Food, glorious food! Or, Please, mama, may I have some more?

A combination of several different factors caused me to take a momentous step today: I gave Aiden his first solid food! Well, if you had seen it, I doubt the word "solid" would have been the first adjective to spring to mind. It was rice cereal... So...glop, really. He looked a little confused at first, like, "Why are you feeding me what appears to be spit-up?" But by the end, he was licking the tray for any stray smidgens. Good to the last drop! It was hilarious! Yes- I say "tray" because he had another first - he sat in the highchair for the first time today too! He seems to be quite smitten with this exciting new world of quasi-solid food and a chair to go with it. And I got it all on the videocamera...Um, unfortunately, I didn't set up the camera very well and most of the time, you just see my hand in front of his mouth. Duh. Oh well - be it ever so clumsily executed, the event was recorded for posterity.

Aiden's six month pictures

Here's the latest crop of Aiden pictures...





Pretty incredible how six months has flown by...

Diaper Service

Aiden turns six months old tonight at 11:59. Party at our house @ midnight! Mmmm- hopefully not.

( Pictures to follow soon, hopefully.)

He has reached the status of magician: this evening he somehow got more icky on the outside of his diaper than the inside. I'm still not sure how that happened.

The doorbell rang a few minutes ago and it was the little girl from next door and she wanted to buy some diapers from me. Really! She had fifty cents in her hand as well as a Cabbage Patch baby doll. She wanted some diapers for him/her because apparently, this is the type of doll who you can really feed and who actually "goes."

I had a doll kind of like that once - not a Cabbage Patch baby but the kind who really "went" and I swore an oath - or affirmed, I can't remember which, but I may have been ignorant at the time of the verse in James that tells us "let your yea be yea and your nay be nay" - that I would take this doll with me wherever I went in life. I think I still have that doll somewhere. Maybe. Hmmmm.

Anyway- I was tha-RILLED to be of assistance and happily, I had half a dozen small diapers of a size that Aiden has outgrown already that I had cluttering up his bookcase. I didn't know what to do with them anyway so I was glad to be rid of them! They will probably be a tad bit big on this doll, but better than nothing!

I refused remuneration.

Update on Grampa

Well, Grampa came home from the hospital this afternoon. He's moving slower and still hard to understand, but it's getting a tad bit easier to figure out what he's saying. He may have to have surgery at some point to clear his veins ( or arteries?) of further blockage but it can wait for now, according to the doctor. Surprisingly, his doctors seem to think that Grandpa and Dad's month-long cross country trip in July is a great idea and are encouraging him to go. We'll see. We're letting the dust settle for a few days. Letting the dust settle happens around here a lot anyway.

I've got to lay in a supply of straws when I go grocery shopping tomorrow; he seemed to be having a hard time drinking from the glass at dinner, so I hope having a straw will make that a little easier.

Yes, as I have heard many an elder say, " Growing old aint for sissies." That's for sure. Too bad there's not a whole lot of training and personal preparation on how to deal with ones own failing body. Not that you'd really WANT a lot of education in that department, but the crash course most people get just seems a bit sad and cruel. Life is baffling. Wonderful, yes. But baffling at the same time. Grandpa and Aiden make happy noises at each other and the juxtaposition of the two - one who hasn't learned to talk yet, the other who is trying to remember how to talk- makes me feel something that's a bit like laughing and crying at the same time.

Thankyou for your prayers. We appreciate them.

The Unexpected

Please pray for Grampa. This morning, I came down to make his birthday breakfast - guess what? His favorite: waffles!- and found that he was already up, getting his cereal out... When I said Good morning, he turned around and looked at me a little funny, like he was upset, and then opened his mouth to say something but his words were so slurred, I couldn't understand what he was saying. Right away, I knew he must have had a stroke - or something like it- and my heart sank.

He had another mini stroke last month and spent almost a week in the hospital, getting tests and eventually a pacemaker put in. ( I don't think I wrote anything about that.) But the only thing we had noticed wrong that time was that he was having trouble swallowing food. Other than that, he seemed totally normal. But when we took him to the doctor, they said he'd had a little stroke and told us to go to the hospital.

Anyway, that was last month. This morning, as soon as I realized what was going on, I told Grandpa to sit down, went upstairs and told Brad who scurried around, gathering up the right paperwork to take with him to the hospital. Meanwhile, I went back down to the kitchen to talk to Grandpa. Fortunately, he was able to walk, and could sort of write. So that was encouraging. It was a little hard to understand his writing, but he could basically get his point across. I read him a birthday card from Aunt Gladys, and afterwards, Grandpa sort of sang, "Happy Birthday To Me...." - just the first line. It was so sweet and funny and sad. I could only really understand the tune, and the "to me" part, but it conveyed that he hadn't lost his sense of humor. Poor guy- Happy 85th Birthday! Let's go to the hospital to celebrate! Man. Not how I'd want to spend my birthday. A few minutes after that, Brad and Grandpa left for the hospital.

