Birthday Pictures

Here's a link to a slide show of some pictures from Vivian's very first birthday. Many of the pictures were taken by Gordon.

Happy Birthday

Happy first birthday to me

-Vivian

[if you are wondering why it's from Vivian - it was a combined effort. I typed the entry. Vivian clicked the "publish post" link]

A Pain

The other day, Vivian grabbed two pieces of baby cereal/finger food and shoved them into her mouth. For a second, she choked on one. Then she was fine.

In that second, a whole bunch of scenarios crossed my mind. One obviously was - what if she never started breathing again and we couldn't fix it? The thought existed for a fraction of a second, but it was so intense that I felt real sadness for a while (I only realized the connection when examined my thoughts).

I am not given to worry. I don't think about death much. If life goes as it should and my baby outlives me, I will still occasionally feel the pain of her imagined loss. When something is this precious, there is hurt even in the perfect world. Now, that's a pain. Kid, you had better be worth all this. Oh, and Jo - we need to schedule that baby CPR class.

Hello dolly

Remember those strongest man type contests on TV from the 90s - some huge Danish guy pulling a greyhound bus down the street while tossing beer barrels over his shoulder?

Vivian's got a version of her very own. She rounds up all three bar stools from the kitchen area and shoves them over to the dining area where she picks up a dining chair or two. Then she pushes the whole train all over the house. Sometimes, she has her music/learning table-toy thing in front of the processing - still gleefully playing a recording of the alphabet in Spanish. All this while she leans into the end of the pile at a steep angle and grunts like Magnusson or whoever on TV. Soon all the furniture is in the wrong place.

Then I run around and try to bring some semblance of order by moving the shit back. Before I am done, Ms. Magnusson is at it again. And this happens several times a day.

When Vivian was a newborn, I would dream about her future. A great lawyer, a super geek...

It turns out that my dear girl is going to grow up and be a great furniture mover. When I tell Alu about this, he suggests that I buy her a little dolly and sit back and watch her moving business take off.

The funny side-effect of this is that she doesn't need to learn to walk. Why do that when you can just lean on a couple of chairs and move them over to where you want to go?