Science Museum

Mommy and I went to the Durham Museum of Life and Science today for a playdate. There were three other little boys there too, all within 7 1/2-9 months old.

The first thing we did was sit in a pile of blocks and eat them. Here I am with Tiffany and Rosco, Mandi and Jaekob, and Emily and Logan. I wasn't too sure about being forced to play with new babies, so for most of the time I sat on Mommy's lap.

Next we went to the area specifically for little kids (although there were some bigger kids there too, who almost trampled us EVEN with their parents watching). They had the coolest thing there - a table with beads on wires that you can push around! I had a lot of fun with this.

There were also silly mirrors on the walls. I found one with a baby who looked just like me, only his head was a lot bigger!

Next I found a fish to eat. Mommy cringed at all the germs that were probably on it, but I think that they just made the wood and vinyl taste better.

We walked around outside and saw the farm animals in the petting zoo, then the big nasty insects in the butterfly house. By this point all of us babies were getting pretty tired, so we called it a day. It sure was more fun than the last time I went there, with my aunts Donna and Debbie and Marsha, when I was four months old and had bronchiolitis!

Good ole taters

One of Daddy's favorite foods is cheesy mashed potatoes. We had them for dinner the other night. As we were eating, Daddy casually remarked that since we were out of milk, he'd had to make some substitutions. When Mommy asked what he used instead, he looked over at her and said, "Well, there were several of Jax's bottles in the fridge." Mommy shook her head and laughed, since I'm breastfed! Daddy then said he used sour cream instead of milk, that he knew better than to use my bottles. Here I am having some of the potatoes too. Very yummy!

Trip clarifications

1. Kim is a forensic chemist or something like that for the police department. She doesn't really do drugs; she tests them.
2. Mommy says that we don't listen to what large affluent older white men say, especially when it's about something they know nothing about (like minorities or our town or our lives). We just nod and smile.

Trip to Evansville, days three and four

When we woke up Saturday, we were all in a happy mood. I slept the entire night in the pack-n-play and fell asleep with minimal fuss. Daddy was feeling back to normal. Mommy had gone to sleep at 8:30 and gotten plenty of rest. We were ready to face the day pretty early, so we loaded up the car and drove around to see what had changed. Not much: a few new stores here and there and some new subdivisions, but it was still pretty much the same town. Mommy and Daddy couldn't get over how flat it was, and how treeless! They also appreciated the Triangle's sign ordinances, as everywhere you look in Evansville there are big signs for stores and telephone wires.

We went to lunch at the restaurant that Mommy and Daddy went to on their first date, Golden Buddha in nearby Newburgh. They are convinced that it's a front for drugs or illegal smuggling, as every time they've been there (lunch, dinner, middle of the afternoon, weekday, weekend), there have never been more than five other tables of people, yet the place has been in business for at least almost a decade. We were the only people in there. The food was pretty good, and there was a big fish tank for me to watch.

After lunch, it was time for the main reason we came to Evansville for the weekend - the wedding of Emily Becker, one of Mommy's college friends. Daddy wasn't feeling so hot at the moment, and he's not big on weddings, so he dropped Mommy and me off at the church and went to his friend Glen's house instead, which is right near the church. Mommy was kinda apprehensive about taking me, since it was a Catholic wedding, but everything worked out well. I had a bottle to get me through the readings. During the vows I was approaching fussbutt levels, so we went out into a vestibule where we found a matchbox car in the lost and found for me to chew on. Right before communion the random lady in front of us (whom we later found out worked in the Resident Life office at UE) turned around. I reached out to her and her big shiny necklace, and she held me and played with me for the rest of the ceremony.

Daddy picked us up when it was over and we went back to the hotel to rest for a bit before the reception. I spent the time playing with my new favorite toy - the remote! I got pretty good at turning the TV on and off and changing the channel - especially if Mommy or Daddy were watching something.
The reception was really nice. Mommy tried feeding me some beefy vegetables baby food, but I wasn't interested. I was really squirmy too, so Daddy sat me on the floor and gave me a roll to gnaw on. Just as I had gummed it to the point that I could actually eat some of it, they took it away and fed me some more baby food.After dinner came the dancing. Mommy's college roommate Kim was a bridesmaid, so this was her opportunity to sneak off the bridal party platform and mingle. Even though she couldn't remember my name, she was happy to play with me. Kim does drugs for the Ft. Wayne, IN, police department. Mommy and Kim talked for awhile and got all caught up. I got to meet Becker, the bride, whom Mommy has now seen in a dress exactly twice. Becker and her now husband live in Boston right now, but want to move back to the Midwest to raise a family.It was getting past my bedtime at this point and I was really tired, so we went back to the hotel and (you guessed it) enjoyed the cable.

