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In September we celebrated Maddox’s 1st Birthday by going down to LA to visit the grandparents. The theme of the week was Country Fair. We stayed at the Pomona fairgrounds where the LA County Fair is hosted so we could come and go to the fair as often as we pleased. I’m a HUGE fan of the Fair. I love everything about it (except the Midway). I love the farm animals, the food on a stick, the pulled pork and bbq ribs, the lemonade, the crafts, the homemade food contests, the buildings upon buildings filled with gadgets and got-to-have do-dads, the tram, the photography exhibits, the beer, the wine tent, the plant showrooms, and the childhood memories that all of those things bring back.

Maddox loves watching the animals, but wasn’t so sure about them when they were so close. He realized while he was busy looking one way at the goats, a sheep could sneak up from the other way and nudge his foot. He held his legs up as high as he could and his toes curled in for protection.

Eventually he decided it was safer to watch from atop Daddy’s shoulders.

This year the Fair had an African Safari theme. There was a whole area set up with exotic animals and “Rangers” standing by to answer questions. We saw camels, zebras, ostrich, wild dogs, a hedgehog, porcupine, and several other animals that I don’t remember. I think overall Maddox preferred the domestic farm animals area because we could get up close and personal.

Late one night with Maddox asleep in the Ergo, I was able to “pet” the albino hedgehog. It vibrated and stuck me every time I touched it. Later I went back during the day and pet the thing while it was asleep (no pricking). Ha!

[Drinks in hand, Yay for the Fair!]

Last Friday it was about a million degrees here in SF. We called up our friend Juniper (22 months ish) to meet up at a community pool.  With logistics such as naps and lunches and parking to deal with, I decided to just go to the hardware store and pick up a $10 kiddie pool.  It was a hit.

Last weekend we visited the Tilden Park Little Farm in Berkeley. They allow you to bring in celery and lettuce to feed the animals. Maddox and I had been once before but we hadn’t known to bring something to feed.  This time we were ready for those animals! The goats were very pushy and demanding. If they caught a glimpse of green they would stuck as much of their body thorough the fence as they could.  Some could get a full leg out in hopes of getting the attention of some little kid with celery. Maddox was a bit fearful (and rightfully so).

{I think this photo is kind of funny with the celery in focus}

He was much more relaxed around the black sheep. They were far more pleasant to be around. Maddox fed one of the sheep all by himself.  Very cute.  Unfortunately we don’t have a photo of that (it was over as soon as the sheep touched the celery).

The farm is super cute. It is situated on a gentle slope surrounded by trees. There are cows, sheep, pigs (that were inside trying to stay cool on this visit), rabbits, ducks, chickens, turkeys, and goats.

After we fed the animals and checked out the chickens for a while we played a little ball on the grass and had some snacks. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Its official.  The kid is crawling. July 18th Maddox started crawling for reals. Life has been changed forever. He is a little less complainy because he can get around himself and reach more things, but on the other hand he is more complainy because there are more things he is not allowed to have.  Also he doesn’t want to be held very much these days.  All he wants to do is crawl and pull things off shelves. I’m still trying to find a good place in the city to take him to crawl that is free from urban debris.

Here are a couple videos of Maddox in action:

Maddox has been doing really well adjusting to “solid” food. He is beginning to be more picky, but for the most part he is a good eater. He used to eat a ton, but that has tapered off and he is satisfied with one small bowl of food and a handful of “O’s“. He LOVES O’s. I thought he’d love picking up all food and putting it in his mouth, but not so – just O’s. He is perfectly happy being fed chunks of banana, cheese, potato, etc, but if I put them on his tray he just pushes them over the edge in denial.

I need to start feeding him more big boy food. I have a book of recipes that I plan to get started on any day now. It appears that I will have to make more food a la minute, and less can be frozen ahead.  Joy.  Beyond pureed vegetables and fruits he eats scrambled egg yolk, cheese, O’s, banana, plum (from our tree), cottage cheese, and yogurt.  Not a huge repertoire, but its a start. He pretty much wants to live off of fruit and yogurt.  Anything else is received with a squished up face and much gagging and shuddering. Its all very dramatic, like I’m trying to poison him. He also will wave his entire arm back and forth as to say  ”No. Yuck, get that thing away from me!”. This is a similar arm motion that sends chunks of food other than O’s flying off his tray.

This squished up nose face above is his current smiling on purpose look.  At least that is our guess. Since this photo was taken last month there are more variations on the face.

June 15, 2009

Maddox is 9 months old!  Whee! I’m already starting to think about and plan the big 1 year birthday party. How fun! We will be at the County Fair that weekend, so that will be the theme. I’m so looking forward to introducing him to fair things – cows, pigs, sheep, and  food on a stick!

As always Maddox is a growing boy. It is time again to start buying him another round of clothes, especially pants (he is finally starting to lengthen!). I just made a pretty good dent over at Childish Clothing. They have really cute punk rock stuff.

(And how cute are these boys?! I love the hair cut on the bottom right.)

Now that the weather has been better, we have been spending more time in the back yard. I’ve ripped up a big ugly bush/tree that was taking up valuable yard space and replaced it with a bed of shade plants. The area is a bit raised from ground level, so I had a carpenter build me a cute little retaining wall out of that fancy modern hardwood, Ipe. According to the history channel it’s fire rating is the same as concrete! I’ll post photos once I’ve finished putting in all the plants. This past weekend Dallas and I put in the 3 giant Hostas, but I have some smaller filler plants to install still. These sorts of projects get dragged out for a while when there is a kid involved.

Here he is sitting in his little bouncy chair by the lavender.

He has been getting increasingly more mobile. He is not crawling or pulling himself up yet, but he does somehow move around just by rolling and sitting and rolling and sitting. Every once in a while he’ll smack his head on the floor which makes mom freak out on the inside, but he handles it all in stride.

Eating is the current focus. I’d love to wean him sooner than later. I figure it is a long road ahead, so I’m going to start trying now. Baby steps. He eats 3 “solid” meals a day, and has for a while now. These meals make up a good amount of his total food intake. For breakfast today he had pureed blueberries with smooshed banana and multi-grain cereal. I tried to get him to eat the smooshed banana chunks with his fingers off the tray, but no go. He just pulled them off his tray and threw them on the floor then demanded real food. Ugh. Same thing happened when I offered him tofu pieces, and cereal soaked in milk. Moving on from purees is a whole other thing I realize.

Yesterday I introduced him to mango puree. He hated the first spoonful, but he always squishes his face at the first spoonful of anything (even the beloved apple). So I gave him a second spoonful – same reaction. Then he made a funny sound and Blegggha… He threw up all over himself, the highchair, and the floor. Guess mangos are a no-go. It hadn’t even occurred to me they would be offensive.

Maddox has been growing up so quickly. He is so fun to photograph these days – so animated and interactive.

The last couple weeks we have been hard at work on Project Upper Center Teeth (PUCT). Last Thursday the right fang came in. Then on Sunday, the right center tooth popped through – and today, after much crankiness, the left center popped through. To be honest, in the whole scheme of things, his “much crankiness” really wasn’t that bad, and most of it was directed at whatever he could fit in his mouth. Unfortunately he bit me 5 times today – so not fun. One time he was trying to chew on my tank top strap and got my shoulder by accident. I yelped loud enough that he let go immediately and gave me a look like he was about to cry (but he didn’t, and neither did i).

Here are some photos from this afternoon hanging out on the couch.

[Images can be clicked to view a larger version]

Oh, and yeah, we got a new camera.  8-)