Thanks for the New Sweater AB!!

Hamslice had a wonderful surprise on Friday -- his dear Aunt B sent a sweater in the mail, and it is so lovely!

We put it on for school today, and got compliments as we were walking up to the building.  Hamslice is as proud as can be. Good thing the weather is still in the '30s, right?  Ung.

Hamslice and "the power of the finger"

So when we were in the airport, Hamslice came across this billboard. You can see he's a child of technology: the APPLE GENERATION

Too Young for Culture?

This weekend's weather was pretty terrific, so our family made an intrepid trip to Mt. Vernon via our free bus, the Charm City Circulator, on St. Patrick's day. Per the norm, we didn't plan ahead so we arrived at the staging grounds for the St. Patrick's day parade a full 2 1/2 hours early. After a nice brunch at the Midtown Yacht Club, we went to the Walter's Museum to kill some time before the parade.

We didn't really account for how Hamslice would respond to fine art from the 1600s. Probably should have thought that through a little more before we went in there.

Here's the big deal -- every time Hamslice saw a partially disrobed female in a statue or painting, he'd point at it and shout "Look Mommy!  BOOOBS!"

And his Baltimore accent made it sound like this "Beeeyoobs"

Hambone was completely mortified. This, of course, made me start pointing out the boobs to Hamslice so he'd do more shouting. This spiraled out of control until Hambone dragged both of us out of there.

We wound up missing the parade altogether, but that's ok. This was more fun anyway.

Quickie update...

Hamslice & Elwood... inseperable

Hamslice at Gradma Todtz's funeral. Such a sharp dresser.

Elwood, maxin' at home...

Hamslice Movie Star

Hamslice went on a video shoot with me yesterday, courtesy of the snow-induced school closures. The studio owner was nice enough to take some photos of Hamslice and me as part of the shoot. We had a blast, although Hamslice was a little shy at first.

So... it's not all coasting until he's a teenager

I'm sure you all remember my optimistic post a few ago that said "Now that he's potty trained, it's all coasting until he's in junior high."

Many of you commented with laughter that I still had a ways to go, and you're right. But we're having sort of a Yin Yang experience now, with the good mixed in with the naughty so it's a little easier to take.

The Yin:  Our little Hamslice is a fountain of sage wisdom. He's a thoughtful little guy who's piecing the world together one concept at a time. He gives us advice such as, "It's not a good idea to put poop in your hair.... or your eyes." and "If you kill somebody, you'll go to JAIL, you KNOW"

He likes to use the phrase "you KNOW" for emphasis on the very, very important bits. It helps us know when he's quite serious.

The Yang: We have got one stinker of a liar on our hands. And you can tell when he's lying because he uses the word "well" as a verbal pause. So the dialogue goes like this: "Hamslice, did you just step on the dog?"  "Well, well, well, well, well, well, I was just stepping on him so I could get onto the sofa." 

One of my colleagues mentioned that liar kids are actually more intelligent than truthful kids, because they're able to understand their reality and the consequences of their actions more completely. I replied that we must have the most brilliant kid in the world.

But so far, no harm has been done, and we are enjoying the new view of the world through his eyes. I wonder what's next.

New fun with Electric Kitty

Christmas Wrap up

As many of you know, we spent our Christmas holiday in Key West, Florida thanks to a generous friend of ours who let us stay in his house for two weeks. We greatly enjoyed the break from winter temperatures and made sure to be obnoxious by driving in his convertible with the top down every chance we could. The heated pool was pretty awesome too, so even if the weather was only 75 (boo hoo) we could still swim in 90 degree water.

Yesss.

We opened our gifts on New Years day back in Maryland, and that was a bit of a challenge to explain to Hamslice on Christmas morning. We told him that Santa didn't have our address in Florida, and had delivered his presents to our house in Baltimore by mistake. With a single tear standing in each eye, he agreed that this was probably the case. Poor baby.

Below are copious amounts of pictures from the trip, and our holiday. Enjoy!

 Walking the southernmost beach in Key West. It's a tiny little beach, but you get the picture.

We didn't have a swim suit for Hamslice, so he paraded up and down the beach in his Buzz Lightyear underpants.

 Hamslice at the Butterfly Gardens in Key West

 Christmas on New Year's Day. Here's his Chuck the Truck present.

 Crafting presents

 And this here is Hambone's special present from me. His only comment was, "You realize... this means war"

 Hambone's present to me and Hamslice -- Awwwww. our little cutie Elwood

 Hambone macking in Key West

 Brand new PJs for Hamslice

 Sunset on our first night in Key West. Hamslice was having a great time.

 New PJs from Uncle Keith & Aunt Susan

 Still a little bit shy around Santa. Maybe next year...

Screwing Around

So this is me just venting for a minute in the hopes that sharing this with all of you will help me find the patience I need until we move into another phase.

The issue is: Screwing Around

At first blush this might not seem like such a big deal, but it's incredibly frustrating. I've been trying to get Hamslice to dress himself... all by himself... for a couple of weeks now. I'll ask him to put his clothes on and then come downstairs for breakfast. Simple enough, right?

