A Crawler

Lately I have been feeling rather lousy and so, unavoidably,

I have let some of my responsibilities fall through the cracks.

One of them, if you hadn't noticed, has been the blog.

But, slowly I am recovering from my ailments 

and will have to play catch up, for it has been a busy week.

To start, I would like to give you a quick update on Orin.

He is now officially crawling in places other than the doctor's office.

That is, as long as he is not burdened by pants. 

Today, in the middle of a diaper change, 

I suddenly felt inspired to let Orin be diaper-free for a while.

He was quite pleased, I suppose, because he thanked me by instantly

proving that I had not made up the fact that he was 

now capable of crawling on all fours.

I was so happy to watch him buzzing around the room 

that I almost forgot to break out the camera to document it for you.

But I remembered.

I did not, however, remember that Orin was still bottomless.

He reminded me a couple minutes later.

The resulting need for a clean up ended the photo session prematurely,

but at least it was documented.

Now I realize that without video you don't have to believe that Orin

is actually crawling in the above pictures. 

But this one should take away any doubt... 

the look of determination on his face, 

the steadfast support of his puppies.

This baby is totally on the move.

There is much more catch up coming, but for now, I am off to bed.

Fisherman Orin

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon at Casey's favorite Portland event:

The Sportsman's Show,

 motto: "If you are not wearing full camouflage, don't bother coming"

The Sportsman's Show is where people of all ages 

who like to kill things

can get together and share products, services, and advice

related to killing things.

There are thousands of vendors all competing for your attention,

so many of them have devised strategies to 

lure customers to their booths.

To snag people like Casey, they show off large, dead fish.

To trap people like me, baskets of candy are pretty effective.

And to attract Orin, pretzels will do the trick.

We had a good time at the show,

walking around looking at the different exhibits

and getting compliments on Orin's hat.

One of the vendors even let Orin spin the wheel for a prize.

He was completely content with his duck identifier card 

until he saw this: A snow dirtbike.

It took us a long time to convince him that he was going to need to

grow just a bit more before he could ride this kind of bike.

"Maybe next year," we reassured him, as we headed towards the car.

And I think he believed us.

Big news from the little guy

Yesterday, Orin and I went to the doctor for his routine check-up.

Orin was first weighted (20 pounds) 

and measured (27 and 1/2 inches... if I remember correctly).

The doctor then asked us some "behavioral questions" 

to see how Orin was developing.

For example, she asked if Orin was responding to his name,

imitating sounds, eating solid foods, etc.

All of my answers were "yes," until she asked if Orin was crawling.

"Well," I said "he is army-crawling."

"That counts," said the doctor, smiling reassuringly.

She laid a couple pamphlets down on the table

and left the room, saying the nurse would be back in a minute.

As soon as she was gone, Orin turned, 

noticed the pamphlets sitting on the other end of the table,

and, like he had been doing it all along, 

 crawled across the table (tummy up) to grab the papers.

I was beside myself... clapping and cheering.

The nurse came in right at that moment and, without question,

thought I was nuts.

It was a big moment.

I thought about calling the doctor back to change her notes,

but managed to restrain myself.

I can't even tell you how great it was to see 

Orin crawl for the first time.

It is too bad that the only other person to witness it was the nurse,

because he hasn't crawled again since,

causing Casey to think I made it up.

But I didn't, I promise.

Documentation in pictures is on the way.

Supercar Sunday

Last weekend, Casey and I joined millions of Americans 

in the celebration of Superbowl Sunday.

For some die-hard fans, the Superbowl is the pinnacle event

of the year, the culmintaion of everything that they believe to be

right and true in the world.

For us, the game is nothing more than an excuse to sit on the couch,

drink beer, and stuff ourselves with food that has so much cholesterol,

you can actually hear your arteries screaming in protest.

This year, we spent the Superbowl at our friends' house.

Matt and Vanessa were equally apathetic about the game,

but I think the general consensus in the room was that 

we were rooting for the underdog, the Arizona Cardinals.

While we watched the game (or, rather, ate chicken wings),

Their son, Jude, showed Orin all his toys. 

Jude's Leap Frog station was pretty cool,

but his red car was Orin's favorite.

Orin figured out how to scoot around on it

in about 3 seconds.

After that, it was all he wanted to do.

Needless to say, the Cardinals lost,

(so often the fate of the underdog)

but it was a good game, so I don't think anybody cared,

especially not Orin, 

who was too busy pushing the car around to notice.

The following day, Casey and I were talking about how 

much Orin liked Jude's car, and decided it was time that

we bought him a vehicle of his own.

Casey found the perfect one: a bulldozer.

It has an ignition, a horn, and (of course) a movable bucket.

It also lights up and flashes every time Orin moves. 

You can't possibly understand how annoying this is, but Orin loves it.

Oh, and best of all, it is apparently quite tasty. 

Orin's Spatula

In a previous post, I mentioned that Orin's favorite 

toy was his yellow spatula.

The spatula meets all of the usual criteria for a favorite toy,

 namely:

1. It is not, in fact, a toy

2. It would serve some useful purpose had it not been 

seized by the baby 

3. It is not something that adults would think would be 

of any interest to a baby. 

That being said, I will let Orin tell you about his spatula.

It is a great spatula.

It can be balanced on one's head.

It can be chewed. 

Both ends, in fact.

It can be used for conducting,

reenacting the end of one of the Shakespeare plays,

steadying oneself,

and demanding attention.

What more could a baby want?

A Birthday, A President

Yesterday we celebrated Orin's 8 month birthday.

This month, for his birthday, Orin got

a new president. 

We all have high hopes that the next four years will be filled 

with carefully thought out foreign policy,

coherent sentences,

and any type of effort to dig our country out of the hole

(or shall I say "crater")

left behind in the wake of the Bush administration.

The future is looking good.

A New Bear

Today, despite the blistering cold,

we decided to go to the Oregon Zoo.

Even though Orin is a little young to have a deep appreciation for

the wildlife of the world, he does enjoy wheelies,

which he got to do quite a lot of with Casey in control of the stroller.

Besides the usual lions and tigers...

and bears...

oh my!

Orin got his first look at elephants 

(notice the now ever-present tongue),

bald eagles, anacondas, otters,

sea lions, naked mole rats, and polar bears.

Watching the polar bears was definitely 

the highlight of the trip for me.

They are absolutely massive, but still so graceful in the water.

The polar bears struck a cord with Orin as well. 

To ward off the cold this morning 

we dressed Ori in his snow bear suit.

At the zoo he was almost indistinguishable 

when he was next to the other bears.

What do you think?

We have decided that we will have to come back in the summer

when Orin is a little older and it is a lot warmer.

After all, we didn't even get to see the hippopotami. 

I will leave you with a completely non-zoo themed picture

which will serve as the baby picture of the day.

Here, Orin is demonstrating that no matter how many brightly colored,

multi textured, singing, dancing, vibrating, neon-flashing 

baby toys you offer a child, 

they always has more fun with something else,

something really boring... like baby powder (in this picture)

or Orin's all-time favorite toy, his yellow spatula (picture to come)