Sunday we got up, checked out, and returned the pack-n-play. We dropped it off at Books-A-Million, which is a like a deadly, soul-sucking whirlpool because people who work there can't seem to escape from it. Mommy was working there when she met Daddy, who had worked there during college. Kelly still works there after almost ten years! After we dropped it off, we went to a real bookstore, Borders, where Mommy ran into a classmate of hers, Brookeanne. They took Russian together in college. Brookeanne now has two adorable kids of her own. Next we went to lunch at TGIFridays, a restaurant Daddy really likes but one we rarely eat at because the one in Raleigh is nasty. I managed to take Mommy's watch off her wrist while we were eating. Then it was back to the Louisville airport (I slept the whole way back). We got through checking in and security with no problems, due in part to the fact that the check-in person didn't bother to look at our IDs (and when Mommy asked if she wanted to see them, she said no. Good thing we're not terrorists!). The flight back was uneventful, except that Mommy and I were snowed on (the flight attendant said that it was just frozen condensation from the air conditioner). I slept for most of the flight, again, and then we were back home. And although I enjoyed my trip and all the new people I met, it's nice to be back.

Trip to Evansville, day two

When we woke up Friday morning, Daddy wasn't feeling so hot. He'd caught some kind of nasty stomach bug. We stopped by Walgreens and dosed him up on about five different medicines, then swung by the University of Evansville to check out the changes and say hi to some professors. Unfortunately a couple Mommy wanted to talk to weren't there (one was overseas and the other was either sick or playing golf), but we did talk to one, Dr. Weiss, for an hour or so. Mommy was his research assistant as an undergrad and presented papers at national and international psychology conferences with him. He told Mommy she should have lots of kids, because apparently there's a genetic component to good behavior that you're just not going to get if you adopt from the ghettoes of Durham. We also stopped by to talk to another one of Mommy's psych prof, Dr. Becker, who spun me around in circles like an airplane.
Here I am in front of the school. Mommy wouldn't let me eat the mulch or flowers, although I did try.

Next it was off to the zoo! One of the things Mommy and Daddy like about the Midwest is that all the bigger towns have their own zoos, unlike North Carolina where there's only one for the whole state. We went with Daddy's friends Kelly and Paul and their two daughters, Hannah and Paige.

There were all kinds of funky signs at the zoo, like this one.Don't drink dog poop, check. There was also one outside all the monkey cages that said, "Please don't feed us. We will fight to defend our homes." So, apparently monkeys consider offers of food to be territorial invasions?

During lunch, I got my first girlfriend! She said I was cute! I don't know how well the relationship will work, seeing as how it's long-distance and I'd rather chew on a phone than talk into it. She's also a bit old for me (she's five). Maybe I'll marry her sister Paige instead someday, since she's closer to my age (she's three months old).

It was really hot at the zoo. Daddy still wasn't feeling great, so he took a break to sit in the air-conditioned monkey house. After a couple hours of looking at animals, I was ready to join him.
I woke up long enough to see the famous monkey boat (Vladimir Nabokov mentions it in Lolita). Unfortunately it no longer has monkeys on it. Mommy and Daddy think they should be put back on, with crocodiles in the moat to keep them in their place.Then it was back to the hotel. Daddy had planned to go out with some of his friends tonight, but although he was feeling better at this point, just tired, he didn't want to relapse, so we spent the evening watching the season finales of Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis. (We don't have cable, so one of the perks of staying at a hotel is watching Sci-Fi and Comedy Central).

Trip to Evansville, day one

We just got back from a long weekend in Evansville, IN, the town where Mommy and Daddy went to college. Here's what happened...

Our flight was pretty early Thursday morning. Mommy thought she'd have problems going through security with all my homemade baby food, but the TSA guy let us through ok. I slept most of the flight to Louisville, then played with the man next to Daddy the rest of it (fortunately it was only an hour-long flight). We picked up our rental car and drove the two hours to Evansville (I slept most of this too), where we checked into the hotel. I played and rolled some, and then we drove to Washington, IN, where Daddy lived as a teenager. Parts of Indiana don't observe daylight savings time, so we weren't sure what time it was there exactly, and we ended up with an hour or so to kill before we were supposed to go to dinner with my great-aunt Patty. Daddy pushed me on swings for a bit in the big town park. I'm still not sure if I liked it or not.
I can tell you one thing I don't like though - the park bathrooms! They were dark and echo-y and scary, and my diaper change took wayyyyyy too long. Fortunately, it was soon time to go to dinner. We met Aunt Patty at her house and then went to the best restaurant in the entire world - the Black Buggy, an Amish buffet. Aunt Patty held me while Mommy and Daddy finished eating. Mommy won - she ate two full plates plus pie, while Daddy only had one plate plus pie. I can't wait till I can eat all the yummy food there too!

