Never not happy

Compare

And contrast.

Teeth

Ethan’s officially got ‘em. Or at least one. It’s hard to get a good look, but at least one is peeping through his lower middle gum. No more sucking on our fingers for soothing. Kinda hurts now.

In other news, we are officially addicted to Lost.  Finally started watching the DVDs of Season 1 and can’t stop.

In other news, I officially became the Incarnate Reconciliation of Patriot and Redcoat on July 2, at the Convention Center.  It’s weird how not-different I feel.  It was a nice ceremony, but was a long morning for about half an hour of action.  Anyway, I need to figure out what kind of American I want to be.  Am I the Loud One?  The Gunslinger?  The Angry Peace Lover?  So many choices.

Wheels

Check out the stud.

La Vita Domestica

Simon is well. He loves the Swiffer Vacuum. And he loves blueberries. He is wearing an apron tailor-made for him by his Granny. Amazingly, it’s made out of the same material that my pyjamas were made of, some thirty years ago.

He is still on an at-least-temporary nap embargo, so we just plonk him off to bed very early instead. Both boys to bed by 7:30…what to do with your evening? He’s having pretty good success, for a novice, at requesting to use the potty. It’s pretty cute watching him walk around in his training pants (apparently a euphemism for tighty whities). He is still madly in love with his pool. And his tricycle, and his lawn mower, and his car. He basically lives outside these days.

Hello

OK, so Ethan finally graduated out of his infant car seat. Simon got a new seat, and Ethan was bumped into Simon’s old one. It had to be done, and there are pros and cons. The pros is that there is now, by necessity, one less stroller that we can use, so it forces us to use the other one. No more lugging around two strollers “just in case”. One con is that, until he can sit up by himself, we generally have to constantly hold him whenever we get to our destination. Like Mass. I was physically exhausted after holding Chunk for about an hour, yesterday.

Otherwise, he is also well. His naps are a bit hit and miss. He wakes up once per night, about 75% of nights, and sleeps through the rest. He has moved on to the next solids cereal after rice, which is “multi-grain”. Next stop: Big Mac. And is generally just about the happiest person I have ever met.

Grimbergen Double

Oh man, was this beer good. Brewed in Belgium by some monks. Gina and I both agreed that the taste was sorta like an explosion. Starts off slow, explodes with crazy flavor, and then vanishes for a very smooth finish. If I were independently wealthy, this is what I would drink for breakfast. Sticking with OJ for now, though.

Also checked out a couple of the Father Brown mysteries, filmed in England in the early 70s.  Kinda cheesy at times, but straightforward mysteries.  The kind where everyone had a motive to “do it”, but the good Father leads us through to the most rational explanation of the facts.  So far, the bad guy *always* wants to off himself in the end.  Some of Chesterton’s thought definitely leaks through to the screenplay too.

First Solids

Ethan’s first solids.  It’s not the clearest thing on earth.  Need to figure out how to do it better.  But it works for now.

On another note, you might want to mute it while watching, to avoid the constant refrain, “Simon take a picture of Simon”, followed by Dad’s frustrated rebukes.  Family life.  So serene.

Chicken or egg

Simon seems to have changed again.  I posted a bit about a similar event a couple of months ago, after which he kinda, slowly, chilled out again.  But the past couple of days, he has again gone completely loopy.  I say chicken or egg because I am not sure if he is skipping his naps because he is loopy or if he is loopy because he is skipping his naps.

It’s always a little hard to convey these things because, when he’s out amongst others, he tends to be relatively shy and quiet, or at least a little more reigned in.  But at home he is usually quite wild.  Not in a bad way, just relatively loud and energetic.  Jumping.  Running.  Throwing.  Screams of delight.  Which has ramped up to 11 the past couple of days.  It’s really fun to sit back and watch.  Constant random motion.  Constant random enjoyment.  The thing that most sticks out is his talking.  He not infrequently decides to adopt a different voice than his own when speaking.  Hard to describe.  Sorta like the Cookie Monster, though I don’t think he’s ever seen the Cookie Monster.  He even chants his alphabet song in that voice.

Also, we seem to be approaching Toilet Training.  He’s been doing really well so far, with the little things we have tried.

Video

Apparently you can add 90 second videos to Flickr, besides the regular old pictures.  I will try to get Ethan’s first solids up there sometime relatively soon.  Not sure if it will work right, though.

Milk Stout

Lancaster Brewing Company’s Milk Stout is very good.  Very very good.  Someone find that cow.  Pour it over your wheaties.  It’s really good.

