In search of the perfect (squeaky) shoes

Perrin can officially toddle! What I mean by that is that he can take 3 or 4 steps on his own if he's walking from me to Trey while we're sitting on the floor. But he's still using crawling as his main mode of transportation. I've been trying to figure out how I can encourage him to walk without pushing him into it against his will. I think I know the solution--squeaky shoes!

I've seen tons of toddlers with squeaky shoes, so I figured we could find Perrin a pair over the weekend and try them out. I had no idea that this simple idea would turn into a day-long scavenger hunt. We had already looked at Walmart, not really expecting them to carry them (and we were right). So on Saturday morning, we began the hunt in earnest. After we had visited Target, Babies-R-Us, Rhea Lana, Baby Depot, Dillards, Payless, Gymboree, JC Penney, and Shoe Carnival with not a squeaky shoe to be found, we had pretty much given up hope. Where the heck do you find those things?? We knew of one other place to try--a children's boutique called Over the Moon. We looked them up online and saw that they were located near my parents' house, where we were headed anyway. Awesome! Except... they weren't located at that address anymore. And when I tried calling, the number had been disconnected. Score another 20 points for the fates that were conspiring against us.

I finally gave in and decided to order a pair online. I didn't want to do it because I wanted to have Perrin try them on to make sure we were getting the right size (and to make sure the squeaky sound didn't freak him out). But wouldn't you know it... as soon as I clicked to submit the order, the web page froze. I sat there for 20 minutes, fuming, until I finally gave up. Trey could see that I was pretty much at the end of my rope, so he reordered the shoes for me, and this time it went through.

About 20 minutes later, I received two email receipts for my two pairs of squeaky shoes that were being processed. ::insert highly exasperated mommy noise here::

I think I've finally managed to cancel one of the orders. But these shoes had better be the best thing since sliced bread for all the trouble they've caused.

Birthday boy

On Sunday, Perrin turned a year old. One year!! We had a blast celebrating his birthday over the weekend. The theme of his party was "Perrin's birthday moose-stravaganza." We decorated the tables with stuffed moose wearing party hats and served "moose juice" and snacks. We even had a table of moose-inspired crafts and a "moose trot" (similar to a cake walk). And of course, a moose birthday cake.



Perrin got a wagon for his birthday, so all the babies took turns going for a ride in it. They loved it! And it made for some really cute pictures.










It really didn't take Perrin long to realize he LIKED opening presents!

And here he is demolishing his birthday cake. He had frosting up to his ears and in his hair and eyelashes by the time he was done.

Overall, the party went very smoothly... and most importantly, I could tell Perrin had a lot of fun. I had fun too, but it's been a little bit bittersweet for me to think that he's a year old already. I love the little boy he's becoming, but I miss the tiny baby that he'll never be again.

Bookie monster

Perrin likes to eat paper. I don't know why. He's taken bites out of my grocery lists, magazines, and even a check we got in the mail. Last week, he gnawed on the corner pages of one of my library books. The damage wasn't very bad, so we went ahead and returned the book to the library, not thinking they would say anything about it. Well, they did. We got an email saying that the corners seemed to have undergone "animal damage" and the book would need to be replaced for a whopping $30.

So I was sitting on the living room floor this morning feeling a bit irritated at our little "animal." I mean, $30 is a lot of money! Couldn't he have chewed on some credit card offers or something instead? But then, as if sensing my lack of motherly love, he crawled over to me, pulled himself into my lap, leaned in and gave me a big kiss. ::sigh:: How can I stay angry? At least he isn't out setting fire to our lawn or wrecking our car. Yet.

Baby signing

I've tried to teach Perrin a little bit of baby sign language on and off--simple concepts like more, finished, bath, diaper, etc. Unfortunately I haven't been very consistent with it, so he really hasn't learned any signs yet. Well, I take that back. He has learned one sign. But it's a sign that I didn't teach him. He's learned how to shake his head "no" at me.

The other day, I was trying to get him to walk to me from the coffee table. I held his hands and said, "Walk to Mommy!" He collapsed into a crying heap on the floor, looked at me, and shook his head as if to say, "Stop trying to make me walk!" Later in the week, I took Perrin up to Trey's work to have lunch with him. As we were getting ready to leave, we stopped and talked to a few of Trey's coworkers. "Can you wave hello?" I asked Perrin. Like a perfect, sweet baby, he grinned and waved. Then as we were leaving I said, "Can you wave goodbye?" He got a mischievous smirk and shook his head no. I guess he'd had enough of waving.

I'm still just marveling over the irony that I have never, ever taught him that shaking his head means no, yet he picked it up faster than anything else. Is that just like a baby, or what? Or should it concern me that my child can already tell me no any time he wants?