Monday Night Football

My grandmother Timek got me a new toy when I was back east, a small green textured football. Last night, perhaps inspired by Monday Night Football, which was on TV, my Daddy and I played football together. He would sort of roll the football around the room and then we would race to see who could get it first. Lots of times I got the football before he did. I also tackled him a couple of times (once for a huge loss of yardage). Footballs are funny---they don't roll like normal balls do. Insead they weave around crazily dodging this way and that. It's funny to watch a football roll. Mommy just sat on the couch and rolled her eyes as we "boys" wrestled around together. Wait---it's a fumble!!! Gotta go.

Weekend Walks

This weekend, I got to go on some endless walks with my Daddy. The weather right now is different than I ever remember it being. It's not as hot (only in the high 60s) and the leaves of the trees are turning colors. As I ride by in my storller, I like to reach out and grab the leaves and the bushes. Because of my cold, I find it much more comfortable to nap in the stroller than on my back. Somehow napping sitting up leads to a lot less coughing than lying down does. Anyway, we walked for about 10 miles each day. I don't think there's any more tread left on the wheels of my stroller.

Sleepless Nights

I hate this cough. It's driving me completely nuts. During the day when I'm up and about, it's not really a problem, but at night when I'm trying to sleep, it's a big pain. Tonight, Mommy got me up and took me to the bathroom to be "steamed" by the water vapor from the shower on the theory that this would fix me. That didn't turn out to be right. It just made me damp and still just as prone to coughing as before. It looks like next week I'll get to visit a doctor to figure out what is wrong with me.

Out in the Cold

While I've had little colds before, this is the worst cold I've had in my life. It's really hard to breathe with my nose all stuffy. Bottles just don't taste as good as they used to (plus it's really hard to coordinate sucking and breathing when your nose is stuffy). Finally, all these darn time changes (Mommy tells me there is ANOTHER one tonight) have me completely confused. I don't think Mommy and Daddy like this any better than I do. I was up around 2am last night and was stuffy and coughing. They came to get me and comfort me, but they didn't seem all that happy about it. Hopefully, I'll start feeling better soon.

Back west

Yesterday, I flew back to California with my Mommy. I was impressed that I am now more mobile than she is. She had to go everywhere in a wheelchair whereas I got to crawl along beside her (okay, it's not quite true, she carried me, but I COULD have crawled, I really could have). I hate being stuck in my carseat all that time on the plane. After the first leg of the flight, I let Mommy know I was tired of the carseat. I tried to tell her, but when that didn't work, I stiffened my body like a board and made it close to impossible for her to strap me in. I see other people walking up and down the aisles, and the arms of the seats look good to pull myself up on. I don't see why I can't wander around too. Grrr. I hate that there seems to be a different set of rules for me.

My Daddy was there to pick us up at the airport. He greabbed me and popped me into the carseat for the ride home. Boy, don't these people get the idea that I'm SICK of being in a carseat. At least this time the carseat was in a car instead of a plane. We drove home and I got reacquainted with all my toys. Later in the evening, daddy played a new game with me. As I was crawling around on the floor, he would nudge my side with his head, thereby flipping me over. I absolutely LOVE this game. I lauged and laughed.

Than I got tired and went to bed. It was a little before 10pm. It sure gets late early out west.

Tiptoes

When I'm outside in the backyard, I like to crawl over from the grass to the patio area. The patio is a neat, hard surface, very different from the grass. It's also where there are lots of good places to pull myself up. Anyway, I've discovered that crawling on my knees on the hard patio surface is no fun at all, so I've come up with a solution. When I'm on grass, I crwal as normal; however, when I come to the patio, I arch my whole body up so that I'm "crawling" on the tips of my fingers and the tips of my toes only. While this method is slower than the usual way, it does get me to my destination without as much discomfort as the usual crawling method. I love to innovate!

Last night I had a bath. I really love baths. I love to splash. I love the feeling of the warm water. I love to chase around my rubber ducky. Mommy set me in the bathroom in preparation for bathing and I immediately made a beeline for the tub. I then pulled myself up on the tub and was all set to dive in (I was planning a swan dive.) I was annoyed when Daddy prevented me from doing my graceful dive. Soon though, I was enjoying splashing about in the tub while Mommy and Daddy cleaned off the accumulated stuff from living the active baby life. This was great, and I wished it would never end. But then they took me out and started to towel me off. Perhaps they didn't hear me---I said I wished it would never end. Then Mommy started rubbing lotion all over me. I tried to jump up and signal to them that I was not finished having my bath. I DID NOT WANT IT TO END. Then Mommy started putting a new diaper on me. Why do they not get the message???? I'm not DONE with my bath. I do not WANT it to end. They are not listening to me.

I was very frustrated.

Day with Daddy

Another weekend day with Daddy. It's getting predictable now. We spend lots of time outside and in between we watch spoting events. Today's menu was the baseball playoffs. Frankly, I don't know how Daddy can watch so much of this. I fell asleep midway through the Yankees-Angels game. Daddy let me try a couple of new things. He gave me a sippy cup filled wit water. It was kind of neat drinking things other than formula---and drinking in new ways. He also gave me a bunch of Cheerios to try. The Cheerios were fun to play with, but I don't get the appeal of eating them.

Happy Birthday Mommy

Yesterday was my Mommy's birthday. She is 408 months old! To celebrate, we went out to one of her favoriate restaurants, Il Fornaio. While I was quite happy when we first got there, I got tired as the evening progressed and found it hard to get comfortable in my stroller. By the main course, I was pretty sick of being there. Eventually, Daddy had to take me for a walk in the stroller to improvemy spirits. Despite the fact that she had just turned 408 months old, Mommy did not seem to be having a real great time. Maybe she was tired too.

I got Mommy a card that had the characters from one of my favorite books on it. It said, "Guess How Much I Love You" on the front and then wished her a happy birthday inside. Birth being one of the biggest events in my life, I can see how it's important to celebrate. I also got Mommy a decorative photo album that I filled with all my favoriate pictures of me. That way, Mommy can quickly show everyone how cute I am---even when I'm not around to show them myself. Mommy seemed to really like this gift.

Movie Night

Last night I went to my first movie in a real movie theater! Now, mostly people don't like to watch movies with little guys like me. They don't seem to appreciate the incisive commentary I bring to a film. For instance, after last night's film, The Good Girl, got started, I felt that it was appropriate to comment on Jennifer Aniston's acting performance. My take: "ba-ba-ba-ba-eeeeeeep." Anyway, in this movie theater everyone appreciated my comments. That's because on Monday nights, this particular theater runs "baby night." The theater is filled with babies and their parents. MY Mommy heard about this from another Mommy in my Music and Movement class and decided to give it a shot.

Anyway, it was quite interesting to look around at the lights and the other babies. In fact, it was so interesting that I was not at all interested in eating. I hate it when I get so wrapped up in things that I forget to eat though. It makes me grouchy and irritable later in the evening.

A Very Busy Friday

Mommy and I went to my 9 month well-baby check up yesterday. I got off easy because I didn't need any shots! The doctor said my immunizations are up to date until I'm 12 months old. I only had a quick prick on my big toe so that the nurse could check my iron levels, which were just fine. Here are my current stats: weight- 20 lbs., 7 oz., length- 27 1/4 inches. Compared to other 9-month-old boys, I am 50th percentile for weight and 25th for length, so I have been steadily catching up. My head has done extremely well at growing... It's 75th percentile! I need lots of head to hold all of my intelligence and curiousity!

(Mommy and I were told that compared to boys born around my originally predicted due date, my length is around the 50th percentile, so I'm even bigger than I thought!)

In less ebullient medical news, as she was listening to my chest, the doctor asked if anyone had mentioned hearing a heart murmur before. Mommy and I were surprised and dismayed to hear that term. The doctor said that I probably didn't have it when I was younger since if I had it would have been caught during my 33-day hospital stay after I was born. She said that it is most likely an "innocent murmur," and that many children have these since the blood vessels in the heart are very small at my age. While we still don't like the term "heart murmur," we were comforted by her explanation.

