Sitting up!

Someone is a sitting champion, here is some evidence.

http://youtu.be/3Qseob6sy3U

A little tour

I thought I'd show you some of the garden today, the parts that are looking nice at least.

Giant Russian sunflowers - seeds from Eric's grandma. They drink a lot of water!

One snake lives in the compost and another lives by the front door. Here's the skin of the front-door snake.

The neighbor has a giant lavender patch so I helped myself to a little. It is making the whole house smell lovely. And those roses are from the climbing rose bush I have under the bedroom window, and they are exceptionally smelly also.

The rose bush in question.

Here the pink yarrow is becoming mighty and the other blooming rose bush shows its stuff. This one has perfect, ideal red rose flowers but they aren't quite as rose-smelling as the other ones.

Here's the little punkus hisself. This is how I found him in the crib this morning, happy as can be. I put him in there long-ways, you know. No rolling over, still, but plenty of squirming! And smiling!

Outside time

Oscar and I had a very nice afternoon. Here you see the remains of our outside activities: singing songs, reading a book, drinking out of cups, eating snacks, tummy time, and of course, playing in the pool. We have settled into a rhythm where the morning is spent inside where it is cool and dark, and in the afternoon, after about 3 or so, we hang out in the shade of the bunny shed and do all the fun stuff. It's working well so far, which is good since the forecast is for so much heat it's absurd.

Oscar's approach to book reading so far is to try to get the book into his mouth from as many different angles as possible. He is not content to just gnaw on a corner, which is what I thought was going on at first. He works on the book in a very serious way, since it will not bend to his will, although his will is really quite unclear. Also, he likes drinking from his personal cup, but he still likes drinking from mine better. Always and forever.

Philosopher baby

He had been smacking his hands on the table like someone calling an unruly group to order. I was hoping to catch that but suddenly he switched to looking at his hand - I mean, really looking at his hand. Opposable thumbs are just so fascinating!

I haven't figured out how to embed videos with blogger on the iPad so the link will have to do.

http://youtu.be/AzkWt242XhQ

Fighting entropy

This was supposed to show up yesterday. These weeds are still mocking me! But it's too hot to do anything about them today.

We have two raised bed gardens in the back yard. One has a tree stump, more rhubarb than a family could ever need, and some peonies (pink). The other used to have onions in it and now...entropy was winning for a while there in the form of thistles and nasty spiky grass. At least the grass is a pretty color.

As I'm going through, pulling up these stupid weeds, I see their seeds scatter all over the place, setting the stage for next year. They're also in my hair, my socks, my shoes, my gardening gloves - the worst! They are spiky and evil, like millions of little caltrops.

Eric and I don't really have time to tend a vegetable garden. But, more importantly, we have too many other hobbies and this one isn't appealing to us right now. So we have to decide what to do with these garden beds. The rhubarb one is pretty self-maintaining at this point, at least, but this other one needs something new.

Ideally we would take it out entirely, because it's in a weird spot in the backyard and kind of in the way. But until then? I keep thinking of a cover crop, like wildflowers or alfalfa. Any other ideas?

The answer to yesterday's riddle is: a blackboard!

We're all just furious around here.

Sometimes I get tired of singing "I'm a little Oscar" or the hokey pokey when I'm trying to get Oscar to fall asleep. Then I resort to whatever tune appears in my head. This morning I found myself singing the chorus of the Furies from Orfeo, you know, all about going to Greek hell. It did get him to fall asleep though. Thanks Freshman Chorus!

http://youtu.be/1_pvr6si-qE

splish splash

Dear Annie and Charlie,
Can we get some lifeguards up in here? Also, PS, don't let Dad watch this video.

Since Eric's been gone, Pocky has been very needy. Lately she's given herself permission to sit on my lap while I'm feeding Oscar, which means she's sitting on Oscar too! He doesn't mind, as long as he gets to grab big handfuls of her hair. Strangely, Pocky tolerates this. Lap-sitting trumps hair-pulling.

The other two cats, meanwhile, have given themselves permission to sleep on the changing table. I try to keep Oscar's room nice and cool all day, so the cats naturally prefer to swarm in there. Sometimes I put Oscar down on top of them to change him - usually they move - but sometimes they look just a little too comfortable to disturb.

