A Fortnight in Athens

Here goes, I'll remember what I can and probably jump around a bit. Anders has become more destructive of late. He pulled an end table down on himself, which broke his piggy bank and small CD player. Today at Perk's, he tried to bit Anna's finger off as she tried to regulate the amount of baby mummum in his mouth. As a fellow Peterson man, I would never attempt this. Anna is correct that Anders takes some pretty big bites, but Anders figures out how to get the food down. He does the same thing with bananas. As long as we don't invite Styvos into our home to tell Anders crazy stories, he should be able to keep it down (that inside joke is for Lucas, Brad, and anyone else who might both read this blog and ate lunch with us in high school).

I also caught Anders climbing up our clothes hamper last week.

Anders has been having a ball in the new season of Kindermusic. On the first day, he went around and introduced himself to all the babies and parents. He likes to explore the space at the Dairy Barn Arts Center. He is the most willing baby to be held by the leader of Kindermusic, Krista. He likes to follow around his little buddy, Asher, who can walk. When we leave, I like to eavesdrop on the other parents. They have some horror stories about babies not sleeping or needing night time feedings.

To that point, I ran into Cita at the library after story time this week. She was amazed by how calm and self contained Anders was. She said the calmness was rare in firstborn children. Cita thought Anders remembered her, which he probably did since Cita is the Baby Whisperer. The previous week at story time, Anders crawled up to the story reader, Amy, and grabbed a side of the book. A little girl of about 4 years scolded him for doing so and took his fingers off the book. Amy told her it was okay if Anders touched the book, which he promptly did again. Then the little girl tried to pull his fingers from the book, but was unsuccessful as Anders gave her a gentle but firm forearm shiver.

My theory that Anders could be mayor was bolstered by a trip to the OU library last week. I probably take Anders there twice a week on errands to pick up a book or return books that are due. We are not there for more than five minutes at a time. Anyway, one of the student workers recognized him from the Catalyst Cafe, where Anna and I take him on Saturday. Then, a real librarian (I don't know her name, but her face is familiar, but she isn't one of Renee Geary's library friends, anyway...) stopped by to greet Anders, compliment him on how he had grown and discussed how his visits to the library lift every one's spirits. I had no idea that they took so much notice of Anders behind the desk, but I was quite proud.

Anders routinely attracts stray cashiers at Walmart for Anna.

Oh, Anders said "Baby" clear as day 8 days ago at the babysitter. He'd been saying "Mama" mostly with a little "Dada" sprinkled in for good measure. So the other day, he was playing with his new friend Jace and his older sister's dolls, and said "Baby" clear as day according to Pam, Jace's grandma.

Anders has started a streak of not sleeping well the night before daycare. Friday is our big day around here since I teach two four hour courses that day in Chillicothe and Anna has to leave early with him to drop Anders off at daycare. So, the first Friday he woke up at 4:15 am and was just up. Then, this Friday, he woke up inconsolable at 1 am. None of my trick worked. I had a meltdown. Anna had to pick up the pieces.

We bought a gliding chair and gliding foot rest for rocking Anders, but so far that hasn't worked.

Something new bloomed. Weather.com tells me it's weed pollen, not Meigs County Gold as far as I know, but something potent. Since Tuesday, Anders nostrils have produced a snot river and I haven't been much better. Same allergies, same eating habits, Ando is really coming into his own as Mini Me.

On a somber note, Athens had its first tornado in 60 years on Thursday evening just after 7 pm. It took out an auto supply business on East State Street. High winds destroyed the press box at the high school where John Blom and I used to broadcast Athens Bulldogs Football for Public Access TV. Roger had some roof damage to his tie dye studio in The Plains and a tree fell down and crushed a swing set in his backyard out there. We were totally untouched on West Hills Drive, not even a large branch down in the backyard. Speaking of which, I need to get outside and mow.

I surveyed my afternoon class at OU-C and only 5 of 23 were rooting for OU. They got killed today. I'm going to try to stay up to watch the Iowa-AZ football game tonight at 10:35 EDT. I don't know if I will make it. I imagine that half the fans will be Iowa fans. The percentage would be even higher had they played the game in November.

Well, that's it for now. I should be writing more regularly in the short term.

I thought of one more funny thing. This morning Anders was crawling in bed with us. He then pulled himself up on the headboard and under his breath, clear as day, said, "Shit." We will have to be sure that Mommy watches her tongue around Anders from now on...