Many thanks to Penny who came over to calm my jitters b/c I was pretty freaked out and loaned me her car for the day so I could go do stuff to keep busy and visit Grandpa this evening. I'm just waiting for Aiden to wake up ( his schedule has been pretty disrupted today) so I can feed him and then we can go.

Please pray for Grampa. One thing to pray for specifically is that he will recover his speech fully. I think losing the ability to talk would probably be a pretty frustrating thing to endure, and not to sound totally self-centered or anything, but it would make living with him and caring for him pretty challenging.

Four Generations

Happy Father's Day to all the dads in this picture! And to my own dear father!

The Answer

It came to my attention that some might appreciate my posting the solution to my hinkety-hinkety riddle. Ahem, yes. I have been remiss in leaving it up in the ether. For those who saw this on Facebook, I know that someone solved it in a comment, but for those who just saw it on the blog, I have left you in the dark!

The answer is....

carrion carry-on.

Ta-daaaaa!!!

Tuna Showdown

Today was a first for me. Brad and I went to a car dealership and took a large SUV out for a test drive. I drove. It was a beast of a vehicle. A very safe, high, leathery, full of nifty storage compartments beast. Yes, I know- you are thinking: What? Gas prices are so high and they're test- driving SUV'S? All I have to say to you is: Whatever, Trevor. Go ask Brad. I trust him with the financial/car decisions around here. Plus, it feels safe. I like safe. Especially when it's for him. ( The vehicle is primarily going to be for him. Unless I fall in love with it and decide to purloin it.) )( Ooo- purloin is such a luscious word.)

A woman from the dealership came with us and told me where to drive. I felt like I was in Driver's Ed again.

And in conclusion: I have two things to say.

First, only on the show "Iron Chef" could you find this show description: Tuna Showdown. The juxtaposition of these words is the funniest thing I've seen all day.

Secondly, everyone needs to go right out and get - and EAT - a new flavor from Ben and Jerry's - Cinnamon Bun! SO GOO-OO-OO-OO-OOD.

More of Aiden

These pictures are a couple that I put on Flickr recently. I know many of you have already seen them but I'm posting them especially for Aunt Gladys who can't get them off Flickr but can get them if I put them in the blog! Enjoy, Aunt Gladys!

...My posse's not the only thing gettin' laughed at...

Today's Funny Thing of The Day That Made Aiden Laugh:

Me singing the Free Credit Report Dot Com ad about buying a new car.

Is it stuck in your head too? Oy vey.

Perhaps the world's first hinkety-hinkety

Two new posts in as many days?! The skies will surely fall.

This post is for those who know how to play hinkey-pinkies. This should include everyone who's ever made applesauce at Fairwood. (Hmmm- a large group, I should think.) At least, it was played during the time I was there. (Hmmm- smaller group, I should think.) I don't know if they still play it on A-Sauce Day. I didn't see it on CKS's recent docudrama...( The rest of you: sorry. I don't feel like explaining hinkey-pinkies. Try googling it.)

I don't know if this has been done before, but I propose a "hinkety-hinkety." See if you can figure it out:

Unchecked duffel bag belonging to a carcass.

Funny Manna

Recently, I've noticed a new phenomenon with Aiden. There comes a certain time of day that I am calling The Laughing Hour. It started a while ago when I noticed around 8 or 9:00 in the evening that he was particularly susceptible to chortling. I would do something - making a certain noise or doing a certain kind of tickle - and he'd take it into his head that it was the funniest thing he had seen all day and laugh. And of course, I'd do it again, just to hear that beautiful little chuckle... and again, and again... The next day, it's not funny. The noise or tickle doesn't work. It has to be something completely different. And I'll go through all sorts of contortions and noises until he decides on The Next Funny Thing. As Cherilyn would say- there's a spiritual analogy here! It's like the children of Israel and their manna- it's fresh every morning...or in our case, evening. ( And the old stuff rots...becomes foul...is no good...You get the idea.)

Aiden's been having some pretty fussy episodes recently- due to teething. I was fussy too when my wisdom teeth were coming in, so I can empathize. But the Laughing Hour still works, in spite of the fussies. When the funny thing is discovered, he will switch, mid-whine, into a wide grin and giggle. This bodes very well in my sight. And tonight, I hit the jackpot. EVERYTHING that I did made him laugh! I felt like the most hilarious comedienne! ( I wish I could have recorded it, but of course, as luck would have it, we don't have any blank tapes for the videocamera right now... But he doesn't seem to really be himself when the camera is around anyway.)

It's a good thing that children don't realize the power they wield. I don't think they would, as Strong-Bad says, use it "for good or for awesome." I think they would make slaves of us all if they only knew. Well, I guess they really DO make slaves of us. For years, we feed them, carry them, change their dirty diapers, wash their clothes, do innumerable things to ensure their health and safety... and, for a while anyway, our biggest reward is the joy of experiencing their smiles and laughter.