Labor Day

We had a Labor Day celebration yesterday, but it wasn't much fun. Daddy had the nerve to invite over a rival, a 10 month old named Bianca. I felt sure that Bianca was intended as a replacement for me, and I didn't like it one bit. Now, there are two paths that I could take in this situation: (A) I could be maximially cute and fun and convince Mommy and Daddy that Bianca was a not a good substitute for me. Or (B) I could be miserable so that Mommy and Daddy would soon realize their mistake and ask Bianca to leave. I went with (B). Unfortunately, it didn't work. Bianca stayed for several hours and was generally cute and well-behaved. This plan did not work out at all well for me.

The other thing that made Labor Day bad was that Daddy had a nasty choking episode. Daddy and Mommy and our guests (but not Bianca) were enjoying some lovely steaks that Mommy cooked on the grill. I guess Daddy was enjoying his a bit too much as part of it becamse lodged in his throat. He went in the kitchen sort of gasping for breath and Mommy and one of our guests, Laura, attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him but without success. As they were asking whether to call 9-1-1 for him, he managed to dislodge enough stuff that he could breath again, albeit with some difficulty. He eventually was able to get all better. Mommy seemed really scared and upset by this. I was busy eating yummy corn on the cob, so I didn't really get too concerned. The oddest part was that Daddy felt very bad for spoiling the time the other guests were having through his inconsiderate choking episode.

By the way, you may be wondering where the comments part of my weblog went. It turns out that the server used to make the comments go has been down since last Thursday. They expect to fix it in the next day or so.

Pointing

As you've seen from many of my photos, I love to point at things. Daddy and I have developed a pointing ritual. If he's a few paces away from me, he extends his finger to make a great pointing motion. I do the same. Then we slowly draw closer to one another until our fingers just touch. This group point is one of the most fun things.

Scottish Games

Yesterday, we all went to the Scottish Games. I got to see highland dancing, which I enjoyed a lot. I like to dance around with the highland dancers n my own way. We also got to hear a Celtic rock band called Kinship, which was also lots of fun. I tried to run up onto the stage (which had some lovely steps leading to it), but Daddy wouldn't let me go there. In between, there were a whole lot of pipe bands competing with one another. This was more boring, so I used this time to take a nap. Mommy and Daddy seemed to enjoy the free scotch tasting booth. I thought it would be fun to try some scotch too and so I said "mmmmm" whenever they would take a sip. Somehow, they didn't get the hint.

There were a whole bunch of tents for each of the many clans located around the park. One of them had a really fancy Kelty stroller with great wheels. I decided that I wanted to be a member of this clan, so I charged over to check out the wheels as well as the other good stuff they had. They asked me about my shirt (which said "Am I cute or am I cool?" in Welsh. Daddy explained that while I was conceived in England (or Wales) and while I have Welsh and Irish ancestors, I have no Scottish lineage that anyone knows of. That didn't seem to bother theclan and they admitted me as an honorary Scot.

The Name Game

Yesterday, a baby girl named Kaia came to visit Mommy and me for the second time. There are a couple of reasons why this is notable: First, I actually called her by name, "Kaia, " several times. Mommy says this marks the first time I've referred to anyone by name other than Mommy ("Ahbba" or more rarely, "Mommy") and Daddy ("Addy"). This also includes my own official name since on those occasions when I refer to myself I call myself "Ahbba"-- which translates to "baby." (Yes, this is indeed the same thing I usually call Mommy. I got tired of calling her Mama a while back.) The other reason Kaia's visit is notable is that she has a bad habit of wanting to play with my toys and my mommy when she comes to visit me. What she doesn't seem to understand is that my toys and mommy are mine--not to be played with or even touched by others. What she also doesn't seem to realize is that any toys that she brings into the house are also mine. Indeed, we would all be a lot happier if others would keep in mind one simple rule: All objects in the world are mine and I should be able to have them whenever I want them. This is certainly my attitude when Mommy and I go shopping. For instance, yesterday we went to the grocery store together. It was so frustrating that Mommy would keep forgetting the simple rule: All objects are mine. She kept forgetting and taking stuff away from me. And for some reason she wouldn't let me "off" the shopping cart so that I could play with all of the wine bottles on display near floor level in the grocery store. They looked as though they would have made a cool noise when rolled or hit on the floor. Oh well, I'll keep an eye out for more opportunities.

(An aside-- the wine in the grocery store must be a pretty alien concept to all of my PA relatives who have to visit the "state store" and the "beer store"!

Some Bad Things about the Beach

Mostly, I was quite happy to be outside in the bright sunshine of Maui. I liked to stick my toes in the water. I especially likes the many eps they had in the hotel in which we were staying. But there were two things I definitely didn't like. The first is suntan lotion in my eyes. I actually like the process of having lotion slathered all over me. When Mommy and Daddy are putting on lotion, I'll hold out my arm so they'll put some on me too. While lotion is great on lots of parts of my body, it's not so good in my eyes. Worse yet, whenever I would try to rub the lotion out of my eyes using my arms, it would seem to make things worse and worse. Lotion, apparently, has a bad side as well as a good side.

The other thing I didn't like is the wind. After around noon, the tradewinds kick up. Under normal curcumstances, I dislike wind and try to turn away. In fact, I really don't like it when Mommy and Daddy ride with their car windows open. (I was especially glad Daddy turned down the option of getting a Mustang convertible when we were renting a card. Convertibles are truly evil.) Anyway, wind is even worse on the beach. While I like to feel the sand on my feet between my toes, I hate sand blowing in my face on a windy day.

During one of our days in Maui, we trekked to a resort town called Kapalua. According to the guidebook, Kapalua boasts the best beach in all of Maui. Part of what makes it the best is that it is protected from the wind by promontories on both sides. It was a real hike to get there. Daddy and Mommy had to walk about a mile from the car to the beach. Luckily, I got to ride for this distance. When we arrived and set up camp, the wind was pretty strong and the waves were pretty large. Daddy seemed to like to go out in a part of the ocean he called the "pummel zone" and get knocked down by waves. I wanted no part of the pummel zone and did not much like Daddy being pummeled. I tried to encourage him to come back to shore by calling "Addy Addy Addy" to him and showing my distress. As the wind grew worse and worse, I decided that this was definitely not my idea of the best beach in Maui. After not too long, we all decided we'd had enough and hiked back to the car. Unfortunately, the hike back was all up a steep hill. Daddy told Mommy to meet him at a place somewhat closer to the beach while he pushed me the whole way back in my stroller. He was very sweaty and didn't seem to be in the best mood. We were all glad to get back in the car, out of the wind and the sand, and drive back to our resort.

What to eat?

It's still difficult for me to convey exactly what I want to eat. Often, I know I'm hungry and have something specific in mind, but somehow Mommy and Daddy cannot deduce what it is from the tone of my "Uh, uh, uh" pleas. What I am good at is telling them what I don't want to eat. Sometimes, when I'm ready for a snack, Daddy will go to the cupboard filled with most of my favorites and pull out boxes one at a time. After he pulls a box out, I look at it and if it's not what I'm after, I shake my head vigorously--no. Next box, another head shake. Next box, another head shake. And on and on. Eventually, my eyes light up and I reach out when he finally picks out something good to eat.

Of course, sometimes I make mistakes and shake my head no when I actually mean yes. This is frustrating for both of us.

This form of communication is effective, but frustratingly slow. If only Mommy and Daddy were better mind readers.

Off

Off is a good all-purpose word. Whenever I see a light or a fan that is off, I alert everyone by saying off. When I want my shoes removed, I can usually achieve this goal with a simple "off". When I want to get out of my crib, off again works well. The opposite of off is the word "dee". For instance, if I want my Mommy or Daddy to put the Wiggles on TV, I simply point at the TV and sing-say "dee". When I want to listen to the radio, again pointing and saying "dee" works. Of course, sometimes I grow tired of The Wiggles. When that happens, I point to the TV and say "off".

P.s. Mommy wanted me to clarify that "dee" is not exactly a word for "on" in general. It is my way of saying that I want music of some sort on, whether on the TV or the radio (especially The Wiggles on TV or the VCR). "Dee" is my way of singing.

Hawaii Pictures

The first batch of pictures from Hawaii is now up. At least one more batch to come. You can see the pictures here.

The Beach

I spent a lot of time at the beach when I was in Maui. Since I like to stick with a consistent time zone, I would get up around 5am (8am California time) and Daddy would often take me out for an early morning walk. We would end up on the beach. I'm never sure whether to trust walking on sand or not. It seems hard to get firm footing and my toes seem to disappear beneath the sandy surface. Nearer the ocean, the footing is better, but there are new hazards to be aware of, like the water from the ocean. My preferred method was to get down to the better-footing part of the sand and then watch closely for the incoming water. Whenever a wave would roll in, I would hasten back away from the water and cry, "Uh oh!" to warn others about the water. By the end of the trip, even this had changed. I decided that the ocean water on my feet felt pretty good, and I would like to wade in a bit.

The other great thing about the beach is the variety of interesting objects the one finds in the sand. I found many interesting kinds of sticks as well as a type of rock called coral. I liked to carry the coral rocks around with me as I walked along the beach. The hotel also thoughtfully put out lounge chairs on the beach. Sometimes when I felt like climibing or just taking a rest, I would vault up onto these and watch the water on the ocean.

Elevators

The first time I got to ride standing up in an elevator was in Lake Tahoe a couple of weeks ago. I initially found it a bit scary with the motion and the closed doors and all, but gradually started to take to it. By the time we got to Maui, I decided that I loved elevators. Fortunately, the place we were staying is well equipped with elevators. Whenever I would see one, I'd run as fast as I could to get to the door. I'd point out the lights and indicate whether they were on or off. Once inside, the elevaor gets even better. I would wave goodbye to the door as it closed and then look forward to the ride. Sometimes I'd try to touch the buttons, but the only one I could easily reach was the emergency alarm bell. Daddy really didn't want to let me press this button, though I wanted to a lot. Sometimes, I'd see other people getting on elevators. I'd try to break away from Daddy's hand and hurry to get on for another exciting ride. Mostly, I didn't get to joyride in the elevator with Mommy and Daddy. However, one day a babysitter named Marian watched me for a few hours and she let me ride around for a good long while. We went up and down and in and out of the doors. Elevators are great.

