The Bug is 1.

Today is a big day, its my BIRTHDAY! I am ONE! Can you believe that??

It started out like any other day. Mommy came in and got me out of my bed. We got dressed and went downstairs. Then Daddy made us all a special breakfast of biscuits, fake (or real for the actual meat-eaters staying with us) bacon, and fake sausage. Here is what I think of special breakfast:


Then I went out shopping with Mommy and Daddy, Uncle Jim and Aunt Sara.


I opened up all of my cards. Thanks everyone!


When I woke up from my nap, everything was different in my house! There were balloons and streamers everywhere, and everything had duckies on it.


It was time for my party!! My friends Isaac and Carson and their Mommies and Daddies came, and so did our friends Gil and Patrick. And, of course, G-G, Sky King, Uncle Jim and Aunt Sara - and Mommy and Daddy!

Daddy gave me a sip of his beer because I am almost old enough.


I found some of my presents in a pile. I always wanted a fire safe!


Pretty soon it was time for me to eat my birthday cake. We had two cakes, one was just for me, and one was for everyone else.



Mommy put some candles in my cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday.


Nan, Grandad and cousins Zoe and Lauren were there too, watching me on Skype!


Hm... what is this?


OMG! MY HANDS ARE BLUE!!! WAAAAAAAAHHH!!


GET IT OFF, MOMMY!!!


Wow. I don't know about cake. That was terrifying. I think I've had enough. Its time to do something else.

Lets play Guitar Hero! Thats what Uncle Jim and Aunt Sara got Mommy for Christmas. I think that would be better than eating the terrifying cake.






Everyone played Guitar Hero, except me, because the guitar is taller than me. Oh well. Mommy decorated her guitar with stickers and she put 'OC' on it, just for me. That is almost as good as being able to play myself.

After a little while, I was hungry and Mommy got some dinner together for me. She gave me some pita bread and indian chickpea dip. Yum! She also gave me a piece of my cake, but this time she took the blue frosting off first. Still, I'd rather have the chickpea dip. But I did try a few bites of frosting.


Then I opened my presents from my party. I got some cool books (I love books!) and toys and clothes. Yay! I also got an "iPod" of my very own from my friend Julianna. I love it! It plays classical music and lights up when I press the buttons.


I posed for some pictures with Mommy and Daddy and with Uncle Jim and Aunt Sara.





It hasn't been than long, but look how much I have changed! Next stop, TWO!

Merry Christmas!

Well, I just finished my FIRST CHRISTMAS. I know I would have had a first Christmas last year if I had just gotten with the program and come out sooner, but oh well. Too bad for Mommy. I think I enjoyed my first Christmas more this way, because I actually know what is going on. My G-G and Sky King came out on the 22nd, because Daddy's birthday was on the 23rd and they wanted to be here in time for that. Mommy and her family usually open their presents on Christmas Eve, so they gave me some presents that day too, one of which was this wagon!


We went for a walk around the neighborhood in it.


The next day was actual Christmas. I sat near the Christmas tree, hoping that presents would appear. And they did!


My next present was my OWN SPECIAL CHAIR. I sat in my chair while I was opening presents.


I got lots of neat presents, like these books. I love books, especially ones I can touch, or that have flaps or something.


I also got my OWN SPECIAL KITCHEN. It goes in Mommy and Daddy's kitchen, so I can cook and wash dishes with them.


I got a bag of vegetables from the Farmers' Market ('Owen's Farmers' Market' it says!) that I can put in my oven or sink or whatever.


I also got a fun rocket toy from my Aunt Melissa and Uncle Matt. I am slightly too short for it right now so although I can sit on it, I can't push myself around. So instead I push the toy around the kitchen.

I got a little bit overwhelmed by all of my presents so I got a little bit grumpypants.


Then I took a nap and it was all good.

