I Can Totally Climb Out of My Crib If I Want To

The title pretty much says it all for this one. I've heard Mom and Dad talking about it here and there the last couple months - wondering if I could climb out of my bed and when the time was coming that my good morning "Dada!" would be a face-to-face surprise rather than me yelling it from my room.

Well, I haven't done that yet, but I can totally climb out of my crib if I want to. For now I'm content to just stay there and let Mom or Dad come and get me when I'm done sleeping. Or put me there when I've done something they don't like. They always say "this is a Time Out", which I guess is when I'm supposed to practice yelling my head off. Kind of like the Emergency Broadcast System tests, you know?

But I can totally climb out if I want to. I'd been hiding it, but I got carried away this morning getting out of bed, when dad and I were having some fun throwing toys out of the crib (me) and throwing them back (dad). For some reason one of those giant exercise balls was in my room and I wanted him to throw it in but he seemed to think that wasn't the greatest idea. So I threw my blankie over in the corner and when he turned his head to pick it up I just hopped over the rail and climbed down and grabbed the ball. No biggie.

I think the cat's out of the bag though - Dad's a disappointingly alert guy at times, and I think he noticed that he hadn't lifted me out and yet there I was on the ground. He tried to play it off [Ed: Yes - I kind of like thinking that he'll stay in his bed if I put him there] but he was kind of looking at me funny. I'll keep you posted on what happens tomorrow morning.

Flashback Time

I don't know if you've fallen victim to this, but apparently my Dad loves to take pictures of people when they've fallen asleep. He's got quite the collection, going back to college! You should really see some of the one's he's got of Mom when she falls asleep on an airplane, because she tends to sleep with her mouth wiiiide open when she falls asleep sitting up like that. They're hilarious! Just don't let Mom catch you looking at them. Oh boy, does she get mad. And then it turns into "I thought you deleted that?!?" and Dad's mumbling something about "found a backup copy" and I'm getting sent off to bed. Hey! Is it my fault that the pictures are funny?

Well, enough about Mom. I think she reads this sometimes and I don't want to give anything away. And I'm kidding about getting sent off to bed - we've got a cool bedtime ritual that we do absolutely every night. But that's just for me and Mom and Dad (and occasionally a visiting Grandma or Aunt Melinda) so we'll leave it at that.

Because this is about me! I was sick with a cold last week and I fell asleep on the couch one night. Naturally, Dad grabbed his camera. That turned into this week's Sunday Spud pictures, but it also turned into the flashback machine, because the new pictures look just like some of the very first pictures anyone ever took of me.

First Flashback: Sunday Spud #1 vs. Sunday Spud #116. See the resemblance? Granted, in #116 I've got a bit of a rash going on my face. But that's what happens when you've got snot running out if your nose all day long! I think it's pretty cool to see me at two hours old and then at 2 years, 2 months, 13 days, 21 hours old. My hair has changed, but it's still me!
Though where are my eyebrows in the first picture? Did somebody shave them? Sounds like something Dad might have done to somebody sleeping back in college... [Ed: Nope, just drew on people with markers.]



Second Flashback: One of Mom's favorite pictures of me ever from when I was just shy of my three month birthday (top) vs. the picture from this weekend (bottom). You can see I take up a lot more of the couch now, and I don't sleep spread-eagled any more. It's still me though. A lot more of me is leg now!

Election Night!

Wow, this election thing seems pretty big. It's all Mom & Dad (and Grandma, and anyone else I run into on the street) have been talking about for the last couple days.

Election night is finally here, and it looks like I'm going to get to stay up late! This is so cool. Plus, I get to watch "Dinestines" [Ed: Little Einsteins] on my travel DVD player while Mom and Dad are monopolizing the big TV. Actually, that looks like the Backyardigans - one of my other discs. They're really fun too!


I got to drink all the juice I wanted, because Mom and Dad were drinking "Mommy and Daddy Juice" for the evening too. I tried their juice a little bit, but I didn't like it as much. Dad was playing on the laptop with something called Facebook all night, and every now and then he'd laugh really hard at something and Mom and I would look at him and wonder what was wrong with him now? He's always laughing at funny times when no one else is. Happy guy, I guess?


Anyway, later on, they got all excited because a guy named Obama won. I can see why - that's a really fun name to say! o-BAAAAA-ma! Obama obama obama obama. Actually, if you really want to hear somebody say that name funny, you should hear our Governator Ahhnold say this guys name. I can't do an Austrian accent very well yet, but you can probably imagine him saying "Senatuh O-BAW-muh". Though I kinda think that Ahnold doesn't like him very much for some reason. Not sure why - he seems like a nice enough guy!

However you say his name, it seemed like quite the big deal. There were people on TV crying and stuff. Grownups even! The only time I've seen that before was that one time when I ran full speed into Dad and headbutted him right in the [Ed: Okay, that's enough out of you. Stick to the topic please!]