I was straining the moths and feathers out of the pee pee pool this morning but first I knew that Oscar needed to experiment with some new headgear. And all of a sudden he looked a lot like Henry!

He sat, stunned, for several seconds.

His preferred snack in the pool: rubber ducky!

Finally, I had a really good riddle on my popsicle stick the other day. It's a real riddle, not a pun: What gets whiter the dirtier it gets?

Happy late anniversary!

Today was the second longest day of the year, which means it's either one day before or after our wedding anniversary. In this case, it is the day after. Whoops!

The team is still going strong, even though Eric's a million miles from here. We still like doing the puzz together, doing errands together, moving furniture together - all the important things.

I like to remember how the summer after we met, Eric and his rabbits had moved in to my apartment. Eric and I were working on my project together. We bombarded onion peels quite often, and had gotten the protocol down to a smooth, efficient, nearly silent operation. (When I tried to do the same protocol with my next undergrad (David, the one who set his hands on fire) it didn't go so well.) We shared a single bench. We were inseparable due to necessity and still got along. It was the makings of a screwball comedy - but we just skipped the highjinks and jumped to the end. Now we're together because we wouldn't have it any other way - two whole official years.

It is hard right now not to have my main squeeze around, although I have my new little buddy to accompany me in all things big and small. But the good news is that he will be back soon enough and we will slip right back into our normal smooth, efficient operations. They are not even close to silent, though, what with Eric swiftly developing into the second-loudest man in the world, and I the second-loudest man's wife. Go team!

which one is johnnie?

AKA, why is only one of them wearing a helmet?
From http://natgeofound.tumblr.com/

Solo in the summer

Eric's gone in Rhode Island, so Oscar and I had the place to ourselves (for one night, then Eric's mom arrived to keep us company!) Many years ago, the summer before I started college, Mom and I were left alone while everyone else went to Cooperstown. We were driving the Mercedes which had a pink sparkly steering wheel cover, and we made a shrimp salad for dinner one night. Shrimp salad is now a special thing for me, associated with togetherness and independence at the same time, perfect for a temporarily single mom. The key attributes are that it is very hot out, and the salad must have both shrimp and purple onion. Italian dressing is favored. 

Since Eric does not like shrimp, the salad assumes an extra air of special-occasion-ness. Oscar had no opinion of shrimp as yet.

I might need to look into steering wheel covers.

Happy Father's Day!

They assume the position on a daily basis. There are of course many other pictures of the two of them but I prefer to show them in their favorite situation: relaxing!

Happy father's day to Grandpa too!

And happy father's day to Gnarly!

One day old!

Six months old!

Ta-da!

Dandling

If you blow in his face once, the next time he anticipates it and closes his eyes ahead of time. Who says nonverbal babies can't remember anything? (Probably no one, but I like arguing against it anyway.)

In the Afternoon Kitchen

We went to the doctor yesterday for his 6-month checkup. He weighs 18 pounds and is 27 inches tall and is absolutely normal. I had wanted to take pictures of him in my giant pot and thought I'd better do it soon before he outgrows it! He was very happy hanging out in there with the appropriate-sized spoon.

a happy half-birthday to a certain someone!

Can you believe it? A whole six months!

In honor of this momentous occasion, we have successfully transferred Oscar to his own crib (a loaner from Karl while they're in France). It is strange to be able to read in bed again with the light from my own lamp which no longer shines directly in Oscar's eyes. It is also strange to eat only for myself these days! Oscar doesn't mind the crib at all; the cats are very happy to have a much larger mattress to share with him. The mobile from Uncle Brian and Aunt Margie is now in use and is very helpful in getting him to fall asleep (even though it seems like it would be terrifying, with giant leaves that menacingly fold in towards his head). We don't have to feed him until he's asleep anymore, nor do we have to walk him around. Changes, changes!

Look at him manipulate that bottle!


These are the pictures Eric doesn't want you to see, taken a few weeks ago but perfect for this day.

What are you looking at?