Mommy and I also went to our second "Music Together" class yesterday. There are about 12 other babies and mommies in my class, ranging in age from 3 months to my age (the babies that is. I think the mommies are a few months older.) The mommies sing songs to us and pat out the beat on our bodies. They also dance with us and play musical instruments with us. My favorite is the big, communal drum where up to 4 babies can sit around it and bang. I march to the beat of my own drum, so sometimes I can get a little overstimulated when all of the mommies sing a high note together. When this happens, I get teary for a moment. Then again, maybe its just the heartfelt singing that makes me misty. I love music though. My mommy sings to me a lot and, at home, I rock and bounce to music. I started doing this at my class yesterday too, and the other mommies were impressed.

After class, all of the mommies and babies went to lunch at The Cantina in Walnut Creek. It was quite a production, as you can imagine, but all of the mommies were on their best behavior. We babies were very proud of them!

After we came home, I spent much of the evening standing around, which is my favorite thing to do. I like to stand up and lean on the couch or any other object that I can get some leverage on: people, boxes, toys, etc. While they tell me most babies "pull up," I just use my arms for balance and do most of the work with my strong legs pushing me up. I love the view from atop my feet!

Dinner Time

My Mommy and Daddy seem to have evolved a new routine around dinner. We all eat together as a family. Well, almost. First, Mommy and Daddy eat while I watch from my highchair, then I get to eat seated near the table while they watch. It's fascinating to watch how dextrous they are at eating. Also, I noticed that they seem to use things other than spoons when they eat---I wonder why? Anyway, this new arrangement seems to work for everybody. It used to be that I'd feel left out during dinner, but not any more.

Guinea Pig

I'm absolutely fascinated by Licorice, my pet guinea pig. Licorice lives in a cage over in the kitchen. With some effort, I can crawl over and visit her. I like to play with her big red exercise ball, pushing it and rolling it toward her. I also like to play with Licorice. Sometimes I pet her, sometimes I put my fingers in her mouth to see what that is like. Sometimes, I use her cage to pull myself upright, so I can get a better view. The frustrating thing is that every time I settle down to make friends with Licorice, my parents pull me away and force me to make the long trek back to her cage all over again. I've expressed my feeling that this is *not* what I want to do whenever they move me away, but apparently they haven't gotten the message yet.

Yet more pictures

While I've been really busy with crawling around and exploring so that I have not had time to add stuff to my weblog, my parents have been busy clicking away on their cameras. Here's the latest batch of photos. As you can see, I'm wearing my little engineer outfit. Check out the new pictures here or at my website.

Picture Time

My Daddy thought you might like to see some pictures of me crawling around in my backyard. Daddy always puts out a big blanket for me to crawl on. For a while, I was happy to stay on the blanket, but no more. I want to explore everywhere! As a special treat, Daddy finally figured out how to set the camera to take pictures at the highest possible resolution. This is great if you want to make giant poster-sized prints of me (and why wouldn't you). The downside is that Daddy always grouses about the ridiculous amount of time it takes to upload these photos. You can find the pictures here as well as on my website under the album "Aidan Crawling in the Backyard." Enjoy!

Here's another little tidbit for you. Daddy is transcribing the latest two hour video of me and my exploits. My grandmothers (and maybe some others) can expect this in the mail soon. Everyone else will have to bug them to see a copy.

Saturday in the park

Today is another day with Daddy. Mommy is going to again take time out for herself. I don't really mind, Daddy is fun n his own way and we always end up spending much more time outside wandering around than we do with Mommy. Yesterday, I learned a new way to eat---Asian soup bowl style. My Daddy was feeding me in the usual way last night, so I reached out to grab the bowl of oatmeal from his hands. I like to hang onto things. Pretty soon I thought it would be a good idea to suck on the rim of the bowl. Then Daddy had an insight: if he tipped the bowl back a little bit, I would be sucking on oatmeal instead of sucking on plastic. It tasted pretty good that way. He kept tipping and I kept inhaling. I ended up going through two bowls that way. Now, back to the reference earlier. Mommy thought this was a pretty goofy way for me to learn how to eat, but Daddy pointed out that by learning this style, I'll fit right in when we all go out as a family to a Japanese restaurant and I enjoy a bowl of miso soup. No spoons for soup in Japan.

Three squares

My eating habits are changing. Whereas I used to like to "graze" throughout the day, lately I've taken to eating (somewhat) more, but less often. There's so much to see and explore that it seems better to spend less time on eating (pleasant though that is) and more on exploring. So far, Mommy and Daddy are confused by this change. They keep setting me down to try to eat and fretting when I tell them, in no uncertain terms, that I'm not interested.

Don't Fence Me In

Grrrr. I discovered yesterday what all the mysterious noises were the night before. Mommy and Daddy have put up a fence in the house to make it more difficult for me to get to all the treasures. Just on the other side of the fence are such alluring items as shoes with delicious rubbery soles, FedEx boxes filled with objects in yummy shrink -wrapped plastic, and other such delights. Instead, I'm stuck in the family room. I have discovered some new and interesting things here though. Behind the big entertanment center is a whole surge protector full of wires. It's fun to yank at these. Also, I've found a new way to use my ultra-saucer: I climb underneath it an sit in the "bowl" that forms the base of the saucer. This is a nice cozy spot except for two problems. First, I keep forgetting that the saucer has a top and bumping my head on the "ceiling" of my little house. Second, though I can easily get in, I haven't figured out how to get out. My current solution when I want to leave is to cry inconsolably until someone helps me out.

Thwarted

There's a lot more frustration in my life than there was a few weeks ago. It seems that every time I go near anything interesting, my Mommy or Daddy take it away from me. Case in point, yesterday I went exploring and encountered many amusing things--a pile of FedEx boxes, my Daddy's shoes, a box containing a power drill and a hacksaw (among other treasures), some expensive china, lint, a piece of string, and an advertising circular. All of these were taken away from me almost as soon as I discovered them. I get very angry when the item I'm interested in gets taken away from me. Also, how come Mommy and Daddy have all these cool toys and all I have is Mr. Smiley?

Hunger Strike

One of the big problems with colds is that your nose gets stuffy. Now, for lots of other people, this is not too much of a problem, but since I get most of my food by sucking, it's a big problem. Not being able to breathe out of my nose makes the whole eating process a big chore for me and, as a consequence, I dont' want to do it too much. Yesterday, I only ate about 20oz, which is not a lot of food at all by my standards. My parents tried to give me solid food to make up for my difficulties, but I still find eating with a spoon incredibly tedious and annoying. After a hard day struggling with my cold, I did sleep peacefully through the night.

A Hard Day's Night

Last night was one of my unhappiest nights in a long while. After my Mommy and Daddy took me to the kidsfaire all during the day, I somehow ended up not wanting to eat very much. Now, when there's a lot of activity and I'm outside on a bright and sunny day, not eating is not unusual for me. Typically, though, I recover my appetite in the evening. Well, this particular evening, I still wasn't hungry. I've got a cold and the stuffiness and the little cough have me out of sorts, which may account for some of this.

In addition to not eating, I was not in the mood to go to bed. Eventually, I got t sleep but was up at 1am. By this time, I was hungry. I then went back to sleep, but I was up again at 4am, tired and irritable. My parents thought I was hungry again, but they were wrong. I was just feeling grumpy and miserable from the combination of my cold, my new teeth coming in, and generally being sleep deprived. I finally fell asleep in my swing at 5am.

This morning I'm in much better spirits. Oddly, my Daddy is at home taking care of me today. Mommy is taking what Daddy calls a "mental health day." It's hard to believe that there could be anything more fun than spending time with me and taking care of me 24/7, but apparently even Mommy needs a change every once in awhile. Hanging out with Daddy is lots of fun. He likes to bounce and toss me around much more than Mommy does. He also seems more willing to indulge my curiosity. Mommy says that he indulges my curiosity too much. She doesn't want to see anything happen to me, and she's more cautious than Daddy is. The other fun thing about Daddy is that he loves to take me outside to play. This morning I was exploring around outside and I discovered a nice rock. I was about to taste it to see what it was like, but Daddy took the rock away from me. I thought that was mean and cried a little. The backyard is a big place with lots of room to explore.

