Locomotion

Yesterday I did an amazing thing. My Mommy set me in the center of a quilt she keeps on the floor for me to lie on. At the corner of the quilt, some 2-3 feet distant were two of my toys---a stuffed bunny with a rattle in it and a froggy that makes froggy noises when you open his mouth. MY Mommy made them make noise so I'd know where they are. Now for the amazing part---I slowly wriggled my way from the center of the quilt to a point where I could reach out and grab the toys. I'm quite proud of this achievement.

Now I don't move like the rest of the world does. My method of moving involves thrashing about with my hands in legs in the general direction I wish to go. In doing this, my head ends up on the ground. Then, I lift my head up again and repeat the process. It's not the most efficient way to get around, but it at least lets me move a bit in the direction I want to go. I was exhausted by the time I was able to reach out and touch my toys. I could barely keep my head up. But, still I was happy and making lots of noises. I got where I wanted to go ALL BY MYSELF!

The Joke's on Them

Lately, my Daddy has taken to trying to get me to laugh by pulling my face close to his and going "hee hee hee" in a high pitched voice. Often, this will cause me to smile and laugh myself. I laugh---my big open mouthed laugh where I sometimes struggle to get enough air into my lungs to keep it up---he laughs, "hee hee hee." He seems to think that I don't get the fact that we're together laughing at nothing. What he doesn't get is that while he thinks he's playing with me with his laughing, it's actually the reverse. It is funny to see the way my little laugh in response to him can get him to do the same silly thing over and over. That's the joke---and it's on him.

Over the weekend, I got to see some new people. My cousin Molly and her friend Ed came all the way from the east coast just to visit me. (Well, not quite, they also stopped by San Francisco for a couple of days en route to visiting me.) They were lots of fun holding me and playing with me. In fact, I got to sit at the dinner table on Ed's lap while everyone (except me) was having dinner. I don't usually get to do that. They do professional photography, so naturally they brought along a camera. In this case, a super-deluxe zoom camera that my Daddy was salivating over. They took lots of pictures of me, which, once they burn a CD, I'll post to my site.

Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, my Mommy did a dramatic photo shoot of me in various christening outfits. She posted them to shutterfly.com to get prints made (we only had the digitial camera because Mommy's batteries died on her cameras). The fancy christening gown with beribboned bonnet was Mommy's when she was a baby. The jacket with the white cap was Daddy's when he was a baby, and the white cotton number with embroidered collar was my Uncle Dave's. Anyway, here's the first batch of shots:

my christening outfit photos

It was a hot day yesterday, so I spent much of the afternoon in maximum coolness and comfort, wearing only a diaper. Toward evening, my Daddy came home while my Mommy went out and did errands. We sat together on the porch as the sun slowly descended in the sky. Mommy insisted I wear clothes while I was outside. As we were sitting, we watched Zippy the hummingbird busy himself by hurrying back and forth between the hummingbird feeder on the porch and some nearby trees. Later in the evening, Mommy got out a footprint that was made of me when I was only a few weeks old. We were both astonished at how much bigger my feet have gotten in that time. My blonde hair continues to grow in rapidly--especially in the front. I'm not sure you'll be able to see it in pictures, but I suspect that in not too long a time, you'll think of me as a whole new (and even cuter) little guy.

Master Aidan-sen

I went with Mommy and Daddy to a Japanese restaurant for lunch (well, they had lunch, I watched). While we were there, the waitress, who was fascinatingly dressed in a mauve kimono kept on remarking about how cute and wonderful I was. She suggested I would make a great child model. After lunch, Mommy had to send some faxes, so she and I came in to Daddy's office. While there, pretty much the entire first floor staff spent a good 15 minutes fawning over me. Said one woman, with my looks I'll rule the world some day. I hope so!

Every night when my Daddy comes home from work, I get really excited and happy to see him. When he comes up to me I instantly smile and laugh and flail my arms and legs about ridiculously to signal my delight. He usually sings songs to me just after he gets home. Lately, he's been singing a song called James James Morrison Morrison. It's about a boy who "took great care of his mother, though he was only three." In only a little more than two and a half years I'll be three. I'll be looking forward to taking care of Mommy then.

One interesting thing about my reaction when my Daddy comes home is that it didn't used to happen. I remember way back when I was a young boy, people and things were mostly just indistinguishable blurs. In addition to this obstacle, it was quite difficult for me to control my face enough to convey an emotion (other than by crying -- I had this down immediately.) I've come a long way, baby.

