BTW: I like PIZZA now.

Les cubes!

The other night two fun things happened. First, Uncle Art came over for supper. I didn't really like what we ate, except the bread part, but Uncle Art is fun to play with. Second, the Frenchies (Uncle James, Aunt Cher, Eric and Sara) sent me a BOX! I love boxes!


Inside the box was some presents and some clothes. Lots of pa-jammies with built-in feets, which I needed, and some overalls and other stuff. There was also some presents for Christmas. I got to open one. Well, rather, I started opening it and nobody got there fast enough to stop me. Inside? More BOXES! They are blocks, really. Or les cubes in French which I know from my "Le livre de bebe" book.
Thanks Frenchies! And thanks Uncle Art for the pictures!

Happy Thanksgiving reloaded!

So that brings us up to today. It's Thanksgiving and later we'll go with Grandma Williams to Uncle Andy and Aunt LeeAnn's house for turkey and all that other stuff. Should be a good time. But I've had lots of fun already.

We got up and put on warm clothes because it's cold out.



Then we went for a walk with Seeger and watched some people play football in the park.



Then we came home and I played with my trike in the back yard.



Do you like my trike? It used to be my cousin Michael's and it arrived at our house one day in a giant box filled with millions of styrofoam peanuts. Which was cool until Dad dropped the screws to put together the trike into the box and they all got lost in the styrofoam and we had to dig them out. That was a fun day.

Now I'm having some lunch and then a nap. Now that's what I call a good day!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving, part duex

So let me tell you what I've been up to lately. I eat a lot of bananas. I learn new words every day. I like to read books and play with my friends at school. I'm much better at entertaining myself than I used to be. I play with refrigerator magnets and I color at my own little table and, did I mention I like to read books?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I thought I'd take the holiday to bring you up to date.

First, Halloween. I was a cowboy. An exceptionally cute cowboy. Grandma Dyrness made me an outfit and got me boots that lit up when I walked. But we had some photographic difficulty so none of the pictures do my cowboy costume any justice. But, as you can see, I won first prize.

At the beach with the girls....

Okay. I'm making up for some lost time. Lazy parents, what can I say?

The first weekend in October, Mom had six of her best girlfriends up to Portland for a visit. They stayed at Grandma Nan's condo. The girls who got here the earliest went to Cannon Beach for the day. We had a really nice time.


Here's me with Mom:



Here's me with Heather and Lisa:

Vocabulary.

Here are the words I know.

Mama ("ma-ma")
Dada ("da-da")
Banana ("na-na!")
Puppy ("pu-pa"}
Coat ("koe")
Sock ("ock")
Cracker ("crackah")
Hop ("op")
Baby ("BAY-be!")
Bath ("ba")
Keys ("kee")
Car ("ca")
Ball ("ba")
Airplane, park, stroller, pajamas, blog, fillet mignon, hat, random people on the street, truck, bottle of lotion, flashlight, bathrobe, kitchen utensil, DVD and all the other words I need. ("ca" or "ba")

Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Steve and the last throes of summer

Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Steve sent a disc full of pictures. Mom didn't even know. It got buried and Dad just popped it in the MacBook yesterday. Turns out, Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Steve have taken more pictures of me than my own parents! And they're good. And when they were here, it was still summer. Now it's fall. The leaves are turning as yellow as bananas.

So I picked out a few pictures to share. Just to show you how good we had it.

Here's me and the photographers: Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Steve. They live in Raleigh and they have three dogs who I've never met.

Here's me eating blueberries. Ah summer.

Here's me on a chair in my Keens.

Here's me with my cousin Jack and Mom who's reading to us. Jack is Dylan's big brother. He lives in McMinville.

Here's me in my Italia shirt sliding. See Uncle Steve and Seeger in the background?

And this is me clapping for all the good pictures.

The haircut

I know I know. It's been a while. Let me tell you this whole blogging thing is a cruel mistress. First, the lack of quality photographic material coming from mom and dad. Then add to that my busy, busy schedule. Well, I'm sure you can see where this is going. Down a rat hole of excuses. But I'll spare you that and give you the news: I got a haircut.
This is the before picture. I'm wearing my retiree sweater. It was a gift from Aunt Poosers. I like it a lot because it's snuggly, but you can see how it makes me look like a pensioner trying to keep the chill of old age at bay. But anyway. Take a good look at those curls peeking out over my shoulder because...


