Bebe Avec de Joie

Donovan is officially full of Joie de Vivre. That's how I'm going to phrase it. Some might call it Being Overtired In Light of Not Taking a Nap Even Tho You Are SO TIRED You Have Rings Around Your Big Blue Baby Eyes. No: It's Joie de Vivre.

Saturday we had a busy day that included running around the park in front of the library. I thought he'd want to run in the grass in his bare feet but the grass seemed to freak him out a little bit. Once I put his shoes back on him I turned him loose in the paved and/or gravely maze of flowerbeds and benches. Much running around and shrieking with joy ensured. He's reached the point of having no fear as far as running away from me. As long as its somewhere where I can see him and he's nowhere near traffic, I've just been letting him go. When we got home last night he fell asleep in his highchair with a blueberry halfway to his mouth.

Today we went to church and I stayed with him in the Nursery there. We are trying to get him comfortable in the Nursery so we've been taking turns staying with him. Today was a nice day because the kids were mostly close to his age and while everyone took a turn crying there was no hitting or tantrums going on. At one point I saw Donny playing with a couple other kids and I motioned to the gal in charge that I was leaving. 10 minutes later, she brought my traumatized child to me so I could hold him in the vestibule and get him to stop, as Mike, Bill Cosby and I call it, "sup-supping." Later on, Mike went to Aspinwall to look at some records from an estate sale. Just to get out of the house, I took the boy to the Waterworks stripmall, or whatever its called. Note bien: the afternoon nap did not happen. Oh, we tried but after about 45 minutes of laying in bed with a flailing, moaning baby I gave up and took him downstairs to play with his blocks and empty yogurt containers. ANYhow, the boy did NOT want to be in his stroller. I finally took him to Barnes and Noble where he was very happy to run around shrieking. Misbehaving? No, Joie de Vivre. In his defense, the shrieking was happiness and he did NOT manhandle any of the merchandise. In fact, for a boy that loves to be read to, he did'nt care about the merchandise at all. And come suppertime, he fell asleep in his highchair for a second night in a row.

Joie de Vivre can tire a person out.

Good Enough to Eat?

When I went to pick Donny up at daycare, Miss Erin met me at the door with this look on her face. "DONOVAN had a GREAT day [she can be loud when she's excited, hence the caps]but you will not BELIEVE what HAPPENED." Apparently Donny was standing there, "minding his OWN BUSINESS" when one of the other children pulled down Donovans pants and tried to bite him on the ass. Whichever kid it was (no names were given) only got a mouthful of diaper and my boy's butt came away unscathed. Erin finished the story by saying, "NEVER BEFORE in the HISTORY of THIS CHILDCARE FACILITY has there been a BUTT BITING."

Butt Biting. In a Jesus centered Christian childcare facility.

My, my, my.

A Little Classical Music For You Kids

Mike and Donovan met me on campus after work today and I took them to the Kraus Campo. Donny has been having so much fun running around that I thought the trails and the numbered platform would be safe places for him to blow off some steam. As you can see, he proceeded to do exactly that.


I'm sure all cities have their little secrets but Pittsburgh has so many--its been fun sharing them with Donny. And since he wont remember a lot of them, I can premier them again and again and again! At least for the next year, year and a half... Donny listened to my iPod a bit on the way home. He got to hear the Live at Brian's version of "Stars are Stars" by Echo and the Bunnymen plus the beginning of "Sweet Jane" as done by Mott the Hoople.

12th Anniversary: Tapas and Carseats

Very brief entry after a very busy day. Today was our 12th anniversary and we managed to celebrate and also cross one big thing off the list, which is get the boy a new carseat. For those of you who remember the early days, this is a particularly big deal as the boy practically lived in that carseat for the first 6 months or so. Now to see his feet hanging over the edge--well, the time had come.

We got the seat at Target and I was so amused with the size of the box compared to the size of the baby that I had to take a photo;
We also managed to go to church today and I'm glad we did as the sermon was really good--it was all about how being a Unitarian can be about saying No to religion while saying Yes to religion. I got another clue that this Unitarian thing might work out for me. As we were walking Donny to the nursery, I noticed a new addition to the art and objects in that particular hallway:
Excellent.

Baby's First Pierogie!

Its a hot time in the old town tonight: figurately and literally. Today was one of those hot, hot, hot days and here we are with no airconditioning. Today was also the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church Festival. Immaculate Heart is a stunning, stunning church here in Polish Hill. Heathen that I am I've only been in the basement to vote and the actual church once for an actual Christmas midnight mass. I mean, just look at it from the outside:Crazy, no?

Well, Donny and I decided to check it out. Once I wheeled him downhill in his stroller I let him loose to run around--the streets were blocked off, I think mainly to accomodate the huge bingo game. Donny really liked the double yellow lines and I think he was trying to follow them, tho his aim was a little off.