It was a rainy, dreary day yesterday, so Mommy and I stayed inside all day. Mommy does all sorts of things to entertain me, but my favorite is when she recites nursery rhymes. While Daddy, when he says these things, does it in a sing-songy kind of voice, Mommy is in deadly earnest. She wants me to feel the drama of each word:
Hickory dickory dock
Mommy wants me to understand and appreciate the plot line:
The mouse ran up the clock
Mommy wants me to feel the tension building in the telling:
The clock struck one
And down he comes
Finally, the denouement:
Hickory Dickory Dock
Mommy is funny.

Growth Spurt?

Yesterday, I had my biggest day of eating ever, topping the 30 oz mark. I was eating so much and so often that my Mommy swore she could literally see me growing throughout the day. Despite my eating surge, we did manage to get outside to visit one of my favorite places, the Stanford Mall. This is an open-air mall with lots of pretty flowers and trees along its promenades. What Mommy likes to do is strategically position herself and me in a central area where there are lots of bistro tables. There, Mommy will get a sandwich and then I will have a bottle and we'll watch the people passing by. Or, more likely, they'll watch us. This is a great spot for others to admire how cute and wonderful I am. They often stop to comment, which makes both Mommy and I very happy.

Give me a hand

I love to play with my hands. They're especially fun when paired with my bib. For instance, last night I found it tremendously funny to reach my hands under my bib and then pull them and it up to my face, half covering it. I would laugh and shriek with delight at how I was able to change my world. My Mommy would put the bib back down over my chest, and I would repeat the process. I have to admit though, sometimes I'd get a little scared of the darkness from having a bib over my eyes.

I can do other things with my hands too, like grab stuff. When my Daddy is feeding me, I like to grab onto the "handlebars" of the bottle, his two big thumbs. I can put my whole hand around his giant sized thumbs. This makes the whole experience of having a bottle that much more fun. Last night, my Mommy had one of my toys out--Celeste the Sun. Celeste has many delightful dangly things sticking out of her. I made my first tentative steps toward reaching out and grabbing the dangly things. Reaching out is apparently a milestone, so Mommy was very happy with my attempts to grab. We'll see how she feels about it in a few months when I reach out to grab her Lenox figurines.

Quake

I had another milestone in my life yesterday---my first earthquake. It measured 5.4 on the "not the Richter" scale, so it was a pretty small quake. I was sitting on my Mommy's lap when we both felt a rumbling. The computer monitor started to sway from side to side as well. Then, the whole thing was over. It didn't last very long. My Daddy was outside taking a walk, and he said he felt it even less than we did.

My Mommy is increasingly concerned that I'm becoming addicted to TV. Now, mostly I have a lot of trouble following the dialog (particularly the sexy innuendoes on some shows), but I love the lights and the colors. Sometimes, when I'm sitting by my parents, I'll crane my neck sharply to one side to get a better view of something really interesting on TV. Baseball is a favorite. I like the simple patterns of the grass, the ball, and the uniforms. Much easier for me to follow than the nature specials Mommy watches, where everyone is camouflaged.

I suggested to Mommy that part of the reason I'm becoming a TV addict is that she always has the darn thing on. I think that all by herself, Mommy is able to favorably affect the Nielsen numbers of The Learning Channel. We're always watching it.

Happy Mother's Day
I made my Mommy a card for mother's day. I used a highlighter, a pencil, and a fountain pen to make the design. I guess it's my first piece of art. I've posted it in my archive photo album in the folder labeled "memory box". Enjoy.

Picture Time

I've posted some new pictures of myself in the "volume 1" directory of the photo album. Some of you may wonder where all the other photos went. Well, my other photo site is completely full of great photos of me, so I've moved to a new one. If you want access to the old photos, go to my web site and click on the "photo album archive" there. These are photos of me sitting on the porch on Sunday when I was listening to the Giants game with my Daddy while Mommy went off to buy groceries.

My Daddy is a funny guy. Yesterday, he was babysitting me and stepped out to put the garbage out on the porch when the wind blew the door shut...and locked. As a result, he was locked outside the house and I was inside while Mommy was off in Walnut Creek with the house inspection. Daddy was quite unhappy at this turn of events. Luckily, the screen door in the back was open. The problem, though, is that this door in on the second story of the structure. Daddy made his way to the porch, then used a couple of boards to scale up to the second floor and let himself back inside. Whew. What a relief.

