’ll probably have a few visit to the chiropractor and a few more physical therapy visits because I am still dealing with torticollis, but I’m almost perfect.  Mom and Dad joked that we won’t get anymore comments everytime we go out of people wondering about my helmet or being extra nice because they think something is wrong with me, that I’ll just be another regular baby, but I’m perfect to them!

1st helmet (30 weeks)

Second helmet (April 2010)

Helmet free!  Notice the space left between the helmet (what my head currently is) and the mold/model (what it was)

Well, mom is pretty much living for the weekend now.  I’m having a great time with Dena and Drew, but mom misses me so much.  We had a great time this weekend, making the most of the time we have.  I made her some handprint magnets at Dena’s and helped dad make a frame of all kinds of pictures of me for her birthday, I think she liked it.

We spent a TON of time outside this weekend.  I walked up the whole slide all by myself!  I picked mom some more flowers, took lots of long walks, and just enjoyed the weaning summer days.  I also got to see my girl Lilamae!  I’m learning more body parts, I can say and identify “eyes”, “mouth”, and sometimes “nose”, I can also point to my ear (note the picture of me and mom), toes, and bellybutton, not bad for a little guy.  Helmet comes off Tuesday! 🙂

Mom has been having a pretty hard week going back to work and all, so I decided she needed some flowers.  I picked several daisies (her favorite) from the yard on Saturday and brought them to her.  Dad has taught me to take care of mom, I guess I’m doing a pretty good job.  She says that leaving me this year is way harder than last year, I just don’t know what I’m going to do with her, she is a mess. 

I love being at my new sitter’s house.  I’ve had lots of fun learning to climb up the slide, playing in the pool, and she even brought me to mom’s school!

I’ve been learning all kinds of body parts, working on the potty and putting on shoes (mom’s in these pictures), and beginning to jump–I’ve almost got it.  I’m definitley keeping mom and dad busy!

Mom and I have been having a great time in our last few days together.  She returns to work Monday, ughh, can you believe it?  What a fast summer!  We have done so much together.  Mom thinks it is going to be harder to leave me now than last year, since I’m so much fun and can actually say goodbye to her. 

One of the biggest milestones we’ve had in my interest in the potty.  Though I’m faaaaaar from trained, I’ve shown a lot of interest in, and have gone at least 2x/day since 7/29, I’m on my way! 🙂

I’ve spent a lot of time in my whale pool this summer, here are a few pictures from yesterday.  There is cool fountain made by the whale’s blowhole, I love playing in that thing!  In some of the pictures I am telling Dad “more” so he’ll turn the fountain higher.  How smart am I?  I even wanted to go on the big-kid teeter on my swing, I did pretty well if I do say so myself.  Also included, my crying face when we had to go inside, I am definitely an outside kind of guy.

We’re also throwing in some pictures of this huge buck we saw in our backyard, Dad is guessing at least a 10 pointer.

Thanks to everyone who made this such a remarkable summer!