Attachments

I find myself more attached to people than ever before. When Mommy goes out of the room and leave me by myself, I feel lonely and want her to be with me. The best way to fix this problem, I've found, is to whine. Bottom line: whining works. It also gets me into exciting places that I might not otherwise visit. for instance, yesterday, Mommy was working in the kitchen. Now normally the kitchen is off limits. But it really seems like a paradise with all those great cabinets to open and shiny things like knives to suck on. Well, once again, whining works!

Well, I'm getting better at crawling all the time.
My Mommy has been busily securing all of the  entertainment unit sections
so that I don't pull them down. Scarily, this involves a lot of use of power
drills and screwdrivers, which I find incredibly frightening. I take refuge
in my own room until all the noises are over. My new teeth are also bothering
me a bit. I find a lot of comfort in chewing on a variety of cold toys that
Mommy keeps in the refrigerator. 

Evil Quilt

I had something really scary happen to me yesterday. As I was rolling around on the floor of the family room, I picked up the corner of a quilt my Mommy keeps on the floor for me to play on. In the course or rolling around and around, the quilt somehow decided to roll around with me. After a little time, the quilt had trapped me inside it and I couldn't get out. It was really scary and I cried very loudly so that someone would come and help me. Thanksfully, Mommy came to the rescue and managed to extract me from the mean old quilt. Bad quilt.

Wine Country Pictures

I've posted several new pictures to my photo album. There are from our trip to wine country. We visited the towns of Napa and Yountville as well as visiting the Mondavi and Domaine Chandon wineries. I got to enjoy tiny tastes of a lovely Mondavi zinfandel and a Chandon Rose Brut champagne. The champagne was especially good.

Anyway, you can find the photos by clicking here or visiting my homepage and clicking the Wine Country link in my photo albums section.

Wine Country

Today, the whole family is going up to wine country to taste some wines. Since all I've ever had was a little drop of champagne to celebrate my baptism, I'm really looking forward to it. Last night, I completely fooled by grandmother. While my parents were out at some fancy restaurant (why didn't they take me?) I was at home with her. As evening wore on, she tried and tried to get me to eat and I wouldn't eat. I was just not interested. When my parents came back home, she gave them the bad news---I had gone to bed and she had not managed to get me to eat. After conferring with Mommy for awhile, they came to a novel conclusion---I had not wanted to eat becuase I wasn't hungry. It turned out I had eaten a lot during the day andsimply didn't need much in the evening. Just to prove them right, I happily slept through the night without having any cravings for a midnight snack.

More toys

Lately, it seems that nearly every day is Christmas for me. Happily my Mommy and my Mommy's Mommy share the same taste as me for how to spend their days. I like to go to Gymboree, they like to go to Gymboree. I like to go to Baby Gap, they like to go to Baby Gap. I like getting lots of gifts and new outfits every day, they like to give me lots of outfits and gifts.

Yesterday, a big box and a little box from a place called Amazon.com arrived yesterday. The little box had only boring stuff in it (a wireless router for my Daddy), but the big box had lots more great stuff for me in it. I am now the proud owner of super-deluxe stacking cups---the kind that even make electronic noises when I successfully stack them. I think the box contained other goodies for me, but Mommy says I have to wait until I'm older to get them. I'll be older tomorrow, so maybe I'll get them then. My Daddy says that if you put together the number of toys and outfits I have, it exceeds the number of cells I have. Happily, I'm growing lots of new cells every day.

Labor Day Pictures

I've posted a bunch of new pictures of the rest of my family and me on Labor Day. They are here. I have not yet added the post to my photo album on my website though.

Photo Albums
By popular demand, I've reorganized the photo albums on my web site to provide links to all of the various albums. You can find this new organization here.

More Visitors

My grandmother Timek is here visiting me. We all went to get her at the airport on Sunday and she sat in back with me during the ride back. I immediately recognized her when she started to greet me with her trademark phrase: "And...the...dish ran away with the spoon." After she did this several times, I was giggling uncontrollably. She would also ask me the same question over and over again. "What? ...What? ...What?" each time more insistent. This is, if anything, even funnier than the dish running away with the spoon.

Yesterday, we celebrated Labor Day in the backyard. Since my Mommy was in labor in the process of my being born, this is one of the most important holidays for me. Since it was a hot day, Daddy filled up the pool and we all splashed around inside it. Then I got to hang around on a towel for the remainder of the afternoon. During dinner, I was in for a special treat---open air swinging. My Mommy got out my big swing and set it oon the patio so I could swing happily while everyone ate.

I've lately discovered the joys of my "Air Gym" a toy my Nain gave to me. When I first got it I was about three months old and it was really scary. Since that time, I've become braver and now I delight in it. It plays songs and has a ball inside a tube that goes round and round. I was so hypnotized by it that I fell asleep with my head on one of the buttons, so my parents did not realize that I had stopped "playing."

Yet More Pictures

I"ve added a few really nice photos of myself to my photo album. Because my Daddy read a review that said ofoto was better than shutterfly, the pictures are located there. The bad news is that this means if you want to see them, you'll have to sign up for an ofoto account. The good news is that if you decide to buy any pictures of me from them (and how could you resist), you'll get free shipping on your order. Enjoy!

Early to bed...

Having now been to a couple of Mom's group meetings, my Mommy is slowly coming to the realization that thenight-owl lifestyle to which I am accustomed is odd. Apparently, most other mommies at these groups try to get their kids to go to bed relatively early, some as early as 7 o'clock. That would be awful for me, since I'm at my peak energy level about that time. Anyway, Mommy made me go to bed at 10 o'clock last night, which is much earlier than my usual midnight time. At first, I was really annoyed about the whole thing and let Mommy and Daddy know my displeasure. Then, Mommy turned on my soothing symphony toy. It has lotsof neat lights and music and buttons to push. I especially like this toy when my room is dark. The lights really glow. Anyway, I played with this for a while and fially went to sleep.

Now, the flip side to the other mommies success in getting their babies to go to bed at 7 is that they complain their children don't sleep through the night. Gee, I wonder why.

Mobility

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this whole mobility thing. While I still don't have the coordination completely down for crawling, I can, with a combination of rolling and crablike skittering, make my way all around the family room. If my Mommy has left a piece of paper (ideally a newspaper) anywhere on the floor of the room, I can now almost always make my way to it for "processing'' (crumpling and eating).

Picture Time

Yesterday, my Daddy took some more pictures of me in my new house and yard. They can be found here. Enjoy!

Voracious Reader

My Mommy and Daddy sure do read a lot. Lately, when my Daddy is watching me in the living room, he oftn has open a big book about Lyndon Johnson. I'm totally fascinated by books, and I like to scoot over to where the book is so that I can "help" with reading. While Daddy seems to get a lot out of the book simply by staring at it and occasionally touching it to turn a page, he's missing the best part of a book--its crumpliness. The way I like to read a book is to touch the pages and try to grab them. When I succeed in getting a page, I like to try to crumple it up and put it in my mouth. Daddy says I'm a voracious reader.

Social Caterpillar?

Well, I got my first taste at socializing with other people my own age and it was a decidedly mixed experience. Thankfully, my Mommy brought along some of my best toys including my chime ball and, my all-time favorite, Mr. Smiley. The other children who were there liked my toys a lot. In fact, they liked them so much that they played with them. I discovered, at that moment, an important fact about toys. If other children are playing with your toys, it means YOU yourself cannot play with them. (I played with and tasted the other babies' toys too, though!) The other odd thing I discovered was that I was not the center of attention. Other Mommys seemed to want to pay more attention to their own babies than to me. This lack of attention left me not feeling like my usual smiling and laughing self. In fact, when my Daddy came home and my Mommy was discussing the outing, she said I was actually a bit shy in this group. Daddy, knowing my winning ways, was skeptical. I'll just have to get used to socializing with other babies.

Play Group

Today, I'm going to my first play group. My Mommy found this group, called the P-nuts, on the Internet and decided that it's time for me to work my considerable charms on people closer to my own age, rather than merely adults. Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting all the new people.

