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Pictures News |
2007-08-04:
Niklas had quite the day today. He kicked things off by sleeping in until almost a quarter after seven. This was
quite popular me and Andrya. Then he spent a couple of hours trying to take CDs off of their shelves, wreck up my turntable,
unlace my boots and rip the keys off of my keyboard. Due to my quickness and diligence, he was only successful at the boot, CD and keyboard
things. Then he had a nap before taking off on his next adventure, which involved him having his picture taken about
4.7 trillion times. Note that this was at the kid's
picture taking place, not his grandmother's house. Niklas was on his best behavior for the pictures, but he wasn't
particularly smilely. He did break out his serious face, his moderately amused face and his "what is wrong with all
of you people" face. After that, we went to lunch at Goose Island. Niklas enjoyed some turkey and sweet potatoes
(we brought those from home, Goose Island doesn't have an infant menu) while sitting in a restaurant high chair for
the first time. Then he nearly drug Andrya's plate off of the table before throwing my credit card under a neighboring table.
On the plus side, he wasn't loud. Seeing as how Bermuda lacks a Baby Gap, we took Niklas out to stock up on clothes for Bermuda. I'm sure there are stores there that sell baby clothes, but I don't want him looking like this. There are a few other new pictures up here. All of the July news and photos have been archived. Cleverly, I've placed the news in the news archive and the pictures in the picture archives. Niklas appreciates that sort of attention to detail. 2007-08-07:Last Sunday, Andrya went to brunch with some of her friends. This left Niklas and me at home by ourselves. We read some stories (Sandra Boynton is Niklas's favorite author), played with the modified playmat, went for a walk to get burritos (Niklas ended up deciding to eat some chicken and apples instead) and generally had a fine time. I even changed a poopy diaper without incident. A couple of hours after that successful diaper change, though...  So at about 2:00, I was getting Niklas's pre-nap bottle ready. He was playing on the floor with some blocks or shape-sorter shapes or some of those other things that hurt when you step on them. Anyway, he fell over and started crying. Of course he wasn't crying because he was hurt. He was crying because I said "Aaaahhh!" or something to that effect when he fell. Anyway, it took me a couple of minutes to console him, thus delaying the bottle and the nap. When he finally calmed down, I headed back to the kitchen to get the bottle. Before I got there, I noticed a small brown spot on my shirt. Looking back at Niklas, I could see that the spot had been caused by the massive amount of poop that had leaked out the back of his diaper and was soaking through his onsie. While I can change a normal poopy diaper with my left arm at 40%, I was no match for this mess. I got him on the changing table without incident, then: Taking his onsie off spread poop over his back all the way to his hair. Also, the poop spilled out of the diaper all over the changing pad. This was no mess that could be cleaned up with baby wipes, so I carried him to the bathroom to give him a bath. It is a proven fact that carrying a squirming poop covered baby while wearing a white shirt and nursing a bad arm will result in the white shirt not being nearly as white as it was before the carrying of said baby. Because of the poop, you see. Anyway, I filled up the tub and dropped (not literally) him in. That's when the screaming started. Normally, Niklas loves his bath. I guess he was feeling a bit contrary since it was past bottle and nap time. I managed to clean him up and dry him off and he managed to scream like it was October of '06. He yelled until I gave him his bottle and then he yelled when it was gone. He yelled while I was burping him and then he yelled until he passed out when I finally got him down for his nap. Then I took a nap, but with no yelling. 2007-08-14:Niklas had quite the adventure this past weekend. On Thursday morning, Andrya and I drove him down to his grandma and grandpa Meeker's house in Bloomington. This was popular with Niklas who is not adverse to car rides and is a big fan of his grandparent's. Less popular was the fact that we left him there after lunch so we could meet up with Jared and Dana for a trip to northern California. He was screaming when we left, but that was probably due as much to his overtiredness as our heartless desertion of him (his word, more or less). Once he rested up, though, he was fine as long as his grandma was around. He likes his grandpa, too, but he doesn't look or sound like Andrya so that's that. If his grandma left the room, there was some yelling and aggressive crawling so as to track her down. Shockingly his grandma was amenable to spending every waking moment with him. Once he was acclimated, he had a good time playing with his grandparents and meeting the neighbors. As much fun as it is at grandma and grandpa's (where he has his own highchair with spectacular attachments), he was happy to see me when I drove down Monday to pick him up. He was fine with me leaving the room to go to the bathroom or whatever, but