Tune Coupe Mystery

There was a rather brutish knock at the door this afternoon. It came just as I was trying to undress Munchie for a long overdue bath. So, diapered infant in tow, I tromped to the porch door. No one there. I stepped outside to see if there was anything left for us. I heard the faint rumble of a FedEx truck in the distance, so I slid on some flip flops and carried Stephen around front, realizing most people probably think we actually use our front door and entryway. We never do. In fact, I often forget about its existence beyond being the black hole we cram all the unpacked junk we haven't figured out what to do with yet. OK, so all that to say the truck took off with a rumble (he was parked in our neighbor's driveway). And on our front step, a giant box labeled "Toddler Tune Coupe."

I don't know where this came from, but if the sender is out there, thank you!

It was great fun watching his little feet scamper Flintstones-style as Daddy pushed him around the front yard.

MYSTERY SOLVED: Thank you, Aunt Mary Alice! The coupe is a great first birthday present for Stephen.

Squirrel watcher

The dogwood in our front lawn is a great attraction for the local squirrel population. Stephen still thinks these cutest of all rodents are in the canine family, but he can spot them faster than his mama!
This squirrel seemed to think it was a bat.
And Munchie thinks he's a monkey!

Fingerpaint and thank you notes

Before going to the pool, we got Stephen's feet wet in my folk's hotel tub.
There he swirled his fingers in some paint, while grammy, gramps and I tried to shove pieces of paper under them as he created his Munch-terpieces.
Afterward he enjoyed a towel swaddle and a bottle of juice.

There is no "p" in our "ool"

I have to say swim diapers are impressive that way! I know this is several days late, but another birthday activity was heading to the pool. Emily Chappelear took Stephen a couple of weeks ago for his first pool experience and he loved it... so we thought we'd bring him some place where we knew he'd have fun.
Our boy was a natural fish. He also loved when gramps took him down the frog slide... and he hated to not be sliding down. He cried whenever we took him away from the frog.
Of course, drying off in a big snuggly towel is also fun. After more than an hour of splashing and swallowing chlorinated water, Steve was wiped out!

Stephen meets Evan C

Joe guest posting: Stephen was drawn to Evan the moment he came in our house. His greeting was a little heavy handed but Evan later returned the favor with a bicycle kick.

One small step for a baby

Joe guest posting: Recently Stephen has been making his first attempts at covering a distance on two legs. I finally had my camera at the right time in the right place. Notice that he is holding a leaf. The leaf appears to have special powers because the moment you take it away, he will sit down. But in his hand, it gives him the confidence to walk all the way to his destination.

Birthday videos

Joe guest posting: We shot a few videos during the party. Usually Stephen relishes being the center of attention. But as you will see here, the birthday ritual made him a little cautious. BTW, Stephen went to the doctor the following week and weighs 17 lbs 8 oz. and stands a towering 28.25 inches.

More birthday activities

Portraits under the magnolia tree with grammy and gramps.
In case you're wondering, these were all on the actual day (August 17th) but I'm just trying to catch up in posting.
Playing with Ty's necklace and laughing at mommy jumping up and down.
Playing with balloons and toothbrushes.
Watching critters at PetSmart.

Munch at Tandoor

My mom said that since we were also celebrating my giving birth one year ago, I got to choose the restaurant for lunch. We went to Tandoor Indian Bistro in Clarksville, where they have a nice lunch buffet. Many of the items were a little hot for Stephen (his little face turned bright red at Saffron last week when he got his first taste of spicy) so he mostly nibbled on chicken pasada (?), plain cickpeas and tidbits of naan. The owner of the restaurant must've liked babies because he gave Stephen multiple pieces of colorful plasticware and eventually brought him over a big plate of basmati rice... Mom and I exchanged worried looks as the well-meaning man set the dish before Stephen. He not only tried it, he shovelled it into his mouth with gusto... and onto the floor in the process.
Note the rice beard.

Happy First Birthday!

Stephen turns one year old today! We celebrated Saturday with a low-key gathering at our house. The Couchmans, Chappelears and Wally Bryan joined my mom and dad and Tatiana and us for some snacks and banana pudding cake. Mom helped me make the cake, based off a recipe my Aunt Susie often made for my birthdays. Our cake was not photo-worthy, but after I cut through the layers of whipped cream, yellow cake, pudding and banana slices, Philip made the astute observation that it looked like the top of a toothbrush. (Stephen is a big fan of toothbrushes. And while we didn't make it the theme of the party, we did give away balloons with toothbrushes attached as party favors.)
Munchie even got his own little cupcake (banana muffin with whipped cream on top) with one candle that he tried to grab before Mama whisked it away. His friends helped him blow it out. Then the fun began. At first, Stephen didn't really know what to make of the whipped cream. He poked it. Stirred it with his index finger. Got a taste when I lifted the cupcake to his mouth. Wore it. Squished it. Then finally, dug in. Before we knew it, he was shoveling fistfuls of banana muffin into his chipmunk cheeks.
After cake, Stephen watched as Emily, Philip and Ester helped him open his birthday presents. What a fun day!

Stephen also found Evan Couchman very interesting. Evan was very brave in the face of danger!

At the beach

We brought Munchie to Lake Michigan for his first beach experience. My uncle Doug has a condo on the lake.