Sheesh. Dad's grumpy this morning. It was a big night. Mom and Dad tried to explain that sometimes people cry when they're happy, but I'm not really sure how that works. I only cry when something hurts or if I'm not getting my way. When I'm happy? Not sure why I'd cry then.

Maybe I'll understand when I'm older.

Good Stick

You ever get a really good stick?
Itchy has.
(Itchy is my dog, in case you've forgotten)
[Ed: Matty renamed Josie to Itchy for some reason]
She had a good one the other day, and I watched her for a little while.
And then I figured - Hey! Josie and I do a lot of the same things. We play tug-of-war with a rope, we throw the frisbee, we run around the yard yelping like crazy people, why not chew on sticks together too? So I gave it a try.


It wasn't bad. I used a little one, since I don't have long teeth like Josie. But it was definitely a good stick.


[Ed: inspired by an item from one of our favorite books: If Only You Knew How Much I Smell You - True portraits of dogs, by Valerie Shaff and Roy Blount Jr.]

Good stick.
Got a good stick.
A real
good
Stick.
Getting all the good
Out of this good
Stick
That's in
This
good
Stick.

Sit 'n Spin!

I got a sit 'n spin awhile ago - I think last Christmas. Never really got too into it, other than as something to stand on while trying to reach a light switch. It's good for that. And I guess it's got some good tunes too.

But lately - I've been getting into the Sit 'n Spin a lot more. Sometimes I try doing it the way you're supposed to, sometimes I just turn on the music (all you have to do is spin it) and then dance to the music. (You can hear the music in the video below.)

But my favorite is my own special way of spinning - check out the video below. This is me doing my own lay 'n spin styley. [Note that I've got my cup of milk handy for when I need refreshment]

The Sunday Spud turns 100!

The Sunday Spud has been going for 100 weeks now! And to celebrate, Dad figured out how to put little slide shows here in the blog post. Isn't he smart! Hope you enjoy these, and you can always see the full photo album by clicking on the links on the right hand side.




And for you smarty-pants that count the pictures and notice that there are more than 100 pictures - good for you. But you've got to understand that the slideshow updates automatically, so it'll keep getting longer every time Dad adds pictures to the slide show.

Russian Rumors 4 - Max!!!

I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but I'm a huge fan of the Max & Ruby show on TV. That Max is such a clever little bunny! Handsome too, as you can see in the picture to the right.

So you can guess how excited I was when it turned out that Dad has a friend living in St. Petersburg, and his name is Max!!! Wow! Who knew that Dad was so cool? (Max writes some of the software that Dad uses at work, in case you're curious.)

Max has a wife named Lena, and she was really nice too. For some reason that I'm not telling anyone, I re-named her "Money". That's just going to be my secret for now. But whatever I was calling them (I got Max's name right of course), they helped us be tourists for our last two days in St. Petersburg. Here's a picture of Max and Lena and Mom (and I think I'm in the stroller, but I'm sleeping, so it's not worth mentioning). They all have cups of hot wine that Lena made, which was good because it was a cold day. I only got a little taste of the hot wine, but it was really good, and Lena promised to send Dad the recipe, so hopefully I'll get to try it again soon.


It was a lot of fun! We went to the House of some guy named Peter, which was out in the country, I think because that's the only place that it was safe to build so many fountains. You wouldn't believe how many there were! It was really cool - don't get me wrong, but I think there are something like 20 different fountains in this guy's yard, and that's not counting the big one that's built into the house. That fountain is pretty neat too, though I'm a little bit worried about what the golden man at the bottom is doing to the lion - I think he might be hurting it!! You must get funny ideas when you live in a house that big.


Max said that when he was little, he lived near this Peter House [Peterhof] and that it was closed in the winter time, but there were gaps in the fence where he and his friends could sneak through and play in the fountains. He said he even got to go behind the fountains and look at all the fancy pipes that brought the water from a nearby lake. Just like something Max the bunny would do! I wonder if I change my name to Max if I'd be that cool too? It wouldn't be a big change - I've already got two of the letters!

It was a good thing we had Max & Lena with us, because once we got back to the city from the fountain guy's house, they took us to get some Russian donuts at a special shop that's famous for making the best ones in town. They were sooooo good! I think Dad ate more than his share - maybe six or so. I only got two, so I'm feeling kind of left out.

Then, the next day, we all went to the Peter & Paul Fortress, which was a kind of on an island by itself. What is it with naming things Peter in this city? Is that the only name that people use around here? Other than MAX, of course! We also went for what Max called a "student lunch" which was some blinis, and Mom got a baked potato. That was really good! And I got to sit on my own stool like a big boy.


Dad says that Max comes to our country every now and then, so hopefully I'll get to see him again