After dinner, we drove back to Evansville and picked up the pack-n-play we were borrowing from Daddy's friend Kelly. At this point it was way past my bedtime, so we went back to the hotel and tried to get me to sleep in my own bed. No such luck. Mommy and Daddy eventually gave in and let me sleep with them in the king-sized bed, although when I was fast asleep they snuck me into the pack-n-play. No fair.

Helping the less fortunate

While eating dinner tonight (peachy chicken and rice), I stored the food in my mouth like a hamster. Mommy and Daddy finally caught on that I wasn't swallowing it and stopped feeding me. They thought this was just part of my more-than-usual fussiness today. But no, I had a plan.

Every night when I take my bath, I play with my rubber ducky friends. Tonight I brought them a treat - chicken! That white blob in the corner is yummy regurgitated food. Daddy was disturbed because (among other reasons) I was feeding avians avians. Mommy was just glad it wasn't poop floating in the tub.

Visit from Grandma

Grandma was just here! She stayed with us for a whole week. I stayed home from daycare with her a couple days.

She bought me toys and gave me baths and cleaned our house. She tried giving me a smoothie, but I couldn't figure out how to drink out of a straw, so I just grabbed the straw and sprayed sticky orange stuff all over the inside of Mommy's car.

Toys

I think pretty much every baby has the same toys. Here are some of my favorites. These are the Baby Einstein blocks that should just come standard with every baby, like airbags or floor mats in a car. I like the yellow one the best, because when I hit it it goes "Qua-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack. Qua-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack. Qua-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack." I think the yellow one is Daddy's least favorite.
Then there's the bucket of blocks. I eat them, just like I eat everything. I'm pretty good at putting them in the bucket when the lid's not on. The lid has cut-outs in it for the various shapes to fit through, but it's too advanced for me right now.
This is Magic Dog. He's called that because I already have a dog named Mr. Dog, and we didn't want the two of them to get confused. He barks if you squeeze his nose, but right now I just like to shake him.
I like to play with these guys when I'm in my carseat. They live in the cars, so I always have company back there. Their names are 1. (Big) Mr. Monkey, 2. (Little) Mr. Monkey, and 3. Mr. Lizard. For whatever reason, all my toys are boys.

Honorable mentions: I'm pretty creative, so I find toys wherever I can. Not pictured are a roll of duct tape, a roll of masking tape, and an ice cube tray. What can I say - I'm a very sociable baby!

Way back when

Grandma is visiting right now. While showing her how to get pictures off her digital camera, Mommy took the opportunity to look at all my old pictures from when Grandma visited at Christmas. I was six weeks old then. I've changed so much! Here are some pictures of me when I was practically a newborn, since this blog started when I was five months old.

Mommy and Daddy dressed me like Santa and used the pictures on our Christmas cards. Oh, the humiliating things parents do to their kids.

More food commentary

I'm a budding food connoisseur, with very discriminating tastes. No, not really; I'll eat just about everything. Mommy keeps a spoon in the diaper bag so I can have some of whatever she's eating when we're at a restaurant. Saturday we went to the Thai Café with Heather. I had some of Mommy's rice with some kind of soysauce sauce on it. She couldn't shovel it into my mouth fast enough! Then on Saturday we went to Greek Fiesta (which is not a very good restaurant; Mommy wanted a gyro and Daddy wanted to go to Edward McKay in Raleigh, so since all of the good places serving Greek food were out of the way, we went there instead), where I had bits of a pita dipped in tzatziki sauce. Yum! For dinner that night Mommy gave me a bite of her mashed potatoes, but she wouldn't put gravy on them so I wouldn't eat them. Something about too much sodium, shutting down my kidneys, blah blah blah. I was too busy yelling and voicing my displeasure and hunger to listen. Coming up on the menu in the next week or two: special baby mac and cheese with my tiny pasta; baby hashbrowns; cheesy potatoes; and possibly some kind of fish. (Mommy made some tilapia and veggies with cheese sauce for me, but I didn't like it. But even Mommy agrees, the tilapia was overly fishy smelling, and she's not sure she'd want to eat it either. Daddy was happy because he hates fish.) If you have any suggestions for more meals, let us know! Mommy's making all my food, so we're open to trying just about anything.