Running off to Join the Circus

We just got back from our vacation in Maui (more about this in later blogs), but yesterday we went to the Ringling Bros. circus. While Daddy worried about how well I might like the scary clowns (Daddy doesn't like clowns) as well as all the lights and sounds. Well, I loved it. They really know how to get my attention right from the start. At the beginning of the circus, a bunch of clowns came out carrying enormous inflatable balls in bright colors. I recognized them immediately and yelled out "baah, baah" so that others would know that there were many balls flying around. The clowns danced to the hamster dance song. A little later, they threw the balls up into the audience and the people in the audience bounced the balls back and forth to one another and to the clowns. Next, came the big opening parade. There was lots of singing and a 20 piece orchestra playing. All the animals walked around the ring too. There were elephants---lots of elephants, I've never seen so many---there were camels and zebras and horses and dogs and goats too. This was great. I thought the singing and the animals and the many lights (I pointed out all of them in case Mommy and Daddy missed some) were great.

During the intermission, Daddy and I had a little adventure. The Oakland Arena comes equipped with many very nice steps. Naturally, I wanted to climb these. I eventually found a set of moving steps, called an escalator. This type of step is even better than the regular kind. We rode the escalator to the top of the arena. Then we discovered a little problem. There was no simple way to get back down. No escalator ran in the other direction and all the steps led out to the parking lot, which is not where we wanted to go. Eventually, Daddy found a working elevator (another great invention!) and we rode back down just in time for the start of the second half of the show. I started to have enough circus by this time though Daddy seemed to really enjoy a noisy motorcycle act. In this act, a bunch of guys on motorcycles ride inside something called the "sphere of death". They were spinning round and round and they kept putting more and more motorcycle guys in the sphere. They ended up fitting 6 motorcyclists inside driving wildly round. Daddy wanted them to keep putting in more guys until the inevitable carnage ensued though I was glad they stopped at 6.

12 Step Plan

I love steps or "eps" as I call them. While we don't really have any good steps inside the house, there are lots of them around where we live. I love to climb up them and climb down them, but what I don't like to do is "finish" with a good set of steps and then go back to walking. On a walk that I go on regularly with my Daddy, there is an enormous set of steps. As soon as these come into view, I dash toward them happily and then scamper almost all the way to the top. When I"m about 2 steps from the top, I see that the steps are ending, so I start back down again. Two steps from the bottom, I start back up again. This goes on until Daddy gets sick of it and carries me either to the top or the bottom. I don't understand how he thinks we can be finished with steps. There's still a lot more goodness to get out of them.

Iron Chef

Yesterday Mommy brought home Japanese food. Daddy seemed particularly delighted with this prospect and immediately started referring to me as "Master Aidan-sen" and saying "hoi" over and over. I found this to be hilarious. Anyway, I got to have one of my favorites, miso soup, for dinner. In fact, I ate Daddy's entire bowl of soup (except for the tofu cubes---these I didn't like). I then tried some other delicacies. The salmon roe was pretty good for awhile. I also tried some rice with a mix of soy sauce and wasabi. The wasabi is really really hot. I ended up holding my tongue in my hands to try to get rid of the hotness. Fortunately, a big glass of icey water was quickly delivered to me. I didn't like the California roll though.

Hoi.

Lake Tahoe Photos

You can see the fun we had in Lake Tahoe if you click here!

Lake Tahoe

Mommy, Daddy and I (along with my stuffed friend, Piggy) spent last week in Lake Tahoe. Daddy had a conference at the Cal-Neva Hotel and Casino, where part of the hotel (and pool) is in California and part is in Nevada. I got to stand and swim in two states simultaneously! I liked going in the pool with Mommy and my inflatable elephant boat, but even better was asking to get out and then repeatedly begging to get back in. While I was out, I liked to run toward the pool just to keep my mommy on her toes.

I decided early on that sleep deprivation is the way to go in Lake Tahoe. I pretty much eliminated my 2-hour afternoon nap and slept 8 or 9 hours at night instead of my usual eleven. I was a pretty sleep-deprived little guy. I never did get back to my usual sleep schedule until I returned home, but things did improve as the week went on and I grew more accustomed to my surroundings. Some of the fun things I did with my extra waking hours follow:

Took a 2 hour cruise across Lake Tahoe to Emerald Bay on a paddelwheeler boat called Tahoe Queen. The high point of this for me was meeting "Tahoe Tessie," a Lake Tahoe dinosaur/sea monster mascot. They didn't fool me by calling her,"Tessie." I knew who it really was... my friend, "Dorothy the Dinosaur" from The Wiggles! I also enjoyed pointing to the lake and various boats and parasailers.

Attended a children's matinee of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. They put on "As You Like It" dressed as though they lived on The Ponderosa Ranch, which is also in the Lake Tahoe area). I especially liked the cowboy hats and the occasional bursts of music, such as "Rawhide," I love to bop and clap to the tunes!

Played and swam at Sand Harbor Beach at Lake Tahoe State Park in Nevada. The first day I was still very nervous about walking on sand and going near the edge of the lake without being carried, but by the second day I enjoyed playing with rocks and sticks at the water's edge as well playing with my truck, pail and shovel. I also liked spotting boats and floaty toys, and I really wanted to sit up in the lifeguard's chair, but alas that wasn't to be.

Mommy and Daddy each took a trail ride at Northstar Stables (separately) while in Lake Tahoe, and I got to take my first pony ride too. With help from Daddy and Mommy, I rode a dapple gray pony named Patty. She was very nice, but I was really nervous about sitting on her at first. I relaxed as the ride continued, but I think I still prefer to watch the ponies and horses at ground level.

Since we returned home, I've been catching up on my sleep and becoming reacquainted with my stuffed friends and other toys. I'm very happy to see them again!

Hiking

Today my Daddy tok me on my first official hike. We went to the Las Trampas open space, which is not too far from our house, and walked for about an hour and a half along the banks of a dry creekbed. While Daddy worried that I would want to wander randomly all over the place, I was quite content to hold his hand and stride purposefully along the trail. Of course, we did have to stop from time to time to enjoy the exciting things along the trail. For instance, the trail is covered with many small rocks. Sometimes you just have to stop and examine these more carefully and then "clear" the trail a little bit by throuwing the rocks down into the ravine.

We also saw lots of animals too. We met up with a dog and a cat, both of whom were kind enough to let me pet them. We saw many squirrels, who did not get close enough to pet. We saw a number of small birds as well as an eagle which swooped low over our heads.

We met a few other hikers along the trail. I commented to Daddy that each of them was wearing shoes. He agreed that they were indeed wearing shoes. A couple of them seemed quite impressed at my hiking exploits. Of course, little did they know that I've been "training" for the last 1.5 months or so in the park across the street from my house. Daddy has been walking me further and further each time to prepare me for my first hike.

It was great. I want to go again...Now!

Deconstructionism

I have my own style when it comes to reading books. While I really like books, the usual linear way that Mommy and Daddy want to look at them just doesn't suit my tastes. They like to start at the beginning of a book and read all the words until they come to the end. This doesn't suit me at all. I prefer a more nonlinear approach. I like to open a book to a random page, then point at all the objects on the page and ask Mommy or Daddy (or even better one of my stuffed animals) to name the object I'm pointing at. Sometimes I point at pictures, sometimes at letters in words. (I especially like "s," "e" and "o".) After completing this process, and it can take a while for each page since I like to return to some of the objects to make sure that they're still called the same thing when I point to them a second or third time, I turn to the "next" page, which may be anywhere else in the book.

Often, only one page is suffficient to get all the goodness out of a book. I close the book up after looking at this critical page. Finally, sometimes merely hearing the namesof the objects I point at in the book is not enough. In that case, I run off to get a physical version of the object (like a ball or a block) or else a physical object that reminds me of what I'm pointing at. This makes reading a much more physical and multimedia activity than the way Mommy and Daddy do it.

I think of their way of reading as being like playing classical music. My way is more like jazz.

Sentences

I have a great many words at this point, I like to say all sorts of different words when I see the object they're associated with. Still, even this exercise loses its appeal after a while, so I decided to try something new. It turns out that if you string some words together you can make something called a sentence (or at least a phrase). Up until now, I've only made one phrase "Hi Addy". Yesterday, I made another one, "Mah Bahh" which translates to "My Ball". I helped Mommy and Daddy with the translation by holding up my soft little soccer ball so that they would know that this is the "mah bahh" to which my phrase refers.

It's a long drive...

Yesterday I got to go to my first major league baseball game. I saw the Giants play the Rockies at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco. I'm a really cheap date for baseball games---free---since I'm under age 2. We had great seats, only nine rows back for the action on the thrid base line. There were lots of highlights at the game. For me, the best part was the big clock in center field. Here's a not so good picture Daddy found on the web. Often, I enjoyed pointing and calling everyone's attention to the glory of the big clock. Tick tock tick tock. One of the other exciting features of the park is the sheer number of people wearing hats. I liked to turn to the rows above us and point out all the people wearing hats. One person in the row behind realized I was pointing at his hat and would put his hands on his hat to signify that he too realized he was wearing a hat. I'd put my hands on my hat and we took turns for a while. Some other exciting things that I got to see include a huge Coke bottle and baseball mitt. While not as cool as the clock and many hats, they are fun too.

We saw an exciting slugfest. The first homer I've ever seen in my life came off the bat of Todd Helton. Daddy says he is a "sweet swinging lefty" and encouraged me to watch his swing closely. Helton hit a towering fly to right, but didn't quite hit it far enough to go into the water. Later in the game, a substitute catcher, Alberto Castillo, hit a grand slam home run. Daddy said I was lucky to see such an event although I didn't feel all that lucky. While I like clapping to the music and the general roar of the crowd, I get scared when things get too loud, as they did when he hit the grand slam.