Bumps and Bruises

Yesterday was a hard day for me. See, in recent weeks, I've become much better at sitting up on my own. Still, sometimes I get too excited over a toy or a sound and I forget to keep my balance and topple over. Usually, this is no big deal. Mommy or Daddy puts me back in a sitting position and I get on with my day. Yesterday, though, was not so lucky. Three times yesterday, I had the bad fortune to topple in such a way that I banged my head on the coffee table. This really hurt! After witnessing this, Mommy quickly evicted the nasty old coffee table from the room. Hooray. Unfortunately, I discovered there are other hard things in the room--like the fireplace. Later in the day I toppled over and banged my head on that. Ouch! It's made of brick, so it's even harder than the coffee table. I tried to communicate to Mommy to kick the fireplace out of the room too, but she wouldn't listen to me.

Amazingly though, for all my falls yesterday, I don't have a single bruise.

It's been a busy weekend. Saturday was my Mommy and Daddy's wedding anniversary. They've been married for 11 years. This seems like an impossibly long time to me. Heck, I haven't even been on this Earth for 11 months. To celebrate, they went to a restaurant called Il Fornaio, which means the baker in Italian. It was a very nice place with linen tablecloths and such. I was sorely tempted by the tablecloth. It looked fun to grab and pull and eat. Still, I got a pretty good consolation prize---the waiter supplied my with a good helping of cloth napkins, which are also fun to grip and chew. Eventually the conversation became boring for me, and I went to sleep throughout much of the meal.

Earlier that afternoon, I got to spend some more outside time with my Daddy. Since it is so sunny here and my skin is sensitive, Daddy has to erect shady areas of various sorts. In this case, he found our beach umbrella and kind of rested it on the ground to form a shady sopt for me to play in. I like to play outside. I got to play outside again on Sunday.

My Daddy also decided to try to feed me solid food. Now, thus far, I really don't see much point in switching to this kind of food in lieu of the tried and true bottle. Still, Daddy did make it fun and he was nice enough to heat the little bowl of oatmeal up so it was palatable for me. While we ate inside on Saturday, we ate outside on Sunday and made a BIG MESS. That was fun.

I also got to go in my pool for the first time on Sunday. It's a bigger pool than the one in my Nain's yard. I love to kick and splash around.

Au Natural

Yesterday evening, I had a real treat. I got to lounge around in the backyard naked with my Daddy (who wasn't naked) and watch the sunset. Despite the fact that I'm a baby and am not the least bit embarassed about being naked anytime or anyplace, I get few opportunities to be wild and free. Well, our big backyard is perfect for this activity. The highlight was watching the big, bright moon as it came up.

Loneliness

My Mommy and Daddy are simply too busy right now, and they're not paying enough attention to me. At first, I thought the unpacking box thing was just a fad that would pass quickly. But here it is, almost two weeks later, and they still seem fascinated with unpacking those darn boxes. Sure, they bring me in the room to watch them unpack, but this is not the kind of high-quality, broadway-style entertainment to which I am accustomed. Even worse, they both spent last night reading the California driver's manual! How could they find this a better passtime than playing with me? It's inconceivable! My Mommy says that she needs to read the book so she can drive in California. Well, she can already drive, and quite well. I've seen it, I've been with her. I'll be glad when all this moving stuff is done and they have more time for me.

Bumps and bruises

I've noticed a key difference between our new house and all the places I've lived before this---the floors are hard. While my Mommy was working in the office, I was sitting on my play mat and playing with my Pooh dice (Daddy says they will help me earn a living as a gambler). Anyway, I sort of lost my balance and landed face first on the hardwood floor. Ouch. They don't call is HARDwood for nothing. My Mommy quickly came to the rescue and got me some ice to put on my face. The ice was actually really interesting in and of itself. It's cold, it comes in a swell washcloth, and the whole package is fun to chew on. Thankfully, while my face is a little red, I didn't get a big bruise. This is good because I always want to look my best for the ever-present camera.

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

On the theory that you're never too young to benefit from an education, my Mommy signed me up for my first class this past weekend. It seems that in September I'll be attending a music and movement for babies class. Supposedly, I'll be able to play Moonlight Sonata and dance all the latest Swing steps by the time the class is complete. (Or maybe not.) I was dancing to Sinatra with my Daddy this weekend. I think part of the class is simply to counteract the effects of dancing with him (since he dances like the Elaine Benes character on Seinfeld). Still trying to master the intricacies of solid food. My Mommy made me a thicker mixture of the rice cereal on the theory that since I didn't like the thinner version, there was nowhere to go but thicker. I ate a few mouthfuls just to please her, but I still prefer to eat the efficient way--via bottle.

Frustration

I've led a pretty stationary life as long as I can remember. Sure, I get to move around when Mommy or Daddy picks me up or when I'm in a car or a plane, but I want to move when I feel like moving. I have this idea that moving requires that I get up off the floor and propel myself, but I haven't exactly worked out the details. So far, my method is to push out with my arms and legs all at once. This lifts me way high up in the air, my body suspended above the ground. Now for the tricky part: Somehow, from this position I want to be able to move. I feel like I should be able to move, but it never seems to work. I've tried kicking outward with my legs while my arms remain in a locked position. No luck. I've tried reaching forward with my arms while my legs remain locked. This is even worse because it often results in my faceplanting in the carpet. I just can't seem to figure it out. It's frustrating!

Inchworm

I've learned a new trick, how to be an inchworm. To move forward (a little), I stand on the tips of my feet with my head and arms firmly planted on the ground. Then I push hard with my feet and voila! I move forward a tiny bit. Much like my backwards motion, this way of moving does suffer from the drawback that I cannot see where I am going (since my head is in the ground), but it sure is fun.

Lately I've also been enjoying the sound of my own voice. Yesterday afternoon I stood in my ultrasaucer occasionally looking up at the ceiling fan (these are endlessly fascinating) and had a shriek-fest. I was having a high old time with high pitched squeaks, gurgles, and lots of other sounds. My Mommy would occasionally come in to check that I was okay after hearing these sounds. I was more than okay, I was great!

Picture Time
I've posted a lot of new pictures to the net. This album contains pictures of me with my Mommy and Daddy's friends Kim and Doug along with their two kids Amanda and Harry. Harry and I are about the same age. This batch are all the other pictures my Mommy and Daddy took of me (using the digital camera) when I was back east.

It's been very busy around here these last several days, so I didn't have time to get my Daddy to help me with my weblog. Happily, things are starting to settle down. First, I've gotten to try several new things. First, I graduated to sleeping in my own room in my crib. No more sleeping in the same room as Mommy and Daddy in the pack and play. I'm a big boy and need my independence. Of course, they have a baby monitor on, so they keep close tabs on me even when I'm out of sight. Second, I had my first attempt at eating solid food. My Mommy put me in my highchair and fed me something called rice cereal. While biting on the spoon was interesting, I don't really know what to do with the stuff that's surrounding the spoon. My Mommy keeps asking me to eat the stuff surrounding the spoon, but it seems so inefficient compared to enjoying a nice bottle. So while I've found this eating stuff an amusing exercise, I"m still a bottle man. Another milestone---I rolled from my front to my back for the first time about three days ago. I might have been assisted by the close proximity of a box (boxes are everywhere!) to enable me to flip over, but still I did it. I have not managed to repeat the feat though. Well, that's about it. I'm enjoying the new house and the nice weather even if it is filled with boxes.

Maplewood

We went for a ride to visit my Mommy and Daddy's friends Ernie and Helen Marie and their son Connor. I got to ride through the worst thunderstorm I can ever remember. The rain was coming down so hard that it was making really loud rat a tat tatting on the top of the car and covered the back window with water. Happily, we eventually made it to their house. It was neat to meet Connor. He seemed quite interested in me. In fact, when he went to bed (he has an earlier bedtime than I do since I pretty much sleep when I want to ) instead of asking his Mommy for a story, he said to her "Tell me about Aidan." He wanted to know about me!

I got a couple of outfits from Ernie, Helen Marie, and Connor. One of these, which they say will help me to fit in at Berkeley, is a tie-dyed onesie sort of outfit. They also got me a cool ball with a bell in it. It's got holes so it's easy for me to grip. Even Connor liked it. In fact, he liked it so much he tried to take it away from me.

