Hurricane Iain

I'll spare you having to see Iain's room after a day of play. Here is the sunroom, innocent of any wrongdoing, yet strewn with toys, towels, books and bottles. Nothing is safe.
You have been warned.

Dear Son

Here are some times of day you should not see again until you're 15: 12:51am. 4:29am.
Thank you.
The Mgmt.

P.S. My seeds germinated. Too bad I did this a month late. Still.

So Far...

Today, I've gone to the grocery, written and mailed thank-you notes, graded/edited four senior theses, baked an apple cake, made cookie dough, made dinner (at 2pm - it was a crockpot meal), made iced tea, read drafts via email, planted my herbs, thinned my sugar-snap peas, planted a ground crawler between some flagstones (and added a couple more stones), and performed various tasks related to Mr. Man.

I need to go wash my hands (garden dirt) so I can make the cookies. And I need to read/grade/edit about 6 more senior theses.

Then it will be time for bed.

I am soooooo ready for: warm weather, the end of the term, a winning lottery ticket. Not necessarily in that order.

Teef!

Bye, Bye Chicklets! I has a new toof. It's on the top, on the right-hand side. No, you can't see it in this picture. This is just for illustration. Ie, "That's me!"

Anyway. It broke through on my birfday (first toof came on Christmas. It's all about holidays, man.), and another one next door is coming any day. So I've been clicking my teef together, which freaks out The Dad. I enjoy that.

Birthday checklist:
1. Carseat: check
2. Eggs: check
3. Toof!: check
4. Presents: check
5. Cake!: check
6. Moo Milk: check
7. Chocolate: hello? Hello?? No chocolate yet. Can I get some service over here?

Camping, Anyone?

Iain's final birthday present arrived on Monday. It's a tent, but really it's a portable crib.

You may recall that we borrowed a similar item from Benjamin's parents, and Iain slept in it while we visited Seattle. At first, the Little Man wasn't thrilled, but he got used to it and we loved it. Lightweight, portable, plop-downable anyplace, it's stable and comfy. You can zip up the side panels for ventilation or down for darkness. And it's got that fun outdoorsy vibe.

So we asked for one. Except I thought, "you know, Iain grows so fast. Let me see if they have a slightly bigger one." They did. It was about 5 inches longer, the website said.

As you can see, five inches of length on the base translated to a huge difference in volume. This thing feels twice as big as Benjamin's tent. I might have worried that it was too big, but UPS came just after we returned from seeing Dr. W.

So now, knowing that Iain is "Just a little bit bigger than Jupiter" and "just a little bit of a moose" and "just a little likely to be a linebacker" I don't feel bad at all. We needed all that extra room, because in a week or so Iain will be 5 feet tall.

Happy Birthday To You...HBTY...etc. etc.

Dear Aunt Miriam:

If you want, I'll share my trucks with you.

Happy Birthday, Kees Kees!
Iain

P.S. I don't think you'll fit in my new jammies, but you can try if you want. They have a turtle on them.

Birthday Freakout 4: Presents!

As is traditional here, we reserved Iain's birthday gifts for after dinner. This is the way we do things. Unless by "we" you mean Mom, who likes to tear open her gifts the moment the UPS driver's fingers release them. If you want something saved for a holiday, send it to Charles.

Anyway. So Iain ate his dinner with presents all 'round. And, as you can see, he didn't care one bit. He was (as he always is) all, "what's to eat?" Now you see how he got to be approximately "A Little Off the Charts" tall.

Callie was more polite, though she enjoyed her hummus and Club crackers just as much, methinks.

The first present to be opened was a soft book. Then came a hard book. Iain loves his books, so he was pleased. Then there was a gift card disguised as a book. He liked that a lot, enough to wipe hummus all over it and then give it a taste.

Then he opened the first gift from Callie. Check it out:

In order to fully understand our delight, you need to know that one of Iain's grandfathers wears a blue polo shirt and tan shorts (note to our English friends: not khaki pants!) almost every single day. So Iain is his grandfather's grandson, for sure. Note the lobster detail - that's a little nod to Maine.

Once dinner was over, Iain retired to the den to commence the unwrapping in earnest. Here, he frolics among the discarded papers:

One of the next gifts opened came from the Colorado contingent. It was a toy that used to belong to Daddy. You can see part of it in Iain's hand above, but it was Callie who immediately glommed on to The Toy You Can Whack. Charles provided a tutorial, but Callie was a natural.

Mom was more excited about the jammies in the box, but Iain doesn't care about that. That's boring compared to a truck you can bang on. However, his next present was a huge hit. Huge. Of course, he only got to play with it the next morning, because Dad had to put it together. But that prolonged the fun of The Birthday, so it's all good.

Observe:


And a closeup of Mr. HappyPants:


One more gift came today, photos to follow...