Vacationland

The Mav is up and about after a suspected case of food poisoning so I now have access to the vacation pictures. It turns out we did not take pictures of every activity (how strange?) but here are a few of my favorites from what we did take. The first two are E playing with the tiny Bonnie kitten and the second two are from E's first trip to the beach.

E may look just like his Daddy but he's got his Mommy's love of the Maine ocean. He was not even slightly tentative though the water was cool (well, warm for Maine standards but downright cold for what the Mav likes) and the seaweed plentiful. Little E then enjoyed sharing my clamcake. I don't know if he actually has a taste for clams already or is just an exceedingly happy baby as he derived about as much pleasure from playing with a ketchup packet. Sharing both Nana's and my ice cream on the way home further increased our dear child's contentment.

In

E is an expert at taking things out. In fact, the best way to get him interested in something is to put it away. This compels little E to take the object back out as quickly as possible. Grinning from ear to ear, he'll race back and forth across the room as the Mav or myself try to put toys away at bedtime.

I mistakenly thought he was playing games with us when really he was training for his new skill of putting things "in". Not away exactly, but in. Small cups into larger cups. Train tracks into cups. Shapes into shape sorters. Toys into toy-boxes!

In accordance with the second law of thermodynamics (i.e. chaos is always increasing, also known as the first law of small children) more toys are taken out than put back in. Nevertheless, E has taken his first steps toward cleaning up: he stuffed as many small wooden blocks as he could fit into another toy. I found this when I was cleaning up the rest of the toys after E had gone to bed for the night. It may not seem like much to most people but to me it is a big step away from his babyhood toward his little boyhood; he is doing things of his own accord, without help, and without complete oversight. Also, maybe it means he'll be ready for chores soon. (I can dream, can't I?)

Yankee Doodle

went to New Hampshire and there he got a pony!


Little E's birthday extravaganza continued last week with our trip to his Nana and Granddah's house in New Hampshire. We had a great time visiting with my family and celebrating birthdays and anniversaries. For posterity's sake I'll recap a few of the highlights of our trip.

A solution to our energy issues?
If planes ran on wiggle power our boy could have propelled us well beyond our desired destination. E did not catch one wink of sleep on our 12 hour trek until we exited the Manchester airport. He was asleep on my shoulder before we reached the car.

Captain Pilot Man
The Mav and I should be prevented from naming E's toys. The boy's favorite traveling toy is a small plastic pilot guy. E derives enjoyment merely from clutching his "action figure" (the Mav's description) though CPM makes a great teether too. His favorite activity is to drop CPM down a tube made from a rolled up magazine. I guess this is a combination of E's new found love of sliding and his enduring fascination with peek-a-boo.

Gangster cats
Despite their names, Bonnie and Clyde (my parents' kittens) limit their illicit activities to scratching the upholstery and jumping on the counters. E and Bonnie were fast friends though Clyde was a bit apprehensive of little E's exuberance. E got the giggles whenever the cats crossed his path and he shook the cat toys to the point of exhaustion. I think he has some guilt about sharing his affections with other cats as he has been hugging our cat at every opportunity since we returned home.

60 years of marriage
No, that's not a typo. While the Mav and I reached the 6 year mark this month my wonderful grandparents dance circles around us after 60 years of wedded bliss. My mother and her sister arranged a fantastic dinner for us all to honor and celebrate the amazing milestone. Though it is my grandparents who deserve great accolades for their history together as well as in their own rights, this blog is about the small boy so I must mention his role in the party. Little E surpassed just about all expectations for good behavior in a dinner guest of any age let alone one just barely a year old. For nearly 3 hours he sat (relatively) still, smiled at everyone, and ate anything put in front of him. He ate marinated mushrooms, clam chowder, escargot (not a favorite, but he did take a second bite), stuffed mushrooms, cucumber, haddock, and chicken parmesan. He also tried to eat two (toy) screw drivers, a cell phone, and of course Captain Pilot Man. Then he fell asleep on the way home and, for the first time ever, went right back to sleep at home.

It's getting late here and I need to get on to sleep as we are a man down (the Mav is very sick) and the small boy doesn't have a snooze button. There is much more to say about the trip (beach, lobster, ice cream, blueberries to name a few) but exhaustion prevents me from continuing - and proof-reading. Pictures will be coming once the Mav is back on his feet enough to fire up his computer.

An accidental haircut

Bangs reached to his eyes
I trimmed them so carefully
He had a mullet

I reluctantly
took up again the scissors
good bye baby curls


E will soon be participating in an extended family photo shoot and I wanted to have his hair out of his eyes but without that freshly cut "wow do I look surprised!" effect. The result was, as his father says "business in the front, party in the back"-- aka a mullet. I could not leave him that way but that meant his soft, fluffy curls had to go. The hair in back, when straight, reached well past his shoulders but usually sprung up to tickle the back of his neck. E looks like such a little boy now, less like a baby. It is probably a welcome relief for him to have the hair off his neck in this humidity. I am a bit sad though.

Little E's First Year in Pictures

My baby is one year old today. It has been the most incredible year of my life. I had wanted to write something poignant today but I've found I'm incapable of expressing the emotions and events of this past year in its entirety. All I can hope to do is to record small day-to-day observations and hope that they will forever trigger deeper memories and paint a picture of our boy as he grows.

And grow he has. From 7lbs 14 oz and 20 inches to over 20lbs and 29 inches. From a docile observer to a energetic adventurer. From straight dark hair to wild blond curls. And his hold on my heart grows with him.

Happy Birthday Little E!

Let Him Eat Cake!

Just so you know, the video is almost half an hour long. When was the last time you spent half an hour eating cake?

The birthday party

We celebrated the anniversary of our boy's birth a day early. It was also the 6th anniversary of the wedding of the Mav and myself. We had a garden party with tea and cakes. Our small gathering was refined and subdued; appropriate for the mild mannered guest of honor.

Just kidding.

We did have cakes. One for the birthday boy and one for the rest of us. The remainder of one is currently in the fridge. The other is in the trash; I put it there after I removed it from the deck. Don't worry--there was no icing left on it.

We did have tea. Sweet, minty tea. This complimented the North Carolina style barbecue made today by the Mav (which was delicious--I'm not sure why he only makes it once every 5 years) .

We were outside on the previously mentioned party deck. Good thing too, as the day's main event should not / could not have transpired indoors.

The guest of honor, a little boy who turns one tomorrow night at quarter to ten, was not mild mannered. He is now; asleep in his crib, after trucking through what must have been an incredible sugar high. Here's what happened ...

After dinner, I removed E's shirt and put him back in his highchair. The Mav brought out the cakes. Little E's cake had a single candle, a Curious George statue and blue, blue frosting. Already tired and sick of sitting, the boy was not immediately impressed by this thing we placed on his tray. We sang. He grabbed George.

He eventually got some of the frosting from George's base in his mouth. He then made it his single minded quest to track down the source of that sweetness.

E was pretty sure at first that George himself brought the sugar. When he realized that the cake was the source of that which was yummy and blue he still felt George was the appropriate utensil for transferring the bounty to his eager mouth. He made some attempts with a spoon but only when George was tired.

There's a video. It covers the nearly 20 minutes it took to fully disassemble the cake. Luckily most of the frosting ended up on the boy and not in the boy. The Mav is working on getting the video online.

You're thinking: what a huge mess, so glad I didn't have to clean him up. Well, you didn't consider the efficacy of ordinary garden hose with respect to frosting removal. That's another video. For the record, E was very happy to be hosed off so I don't think we caused any psychological harm.