Olé!

Last night Daddy, Mommy, Heather, and I went to Torrero's for dinner. I had some of Mommy's rice, and it was really yummy! Eating off a fork was hard though; I prefer a spoon or my hands. But the best part came after dinner - a clown wandered into the restaurant! Everyone was trying really hard not to make eye contact with him. But this guy was good! He parked himself between our table and another one and proceeded to make balloon animals. He made a tiger for a boy at the other table, then a bear for the kid's sister. Daddy doesn't like clowns, and the waiters must have sensed it and been sadistic because they wouldn't bring us the check! Daddy had to go up and ask for it. "Clown Willie" (that's his street name) was very disappointed that we were leaving without me getting anything, but the girl gave me her pink bear! He told me not to chew on it because it could pop and I could choke. Silly clown! I'm a baby! That's what I do! So, I immediately put it in my mouth. If we'd been there longer, Mommy would've requested a silly hat for me. The bear now lives on Mommy's desk, where I can't chew on it.

Here's a story about Clown Willie from the Burlington Times-News:

All smiles here: It's Clown Willie who generates a lot of them.

Byline: Keren Rivas

Mar. 12, 2006--If you've attended any of the events at the Burlington City Park during the past three years, you've probably met Willie.

It is hard to miss him with the white hat, the colorful striped outfit and the big red shoes he usually wears. No, he is not an extravagant dresser, Willie is a clown.

Clown Willie was born in 1953 in a Harnett County house that had no electricity or running water. His given name is William Tart, but for the past six years, most people he's met through his line of work only know him as Clown Willie.

Though he enjoys his profession very much, becoming an entertainer -- particularly this late in his life -- was not something Tart had planned to do. It just kind of fell on his lap.

About six years ago, Tart was sitting in the cafeteria at University Mall in Chapel Hill, when the mall manager approached him and offered him a job as Santa Claus. The guy the mall had hired for the job suffered appendicitis and had to be taken to the hospital at the last minute, the manager told him.

At the time, Tart had not cut his beard in 25 years, so it was long and white as snow. Though his only experience as Santa had been at family gatherings, Tart didn't give the offer a second thought and accepted the job. Little did he know that this sim ple act was going to change his life.

"I absolutely loved it," Tart, 62, says. "I fell in love with it." But after finishing the Santa gig, he started feeling low. He had dis covered he enjoyed making children laugh but didn't know what type of job would allow him to do that.

Then, one night, he watched "Patch Adams" on TV, and everything fell into place.

The movie is about Adams, an aspiring doctor played by Robin Williams, who enjoys helping others using unorthodox methods like humor and laughter. In one particu lar scene, Adams goes to a children's ward wearing a red nose (actually, an ear syringe), to which the children respond with giggles and laughs.

"I was very inspired by it," Tart recalls. "That very same night I said, 'That's it. I'm going to become a clown.'" He immediately started looking for resources in the area. He was living in Chapel Hill then. He found out that Wake Technical Community College was offering a 10-week class on clowning. His friends didn't know if this was a good idea, but Tart enrolled in the class anyway.

One Tuesday in April of 2000, Tart finished the course. The following Saturday, he attended his first birthday party as a clown. Since then, it's been non-stop for him.

"I've hardly ever had a weekend off since then," Tart says. "I just jumped right in with both feet." Prior to becoming a clown, Tart sold insurance and did a variety of different jobs for about three years. Before that, he operated a house cleaning company for 23 years.

Tart's life is more exciting now than it has ever been. He's been to all the home baseball games at the Durham ball stadium, all 80 of them, he says. He has been to more birthday parties, baby showers, events and fairs than he can remember.

"My life is an adventure, every day is different," Tart says. As a clown, he adds, "you always meet new kids that are just thrilled to see you. Kids just energize you." For somebody like Tart, who has no children of his own, his job is the only way he can get that interaction.

Since he moved to Mebane almost three years ago, Willie has become a fixture at all Burlington City Park events, including the Carousel Festival, the Halloween and the Christmas celebrations. The city hires Willie for these events because it doesn't allow solicitors in the park area.

The money he makes as a clown is not much, but it's at least enough to supplement his social security check. His major work expense is the balloons he uses to make balloon figures. Last year alone, Willie ordered 42,000 balloons.

Willie mostly does one-balloon figures like alligators, dogs, bears, swords and hats. He usually charges $1 per figure.