Still, it was a great time. I got to eat lots of veggie booty and also got to drink some fresh from the ballpark lemonade. Mommy actually got the lemonade for herself, but I ended up having most of it. Mommy and Daddy went with our friends Matt Goff and Patty Chang. I liked feeding Patty veggie booty since she always seemed hungry to me.

BTW, the Giants won!

Getting Wet

Yesterday, I went to a group playdate at Logan's house. I hadn't seen Logan in many months, so we both looked very different to each other. Logan has an inground pool and a black labrador retriever. Woof! It was about 100 degrees here yesterday, so I enjoyed going in the pool with the other toddlers and their mommies. I didn't like Logan's splashing, however, so I tried to keep my distance from her in the water. All of us had water and fruit popcicles when we came out of the pool. This is the first time I had a popcicle all to myself (strawberry), and it was icy and delicious. Logan was very interested in sharing her popcicle. I tasted hers and she tasted mine. She also painted my hat with her popcicle.

After we came home, mommy and I went out to our yard and I played in my wading pool and then we played with the hose. Ever since I first saw the hose used to fill my pool, I've found it fascinating, but we've never played in the spray of the hose before. It was really fun! I enjoyed coming up close to the hose to touch the water and then running away giggling while Mommy sprayed my feet and naked derriere.

Yess!

One of my favoriate toys is my basketball net. Today I decided to do some slam dunks (my favoriate shot). Daddy would encourage me to "put it down" and "drive the lane". Whenever I would make a basket, Daddy would cheer and say, "Yesss!" in his best Marv Albert voice. I liked this so much, I said back to him, "Essss". We traded "esses" for the rest of the morning. While most 18 month olds learn to say "no" first, for me it's a Marv Albertesque "Yesss!"

Culture

One of my favorite foods these days is yogurt. I'm a bit particular about yogurts and really like Danimals yogurt. I don't much like its leading rival, Yo'Baby. The best way to eat yogurt is to feed it to myself using a spoon. This is both delicious ad lots of fun, but is also messy. As a result, Daddy and Mommy have evolved a ritual yogurt eating routine. I get to sit out on the patio in the bright sunshine. Then I strip down to a diaper (or sometmes to notthing), then I get to eat yogurt to my heart's content. At the end of all of this, I towel off or splash in the pool, or get lightly sprayed by the hose and I'm good as new.

Oakland Zoo

Over the weekend, I got to visit my first zoo, the Oakland Zoo. We got to see all sorts of animals. I recognized many of them by their stuffed animal counterparts. However, these real animals were different in that they could move all by themselves. I had a great time and got to see my all-time favorite, the "raffes". Mommy and Daddy took some pictures on the trip. I've posted them here.

Big Pool

On Thursday, I had a playdate with my friend, Sam. Mommy and I went to Sam's house in Danville and then we went to the pool in Sam's development. They had both a 1 1/2 foot wading pool as well as a big pool. I went in both with Mommy along with some trusty floating sand molds. I like putting things in and out of water. After swimming, we had lunch and played at Sam's house. Sam has a nice golden retriever named Bailey. Bailey and I were very interested in each other. Woof! Woof! I didn't want to leave Sam's house since it had a friend, a dog, and some new toys, but I fell asleep as soon as the car started moving on the way home.

Football Guy

Mommy has started going to physical therapy to work on strengthening her ankles and toes, and today she was doing her therapy along with pro-linebacker Greg Biekert, formerly of the Oakland Raiders and currently of the Minnesota Vikings. He seemed like a nice guy, but Mommy didn't think it would be polite to try to get me an autograph while he was doing therapy.

Doctor Visit

Yesterday, I had another unpleasant visit to the doctor. I had to wait a really long time (I don't like waiting) and then at the end of this, the reward I got was some unpleasant shots that left me limping for a time. I did, however, learn that I'm fast catching up to other children the same age as me. I'm now in the 45th percentile in height, the 40th percentile in weight, and, of course, the 90th percentile in head size. I think this last statistic might be from all the compliments I receive.

Mommy also talked to the doctor about various things she worries about. (Mommy's job is to worry about me.) She was concerned with my vegetarian ways (after all, I was born and raised in California); however the doctor allayed her fears and said that by growing I was demonstrating my ability to gobble up those proteins. She also ominously talked about my nighttime routine. You see, usually, I go to bed with a bottle of nice, warm milk and a song. Apparently, the bottle is supposed to be out of the mix before too long. That will be a sad day.

Fourth of July

Yesterday was the 4th of July, and I got to go to a neat parade in Danville, CA-- about 2 towns down from Walnut Creek. The Danville 4th of July parade is a big deal around here and is about 2 hours long. It seems that the tradition in Danville is for people to leave folding chairs (often a large group of chairs surrounded by string or rope) out in advance to reserve spots along the parade route. Last year, chairs were out 3 days ahead of the parade, which was a bit much according to safety-conscious people, so this year they made a new rule that chairs could not be left out until the night before the parade and hauled away any chairs left out before then. This has been a big local news story since many people got angry. Since I have a lovely rolling chair in the form of my stroller, I did not have to fight for a seat at the parade. Mommy, Daddy and I were able to find a place to perch between 2 big groups of chairs and we could see everything just fine.

Most people at the parade were wearing red, white, and blue clothes, and I was no exception. I wore my red, white and blue gingham sunsuit and hat. While I did not like some of the loud noises at the parade, I did like some of the goodies I received from parade marchers- bottled water, a sports bottle, a police sticker and tatoos, a little flag, and my favorites, 2 balloons and a mini-soccer ball. I also enjoyed seeing the animals in the parade (horses, dogs, a goat, and a duck), looking at the floats (one from NBC had a small version of a helicopter on it!), and the silly marchers-- especially the lawn mower and shopping cart brigades. I also clapped and waved for the Pearl Harbor survivors, who waved back. The parade was long and I was very tired since it ran up to my naptime, so we left a little early. I fell asleep on the way home, but I woke up getting out of the car and was too excited to fall back asleep. I went in my wading pool in the late afternoon, and then went to bed an hour early and slept through the night. Mommy and Daddy tell me that they cooked out after I went to sleep and then watched fireworks on TV. Real fireworks are too loud for me.

You can see photos of me on the 4th of July here. Auntie Max should note that in one photo Daddy is wearing the Hawaiian shirt she gave him about 10 years ago (the Christmas that she gave Aloha shirts all around).

New second cousin

Mommy's cousin became a daddy the other day, so I have a new cousin. She is a baby girl named Chloe, and she lives in Philadelphia with her parents, Eugene and Amy. I like her name since I already have a friend named Chloe!

Hide and Seek

I've alwaysloved playing hide and seek. Since I was old enough to crawl Daddy has been hiding behind tables, around corners, and crouched beneath my big toy pony. But with my increasing confidence in my mobility, hide and seek has changed in its speed and intensity. As Emeril would say, "Bang! We turned it up a notch." When we play hide and see now, Daddy runs at top speed and hides behind one of the corners in our house. I pursue at top speed. When I get close, he retreats to the next corner, and on and on. The thing is---I'm very quick. I'll soon catch him before he has time to retreat to the next spot. Just you wait and see.

Fork Milestone

On Sunday, I sucessfully used my fork to spear some mini-ravioli and feed it to myself for the first time. I was very proud. I fed some to Mommy too!

Napa Photos

The long awaited (by my Nainnie) photos from her visit to see me in May are ready now. These photos were taken in a park and at home in Walnut Creek and at various wineries along the Silverado Trail in the Napa Valley. We visited the Trefethen, Stag's Leap, Silverado, Mumm Cuvee Napa, Duckhorn, and St. Supery wineries during our day trip to Napa. Click here for photos.

A trip to Little Farm, Berkeley

Today I journeyed to Tilden Park in Berkeley for a group playdate and picnic at Little Farm. Little Farm boasts cows, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and bunnies. My friends, Sophie, Emme, Shaelynn, Lauren, and I brought celery and lettuce to feed the animals. I said, "Moo!" at the cows and "Woof! Woof!" at the goats. I didn't like the geese very much because one nipped at me, but I did like watching the other animals chow down on the celery I'd brought from home. After we fed the animals, we fed ourselves in picnic fashion. We were pretty tired by then, but we also went for a brief visit to the carousel that's located in another part of the park. When Mommy said I was going to ride a horse, I ran toward the carousel and wanted to jump on immediately, but it was moving so I had to wait. I rode on a horse with Mommy standing beside me and then we rode a goat together. You can see some pictures from my day out here.

Good Morning

Many things in my life are ritualized (I like consistency) and getting up in the morning is no exception. This morning Daddy got me up in his usual way. I'm pretty much awake by the time I officially "get up" so I get to pay careful attention to what's going on. First, Daddy lifts the shade to reveal the sunlight pouring through the window. This is another exciting instance of a light, so I point and say "ight" at the window. Next, he sings the parts of the good morning song that he knows. He sings it like this:

Good morning, good morning! We danced the whole night through
Good morning, good morning to you
Good morning, good morning! It's great to stay up late
Good morning, good morning to you!
Bonjour, buenos dias, buongiorno, guten morgen
Good morning, good morning to you!

(Of course, like most of my Daddy's attempts at song lyrics, his version is both incomplete and wrong. Here are the correct lyrics.)

Now it's time to get out of my crib. I like the freedom of getting out, but I'm reluctant to part with all the nifty objects that are in there with me. Daddy hoists me over the side and I instantly reach to get my stuff. One blanket pulled through the bars of the crib. Then another. And another. Now I'll get the ears of Pat the Bunny and pull him through (he's kind of big on the bottom so it's not so easy.) Now I'm happy. I'm free to run around and I have all my stuff.

Good morning to me.

