Biscuit's a funny little man

A post from The Daddy Man:

Kim had to work Saturday, so the boy and I stayed home. I had a bad cold, and Biscuit had gotten himself a raging case of pink eye. Needless to say, it wasn't a fun day.

Biscuit couldn't decide whether he wanted to be held or put down to walk around on his own. He was sleepy but he didn't want a nap.

As I surfed the TV channels looking for something to watch, I came across a bluegrass quartet singing on a public access channel. Biscuit stopped right in front of the TV and didn't move a muscle until the group had sung two whole songs.

And then when the third song started, Biscuit walked over to the piano and while still looking at the TV, he started playing the piano with one little hand. I think my boy likes music.

Then later in the day, some church kids came around selling candy bars. So Biscuit followed me to the door and was all excited about seeing the little kids.

After I gave them my dollar, I closed the door and Biscuit watched the kids walk back up the sidewalk. He was tapping his hands on the glass, talking to the kids as they were leaving. But once they rounded the corner and he couldn't see them anymore, he sat down on the floor and just wailed. He was inconsolable.

I guess he thought they would stay and play or something, but it was clear that he was not ready for them to go away.

He's a funny little man.

Chairs are great!

Biscuit has learned recently that chairs are great. He has figured out that it's fun to figure out how to get your rear end planted in one to sit down for a while ...

And, he's learned that if nobody is watching close enough, you can also finagle your way into STANDING UP in chairs, too!

HE BIT ME!!!!!

My Biscuit has 6, count 'em, 6 teeth now. And he's learning how to use them on all sorts of things, including furniture, coasters, toys, clothes, sippy cups, food and most recently ... MY FINGER!!!

Here's the proof (and don't look at my horribly dry cuticles!):

School pictures

Can you believe that they take school pictures even in the infant room at Biscuit's day care? This is actually the second time he's had them taken. They do some in the spring and some in the winter.

I asked the teacher if they propped his hand up on that sleigh in the first picture, and she said not only did he prop his hand up on his own, he also crossed his feet like that. I guess he's so used to having a camera stuck in his face that he knew exactly what to do!

Here's our Biscuit, posing for the photographer.

He won't go nekkid, Part 2

Back during the spring, I wrote a post about all the clothes Biscuit had. We have several hand-me-down hookups, and we were very lucky at our showers to get clothes in various sizes up to 18 months.

Biscuit is still small for his age, so he hasn't gone through clothes as fast as a lot of kids do. He turned a year old on Nov. 9, but he's still wearing a few 9-month size outfits. Most of what he has now is the 12-month size, though.

Biscuit seems to be built like Jeff. He has a long torso and shorter legs. So we have to cuff most of his pants so they won't drag the floor and trip him.

So here's the update. In the 12-month size, Biscuit has:

- 47 pairs of pants
- 32 shirts/onesies
- 19 pairs of pajamas (8 pairs of the fuzzy warm ones for winter)
- 6 jackets and 2 heavy coats

I guess he won't go nekkid this winter, either.

One of my friends is having a baby in early December. I was telling her husband about all the clothes Biscuit has, and then I said, "Do you know what that means?" He asked what, and I said, "It means that next winter, YOUR baby will have 47 pairs of pants, 32 shirts/onesies, 19 pairs of pajamas, 6 jackets and 2 heavy coats!"

Grits and eggs are a requirement!

I had hot chocolate and popcorn as a snack this afternoon, and it took me back to my childhood.

After church some Sundays, my girlfriends and I would go home with each other to spend the afternoon. And at one particular friend's house, her mama always made hot chocolate and popcorn for us to have while we played Barbies.

Then I started wondering what foods would take Biscuit back to his childhood when he's older.

He's doing better with his eating. He hasn't had a bottle in almost a week, and he just hasn't seemed to mind. He loves drinking milk from a sippy cup, and he's getting better at chewing.

Ms. Terri at Biscuit's day care does all the cooking, and she is super excited that Biscuit has started eating some of the regular food at lunch time. One day he ate two chicken nuggets, a few bites of corn and some peaches. Then another day, he had chicken and rice, green beans and applesauce. I'm not sure why Ms. Terri has taken such a liking to our boy, but she makes quite a fuss when I take him in every morning.

She laughed last week because I told her that on rainy nights, Mama would often make breakfast for supper. We'd have grits, eggs and bacon. She said her family did the same thing. So on a rainy night last week, I cooked grits and eggs for us.

