Birthday Party Fun

Here I am in my mom's backyard, playing with Nick in the baby pool. He is messing with a boat and making his muppet noise, perfectly content just to sit in the water. Just the place to be at 1 p.m. on a Friday afternoon.

One thing I love about the summer is that I can be out while other people are at work. I can leisurely get an iced tea, shop garage sales, and go for walks. I get to visit the library in the middle of the day, when it's not as busy. It usually takes until about mid-July (like, now) before I stop feeling like I'm playing hooky. Then, just when I'm getting used to being at home, the school year begins and it's all over. I've been a public school teacher for 9 years now (this will be my 10th), and every summer I savor this time. It's particularly special this summer, because I got to spend it with Nicholas.

I'm counting down the days until I have to go back to work. In 24 days I'll be sitting in staff meetings, organizing classroom materials, and planning lessons. I guess I'd better enjoy every moment of my last 23 days of summer. This time is so fleeting. I'll have to get in lots of baby-playing, coffee-drinking, porch-sitting, book-reading, and recipe-experimenting as I can in these last few weeks.



Today Nick and I went to my mom's birthday party. It was in the afternoon, so Greg couldn't come. I think Nick has started to really enjoy birthday parties. We got my mom some children's books to read to Nick, all with a "Grandma" theme. I figure she can read them to him when we come visit, and he'll remember the stories and the time on Grandma's lap.

He sat in my mom's lap while we sang to her, and then he helped blow out the candles. I'm not sure what he thought about the candles, but he liked the singing just fine. Oh, and he somehow stuck his foot into the side of the cake. Not sure how he managed that one. This particular cake is a chocolate one, with green pistachio frosting. Only the edges have pistachios, though, so Nick was able to have some. And have some he did!

My stepdad enjoyed feeding Nick a little bit of chocolate cake. Then, every time he'd bring the fork to his mouth, Nick would open up his mouth, too. This resulted in a happy, cake-covered kid.

Lest you think I feed my child cake all the time, know that this is only the 2nd time this week he's had a bite of our dessert. I think that a little taste of something good every once and awhile makes life worth living. Judging from his facial expression post-cake, I think Nicholas agrees with my point of view.

Nick also got to visit the baby pool in my mom's backyard, and he was extremely excited to splash around in there. He even tried to grab the edge of the pool to try to stand up. Locomotion is getting closer and closer. My grandma commented that maybe Nick would just get up one day and walk, without ever crawling. I could see that happening. I just love his manly little swim trunks, and I think my little guy is going to swim like a fish when he gets older. Here is a video of him splashing around in the pool. He didn't seem to care that he got all wet.




Nick also got to spend some time with my sister. She takes really good photographs, far better than mine. She has one of those fancy cameras with the big lens. So she spent lots of time taking pics of Nicholas. I'm hoping she gives me copies. My pictures are mediocre, at best. But hers are very artistic and truly beautiful. Here is Nick with his Auntie. Her t-shirt made me laugh. It reads: If you don't talk to your cat about catnip, who will?


We want to put together Nick's pool this weekend for our backyard. He just seemed to love the water, and it's such an easy way to entertain him in the hot weather. As I'm typing this, there's thunder and lightning outside, but hopefully we'll have sunny skies this weekend and Nick can enjoy more time in the pool.

I picked this last picture because I think it's funny. Not necessarily the most attractive picture of me, but I was trying not to lose a contact while being splashed. Nick splashed so much water out of the little baby pool that my pants were totally soaked. But he looked so full of joy as he bashed his hands against the surface of the water. He is an easily amused baby. Oh, and the cute little hat he's wearing? Within 2 minutes of sitting in the pool, he'd ripped it off and soaked it with water. I'm not sure how to keep a hat on him for very long, so just in case, we always have to cover his little head with sunscreen.