Indiana Idylls

Alex and I flew to Baltimore last weekend to spend some time with his godfather and their baby girl. We had a great visit, even if we caught a weekend nor'easter. The one "touristy" thing that I was really excited to experience with Alex was a visit to the National Aquarium, so I was glad to have the opportunity to go before we flew home on Monday. Alex gets such a kick out of the supermarket aquariums that I thought he would delight in all the different and exotic marine life. This was not entirely the case. In fact, a good 85% of the exhibits seemed to spook my little boy for no apparent reason; and since the aquarium doesn't allow strollers, I had to carry him with few spells for over two hours. The aquarium has four floors, I think. You walk past the ray tank and go up an escalator, walk around the perimeter exhibits and end at another escalator that takes you to the next floor... etc., until at the very top there is a simulated Amazon Rain Forest basin. The mai...

... it doesn't make a sound. I'll upload pictures tomorrow, but I wanted to say that our handsome Bradford Pear -- smack in the front of our lovely, newly landscaped house -- fell victim to Ike's gusty winds. I don't know how we missed the big event. All three of us had been playing in the living room, then went back to the kitchen to start making dinner, and next I hear Paul asking, incredulous, "Jess, how did we miss this?" It was our very favorite tree and seemed to be the picture of perfect health. The main trunk snapped, so I doubt for its recovery. It's just a shell of its former self and it's hard to imagine how things will change without it. A new tree would take decades to match its height and shade. Notably, the two sickly trees that would do us a favor by falling over are still standing tall and proud. Thank goodness no one and no thing was hurt.

For the record, last Thursday I noticed the protrusion of his left lower and upper canines! The other day his top right one appeared. Soon, we'll be just second molars away from a complete set of baby chompers!

I think it's safe to say that our favorite playground equipment is the slide, or "Aah". Most often we bike up to the small playground situated outside the married-student housing near us, but this week we've branched out to  and down to the The campus playground offers little more than swings and a small structure with monkey bars, a curved ladder thing, and two slides: one, three feet long, and the other, maybe four feet long and slightly steeper. All summer long, pretty serious coaching was required in order to get Alex to go down the longer slide. It's been fun to watch him grow more confident, going down the little slide all by himself and then more eagerly tackling the slightly steeper one. Still, I was not prepared to go to Morrow's Meadow in Yorktown (the next town over) and have him go down a seven-foot slide all by himself without a care in the world. There are two playsets there, and we ended up on the one intended for older kids simply becau...

Our bedtime ritual more or less involves me taking Alex potty, handing him off to Paul, and Alex giving me a kiss goodnight as the boys head to his bedroom for a book or two before tucking him in (very recently, his favorite part of sleeping!). Tonight, Paul and I "gave him one". (This involves two kissers, one for each of the kissee's cheeks. The kissers say "mmmmmmm" and end with a simultaneous "smack!") Alex loved it and asked for another one. And another one. And another one.... but Paul told him to hold onto that one in his heart until tomorrow and carried him off to the reading chair. On the trip across the landing Alex started humming and smacking, and after one or two times he added a hand motion and blew me two kisses. (His version of "blowing kisses" is more like "throwing kisses". He kisses his hand and then swings his arm to the side. I don't believe any actual blowing is involved.) My sweet little boy!

We've had a string of beautiful days here and we've tried to take full advantage of them. On a long walk around the neighborhood yesterday, Alex and I went down to the stream, saw four ducks, and all along the way Alex would stop now and again to pick up rocks and pebbles. He's getting remarkably steady on uneven ground, but isn't 100% trustworthy yet. Something did seem amiss when, on our way back home, there was a stretch where he seemed to trip after every step. He'd take a step, then lean over as if to catch himself or pick something up, but always came up empty-handed. Finally, I was aware of a group of kids playing outside and looked ahead to see what they were up to. Everything became immediately clear: They were playing hopscotch. My ever-observant toddler was just doing what he saw the other kids doing, taking a step and bending over.

On Monday, after at least two months in which he paid the stairs no mind, Alex climbed all the way to the top. Three times. He's getting the hang of climbing down backwards, but he hasn't done more than a handful of stairs before either needing to be rescued or climbing back up again. I need to remember to gate the bottom of the stairs, as he's quiet as a mouse going up -- twice we've been surprised to find him upstairs. He's clearly tickled by his new accomplishment. I guess it's been an eventful week. Monday I took him to get his first pair of real shoes. There were all sorts of toys and shoes -- some of his favorite things! That particular day he was most fascinated by the quarter-flight of stairs for the kids to climb up to a platform for ease of fitting. Alex was eager to test his new skills, and seemed unhampered by the fact that one side of the staircase was completely open. I'm sure the fine view of the busy street served as extra motivation. Yeste...