a new 'do

Even though baby-j has been follicly challenged for much of his 30 months here, the hair has grown pretty rapidly over the last few months. In the last few weeks, I've surreptitiously hacked off some patches here and there, usually while he was running away from me. However, it's started looking a little like... well, like his mom had hacked off a few patches here and there while he was running away from her. So today we headed to the local salon in town to chop some of it off until it comes in thick enough that he can grow the nice, long hippy hair of which P and I dream.

It went surprisingly well, and it looks decent enough. He was relatively calm as I held his hands down, probably because he was distracted by his reflection in the mirror. The stylist couldn't get the trimmer anywhere near him before he starting squealing and trying to jump down from the chair, so we all decided to keep the experience a good one and try the trimmer again next time.

Oh, and that's our new fridge in the background. We are renovating our 1970s kitchen one piece at a time. Until we get the cabinets and the contractors in here, we'll continue to have this stove, dishwasher, and microwave in our living room with nowhere to go. The stove in the living room is currently holding some plants, a table lamp, and some baby wipes.

ten years

A decade ago, Jared the Subway dude finished losing all that weight. If you’ve passed a Subway shop anytime in the past month, you know this already.

A decade ago, I was in my first year of graduate school. Pleasegodletthisbethelast.

A decade ago (tonight! February 22!), P and I went on our first date. Though we met in the 1980s during our adolescent years, we got back in touch after P spotted me walking down an NYC street with some friends. In a speech my father gave at our wedding, he said that P and I met when I was “walking the street in New York City”--which is true enough, I suppose, but it had just enough of a hooker vibe that it has been (and will be) repeated often. Case in point: when I reminded P that it's been 10 years, his first words were “oh, yeah... the day you were ‘walking the street.’”

Today was a snow day for all three of us, and we were treated to a reprisal of baby-j eating snow and screaming to be let into the car. When he’s a teenager, I’ll have to remind him how much he disliked being snowed in and how he desperately wanted to go to school.

Anyway, I got some pictures of the morning. It felt good to do this again, snapping away as both my husband and son refused to smile and rolled their eyes at me. I haven’t done this in a month--far too long.

Here’s a tree so enormous I can’t believe it fits in our yard.

Here’s baby-j snacking on snow. Overheard: “Tasty!”


Here’s baby-j in the car with nowhere to go. After 20 minutes, P finally pulled him out.

And finally, a creepy-looking picture of another tree in our yard:

niceties

It’s been forever since I last blogged (has it really been almost a month?), but I promise to be better. I’ve written a bit, but have been waiting until I have some less depressing things to post. And so, we turn to baby-j: this is a picture I took a few weeks ago of him in a relaxing reading spot.

baby-j is getting to be an expert at saying “please” and “thank you,” though we’re still working on understanding what they mean. This is probably my fault. I prompt his politeness when he asks for something (like “Waaah-tuhr!”) by saying,

“What do you say?”
“Please!” he yelps.
“Thank you,” I prompt as I hand him what he desires.
“Thank you,” he mimics.

Now, I don’t need to prompt him. He’s taken to saying the following when he wants something:

“What you say? Please. Thank you. What you say? Please. Thank you. What you say? Please. Thank you. What you say? Please. Thank you.”

...all before I can even grab what he wants.