Camping!

At Acadia, the only national park in New England.

Hogwarts Square

Last Friday (now two Fridays ago - I started this post a while ago) Harvard Square rechristened itself Hogwarts Square and hosted a Harry Potter concert in Harvard, er Hogwarts Yard. Many of the local businesses participated by staying open late and having HP themed menus or drinks.

We took Xan to Upstairs on the Square, where we enjoyed polyjuice with our delicious dinners. Xan met another redhead in wizard robes, who entertained him with her stuffed owl. She flew it around and he grabbed it, threw it at her, and shrieked with laughter.

After dinner, we walked around and enjoyed the crowd. As is his habit, Xan picked up sticks and walked along with them waving them around. In context, they looked rather like wands. Loads of people were dressed up and one girl was even a snitch. People were stopping her to take their picture with her left and right.

The concert was hilariously bad and we had a great time giggling at the bands until Xan was pooped and we had to head home.

Walkscore.com

Walkability is on of the most important factors for quality of life for me and is something that unfortunately will probably suffer once Bill finds a permanent position somewhere. Our current place is damn near perfect, with a walk score of 97, and even the place we're moving to soon is very good - 86. My hometown? A dismal 8. Hopefully we'll end up somewhere in between.

Thirsty

Xan loves the water features at our local parks. There are five or six within easy walking distance.

Walking video

Finally, as promised:


We went to Art Beat in Davis Square this weekend. Xan really enjoyed the music.

Teething

For a little while I've thought that his seventh tooth would be on the bottom right, since it's white under the gum there and you can sort of feel the tooth. But while poking around his mouth just now I felt the back of my thumbnail bump into something hard, and once I got a closer look in his mouth, sure enough, a top molar on the left had broken through on one side. On the other side there is a swollen and bruised (!) spot where a second molar is trying to come in. Poor baby.

Little Yogi

List of new stuff

What else is he doing other than that boring old walking, you ask? Well, let me think. I'll use numbers.

1. When we laugh he laughs along, even when he doesn't know what's funny. It's a little different than his normal laugh, more of a short guffaw.

2. Shaking tables. He's knocked over one of our lamps one the sofa table a couple of times this way. He can really get the table shaking and thinks it's delightful. We are not so enamored of it.

3. When he is surprised, often of the where'd-it-go or what-is-that variety. He turns his hands up out to his sides, raises his eyebrows and lets out a gasp or an inquisitive exclamation. This is just about the cutest thing ever and everyone is saying how much they love it. It is hard to predict and thus hard to catch on camera, but I'm hoping we will.

4. Throwing fits continues to be a favorite, even gaining popularity, if that is possible.

5. He loves being read to and looking at books, especially ones about counting or animals. He'll sit on the floor, paging through a book, pointing at the pictures and babbling in measured tones like he is reading. He'll often point to one thing after another on the page, or even in the real world and sound like he's counting.

Call me

Remember when I left my phone in San Francisco last November and hence lost my phonebook? Well my recent phone broke so suddenly and catastrophically that I wasn't able to recover any of the numbers in it.

My phone number is still the same, so give me a call. That way I'll have your number in my phone instead of having to enter it, and we can catch up, with the bonus that I'll pair down the numbers in my phone to people who actually call me.

More complaining

I found out yesterday that there will be construction on our new street the entire time we plan to live there. Originally I thought the city was just going to be doing some beautification, putting in trees and flowers, but it turns out they're replacing/refurbishing the water main and other utilities, replacing the road surface and sidewalks, and installing three new traffic lights. The pretty landscaping part doesn't even start until the end of 2009, when we'll hopefully be long gone.

The upside is that Xan loves, loves, loves construction trucks and watching construction, so it will be entertaining for him. I just hope it isn't unbearably noisy and dusty.

Answers

Yeah, I've been complaining a lot lately, but it's not all that bad. To clear up a couple of questions:

Yes, I'm all better. It was the flu, and was only really awful for one day, but that day was brutal. The feeling of pulling my shorts off to change clothes made me cry. Fortunately (for them, anyway) Bill and Xan remained flu-free.

I don't think the pooping is Xan being sick. The poop wasn't runny or anything, jus the normal grossness. He's poops a lot anyway - two to three - times a day - this was just all at once. It's just that cleaning up someone else's crap is now part of my daily experience, sometimes moreso than others, so it's what I write about.

Now for the cool part: He started walking! (See how I buried that in the post so you had to read all that other junk first?) He finally strung more than one or two steps together last week, and has been steadily improving. I think I have some of it on video; I'll try to sort through and upload.

I can't even think of an appropriate title

"Where did you find something to eat?"

Xan had a smear at the corner of his mouth and as I glanced over to the see the mess smeared all over the kitchen, I realized he didn't, IT WAS HIS SHIT. OH MY FUCKING GOD!

After the double pooping, his bottom was a little pink and I figured he had gotten it all out for a while, so could use a bit of fresh air for a couple of minutes. Wrong. So, so wrong. This is such a gross clean up job.

You're lucky this blog doesn't come with nausea inducing smell-o-vision.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that he was carrying a shovel that he had been using to dig around in it.

Just sharing the misery

How is it that he can have two HUGE loads of poop within a half an hour or each other that are completely different colors and smells?

City life?

I sat in our living room this morning and thought. "Phew! What is that smell?" I know we live in an urban neighborhood, but we don't usually get stink wafting into the apartment.

Then I realized the stench was coming from my child's butt.

Yet another phrase I never thought I would have to use, at least not literally: Dude, that is some weird shit.

Benches are funny

At a park in Montreal

Sorry for the lack of posts

Combo of laziness, a trip to Montreal, and a wicked flu. Here's a quick pic to tide you over. Have I posted it already? Hope not.

Random bits

1. Xan snorts when he laughs. Bill blames me.

2. I was carrying Xan on my back and singing to him as I often do. This particular song had hand motions that go along with it (Robin Red Breast for those Music Together people out there). A guy coming down the street suddenly said, "Oh! I thought you were just weird doing that. I didn't know there was a baby back there!"

3. A search for Central Square Cambridge on YouTube turns up this video of the grand opening of Andala cafe. I was surprised to see myself in it. It's so quick I had to double check that it is actually me.



This is a collection of shots taken down Mass Ave between Central and the Mass Ave bridge last year (not by me).

Blast from the past

Taken just over a year ago
For more current stuff, check out the new vids (the Xan on YouTube link on the right).