I chopped the eggs up into little pieces and stirred them in Biscuit's grits. Then I used one of his little spoons and started to feed it to him. I'm not sure if it was the mixing of textures or what, but he would reach into his mouth with two little fingers, pull out the pieces of egg and swallow the grits right down!

I told Ms. Terri about it, and she said, "Oh boy. We need to fix that. You HAVE to eat grits and eggs." I agree!

I'll keep working on it.

Happy Birthday, Biscuit!

I wasn't sure what we should do for Biscuit's first birthday. I didn't know if I should have a party for his day care friends and some other babies he spends time with or if I should invited a few of my friends over or if it should just be me, Jeff and Biscuit hanging out at home.

I was leaning toward the last choice, because let's face it, Biscuit wasn't going to know the difference. But I was quickly told my Mama and my sister-in-law that there would be a party of some kind.

So finally, I figured out a quick and easy way to do it. Samantha's birthday is only a week away from Biscuit's. So on the weekend we went to S.C. for Samantha's party, we could also throw Biscuit a gathering with just family. Samantha's party was on Saturday, and I figured since everybody comes to Mama's house to eat on Sundays, that we could just add a cake and some presents onto the end of the meal.

I made a small cake just for Biscuit and covered it with Cool Whip and a couple of spots of icing. Then I made a regular cake for the rest of us to eat. I found this cute little decoration kit for a high chair. It included a plastic floor mat to catch flying cake and a first-birthday banner that went around the edges of the high chair tray. Someone had given him a My First Birthday bib, so with all of that in place, we were ready for a party.

I put his cake in front of him, and at first, he wasn't sure what to do. Then he stuck one finger in the Cool Whip and brought it to his mouth. He decided it was pretty good, so he went back for more. He ate pretty much all of the Cool Whip off first, then he beat the daylights out of the cake part with his little hands.

After cake, we stripped him down, cleaned him up and put him in a new outfit. Then we took him into the living room to open presents. As with the cake, he wasn't sure at first what to do with the presents. And that's where the cousins came in. They helped him unwrap his gifts, and then came playtime.

He took a push-toy he got into the kitchen, and when Jeff went to check on him, he yelled to the living room, "I think the boy wants more cake." I asked why he thought that, and Jeff said, "Because he's eating the pieces that fell on the floor!"

Oh well. Maybe he'll get some manners before his second birthday!

My Halloween Monkey

I've got so many Biscuit blogs to write that I had to make a list. I figured since it's already late into November, we'll back up and talk about Halloween.

I hadn't planned on doing Halloween for Biscuit this year. He couldn't eat any candy he got while trick-or-treating. He couldn't wear a mask or any makeup. Prime time for trick-or-treating was right around his bedtime. And with the flu floating around everywhere, I didn't really want to expose him to all those people.

But I was in Walmart and they had these cute little costumes that were made like footed pajamas. Plus, they were on sale for a really good price. So I couldn't help myself. I bought Griffin a little monkey suit!

I still didn't want to take him from house to house, so I asked Jeff to bring him into the office the Friday afternoon before Halloween so I could show him off.

So here's my little Halloween monkey.

Oh yeah? Back atcha, lady!

The road in front of Biscuit's day care is a busy four-lane street with a turn lane in the middle. The problem is that you have to get into that turn lane just after passing through an intersection. And there are those oh-so-nice drivers going the other direction who get into the turn lane about half a block before the intersection and often have to swerve back out of the turn lane to keep from running head on into us.

They desperately want to make a left at the intersection and don't seem to understand why I need to be in their way in the turn lane.

I've complained about this from the first day I took Biscuit to day care. Jeff has empathized with me, but he had never experienced it for himself until last week.

He offered to take Biscuit to day care one morning when I was running late, and I took him up on it. Jeff said he turned on his blinker and pulled into the turn lane. As he looked up, this old white station wagon was barreling toward them, moving gradually into the turn lane. He said he was starting to get nervous because the car wasn't slowing down fast enough.

Finally, the station wagon came to a stop right in front of his car. Behind the wheel was an 80-year-old woman. Jeff smiled and motioned to the day care center to let her know why he was where he was. And she just stared at him and sat there. So he motioned again, and this time even mouthed the words, "I'm going to the day care center."

I'm not sure if the woman was half-blind and couldn't see what Jeff was trying to tell her or if she was just mean, but the next thing Jeff knew, that little old lady's arthritic middle finger popped up from behind her steering wheel. Then she yanked the wheel of her car back into traffic almost getting plowed by a truck.

Jeff was so stunned by her actions, he didn't know whether to be mad or just laugh at her. I guess there isn't an age limit on road rage.