Partying like a Rock star!

That's right, Cole partied like a rock star this past weekend.

His friend Manav had his first birthday and boy oh boy was there fun to be had. In addition to being held in a 12th story apartment that overlooked the beautiful Lake Merritt in Oakland, Cole was introduced to a number of "ladies" and felt it his duty to kiss them and hug them and in one case grabbed their butt (part proud on that one, part horrified - ok mostly proud - guess the sex talk is coming early in the Ambrocente household).

Speaking of the sex talk - Cole learned an important lesson in sex ed. Kissing girls can make you sick.

Two days after the party it seems that everyone's child got sick - and I mean sick. Looking in the rear view mirror to see your child open his mouth and projectile vomit is not a pretty image.

He seems on the mend now but I think that all those "oh, look - he's kissing and hugging them so nicely" we heard from so many of the parents, is just not that cute anymore.

We know where it started, and Cole, being the sharer that he is (a new trait that in hindsight, would have been better if it was delayed a few weeks) just wanted to make sure that no one was left out.

If these are the kind of parties Manav throws now, wait until high school - YIKES!

So a week of firsts, his first steps, his first "cop a feel", and his first "party till you puke"!

Until next time...

"I'm walking here"

To quote the famous lines from "The Midnight Cowboy" uttered by Dustin Hoffman , Cole says, "I'm walking here..."

While they were few and short, Cole took his first steps from Dad to Mom.

Let the games begin.

Until next time...

This can't be good.

Today, I got a text from Shelley. "Wait until you see what your son did."

This can't be good. I knew that she was at the store, so I asked if we owed any money.

Her reply - "no" Followed by, "good thing he doesn't have a photo shoot anytime soon."

This is not what you want to hear.

When they got home, she had cleaned him up pretty well. I could barely see the mess anymore, so there is no picture to include. It turns out that her shopping list was written in a water-based blue ink that Cole had decided to eat while she was talking with the butcher. When she turned around his mouth and face was blue. I can only imagine what this looked like - my son the smurf. My first thought was of the comic The Amazing Jonathan, he does a really dirty bit with his assistant and the blue man group, see if you can youtube it and you will see what I am talking about. If you use your imagination I am sure you can figure out what the punch line is - I am a bad father for even thinking it.

Anyways, this is happening more often - as my dad says OSM's - and with his first steps truly now only days away (he is trying so hard) I have a feeling that there will be many stories to pass on soon. Let's just hope he doesn't find the cat's litter box anytime soon.

Until next time...

A True Mystery

So first, a recap - Shelley and I share child care duties. She works in the office three days a week and works from home two; I work from home and go out to perform only on Wednesday's, Friday's, and Saturday's. This is important to remember to truly appreciate the following.

So - here's the mystery - Shelley, somehow, has trained our little guy to only poop when she isn't home. That's right, all the shit comes down on daddy. From Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the kid poops once - but today - he doesn't poop once, he poops twice, all before Shelley comes home from work. I had half of a mind to let him sit in it and save the second one for her, but that wouldn't be fair to Cole, or to me - since I am the one who does the wash, and by then, it would have leaked out into his pants, and lets face it, skid marks of that magnitude just don't come out that easily. I would have said it was just chance that this happened, but it always happens, over and over again, and I just started to catch on to the pattern. She's sneaky, I will give her that.

Anywho, I just had to vent, I leave it up to you to figure out how she trained him to do this amazing poop trick - I have to go and figure a way to train him to throw his food only at her.

Until next time...

The strange anf fun things we do at home

When people ask what Cole, Shelley, and I do during the day, we never know how to explain certain activities that happen, like say - sacrificing a stuffed bunny, so we have video to help high light it. It seemed like Cole was very into it.



As you can see, it's the little things that amuse us now - we don't get out very often; I was bored, Cole made a mess, we had a camera and for some reason you just watched it.

Until next time...

Wow, that was like a water show!

We forgot a very key part of Cole's birthday experience. As people gathered in the dinning room, around the food, Cole, for the first time in a long time, decided to puke. It wasn't a chunky puke, thank god, but it was puke none the less, and it landed right on the dinning room table. Miraculously he missed all the food, seriously, it landed in the one spot that did not have anything edible. The reason I bring any of this up is because after we cleaned up, our friends young daughter, Gracie, said out loud, in perfect timing - "Wow, that was like a water show!" Ah, this is why we become parents.

A friend just recently shared her "Oh Shit" moment the other day when her second kid did his first pull up to a standing position on christmas morning - knowing that they now had two mobile children on hand. On our "oh shit" side of things, Cole has decided that while he is still not yet walking, he will climb like a pro. We had sat him down in a laundry basket, a favorite hang out, and he just stood up, held onto the sides, lifted his leg high and swung it over, followed by the other leg. No tipping the basket for this guy. Shelley and I just looked at each other and started laughing our asses off - knowing full well what lies ahead. He followed this up with a reverse approach and tried climbing into the bath - fortunately his legs are too short.

And if you wonder if Cole reads the Blog - No, he is too busy with the paper.

Hope the New Year is treating you all well.

Until next time...