he threw a fit when I left him in the kitchen and took a load of his stuff out to the car. Apparently, Niklas was ready to go home which I'm sure he knows is where his mommy lives. He had nothing to worry about, as I wasn't going to leave without him. His grandma put him in his car seat, he waved goodbye (he's getting pretty good at that) and we headed home. A note from Niklas: "Thank you for taking such good care of me grandma and grandpa!" On the way, we stopped at a rest area for some food and a diaper change (for Niklas, not me). Here are some action shots of me and Niklas hanging out in the grass:      2007-08-15:Guess who's got three teeth? Yeah, I guess the odds are that most of these people have at least three teeth, but I was talking about this guy. Although I haven't been able to get a picture of it, his right top front tooth has finally come in. Sadly, the vampire fangs I was promised*, nay, guaranteed** months ago have yet to make an appearance. * No promise to this effect was made to me ** No guarantee was made either 2007-08-19: As you can see from the header above (too lazy to look above? click here then, you lazy, lazy person), Niklas doesn't turn one for a few more weeks. However, since we'll be out of town on the 13th, we had a little birthday party for him today. People cool enough to party with Niklas include his grandma and grandpa Meeker, his uncle Eric, The Godfather, his godmother Katie, her husband Mark, Jared, Dana and Aaron. Grandma and grandpap Vennard couldn't make it up, but Niklas hope to celebrate with them before we skip town. Anyway, a fine time was had by all. Niklas and Aaron both demonstrated awesome aptitudes for not sharing, yelling and eating. Niklas enjoyed some cake for the first time and he continued to enjoy the effects of the sugar for an hour and a half or so after we put him down for bed. He wasn't crying or anything, just talking to himself in his crazed sugar high voice. Happy Observed Birthday, Niklas! My mother has threatened me with pain of death should I to fail to come through with some pictures today. I am not one to respond to threats, though. On an unrelated note, here are some new pictures. Here are some bonus shots of Niklas enjoying some playmat action, action action.     2007-08-20: So I've just recently resumed regular diaper changing duty. I know you're all very happy for me... well, happy for Andrya, anyway. The biggest difference in the whole diaper changing experience between now and early June is Niklas's proclivity for A) thrashing about wildly on the changing table and B) trying to crawl off of the changing table like it's his job and he has a greater desire to perform his job well than I could ever conceive of. This leads to epic wrestling bouts wherein only the most determined and physically fit of the two of us will be successful. Naturally, I am victorious nearly 90% of the time. Note that it's possible that I routinely win these bouts because I outweigh him by 150 pounds, but I like to think it's my tenacity. The Godfather sent us some pictures today. Wanna see them? If not, look away right now.    2007-08-21: Today, Niklas tried broccoli with carrots and cheese. The verdict? Niklas cried because of something he was eating for the first time ever. I'm guessing that Gerber will not be offering Niklas an endorsement deal. I can understand his displeasure; this stuff smelled like sauerkraut if sauerkraut was made with broccoli instead of cabbage and was terrible instead of tasty when served on a brat. Also, you don't have any beer with the sauerkraut. Other than that, though, Niklas had a good, broccoli-kraut-free day. This is the Bermudian coat of arms. Niklas prefers this alternate version, though it has yet to be approved Parliament. 2007-08-28: Niklas has been climbing up on things like a madman inflicted with some sort of climb-up-on-things madness. He's climbed up the CD rack, the bookcase, the coffee table and the wine rack with results of varying disaster. Let's just say that all of the wine bottles have now been removed from the wine rack for their own safety. There's a lot more to report (including fabulous, fabulous pictures), but it will have to wait a bit. We leave for Bermuda in five days and Niklas has failed to pack anything. That leaves me and Andrya to pick up the slack. The exhausting, exhausting slack. 2007-08-29: So last Sunday, we took Niklas out to see Schaumburg. While Andrya and I visited with Minal and Rajan (Andrya's friend from high school and her husband who knows what's what), Niklas played with their three year old son, Jai. As I've mentioned before (I'd link to it here, but you know, the lazy and whatnot), Jai provides a terrible vision of things to come. He's incredibly fast and has endless, endless bounds of run-around-crazy energy. Endless. Niklas was very excited by all the running around and he joined Jai in a race around the coffee table that, if the technology existed, could have been used to power a small city. I find that when you mention pictures but don't post them, as I did yesterday, grandparents tend to get upset. Seeing as how my birthday is coming up, it's advisable for me to stay on the good sides of as many people as possible. To that end, there's this.  
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