We got back from our little trip to Florida a couple days ago. It was mostly business but a lot of pool and sunshine and alligators. Oh, how glorious it is to travel within the same time zone! Maybe from now on we'll only travel north and south. No more of this east/west Gunnar-doesn't-sleep-shtick.
By the way, he's gotten really, REALLY good at sleeping lately (it only took him about 11 months). Now he has a 1-2 hour nap in the morning, a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon and an 11 hour nap at night, with only ONE wake-up to eat. Hooray!
Here he is sleeping on the airplane in his Daddy's arms. This might go down as the best flight ever for yours truly.
A close friend and business associate passed away unexpectedly on Memorial Day in a kayaking accident. He was one of those guys who inspired everyone he met. To prove it, I set up a simple website about five hours ago: www.ThankYouBobSchmidt.com - 1,200 people have already added their name to the list. Some people do great things with their lives. Some people leave a legacy.
His sudden death has been really hard on me this week. I'm lucky to have known Bob Schmidt. I'll miss our frank chats and his great advice. Every time I talked to him he would recommend a new book to read. I think I'll start reading more of them.
www.ThankYouBobSchmidt.com
Chris and I were married 7 years ago today. Wow. It feels like it was only. . . well, . . . not yesterday but maybe more like only 5 years ago. How the time goes by. Seriously, we can't believe it. And, it just keeps getting better and better and better.
Since our anniversary fell on Memorial Day this year, we decided to make it into an Anniversa-morial Celebra-memmoration and threw a romantic BBQ with 3 other families and all of their children on our roof deck.
OK, so it wasn't exactly romantic but it was delicious and very, very fun. (This weekend we're going to Florida for business but we're planning on having some nice couple time + Gunnar, then).
Our friend, Allen did pretty much all of the cooking and the cleaning (we're inviting him to every BBQ we have for the rest of the summer).
And we tried out our friend Sarah's recommendation of BBQ'd corn on the cob. It was a complete hit. Every smiling face was slathered in butter and corn kernels.
Our "gated pool" went over pretty well too. At one point I think we had seven or eight kids in it at the same time.
Gunnar really loved it too.
Unfortunately, we forgot to remove his diaper before putting him in, which inevitably led to some pretty major crack-age. When I finally did get his diaper off, it was seriously hanging down to his ankles and filled with about 2 gallons of water. No leaks though! Go Huggies.
After Gunn got all dry, he started watching all of the older kids run around and became a little peer pressured into performing some tricks of his own.
Here he is standing for a whole 30 seconds! I'm not sure he knew I let go.
It was a pretty wonderful day and an awesome Anniversamorial. I love you Chris.
(Sorry Mom.)
As many of you know, Chris works from home. He's kind of a part time stay-at-home-dad. It's nice. Today, however, he needed to work on a project with a full time stay-at-home-dad, so I offered to babysit.
This is Samuel. He will be 2 yrs. old in June, so he's almost a full year older than Gunnar. As you can see, he's a really cute kid. He also called me "Mommy" the entire time he was here, which was both cute and . . . kinda strange.
Gunnar seemed to really like the idea of another, older baby in the house. They both share similar interests, so I think that helped.
It was actually educational for me to see how it will (someday) be to have more than one kid in the family. First of all it will be exponentially more messy.
Second, sharing will most likely be optional and only temporary, at best.
Third, people are going to have varying definitions of what constitutes affection.
And finally, I don't think I'm ready yet.
Overall, we had a really good time together though. After Samuel left, Gunnar crawled into the kitchen to relax and, I assume, decompress under his high chair. I think when we do end up going for numero 2, this little dude's going to have a rude awakening.
Well, not exactly.
It was probably only about 65 degrees when we were up there, but Gunnar didn't seem to mind. I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time in the pool this summer.
We have a slight problem.
Gunnar has a small picture of Jesus in his bedroom, and so I've been trying to teach him who Jesus is. Everyday, after book time and before bed, I take the picture from off his little shelf and bring it close to him, so he can get a really good look. Then I point at it with one finger and slowly say, "Geeeeeeeeesuuuuuuus, that's Geeesuuus, Gunnar." I'll take his little hand and place it on the picture and then say again, "Geeeeeeeeeesuuuuuuuuuuuuus. He loves you." I've been doing this for a few weeks now and Gunnar usually smiles and gives the picture a good head butt, or a few wet kisses and then looses interest.
And then it happened.
One day, during this routine, to my infinite joy and surprise, Gunnar pointed at the picture and deliberately and succinctly uttered the word, "Cheeeecheeeeshhh." That's right, he said cheeeecheesh. Chris didn't believe me at first, but it was true. Gunnar's first word, besides 'hiedad' (hi Dad), and 'bahbah' (bottle) and 'pickopickopicko' (...who knows), was cheecheesh (Jesus).
The second time he did it, I rushed the picture into the bedroom and held it out for Gunnar to see and perform his new found, spiritual trick for his father (because no trick is real until it is A.) documented or B.) witnessed by at least 2 parties.) "Jesus," I said to Gunnar, pointing at the picture again, expectantly awaiting his performance. There was a slight hesitation but then his finger shot forward, pointing as he repeated, "cheecheesh." I beamed and Chris was amazed. Our child is gifted, I told him.
And then it started.
