A Special Treat...

Man, have I ever got a great treat for you this week! I'm so excited about it. I'm going to tell you about it a little bit later on in this post, so read on. Well, I guess you could technically just scroll down until you see it, but you wouldn't do that, would you? Okay, yes, you would. But don't do it this time.

First, before I get to the 20 photos for this week (plus my amazing treat), let's give a little bit in the way of an update. I actually had to make notes on what I was going to talk about so that I wouldn't forget anything. And I'll still probably forget something.

*Wait just a minute!!* Before I go any further, I need to clarify my somewhat obscure--okay, really obscure--reference in last week's posting. You may remember (and if you don't, well, it's right below us) the picture of Theo with my caption being, "You know, I do this a lot, too". Confustion reigned. Here's the scoop: Theo has a toy that is shaped like a foot, and he was putting that toy in his mouth. So...I meant that I put my foot in my mouth...uh...a lot...riiiight. Great, now it's gone from being obscure to just plain old lame. At least before there was an element of mystery.

Okay, back to the list of things to talk about. First off, Theo hit a milestone that actually doesn't seem like one, but it is--he "made strange" this week. That is to say that we passed him off to someone he'd seen before to be held (in this case, my Uncle Bob and Aunt Audrey, who came down last Monday), and he freaked out. It's apparently something that is a natural part of their development, so there you go. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I didn't mention this last week, considering I updated on Monday night. Oh yeah, I had sweet potatoes on the brain.

Speaking of the sweet potato/yam debate, I have some further clarity on it here, here, and here. The gyst, if you don't want to click through (you lazy slob) is that there is a variety of orange sweet potato; however, yams are an entirely different veggie than sweet potato (which, if you remember, was my contention).

Moving on. In the category of "vocalizations", we've heard many sounds over the past little while, all of which are fun (and all of which are done at quite a high volume). One word that we keep hearing over and over again is "Mommy." We're not sure if he's saying it to Steph or not, but he seems to only say it when she's interacting with him. Could it be a second word? We'll keep you updated.

Speaking of updates, here's your always-exciting food report for this week. Turns out that both squash and pears are good foods for him; carrots, not so much. Once his rash goes away again we're going to keep trying new things. Having a baby is so much like being back in chem--just put a bunch of stuff in him and see what happens. As long as we stay clear of things like nuts, citrus, berries (especially strawberries, apparently) and honey (no, I don't know why), we should be good. Again, we'll keep you posted.

What else? Oh, he's getting to be very strong, and this poses a bit of a problem, especially when he sees something he really wants, like, say, remote controls. All of a sudden he's halfway across the room (doing the worm, of course), or, even worse, he's out of your arms and at the remote. Reckless abandon, I tell you. You really have to watch him like a hawk; even though he can't crawl or walk, he's figured out how to get moving pretty quickly.

One other sort of funny development over the last couple of weeks has been the distinction he's started to draw between the functions and roles of mommy and daddy. No, I'm not talking about domestic function, I'm talking about function in his life. For example, if he wants to play, only daddy will do. Mommy's good in a pinch, but daddy's much more fun, at least according to him (I'm not by any means trying to say that's an objective standard--I'm sure many would disagree with Theo's assessment as to who the fun one is around here). The thing that I can do is toss him in the air and roughhouse with him. It's quite a lot of fun (note to concerned grandparents--okay, to my mom, Steph's mom, Nana, Oma, and Grandma: I have no intention of dropping him on his head. I also realize that he is fragile, and make sure that I don't play too rough with him. He really does like it). But when the chips are down and playtime is over, only Mommy will do for going to sleep. He'll actually keep himself awake and look around for Mommy if I try to put him down. Sometimes he's just far too tired and can't stay awake, but other times, Mommy's it. I get the feeling that if he could talk, he'd be saying, "Okay, that's nice Dad--now where's mom so that I can get to sleep?"

Okay, enough reading? I thought so. This week's package of photos is quite substantial (although not as funny as my Swedish Chef picture of last week--that was comedic gold, I tell you), so let's get right to it. Here's a shot of the two handsome men in our household...

Of course, after a tough day at school, it's nice to have a little nap...

These next ones are from a shoot I like to call, "The Many Faces of Theo." I think we got every single facial expression he's ever made, all in this one shoot. here are a few examples...

We always seem to get one of these coy looks...

This is his favourite playtoy: the heat register! Are we delinquent, or what? Sure, go ahead, play with the metal thing. Want to put your mouth all over it? No problem! Hey, while you're at it, why not go play out on the busy street? It'll be fun! Anyway...

That's my knee, in case you're wondering what he's leaning up against...

Hamming it up for the camera...

And being really, really (really) cute...

I think he's actually trying to figure out if he can see something inside the silver thing we keep pointing at him...

On Saturday, we went to the big city (Calgary) to visit with Melissa and Dan, and Scott, Nancy, and Brady. Melissa and Scott are my cousins; Brady was born on July 20 of this year, which also happens to be our anniversary. Here are the moms on the couch, feeding the hungry boys...

To finish off this week's massive post (at least for pictures, wink, wink), here's a recent shoot from Saturday that produced some classics. In this first one, you see the classic farmer Joe expression coming out again...

A couple other good ones...

And of course, my favourite one last...

Okay, so we're done with photos. Now for my surprise treat--VIDEO!! It took me a while, but I've figured out how to (a) record video on our camera, and (b) get it up on the web and posted on the blog. I have three for you this week (don't expect that many every week). In this first one, Theo was having some fun in his high-chair, and, of course, we had to film it...



Here's one of him doing his shrieking thing (sorry about the low light levels)...



And finally, some evidence as to just how much he wants to eat the food we eat...



**Note** There seems to be a bit of a problem streaming some of these videos. If they don't work for you on your computer, clicking on these links will take you to them on the YouTube website. Not nearly as cool, but hey, if it works, then that's all that matters, right? Video 1; video 2; video 3.

Okay, I'm totally spent. This post has taken two days to complete, so I hope you enjoy it. If not, well, you stink. By the way, there likely won't be a posting next week, at least not on Monday, because we're going home for Thanksgiving. We're flying out of here on Wednesday evening and returning Monday afternoon, but I have a test the next day, so blogging won't be high on my list of priorities. If I get to it, I get to it. If not, well, it'll probably be Tuesday or Wednesday. See you then.