For more complicated figures, like a nine-balloon dragon, a motorcycle with its rider or the starship Enterprise, Willie charges a little bit more. He said his creations are "limited by the imagination" only.

But despite his artistry, in the world of clowns, Willie is still considered an amateur. He will remain that way unless he publishes a book or creates his own original designs, something that he says is pretty hard to do considering that clowns have been around since the 1890s.

But that's OK. What matters most for Tart is that children and adults continue enjoying his shows.

"I am going to be clown until I die," he says. "As long as I can walk and talk, I'm never going to retire."

Look what I can do!

Oh yeah, that's right. I can sit up by myself! I'm still working out a few wobbles, and after several minutes I fall over, but I can do it!

According to the baby books, once I'm sitting on my own I'm ready for finger foods. Mommy gives me Cheerios, and the more the better. I take big handfuls of them and shove them in my mouth, hoping one or two will stay in for me to eat. Saturday at breakfast, Mommy wasn't feeding me fast enough (likes always), so between bites I shoved Cheerios in my mouth.

Here's a video of me eating. I voice my satisfaction with the food with every bite I take. Daddy thinks I'm trying to imitate Mommy by saying "Mmmmmm." I'm eating peachy chicken here, which is my favorite thing for dinner, followed closely by sweet potato-y hamburger and my baby minestrone.

Boy parts

Mommy's friend Heather is visiting us right now. Heather taught high school English with Teach for America, just like Mommy did. However, after their two years were over, Heather defied God's wishes and moved back to St. Louis, where it took her forever to find a job, although if she'd stayed out here she could have taught social studies like she wanted to. God also punished her by giving her lots of unexpected problems on her new house, like pee-stained floors. Shoulda listened, right, Heather?
Anyway, Heather is afraid of babies and boys. You can tell by the way she's holding me. Daddy asked her if she wanted to hold me and she said no, so he dumped me in her arms and left the room. I also flashed Heather my boy parts after my bath. She was very flustered and didn't appreciate it very much. I drooled all over her arm, too. She doesn't like drool.

Here's an unrelated video of me swimming when I was in Greensboro. Daddy's coworker Alejandra is babbling to me in Spanish in the background. She's having a little girl in September, so we traded her all my outgrown baby stuff for delicious homemade flans.

First hotel

APPCNC, the organization that Daddy works for, just had its annual conference in Greensboro (about an hour or so away). Mommy's car conveniently decided to stop working reliably, so with Daddy out of town for a few days, Mommy decided to work at home (with me) Thursday and Friday so she wouldn't be stranded on the side of the road. Daddy took pity on us and Thursday afternoon, Day 2 of him being out of town, he missed one of his sessions to come pick us up so we could join him in his free hotel room. I had so much fun there!

That night, we went out to dinner with all of Daddy's coworkers, and afterwards Mommy and I went to the mall that's right next to the convention center to try to find Mommy a new swimsuit. However, we agreed that $45 is way too much to pay, so we gave up and went back to the hotel. This is where the fun began!

This is me about an hour past my usual bedtime and half an hour into Mommy trying to get me to sleep. I decided that I didn't need sleep; I needed to roll! Mommy made me a really cool spot to sleep, complete with fluffy pillows on all sides. And what do you do to fluffy pillows? Why, you kick them and hit them and drool on them, of course! At one point when Mommy told me to go to sleep, I just lifted my head up and laughed at her! Eventually, however, I fell asleep, around 9:00. I never get to stay up that late at home! I woke up around 11:00, just as Mommy and Daddy were going to bed, so they decided to let me sleep with them. Never again, they say! Something about me rolling around too much, kicking them in the stomach, punching them in the throat, gurgling, no one getting much sleep...

The next morning after breakfast and my morning nap (during which Mommy worked on auditing disposition reports, just like she would have if we had been at home), we went swimming! I wore the Little Swimmers diapers Grandma gave me in my Easter basket, as well as my swim trunks, both of which were just a bit too big for me. At first I wasn't too sure about the water. Mommy held onto me and let me float around. We splashed around some, and she dunked me under water, which I did NOT like. Daddy came out during a break to watch us and take pictures, and by that time I'd decided I really liked this giant bathtub. I started splashing some myself, instead of Mommy helping me do it, and I managed to drink a lot of water, just like I do in my bathtub at home. We didn't play for too long though, because all that exercise made me tired and hungry. We're going to be staying at another hotel in a few weeks; I hope it has a pool too! (And Mommy and Daddy hope it has a crib they can rent to stick me in; we'll see!)