New and Improved

Hidey-ho, everybody! Excitement is building as my first birthday approaches - two more days!!! - and I'm celebrating by adding some new features to this blog. You may have noticed my recent ad campaign (under "Go Ahead, Click It" in the left margin); it's a shame to sellout so young, but a young guy like me has to think about his future, so if you're interested in any of my advertisers, please feel free to click on them from my blog - every time you do, you add pennies to my educational fund. Cool, huh? Shopping for a cause!

And today I've introduced a new polling feature where you can share your opinions with me (in addition to leaving me comments, which more of you could do, frankly). This week's poll is "How do you like to see my hair?" and can be found also in the left margin. I look forward to your responses. A man's hair is his destiny, you know.

On to the highlights...

Upwardly Mobile: I climbed up the whole staircase in our house yesterday! I've done maybe a step at a time before, but this time I did the whole thing. Man, was it cool. When I was done, Nonna gave me a congratulatory cuddle.

Dry Run: Yesterday we also celebrated Uncle Jon's 25th birthday. We went bowling at the Corner Alley on East 4th, where Uncle kept me supplied with french fries when no one else was watching, and then we had dinner on the patio at House of Blues, where I had cheese grits, spinach and sweet potatoes - mmmmmm! Then we all went back to our house, where Uncle opened his presents from Nonna, my parents and me - I gave him the movie "Rudy", and when I get a little bigger and go to visit him, we can watch it together. I will miss Uncle when he moves back to Florida, but I am going to go spend the day with him today after I get up from my morning nap, and I'm sure we'll have fun.


Yogi: It's hard to take a nap sometimes when there is so much I want to do. The other day, I refused to lay down, so when I couldn't stay awake any more, I just fell forward.

Your turn: I went to see my Oma, and we played a great game of peek-a-boo.
Shopper: When Nonna and Mommy took me to Target with them, Nonna complained that my seatbelt was too tight and loosened it for me, despite Mommy's warning that it needed to be snug to prevent me from climbing out. Sure enough, once the seatbelt was loose enough I was free to check out Nonna's rug selection.


Brunch: Randy was in town for a couple of hours yesterday morning, and I enjoyed brunch together with Randy, Jim and my parents at Johnny Mango's.
Swinger: And finally, this morning I enjoyed a good swing at the playground on my street. Boy, do I love to swing!

Beautiful Boy

Here are just a few of the fabulous pictures of me taken by Jesse Kramer (and please tell him I sent you...):

In the First Place

I am practically EXPLODING with firsts! Last Thursday in particular, I was out of control with firsts:

• First Tortilla Chip, at the westside Mi Pueblo - I've been studying the big people eating them for months, but I finally got my own when Mommy and I had lunch together, and I knew exactly what to do. I'm going to wait a little longer before I try salsa.
• First Drink From A Straw, also at Mi Pueblo - Daddy and Mommy have offered me drinks from straws before, but I couldn't quite figure out what the deal was. This time, I watched Mommy drink from her straw, and then she offered me one, and I made it work. I love drinking like the big people!
• First Deliberate Clap - I'm not sure exactly what day I first did it - it was late last week - but by the weekend, I was a cheering maniac. On Saturday, I even started saying "Yea!" when I clapped (my "Yea!" sounds sort of like "aaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy" but my inflection makes my intentions clear).
• First Standing Alone, at home in the OK Corral - I was playing in my corral in the living room while Mommy was working in the kitchen, and I pulled up to standing, which I do once or twice a day now. Once I got up, though, I couldn't figure out how to get down, and I yelled for Mommy to come rescue me. When I saw her, I was so excited I let go of the corral, and for a couple of seconds, I was thrilled with myself. And then I lost my balance and fell over like, well, a felled tree. The look on my face demonstrated just how scary at was, but Mommy picked me up and comforted me and told me how proud she was of me, and about 30 seconds later I was ready to play again.

There are more firsts, but I can't remember them all right now. I know, I know - I need to post them here as they happen. I'll try to do better.

One cool thing I've gradually been doing more of lately is singing. I've been singing along to the radio in the car for the last few weeks - especially to the harder stuff, I guess because metal singers and I sort of share the same vocal style - but I've started to sing along with Mommy and Daddy last week and this one, too. One of my favorite songs is "Mary Had a Little Lamb," some of which I have actually sung, note for note, after Mommy sings a line of it (although I'm still working on the lyrics part - I mostly sing "baa baa baa" to all the songs). I also like to sing along to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "The ABC Song," and "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" (same tune to all three, just different lyrics) - I haven't quite gotten the tune down, but I work hard at it - and especially to "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," which has been a favorite since Nonna began singing it to me when I was just a couple of weeks old. I especially like to sing the EIEIO part ("eeyah eeyah ahhhhhhhh"). Considering my singing skills, my love of banging on keyboards, and my propensity to turn everything into a drum, I may have a future in music.

