Anders' 9 month birthday puzzle

Calrton and Anders Meet, Take 2

Our friends Scott and Marissa Nordschow had a son Carlton, who is about 5 weeks younger than Anders' adjusted age. Interestingly, their age difference is almost exactly the same as that between Scott and Me as Anders was due three days after my birthday and Carlton arrived a couple of days after Scott's birthday.

Anders came in like a tornado, smiling and talking and carrying on. Carlton was a bit overwhelmed at first by the guests in his house. Anders grabbed Carlton and pulled him in close, giving him the Johnson Treatment to get him to agree to be his wingman at the Fort Dodge Prom in about 18 years (inside joke, long story).

Anders and Carlton went through a gamut of emotions together. At one point, Anders was singing and Carlton was bopping along to his song. At another point, Carlton leaned in close with his tongue out to an open mouthed Anders. Carlton can crawl, so he started circling behind Anders to grab his hair from behind, which he then tried to put in his mouth. At another point, the boys came to blows as Anders was working his way up Marissa's leg, Carlton started throwing hands at Anders, which Anders then reciprocated. Anders conversely did not jealously guard his mother. Anna picked up Carlton, but Anders could not have cared less.

Anders was also very excited to meet the Nordschow's new puppy, Maggie. I don' t know if Anna or Anders was happier to meet their goats. Anders almost jumped out of my grasp with excitement.

We decided that Carlton is Anders' best friend since Anders knows no other babies his age.

I thought of another funny story from the MOA on Wednesday that was also lost. I now understand the origins of the term "shit grin." There was a massive line outside the ladies' can at the mall, so I changed Anders. When I put him on the changing table, he gave me a big shit grin as if to say, "I am so happy about getting changed. You have no idea what you are in for." I will spare you the details, but we were in the bathroom for a good 10 minutes. Anders was squealing with delight the entire time. He maintained his sheer ecstasy from the changing table to the toilet to the sink.

I don't remember if I wrote this or not, but the other day Anders and Anna were playing the piano. Anna was horning in on Anders' keys, so he gently moved her hands away from his part of the piano.

Anders will be baptized tomorrow. I hope everyone makes it safely to Litchfield and back and things go relatively smoothly. Anders had a rough morning as he is cutting some new teeth. I hope he gets a respite tomorrow. We are also having a birthday party for Anders tomorrow as he turns 1...sort of.

Lazy Summer Days

At Grandparents' house in Zimmerman

Ela, Ridgewood Bay, Target, Zoie, and Anders

Lokkens

Anders at Home

Entry Lost

I wrote a whole big thing about Anders and Carlton meeting, then I wrote some more stuff that I have already forgotten about. It was all lost last night because we lost the internet connection here. I tried to find it became the post was allegedly being saved as I wrote, but it appears to be gone for good. I will try to reconstruct as much of it as possible before Sunday. I will try once again to add pictures as well.

Anders of America

Anders made his first (0f many) visits to the Mall of America today where he met three larger than life figures: a land shark, a shrimp, and a frog.

He recoiled in fear at the person in the frog outfit at the Rainforest Cafe. He was wary/neutral toward the Bubba Gump Shrimp. The Shark, however, was a real pro, sort of like the Easter Bunny. Anders smiled, laughed, and shook for the big blue shark advertising Underwater World. While other babies might have cowered in fear, Anders extended his hand in friendship to the gentleman shark. It was a touching moment of human-fish fellowship.

Anders buzzed around the Rainforest Cafe, leaving little time for me to talk with Anna's friends Meghan and Rob, visiting from Gallipolis on a ballpark tour of the Midwest. Anders even found himself sitting between a teenage girl and a mother, both of whom he charmed. My son works a room like Bill Clinton. He also met most of the wait staff. He could have been elected mayor of the Rainforest by the end of our visit. Sadly, there was not enough time for Anders to visit a shoe store, but there was time for me to get a novelty necktie of political campaign buttons and placards.

Anders had an exhausting and whirlwind couple of days in Decorah. I will devote a full post in the next day or so to his meeting with my friend Mustang's son, Carlton. I suppose I should consider calling Mustang by his Christian name, Scott, but I gave up the Kung Fu wallet not that long ago so I think I will keep Mustang a little longer. Needless to say, when you put 9 month and 8 month old baby boys together on one floor hilarity ensues!

A Baby of the People

Anders has been working harder than future governor Tom Emmer (R-MN) at a waitress convention this week to meet his public (you must like that political humor MN Steve, if you even know that of which I speak while cloistered away in your New England Ivory Tower).

He has had two separate meetings of great aunts and cousins, met blog subscriber Heidi, and is currently meeting regular weblog reader Ela. I'm probably forgetting a couple engagements since I don't go on all of these outings.

Oh, and we took Anders out to eat at Ridgewood Bay "Resort" on Little Elk Lake, about a mile from his grandparents' house where Anders confronted some ducks and charmed yet another older woman. I'm beginning to think Anders should seek financing for a short-run broadway play such as "Springtime for Osama."

Anders was in rare form as we met Heidi at Potbelly in Maple Grove. He gave her the full performance with about three encores. He did an Ando Shake in his high chair so robust that he almost tipped the chair over on it's side. The room was not paying attention as not enough older women eat at Potbelly. Yet, for Heidi, Anders did stirring renditions of "Foghorn," "Bam! Bam!," and he even broke out "Albuquerque." The fact that he did "Albuquerque" without the giant picture of Albuquerque as his muse is impressive. Dan Seeley, do you think you could pull some strings in about 18 years to get Anders a job at Chula Vista in the Wisconsin Dells performing "Those Groovy 70s?"

Anders is playing his second baby shower of the month tomorrow in Champlain for another regular blog reader, Sarah.

Also, thanks to blog subscriber Paul for sending the camera charger. We should have some new pictures up soon. Many pictures have been snapped of Anders in the past few weeks, just not by us.

Anders is having a ball. I am not, however, looking forward to that quiet August Monday in Athens when the three of us are alone and Anders looks us over with his nose upturned as if to say, "You? That's it? You guys? Where did everyone go?" I know this look well. At least, he still has a couple weeks of fun left out among the people.

Anders Goes West

I used to have a souvenir glass for Kansas tourism that said "Kansas, The Land of Ahs." That glass mysteriously went missing after we married. We took Anders down to Marquette, KS on Friday to meet the Petersons.

Anders did a lot better on the way back than the way down to Kansas. About an hour into the trip, Anders realized that we were not going to the mall. He lost it around Minnetonka and Anna had to ride in the back with him the rest of the trip down and back.

For the trip, Anders had a new mini-lazyboy car seat. He was pretty excited at first to sit in the new seat. Again, that changed quickly.

Anders averaged about an hour per stop. He loved the stops and really didn't like the ride. He did calm down after sunset as we drove across Kansas.

Anders enjoyed rolling around on the carpet at my uncle Fred's house. He also enjoyed the piano music played by Mom and Fred. He delighted at my uncle Jim's Donald Duck voice.

We took Anders to meet my grandma's friends. Anders gave them big smiles and full body Ando Shakes. Anders has figured out how to put together his shake and smile, which charms almost everyone.

We went out Saturday night to Smolan to eat BBQ at an old high school gym. It looked like Arthur Bryant's had a child with Hoosiers and that's where we ate. I expected Jimmy Chitwood to be our host. It was a cool place. I'm surprised I'd never heard of the place before. We took Anders out on a swing outside of the school, which he enjoyed, as did I until the mosquitos zeroed in on me.

Anders did well in church on Sunday. He walked up with my help and stood for the entire children's sermon. After it was over, he walked all the way back. During the children's sermon, he had zeroed in on one of my grandma's cousin and was charming her in the front row. Anders then went over to my uncle Jim and aunt Barbara's house in Lindsborg where he met more of his cousins.

Oh, on Saturday, we took Anders to the barber. I got a haircut. Anders loved the swirling pole. We also got a great picture of him in the barber's chair. Perhaps next year he can get his first haircut from Kenny like I did almost 3o years ago.

The trip back to Zimmerman was brutally long, but also fun during the stops. At the East Lawrence service area, Anders made friends with a biker. On the biker's way out, Anders and the Biker high-fived.

We stopped again at the Valley West Mall in W. Des Moines. Anders had a ball here with the fountain in the middle of the mall. While we were feeding him, he gave a smile and a shake to an older woman who stopped by to say that Anders had made her day and offered to take him home! Anders had a great time with the piano player at Von Maur. He was also giddy with excitement to visit the shoe department of Von Maur. My mom could not believe how happy Anders was to be in the shoe department. We had seen this before at DSW in Columbus in the spring. Anders loves shoe shopping.

Anders slept a lot on the way back. Then around the MN-IA border, Anders sort of lost it. We finally stopped in Owatonna. Places were closing or gross, so we had to get back in the car and drive up the road. We were wary, but Anders took the brief trip to Culver's well. We made it back before midnight.

