Family Reunion

Yesterday we went to Columbus. It was the first time all three of us had spent a day together in nearly two weeks. Anna spent President's Day weekend with her siblings furnishing her brother's new place in Tacoma, WA. She arrived home late Monday thanks to the help of a shower curtain ring salesman after her flight was delayed. I then left Tuesday night for a conference in DC. I returned on Thursday. We were finally all together on Saturday. We independently decided that we needed to get out of town for the day.

Anders did a great job of feeding himself a cheese sandwich in a reasonable manner at 5 Guys in Easton. Anna had never been to 5 Guys Burgers before. I've never been to the same 5 Guys twice. If it was good enough for Brian Williams and Barack Obama, it's good enough for me!

Anders also did a good job of feeding himself taco contents tonight. He recovered from last week's acute indigestion and is eating more than ever. I'm not sure if I wrote about it, but a week ago I had one of my worst days as Anders and I were sick on the same day with Anna on the West Coast. Anna had one of her worst days ever the next day as she arrived home six hours late after being diverted to Dayton then driving a rental car through a sleet storm to Columbus to pick up the Corolla for the drive home. She didn't have a chance to eat until she reached Columbus. I can't really do it justice, she can tell it with real feeling.

Anders routinely takes steps. I've seen him take as many as eight steps. In another sign that he's smart, Anders did not want to ride in the rickety swing in the park that he used to love. Anna took him down the slide. He liked that very much until his leg swung out and hit the side of the slide. Anders says many words like "door, banana, water, milk, light, red light, no no, Do Dee (Trudy), shoes, man, girl, baby, daw dee (doggy)." There are more words, but I can't think of them now.

Anders loves to climb on the couches, but he needs help getting up on them. He climbs up on the wooden chair in his room.

His hair is getting to the point that even I admit that it might need to get cut soon. His hair in back is starting to loose its curl.

It seems that our lives after Anders came home range from busy to hectic to treading water. We have been treading water the past two weeks. I hope we can downgrade to hectic, but I don't know if that will happen. We will probably be relisting our house this week.

I always have good ideas about what to write, then when it comes to doing so I'm all over the map.

We have not taken as many pictures or movies of Anders because he attacks the camera when he sees it come out and asks to see the baby. The other interesting development is that Anders now gets antsy during our walks when we reach the part of the bike path where we don't see many people or much interesting stuff. Oh, Anders makes goose noises when we reach the part of the path where the geese live.

Anders Walks Through Lowe's

Anna decided Anders should walk into Lowe's, which he did holding my hand. He didn't stop stop at the store doors. He walked all the way back to the carpet samples. Then he meandered through the carpet samples on his own. He liked the fluffy, soft stuff.

By the way, buy carpet and having it install is surprisingly expensive. Our basement, however, will look transformed when it is all done.

Anders ate well at Chipotle for lunch with Paul and Me. Anders slept on our walk today. I think it was the first time it has been warm enough for him to sleep on our walks since November. Weather.com is less reliable than the Groundhog. Weather.com missed on the rain shower that soaked us yesterday, but Anna hasn't had a snow day since Phil didn't see his shadow. It was 66 degrees here today. I'm going to declare winter over.

Anders has been a bit under the weather this week, but seems to be on the mend. Anna has been sick as well. Anders has been napping less than usual, which makes for interesting evenings. His mood swings are so rapid when he has not napped.

Well, I need to prepare for class tomorrow. It's the rise of Islam and Nixon's Detente tomorrow.

Tomorrow's Ragnar?

Hard Work

Loyal blog readers will remember that Anders ripped a heating vent off the wall in the living room. Well, at some point each day while Anders is playing, I barricade the vent with pillows and the ottoman covers. I never though Anders took much notice of what I was doing. Today, however, he barricaded the vent and the outlet with all the ottoman covers and our two large love seat pillows. He had a grim determination on his face as he put up the barricade. We were about to go out for supper and Anna was trying to coax Anders away to get ready, but he would not be swayed until the job was done! After we returned from supper, he began barricading again. I picked him up and took him away, but he had an ottoman cover in one of his paws that was about half his size and a quarter of his weight. I couldn't believe how long he held onto it, and we had to pry it from his hands.

Also, at China Panda, he noticed a light socket on the ceiling, pointed at it and told us "no, no, no!" On our way out, he saw a baby girl about his age and was saying "guhl" all the way home. I think Anders will have many valentines.

Pinkie Walking

Anders stands on his own now for small bits of time. He was walking quite a bit holding on to just one finger, usually my pinkie, at Kindermusic.

Anders is saying and understanding more words all the time. He really likes saying "nanas" for bananas. He has rediscovered his love of eating bananas. He now eats them on his own. We break them in half and he eats them at his own speed, which is still a bit fast, but he's getting the hang of it.

Anders looks like he's gained a bit of weight over the past few days. He has a couple of deepening creases, the beginning of rolls, on his leg. His pants also became unbuttoned twice today. He is still thin, but just not as thin. Once he starts walking, I suppose he will burn off this little bit of weight he seems to have gained. What he does is starting to look more like walking than newsreel footage of FDR being helped to podium.

Anders only slept for about an hour today. I think he was excited to see me again. I had been on a job interview in San Antonio. Anna said Anders would call out my name occasionally "Dee" and look for me around the house, usually in the bathroom.

I'm quite tired, but for some reason still awake. I didn't think I'd be reminded of how dumb being a Vikings fan is on this trip. I transferred in Dallas where they are still selling Packers Super Bowl gear. Then, riding away from the airport, we passed a series of Red McCombs car dealerships. He's the San Antonio businessman who bought the Vikings with the intention of moving them to the Alamodome. He didn't spend much money on the team, but somehow they remained good enough that attendance didn't tank and the team didn't move. I'm still living with the results of that unfortunate turn of events. The only way I can quit the Vikings is if they move. I hear LA is building a stadium...

I also picked up a copy of the Weekly Standard in Dallas. I was quoted by Fred Barnes in the story he wrote about the Reagan and the Midwest Conference in Illinois. I read it online, but I'm old fashioned enough that it didn't seem real unless it was in print. Needless to say, I don't own an ipad or kindle.