Earlier in the day, my Mommy took me to a company picnic for a company she used to work for. Everyone admired me and thought I was very cute. For me, the highlight was having my caricature done. The artist depicted me as a baseball player holding a bat. (Even though I've never held a bat or even stood under my own power.) Still, the face looks a lot like mine. I have to say that I'm a darn attractive little guy.

More Visitors

I got to meet some more new people last night. Mommy's friend Nicole came by to visit and to whisk Mommy off to dinner. Because she had a lingering cold (and a lot of ambivalence about little children), she didn't want to get too close to me. So I smiled at her across the room as she took several pictures of me. Eventually, she could not resist my considerable charms and ended up holding and talking to me.

Later that same evening, one of my biggest fans, Ken Steiglitz, came to visit. Ken, who is a computer science professor at Princeton, has followed my weblog proetty much from when it first started. Despite the fact that I was not in one of my better moods, he seemed delighted to actually meet me. We all sat around watching the Yankees game together. I'm definitely getting better at sitting on furniture. When I was a littler guy, I would almost always lose my balance and flop over to my side when I tried to sit the way the big people do. The flopping still happens, but I can stay up for much linger (about 1.5 innings).

Beer and Pretzels

Whenever my Mommy or Daddy eat something, I get very curious about what they're up to. Since I mostly explore everything in my world by putting it in my mouth, I'm especially eager to see what things my parents put in their mouths. My Daddy got home late last night from a baseball game. As the 3 of us sat on the couch, he decided to have beer and pretzels. Well, the shininess of the can and the crinkliness of the pretzel bag were infinitely fascinating to me. I reached out and tried to grab both and eventually, Daddy let me hold each of these objects. Here are some photos of me with the pretzels.

Ultra Saucer

I love my ultra saucer. This is a new toy that I just got to start using when we all flew back east. While the super saucer has my activities to keep me interested including my favorite, a bendable bee on a long green stem, the best part of all is that I get to stand up in it---just like the big people do. Standing is about my favorite posture, and I like to encourage Mommy and Daddy to hold me up in a standing position whever possible. The only problem seems to be that since I keep growing and gaining weight, they get tired of holding me up after shorter and shorter time periods. The super saucer lets me stand a long time.

Last night, my Daddy had a song-fest. He sang me all sorts of different things including bits and pieces of most everything from side 2 of the Beatles' White Album. Mommy sometimes does not think that Daddy shows the best in taste or judgement when it comes to songs. She seemed particularly to disapprove of "Helter Skelter" and "Happiness is a Warm Gun." I'm not sure what any of these songs mean, but I love the attention and laughed uproariously during much of the songfest.

I also find kisses to be hilariously funny. Between songs, my Daddy would kiss my forehead repeatedly. I laughed and laughed at the funny feeling on my forehead.

Vancouver Photos

My Daddy has posted pictures of his recent trip to Vancouuver. They are here. It looks so pretty there, why didn't he take me along?

Sweet Home New Jersey

Mommy drove me back to New Jersey yesterday evening. While I always enjoy car rides, this one promised to be especially god because Mommy promised that I'd get to see Daddy again. He was at a conference in a place called Vancouver and was due to fly in on Sunday night. I had not seen him in a week, which is the longest time I've ever gone without seeing him in my life. I gave him a big smile when he came through the door and was really happy when he sang the Mr. Baby song and other songs to me. He seemed astonished at how much I had changed and grown in the week while he was away. I'm a lot stronger and more coordinated than the last time he saw me. I can bull my neck and hold my head up even when I'm almost in a horizontal position. I'm also very good at manipulating things with my hands.

I recently discovered my other foot. For awhile, I only liked to grip my left foot with my left arm while never gripping the right foot at all. Now, I've discovered the right foot too and will grip it in either hand. I've also discovered that when I get tired of sucking on my fingers, my toes are good to suck on as well.

Yesterday was my baptism followed by a big party in my honor. Despite the fact that I had to sit still in church for an extended period, I was on my best behavior. I didn't even flinch when they put the little bit of water on my head. In fact, the baptismal font sure did look like it would be fun to splash about in. I was equally sweet in letting the minister show me around to everyone in the congregation---this despite the fact that twice during the ceremony she screwed my name up and called me Adrian (grrr).

Following the service, we all rushed home to make final preparations for the big party. I supervised. We had two big tents and lots of tables and chairs. The caterer people came in with a whole bunch of food, but none of it was stuff that I could eat. For example, not one of the trays contained formula! Everyone seemed to have a good time and I got to meet lots of new people. They seemed to enjoy passing me around from person to person so that I was constantly enthralled by being held different people. I also got a whole bunch of loot including a couple of checks made out to me! While I was delighted at this, my Mommy and Daddy have to ponder how to cash these in that I can't really sign (or spell or say) my name.

The big highlight of the day came near the end. My Nain and one of my cousin's on my Mommy's side (there are so many of them!) were leaning over my play area to say goodbye to me. They both swore that in response to their goodbyes, I said goodbye right back to them. That would be my first word then---bye. Actually, my Mommy tells me that if, in fact, my "bye" counts as a word, then it's my second word. She herself has observed me say "hi" in response to being said hi to on some previous occasions.

It's been really busy for the past several days, so I have not had much chance to write. Let me catch you up on the lastest. On Saturday, June 28, we moved our stuff from Stanford to our new place in the east bay in Walnut Creek. It seems like a great place. I am especially lucky in that, for the moment, I have more furniture than either my Mommy or Daddy. The only piece of furniture they have there is a rocking chair that they had to disassemble to fit in the U-haul. I, on the other hand, have a crib, that our friends Rhona and Jeremy gave to us, my big swing, my little swing, and my bouncy seat. I can sit in any room of the house and sleep in a proper bed. My parents get to sit on the floor and sleep on an air mattress.

The next day, I got to go on another plane ride. Always I get the same worried looks on the faces of the passengers seated around me when I come aboard a plane. I try to reassure them by smiling sweetly and giggling a little. When we frist took off, I was up and ready to explore my world. Plane's are interesting what with all the lights and dials for air conditioning and all the people walking back and forth. I particularly caught the eye of one flight attendant who was from Hawaii. She kept stopping by to visit me and talk to me. Evenentually, she rounded up a whole bunch of pillows and blankets and made a soft cushiony chair on the tray table nearest the aisle so I could hang out there.

For much of the flight I slept though. Interestingly, at the end of the flight that other people around me wore big smiles instead of concerned expressions. Everyone said what a good baby I am. Of course, I already know this.

On arriving in the east, I immediately noticed one key difference---it's ungodly humid in the east. We landed a little past midnight and still it was 82 degrees and 82% humidity. Sitting in carseats and the like makes me sweat even under lesser humidity. I was a wet little guy in no time. We got a car a drove to my Mommy and Daddy's other place in New Jersey. It seems that for the month of July they are land barons owning places (and debt) on both coasts. The New Jersey house is very nice (and air conditioned too). Unfortunately, there was no good place for me to sleep when we got there. I slept on the floor and Mommy on the couch next to me.

We didn't stay in New Jersey long though. We were soon off to my ancestral homeland---what my parents refer to as "old country"---the Wyoming Valley. I got to meet lots of people there. Of course, I got to see both my grandmothers again as well as meeting numerous aunts and uncles. Best of all, I got to go swimming during a hot afternoon. Swimming is great on a hot, humid day. I also got to experience my first thunderstorm. Thunder is loud and a little bit scary.

Last night was the 4th of July so people set off lots of fireworks. These are too loud and scary for me, so I spent much of the evening inside. I did see some sparklers though. My Daddy wanted to let em hold a sparkler since I'm good at gripping things, but no one else thought that was a good idea at all.

Big

Well, I think it's official---I'm no longer a little guy. When my Daddy came home yesterday I overheard this exchange:

Mommy: I was at Stanford mall today with Mr. Baby. It's amazing how much he's changed.
Daddy: How so?
Mommy: While everyone still said how cute he is, no one thinks he's small anymore.
Daddy: He's big all right...like hauling around a sack of potatoes.
Mommy: Yeah. He's a stocky guy. The grandparents will never recognize him.