Stomping and Splashing

Today was my day to get wet. Mommy and I started off the day meeting Sam and his mommy at a local shopping center. The Rite-Aid store there has a garden fountain on display out front. Since I was already in my swimwear in preparation for later water play, Mommy let me splash my hands in the fountain to my heart's content while we waited for our friends. It was lots of fun. Once Sam and his mommy arrived, we drove to Central Park in San Ramon, where they have a cool waterplay area. There are lots of shallow areas (about an inch or two of water) that are great for stomping your feet, splashing, or sitting down in. Eventually, the shallow areas lead to a larger, round wading pool that surrounds a large mushroom (taller than mommy) that spews water down like a shower. This place is fun for kids of all ages. While I was nervous at first, I became accustomed to the water with the help of a yellow plastic, truck-shaped sand mold, which a nice lady let me use. I put it in the water on its "wheels" and pushed it around in the water making truck noises. I figure that if a truck likes the place then it's good for me too!

After the park, we came home for my nap, and then Mommy and I went out to play in the yard. Remembering how much I enjoyed wading at the park, Mommy filled my little pool with an inch or two of water and threw my beach ball in. At first toe-touch to water, I complained bitterly, but soon changed my mind when I saw Mommy stomping her feet in the pool and pushing my ball around. The two of us had a fun time spinning my ball in the water and stomping around. Maybe my pool isn't so bad after all.

Photos Part 2

I've upgraded one of the photos from the miniature horse show and added a shot of my recent trip to Paris. You can find them here.

Food, glorious food

As most of you know, I like to mostly stick to tried and true foods in the beige food group (cheese, bread, crackers or various sorts, cereal, and bananas). Lately, however, I've decided to broaden my horizons. Mommy calls it my "food renaissance." I've been eating watermelon for about the past week or so and love it despite its non-beige color. In the last few days, I have tried a bunch of new things: pastas with tomato sauce (spaghetti & shells), ravioli, cucumber, dill pickles, and green beans. I've actually had small tastes of all these foods previously, but found them to be yucky. I think they must have reformulated the flavors of these foods into "new and improved" versions since last time since they tasted really good (except for the cucumber, which was still sort of yucky). I also tried grapefruit for the first time and rejected it and sampled diced pears, which I'm not sure about texture-wise.

Photos

I've posted a new batch of photos from the miniature horse show. You can find them here. There are a couple of leftovers from earlier as well. My favorite is the one of the snail. He was crawling around our patio one evening. The boy in the big Stetson was one of the handlers at the show. He was competing in the only category I was eligible for---handlers under 7. Unfortunately, no one would lend me a horse to show. Enjoy!

Happy

Lately, I've been finding it easier and easier to acquire new words. Words are useful---currently, I have to express lots of feelings using only "words" like "Eeee" and "Eh Eh Eh." Anyway, I learned a new word that Mommy really semed to like. A few days ago, she was hugging me and kissing me and telling me what a great little guy I am and how much she loves me. Now, I really like it when she says this, and I've finally figured out something to say back. As she paused between saying nice things about me, I looked up at her and said just one word, "Happy."

All the Pretty Horses

This morning we all went together as a family to a miniature horse show in a local park. Miniature horses are not too big---no more than 3 feet tall. Here's a site describing them in more detail. Despite their small size, they can do all sorts of things. I saw one pull a person in a little wheeled cart. Lucky for me, I'm small enough to ride one of these guys, but Mommy and Daddy didn't think that was a good idea at all. I loved being close to the horsies.

If I Had a Hammer

Mommy got me a new toy yesterday. It's a kind of ball maze, but with a twist---to get the balls to go down the maze I need to use a hammer to pound them through the holes. It's kind of like this toy. I've encountered these while visiting friends houses at several times in my life. When I was a little more than 1 year old, one of these toys was at the joint 1-year-old birthday party for one of the playgroups I am in. At that time, I had no idea how to use this toy. To me, the best thing about it was simply rollling the balls along the hardwood fllor and chasing them. A couple of months later, I encountered one of them on a playdate with Athena, who lives down the street with me. Her maze was such that, by pushing hard enough, I could get the balls to go down with my hands. I enjoyed doing this. Most recently, I was out on another playdate and was fascinated with the toy---including using the hammer to make the balls go down. As a result, Mommy got the toy for me to play with at home.

At first, I still couldn't get the link between the hammer and the balls going down the maze, but I learn fast. By yesterday evening I was a pro at it although I mostly prefer to use the side of the hammer rather than the tip of it for ball-pounding purposes. Eventually, I even started to use the "business end" of the hammer to pound the balls down. One of the best things about this toy is that, when the balls come down from the maze, they bump into my feet, which is extremely funny. I really like this toy.

Stonehenge

Today my Daddy was in charge of taking care of me, so that Mommy could have a much needed day off. While it was always the case that when Daddy is in charge, we end up spending most of the day outside, now we end up doing a lot of walking. This is fine with me because I'm happy for the independence of walking as opposed to being pushed around in a stroller. In the morning, we went to a park across the street. Daddy carried me across the street, but after that I was on my own to follow him around the park. We walked for a fair distance until we came to an open, grassy ares with benches. There are lots of interesting things in this area. The benches are interesting, and I made a thorough investigation of these. The benches consist of slats of wood held together with nails. I was especially intrigued by the nails and asked over and over what they were. The other interesting feature of the benches are the gaps between the slats. I asked about these and Daddy told me they were "gaps." After a couple of tries, I found that I could say this word too. I pointed to the empty space between the slats and said "aps!". Daddy seemed quite delighted at this new word.

Near the benches are rocks used for drainage. These are some great rocks---all rounded and just the right size for picking up. I would pick up a rock and haul it over to the bench on which Daddy was sitting and then place it beside him. I did this for about four rocks. Then I came over to play with Daddy and the rocks. I discovered that rocks are kind of like blocks, you can stack them one on the other and make rock towers. We built several different types of towers together. First the usual ones and then one where Daddy placed two rounded rocks next to one another and then had me place a flat rock as a kind of "ceiling" on top of the two rounded ones. Daddy said we were building something called "Stonehenge" which is a place in Britain. I liked building and rebuilding Stonehenge.

Spinning

I like most everything that spins. When I was a little, little guy, my Daddy used to spin all manner of objects on the floor for me. I would really laugh at that. Now, I mostly just like it when he spins the football around on the floor. I've even learned to do a little of this myself. If I bat at the very end of the football, it spins nicely though not as consistently as when Daddy does it. Sometimes I like to ask him to spin the football for me over and over. I'll sae to him "Eee. Eee. Eee," growing more insistent with each iteration. Usually he gets the hint and spins the football.

You know what else is good for spinning? Me. I like to stand up and twirl round and round. After doing this for a while, I find it hard to walk straight. Mommy says I'm dizzy. Spinning is even better as a group activity. I especially love it when Mommy or Daddy spin along with me as I am spinning. One time we all spun together as a family. Sort of a group spin.

Giggle Guy

One of my favorite toys is a stuffed creature called Giggle Guy. Giggle Guy is a yellow furry thing with a big smile (sort of like the 70s style smiley face). When you press one of his hands, he vibrates and giggles and says "That's funny". My Daddy thinks Giggle Guy is rather insane in that he laughs and says "That's funny" for no reason whatsoever. Of course, I've found that pressing my hand is reason enough for laughing on some occasions, so I think he's okay. Anyway, last night, I decided to show Giggle Guy to one of my other stuffed animals, a big pink pig named Miss Piggy (not the *real* Miss Piggy (TM) mind you). You've seen her in pictures. Somehow, she seems more "alive" than Giggle Guy, so I thought she might like to make Giggle Guy giggle. I grabbed Miss Piggy's arm and had her press the hand of Giggle Guy so that he giggled. This was fantastic. We all laughed together at Giggle Guy's antics.

Are you ready for some football?

I love to play football with my Daddy. Today, I was in the mood to play this afternoon, so I picked up my football and searched for him. He was nowhere to be found. Evenutally, I decided that he must be hiding in the garage, so I pounded on the door to get him to come out---but to no avail. Mommy said that he was at work and that I would have to wait until he came home to play. I looked forward to that time. When he did finally come home, I immediately presented him with the football and demanded to play. While Daddy and I have played football for many months, the game has changed somewhat as I've gotten bigger. In its latest incarnation, I play the role of runner or receiver and Daddy is the quarterback. He'll drop back to pass, evading some imaginary tacklers, and then find me open for a pass. I'm not very good at catching just yet, so I'm allowed to pick the ball off the ground and count that as a catch. I then run around the room for a touchdown. Sometimes Daddy does a little commentary as he goes back to pass. Apparently, the local team here is the Oakland Raiders, who were one of the best teams when Daddy was growing up. Daddy refers to himself as "Stabler" going back to pass to me, who he often refers to as "Casper". Daddy tells me that Stabler and Casper were both fine players for the Raiders in the 1970s. Mommy says that Daddy's commentary is a bit confusing as I'm not used to being referred to by the names of players of yesteryear for the Raiders. Still, football is a great sport.

By the way, the most thrilling part of the whole thing is when Daddy shouts, "It's a fumble!" and we both roll around on the ground in a scrum for the ball. That is absolutely the best!

Do not go gentle

I staged a little rebellion last night. I was extremely tired, so Mommy put me to bed a bit earlier than usual. That was fine with me, but about 3 hours later I awoke feeling refreshed but disoriented. To alert Mommy and Daddy to the situation, I let out my best horror-movie victim spine-chilling scream. That brought Mommy. Her plan was to comfort me in my bedroom until I fell back to sleep. Little did she know that I had other plans. After many attempts at comforting, I finally managed to escape her grasp and quickly headed into the light of the living room and started alternating unpacking my toys and reeling unsteadily around the room. I was happy and smiling as long as my parents did not try to move me back into my bedroom. At any reminder of bedtime I would become quite upset and treat my parents to some more horror movie screams. Soon after I came into the living room, my parents had the bright idea of turning out all the lights. They said that they were going to sleep now. My mom lay on the couch and I climbed up and snuggled with her for a bit. Soon after, I became cooperative about going back to my crib and slept until morning.