I don't know where I went wrong. I mean, I know that when babies first learn to speak it's sometimes hard for them to know what you're actually trying to teach them. Like teaching the word truck, for example. When you point and say truck, a baby probably wonders, "is 'truck' the color? Is it the size or shape? Does 'truck' mean to point? Am I going to get a cookie?" You can see how a new little mind could get confused.
Also, we happen to have a whole lot of family pictures up all over our apartment. I mean a lot. Chris went crazy with genealogy and our scanner for a few months and we ended up with about 130 family pictures on the walls. We have pictures of relatives from the 1800's alongside pictures of Chris's mother modeling and my little brother getting his face shoved in a cake. There are aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, parents, grandparents, great, great, great grandparents and pretty much everyone we're related to on quite a few of the walls in our home . . . we like pictures.
Anyway, somewhere along the way, Gunnar became confused. ANYTHING in a frame, is now cheecheesh. The picture of my Dad in Vietnam is cheecheesh. The picture of Chris drumming, cheecheesh. My grandparents on a motorcycle, Chris's aunt in sombrero, the painting of the Asian woman in our dining room: cheecheesh, cheecheesh, all cheecheesh! And it's getting worse. This morning he called his yogurt cheecheesh.
Not really sure what to do about this one...
Chris has a business meeting in the Cayman Islands this July, so we thought we might as well turn it into a family vacation. I went online and bought our tickets awhile ago and then realized last week - we are leaving the country and Gunnar doesn't have a passport!!!
I don't know why, but Gunnar getting a passport just felt really weird to me. Maybe because I didn't get a passport until I was 20. Gunnar isn't even 1! This kid is growing up in such a different world than we did. Still, it had to be done. So, Chris, Gunnar and I, all walked down to the post office this morning to do it. We waited in line, submitted all the paper work and should have his passport back in a few weeks time.
Here are a couple of the outtake photos we didn't submit. I really liked the scary smiling one but I think Chris felt that he looked like a terrorist. I kind of think Gunnar is a terrorist. You should see what he does to our apartment.
Over the past week we've been up on the roof deck a lot. We've been cleaning and planting and trying to get things ready for the summer so that we can enjoy it a little more than we did last year.
As you can see, Gunnar is developing a real taste for horticulture.
He's also a giver. "Mmm, bark. Thank you."
Here's Chris, sweeping up all the dead leaves and dirt from last summer.
Here's Gunnar, putting more dead leaves and dirt on the deck.
What are you looking at, sweetheart?
Maybe your handsome father?
I love watching Gunnar learn and explore. Makes me reconsider things like grass and petals and small pieces of dirt. He's so inquisitive.
And so pretty.
Gunnar concocted his very first batch of mud in that bucket.
...and then he decided to drink deep from his earthy mug and get a real taste of his creation.
Delicious.
Most of you reading know Chris and I are LDS, or as some choose to call us, Mormon. Really though, we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And as most of you know, a lot of us LDS people choose to go on missions. They last for a year and a half to 2 years. You've probably seen the guys (and girls) in suits, on bikes, with little name tags, riding around and knocking on doors. . . that's us.
Chris served a mission in Uruguay when he was 19 (Please don't kill me for posting this picture of you, babe). That's how he learned Spanish and got a taste for selfless service and the carne asada. I hope to serve a mission someday with Chris when our kids are grown.
Today, however, we are sending out the very first missionary from our congregation here in Harlem. He's going to Atlanta and his name is Alex Bermudez. Alex is originally from Honduras. His family moved to Harlem when he was a small boy and they've lived there ever since.
Alex is one of the most amazing kids I've ever known. Things don't come as easily to him as they do to most people. He has some learning disabilities. He sometimes needs help with simple things and people often discount him because of it. Chris, being the amazing guy he is, did everything (that Alex could not do for himself) to get him ready for this mission.
Alex works harder than his weaknesses do though. Over the past year, he's just blossomed into a confident and competent young man. It hasn't been easy. Alex has been through a lot. All of the awful things you think of when you think about Harlem: broken families, kids having sex, drugs, gangs, violence, friends dying - those are the things around him that he's had to overcome.
The miracle isn't that he's survived, although that, in itself, is pretty miraculous. It's that he's some how managed to come out unscathed by his environment. I don't know how it happened or how he did it, but Alex doesn't have a single ounce of guile within him. Not any. No rage. No bitterness or anger. Nothing snide, not even the normal teenage sarcasm. He's just humble and grateful and wants to serve others. It's remarkable.
Chris took Alex to the missionary training center in Utah today to drop him off and say goodbye. We won't see him again for another 2 years! It's funny. I've known a lot of missionaries over the years. My friends, my brothers, my grandparents - and it isn't until now that I've realized how weird it is for 19 a year old kid give up 2 years of his life to serve and share what he believes in with others. Weird and pretty amazing. We love you Alex!
Today we went to Mama Mexico for lunch with some friends. It was Gunnar's first time trying beans and rice. Most of it went on his face but I think he liked it.
Then we saw this guy on the way home. I debated the ethics of taking his picture, but the closer we got, the more I couldn't resist. I mean, they're so long that he actually has them tucked into his pocket. Amazing. Chris and I saw him riding his bike about 10 minutes later and realized that he had to put his dreads in his pocket or they'll get stuck in his bicycle spokes. (You know that's happened to him before. And I used to cry when my dresses got caught in my banana seat bike.) Needless to say, we were impressed. We see a lot of interesting hairdos in the city - but this one, in particular, takes a lot of dedication.
Bravo dreadlock guy. . . Bravo.