We also drank Avery Brewing Company’s White Rascal.  It was OK.  Drinkable, but pretty thin and tasteless and watery.  Sorta like alcoholic seltzer.  Now, why would anyone drink that?  Precisely.

The movie was Capote, but we couldn’t finish it ’cause the DVD was scratched.  The parts we saw were really well acted.  Truman Capote was made to seem fun, funny and repulsive.  In other words, complex and human.  I guess we’ll see how it ends later.

End of spring, here comes summer

Spring comes to an end around here. It’s been busy:

But not so busy when you have your little helpers.

The garden is still blooming.

We are poised for big changes in our newest little one.

Our birds have already departed (this nest is from a tree, not from our birdhouse…but they’re also gone).

But some of us are already finding new things to do and…eat.

Another golden oldie

Jean Jacques Goldman.  Man, back in the day, we couldn’t stand French music.  It all sounded the same.  Old creepy French guys talking to music, some of whom had reputations for relatively creepy songs.  In this case, Goldman was a pleasant change from all the other crap.  We used to listen to him a lot.  In listening now, you have to give allowance for the fact that it was the 80s.  Mass delusion had overtaken everyone’s musical tastes, wherever you lived.  But in context, it’s still really quite good.

Memories

Spectreman:

Goldorak:

Albator:

Ulysses 31:

Dude.  Je suis vieux.

First Bike Ride

My Dad came through with some pics of Simon’s first ever bike ride. The kid’s growing up. He’ll be driving a car next.

Other recent Simon things: he really likes to sit by the family room window, on the couch, looking out at rain and lightning, and listening to thunder.  He especially likes it when we bust out the candles during power outages, which we have had several of lately, what with the wild storms.  He loves it when we play baseball out back, me throwing him the ball (as the tee in the tee ball set melted under the heat).  He’s pretty good.  He makes contact pretty frequently.  He loves to eat outside on the deck.

The other day, he was reciting something to himself, and I figured it was one of the several books he knows by heart, but I was having trouble deciphering exactly which one it was.  His words are still sometimes a little hard to catch.  But eventually, he made it to the part of his recitation where he said, “on the third day, he rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures”, which part I understood.  So he was reciting the Nicene Creed.  Not bad.  On a similar topic, he likes to go around making and saying the Sign of the Cross, and then extending his arms (”like this”, as he does it) “like the holy father” does in the Introductory Rites.  “Holy Father” being, not the Holy Father, but Father So-and-So.

Solids

Ethan ate solids for the first time last night.  As with all things Ethan, he just sat back and enjoyed the experience.  No particular high moments to mention, but we didn’t have to pin his arms down like we did with #1.  That may partly be due to the fact that we gave solids to Simon a little later in the game than we did with Ethan.  He was a little more aware, and thus a little more able to deflect our feeding attempts.  However, Ethan could eat the universe at this point, and still be hungry.  So we figured we’d try some mushy grain mush to satisfy his insatiable hunger.

The boyos

Weekend

Friday night, we watched Juno and drank Atlantic Brewing Company’s Coal Porter. The beer was a bit bitter for Gina but I enjoyed it. Juno was a fantastic movie. On Saturday morning, I took Simon to throw some stones down at Dowlin Forge. And then it was a chores day. I planted the hostas in the midst of all the pines. Hopefully, as they grow, they will out-compete the weeds that tend to grow there, reducing the need for weeding. I had previously taken the grape vines out. This day, I took out the various vine-supporting structures. It was hard work, and it was very hot. I am still feeling the aches and pains today.

Saturday night, we tried Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout. It was pretty good. It took you right to the edge of bitter, and then brought you back. Or something. Not supposed to be drinking two of these things per weekend. But once you start down the slippery slope, it’s hard to get the cat back in the bag. To mix my metaphors.

Sunday, we went to my parents’ house for Father’s Day. Lots of delicious food, and relaxation. Of course, I forgot my camera. And so Simon decided it would be a fantastic time to ride a bike for the first time. We never even considered it as a possibility at this point (this seems to be a trend; need to remind myself to stay out of the kids’ way). He was outside with Granny and Grandad, while “we” were putting Ethan down for a nap, and lo and behold, he apparently got on the thing and started riding. And is a pro at this point, already. Need to visit some yard sales. Please send pictures, if you have any.

Ethan

Summer

Summer is here. The temps have been soaring to the mid 90s all week, practically. How to deal? Spend the day in the pool. Literally. From about 9:00 am to 7:00 pm, naps and meals excepted. Somedays it’s a little easier to manage the kids.