The next morning, Grandma Dyrness cut them off. It was for the best, really. I was kind of getting a mullet. I'm sitting with Dad and that's Aunt Poosers there saving the trimmings for mom. Mom was away for work when all this went down. I don't know if she could have watched it anyway But Grandma gave me a really good haircut.

Then we all went to the farmer's market and bought cheese.



P.S. Thanks to Grandpa Dyrness for the great pictures!

Do you see the resemblence?

I mean, aside from the fact that I've got a dot and he doesn't. He has a tan and I have the opposite of a tan. You can see his eyelashes better. He has more hair. But other than that I think we look kind of alike. This is Dylan Duvendack. He's my second cousin. I'm a month older than him so I can boss him around. Except he has a big brother, Jack, who can boss me around so it all kind of cancels out.

My what a busy weekend!

This is a cute picture of me -n- Seeger. I'm sitting in his bed with him. It doesn't tell you much about the weekend I had, but - boy - it was fun. My Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Steve visited from North Carolina and we took them all over town showing them a good time. I also got to hang out with my cousins in McMinville. They're exceptionally fun and there were lots of grandmas and aunts on hand to admire me. So you'll probably see some pictures of all this eventually but here's the thing: I've learned that my Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Steve are WAY better picture-takers than my mom and dad. So they might e-mail me some pictures and then I'll blog some more about the weekend.

Toddler Ones

So about a month ago, very quietly and without fanfare, I graduated. There was no ceremony or anything, I think Mom brought the ladies who used to take care of me some pastries or something. And then the next Monday I stopped going to Mobiles and having breakfast in the high chairs and started going to Toddler Ones and having breakfast at the table. In a chair. With a bowl. And a spoon.

I wasn't crazy about it at first, but now, check me out. I'm a Toddler. I eat cereal with my friends. That's Daycare Eli there with me. Do you see his hair? He's got excellent hair. He's already gotten something like three haircuts and he's only a couple months older than me. Meanwhile Mom is putting off my first haircut. You probably can't tell from the picture but my hair is getting kind of long in back. Eventually she's going to have to get over it and trim those curls.

Gone camping

So I went for my first camping trip last weekend. We went to Mount Raineer National Park in Washington which is where my mom used to go when she was little (though probably not as little as me). I call this picture you see here "before." This was within hours of our arrival at Cougar Rock Campground. That's my pretend Aunt Kristin. She and her husband Matt have been camping with Mom and Dad for years. Notice how happy and clean we are (well, you can't see me from the waste down, I wasn't exactly clean...they had already started calling me "Muddy Juddy.")

This is how all camping trips start out: With the optimistic, squeaky-clean, I-love-nature smiles and a nice beverage and snack enjoyed once the tents are put up.

And truth be told, we did have a lot of fun. Despite the rain and the fact that dogs (Seeger and Kato, Matt and Kristin's dog) weren't allowed on any of the hiking trails. I learned how to throw a frisbee (kind of) and I played with two really nice big boys Jared and Nick. Jared and Nick's mom, Alison, is from England and she's married to Kristin's brother David. They're the other people Mom and Dad always camp with. Apparently they always get rained on, but they keep signing up for it.

Anyway. I call this picture after:

We are just about to make our escape after a night of rain pounding on the roof of the tent. As you can see we're not looking quite as cheery. 'Course that's Mom, not Aunt Kristin. Can you see what's on my feet under my Crocs? Smart Wools. I wore them all weekend long. Mom insisted. Before we left, Dad suggested just buying me a pair of socks at The Gap. But Mom said cotton socks would kill me. We had to go to REI for the Smart Wools.

Thus, it looks like I will live to see 16 months.

Littler than me

Uncle Art took this picture of me telling stuff to my cousin (okay, really second cousin, but who cares?) Eleanor Grace Powell. We call her Ellie G. She is just a month old so she has a lot to learn. Who better to teach her than me?

Anyway, we went to a party for her at Aunt Carol and Uncle Lloyd's house on Saturday. There were lots and lots of kissy aunts and cousins there. Everyone was cooing over Ellie G. and I admit she's pretty cute. She has long arms and big eyes. But she doesn't know any tricks. She was this little bundle being passed around but she was happiest when they laid her down on the grass and she could look at the trees. Then I came over to tell her stuff. And I showed her where her nose is.