Anders developed a lot more stamina in his assisted walking. That was probably his biggest development. He also put pressure on all four points and inched forward. He didn't really crawl, but he moved another step closer in that process. Well, Anders is waking up, so I better go.

It was a long trip, a good trip, but I am wiped out and ready to lay low for a while.

Up North

I've been on a lot of trips and vacations, but none was as needed as our one night in Grand Marais, MN on the shores of Lake Superior. It is a small resort town about 45 minutes south of the Canadian border on Highway 61. Anna and I have gone up there a few times before so we know our way around a bit. Last night was our first night away from Anders since October 27-28 when he was still in the hospital.

We splurged for a place on the lake. The sound of the tide lapping up against the rocks lulled us to sleep. As most of the country suffers through a heatwave, we were in long sleeves yesterday and today. It was briefly hot yesterday, but then the sky clouded over and the winds shifted. This morning Grand Marais was engulfed in fog.

Anna beat me in mini golf by three strokes. At a key point in the match, I was distracted by friendly Iowans on the course, but she won fair and square. Her puts were soft and true, while mine kept lipping out. I purchased perhaps the only non-gaudy tourist sweatshirt ever.

I got kicked out of the Ben Franklin for open container...of coffee. I thought that was a bit much, but I like the fact that Grand Marais is a town of laws and rules. Thus, it remains orderly.

Anders was quite happy to see us when we arrived around 6 pm. He was too excited to sleep, so bedtime took about 1.5 hours. It turned into a real ordeal. He's probably worried in part that when he wakes up we will be gone again, so he has unwittingly introduced guilt to the equation (like I don't have enough of that already in my life). Anyway, we will once again be seeing (and hearing) all too much of each other with our trip to Marquette, KS on Friday.

Moonlighting in Mora:

Hey, MN Steve! We saw a great business for you, which you may already be operating, we don't know. In Mora, MN we saw Steves Computer Emporium and Miniature Golf, which shared a building with Grandma's Pies. I'm not sure why Grandma could spring for punctuation, but Steve couldn't. Anyway, the place has all the things you would like: Greater MN, Computers, Food, Mini Golf, and Copy Editing. Think about it, if the history thing doesn't work out...

Taste of Minnesota

I was reading the Star Tribune the other day and I was surprised to find that the Taste of MN now costs around $30 to attend on Harriet Island. When Anna and I used to go, it was on the capitol grounds and only cost $5 to park. The first time we went, Anna found a $20 bill on the ground so we actually made money on the endeavor. I loved going and eating the large variety of food all in one place, listening to Ringo Starr's All Star Band, and watching fireworks explode over the capitol dome.

Anders had a taste of MN yesterday. At his great-grandparents' home, his grammuh gave him the remains of her fudgecicle. His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. It will be tough to go back to mushy peas after that sort of treat. Then, we went to Papa's Italian in Zimmerman for supper, where his mom gave Anders a few bites of the dipping sauce from her calzone. I hadn't seen him that excited to eat since the calzone.

Anders became a little greedy last night as we sat on the couch watching the Twins. I was feeding Anders and Uncle Josh was sitting next to me eating tropical flavored Skittles. Anders loved the orange bag and the Skittles must have smelled and looked good to him. In one movement, he swatted the bottle away and lunged onto Josh's lap for the candy. He went for broke, didn't get it, but it was an impressive display of athleticism.

Anders spent Thursday and Friday shuttling back and forth to Litchfield to see his great grandparents and various other family members. He enjoyed all the attention. I started calling him The Mayor. He spent a little time charming each person with a smile and an Ando Shake, then moved on to the next person. On Wednesday night his great aunts and cousins came over here. At one point Anders was at the center of a circle of cousins, loving every minute of it. Part of the reason Anders has been on the move so much this week is that Uncle Josh has been visiting from Seattle. Seeing Josh and Anders has been a 2-for-1 for the family this week. Josh left this morning. He gets deployed to the Philippines in the middle of this month for the next 6-9 months.

Anders is going to spend a quiet weekend at his grandparents' house this weekend. He had a bit of car butt, having traveled over 1,200 miles this week. He was even bleeding a bit, but that could have been because he scratched himself. Regardless, he begins another epic journey Friday as we drive from Central MN to Central Kansas to visit my family. Anders' butt should be healed by then and we should have a bigger car seat for him by then as well since he is about to out grow his current one.

Anna and I are taking a vacation from our vacation by heading up to Northern MN for a night early next week. I am quite excited to get away.

I need one more person to sign up for my US History Since 1945 class for it to meet in the second summer session in Chillicothe, starting the last week in July.