Bon appetit

Little E continues to explore his world mouth first, no holds barred. Yesterday was our first "car-less Thursday", a new plan of mine for mitigating the increased traveling we're doing (the Mav to and from Chicago for business, E and I back and forth to daycare.) This is not actually a big deal, as (1) there really isn't much need to go anywhere anyway and (2) there are many fine establishments within easy walking distance. Since I spent the past x years (where x is a number larger than the normal number of years spent in graduate school) driving less than 2 miles a week I am very conscious of how much more we are driving now.

After a refreshing trip to the local library (central air!), the 3 of us stopped for lunch in the little Paris section of downtown. This consists of a pseudo-french-ish creperie but it's pretty exotic for this prairie town. Our waiter disdainfully informed us that we could now get a hamburger there, albeit wrapped in crepe, as the local citizenry simply would not tolerate a restaurant without a ground chuck option. We thanked him for the option but when in "little Paris" ...

Dining out was a last minute decision so we didn't have our full battery of baby tamers. All we had were some cheerios, a sippy cup, and a bib. Luckily the restaurant had a highchair (though with no restraint system--apparently the chair is for small but fully mature people not wiggly children). E quickly burned through the o's and informed us that if more food was not forthcoming there would be trouble. Luckily the bread arrived just then. I buttered some bread (his first taste of butter) and tried to hand it to him. He did not take it with his hand; he just leaned forward and sucked the butter off while I was holding it. He likes butter.

Lunch arrived and E shared my crepe with goat cheese and grilled chicken. He had a taste of the ham from his daddy's crepe. Then he had more butter. From his dad's fingertip. E really likes butter.

He's going to need to eat butter if he wants to be a linebacker. The way he pushed through the kids at the library, I can only assume that he's training for such a position. He's average sized for an almost 11 month old, maybe a bit on the light side. This did not stop him from trying to shove the big kids (3 and 4 year olds) out of his way. He continued his training by trying to climb the book racks and race-crawl through the aisles.

Our fearless near-toddler hones his physical skills at home too. Our dining room is his new obstacle course; under the table, around the chairs, up, down, crawling, cruising. He's still got some balance issues though. From standing at a chair, he attempted to pick up his hammer from the floor but lost his balance and stumbled. Never one to waste a second, he took his accidental repositioning as a good time to taste the chair.

E's first taste of lobster! Yummy plastic lobster. Needs more butter.