Munchie Eats Ethnic

Stephen was a trooper. We took him to restaurants for most meals, and he only had a major meltdown at Hunan Beijing's. Some of the places we ate:

Sushi-Ya
He had goldfish while the rest of us had sushi :) He also tried some chicken and avocado. And he made googoo eyes at the waitress.
Pho 777
Stephen couldn't eat too much of the local fare here either... All crunchy greens and herbs and spicy meats beyond edibility for babies with only two teeth.
Chiu Quon Bakery
Stephen enjoys bakery goods, but we only let him sample a tiny tidbit.
Saffron Indian Restaurant

Though the name suggests an elegant Indian restaurant, it was more like a greasy spoon... or maybe I should say a spicy spoon! Stephen's favorite part was the Bollywood music playing in the background. He was actually bopping to the beat. You can sort of see it from these photos.

Munchie at the Zoo

We took Stephen to the Lincoln Park Zoo, one of the nation's last free zoos, and a place I took in from a stroller's eye view many times. Stephen loves nature and animals (still calling them all "da-gees"). But I think he doesn't always know what he's supposed to be looking at when he's at the zoo. He got more excited about the sparrows and seagulls than the black bear and was more in awe of the zoo interpreter's long red beard than the African Wild Dogs he was talking about. But he did get in to the African Savannah exhibit, where he was watched by meerkats and ogled plenty of cichlids at the hippo exhibit.

Munchie at Grammy and Gramps'

Stephen is fully in the exploration phase and he discovered plenty of new things in the great indoors of my parents' house. The patio doors and vertical blinds held special interest.
I also felt Stephen really bonded with Gramps on this trip. My dad taught him about airplanes and counting to three and how to poke people in the eye, all-important life skills, of course.

Munchie on the road

The trip to Chicago is not an easy one, but Joe and I are starting to find good places to stop along the way up through quaint rural towns with names like "Foosland" "Strawn" and "Forrest."
We happened to stop in a town called Sibley this time. They had a really sweet park with old-school equipment like a see-saw and a merri-go-round. As far as Stephen was concerned, we'd arrived at our destination. He tried the slide, see-saw and swings.

We also stopped in Champaign for a yummy dinner at Za's. Stephen ate a bunch of pesto tortellini off my plate and looked fetching in a bright green pesto goatee.

House troubles

The Parrinos took a trip up north to visit the Tilsches and for the wedding of our good friends Matt and Tasha. It's a long drive, made even longer by frequent Munchie stops, but we weren't able to leave as early as we wanted
because of the huge tree limb that fell in our backyard during the violent storm the night before. Our neighbor, John, arrived, chainsaw in hand, and began wacking off pieces of the tree. Joe ran them to the curb, where most of our neighbors were building similar piles of aboricultural aftermath.

We're thankful that none of the many tall silver maples that surround our little Virginia Street home came crashing through the roof. The scene Wednesday morning along Virginia Street reminded me of the rubble from the twin tornados that ripped up Christian County the first spring we lived here.

Stephen enjoys looking up and pointing... the fallen tree was no exception.

I wish I could say that a loss of foliage was our only trouble at our "new-old house," but while we were away, the rains must've driven in the great outdoors. Specifically, ants in the kitchen. Our friend Ty, who is living with us, eradicated the invasion before we got home and we haven't seen any of the little picnic-crashers since.

I also wish I could say that was the only invasion... but unfortunately I found traces of another house guest yesterday just hours before Joe and I were to go out to celebrate our 8-year anniversary. The dark brown pellet of crud could have been anything, really. It was in my clear glass serving bowl that I bought in Taiwan so many years ago... But it struck me as having more import than just a little piece of crud. I bent back down to the cabinet under the counter again and realized there were many, many little tiny mouse turds in the place I store my mixing bowls, pots, pans and cookie sheets. Then I realized there were more under the sink. In my utensil drawer. In my SILVERWARE drawer. In my baking drawer! In my deviled egg caddy! Upon further inspection (which at this point was laced with all kinds of whimpers, groans and yelps) I found that the thumb of my heavy duty blue gingham oven mitt was chewed into a pile of fluff.

At this point I was really freaking out. It's not that I'm afraid of mice. Some of my longtime readers might remember the mouse at Bruce View that ran over my foot and was so terribly cute and trembly doing it. But I do not like the idea of rodents using my kitchen as a commode. And the level of poopage beneath my countertop indicated either a very large contingency of vermin or one mouse with a very bad case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Joe left with Munchie to buy traps. I continued to pull things apart and bang around and make lots of noise.

I'm freaking out because not only are my parents arriving in two days, but I was planning Stephen's first birtday shin-dig and Ty's baby shower soon after that. And I've got to wash and disinfect everything under the countertop. All the pots, pans, bowls, utensils, bakeware, measuring cups, spoons, forks, knives and chopsticks before they arrive.

Well. The story doesn't really have a happy ending other than the fact that Joe and I made it to our "Date Night in Paris" cooking class at the Viking school in Franklin, Tenn., where we enjoyed making and eating a delicious meal prepared with an enormous amount of butter. And for 4 hours I completely forgot about mouse droppings and the cleanup ahead.

This morning Joe disposed of our first mouse captive.

Post-nap snack

Snack on Pop ;-)
The whole house took a nap, including the Munchie. But when he woke up, Joe tried to entertain him on the couch, where Stephen loves to watch "doggies." In Stephen's world, Doggies come in many varieties: the feathered doggies, the doggies on leashes walkin with owners across the street, the doggies with bushy tails that scamper up our trees and scale the telephone wires and the tiny little black buzzing doggies that natter about the window, trying to get out. Some doggies are just plush and pretend. There's even the Internet doggies, including "Nora the Piano Cat" who performs with the Lithuianian orchestra (they're all doggies too.) Now that he's finished his afternoon snack, he's yelling "doggie" at the top of his lungs and I can only imagine what kind of creature is inspiring it.