Ellie got lots of presents. My mom is always saying how there's so many more cute clothes for baby girls than for baby boys. I personally wouldn't know. I think I'm a pretty good dresser. Oh and guess what else? See that soda can I'm sitting with? I got it out of the ice chest all by myself. Pretty soon, I'll even know how to open it!

SLIDERS!

My mom is probably the only one who remembers that show.

Anyway. I love to slide. Big slides, little slides, doesn't matter. I climb up, I slide down. And I think that's pretty good for a kid my age.

The other day we were at park and there were these twins there, a boy and a girl, who had just turned two. Their mom was talking to my mom and she asked about me: "How old is he?" I was just climbing up for another slide down. "14 months," Mom said. The other mom got this horrified look on her face. "If the twins were that active when they were 14 months old, I don't know WHAT I would have done!"

Eli, Eli, O

Eli's got a nice bathtub, fun toys and very stylin' parents (Uncle Steve and Auntie Gail). He's six months older than me but I outweigh him by a good couple of pounds. On Saturday night we went over to Eli's house in the suburbs. Uncle Matt and Auntie Kristin were there too. Plus Brisco, who is big and gives kisses. (Seeger isn't a big kisser.) We played a lot and ate hot dogs and then at the end of the night we took a bath together, which for some reason parents seem to think is really entertaining. I wasn't crazy about the bath idea, then Eli let me play with his bath toys and lent me a pair of Hanna Andersson pajamas to wear afterwords. Eli rocks!

Rain in July?

Contrary to what you may have heard about Oregon, it rarely rains here in the summer. But we had rain this week so I got to break out the ole' rain gear. When my mom was little she called it a "galosh coat." My rain coat is a hand-me-down from my cousin Eric who lives in France. He sends me really cool Frenchie stuff. Truth be told, this coat is still a bit big for me (even truthier: this photo is a wee bit old. See those shoes? Cool, huh? Well, I grew out of them already...) but I like sporting it around town when it rains. It gives me Oregon cred.

Dining al fresco

Another thing about summer? We get to eat outside. And I get to sit in the Keekaroo again.

See when I first needed a high chair, mom and dad for some reason decided I needed some kind of Euro-wooden thing. So they ordered the Keekaroo, waited for it to arrive, assembled it and endured all its inconveniences. All the while, when we visited various grandmas and I used their regular plastic high chairs, which worked really well and were easy to clean up, they would look at each other and say "The Graco has its charms."

Finally they got a Graco and the Keekaroo was relegated to the basement. Until now. Now its getting a second life as the al fresco high chair. How many kids have an al fresco high chair?

My mama's rich and my daddy, well...

It's summer, folks. And the livin' is indeed easy. Mom and dad keep trying to get me to hang out in various bodies of water. It's gotten so annoying that I'm not even crazy about the bath anymore (though I still really enjoy the streaking).

But the rest of the trappings of summer are pretty great. It stays light until past my bedtime and there's pretty much always a walk to the park on the evening agenda.

It's supposed to hit 100 degrees here over the next couple of days. Dad's freaking out.

"Uncle Art!"

July 4th is Uncle Art's birthday. And given the direction our country is headed under current leadership (or so I'm told) it's more fun to celebrate Uncle Art than it is to celebrate being American.

Now, technically, Uncle Art is my Great Uncle Art, but, while he is great, we've already agreed that it's going to be Uncle Art. And that my first true, clear words will be "Uncle Art."

So there was a birthday party for Art last night and it was so fun. For one thing it was at Sandra's so there was all kinds of fun things to look at. For another thing, All of Art's kids were there -- Becky, Brian and Maggie -- plus Mario, Rob and Eva. Plus lots of other people who commented about how big I was. I ate lots of berries and some pasta and hamburger. I think it was the best party I've been to yet. And that's saying something.

Cousin Michael

My cousin Michael came to town this week. He's big so he got to do some things with mom and dad while I stayed at grandma's -- like seeing this waterfall. He's a lot of fun to play with. We went to the pool and for a picnic and for some walks. We had a contest to see who could try the most different foods at dinner. I tried: potato salad, fruit salad, hamburger, goldfish, ice cream and water. I wasn't crazy about the hamburger. The rest was yummy. Plus I had two different cheeses and crackers for an appetizer. But Michael still won the contest because he tried the brownies and one piece of walnut.

Cubs fan.