We had dinner later that night. I had Yorkshire pudding, Quorn cutlet, roasted vegetables and salad. Yum! I liked the Quorn the best. Yay, fake meat! G-G and Sky King had real meat, but Mommy and Daddy had Quorn too. You can see Mommy and Sky King wearing their hats from their Christmas crackers. G-G and Daddy's had broken before they even put them on, which was a bummer because that meant that the annual "Big Head Contest" could not take place. I think a rematch will occur tomorrow after Uncle Jim and Aunt Sara arrive...




Here is a video of me sitting in my special chair and reading a book.

Untitled from meandertail on Vimeo.

I have a video of me pushing around my rocket too, but that is going to have to wait until tomorrow because Mommy is helping me post this, and she is tired and wants to go to bed, and it is not even uploaded yet.

I had a nice Christmas, and I loved all of my presents. Hope you did too!

And I'll be 1 on SATURDAY!! OMG!!

Yeah I know....

I haven't been updating my blog lately! I have been soooo busy. I mean, I had to get my Christmas cards out, my shopping done, it was crazy. All of that and I go to school every day, AND I go to bed at 7pm. There are only so many hours in the day, people.

By now you've probably gotten a Christmas card from me with a cute picture on it. Well, Mommy took lots of pictures of me that day, and they weren't all that good. Thijs and Riley have posted some funny Christmas card bloopers, so here are mine.

First word?

Well, I may or may not be saying my first word. It may or may not be 'hi'.

Mommy is really overanalyzing this whole thing. First she thought I had a word for 'cat'. It was not "cat", but it was some high pitched squealy sound. I do not, in fact, have a word for 'cat'. I just like cats! I get happy and excited when they are around, thus the squealing. But every time the cats would come by, I could see Mommy's ears perk up. I could almost see her thinking "Is that the same high pitched squealy sound he did last time?? I don't know! Maybe! Aaaaaargh!'

I'm just messing with her.

But this 'hi' thing, thats a little bit different. I started saying "hi" to her when she would come into the room. Yesterday when she came in to pick me up at school I said "hiiiiiiii". Mommy asked my teacher whether she thought I said 'hi', and my teacher agreed. She also agreed with Mommy that I had said it a few other times in the correct context. Mommy is hesitant to label this as my FIRST WORD (like I said, Mommy totally overanalyzes), but its TENTATIVELY my first word.

Alternative uses for train tracks

I don't know if you've ever ridden on Amtrak, but it kinda sucks. At least this is what Mommy tells me. She rode the train from Boston to Oberlin, Ohio when she was doing her auditions for college and it had several major, major problems:

a) arrival time in Oberlin was like, 3 AM. Who wants to pick you up at 3 AM?
b) it was full of crazy people
c) it was full of possibly drunk crazy people who were fighting with each other
d) some of those people were also preaching
e) since you're a captive audience, you have to pay an arm and a leg for food, which sucked.
f) it took longer than it would have to drive

Anyway. Mommy is always surprised that Amtrak still exists, given that they have no one to compete with them and thus force them to improve. I have been coming up with some plans for what we can do with all the old train tracks if Amtrak ever goes bust.

Mommy and Daddy always put the train track together for me, but I am eager to get started on my plans - perhaps too eager! - so I begin by removing all of the cars on the track.


Then I start dismantling the track.


I find it helps if I shake the track pieces vigorously before I try to dispose of them.



I'll give you five bucks if you can guess where I'm going to put this...


Duh! Everything in the mouth!
Finally, I have to find alternative uses for some of the other parts of the train system. Like, for example, the little ramps that allow the train to drive from the floor to the track. The best thing I've come up with so far is this:



I like to call this 'Pacifier/Duckie Face'.

I'm 11 months old!

11 months! Practically a year!

Here are some of the things I can do:

walk
use things as they were intended to be used (i.e. brush my hair with a hairbrush)
wave (sort of)

Still working on talking, but no real talking action yet. I am a real boy in this respect. Walk first, then talk!

Dinner conversation

Dinner, yum! Chomp, chomp, chomp. How was your day, Mommy? How about you, Daddy? Do you want to know what I did today?


Untitled from meandertail on Vimeo.

The much anticipated walking video

Walking: The sequel from meandertail on Vimeo.