Charming the Ladies

Yesterday my Mommy and Daddy visited the offices of Chicago Title to sign myriad forms ensuring that they'll be in serious debt until they're well into their 60s. My job was the usual one of being cute and cuddly. As we sat in a glass walled conference room, I would flach my blue eyes and give a big smile to the people passing by. Eventually, there was a crowd of about 5 people cooing over me. I really like that. While the bank people were explaning each of the forms, I started to get bored, so I ended up getting the realtor and the broker for the escrow to pick me up and rock me gently. This was great so I gave them a big birght smile. The broker for the escrow liked to say "hi" to me. I'd laugh uproariously each time she said it.

Later that day, we did a walkthrough of out new house. It's a very nice house with lots of lovely hardwood floors for me to drive my little matchbox cars around when I'm older. Of course, since I'm not big on walking yet, I let my parents do most of the walking parts of the walkthrough while I did a "sit through" from the comfort of my infant carrier.

Rollover

I'm getting very good at rolling over and in fact I now prefer to be on my tummy rather than on my back. The secret, I've learned, is to hold your hands above you like a ballerina and then kind of spin sideways with hands above head. This works great! My Daddy played a fun game where he would place me on my back and I'd spin onto my tummy as fast as I could. Now, if I could only master spinning back the other way--from tummy to back.

Kawaii

I hope you liked the pictures from the trip. I actually developed a lot during the trip. Yesterday, my Mommy weighed me and found that I weigh 19 (!) pounds. I can now easily roll myself over and hold my head up for extended periods. I like to reach out and grab things---especially crumply things. One of my favorite "toys" was a plastic bag that my formula was contained in. The plastic makes and especially stasfiying crinkling sound when I reach out and grab it. Mommy won't let me play with my toy very much though.

I like to use both my hands and my feet for grabbing stuff. I will reach out and grip the hanging stuffed animals on my Gymini quite regularly.

I went and did a search on the Internet for other terms that Japanese women used to refer to me. Here they are:

Chibi - Japanese word referring to a person or thing's diminutive size...usually associated with cute things
Kawaii - Japanese word for cute and attractive
Kirei is the Japanese word for beautiful.

Kawaii was an especially popular term.

Pictures!
I've posted a whole bunch of pictures from my trip to Hawaii. They are at this site. I should warn you that there are a LOT of them (155) and they are pretty rough---minimal corrections for exposure, red eye, etc. Eventually, I'll post a select bunch of perfect ones to my own website. In the meantime, enjoy!

Keiki

I'm just back from my first vacation ever. I got to go to Hawaii (jealous, aren't you?) We spent many days on the white sand beaches there. While the sun was hot, I didn't get burned (or even tan) since I was snug in my little tent and shaded from the sun's rays. My Daddy would build the tent for me wherever we would go---even under difficult conditions when the tradewinds were blowing fiercely. One of the best things about the trip was that I got to use my not inconsiderable charms on all the people around me. As people would walk by, I would flash them my smile, crinkle up my nose, and stare at them with my blue eyes. Naturally, they were immediately taken with me. I got to meet a lot of people on the beach this way.

Hawaii is a land of many Japanese people. They seem to especially love me---perhaps because my big blue eyes cause me to resemble Japanese anime characters. Often, they would stop me as we were strolling down the street, touch my feet or my cheeks, and say adoringly in a high-pitched voice, "keiki," which is the Hawaiian word for baby.

We took a lot of pictures, which I'll post up to my website soon. Yawn. I'm tired from taking the redeye into California this AM. More on my first vacation tomorrow.

Packing

We're deep in the throes of last minute packing. My Mommy is worried that thegentle luggage handlers at the airport will destroy my main stroller, so I'm going to get to ride around in an umbrella stroller instead---just like the big boys ride in. I got to ride around the living room last night and this was really fun. It's a lot easier to look out and see the world around you where you're not horizontal.

I'm up early this morning. Usually, I like to sleep in until around 10 or so, but there was so much going on, and I'm so looking forward to the trip that here it is only 8:30 and already I'm enjoying my breakfast. Before that, I was playing with some of my toys. I made my froggy make noise on a number of occasions, much to my delight. Right now, I like toys with fairly narrow parts to grip. Some of my toys have wide gripping areas, and I find it hard to grasp these. My stffed Eeyore, with a thin plastic gripping ring, is another of my favorites.

Yesterday, my Mommy took me on a drive to Concord, which is near Walnut Creek, to look at bathroom tiles and tubs at a place there. Now, normally I really enjoy car rides though they doo make me quite sleepy. By the end of this trip though, I was pretty sick of being in the car. The trip was TOO LONG. Next time I go on a long car ride, I definitely want someone in the back to keep me company.

Well, that's it. I'll talk to you again on the 19th.

Aloha

I'm going on my first real vacation with my parents, and it looks like it will be a good one. We're all going to Hawaii for 10(!) days. While this is good new for me, it's not so good for you guys because there will be no blog entries while I am gone, so I'm afraid this is the last one for a while. Since I have such sensitive skin, I'm not planning on working on my tan while in Hawaii. Instead, my parents have borrowed a small tent from a neighbor. During the sunny parts of the day, I will get to relax in the shade and comfort of my own little tent; thereby avoiding the sun's harmful rays. My Mommy also picked up a small plastic storage box that will serve both as a place to store my stuff on the trip over and back and as a tiny Aidan-sized swimming pool for me to splash about in while I sit on the beach. So I think we've got it all planned.

Yesterday, I had a fun treat. My Mommy took me into the bathroom and let me look into the big mirror there. Inside the mirror was another baby. He smiled and laughed when he saw me as did I. Then she turned me a little to the side. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of *another* baby near the medicine cabinet. He smiled at me and gave me a big laugh. I looked from side to side at all three of us babies. We all seem to like standing, we're all strikingly handsome, and we're all very friendly. I wonder how Mommy and Daddy find the time to give me all the attention when there are these other two charming little guys to look after.

Social Butterfly

I love people--I mean all people, everyone around me. I like to smile at them, laugh loudly as they smile back, and make noises at them when they talk to me. My Mommy, whose sort of shy, finds herself meeting all sorts of people thanks to me. People stop and look at me and I like to wave and greet them. Sometimes, I get distracted by all the neat people and things there are to see. When my Mommy takes me out of the house and tries to feed me, it takes forever because of all the distractions from the people around me. In fact, sometimes I get a little too wrapped up in this and forget to eat for a long time (of course, then I'm really unhappy because I'm hungry.)

It's great to be a social butterfly!

Left-handed compliment?

My Daddy and my Uncle Dave are surprisingly interested in the hand with which I do things. Well, I like to keep them guessing. So far, I'm fairly ambidextrous. If a toy is to my right, I'll reach out with my right hand to snag it up. If it's to me left, I'll use the left. Truth be told, picking things up is pretty hard so I often like to use both hands. While rolling myself over, I tend to pin my right shoulder on the ground and have the left above the ground. In greeting and reaching out to others, I'll use either hand.

So, to answer the big question of what handedness am I, it's going to remain a secret a bit longer.

Rollin', rollin' rollin'

I did it. I finally did it! ...but no one saw me. I managed to roll completely over yesterday. I had been lying on my back on a quilt in the middle of the floor. I've taken to rolling onto my side in that position, but it's hard to figure out what to do with your shoulder and elbow to turn completely over. Well, somehow I figured it out. I was on my side when Mommy left to do something in the kitchen and when she returned I was all the way over on my tummy! Hooray for me. Of course, once I was on my tummy, I wasn't happy about it and insisted on eating then and there rather than repeating the trick for Mommy.

So there it is. I've learned to roll over, but no one's actually witnessed me doing it. Sigh.

More Milestones

I hit some more developmental milestones over the weekend. Since it had been a while since I've been in my big swing, Mommy decided to put me in it on Sunday morning. She also wanted to make sure that I was not bored, so on the little tray at the front of the swing, she placed my stuffed Eeyore rattle. When she next came into the room, she was astonished to find that I had picked up the stuffed Eeyore from the tray and was playing with it. This reaching out and taking things that are not simply placed in my hands is a new thing for me. I've been trying my new skill out on lots of objects---the hanging squeeze toys in my gymini, the plastic stars and mirrors on my swing and in my bouncy seat, I'll even reach out and grab my Daddy's hand as he's giving me a bottle. Grabbing things is great! These hands sure are useful.

I also had an almost milestone yesterday. While I was lying on my back on the ground, I got interested in what my Mommy was doing on the couch to my right, so I leaned over to see. In fact, I leaned over so far that I nearly turned over.

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.

Not that I'm not always the greatest company in the world, but my Mommy wanted to go off and do some shopping by herself, so on Saturday my Daddy took care of me instead. We got to do many fun things together. For a while, he kept me entertained with the following exciting game: He would initially keep his head some distance from mine and then slowly swoop in toward me. As he did so, he said the word "baaaaaa-byyyyy" in a high pitched voice. This I found to be hilariously funny. When I'm really amused, I give a big open mouthed smile (not exactly a toothy smile though since I have no teeth) and kind of gurgle. This was great.

We also watched some movies together. Daddy has noticed that my taste in movies tends to run to edgier stuff. The afternoon's movie menu was a kind of controlled experiment to test this effect. Early in the afternoon, during one of my feedings, we watched "Sexy Beast" together. As far as I can tell, this movie consists almost entirely of English swear words and yelling. I was spellbound. I turned my head to the side of the bouncy seat and stared intently at the screen throughout the picture. Later in the afternoon, we watched "Serendipity", a light romantic comedy with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. This movie was not the least bit edgy at all, and I paid no attention. Of course, my favorite movie of all time is Traffic. I think as I get older, I'm starting to exude the same smoldering sexuality as Benicio del Toro (or maybe not).

Sniffle snuffle

I encountered a new and not so great milestone a couple of days ago. For the first time in my life, I have the sniffles. I don't really like it very much. For one thing, it makes it harder to enjoy a refreshing bottle of milk. The reason is that with my nose stuffed up, I like to breathe through my mouth. But this gets in the way of eating and sometimes I miscoordinated the two activities and end up sputtering and having to take a break from the happy pleasure of milk drinking.

It's been hot here lately and Mommy seems to have picked out some special rubberized diapers for swimming. I've never been swimming before, but it sounds great--like the world's biggest bath. After initially having some trepidations about baths, I've really warmed to them. I like to splash and laugh and wiggle around. Apparently with this "pool" thing, there's lots of room to do all these activities. I can't wait.

Since I've been sniffly, I've also been a lot more sleepy. I spent much of the day yesterday just relaxing and dozing on and off. I did wake up to watch the Yankees-A's game with my Daddy last night. The Yankees won on a two run homer by Jorge Posada. Daddy and I were both delighted.

I'm growing bigger all the time. Daddy weighed me this morning and I now weigh 15 pounds! I'm now on the brink of being dangerously large for several of my baby toys. Mommy also counted up the days since my birth and notes that I'm FOUR months old today. Happy birthday to me.

New Photos

I've posted some new photos of myself under the folder "baby playing poker". The highlights show me playing poker and winning handsomely.

Over the weekend, I discovered something new and fun--when I kick and bounce my bouncy seat, the "fun panel" plays songs and lights. I had never notived these before but now that I have, they're tremendously amusing. Every time the lights flach and the sounds play, I smile and laugh until I nearly topple sideways in the chair! I've also discovered how to put my hands in my mouth. I really enjoy doing a lot of the time, but especially when I'm hungry. Unfortunately, it's hard to fit a bottly in my mouth when I have my hands jammed in there. Still working out the solution to this problem.

People just keep coming and going in the house. My Daddy came home last night and we gto to spend the evening bonding with one another. I missed him, and I think he missed me too. The sad news is that my Uncle Jack departed early this morning for the east coast. Lots of people come and go but only my Mommy and Daddy seem to stay for longer than about a week or so.

Bye bye

For the next 4 days, my Daddy is going away to Texas, which my Mommy calls "big hat country." He's goiing to an Internet conference (so he can learn how to surf the net more effectively I suppose). He also says that he's going to ride a horsie while he's there (yes, he really talks like that, referring to horses as "horsies".) I'm going to miss him while he's away. I've been alive now for about 108 days, so his departure for the next 4 means that he'll be gone for almost 4% of my life, which seems to me to be a long time. Meanwhile, my Mommy and Uncle Jack will take care of me.

Poker Night

I've added lots of new photos to my web site. I helped Mommy scan them in yesterday afternoon. There are new photos in the Dave and Julie folder that finally prove that Aunt Julie did not leave Uncle Dave at home when she came to visit. There are also more Easter photos in the Easter folder and pctures in the new Grammy's Visit folder taken when Mommy's Mommy came to see me. In addition, there are pictures in the Lake Tahoe folder from the first time I saw snow and the first time I met my cousins, Meryl, Libby, and Matthew.

I got to see my Uncle Jack for the first time ever yesterday. He's funny. He likes to make all sorts of amusing faces at me, which got me to laugh a lot. My Mommy called me a gigglepuss (one of her favorite terms of endearment) as a result of my laughing and smiling. Later that evening, I got to do something completely new---learn how to play poker. My Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Jack decided to play a few hands of poker complete with cards from the Luxor, a casino I visited in utero, and poker chips. I got to handle one of the most expensive chips, worth 25 cents, and generally had a good time sitting on people's laps and advising them as to what they should do. Mommy was the big winner last night making $1.40! I hope she spends it on more outfits for me.

I continue to sleep through the nights without any problem. Last night, I had numerous evening feedings and, by the time I wnet to bed, I was quite full. I was able to go about 8 hours between feedings (a full night's rest for my parents). Mommy is still wondering whether this sort of thing is normal or not. I don't know, but I'm a happy smiling baby, so what's to worry about.

Poker Night'

I got to see my Uncle Jack for the first time ever yesterday. He's funny. He likes to make all sorts of amusing faces at me, which got me to laugh a lot. My Mommy called me a gigglepuss (one of her favorite terms of endearment) as a result of my laughing and smiling. Later that evening, I got to do something completely new---learn how to play poker. My Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Jack decided to play a few hands of poker complete with cards from the Luxor, a casino I visited in utero, and poker chips. I got to handle one of the most expensive chips, worth 25 cents, and generally had a good time sitting on people's laps and advising them as to what they should do. Mommy was the big winner last night making $1.40! I hope she spends it on more outfits for me.

I continue to sleep through the nights without any problem. Last night, I had numerous evening feedings and, by the time I wnet to bed, I was quite full. I was able to go about 8 hours between feedings (a full night's rest for my parents). Mommy is still wondering whether this sort of thing is normal or not. I don't know, but I'm a happy smiling baby, so what's to worry about.

Sleepy Boy

I set a new sleeping record last night. In fact, I was so effective at sleeping that my Mommy is starting to get worried about me. I had been pretty hungry for much of the day (in fact Mommy was barely keeping up with my eating) and it looked like I might be enjoying some formula last night if things did not change. Well, they did change. I ate at 10:30 last night, went to bed, and did not get up again until 6am. Really, I was not even up then, Mommy woke me. I was happy enough to eat when I awoke.

This delay in eating got Mommy sufficiently concerned that she got out the thermometer to take my temperature (well within normal range), and she cracked open a zillion baby books to see what was going on. My Daddy seemed unconcerned. If anything, he's probably happy that I'm already able to sleep through the night.

On Saturday night, I had a bath. This was the first time since I was in the hospital that my Mommy and Daddy both helped bathe me. Normally Mommy does this, but one Saturday when she was out shopping, my Daddy tried it on his own. This event was a total disaster. I get very upset almost immediately. Also, in his confusion over trying to keep my head above water, juggle all the towels and washcloths and so on, my Daddy neglected to take off my socks, so my feet were sodden. This was no fun. Thankfully, Mommy is actually competent at bathing me so I had a nice bath. This was good because it was very hot here over the weekend, and I was sweaty.

Today I see a new relative -- my Uncle Jack.