We got little ladyfingers at the bakesale and some pierogies for lunch. I did'nt get a chance to photograph Baby's First Pierogie, which is a shame because I would definately pay to have a silver frame engraved to say that, but I did get some good shots of Baby's First Fancy Cookies.



Tomorrow is the Polish Hill Art What You've Got festival. I'm hoping we can go--we're kinda booked up as its our (get ready for it) 12TH ANNIVERSARY. We got a free offer of babysitting from the Grandparents and hints have been made as to some sort of surprise involving restaurants and maybe cocktails. Sunday is, happily enough, the one day Mike and I both have off of work so this will work out great. On the down side, we are missing a swank housewarming and maybe church. Not to mention yardwork.

America as a nation needs to embrace the 3 day weekend.

Mama Takes the Hint

One of Donovan's favorite books is, The Police Cloud. We often have to read The Police Cloud 4 or 5 times in a row. Last night Donny handed me the book and I laid down on the floor to read to him. In the middle of our 4th reading, Donny got up, walked over to his stack of books, picked up a thick little boardbook version of the Velveteen Rabbit, brought it over and shoved it in my mouth.

So much for The Police Cloud.

The Archivist's Children Have No Photo Albums

Hello Friends, and welcome to the tail end of Baby Day. Well, actually its Sunday, which is sort of Baby Day. Mike is in our room with Donny trying to convince him that he's sleepy. While I await my inevitable summons to assist I thought I would be lazy and post a bunch of photos from various points in the boy's short life. I came up with this idea while looking for one poorly labeled image in the mass of jpgs scattered throughout our computer. In no particular order, here are some favorites:

Late Babyday Round Up

It's almost Saturday again and I still havent downloaded any of the photos I took from last Saturday. Not that any of them are all that fantastic, but still. I tried to get a photo of Donovan getting ready to throw his ball. The look he gets on his face is pretty funny as he musters up the strength to hurl the damn thing. The stupid delay on the camera tho--this is as close as I could getThat's as good as it gets, folks. Maybe tomorrow will bring better photo ops.

I Am Doing A Good Job Mothering

Today was my first cemetery tour of 2008 and the first one I've done in about a year. I took last year off as I couldn't really see myself lugging a newborn thru a 200 acre historic burial ground.

Due to bad planning on my part, however, I pushed a 15 month old thru a 200 acre historic burial ground. I mean, how could I know anyone would actually sign up for the tour? People are so weird.

Joking aside, I had two people on my tour today and they were just nice as pie--very interested and very conversational. I couldn't ask for a better way to get back in the cemetery tour saddle. Donny, of course, was the perfect baby--he fell asleep by the second monument and stayed that way right until we went back to the office to check out. Of course all the cemetery folk were happy to see him. I almost wished he was a little older as he got waved at by one of the guys driving the backhoe and another who was buzzing by in one of the big work trucks.

My one regret is that I didn't take the time to take any photos of the boy at the cemetery. That's a regret for myself; for him, I kind of felt like he got the short end of the Saturday morning stick and taking photos of him after an hour and a half of being pushed around mausoleums would have been a bit too much like exploitation.

Even tho there was a lot to do at home (or maybe because there was so much to do at home) I decided to make the rest of the day Baby Day. We had lunch at Uncle Sam's, where the boy ate risotto I had packed for him and then shared my fries. We then bussed it to the park in front of the library where he proceeded to run around in his bare baby feet.


I must say, the cap/shirt/shorts combo was a winner. I need to go into business as a Baby Stylist. Sadly, I'm guessing there are such things...

ANYhow, after the park, there was running around to be done in the library then home on the bus then reading of many books (my throat is much better today) and about a 45 minute nap. For him. Reading for me.

The End.

Maybe Its the Nyquil...

Does anyone else watch those horrible "Dateline" murder mystery shows? I get sucked into them every now and then and I remembered one today. A young single mother was murdered and the person who found her body also found the woman's 18 month old daughter trying to wake her mother up. I know that's a horrible thing to think of but I was sick today with a wretched sore throat and was trying not to talk. I was laying on the floor and Donny kept dropping books on me. I feel like if I did die, the CSI folks could tell how long I'd been dead by calculating how long it would take a 20lb baby to drag a board book 5ft 10in and then toss it onto his mother. "The body was covered with 539 books and 7 magazines. She's been dead at least 3 days."

I was feeling like a bad Mom, tying to get out of reading to the boy. I played the piano for him and his xylophone. I even fired up the talking battery operated drum. That still did'nt stop him from throwing books in my lap.

Completely off topic: Need work done on your roof? DO NOT call AP Home Services. Its a very long story but, suffice it to say, after 4 different estimates, 3 on site visits and several phone calls, their sales manager accused me of being "dishonest" because I actually had the nerve to assume the quote given to us by the sales rep he sent out was acceptable. Anyone out there know of a good roofer?