Moving on to my recent outings: I enjoyed a morning of hard playing with Cousin Bailey, Aunt Terry and Grandma T last week, and I got to hang out with Bailey again Friday at my Oma's house, where I also got to see Aunt Barb. I went shopping with my Nonna and Mommy Saturday, and I got to play in the play pit at Great Northern Mall for the first time ever (there's one of those firsts!). I had dinner at My Friends Deli Saturday night with Uncle Jon, Nonna and my parents, and Sunday I had my first (another one!) ever DONUT, which was so good I rubbed it all over me from head to toe!!! Sunday afternoon I got to hang out with Daddy all by myself, and we went to Home Depot and did other manly things. Monday I ate my first (!) ever pizza roll, which was pretty good, I have to tell you. Last night, we went to Lozada's and I had my first empanada - delicioso!

Today was pretty exciting: I went to Jesse Kramer's photography studio in Lakewood and had my first birthday portrait made. Jesse was really nice; he got down on the floor with me and took a bunch of pictures and let me crawl all over his studio. After I started to get tired, my parents looked at some of the pictures of me and thought I was pretty good looking in them. They will have the digital proofs back in a couple of days, and I'll post some of them here so you can see for yourself how fabulous I am.

Tonight we met Maggie and her mom and dad (Sara and Matt) at the Rocky River marina for a picnic. I ate broccolini, tofu, green beans, eggplant, rice, french bread, and fresh peaches, and it was all so yummy that I couldn't eat it fast enough. After dinner, Maggie and I got to swing, which has become one of my favorite things to do - I love to feel the wind in my hair! - and Maggie enjoyed her first time on the big kid swings.

I'm off to sleep now. I've been sleeping 11-12+ hours per night lately. Hey - it takes a good amount of sleep to plan all the new things I'm going to do! Don't let the bed bugs bite...

Little Man Around Town

I've been busy running around town with Mommy and Daddy since last I posted. Last week, we went to the West Side Market and I had a pumpkin cookie which I ate in under a minute. I still can't believe how good it was!





On the Fourth of July, we went to my Nonna's for dinner, where I decided I like American cheese after all. Then we all walked to Edgewater to watch the fireworks. I actually fell asleep before the show started, but I enjoyed watching the assembling crowd.


I was reunited with my beloved Cousin Bella at Grandma T's house last Thursday, and I had so much fun playing with her, her mommy Betsy, and my Great Aunt Barb, as well as my Great Aunt Terry and my Grandma T.

I also got to meet Bella's new little sister, Liliana. Mommy says I used to be that small, but I don't believe it. Grandma T had workers at her house remodeling her bathroom, and it was fascinating to watch them do their job.


Yesterday I went to brunch with Greg and Dyan. I hadn't seen them in a long time, but they were really nice to me and soon it was just like old times. We ate pancakes at Grumpy's in Tremont, then we walked to Lucky's for coffee (and zucchini bread for me!). When I showed Dyan my tiger, she showed me how to growl like a tiger, and Greg helped me practice my walking. I hope I get to seem them again soon.

Last night, we went to Minh Anh for supper and I had my first ever fried rice. I ate everything in the dish but I especially liked the fried tofu and the green onion bits. Mmmmmmm!





Today we went to the zoo, but it was so hot that we took the tram straight to the primates and aquatics house. I saw a bunch of different monkeys and lemurs and fish and one tiger that was spotted like a snake. I enjoyed the animals but I really dug all the big kids running around. I tried to get some of them to talk to me, but most of them ran past too quickly. I can't wait until I am big enough to run with them.

My parents think I might like watching fish so much because I am a water person. I even said "wa-wa" again the other day; I had taken a bath with Daddy, and I got so mad when Mommy took me out to get me dressed. When Daddy got out of the tub and came over to me, I looked up at him and sorrowfully asked, "Wa-wa?" But with the hot weather, I am getting extra water time: my parents took me to the pool at the Wyndham last week, and we went to the Y tonight (where I crawled around on the shallow slope until I crawled right in over my head), and tomorrow night we're going to Nonna's to swim. Maybe tomorrow I'll try swimming without anyone holding on to me.

Uncle Joe Gets Married

We got ready for the wedding at Nonna's. Daddy and I had a little fun while we waited for Mommy. As soon as we got to Oma's house, Bailey and I found each other!




















Daddy performed the ceremony (Mommy likes to call him "Justin-of-the-Peace"). Uncle Joe got a little nervous waiting for Megan to show up. During the ceremony, Uncle Joe and Aunt Megan recited a poem to each other, and Joe needed a little help from Megan remembering the line that came after the word "forget" which everyone thought was funny. I don't know why it was so funny, but I laughed because everyone else did.

At the reception, I gave Daddy a high-five because he did such a good job officiating. We sat right across from the newlyweds, who complied with the request for a kiss.
























I met Daddy's friend (and Ono's niece) Maria, who I lunged at instantly; we were best friends, until I thrust my hand down her dress. I also met Ono's niece Nancy and one of the many good-looking Casola babies; he wanted to share my bottle, but I said no.

I enjoyed using Grandma T's placecard as an hors d'oeurve. Aunt Terry tried to fish it out of my mouth, and for her efforts she was rewarded with an imprint of my new teeth.




I danced with Oma, Daddy and Mommy out on the deck after dinner. Below is a little movie of my moves: