Aurora Borealis

Okay, now that I’ve been able to post about our anniversary and Thanksgiving, I think we’re caught up.  And we’re caught up on our various errands and tasks today.  Several of the normal, pesky ones.  And we turned Agent Murphy’s car seat around so now he rides forward-facing, like a big boy.  Then we made a trip to an independent toy store we haven’t visited before.  It was pretty neat.  We were successful in procuring gifts for Foster Mulan - for Christmas, and for her February birthday so we don’t have to make a second excursion for that.

In the last few days, Agent Murphy has made great strides with his cup.  We’ve been offering him only the cup at second breakfast and tea time for a week or so.  He started to drink from it a little bit, with a noticable increase in the last few days; but he would only drink from it if one of us held it.  In the last couple of days he’s finally started drinking from it some while holding it himself.  So I think this week we’ll switch from bottle to cup at lunch time.

Our second anniversary didn’t pass without notice, we just haven’t had time to write about it.

Last Saturday we planned a big night out, since our first anniversary was necessarily understated, what with an 8-day-old at home.  This time Miss L. came over to stay with Agent Murphy and we went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Nino’s.  Had a lovely multi-course meal, and then stopped by a local coffee shop to top off the evening.

On Tuesday, our actual anniversary, we exchanged our gifts.  No surprise for the Tldz household — all were food preparation related.  Grill pan and griddle pan for me, yogurt maker for Mr. Tldz to replace the one that broke a while ago that he has been sorely missing.  We will get good use out of all of them.  Then we took the opportunity to watch our wedding video.  That Mass really was special.  Almost doesn’t seem like it can be two years already.

We made our first turkey, and it was a success.  Quite tasty, really.  My carving leaves something to be desired, though.  I didn’t really have any success getting the legs off as all the carving tips seemed to suggest they were “supposed” to come off.  Has me thinking we might just do a turkey breast for Christmas.  Except Mr. Tldz thinks he may prefer the dark meat, so I don’t know.

Agent Murphy had a little bit of all of the Thanksgiving food - just like a big boy!  We gave him just a bite of the cranberry chutney, thinking it’d be fun just to see his face.  But he really liked it and ate a bunch of it.  He really liked our yummy but very garlic mashed potatoes, too.

It was a good day and we’ve been enjoying our leftovers.

Agent Murphy saw his doctor today.  Once again, he went apoplectic at the crinkle paper.  Then getting 5 needle sticks didn’t help.  Poor guy sounded like he was being tortured.  Even getting him dressed to come home was an adventure.  But our boy is healthy.  His iron count is good, his growth is proportionate all around.  (And yesterday he saw the Emory orthopaedic folks for a surgery follow-up.  They say his toe is healing just fine and they don’t need to see him anymore.)  He’s 24 pounds even (75th percentile) and 32.5″ (still off the charts, above 97th percentile).  It’s hard to believe he’s almost a whole ruler length longer than he was when he was born!

Besides working on his walking case, we really have to step up efforts on his sippy cup case.  His doc wants him off bottles completely by 15 months, and at the moment he has no interest in drinking from anything but a bottle.  So we shall see.

Agent Murphy has officially been promoted from the BIB (Baby Investigative Bureau) to the TBI (Toddler Bureau of Investigations).  We’re so proud of our big boy!  We’ll miss having SuperBaby visit, though; but we hear SuperToddler is fun, too.  We expect the walking case will be one of the first big ones the Agent cracks for the TBI.

He’s really enjoying his new shape-sorter mail box that used to be Mommy’s.  One of its wooden blocks is the same color and basic shape as the letter from his name puzzle bench that is currently missing.  He very excitedly carried the block from the living room to the bench in his room.  What a smart boy!  I really wish we’d find that letter!

Agent Murphy was duly feted yesterday for his first birthday by a wonderful group of our friends, including four boys ages 4, 3, 2, and 1.  The Agent was initially perplexed by his piece of birthday cake.  I’m not sure how my boy became a dainty eater, but he carefully picked at persistently until he’d eaten most of the piece.  His Uncle R. says it’s because the Agent didn’t want to let on to us how much he likes cake.  The sugar high after everyone left was a sight to behold.

We have a pile of presents to make our way through opening over the course of the day today.  We got started on one last night because A. didn’t believe the party could be over if Agent Murphy didn’t open any presents.  He’d helped his mommy pick out a really good one for the Agent - Wacky Willy, a vibrating hectapus with shapes of various colors to play with.  He’s a big hit!

We learned the good news that A. (the other one) and E.’s daddy got a new job - but they have to move away.  It’s sad to see Agent Murphy’s only friend his own age have to leave, but we’ll get in another play date or two before they go.

Mommy took away some of my hair!  She said it was getting long in the back (because I’ve had hair back there since I was born and didn’t lose it even thought I went bald in the front) so she trimmed it.  I didn’t know she could just take away some of my hair like that.  Won’t it get lonely?  But Mommy says I’ll look even more handsome for my birthday party.  I guess that’s good.  E.’s birthday party was at a pool.  We don’t have a pool.  I wonder how we’re having a birthday party?

It’s never been a very big deal for me.  Yes, as a kid I wore costumes and did some trick-or-treating; but it wasn’t a huge thing and as an adult I don’t really have any interest in wearing a costume.  But we went over to M’s house Friday night for a little Halloween get-together and got to enjoy all the folks who did want to get creative with their costumes.  Agent Murphy was fascinated watching them while he fed himself his dinner.  And then he got to go exploring in a different house, and we got to try to keep the decorative rocks in the coffee table centerpiece and the bowls of M&Ms away from him.  It was good fun, and nice to see folks, including the McG Family, who were all wonderfully costumed.  (I especially liked Jigsawdiva’s costume.)  Shortly after arriving, Danger Dude asked if they could play with “him,” meaning Mr. Tldz.  He was just sitting on the sofa chatting with the other adults, so I’m not sure what he did to distinguish himself from the rest of us boring grown-ups, but he did.

Since M’s place isn’t far from Mr. Tldz’s office, Agent Murphy and I went by there to pick him up.  We got to see his office and meet a few of his coworkers.

Mr. Tldz and I spent a good chunk of the day volunteering at the archbishop’s Mass for couples in the archdiocese who are celebrating their 50th or 60th wedding anniversary this year.  It was really a neat thing!  We were glad to have the opportunity to be there, and the volunteering was hardly tough duty - handing out programs, directing couples to the photographer, and answering inquiries about the location of the restrooms.

This is the third year the archdiocese has done this, and I hope it will be a lasting tradition.  There needs to be more postiive and ecnouraging things about marriage.  During the Mass, there was a group renewal of vows for the Jubilarian couples (though Mr. Tldz and I participated, too - seemed appropriate just a month before our second anniversary).

The reception was really crowded, so we just grabbed glasses of sweet tea and cut out.  (It would have been neat to be able to converse at length with some of the couples.)  We headed to the local independent pizza place we like and enjoyed a late, child-free lunch.

We’re already looking forward to volunteering again next year.  After all, at our wedding Fr. Fred told us to celebrate our marriage in the church community, and this seems like one good way to do that.

It’s a big day for Agent Murphy - he got his first pair of shoes!  The classic baby whites, size 4.  He already has the toes nicely scuffed up from crawling around the house.  When we first put them on him in the shoe store and tried to get him to stand up to check out the sizing, he didn’t want to stand.  I’m sure it felt funny.  But he played around for a while (The shoe sizer thing was immensly fascinating, not to mention the shoe box.), and then got around to the business of standing up again.