My First Plane Ride
I had my first plane ride this past week. We flew from San Jose to Detroit and then drove from there to Ann Arbor. So far, I like every mode of transportation I’ve been on and the plane is not exception. Thanks to a law created by Laura Bush (according to the flight attendant) I’m guaranteed a window seat whenever I fly. This is great although I’m still a little too short to see out the window. I like the dull hum of the jet engine. It makes me so sleepy…yawn. I slept pretty much the whole way during the flight. In fact, I was so sleepy that my Mommy had great difficulty rousing me to give me a little milk so my ears would get unblocked on takeoff and landing. Happily, I got enough good sucks in to make my ears pop, so I felt just fine.

While normally passengers around a young baby dread the trip, the folks around me looked with delight at the end of the trip and told me how cute and wonderful I was. I’m not like the other kids I guess, I just like to dream of flying around in airplanes.

The next day, I got to ride around in a new kind of car, a Subaru, driven by a realtor who was showing my Mommy and Daddy some places they might like to live in. I checked these places out too and pretty much liked them all equally. They were all a lot bigger than our little apartment in Palo Alto. Once again, I made a good impression. The realtor said I was a perfect baby because of my excellent manners.

The night after seeing the realtor, my Mommy was feeding me in the hotel room when she smashed her foot off of a narrow door frame leading to the bathroom. Mommy was very unhappy—she had the same angry purple face I get when I’m really hungry—and she could not walk very well. The next day, we went to a place called the hospital where they fix hurt people like Mommy. Before they fix them, though, they make them wait four hours to make sure they’re really hurt and not just faking it. At the end, Mommy got to wear a special bootie show for her broken toe and was hobbling around on crutches. This made our trip to the airport really fun. I got to ride in a wheelchair through the airport on Mommy’s lap. Daddy pushed us both as well as all our carry-on luggage from the entrance of the airport to the gate, which the airline had thoughtfully located the maximum distance away.

Getting off the airplane, Mommy got to ride in a really neat form of transportation. I was envious. In San Jose, where we landed, rather than having a jetway leading directly to the terminal, they have an old-fashioned system whereby they wheel steps up to the plane and the people walk down to the tarmac. Well, Mommy couldn’t negotiate the steps, so instead they pulled up this big forklift thing and moved the steps out of the way. Mommy was then hoisted down in the forklift and whisked away in the wheelchair to the car. What a trip! My trips are always filled with many exciting events—blizzards, lost wallets, broken feet, forklifts, and so on.

Because my Mommy cannot move around very well, my Daddy has been at home all day these past several days taking care of lots of things. For instance, when I want to be picked up and bounced around, my Daddy is there to do it. I like that.

Recently, Mommy mentioned that in a month I would be old enough to hold a rattle on my own. My Daddy, having infinite faith in my abilities, insisted that I could do it now. He quickly pulled out a rattle and started trying to get me to hold it. I grasped it firmly (I like gripping things) and occasionally waved it around. When I did that, it made an unexpected noise, which caused me to smile. I even flung it down to the ground a couple of times. Best of all, from Daddy’s perspective, I did all of this with my left hand. My Daddy is convinced that I have an excellent chance to have a long career as a modestly effective middle relief pitcher if only I end up being left handed. We shall see.

Today was a hot day, and I was perspiring. Occasionally, it would get so hot that I would complain and my Daddy would have to figure out some way to make it cooler. At the end of the day, I got to take a bath, which was cool and very refreshing. Now I’m a clean and shiny happy baby.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow I'm going on my first plane flight (ex utero that is). The whole family is flying to beautiful Detroit (Ann Arbor actually but Detroit airport) to see if we want to live in Michigan. I'll let you know how I liked it when I return on Friday. Here's good news -- the city of Detroit has now made it easier for my Mommy and Daddy to apply for Section 8 housing! Now we won't have to live in the projects.

Something to Aspire To

After hearing about my eating exploits, my Uncle Dave suggests this exciting potential profession for me -- the International Federation of Competitive Eating. I wonder if they have an event for eating from a bottle? I also wonder just what all the "majors" are in competitive eating?

Sleepy Guy

I seem to have fallen into a new equilibrium in my eating. Starting last week, I decided that my usual amount of food (110ccs) was not nearly enough to keep me happy. My Mommy decided to increase my food amount to 125ccs, which made me a lot happier. Still, I would get hungry pretty frequently and by Friday, I was eating her out of house and home. I slowed down some over the weekend.

In addition to eating more at a sitting, I'm able to go longer between meals, particularly at night. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights I went five to six hours between feedings. Actually, I could have gone longer on some of these but my Mommy woke me up. This is a happy thing since six hour intervals are much more conducive to normal sleep than were my usual four hour ones.

On Sunday, we all got in the car to drive to the Pacific Ocean. It was very sunny and pretty until we crossed over to the other side of the Santa Cruz mountains. There we found lots of clouds over the ocean. I saw several surfers and got to wander around the beach a bit (actually, Mommy wandered and I rode along). I had to get bundled up very warmly against the strong sea breeze. I was wearing my insulated SnoKid hat, but my Mommy turned the iconic snowflake to the other side to seem more in the beachy spirit.

That night, we went to Chevy's, a Mexican restaurant chain. The highlight for me was the balloon man, who came by and made me a teddy bear hugging a heart. The big red balloon heart is shiny and pretty. It fascinates me. To show my approval, I kicked the balloon bear a couple of times.

My Nain (Grandmother Diana) is going back to Wilkes-Barre today. I'll miss her. She liked to hold me and feed me. She also sang some odd little songs like "The Troll of the Hill." She also had an odd way of asking me whether I needed to burp. Instead of asking me directly, like my Mommy does, she would gently inquire, "Does baby have a bubble? Do you have a bubble?" She would also describe my expression when I was hungry as my "angry purple face." I suppose I do turn a little bit purple while telling the adults around me that I'm hungry. That's only because I'm using all my energy to convey to them forcefully my feelings.

Cleaning

Yesterday, I was a very helpful little guy. My Mommy decided to clean her closet -- a mammoth project equivalent to clearing the rubble from ground zero. For such a big project, she needed me to be content to lie quietly watching her. Now normally I like to get lots of attention, but I decided to give her a break. The closet looks a lot better.

Later in the evening, my parents and grandmother went out to a restaurant with me to eat. Once again, they expected me to lie quietly. Well, after doing this all day, I decided that this was too much to ask. I was up and about shortly after my Mommy began her salad. I figured if they can eat, I can eat. I loudly placed my order for milk. Happily, I got to eat along side everyone else during dinner. I even got to sit on my Daddy's lap as he gave me pretend sips of wine (Mommy didn't like that much).

Baby Bunny

I posted a new set of pictures to my website. They are under the Easter folder. Highlights include several pictures of me in my Easter finery including bunny ears (doesn't everyone wear bunny ears for Easter?) Also, there are a couple of pictures of me smiling -- see, I told you I could figure that one out. Today, my Mommy and my grandmother are taking me to San Francisco to play with the sea lions. Arf-arf-arf.

Easter

I went to my first church service yesterday. I like to get up early, so my Mommy and Daddy thought to take advantage of this by attending a sunrise service at a local Methodist church. The service was held out on the church lawn on a kind of foggy morning. I was glad I had my blanket with me because it's a little cool at that time of day. During the singing, I noticed some mourning doves perched on the roof above the choir, They seemed to be dancing to the music. There's a distinctive California vibe to the service. The collection was taken by young teenage girls from the choir. One of them was prominently wearing a gateway.com sweatshirt.

After the service, I came home for a photo session. My Mommy dressed me in my flopsy bunny outfit. She also bought a little set of bunny ears to place on my head (I have a feeling I'll be dreading these pictures coming out on holidays when I'm older.) Naturally, I held up my end of the bargain by sitting and looking cute. There should be some photos posted shortly.

After the photo session, my Mommy wanted to go to something more formal, so she whisked me off to another church service. This one was just plain weird. Instead of saying the Lord's prayer in the usual way, it was like fill in the blanks. You were free to say "our father/mother/creator" for the first line. Also, "for thine is the kingdom/kindom". Despite my Mommy's latent socialist tendencies, this service was too liberal even for her. On the plus side, I did get to see my first transvestite at the church!

I was delighted to get some nice gifts for Easter including a strange toy from my Nain that I can kick to make music and visual effects. I haven't yet tried it, but I'm looking forward to it.