After 20 minutes of hearing footsteps and some grunting and rustling from his bedroom, I'll go to check in on him; finding Hamslice completely nude, standing with one foot on top of his dresser and wearing underpants on his head. His Buzz LightYear toy will also have one sock over his boot.

There's just no giddy-up in this boy these days. He knows how to actually get dressed, he just likes screwing around so much more.

*sigh*

Now that I write it all out, he sounds a lot like me when I was a kid.

Monster Trucks for Christmas

Hambone took Hamslice shopping for trucks over the weekend. This one was Hamslice's favorite, and he asked if he could buy it and take it home to put in the garage.

Hambone asked Hamslice how much he thought this truck might cost, and Hamslice said, "It's probably about $20."  and when asked where the $20 would come from, Hamslice thought for a while and said, "I think you have $20 in your wallet."

They learn so young...

When to be funny

So now that we're getting past the 100% rebellion phase, we feel like we may be able to mold Hamslice's young mind somewhat.

Lesson 1: When to be funny

International Day at Montessori

So below you'll see a few videos from International Day at Hamslice's Montessori. It was his first school performance, and just as cute as can be. I should mention that Hamslice's class was the last one to perform, so they had been sitting on the floor patiently for about an hour before this. I imagine this explains some of the behavior...

Here's the warmup -- Hamslice fooling around on stage with his favorite buddy, Brooks. Our guy is the blond in the front row, wearing the dashiki


Next comes the introduction where the class says Good Morning in Swahili


Here's Hamslice doing his speaking part. I was so proud


And then... well.... then there was the singing and dancing portion, which Hamslice took to a new level complete with stunts, a time out, and a dash to his mom. My poor baby.

Taking a break from uploading Movies

I've noticed that this blog used to be written by hand with my own comments, but lately all I've done is upload movies. (not that there's anything wrong with that, right?) So to take it old school, I'll try a text entry again.

Hamslice has been giving us a run for our money lately, with the pinnacle being the specially requested parent teacher conference two weeks ago. I was sweating that conference BIG TIME because I was sure he was going to be kicked out of Montssori due to his inclination ignore anyone in authority.

To my (sort of) relief, they just wanted to see how we were managing him at home, and they wondered if they could borrow any techniques. I said "sure... here's one, stop letting him push you around!"

Since then his behavior has improved greatly. I'm not sure if it's because some new synapses attached in his brain because he's growing, or if it's because his home and school lives are now more similar. Either way, we'll take it.

I hear that after you get through the 3s its smooth sailing until they're about 8. Here's to riding it out for another 10 months!

Cyclone!

Night Time Reflexes

Sometimes Hamslice still wakes up in the middle of the night, and often his first impulse is to grab a toy and crawl into bed with Mom and Dad.

Last night, his toy of choice was Hambone's Makita cordless hammer drill... fully charged...

I am pretty impressed that I was able to spot this as a no-go even at that groggy time of the night. We all emerged unscathed, except that I may never sleep again.

Goin' CRAZY at that playground

While we were on vacation over Labor Day, we took a day trip up to Lewes Delaware just for kicks. Hamslice found this playground and played his little heart out. There was a long nap that afternoon!

On a side note, Hambone dug around in the house where we were staying and found a bowl of old, obnoxious sunglasses. He picked out a special pair just to wear while standing next to me. You'll see those highlighted in this movie as well.

Awesome.

OC Hurricanes make great vacations

We had a great time in Ocean City this weekend. We drove up around 2pm on Friday and stayed through the weekend. Vacations are awesome.

Happy Birthday Hamslice

His actual bday is later this week, but we celebrated on Sunday anyway

Dino-Mite

A little motion sensor never hurt anyone, right?

"Dripping"

Last week Hamslice had a touch of stomach flu, and spent the morning being sick in the bathroom. It was the saddest thing. He would come to me and say "Mom, I'm gonna Drip" and then out would come anything he might have had to eat in the past several days.

Since then, he's been obsessed with "dripping." All of his toys now have little sauce pans next to them just in case they need to be sick. I get emergency calls into the living room to check on his toy dinosaur who is "dripping on the rug."

It must have been pretty traumatic for him to be sick that day. My poor baby.

Electric Cars in Iowa

Hamslice School Picnic

sharing with mommy

Shopping Shennanigans

Deconstructionism

You put the lime in the bathtub and shake it all up

Nationals Vs. O's game recap

Dr Doolittle look out

Hamslice Fishing Adventure

Vacation Pics and Video

Earlier this month, Hambone, Hamslice and I went mobile. We packed up the Avalanche and drove to Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan (and then back to Maryland) in one week. We were tired at the end, but overall had a complete blast. I have more videos, but can't seem to get them out of my phone (stupid Apple). Here's what I have so far...

Here we are at Navy Pier:



And here's a video about the Ferris wheel sign...



Here we are at Dutch Village in Holland, Michigan:

Fountain of Hamslice

Hamslice discovered the fountains in the inner harbor a few weeks ago. It was a ... refreshing experience, let's just say...

Hambone Smart Alec

In case some of you don't know what a Smart Alec is, keep reading.

