Category: Entertainment

  • Happy birthday!

    One year ago (yesterday), a little boy arrived that would change our lives forever. If I’d have known then what I do now, I may have slapped a return to sender sticker on him… šŸ™‚

    So yesterday was C’s birthday, and we also had some family over to help celebrate. Family is pretty tame – I dread the day when it’s a pack of seven-year olds running around amped up on birthday cake. Of course, that meant we had to clean and throw together some food, so S and I were about ready for bed just as the party was getting started. But a good time was had by all, and if he were able to remember anything from this stage of his life, he’d remember a good first birthday.

    For anyone with kids or who’ve been to a first birthday, the highlight is supposed to be the cake, and C didn’t disappoint. It was the highlight, but not in the usual fashion. After we gave him the cake, he spent, literally, the next fifteen minutes disassembling it without taking a bite. This, from the kid who will pick up dirt, dog food, carpet strands, and rocks, and indiscriminately pop them into his mouth.

    The real entertaining part was that he almost knew what was expected of him, and he didn’t want to give anyone the satisfaction of actually doing it. At least four or five times, he’d grab a handful and bring it toward his mouth, and just as he was about to eat it, he’d stop, put it back down, and give a little laugh, like he heard the intake of breath and people starting to get excited, and thought to himself, “these people are such suckers.” If I didn’t know any better, I would think he was playing us all for fools. And knowing him, he very well may have been. I think I’m pretty clever, but it gave me a bad feeling that he’s going to be outsmarting us very soon; every parent’s worst nightmare. After everyone started getting their own cake and paying less attention to him, then he finally started eating. And I’m pretty sure he enjoyed it.

    Some of the cupcakes that mommy made. With cream cheese and strawberry filling.
    And not wanting to be outdone, mommy made a full-size vegan chocolate cake to match C's.
    C's cake. No eggs, no dairy, but still chocolatey goodness.
    "Holy wow, that's for me?!?"
    First tentative prodding.
    But he quickly threw caution to the wind and dug in. Note the clean face in the background.
    That's more like it. Fifteen minutes later.

    Of course, present opening isn't all that exciting, especially when it's clothes. At least it's good clothes.
    And a little post-party watermelon. Not wanting the dog to show him up, he tries to eat the whole rind too.

  • Football season

    Adding to the list of How it’s Starting to Feel More Like Fall is football. Also making the list is, “it was still so dark this morning when I got up for work that I had to turn a light on,” but that’s not today’s topic. Football’s probably not my favorite sport, but it’s up there,Ā and there are certain aspects of the different levels that I enjoy.

    I like high school, and the feel of walking through the parking lot on a crisp September Friday night, heading toward the lights and the marching bands. There’s just something fun about watching a bunch of kids playing hard and having fun, even knowing the majority of them will never play again once they graduate, and there’s nothing quite like a high school halftime show.

    Or college, and taking a break from raking leaves (bad thought, get it out!) on Saturday morningsĀ to come in for the noon kickoff (the hypocrisy of the NCAA is starting to rub me a little, but I’ll still watch – college is, in some cases, better than the pros). If you’re on a smaller campus, grabbing a quick lunch before heading over to the game (though we usually only stayed for the first half – at Mount Union, the game was pretty much over by halftime).

    I like the NFL too – lazing through a Sunday morning, thenĀ making a pot of chili and sitting to watch the game with the family (C needs to get a little older so I have a football-watching partner; S isn’t really into it). Of course, this is Cleveland, so there’s not really that much to get excited about with the Browns, even though they’ve looked halfway decent in the preseason (they do that every year, and get everyone’s hopes up, then disappoint – or really, just perform the way we should have expected. We’re kind of always in the “wait ’til next year” mode [with all our teams], but with some people, I think it’s gotten to the “wait ’til… oh, forget it, it’s never going to happen in my lifetime” point). Back when I was a kid and the Browns were good (the 80s was the last time that happened), we’d have dog bone cookies on game day. I hope I can bring that back for our kids someday, but I’m waiting until there’s a reasonably good chance that we’ll still want to watch the game after the first quarter. No sense in making dog bone cookies if the game’s over after 15 minutes. Still, I doubt we’d have any problems finishing them…

  • Grad party

    My cousin had a high school graduation party on Saturday, which meant lots of food and getting together with most of the family. C was up way past his bedtime, but he did a good job, as usual. If he has enough people to keep him occupied, he doesn’t need sleep. Of course, then he fell asleep on the eight-minute car ride home. And he did take almost five hours worth of naps yesterday to make up for it, which has got to be a record for him. Here’s a few pics, mostly of him (did you expect anything less?).

    It's a ringer!

    "Now that we're done playing, can I eat it?"
    Pondering what to do next on the playtime agenda.

  • Take me out to the ballgame

    We took C to his first Indians’ game on Wednesday. It was a noon game, but I had tickets from work and permission to go, so go we did. It was about 95 degrees and muggy, so not optimal conditions for a nine month-old, but we lathered him (and ourselves) up and got out his beach hat. And brought plenty of water. And Cheerios.

    It was as hot and sticky as advertised, but he was a good trooper. As soon as we got there, he started with his usual squirming and I thought we were in for a long afternoon, but he settled down enough to give us a fighting chance. My parents came with us, so with a 4:1 ratio, we should have been able to maintain some semblance of control, right?

    We were all hot and dripping sweat, but it was a fun afternoon. The game ended up going into extra innings, and they lost in 10. I guess he hasn’t developed the winning touch yet.

    Really, he was happy to be there.

    "No more autographs, and get that camera out of my face."
    "It's rally time!"
    It was rally time, until he found the string.
    Too much excitement for one day.