memorial day weekend pt 1

we got up saturday morning and drove to mems' and teed's house. lookit this kid:

this is her new "outdoor" face. whenever she first gets outside, she makes this face for some reason. she's a funny little weirdo.

ah, that's better. back to normal.

she's been learning to make different noises by drumming her fingers across her lips. once she finds out she can do this AND spit water at the same time, it's all over for us.

these pics remind me of when pitchers and catchers meet on the mound, and hold their gloves up so we can't see what they're saying. most of the time i'm sure it's the same kind of stuff bebe says: "well, my diaper's full, so i'm thinking fastball straight up the middle. if he whiffs, the inning's over, and if he hits it, it's outta here and so am i. either way i gotta get out of this thing before i get rashy."

car rides are so boring. ho hum.

for most of saturday we just hung out with the family. aunt marge and uncle ben were there, and it's always great to see them. towards bebe's bed time we decided she needed a tubba. mommy hopped in so that bebe didn't hog all the fun:

that's some truly great hair, beatrix.



the next morning we went out for brunch.

bebe looked over the menu, but it all looked like gibberish to her so mommy picked out some good stuff.

course one consisted of a corn muffin. from what i could tell, it was pretty good.

bebe's got her eyes on mems' ice tea...



but mommy gave her a strawberry instead.

"what the eff?"

"uh, here. you finish this."

on the ride home, she practiced intimidating me. i think it worked.

"hey, do you smell that?"

"who farted?"

actually, it's coming from your pants, bebe.

"awwwww! somebody put poop in my pants! gross!!!"

"oh, wait. hold on a sec. i think there's a little more..."

"just gas. what a bummer."


i managed to get a few good "teeth" shots:

they're gone!

they're back! sort of.

there we go- all two and one eighth.



sunday afternoon, bebe spent some time with mems. she loved looking at the stuff on the fridge:

mems and teed were pretty crazed in the weeks leading up to the last presidential election. teed was crazed by the election itself, and mems was crazed by teed being crazed. i don't participate in politics (it only encourages the politicians) but i wanted to do my part, so in the final week before the election itself, i made a bunch of obama postcards and sent one a day for about seven or eight days to mems' and teed's house. i'm into art, and street art in particular, and it was no secret that lots of street artists got behind obama and produced prints and stickers to aid the campaign and/or make a statement. shepard fairey is obviously the biggest of those folks, but guys like david choe and ron english (he did the murals of obama looking like abe lincoln) also created some pretty iconic images.

mems is looking really proud here for a reason:

bebe gravitated toward shepard's piece, and even identified it on two different post cards, as two slightly different versions. she was able to pick out one, than the other, and match them up without any help! what a brain. she's going to be the brightest supermodel star athelete of the bunch at rocket science summer camp. and i'm not just saying that because i'm here daddy.

mems interrupts for some smooches.

since she was still dealing with fallout from her nut allergy, she was dosed regularly with benadryl. mems lends a hand getting the red stuff to go down.

"alright! i'm medicated! let's get on to part two!!!"

standing

i've got lots of pics to post from the long weekend, but in the meantime i wanted to show off these pics of bebe standing up all by herself. she continues to pull herself up using chairs, the trash barrel, mommy and daddy's legs, etc. but we've realized that if both hands are busy, she can stand straight up from a squatting position. pretty cool...

here she is, fishing some trash out of the trash can. good girl, beebs!

and just to keep things interesting, i pulled the can away so she couldn't cheat. lo and behold, she just hung out there. standing.

sunday mornings aren't just for church.

saturday night, after bebe had gone to bed, mommy and i were partaking of our regular ritual- talking about how cute she is and what a good baby she is and how much we love her, etc. we were also saying how we just like being around her all of the time. well, she must have heard us, because at four a.m. there she was, shrieking and wide awake, ready to start her day. i took her back to her room and walked and bounced and shhhh'd and sang and finally ignored her as she cried and cried and writhed in my arms. she would only stop for the occasional yawn just to let me know that this was wearing her out as well. i got her back to sleep after about an hour, but after just a few short minutes (or what felt like a few short minutes) back in our warm comfy bed, the baby monitor squawked out her teeny wake-up growls. mommy took the next shift, and through our combined efforts we were able to eradicate the taliban's presence in afghanistan, broker a peace accord between india and pakistan, and save the world from terrorism by hunting the perpetrators down in their evil dens of vile evilness, mission accomplished!

actually, not. but we were able to squeeze out about an hour and change more sleep for ourselves and our baby. just as good, as far as i'm concerned. seriously, who even knows where pakistan is?

at eight, i climbed out of bed with my little girl fastened to my hip, and entered the kitchen i had so neglected the night before. the rule at our house is that the person who makes dinner is absolved of dish-washing duty. since mommy does ninety-nine percent of the cooking, i'm the resident dish washer. and really, i don't mind. our dinners are delicious and better than most people's, and i find dish washing meditative. there's a start, a middle, and an end, and you can instantly see the fruits of your labor. and while your body does the work, your brain can go ride unicorns and converse with cloud-folk who pass their days pulling the sun across the sky and their nights guiding the moon back to her home. everyone has their fantasies, don't judge me.

where was i? ah yes, the dishes. we use bebe's exer-saucer to block off areas of the kitchen we don't want her to get to, usually the pantry. except early in the morning she likes to crawl down the hallway to our bedroom and bang on the door, knowing that mommy's inside trying to sleep. since i could only block one thru way, i had to pick my poison. and i figured that if i at least kept her in the kitchen, there was a chance she would find some way to entertain herself while i cleaned up. as opposed to having to chase her as she bolted for the bedroom, squealing "mam-a, mam-a!"

well, it's no secret that when kids are quiet they're up to no good.

found the toothpicks, did ya'?

at least she tried putting them back in the box. i think that's what she's doing.
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after the toothpicks, it was the tea shelf. so long as she wasn't eating the peeling paint off of my toolbox, sitting right behind her.

although i did look down at one point to see a toothpick dangling from her mouth, a la bob the bartender. it just sat there on her bottom lip as if to say "what'll it be, pal?"

hurricane beatrix, the aftermath.


not content to destroy a part of the kitchen, we moved into the dining room where there was a fresh basket of laundry to unfold.

thanks, face!