Movin' on Up

Well, it looks like we're moving to the house in Walnut Creek with the big jungle gym after all. My Mommy and Daddy decided that they weren't going to do better price and quality-wise than there, so they met the seller's counteroffer. Tomorrow, Mommy goes up to the place to look over the shoulder of the building inspector and we're scheduled to close on June 28. Yippee, a new home!\

Here are some details about it:

This single story detached, ranch home has 4 bedroom(s), 2 full bath(s) and is approximately 2048 sq. ft. Rooms include a family room, dining area. Other features include 2 fireplace(s), ceiling fan(s), window treatments. This home has a 2 car garage, covered patio. Recreation amenities include community swimming pool(s), community children's play area. The lot is a corner lot, fenced. The property is located on 0.22 acre(s).

We'll have a picture shortly.

Good & Plenty

Last night I played a new game with my Daddy. He discovered that I get really excited when he holds both my little hands and oscillates my arms back and forth. I love this! Even better was when he incorporated this into a singing game. I sat astride his waist with his knees tucked up to support my back. He held both my hands and bounced around signing the Good & Plenty theme song:

Once upon a time there was an engineer
Choo Choo Charlie was his name, we hear.
He had an engine and he sure had fun
He used Good & Plenty candy to make his train run.
Charlie says "Love my Good & Plenty!"
Charlie says "Really rings my bell!"
Charlie says "Love my Good & Plenty!"
Don't know any other candy that I love so well!

He would sing faster and faster and this was an absolute delight. I had my mouth wide open smiling and laughing as the Good & Plenty train rolled on and on.

In less happy news, our offer on the Walnut Creek place was flatly rejected by the seller. Looks like we'll be living in refrigerator boxes instead. At least the weather stays nice so living in a box is not too bad.

Graduation Day

Yippee! My Mommy has decided I'm now big and strong enough to graduate to the next size nipples on my Avent bottles. I now move up to size 1 from size 0. So far, the early results are encouraging, because it's easier to get stuff from these nipples, I seem to be eating even more than I usually do. My Daddy likes that I also am eating a lot faster than I usually do, which means more time to play and interact and less time of staring off into space with a glazed expression. The only potential downside to this is that there is now a slightly higher chance of my spitting up with these nipples. I'm a pretty weird baby in that respect--I never spit up. Not once, not ever (knock on wood).

We went on another house hunting trip, but it was really unsuccessful. In fact, so unsuccessful that my parents have made an offer on the property with the big jungle gym in the backyard that I mentioned in my previous entry. Wish us luck! Also, I learned that my Mommy and Daddy received an offer on their place in New Jersey. It had only been on the market for 3 days when the first offer came in. They've countered this offer. Again, wish us luck.

Well, that's all the news. It's a beautiful day, so I'm going to sit out on the porch with my Daddy.

House Hunting

Yesterday, we all went house hunting together. We saw 7 different places and ended up with two of these still being in the running for our next home. My favorite was a place in Walnut Creek that sits on a corner lot. This house has the neat feature of having an enormous playground structure (done in wood) already installed. While I'm still a little too small to enjoy this now, it won't be long before I can start climbing and jumping and swinging. I made myself really at home in this place. I stopped off to eat a bit while we were there and I had two (!) rest stops there as well.

This place offers the convenient feature that access to all of that is right out in my back yard. The other place we looked at doesn't have a playground, but is in a lovely hilly section of a town called Lafayette. I would be able to walk to school if we lived here. This house was wonderfully airy with a zillion skylights.

The big problem with house hunting is that I'm stuck in my stupid car seat all day. By the evening, I was clearly voicing my displeasure with this arrangement and it took Mommy a long time to convince me that the period of being strapped in was mercifully over.

Where does he put it all?

Last night before bed I was hungry. I mean really hungry. I mean like the kind of hungry that folks on Survivor feel after being in the island 23 days. Mommy set me down to eat last night before bed and started in on my usual amount (which is a bit under 4 oz.) Having polished that off, I still wanted more. By the time I was done, I had eaten more in one sitting than I had before in my entire life---8.5 oz. Mommy wondered where I could possibly fit all that milk given my small size. After finishing, I lay back half-dazed from all the food and gurgled happily.

Earlier this evening, we all watched the Phillies defeat the Giants. While there are many shows that I pay little attention to, baseball is not one of them. I really enjoy the high contrast uniforms and the play of light and dark as the brightly colored player stride up to the plate in the darkened stadium. From my bouncy seat, I craned my neck around to get a better view.

My Daddy has invented a little song to greet me when he comes home from work. I always laugh when I hear it. It goes like this:

Mister Baby, Mister Baby
Yessir, no sir, don't mean maybe

That's it. I think he needs more lyrics.

Today, we're all going off house hunting to the hills east of Berkeley. I can't wait to see where we're going to live next. I hope it has a nice yard for me to play in.