Hard day's night

I feel just awful today, although better than last night. Yesterday, I started to run a mild fever during the day but didn't really show much ill-effect from it. Mommy was quick to spot that I was feeling a little hot. She gave me grape flavored Tylenol. I absolutely adore the taste of this stuff. The official dosage is two droppersful, but I really wanted more. I held up the jar of Tylenol with my mouth open in hopes of getting some extra. I even gnawed on the top of the dropper a little bit in hopes of wringing more goodness out. But enough about the gustatory delights of Tylenol, on to the night.

The night started out okay, but quickly degenerated. I was up about 1 and feeling really bad. I was crying and crying. Mommy came to comfort me and found that I was very hot with a temp over 102. I found some solace in cuddles and another dose of Tylenol. This kept me happy until around 3am, when I got up crying again. I was really feeling bad and even Mommy's attempts to comfort me were not enough. Eventually, I had a bottle of warm milk and felt somewhat better. Up the next morning and still feeling not very happy.

Mommy took me to the doctor this morning where they told me something we both already knew---I was running a fever. Fortunately, they didn't see any signs of anything more serious, so they sent me home with a happy prescription, more Tylenol. I'm supposed to come back if things don't improve over the next three days. I really hope things do improve becuase last night was just awful for me.

My dictionary

I thought I'd make a list of the words I know and their definitions:

Bah-oon: Balloon or objects shaped like balloons
Uh oh: Said when something falls to the ground or is on the ground
Boo: The sound objects make when they fall to the ground
Addy: My father
Ma Ma Ma: My mother
Mi Mi: Milk
Ight: Lamps or any light source such as sunshine streaming through a window
Tih Tih Tih: A clock or wristwatch.
Tah Tah Tah: A truck or train
Room: The sound a wheeled vehicle makes when in motion
Aht? An interrogative meaning what's that or how do you call that?
Hi: An all-purpose greeting
Ice: A glass or anything containing a cold liquid

More words as I think of them.

Round and round

My play is becoming increasingly active and rambunctious. Last night, Daddy and I played a game of tag. We alternately chased each other around and around the patio dining table. Sometimes I would hide behind one of the chairs. These chairs have a kind of translucent mesh fabric. Daddy would dreep up on the other side of the chair and we'd both put our faces up to the fabric and see each other through it. This was absolutely hilarious! I also spent a good deal of time diriving my car on the patio. I'm still not very good at making it go forwards, but I'm excellent at backwards. I like to make sound effects---vroom, vroom---when I drive.

Song and Dance

Many of my toys have songs that go with them. Pat the Bunny has a theme song, my frog has a theme song, my inchworm has a them song, my stuffed monkey doesn't have a theme song but makes a distinctive noise. Now it used to be that my Mommy and Daddy would sing the theme songs to my toys when they wished. I like the songs a lot and have picked up some versions of them that I sing myself. Still, they're better at it than I am. So I"ve come up with a plan. I bring the appropriate stuffed animal to them and sing a few bars of the appropriate somg from them to sing. Then I go "ah...ah...ah...ah" until they start the singing. Once the singing starts I like to flap my arms and dance around the room. Theme songs are great!

Bye-bye

Today my Nainnie flies back to the east. She's been great to have around. Much like me, she's endlessly interested in playing the lawnmower lady game. She also invented some other games. One of my favorites is where we put my blocks in the tracks for the patio doors and then drive the blocks back and forth along the tracks, just like a real train! I also enjoyed building towers with her (also with my blocks). She can build really tall towers, which are very fun to knock down with my nose. I'm going to miss her not being around. I think Mommy and Daddy will too (they could use the help!)

Open Door Policy

I've figured out a new and important concept: doorknobs. In my house, our doorknobs have long horizontal handles (so why are they called door-KNOBS, anyway?). Here's my key discovery: If you pull down on the handle, the door opens. This opens vast new possibilities for exploration. For instance, this morning my Daddy was in the office talking with a co-author about a paper he is writing. I wanted to visit and help him with my suggestions for the paper. So I opened the door to the office, let myself in, and started right in having a conversation with him.

Dreading Water

My Mommy put up a new pool for me yesterday. I had a pool last summer, which I sort of liked, but the weather took its toll on it, so we got a new one. This one is big and white and has lots of fishies on the outside of it. I haven't made up my mind about whether I like it or not yet. One fun thing is about it is that I can bring one of my many containers for pouring stuff and put water inside it. While putting water in is fun, dumping the water out is even more fun. I dumped some water on Mommy and Nainnie yesterday. They laughed and laughed at my zany antics. On the other hand, actually getting in the pool is not something I'm keen to do. My Daddy waded into the pool last night and hoisted me up and in. I didn't like the cold water on my feet. It also made walking really difficult, which scared me. I think for now I prefer getting in a nice bathtub (which I did today) rather than going into the scary pool.

Gotta dance

While I've always loved dancing, lately I've been adding new and funkier movements to my inimitable dancing style. When I'm particularly enjoying the beat, I'll bob my head back and forth, jutting my chin out, sort of like a pigeon. I also now like to flap my arms from side to side as I rock back and forth. I'm a dancin' fool as they say.

Lawnmower Lady

My Nainnie came to visit me on Saturday. I hadn't seen her for 4 whole days, so I was really happy to see her. I think she should come to California more often. Anyway, I discovered a great game to play with her---Lawnmower Lady! This game involves hauling my big toy lawnmower over to her and then having her chase me around the house and the yard. The best part comes when we play "lawnmower accident". I inch my toes up to the mower and then she lightly runs over them; thus simulating the accident. Hee hee hee.

I have a new favorite phrase, "Uh ohhhhh". I say this when anything falls on the ground, whether by accident or because I've thrown it there. The best part of this phrase is the "ohhh" part. I like to purse my lips and make the "oh" last really long. I've also found a new expression of happiness. While I used to like to laugh gleefully when pleased (I still do this) now I also like to say "eeeeeeeeee" when I'm really pleased with something. Today we went to a park and I got to play on the jungle gym and slide down the slide. I said "eeeeee" a lot.

Flying Away

Today I'm flying back to the east coast with my Mommy to see all my relatives back in "old country". Mommy's hoping that I do better on the plane ride than I did last night at dinner. Mommy decided that we should all go out to a fancy place, Il Fornaio, for a last dinner before flying off. I was enjoying myself for awhile, but the stately pace of the dinner became too much for me and by the time we got to the main course, I really wanted to go home. I cried and cried until Mommy and Daddy saw the wisdom of a "to go" version of the main course. We went home, I had some milk, and went straight to sleep. I was tired.

Train of Thought

I've notived something interesting about my clothing as well as Daddy's clothing. My clothing often has pictures of various objects on it. For instance, yesterday my shirt was covered with lots of little trains. Since I really like trains, when I notied this I pointed to the images on my clothing and said "Tuh Tuh Tuh." Daddy was wearing his Red Barons sweatshirt over the weekend. This short has a picture of another favorite, a ball, on it. I pointed to it and said "Buh Buh". Of course, these images are so small they're sometimes confusing. This morning my jammies had pictures of firetrucks on them. Firetrucks look awfully similar to trains, so I generalized. "Tuh Tuh Tuh" I said. Mommy and Daddy looked doubtful about this.

Gooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've always loved to play with balls of various sorts. This weekend my Mommy got me a new collection of perfect Aidan-sized balls. One is a baseball, one a basketball, one a soccer ball, and one a little football. All of them are soft so they're easy to grip and won't break anything when I fling them around wildly. Daddy and I played lots of different ball games over the course of the weekend, and I ended up learning a new skill. When Markus came to visit, he started "dribbling" a soccer ball with his feet. It surprised me that you could manipulate balls with your feet as well as by picking them up and throwing them. I made a few tentative attempts to step on the ball with my feet too, but without much luck. Daddy showed me the same thing over the weekend and I finally got it. The key is to kick the ball. I started doing this and it was great fun. Sometimes when you kick the ball hard it goes further and faster than when you throw it. I made one kick that went clear across the room and into Licorice's cage. When I did that, Daddy cried out "Gooooooaaaaaaaalllllllll!!!!!!!" in his best Latin accent. I laughed and laughed. Kicking is great.

Hopping on by with Easter Photos

I have just posted lots of Easter photos here.

If you click through to the photos, you will be able to see me and my friend, Sophia (...One of them, that is. I have at least 2 friends named Sophia!), at the Easter Egg Hunt that took place after church in Oakland as well as Daddy, Mommy, and me in our house and in our yard on Easter. I had 2 Easter Egg Hunts-- one at church and one at home. As you'll see in some of the photos, I not only found lots of eggs, I also found a neat soccer ball!

Zahnrade

For the last two days, a very nice (and very tall) man named Markus has been visiting with us. He's one of my Daddy's co-authors who happened to be in town. He also happens to be German, so he taught me some new words while he played with me. One of my favorite things to play with during his visit was my gear toy. I really love this toy under normal circumstances and liked it even better in German. I've discovered that my gears are called Zahnrade in German. The German actually makes more sense to me since it means "tooth wheel" which perfectly describes my gears. I also learned the word Reißverschluß, which makes a lot less sense to me. Markus tells me it translates to zipper, but it literally means "tear catch". Markus is lots of fun and full of new ideas.

Turning 'Round and 'Round

Yesterday, I discovered that I can turn around and around like a fan or a falling leaf. I slowly spin around and watch the world go 'round. Sometimes I even make my hand-sign for "fan" or look up at the ceiling fan before beginning this endeavor. While I did this only once yesterday, today I have turned 'round and 'round a number of times. I tend to lose my balance and fall down after a few turns though. Mommy says this is called getting dizzy!

