Swedish Invasion

The Intimidators whooped the JSF team, 11-9, fighting back not once but TWICE from being behind. Number 6, M. Angle, plated two runs with a double and crossed the plate from second with the next batter, tying the game. Gabriel had a great time, as you can see in the photo, even though he did play with the spawn of an Ohio State family. His friends Brooke and Jordan didn't get as dirty as he did, but they are getting to know him better each week.

In other news, Ikea opened today in Atlanta. It was surprisingly civil, though incredibly busy, and a woman dressed like a Swedish woman gave us a card for a free coffee mug. We won! After buying a new duvet cover for the bed coming from Ann Arbor and a light for Chip's room, we skipped the marketplace, which would have made a dent in our cargo space not to mention our wallets, in order to get to the game on time. We did get a bonus gift, however, when we realized that another person slashed the driver's side window next to the arm-width hole. He apparently decided that the existing hole and the window-filling slashes on the passenger side gave him permission to add to the destruction.

That brings us to our latest breakthrough in home remedies. We (particularly P) get so worked up over the behaviour of people who leave every place they go less good than before they had been there (violating our theory that everyone should try to leave a trail of pixie dust behind them wherever they go, making the world just a little better by their presence, but we won't get into that whole thing right now)... where were we? Oh yeah, we've started talking about exactly what sort of torture we'd like to inflict on the offending person, and it works. It's sick and probably would not be recommended by the priests at our parish, but it sure keeps us from carrying that anger with us. Try it - it's fun!

Congratulations, Erica and Raul!

We’ve had very spotty internet service for the past week, so we haven’t been able to post much. "We do apologize for the inconvenience," as they say. First things first, the big news of the day: Erica and Raul are engaged! They are planning a legal event in Quebec, a celebration of some sort in North America somewhere, and a celebration of some sort in Peru, Raul's homeland. Since this is a very recent development, details have yet to be decided. Whatever they do, it's going to be uniquely their event and will be very meaningful. It was no surprise which of them did the proposing... and Raul said yes. Of course, they're already common-law spouses by Canadian law, but they realized that to them, marriage is a whole different animal. We're so excited for them - they are a completely perfect couple, and it makes us happy to see them together.

And now for an update on the Chipster: Gabriel took his first flight of stairs today at Barnes & Noble. Once he realized that he could get up one step, there was no stopping him. And Mommy tried. We were set up in the children’s section so he could crawl around because he was getting antsy at the Starbucks that’s attached to the B&N, and he didn’t have any toys with him. One of the employees came by several times to play with him, and he even let him play with an Elmo doll and said that they can send it back if Chip drools on it. Now, we don’t think that’s the most ethical decision in the world, but it was sweet that the guy was letting Gabriel have the run of the place. He even let him flip through Harry Potter 5 (Nancy would have freaked out!) until Mommy brought over a more durable book, Guess How Much I Love You, which we know he loves.

Chip’s also becoming a cruising machine. He would let us walk him around all day, if we wanted to. He’s an expert now on pulling himself up on anything, even vertical surfaces. He’s also getting good at walking holding only one of Daddy’s or Mommy’s hands, even though he doesn’t feel very confident about it.

He’s doing a few other new things, too. He’s started pointing at things, which means that he’s ready to start learning words. He’s also been babbling a LOT lately, which means that he’s getting ready to start talking. His cutest sound is "oooooh." He learned how to click pens to get the ink part to come out yesterday, and don’t you know that he has made a few dots on the love seat as this is being written. At least we see these things coming... Anyway, he’s using his play cups to pretend to drink, and he imitates us when we yawn and cough. He loves coughing.

He’s also really inventive at peek-a-boo. This was most fun the other day at Target, where he decided that he isn’t interested in looking at our mugs while we’re shopping; he’d rather turn around and see where he’s going. Shopping cart seats should really be reversible. Anyway... We put him in the actual cart and let him stand up and lead the charge, as it seemed. He turned around and kept hiding behind the cart seat until we called, "Where’s Gabriel?" at which point he stood up and laughed, before hiding again.

We’re encouraging G to eat more grown-up food, and he’s started feeding himself toasted oats, or "Toasty Doats" as we say, which are like Cheerios. Today, he had some macaroni and cheese for lunch and actually ate some of it. That was a surprise, since he really hasn’t liked cheese before.

This month and next, all of Chip’s playgroup friends are turning 1. We went to Jonah’s party last weekend, and we’re going to Jake’s this weekend and Zoe’s next weekend. Except for the brief instant the above photo was taken, Jonah seemed to have a great time, and we know Gabriel did. We'd cry too if there were 50 people saying things to us that we didn't understand while there's a flame in front of our face! It’s so interesting to think how quickly these little ones have grown. It’s not so noticable with Gabriel, since we are with him all the time, but when we first got together, none of them could even sit up, and they certainly didn’t notice each other. Now, they’re playing with each other’s hair, (sometimes) sharing toys, and learning how to walk. Jake even knows a few words, and Jonah took a few steps at playgroup last week!

One more photo, this time of Gabriel helping Daddy put away the groceries (notice the magnet advertising a drag show next to the church bulletin). He loves to help...

