Sullivan is already a Master at the manipulation technique of “When Daddy says NO go ask Mommy”.

This first picture was captured during one of his 10 minute routines of this technique. He loves to play the violin but he is not allowed to play with it by himself so he knows he has to come ask one of us to open it. Well he pulled the violin down from the shelf and carried it over to Damon and asked him to “Omennit” which Damon replied with a “not right now”. So Sullivan then turned immediately around and walked the violin case over to me saying “Mommy omennit?” which I replied “what did your Daddy say” which I think he interpreted as go ask your Daddy which then led to repeated rounds of the previous routine several times. I captured some pictures during it as it was too cute. Eventually it was time for Daddy to “omennit” and so Sullivan enjoyed some violin time.

You know sometimes you see your child engaged in an activity or with a certain expression and you get a glimpse of the future that is ahead. Well these two shots were one of those moments. At first when Sullivan wanted to climb onto this bike I thought he’s just a baby…he won’t be able to sit and hold on and then low and behold up he climbed up all by himself and sat there like a big boy and all of a sudden the image of a 5 or 7 year old Sullivan hit me. An image of a young boy riding his bike around the neighborhood and trying to jump ramps like his older friends taught him to do. Then later again when he was eating pizza at the birthday party. Usually we have to cut up the pizza into small bites for him to handle and chew and I looked over today and there he was standing holding a FULL slice all by himself chewing away big bites like some teenage boy scarfing down a snack in between basketball practice and piano lesson. There seem to be less and less baby moments these days and more and more big boy moments and oh how I wish I could have just one day back of that tiny 6 lb. baby. The tiny baby that was strange and scary to me at the time. The tiny baby that I worried about and wished was older and could do more. Now that I am more confident and more secure with my Mommyness….I want to go back and do it again with the knowledge and the information I have now. So for now I just grab him and force him into a baby hold and rock him for as many seconds as he will allow which is usually zero. …zero seconds before I hear “Down, Down”.

Here is Sullivan at the Baskin Birthday Bash entertaining some guests and jamming out at the mic. He made a B line for the music stage as soon as he saw it and stayed there for about 30 minutes. He moved from instrument to instrument playing and singing tunes for all. I wonder where he gets it?

Sullivan playing in a toy car at a Birthday party. Thought they were funny shots. Notice how red and flushed he is in the face. This was one of several outdoor birthday parties we attended so far this summer. It has been nearly 100 for the several weeks now and these outdoor parties are killing me. We all had heat exhaustion after this one it was so hot. Sullivan doesn’t complain though…his whole head will be soaked and face and skin beat red dripping with beads of sweat but he keeps going….as long as there is fun to be had there is no stopping him.