Rocks

My Daddy was mostly in charge of me this weekend as Mommy was not feeling all that well. That can only mean one thing---lots and lots of outdoor play. Mommy was mildly complaining that after eash of my expeditions with Daddy, I always come home smelling like a dirty, sweaty little boy. Oh, but it's worth it. On Saturday, I got to meet lots and lots of dogs. Some dogs run really fast while others move slower. I like all dogs, and I'm getting better at figuring out how to pet them gently. I think their tails are interesting too. I like to chase back and forth after a wagging tail. I wonder why I don't have a tail?

I also got to play with a bunch of rounded rocks which were near the dogs. Rocks are almost as fun as dogs. You can bang them together and make a satisfying noise. You can move them into separate piles and then rearrange them back into a larger pile. They also have nice heft for short throws. Rocks are good too.

When I came home, Mommy insisted that Daddy and I have a bath. Baths are good too.

On Sunday, my Daddy took me to a big park where I could run around. I liked riding on the horsey with springs under him. I also liked climbing up the play equipment. My climbing skills are increasing by leaps and bounds. I managed to get myself up to the top of the play structure and then slid down the sliding board. Wheee. This park also has many steps, which I enjoyed exploring. I find that crawling is the best way to get up and down steps. To get up steps, I face my body toward the top and crawl. Th get down, I do the same thing but in reverse. I still face my body toward the top of the steps and then crawl backwards to get down. I like the symmetry of my solution. I found many lovely sticks to pick up and give to Daddy as presents in the park. I also encountered many interesting trees. With my newfound mobility, I can walk right up to the trunk of a tree and bang on it to let the tree know that I'm visiting.

A Fall

Well, it happened- and sooner rather than later. I was climbing up on the couch to sit next to Mommy this morning and fell backward and banged my head hard on the coffee table. It happened so fast that Mommy couldn't catch me in time even though she was right next to me. It really hurt. It hurt so much that I actually sat still and let mommy put a bag of frozen carrots on my head for a while. (With lesser bumps, I just try to eat the ice or walk away with it.) I have been acting normally since my accident though, so I think that I'll be fine. (The coffee table only reappeared about 2 weeks ago. It had been stored in the garage for months since it was the cause of many injuries once I started crawling. It may have to disappear again due to my climbing.)

My Mommy's Lap is Just for Me!

In other news, I went to Music Together today and then went to lunch with 2 other Mommies and their babies. We made quite a mess ar Nordstrom's Cafe! After lunch, we retired to the Mother's Room for diaper changes and a bit of walking/crawling around. The two other babies, Sam (10 mths.) and Joey (12 months), were very friendly with mommy-- a bit too friendly in my opinion. Each boy invaded my mommy territory at a different time-- daring to climb onto her lap and look deeply into her eyes. Sam even kissed her on the chin! These incursions made me quite upset. I cried and made it quite clear that my mommy's lap is only for me. I am happy that I was able to repel the invaders from my mommy's lap.

Outside

I love to play outside. In fact, one of the biggest frustrations in my life is when the patio door is opened and I don't get to go out. I let Mommy and Daddy know my displeasure at that situation in strong terms. Yesterday (and today) it was raining off and on so it looked like an indoor day. Happily, the rain stopped by the evening so that I was able to go outside after coming home from the supermarket with Mommy. One thing I like to do is push my Cozy Coupe car around. I actually prefer to push it than ride in it. Every time I hit an obstacle (which is often), I like to say "boom" and laugh. Daddy hopes that by the time I'm sixteen my attitutes toward running cars into things have changed a bit. I also like to go on my little sliding board. I love the thrill of sliding down. Plus, I've discovered that we have a big sliding board in our yard. I try to walk up the sliding board, but it's really hard to do this. Instead, Daddy boosts me up toward the top and I go sliding down---really fast. I love this. Daddy makes a little sound effect as he boosts me. To indicate that I want another go, I climb back onto the sliding board and start making the sound effect back at him. Up I go...and then down. Yay.

We also like to run around the yard. Daddy can run really fast, but I'm starting to catch up. He'll usually toss or kick a ball around as he runs and then "pass" it to me. Daddy seems to love playing with footballs and baseballs almost as much (maybe even more) than I do. Yesterday, he was trying to teach me how to "dribble" a ball with my feet, like in soccer. I found this pretty difficult to get, but I did have the idea that putting my foot on the ball was a way to make it move. I love being outside.

I'm all Ears

I've discovered a new trick that I like to do with Mommy and Daddy. They ask me where my ear is, and then I point to my ear. Sometimes they'll ask me where my nose is. Often, I'll point to me nose, but sometimes I'll point to my ear. Then they ask me where my eye is. Very often, I point to my ear in response to this question. Daddy says I'm all ears.

Climbing

This past weekend, I figured out how to scale the couch. I stretch my leg up as far as I can until my heel or toes are about couch seat height and then scramble up. While I get very frustrated sometimes since I don't always succeed at the first try, I work at it until I make it. Then I like to stand up and stake my claim to the couch territory. Unfortunately, my parents are less happy about my newfound ability since they are worried that I will pitch myself off the couch by accident. They are going to work on teaching me that I can only be on the couch if I sit or lie down. This will be an uphill battle, I think.

This weekend I also managed to climb into the bathtub by myself-- and it wasn't even bathtime! Again, I stretched my leg up and then fell (gently) into the empty tub. Mommy and Daddy keep the bathroom door closed to keep me out unless it's bathtime, but this time I had accompanied Mommy into the bathroom while she was hanging some things to dry. She immediately snatched me out of the tub and seemed very unhappy about my latest climbing activity.

P.s. I added one new food to my short list of acceptable foods last week-- raisins. I enjoy feeding them to Mommy too.

Dancing

I've always liked to dance to music, but now with my walking skills I've discovered a new pleasure---dancing with another person. When my Daddy came home I grabbed him by the hand and tugged him out of the kitchen into the family room where the music was playing. Along the way, I demonstrated to him my ability to walk backward. (I like backward---it's full of surprises!) We got to the family room and I started to bounce around to the music while holding his hand. Then I took his other hand so that he couuld be more bouncy. We danced together for awhile.

Easter Egg Hunt

I went to my first Easter egg hunt yesterday. Mommy and Daddy took me to a church in Oakland with them. It was a big Presbyterian church with lots of interesting lights. I also really enjoyed the music too. They had a brass quartet and a giant pipe organ and played several really good songs. When one of the songs ended, I found myself still signing along to it. For most of the time, I was happy to stand in the pew and lokk around though my patience wore thin towards the end. Mommy kept me plied with raisins and bagels for much of the time.

After church, there was a big Easter egg hunt. While many of the other kids tried to grab as many of the eggs as they could and would eat the candy inside, I preferred to receive only two eggs (one for each hand) and found that the candy was much more enjoyable for the shaking noise it makes in the egg than for eating. Mommy repeated the Easter egg hunt at home (where I faced no competition from other children). She also replaced the candy with equally shakable goldfish crackers inside the eggs. Unfortunately, they were yucky parmesan cheese goldfish instead of the cheddar ones I like. I tasted a few and did not like them. When I don't like something, I find it best to spit it out. We had a nice Easter but I was really tired from all the running around. I went to bed at 7:15 (way early for me) and didn't get up until around 8 the following morning.

Yeeeah (baby)

I like to celebrate all my accomplishments and I've found a really effective way to do it is to give a throaty "yeeeeaaahhh" when I succeed at something. Yesterday, I was playing with my shapes puzzle. While some of the shapes, like the diamond, are quite tricky to put back into their slots, others, like the circle, are less so. Every time I'd put the circle in its slot in the puzzle, I'd say "yeeaahhh". Daddy would then reply "yeeeaaah" too. I'd take the circle out, then put it back in.

"Yeeaahh," I'd say
"Yeeeaah," Daddy would reply.

Yeah.

Doing the Wave

I know when I want to go outside, but it takes some doing to convince Mommy that we should go when I want to. The other day, I put on a hat, walked over to the back door, looked directly at Mommy and started waving bye-bye. She understood and told me that I was very clever, but she did not immediately fling open the door for me. She seems to operate on something other than toddler time. Why can't adults live only in the now like me?

I find that the bye-bye wave is adaptable to many situations. When I don't want to eat something, I drop it on the floor and wave bye-bye to it. When I want Mommy to get up and go to the kitchen to get me some milk, I say "MMM" and then wave bye-bye at her to hasten her departure. Of course, waving is effective in the traditional taking leave of friends or toys usage too. Then there is the always exciting wave hello-- and the even friendlier double wave hello-- and the more emphatic double wave accompanied by a string of enthusiastic "Hi!" greetings. Waving is good stuff.

15 Month Checkup

On Monday, I went to the doctor for my 15-month checkup. My latest stats follow: Height: 30 1/2 inches; Weight: 23 lbs. 14 oz. After stalling at the 10th percentile for the last few well baby visits, my height has now lept to the 25th percentile for boys my age. I'm just skying over those 10th percentile guys now! My percentile for weight has dropped slightly, but is still around the 50th percentile, and my head-- always a prize-winning specimen-- is in the 90th percentile. Mommy often has to buy me hats in size 3T-4T!

I had to endure two shots while at the doctor's office, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and Hib (influenza type b). This is my least favorite part of visiting the doctor, but Mommy told me that I was very brave.

Wheels

After my enjoyment in driving in the little car belonging to my Miami cousins, Mommy ordered me my own car. It came yesterday and Daddy built it. It's a sporty one-seater with its own door, keys to the ignition, and other great features. Daddy built it for me and let me take it for a test drive last evening. It was great! I loved being in it, but I haven't quite figured out how to make it run well. When Daddy would push me around in it, I liked to use the "brakes" by putting my feet on the ground and stopping the vehicle. When given a chance to drive it myself, I seemed to only be able to push it so that it went in a backward direction. This was fun, but not as satisfying as going forwards. Perhaps it needs a new transmission. If you're interested, the make and model can be found here. As usual, Mommy figured out some way to get it for an even better price than this though.