It's Nice to Make Friends

Gabriel had playgroup today. He had a great time there playing with Jonah, Jake, and Zoe. It was really interesting to see how mobile they’re all getting. Jonah took a few steps today, and Jake is getting really good at standing. Zoe has gotten really comfortable with all of us, which is so cool because she used to be really shy. Even though we get together every two weeks, the little ones grow so much in between playgroups. They all have a lot in common, though, like their love of veggie puffs, as you can see in the photo.

There was an article about Jack today on the Marines’ web site. We would probably be surprised, but Mom is better than the CIA when it comes to sniffing out information. Whenever we need to research something, we call her and she finds it immediately when it would have taken us weeks. Even Jack asks her about Iraq stuff, because she finds out before he does sometimes. So if you ever need to track down that contractor who absconded with your money or the capital of Andora, now you know whom to call. Anyway, here it is.

Despite a strong start, the Intimidators lost to the Isotopes, 14-4. Matthew was 2 for 3 with a single, a double, and 2 RBIs. He had an amazing 5 putouts - 1 solo and 4 assisted. It would have been 6 but for the fact that Paul, playing 2nd base, mistook Matt for an 8 foot tall person, or for a 5 foot 9 person with ups. Gabriel made some new friends, but they were a little too touchy and grabby and made us nervous. One of them, Ty, watched Daddy play first base through the fence with him. Gabriel’s friends Brooke and Jordan were there, but they didn’t really get to play with him much because of the other kids. Steve met us for dinner at Moe’s before the game and came to watch, so that was a special treat.

Happy First Day of Summer

We’re sure that Matt’s grandpa would be proud of today’s theme since it was banking. It seems like Patty is getting to know the folks at one of our local Wachovia branches as well as she knows the people in the office at the apartment complex. We think we have now taken care of the vast majority of our debt thanks to the sale of our house in Ann Arbor and it feels really, really good. It was a required step before we can even apply for our new mortgage, but even if it wasn’t we would have done it just the same. Once all the payments clear and everything is recorded, we can get letters confirming that our balances are paid off and then begin the process of cleaning up our credit reports. We’re both very anxious to see how our scores change when this is all done.

While at the bank and then at the UPS Store, Gabriel made a lot of friends. It seemed that everyone was taking an interest in our blond little boy and there was a lot of smiling and interacting going around. Gabe was also able to do a lot of crawling on the UPS Store’s nice, clean carpet while his mommy waited on the phone for Matt to find some addresses. Surprisingly, the two adventurers were able to get everything done in one trip out!

The phantom tooth that is plaguing our boy still refuses to emerge. We’re not even sure if it is coming in on the top or the bottom of his mouth. All we do know is that his drooling, which had pretty much stopped completely, is back and that he puts anything and everything into his mouth. Oh, and he’s cranky. He’s really, really cranky.

Since we were busy with Father’s Day stuff on Sunday and didn’t manage to remember Chip’s brownie mix at the store last night, we’re celebrating Gabe’s 11 month birthday today. As you can see, Gabe couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into the last set of birthday brownies before his one year celebration:

Tommorow is the week’s busy day. The calendar says it’s Wednesday, but we know it as Playgroup and Softball Day! Playgroup is at Jonah’s house and Matt’s team drew the late (8:00) softball game. Maybe by the time the Intimidators take the field the temperature will have dropped a bit.

Teething Pains

What is the sound of a bag of baby food jars hitting concrete? Surprisingly, it sounds like a juicy thud. Don’t ask how we know.

Well, we’re back to the routine after a nice week and a half of luxurious togetherness. We weren’t thrilled about spending the day apart, but it went okay, especially since we were on the phone with each other every five minutes trying to figure out how to pay various bills. It felt really good to get a couple of credit cards out of the way, including one with a 26% interest rate(!).

We found out today that the seller of our new house accepted our latest request for repairs following from the inspection. We basically let him know that we were through negotiating and that he could either do the repairs or give us an allowance with the price of the house. We might not have been such sticklers about it had he been reasonable about the requests from the beginning, but he had sent our requests back with "no" written by all but one item even though he had accepted our bid with the right to request repairs. We are still going to have a bunch of things to do once we move in, with the tree trimming/removal and retaining wall repair the most important and the most of the rest cosmetic, but the things he is going to do will really make the house ready for us. We can’t wait; one month exactly until our closing. Woohoo!

Gabriel had a pretty tough day today. He was tired, achy, cranky, and clingy all day. Nothing got done all day because he needed constant attention. It seemed that he was eating from sunup to sundown, and when he wasn’t eating, he was crying. He had 3 naps today, but it seemed somehow like he was awake all day. It’s always the hardest our first work day back from being with family because he has to adjust from constant stimulation to playing on his own.

He did have many happy moments, though. In this photo, he is "knocking on wood," as the song goes. We were watching Casablanca (still are, actually), and when Sam started singing the song, Mommy knocked on the table at the appropriate places in the song, and Gabriel joined right in.

The next thing we have to look forward to is Dad, Gail, and Mike visiting us in less than 2 weeks for the Peachtree Road Race. We don’t think we’ll be prepared for the race, but we’re going to do our best. This will be the first year Gabriel doesn’t run; he did a great job last year, even though it was supposed to make him arrive early and didn’t.

Our new printer is great. It has slots for various cards, and we can put the card from our digital camera in and print a contact sheet. We can fill in the circles under the photos we want to print and then fill in the circles under the format (4X6, six wallets, etc.). Then, we scan that sheet back in and it prints exactly what we want. It’s really neat.

Okay, enough blogging for tonight. Time for some family time.