Honh honh honh! Qu'est-ce que tu veux?

weekend adventures

On Saturday we went to the Estes Park Sheep and Wool Festival. I had thought it was next weekend, I don't know why, but it was this weekend. I had never been before - something had always distracted me - so even though we had plans for Sunday and it would make it a very busy weekend, we went anyway. Dane's parents went too, and we met them there.

Before they arrived, though, we spent some time wandering around. We parked on the livestock side of the show and saw all the sheep, goats, vicunas, llamas, alpacas, and of course angora rabbits for display and for sale. The Jacob sheep were adorable. This guy had an absurd number of horns!

There were some wool vendors in with the sheep people, but not that many, and we were very confused about where all the fiber freaks were. We found whole fleeces for sale, but that seemed extreme. Then when Dane's parents arrived they directed us to the appropriate barn, which was chock-a-block full of cat ladies and people spinning while they walked and then people like us, just wandering around. There was a booth right outside this barn selling lamb meat, and booths inside the barn selling shearling products. Some people had yarn mixed with dog hair, or fancy wood products like drop spindles or bowls or shuttles. I ended up getting exactly what I came for and nothing else, which took most of my willpower.

It was very nice to hang out with Dane's parents, especially Dane's mom since she is quite the expert on fiber, especially with regard to knitting. Eric remarked how funny it was to feel comfortable hanging out with his friend's parents, and even enjoying it. He took this as evidence that we old. He may be right.

Then on Sunday we went to the Rockies game! Everyone was very nice to us. Our seats were excellent, right on the first base line with an expansive view of the mountains. We could hear the ball land in the catcher's mitt and the crack of the bat. However, they were right in the sun and going to stay that way the whole game! I think these seats are preferable for a night game, perhaps. For the afternoon the third base line is where it's at, as you can see in the picture. Shade abounds and only increases as the game goes on. 

Even after we escaped higher to shadier ground, we were impressed by how different it feels to be confronted by the real live players. The Foxes are a summer club for college ball players here in town that plays at City Park, so we might try to go to a few of their games this summer. At the end of the day yesterday we were most pleased that we actually did it, and Oscar did impressively little complaining. He's a pretty good all-around baby!

odds and ends and a happy birthday

Somebody has a birthday today! That's right, my dearest Eric is turning 26 today. We're celebrating tonight with friends and then on Sunday by going to a Rockies game! (It's perfect timing because Oscar has many baseball outfits that he's about to grow out of.) Eric is finally older than I was when I met him - older in numbers at least, but fortunately he still gets excited about things like Pez. I read someone else's description of their husband as the person whose boat you always want to be in. That's Eric for me! His boat always looks like the most fun, and least likely to crash (and if it did crash, he'd have some idea of how to handle it). It's certainly been fun so far!

Here he is putting Oscar to sleep with the help of one of his presents:

Somehow when Oscar is wailing away because he's just so sleepy, all we have to do is start playing the harmonica for him to settle down and fall asleep. It's quite dramatic. And yes, he's wearing a Tommy Hilfiger polo onesie, which probably also explains why he was feeling sad. (It belonged to a friend's baby.)

Here we see Garage caressing an avocado. We were going to make guacamole - we did make guacamole - but Garage first needed to sit on the avocado for a bit like a crazy egg, and then toss it around on the floor a bit. I guess you could call it seasoning.

And finally, the best part: Oscar's new trick! Now that's it's been all edited and posted I can't believe I didn't add subtitles. They would have read "Yay Annie and Wiley!" I'm sure there will be many more opportunities for that sort of thing in the coming months!

Oneam

Eric and I have been doing the daily lately and he gets caught by every two-word answer. Hoponto, for example, sounds like an Indian tribe rather than a way to get on (a carousel, eg).

Oscar has some new giant bibs that in principle protect him - everything beneath the bib, really - from food, drool, whatever gross things a baby can produce. (Eric chimes in, except for poop. That's already underneath the bib. Thanks Eric.) He's actually quite agile and easily gets food wherever he pleases. Fortunately that's usually on or around his mouth.

Oscar also has started grabbing his feet whenever they're available to him. I guess he needed a certain amount of strenf and coordination before they became within his reach. Now he really looks like an overturned beetle when he's lying on his back, flailing around with his feet in his hands.