Aidan's Clubhouse

Mommy built a clubhouse for me and I got to play in it yesterday evening. It's great. It has a sliding board, an interesting ladder-like ramp to climb up, a foldable table, and lots more. I had a great time investigating all aspects of it and sliding down the sliding board. I quickly mastered the ladd thingy as well. Of course, sometimes I would want to leave my clubhouse so that I could play with all the interesting wood chips that are nearby. I like to reorganize the wood chips by moving them from here to there. Daddy also picked me up and flipped me upside down from time to time. I love upside down!

Choosy

Lately, my Mommy has been less than happy with my eating habits. She does not like the fact that I am refining my palette and becoming more choosy about what I eat. Right now, I've decided that I only like cheese and bread and not much else. She also keeps giving me these impossible to understand sippy cups, which I find more fun to slosh around than to actually drink from. I've also discovered that cups filled with anything are perfect for dropping stuff into. She seems to like it when I put things in my stacking cups, but not so much when cups are filled with liquid. How confusing.

Lachaim

Yesterday, Mommy was bouncing me on her knee and singing Hava Nagila to me. Interesting that both Mommy and Daddy like this song, but for different reasons. To Mommy, it's a song with a nice rhythm and will expose me to different cultures. To Daddy, it's a song to associate with baseball games. Anyway, at the conclusion of the song, I decided to try singing a verse myself. As Mommy put me down, I smiled and said to her "Hava" quite clearly. My Hebrew is coming along nicely.

Play Date

I had an impromptu play date today. Many months ago, my Daddy and I met a Mommy named Selena and her daughter Athena while stroll(er)ing through a nearby park. They don't live too far away from us, just a short walk. Anyway, we were strollering around again today when we ran across them in their front yard. They invited us in to visit Athena's play area, which they recently added to their house (Daddy seemed to be calculating whether we could do something similar). Athena has many interesting toys including one where you put balls labeled A through D into some holes in a toy. The balls then "run" down a series of ramps leading to the bottom of the toy, kind of like the toy at my Nainnie's house. While I never really got the hang of that toy at Christmas, I finally understood it here. I had a very nice time with Athena. Daddy had a glass of green tea with Athena's Mommy (Athena and family are Chinese).

Toys

Mommy and I went shopping in Macy's yesterday. I personally selected a stuffed bird that makes a delightful cheeping noise. Mommy tells me I have other animals that make noises, but thus far they've been very quiet when I play with them. The bird, on the other hand, cheeped loudly when I first squeezed it and continued cheeping happily. Mommy tried to ply me with other stuffed animals, but I liked the bird. He went home with me as Mommy helped us to adopt him. I think adoption involves Mommy paying a bribe to someone in the store.

Fireplace

I've found a great place to put things---inside the fireplace. This morning as Daddy as playing with me I would take whatever object I was playing with at the time---as baseball, a stacking cup---and stride purposefully to the fireplace to put it inside. Daddy didn't seem to think this was such a good idea since he kept taking the objects from me and rolling them to the other side of the room, much to my frustration. Perhaps he doesn't know where things go.

Skills
Mommy recently pulled up a sheet from Babycenter.com to see how my development is going. Mostly, I'm right on track, but in one area, I'm way ahead of schedule. It turns out that throwing stuff overhand is a skill that typically only comes for children aged 18 months and up. But for me, it's come much earlier. I can throw overhand---using either hand---right now, at only 15 months. I've made lots of other strides as well. Whereas before, if I wanted to get somewhere quickly, I'd crawl there; now I frequently walk instead. It's true that crawling is still a good way to get around, particularly if I'm planning to pick stuff up off the ground, but walking is good too. Daddy is trying to teach me how to run a little bit. He takes me by the hand and we try to walk hurriedly from one end of the room to another, all the while saying "run, run, run". This is really fun although sometimes I find that my legs don't quite go where I want them to and I end up falling down. Still, I can definitely tell that I'm getting better at it.

I went to see some of my play friends today and we had lunch together. Mommy made me one of my favorites, a grilled cheese sandwich cut into easy-grip strips. Some of the other children ate only organic stuff and one of the other Mommies seemed to think that grilled cheese was no good. She's crazy. I tried to offer some of my grilled cheese to the others (I like to share). At the end, my Mommy decided that she wanted to blend in better, so she bought us a big jug of Odwalla carrot juice. We also have healthy, vitamin-packed Odwalla bars of various varieties. Elsewhere on the food front, I've discovered a new delicacy that I really like. Mommy and Daddy were having Japanese food earlier in the week and it came with Miso soup. This is a soup made mostly from soy and tofu with some spices. Mommy gave me some to try, and I loved it. I ended up eating a good portion of miso. I hope she gets this again soon. At this point in my life, I'm pretty much a vegetarian. Mommy tries to give me meat occasionally, but I'm not really interested. Mostly I love carbohydrates.

Yee Haw

I've discovered a new and wonderful thing I can do with my walking skills---mount my big, stuffed pony. Now previously I used my pony mainly as a kind of springboard for flipping over when chasing Daddy around and around it. It turns out it has an even better use--I can now climb onto the pony and go for a ride. Daddy makes it bounce up and down while he sings the theme song from Bonanza (Mommy thinks it's bizarre that he knows all the words to this). Sometimes I like to ride my pony Don Quixote style, backwards. The pony doesn't seem to mind though.

Shoes

I've posted some pictures of me walking around in my new shoes. I walked around in Sonoma today as well. You can find them here.

Viva Mexico

Yesterday I got to have my first restaurant meal ordered just for me. We all went out to Chevy's, a mexican chain restaurant. It's very baby friendly. For one thing, it's quite loud at all times, so any contributions I make to the overall din are hardly noticeable. (Not that I'm loud, I'm really not.) For another thing, the place is filled with balloons, which I think may be one of the world's greatest inventions. Mommy and Daddy ordered quesadillas and they ordered me a kiddie quesadilla plate too. This featured some sort of corn stuff as well as quesadilla and French fries. Now normally when you put a plate in front of me, my first instinct is to fling it. But not tonight. I was in the mood for a fiesta, so I sat nicely eating the stuff from off my plate---including the corn stuff, which shocked Mommy.

Viva Mexico!

Walkin' Shoes

A big milestone for me. Mommy took me out to the shoestore today to be measured for my first set of walking shoes. I am a size 5 1/2 wide. I was given a balloon and a Polaroid of me in my new shoes since it was a big event.

Apparently there are two competing brands of first-walking-shoes, an Italian brand called Elefanten and Stride Rite. The shoe saleswoman recommended I wear Stride Rite because of my meaty ankles. They have a slightly lower top. They also seemed to fit my feet better. Apparently, Euro children have pathetic birdy-ankles so the higher topped shoes are better for them. I immediately tried out my new shoes, walking from shoe display to shoe display and knocking my favorites to the floor. My favorite shoes were a pair of red strappy-front sandals for older girls. I carried one around with me for a while. Happily, since my feet grow so fast, I'll get a new pair in just a short time---just like Mommy's shoe shopping!

A Walk in the Park

I'm nursing another cold that has me coughing all the time. This is absolutely no fun. The way I figure it though, I've had so many colds that I'll soon have antibodies for every germ in the universe. Then I'll really have a good time.

In the meantime, my preferred way of getting around is walking more and more often. Last night when Daddy was playing hide and seek with me, instead of crawling around to catch him, I got up and walked/jogged over to him. It's pretty strange with him crawling and me walking. I also got to walk around a great park that Daddy took me to on Sunday. They had swings, which I love, a sliding board, and a big plastic tube to crawl through. At the end of the secret passageway coming out of the tube is a big steering wheel. I quickly got up and got my arms on the wheel so I could "steer" the play area all around the park. The designers of these parks sure do know what babies like.

Blood, sweat, and tears

When Mommy picked me up from my crib this morning, she was quite startled at the carnage. It seems that I had a bloody nose during the night and ended up bleeding all over everything, my jammies, my blankets, my bedsheets, and myself. Despite all the bloodshed, I was in reasonably good spirits in the morning. Mommy thinks that this happened at least partially becuase I recently discovered my nostrils and have been exploring them diligently (like I explore everything else) these past few weeks.

Outings with some of my Lady Friends

Yesterday, I went to my friend Sophia's 1st birthday party. There were eight other babies (5 girls and 3 boys) and their mommies plus the birthday girl. We played with Sophia's toys and had good things to eat. There was even a snack tray full of Cheerios for my cohort. I enjoyed some vanilla ice cream and a bit of cake too.

Today, I spent the morning with my daddy while Mommy went to a doctors appointment. Then, after lunch and a nap, Mommy and I went to have a play date at my friend Chloe's house. Chloe is a month and a half older than I am and an expert walker, so I was proud to show off my new walking abilities to her. Chloe also demonstrated her impressive climbing abilities to me. Boy, I can't wait until I can climb up on the furniture and stand up, like her. (Mommy seemed less excited by this prospect.)

Chloe and I played with her toys, and I was especially taken with her cat, Mia. I petted Mia many times and had to work hard to contain my exuberance so that I did not upset Mia with excessively enthusiastic petting. We also pushed big plastic boxes around the room, and when Chloe sat in hers, I decided to put other things in the box with her so she wouldn't be lonely in there. We also played some especially exciting games of peek-a-boo with our mommies.

Chloe and I also had dinner at her house (our daddies were both out tonight so the mommies decided to get together). Chloe eats all sorts of things that I think are yucky. Ravioli, avocado, salad, tofu... I just don't understand the appeal. Each time I was offered one of these things, I quickly dropped it on the floor so Mommy would think I'd eaten it. Just give me the old standards, banana, cereal bars, bread, crackers, and Cheerios, and I'm a happy man. Mommy did manage to sneak that wierd avocado into my diet by spreading it on my yummy, crusty bread tonight though. How tricky of her!

Hi Da Da

My new favorite phrase is "Hi Da Da". I say it when I see my Daddy in the morning and when he comes home from work at night too. But it's such a good phrase that I like to say it throughout the day even when he's not around as well. Sort of trips off the tongue "Hi Da Da."

