We had tornado sirens going off today, though it touched down a few towns north. Most exciting.

Summer brings with it an influx of guests. These guests have kindly offered to model some shots for me. So here’s the first in an ongoing occassional series.

Griffin’s fever was a one night deal. Probably a common reaction to the vaccine. The sleep situation is not pretty of late. This, after a one night performance of 8 hours in a row. How extravagant, and yet, so cruel. :)

Amazon has “So You’d Like to…” guides. Lists of useful information and products put together by Amazon users like you. For instance, So You’d like to… kill a dude.

You know how sometimes in stories the main character discovers a journal next to a skeleton? And the last entry in the journal reads something like “Running low on supplies….the drums are getting louder……I am beginning to lose hope”. Well, this was almost that entry.

I was up most of the night with a screaming Griffin. I think it’s teething, although a few nights ago he had a fever so he may also be slightly sick. I’m exhausted, he’s in pain and exhausted. Finally around 5:00 we gave him some Tylenol and he slept from 5:30 until 8:30. This saved us but really threw off the morning routine since normally Griffin never sleeps later than 6:30. Fortunately (?) Julian had been up since 3:00 working so he didn’t feel guilty about getting to work late this morning.

Twice in the past week I’ve had the opportunity to meet up with Griffin & Candy downtown for lunch. This is a real treat as it breaks up my 8+ hour separation from my family that’d I’d much rather stay at home with (even though I have a killer kool job). Today we met at a nifty new pizzeria that opened not far from work. If we moved into town and I kept my job, I’d see them every day at lunch. Our current plan is for me to be a stay-at-home daddio for ages 2-4. Everything in life is a work in progress though, and subject to whatever works out best for the family at any given time.

Julian has been keeping a blog for a few months now. At first he wanted to keep his blog anonymous so he didn’t have to censor himself, but then he realized he didn’t have anything offensive to say. So for anyone who’s interested, you can go here to read Julian’s blog.

I’ve learned some things during the past year. If you’re going to guess how many months pregnant someone is – underestimate. If you’re going to guess how many months old a baby is – overestimate. And if you’re going to compare somebody’s baby to a character in a book or movie – you probably shouldn’t.

Several months ago a mom at our mom’s group looked at Griffin and said “Hey, he looks like Max in Where the Wild Things Are“. Another mom agreed – “Yeah, it’s his eyes!”. I hadn’t read the book but I ordered it the next time I was getting something from Amazon, here’s a picture with Max in it:

Griffin does not look like Max. Griffin is much, much cuter than Max.

Then the same thing happened at last week’s mom’s group – a different mom said “He looks like a character in The Dark Crystal!“. And another mom said “Yeah, a Gelfling!”. I’m about as geeky as a person can get but somehow I haven’t seen The Dark Crystal. So I did an internet search and here are Gelflings:

Ok, they’re pretty cute and I can kind of see it. But really – they’re elf muppets. And Griffin is much, much cuter than that.

I think the point here is that every baby’s mother thinks her baby is much, much cuter than anyone or anything that has ever existed. :)

A quick snap of Griffin goofing around in the morning, and a later one from our walking session tonight. He can walk on his own about 4 feet, but when dad gets home, it’s time to cruise the neighborhood under power-assist (with occasional sprints when a cat is sighted).

He managed not to get sick from my cold, at least at first. He’s got a fever now (101 – nothing bad), and we’re not sure if it’s a very delayed reaction to my cold, from his interaction with his cousin on Saturday who had ear infections, or from his final infant vaccine today (pneumococcal). He’s still got his appetite and energy, but is grouchier than normal.

This blogging system has me pretty grouchy. Lots of errors on publish, costing lost posts, and long delays after clicking links. I suppose being free negates the right to complain, and yet, here I am complaining about the venue for my complaining about the venue for my complaining about the venue for… yeah. I mean, if it takes 20 minutes outside of actually writing the entry to get it posted, the efficiencies of using a blogging tool are rather negated, no? Feh!

We had the weight check appointment today. Griffin gained 1/2 a pound in the last month, now he’s 20 pounds 4 ounces. Since he’s tracking right along at the 35th percentile Dr. Kreckman said that may just be his body type and we didn’t have to do any lab work. We’ll check again in another month to make sure he keeps gaining. Julian has a small camera he keeps with him at all times and he took this picture:

Griffin cried when she left the room. He loves Dr. Kreckman, too.

After the appointment Griffin and I went out on the town. I carried him in the Sutemi and we went to the Children’s Museum, then we got him a hat and shoes at Capitol Kids and then we got lunch. I put Griffin in a high chair and fed him baby food while I was waiting for my food to arrive, and then while I was eating I gave him two Cheerios at a time to keep him happily munching away. The weather was great and it was a wonderful outing.

Made it back from L.A. Had an awesome view of the ocean the few daylight hours I was actually in my room. Wedding went off with a hitch, so-to-speak. Great to see the G-man and Candy again.

Not a lot to report today, but since Griffin turned 10 months old I wanted to do an entry.

On the subject of the best stuff – when you’re with a baby all day you realize how happy and pure everyone starts out. I love it that babies just spontaneously dance. I didn’t teach him this, but when music plays Griffin shakes his head from side to side and bops around with his whole body. Babies make you feel better about humanity.