My Gunman.... 17 months old on Ground Hog Day

And then there's the Gunman. Silly Gunman.  17 months ago, this Ground Hog finally came out of his cozy home.  Here's some facts about our Punxsutawney Phil:

The little hog has quite the sweet tooth. He is mischievous on top of that.  Right now he's in the spices and baking supplies.

 If it's silent and you can't hear him, he's in to trouble.

 I've fixed, repaired, replaced and put new child proof locks up.  Next he's over visiting Hailey's dog food.  Placing dog food drop by drop into her water.  Oh and Hailey and the Gunman are pals.  Because of the Gunman's sweet tooth obsession, usually he has a couple half sucked fruit snacks attached to his behind or pant leg.  Hailey does her job following him around and cleaning and gleaning as he walks.  What a pair they are.  When he eats in his high chair, she is there to catch every morsel that's dropped purposely or accidentally.  His favorite snacks and obsessions? Currently it's Whelch's Fruit Snacks, Dum Dum suckers, any kind of gum, and Twizzler's licorice. 

Next he's managed to find 2 forks and has chosen to walk around the room with them.  How does he come up with this stuff? Why forks? It's like he finds the dangerous items and chooses those first.  He is stellar at helping me unload the dishwasher.  First thing he always goes for to unload? Yep, the knives.  I have to remove all those quickly because his eyes have radar for all the naughty and dangerous items.


We are finally mobile though.  It took him 16 1/2 months to walk.  The adorable, unstable little drunk walks around most places but likes to crawl on his hands and feet with his butt up in the air when he needs the speed. 

He absolutely loves our "doggies" the Hounds.  He loves to go talk to them and is even quite good at scolding them for barking.  "Doggies NO!" and he shakes and points his finger.  It's quite the sight. 

With all this activity comes exhaustion, and the Gunman still enjoys taking two naps a day.  I'm trying to move him to one, but he really loves being put to bed with a sippy, a soft fleece blanket and complete darkness.  He loves his room inky, bat black.  His naps are quite sacred to him and he wants you out of his room quickly please. 

For some reason he's quite obstinate about going into his car seat.  He fights you until you have to pull some wrestling moves to get his butt down in the seat and the strap around his shoulder.

Taken when he must have been REALLY REALLY tired

 Same thing on changing his diaper.  And to try and do it on the changing table? Forget it.  He yanks the baby monitor, has the station changed, then it's beeping, and turns all the light switches on including the ceiling fan.  All this is happening while I am trying to get the poopy diaper off his bum and trying to apply the new diaper to a moving target.  When he does stay still he loves to try and stick his hand in his poo before you can scream no! and grab it.  Then he laughs.  He also laughs and grins when he stinkers.  That's a boy thing- my twins did it too. 

He loves soft things.  He loves to squish his nose into a soft fleece blanket, he hugs it and bites down.  If I try to read to him on the bed he smooshes his nose into the bed and scoots around with his butt up in the air.  Not really paying much attention to the book.  He loves to throw himself around the bed hugging a pillow and squealing with joy.  Last night he got a little bit too close to the edge and off he went off backwards, flat onto his back.  A sad, sad day for the Gunman.  The big guy went boom.  That's a common theme with my boys.  They go from ultimate play and ultimate happiness to extreme sadness very quickly.  Usually you can tell when things are getting a little too ramped up and wild, because next "Someone's going to get hurt, and then someones' going to cry" happens.  This is a phrase I heard as a child and my twins heard quite often.  I guess it's going to be prevalent in the Gunman's life as well.  

The Gunman is quite verbal though.  Much more than my boys were.  He says What is that? Who is that? He walks around taking a lot, and can listen to simple commands and carry them out. He says "Peas" when asked and thank-you (which kind of sounds like "Tang Too" in a low voice).  He also says bye and hi to people, but usually not on cue. We're are usually out to the car before I finally hear him say "Bye".   He always seems quite proud of himself to have said it. 

He's a spiritual soul, and is starting to understand what to do during prayer and he mumbles some form of Amen every once in a while. 

He loves his older brothers and enjoys taking a bath with them when he can.

 He enjoys doing boy things and likes to push around their big toys and trucks in the living room.  He's getting quite good at throwing a ball and can play catch with you if I roll it back to him.  Much to their dismay, he loves to turn off the XBox when they are playing and mess with the knobs and buttons on all the TV equipment. 

All I keep thinking about when I write this post is that my poor mother gets to have this little gem for 10 nights in June.  Kes and I are taking the twins on a trip with his family and I don't want the Gunman.  Oh my oh my! I think it will be just fine though.  He behaves a lot better when I'm not around.  He's a little stinky now, but we'll try to blow some of that off before June.