The Old Ball Game

Recently, I've been extremely interested in playing games involving balls of all kinds---baseballs, footballs, even frisbees (if that counts as a ball). Yesterday morning, as soon as Daddy arrived in the living room, where I was playing, I quickly scurried to the toybox and pulled out a baseball. I then held it up proudly and brought it over to him. He rolled it to me a couple of times. Next, it was off to the toybox to get my San Diego Chargers football, which I also presented to him. Later, I got out my green football and my frisbee to present to him. He seems to really like playing these catching games and so do I.

Put One Foot In Front of the Other

My walking has really taken off since Friday. I went to music together on Friday and walked all the way across the room several times, to my mommy's delight. This weekend, I have kept up the pace, and I'm walking all over the place, often carrying things with me. I am very proud of myself!

Photos from Miami and the story of My Easter Photo Shoot with Rosie

Mommy has posted the digital photos from the Miami leg of our Florida trip. You can see me with my cousins, Meryl, Libby and Matthew here.

Yesterday, I put on my Easter outfit and went to JC Penney to have my photo taken with a live bunny rabbit. The bunny I met was white, and she was very soft and friendly. Her name was Rosebud, or Rosie for short. At first, I was a little nervous around Rosie, but then I realized that she is like my guinea pig, Licorice, except with longer ears, and I decided that I liked her. The photographer gave me some small, nerf-like Easter eggs to play with, and I practiced throwing them since my Daddy has been training me to be a pitcher. The eggs made me feel good since Mommy and the photographer would cheer when I threw an egg and then the photographer would take my photo while I was looking in the direction of my throw. I also tried to give the bunny the eggs, sometimes. I didn't throw them at her, but I did carefully place them on her head!

Fit and Trim

Increasingly, I've been faced with the problem that I'm often mistaken for a girl. Now maybe it's because of my big blue eyes or my big smile, but Mommy seems to think that it's mostly becuase of my long flowing locks. I've never had my hair trimmed in my life and it's gotten quite long on the sides, coming down to my shoulders. Well, Mommy had had enough of that and decided that I should have my hair trimmed. Initially, she wanted to make a big thing about it and go to a specialist "baby barber". Naturally, this option would have entailed considerable expense, but on the upside, I would have gotten a balloon. Daddy was skeptical of this since he feared that the baby barber would be too zealous in cutting off all my curls. So the compromise was that Mommy would trim my hair a little, which she did yesterday. It's pretty much the same everywhere except on the sides, which are shorter. Since I don't really have a style for my hair (it goes where it goes), this arrangement seemed to work out just fine. I still have my nice curls, but things are not so long and shaggy on the sides. Mommy took me to a park to celebrate and people even guessed that I was a boy. Hooray!

Photos!

Mommy has just posted lots of lovely pictures from our trip to visit Uncle Dave, Aunt Julie & Cousin Emma. See if you can spot Emma's dimple. There is one especially good dimple shot of Emma with Aunt Julie. It is a red letter day for photos, since Aunt Julie has posted pics on her site today too!

Links

Just a note: Mommy helped me a lot in finding all those links for the post about Tilden park. She requests that my loyal fans please click through on them. You'll especially like the Angela Park link.

Rodney and me

I spent the day with Daddy yesterday, so that Mommy could actually go out and do something fun (as though hanging out with me is not already ridiculously fun). As usual, Daddy took me out on one of his endless walks and we had several adventures together. First, we discovered a new park with infant swings. I'm always initially a little skpetical of the idea of beig swung ridiculously back and forth, but I quickly warmed to it. I especially enjoy it when Daddy pushes me by my feet and yells "feeeeeet" while doing it. I also liked removing my Cal baseball cap and watching it sail through the air as a swung by.

Next, Daddy took me down a hiking trail and I got out and walked along side him for some ways. I can tell that he's really looking forward to hiking with me, but for now he has to settle for mini-hikes on relatively flat terrain. Our hike took us through a big almond orchard, which smelled kind of neat.

Later in the afternoon, I spotted a frisbee on the ground. It was a bright green color, and I made Daddy pick it up for me. I laughed as Daddy through the frisbee in the air and ran to catch it. We even played catch a little bit. I would hold out my arms and (with perfect aim) Daddy managed to launch the frisbee between my arms and the little tray in my stroller, so I could catch the frisbee. I even threw it a few times too, trying to imitate the backhand flipping motion Daddy uses to propel it.

The best part of the day was watching the dogs. A couple near where we lived had set up adog obstacle course for their border collies. Apparently, these dogs compete in jumping and other skills at local competitions. They were magnificent, running and jumping over bars. They didn't knock over a single bar. The part that most fascinated me was a loong yellow tunnel. I would have liked to crawl through the tunnel myself, but there was no room with the dogs running through it. Finally, I got to meet a very nice Boston Terrier named Rodney. Rodney is very friendly, he gave me some kisses. He's also an Aidan-sized dog, perfect for me to stand next to and pet. Daddy said I did a much better job gently petting Rodney compared to my attempts to pet Licorice.

It was a great day!

Tilden Park

Yesterday, I got to go to a terrific park, Tilden Park, which is located in the Berkeley hills. It was a beautiful day yesterday, clear and sunny and around 70 degrees, so we went for a ride to the park together. On the way, I got to see views of the SF bay from out the car window. Once we arrived, I got to go on a steam locomotive at the Redwood Valley Railway. It's not the usual sort of locomotive, since it's kid sized. It reminded my Mommy of the train she and my Daddy used to ride at Angela Park. The train at Tilden went through woods and around the edge of mountains. There was a tunnel too. I was not sure what to think of the tunnel initially, but I sort of warmed to it.

After the train ride, we rode deeper into the park until we came to an old-fashioned Merry-Go-Round. It has all sorts of animals that went up and down, horses, dragon, and lots of other critters. I rode on a horse with Mommy. The best part was the lights and the music. The carousel has lots of fabulous lights, and I took time out to point out every one of them in case Mommy missed any. I then walked around the park while Mommy and Daddy held my hand---sort of my first hike. It was a great day.

Words 2

I am also very good at saying "cat" and "hat." The other day, I called a cat by name when I saw it on TV and, that same day, I also said "hat" when I saw some parents buying their baby a sunhat on a TV show. I also rather consistently say "hat" when my mommy puts one of my hats on her head. In addition, I say something like "sh" when I see a brush.

Today, in the lounge of the Nordstrom's women's bathroom (which also has a "mother's room" for nursing mothers and changing tables so most local moms of babies and toddlers pass through whenever they are downtown-- an excellent marketing strategy on Nordstrom's part, I must say), I enjoyed warmly greeting everyone who came in or out with my bright and sunny, "Hi." I am a very popular fellow when I smile and greet people. I tried to give my friend Sophia a hug while we were sitting together at Nordstrom's, but I was a bit too enthusiastic and we both fell sideways. Oops! She didn't seem to mind. She shared her toy phone with me.

Words

Words are really useful things. While I'm not yet so good at making words that sound exactly like Mommy and Daddy's words, I'm getting better at making words in a language they can understand. Of course, I still have my old favorites like "ights" and "mamamama", but I've added lots of new words as well. Whenever I see a glass or a bottle, I say "ice". My parents aren't sure if I mean literally "ice" since the glasses or bottles are cold or if "ice" is a corruption of "glass". When I see a fan, I make a distinctive swinging motion with my hand and say "ffff". When I see cheese, one of my favorite foods, I say "chchch", and when I'm hungry for milk, I say "mm...mm". Of course, when I want Mommy and Daddy to name something, I say "aht", which means "what's that?". The amazing thing is that Mommy and Daddy can actually understand my language now. This is so much better than communicating by crying and whining.

Steps to Recovery

I'm starting to feel better. Lately, I go through phases where I have a good amount of energy followed by periods of sleepiness. By the evening, I pretty much was back up to my usual energy levels and was playing happily. Before this, I was sleepy. I like to find new and unusual places to sleep and I found a really good spot yesterday. I crawled under the middle of Mommy and Daddy's big bed and fell asleep there. Mommy looked all over for me and it took her awhile to find me. It's such a snuggly spot.

I'm taking a lot more steps on my own now. I like to walk, especially when someone holds my hand, but now I'll walk a little bit even when there's no one to hold my hand. I don't walk for far or very confidently, but still I'm liking the freedom of getting around on my own.

My appetite is starting to come back as well. Yesterday, I ate an entire cereal bar. These cereal bars are great, they're my favorite food. Mommy and Daddy have taken to calling them "crack for babies" becuase of their addictive quality.

Daddy thinks my baseball career may be looking up. While I was in Florida, I played lots of games of catch with Daddy using a real baseball. I like how real baseballs make a satisfying "thunk" when you throw them. Best of all from Daddy's perspective, more often than not I throw the ball with my left hand. Daddy always gives me lots of hugs and kisses when I do that. He still dreams of my being a left-handed middle reliever like his hero Jesse Orosco.

Back from Florida

We flew back to California yesterday. I slept for most of the time, so I didn't even notice as we flew from state to state. Right now, I'm not feeling well again. I started to get sick during the middle of visiting my cousins and have not felt better since. One day we were supposed to go to Sea World to visit the fishies, but I had a fever and Mommy and Daddy decided that the fishies would have to wait. I hope I fell better soon.

In addition to my not feeling well, we had another problem. I got into my second car accident. As Daddy was waiting for people to pull out of a parking space on a rest stop on the way to Miami, a woman currently in a parking space decided to back out right into us. She put a big dent in the bumper but happily no one was hurt. Daddy was pretty annoyed that the car was hurt though.

In better news, I got to meet my cousin Emma for the first time. She's a lot smaller than I am but still very cute. One thing I noticed is that she seems to cry a lot. I told her that in just a few months she'll be big like me and will be able to crawl around where she pleases and even to pick up and eat food herself. Speaking of food, this cold has totally killed my appetite. I've been eating very lightly the past couple of days.