I am one. Thanks to Grandma Nan who was told by the sales guy: "If you don't start 'em young, it doesn't take."

MAX!

So last Saturday night I experienced Max Beasely. He is four and can do a lot of things. But he was really nice to me. He came over with his Mom and Dad and Uncle Andy and Aunt LeeAnn and we ate pizza and then Max and I poured dirt on each other's heads and he picked raspberries for me to eat. Later we came inside and watched videos and after that we took a bath together. I know he looks blond and fair in this picture but the kid had much more of a tan than I do. But, what are you going to do? He lives in Fort Worth, Texas and I live in Portland. Anyway. It was a fun night.

10 things you should know about me

1. The dot. Let's get this out of the way up front. That red spot between my eyes? It's not a bruise or a boo-boo, though I have plenty of those, too. It's a birthmark. Or technically an haemangioma. Anyway, it showed up a month or so after I did and is supposedly going to go away. I don't care because I think it's cool. It helps dad spot me quicker at daycare. Mom and dad always threaten they're going to tell the next person who asks that they put a ciggarette out on my forehead, but they never do.

2. My dog. Seeger is really nice to me, which is astounding when you consider that I showed up and ousted him from MFLO (most favored little one) status. I like feeding from my high chair. It makes me laugh a lot. He's handsome and cute. Mom always says it's hard to be both. Dad usually rolls his eyes.

3. What I do for a living. Granted, I'm only 13 months old, but I'm pretty busy. During the week while mom and dad are at work, I go to St. James Child Development Center where I entertain a lot of ladies and play with my friends. I also eat and drink and take a couple naps. St. James rocks. All the ladies who take care of me there are SO cool. And I think they secretly like me best.

On Wednesdays it's stay-at-home day. Mom tries to get work done, so I usually play with one of my grandmas (I've got two, and one grandpa.) And Saturdays and Sundays are other stay at home days. But we usually go on adventures. (Note: At 13 months, just about everything is an adventure so don't be too impressed.)

4. My friends. I have a lot of friends. Pretty much anyone who likes to pick up the wood chips at the playground and put 'em somewhere is my friend. I also have a friend named Eli who is six months older than me and has a really big dog named Brisco. Then there's all the kids at St. James who are my friends. We used to call them Oliver L's Army (like the Elvis Costello song) but Oliver L. switched to another daycare. I also have lots of cool cousins and aunts and uncles (both psuedo and actual) but more about them another time.

5. My music. I have my own playlist on the family iPod, but obviously I didn't pick the songs myself. It's got some fun stuff on it, though. I like to dance and I've recently been working on this new move where I spin around. I'ts pretty cool. I also like School House Rock (old school) and They Might Be Giants on DVD.

6. Streaking. I started streaking solely to entertain my parents. But now I've come to enjoy it quite a bit. My best streaking opportunity is immediately before my bath which happens every evening between 7:30 and 8. (If a nightly bath sounds excessive, keep in mind three things: I'm low to the ground, I like to play in the dirt and I like to rub food in my hair.) As soon as I'm stripped down to my nudies, I take off full tilt and run around the house. It inevitably gets a laugh and is really a good time.

7. Places I've been. Monterey/Carmel, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, El Paso, Spain, Germany and a triumphant tour across Michigan. Not bad for 13 months!

8. What I can do. I was walking at 10 months and I can eat an astonishing amount (see No. 9) when I'm in the mood. They say I don't "talk" but I say I talk quite a bit. They just don't understand me. I have a devastating smile and I'm not afraid to use it.

9. Food. I'm willing to bet my college savings that I can down a scrambled egg faster than you can. I also consume peas in remarkable quantities. I dig sweet potatoes, blueberries, pears, apples, green beans, corn and any kind of meat, poultry, fish or soy product. I used to like strawberries and avocado but I'm giving them a rest just now. Anything in the cracker family is alright by me.

10. Mom and dad. Dad is the bigger and smellier of the two, but he's really fun and likes to turn me upside-down. Mom smells better and is a good person to hang out with when I'm upset or unsure about something. She's kind of obsessed about things like putting lotion on me and buying me footwear. Dad is more in charge of toughening me up, I think. My favorite thing is when we all play together.

Hello world!!

My parents are a little slow on the whole technology thing. Which is why, at 13 months, I'm just now getting a blog. So we have some work to do, getting you up to date on me. We'll get to it soon.