The Emperor

Ok, maybe he isnt really 'The Emperor', but he is straight runnin the show at our house... Little dude is boss.
Here he is addressing his adoring masses.
Sitting on his throne.
My work here is done. Walking off without his security detail.
The lighter side of his royal highness
Uh oh. The Emperor is gettin tired.

Busted

Casey got Daddy busted. Evidently, I didnt push my dining room chair in after I left the table. Casey took full advantage, and used the chair to climb onto the dining room table... Where he found Daddy's water glass. Doing his best to imitate Daddy, Casey attempted to drink out of the glass. Needless to say, he was found soaked, and sitting in a puddle. Of course, I got in trouble... Thanks kiddo...

Attempting to drink water from a big boy glass.BUSTED. Got that guilty look on the face.
Ah screw it, I'll just smile. I'm cute, no one can get mad at me. Let Daddy get yelled at.

Crib

I was planning to take some correlate shots of Casey in his crib. But, not having seen the original in awhile, I didnt exactly duplicate the shot. Nonetheless, a few things popped into my head.. First of all, why is there grass and trees in the background? Did my Mom and Dad make me sleep outside, like a dog? Did they at least feed me, or was I so hungry I had to chew on the crib?

Casey doesnt look happy in these photos. But what do you expect? He JUST woke up. And I stuck a camera in his face, and blasted him with the flash. Isnt there a phrase 'rude awakening'? Kinda reminds me of my childhood, when my Dad used to wake me up by blasting classical music, and opening all the shades in the room to blast the light in.

Cojones

Not to brag, but its my opinion that Casey has cojones of steel. In order to keep this blog rated PG, I'll translate and say that little Casey is very brave. It is very cool to watch him overcome his fears. Last night (6-12-10) we were at the park, playing on the jungle gym. This time, Casey climbed to the top, and sat on the top of the 'big boy slide'. He carefully inched forward... until.. banzai!!! Down he went. All by himself. I just stood there in disbelief. His confidence soaring, he proceeded to climb his way back to the top of the slide, and slide down.. 3 additional times!
Afterwards, I confirmed with his Mom that this was the first time he did this slide by himself.

Its hard to explain, but little stuff like this is really cool to experience.

Perhaps of greater overall importance is the fact that Casey also began going down stairs, by himself, on his own two feet. Sometimes, he still prefers Daddy's 'elevator ride', which is our special term for when I sit at the top of the stairs, and he takes a running start and jumps into my arms for a 'ride' down the stairs. So, he's climbing up stairs, decending down stairs by himself now. Us adults might not think much of it, but consider how intimidating a staircase must be to a 2.5' tall, 30 lb. toddler.
There is also a humorous/ dangerous side to his cojones of steel. He loves to climb chairs, couches, tables. Little guy is pretty resourceful too, he will strategically place items to help him climb. For example, this morning, at breakfast, he climbed on the chair, and used it to climb onto the dining room table. I was about to bust out laughing, and give him a high-five, but then the responsible parent in me won out. I suppose I shouldnt be encouraging climbing on tables, where he can potentially take a 3 foot fall and land on his head.

A boy and his dog

Ever since Casey was just born, he had a favorite stuffed animal dog. Constantly, he has been surrounded by stuffed animals, but this dog was his favorite. I have no idea how he could pick this one out, but he did! He LOVES this dog. It goes everywhere with him. Therein lies the problem. A few months ago, we took a trip to East LA for some grubbin mexican food. It was a nasty night, cold and rainy. We found some street parking in the barrio, and as we opened the door to get Casey out of the car.. his doggie jumped out of the car, right into the gutter. In 'da hood, in the rain, with all the runoff flowing thru this gutter, this was about the worst place for his beloved doggie. Just so you get the whole picture, Casey snuggles, hugs, pets, bites, sucks ( insert about ANY verb here) this dog constantly. So, to simply shake off the dog and hand it back to him would be irresponsible parenting.. and believe it or not, I'm actually a responsible parent...
So, we have no choice but to put doggie in the washing machine. Which leads me to the first rule of parenting... If your child has a favorite toy/ animal... GET DUPLICATES... The original is gonna break, get lost, get worn out at some inopportune time. Once doggie came out of the washer and dryer, it became clear that he wasnt going to live forever. We needed to find a twin. Simple enough. Tia got him at Target. We goto Target.. nothing.. Ok, read the tag and find the manufacter. Except that Casey has sucked the tag so much, it wasnt legible. Somehow, we figured out the company. I emailed and called them.. sent them photos of the dog, asking if they could identify it... They came back with.... "It's been discontinued... It's been so long, its not even in our system".. Another dead-end. So, I started searching Ebay. Ok, maybe searching is the wrong word, because that implies typing words into the search box and hitting enter... Only I didnt have any words to search with... What am I supposed to type? "Stuffed Dog" "My son's favorite toy"... no, I did it the brute force way... Looked at tiny picture icons until I saw potential matches... Then, EUREKA, I struck gold.
Here is the new dog, sitting in Casey's crib moments before he met his new owner...
Here is Casey, pointing at... his dog? He knew something was off...
Checking him over, petting his ear.

I think Casey likes him!