After we got all of Andy's goodies we checked out the beach. Chad wasn't sure what to think of the sand. It was difficult for him to walk on, and after a couple spills he started reaching up to carried.
That's our super classy hotel on the other side of the boardwalk. Plastic dollar store furniture on the balcony? Sign us up!
I think Chad is part English Setter. He was remarkably talented at pointing at all the birds. 
First we tried a sneak attack...
I think I could have gotten them on my own, but Chad's squeals gave us away.
We had a brief conference and changed our plan of attack.
Charge!
Foiled again.
The next morning we got up bright and early to get Andy ready and at the start line in time to tackle the porta potty lines.
Our sleepy little cheerleader enjoying his breakfast of bagel pieces and peanut butter
This is Andy at mile 11.11 (or as close as I could figure 11.11 was.)
Chad had a sign that read "My daddy trained harder than your daddy", and was one of the cutest cheerleaders there. And it wasn't just me who thought so. A photographer saw him and took his picture for something or other. We can't find it on the official race photos website, so it may have just been for the local paper. (Baby's First Press Release!)
And that's Andy coming in at Mile 26. Chad was not a happy a camper at this point. He started off happy because there was a dog near us, but after an hour of watching runners go by he hated everyone around him, including Fido.
Andy is a marathoner!
The 4-hour ride home with Chad was no picnic. He slept for the first half, but when we had 100 miles to go the screaming started. Fortunately Andy was in the backseat (more room to stretch tired legs) and amused Chad by making the Grinch speak Spanish. For fifty miles, there were Spanish phrases in Grinch-voice coming from the backseat. I swear I'm not exaggerating. I kept looking at the GPS wondering how much longer this was going to go on. It went on for exactly 50 miles. "Que pasa?" "I'm verde!" "San Diego!" (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.) Lucky for all of us, a Spanish Grinch is the secret to a shriekingly happy Chad.
So what else has Chad been up to?
Well, he's learned to bake a cake! The recipe we used was given to me at my bridal shower and is labeled as "Great Grandma Ceonzo"'s recipe. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be my Great Grandma, or if it came from an older generation and is really my Great Great Grandma. Whatever. The point is, this recipe is like a hundred years old. Chad wanted to watch every step. Next time you're baking a cake, try to imagine doing everything with an almost-30-pound toddler on one hip. We had flour everywhere. Then we put it in the oven, and Chad kept a close eye on it.
The secret to keeping Chad still: have him watch a cake bake.
He'd occasionally point at it and make noises. I'm not sure if the noises were meant to remind me that the cake was there, or to warn the cake against trying to escape from the oven. Either way, they worked.
The finished cake!
Chad has also shown his domestic side by participating in household chores. He's already mastered putting laundry away (or at least moving it in and out of the laundry basket), and now he can Swiffer the floor too!
Child labor
At daycare, he's learned to climb the stairs to the slide, sit and scoot to the edge, and then slide down all by himself. We've also taught him to say "Bye-bye" to us in the morning, and then again to the teachers when he leaves. Sometimes the teachers get kisses blown to them too. One teacher got FIVE blown kisses in a row! I think someone has a little crush on his teacher! You have to be careful to tell Chad to BLOW kisses. I asked him for a kiss good-night once, and he responded by licking my face.
Another favorite activity is staring at the bird feeder until a bird shows up, then shouting something that vaguely sounds like "Bird!" and banging on the window to scare the poor bird off.
And even though he is very excited for baseball to start, he understands that living in Carolina means he'll have to pay a small amount of attention to March Madness. He understood the gravity of the situation if Louisville didn't beat Florida (meaning that my bracket would be toast!) and helped me scream at the TV. (It was a close one, but my bracket is still alive.)
If Chad is part English Setter, then I would think he's be a little more useful in the baking department. I mean, all my dogs watched me bake and then took care of cleaning the kitchen floors for my as I went. Except they didn't use a Swiffer.
ReplyDeleteOh, and really which is worse--screaming Chad or Spanish-speaking Grinch?