We seem to have an extra strong-willed boy on our hands, so Hambone and I instituted emergency M&M measures. Hamslice's answer to everything lately has been to shout NO and then lay on the floor, immobile. And if he's tired of laying on the floor, he pretends to be deaf.

So, we have started a currency of M&Ms. If he says no to what we ask, then we ask again nicely if he would like an M&M for doing the task. Usually that works, but if he still says no, then we say "well if you don't do the task then no M&M for you."

So far he has been immediately jumping up to do the task when we say we're taking away the M&M, but I can tell this will only work for a while. According to Wikipedia, Hambone and I are the smart Alec's in this scenario. Wikipedia has no advice for how to continue exacting good behavior from my son.

Hamslice Home Movies

You all seem to enjoy these quite a bit, so here are a couple more Hamslice Superstar movies.

Hamslice Paints


Hamslice Businessman

He gets this from Mom

"I can't go poopies without the Reader's Digest!"

Hamslice Sings

Here are some movies of my little guy singing in the car. We don't quite have all the words down yet, but I'm happy to hear that he can carry a tune.

=)

The ABC Song


Baa Baa Black Sheep

Famous Hamslice

Our family was selected for BGE's energy savings household promo video -- you can see how much better we all look when there are professional video editors in the mix.

Hamslice Fisherman

One of our favorite activities is going to the Bass Pro Shop to look at the fish. Here's Hamslice getting "into the action". Just a couple more years before we can all get back to fishing as a hobby!

Monster Face

Mommy got a new phone that has a video camera in it. Now you will see Hamslice in Motion, like this:

Digging out

Today we begin digging out. Hamslice was a tremendous asset.

Homebound, Day III the Saga Continues

This is all going to be great to look back on, but this is my third day of hard time in the house taking care of Hamslice while Hambone plows for the entire day. (He just landed a City Emergency Team contract, so I officially have to stop whining about this)

I have been trying to cook to keep busy, but the derth of ingredients makes it a little tough. Last night was pea soup that contained a bag of dehydrated black-eyed-peas and some of our Christmas ham leftovers form the freezer.

That culinary experiment led to the discovery that Papa Johns across the street was open, but only accepting carry out orders. That means pizza is ready for us in 20 minutes. No muss, no fuss. That's the good news.

The bad news is that we're starting to run out of things like milk and toilet paper. We're living the cliche.

I'm also running out of fun things to do with Hamslice. Three days of kids movies is my absolute limit, so we're experimenting with splashy time in the tub and thinking about where there may be a street or sidewalk open to go take a stroll.

The house and I are also starting to turn on each other. I walk into room after room thinking, "My God this place is filthy." So this morning I cleaned Hamslice's room, including sorting all of the clothes in the drawer.

With the 10 inches of snow we're supposed to get tomorrow, this may be an endurance run. Stay tuned.

Snowmageddon II

Here are more snow pictures. This was so amazing to see that I had to show all of you too. We have officially broken ALL snowfall records for Baltimore. I can believe it!

These pictures were taken while Hambone, Hamslice and I were joyriding in the Bobcat. We had to put the plow away because there was too much snow. Instead we drove around with a giant shovel on the front of the Bobcat, lifting massive heaps of snow and carrying them to the sides of the road.








We call these people the Federal Hill Zombies. Nothing was open today, but people still wandered aimlessly around hoping to find something to do. They walked in the middle of the street looking like they would actually eat brains if it came to it.





And I have to ask "why bikes?" they were everywhere, as if bicyclists think a bike is an ATV.

Hamslice Snowball

Snowmageddon 2010 is underway. 2 feet so far (easily).

State of emergency was declared last night by the Governor, so this is officially cool now.

Last night we went to bed poo-pooing this storm because there was only about 2 inches on the ground and it was still 40 degrees. During the night, we heard a lot of thunder -- so much that it woke Hamslice up at 4am. We all peeked out the window at that time and whistled low and long.

Here's what we have:

Hambone and Hamslice plowing out the street together, and both having a marvelous time. Hamslice was so relaxed in the Bobcat that he fell asleep in the cab for an hour WHILE Hambone continued plowing.


This is the front of our house, looking south.
This is the Hamslice snow depth meter. His feet didn't go all the way to the pavement because he's too light, but waist deep is about a foot and a half or more. This isn't a snow drift he's standing in, it's the sidewalk au naturale.
This is Hambone trying to get out the back door to get to his plow. This took a while.
The view out the front window at 6:30 am
One more Hamslice measurement: see how high the snow is on the door? That's also not a drift.


Our yard, at 5:30 am.

Embarassing Bath Photos

I wouldn't be a parent if I didn't post at least one bath photo in public, right? Here you go...

Early Morning Fishing?

Have you ever gone fishing for crappie or bluegill? Well do you remember how the flop all over the dock once you bring them out of the water? It's chaos with the flipping and flapping and leaping into the air. You'd never forget it.

Now picture that fish at 5AM, flopping around in your bed, and then call that fish "Hamslice." That's what we woke up to this morning. Our little guy crawled into bed early in the morning, and a very noisy F A R T from one of us woke him up. For the next hour, he flip flapped in bed until we all woke up for the day.

We've got to get a lock on that bedroom door.