And here he is wearing the CUTEST! PANTS! EVER! That's corduroy, y'all. I love it.
That is the best picture I could get. Every time I tried to get him to stand up, he went all boneless on me and collapsed in a screaming heap on the floor. Really. I think he woke up too early.
He was quite proud of himself.
Playing peekaboo.
Sitting in my exercise ball chair frame. It's one of his favorite places in my office. He wheels it around like a walker.
And finally, standing up all by himself, looking out the window, and watching birds. I think he might be trying to sign bird also, but I can't be sure.
Last night, we visited some of B's friends who live a little ways out of the city and train horses. Saul was surprisingly well behaved, and only threw a few minor tantrums. He didn't break anything, and he didn't throw any food during dinner, although he still managed to create quite a mess. He got to meet a sweet old dog, who was incredibly patient at Saul yelled at him, banged on him, pulled his hair, and tried to stick a pacifier in his mouth. Initially, Saul wasn't sure about the horses, but eventually he got brave and poked them several times. One of the horses loved him, and nibbled on the back of his head very enthusiastically.
More and more, when Saul isn't paying attention, he will stand up by himself and even take a few steps. I think he's now fully capable of walking, but just lacking the courage to do it. I wish I had taken pictures of him last night, standing in front of a glass door, gazing raptly at horses, a dog, and an outside ceiling fan. Well, his birthday is next weekend, so we'll have plenty of family obsessively documenting everything he does. Perhaps we can catch him on film.
(btw, that's not mine, that's from google. But mine looked just like that. Well, maybe a little less round, but whatever)
Ok, so let me brag for a minute: I'm going to whip up some onion and rosemary focaccia tonight to go with dinner. Wanna know how much time it will take? About ten minutes, and most of that will be chopping onions and going outside to cut some rosemary.
Wow, we had a busy few days there. My mom is safely back home, with electricity, although no cable or internet or gas stations or anything. Saul is missing her very much - he made up a sign for Grandma over the weekend and he kept signing it this morning while crawling from room to room in search of her. It was heartbreaking.
However, he learned all kinds of new things while she was here. He now says dog, cat, balloon, car, and good. My mom thinks he is also saying book, but I'm not certain on that one yet. He's practicing standing much more often and has started getting brave and taking a few steps away from whatever he's holding on to. He's signing all kinds of things, and making up signs to get his needs across (he even has a sign for "take me to another room now"). He points at everything and expects me to name what it is. He watches my mouth carefully while I say it, and then sometimes tries to imitate me. His tantrums have calmed down, probably because he can communicate much better all of a sudden. He's quite funny to watch lately. He has learned how to use his feet to get around on his riding toy, and now you have to watch out while you're in the living room, or he might careen into you. He walks on his hands and feet and tries to watch his toes while he's moving. He pulls cushions down from the couch and tries to sit on them by backing up, with little success but much hilarity for me.
The second important thing is this: I found some Good Flow that hadn't been pulled. I don't think B is up for alcohol yet, but my mom and I are going to add a little bit of tequila to that limeade later and have us some unpasteurized white trash margaritas. Yum.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.I wonder what would happen if we got rid of all the Ann Coulters and Michael Moores of the world and focused on finding solutions to problems, rather than just making every issue into an Us vs. Them fight with no winners.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This, too, is part of America's promise, the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.So there. That's my happy-crappy idealism for the day. Now I will return to my normal cynical misanthropy.
-Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird
So about Saul's first birthday. It's coming up very soon. I am not throwing him a party, and I'm feeling a little bit ambivalent about it. Family will come, of course, and he will get some really awesome presents, and the opportunity to smash an (eggless) chocolate cupcake all over his face. But there will be no friends, no other babies, no party hats and gift bags and coordinating napkins. Because I hate that stuff, and I do not have the bandwidth to organize that kind of big to-do. But I have been invited to many first birthday parties recently, including one for Laney, who was born the week before Saul. It makes me feel a little bit guilty. I think I've mentioned before how I'm trying really hard to avoid the culture of competitive mothering that seems to be so prevalent. But it's hard, because I am constantly questioning what my motives are for everything, and trying to draw the line between what is good for Saul and what is excessive, and what will truly benefit Saul and what will just make me feel better. It's a very hard thing to do, and sometimes I just want to give up because going against a current is a good way to exhaust yourself. Words of wisdom would be appreciated.
