Lid Party II

I got the hat John Patrick's wearing in this photo at Green Hills Mall a week or so ago. I love the way he looks wearing it. Maybe I'll buy him a really, really small tweed jacket to go with it.

At church on Sunday, I carried him in with his hat on, and sat down with him. Everyone was looking at him and smiling at how cute he looked. I leaned over and whispered to Jude that I was totally pimping my son, which I was.

Teaching a New Dog New Tricks

Lately, Jude and I have been trying to teach John Patrick to clap, on demand. It's probably an appropriate skill for him to master at such a young age, given that both is parents are big, big sports fans. Since he and I are going to be attending a lot of hockey (Nashville Predators), football (Tennessee Titans and University of Tennessee), baseball (Nashville Sounds) games in the not too distant future, it's not too early to get him clapping.

Until tonight, though, our efforts had met with little success. Usually, John Patrick clasps his hands together and refuses to clap, when I try to manually clap his hands. Tonight, after I put his pajamas on him, I set him down in his crib to wait for Jude to come upstairs and give him his bedtime bottle before she put him to bed. I was bending over, leaning against the crib, talking to him, when Jude walked into the room.

As she walked by us, headed into the bathroom, she said, in passing, "clap for mommy." To my surprise, John Patrick started clapping, lightly slapping his left hand with his right hand. It was amazing! I said, "Jude, look at this!" I told John Patrick, "clap for mommy," and he did it again. For the next five minutes or so, we kept telling him to clap and he'd do it. We didn't even have to clap ourselves. After we told him to clap, he did it. Wow!

I'm pretty sure "clap" is the first word he's learned. At times, he'll say "ma ma" or "da da," but I don't think he knows what either word means. After tonight, though, I think he knows what "clap" means. It's pretty cool.

The Look

What? Tennessee plays Vanderbilt at Memorial Gym tonight? Man, I can't wait to talk to my grandmother, Vandy Jane Newman (a.k.a. "Meemaw"), after the game!

Please, no more photographs. Not today.

Inauguration Day 2009!

This morning, before I left for work, I asked our nanny, Carley, to make sure John Patrick watched part of the inauguration, on television, with her.

When he gets older, I want to explain to him the significance of Barrack Obama's inauguration as the 44th president of our country. I want him to understand what a historic event it was and how, today, so many people in our country and around the world looked at the United States of American a little differently. Although we've got a lot of work to do, there's a pretty good argument that for the first time ever, we really do live in "the land of opportunity."

Is it just a coincidence that the sun shone brilliantly through our window, this morning, when Carley took this photograph of John Patrick playing in the den as Chief Justice John Roberts swore in Barrack Obama on television, in the background? I think not. To quote Ronald Reagan, maybe now it really is "morning in America."

John Patrick and Jude's uncle, Joe White, at the Pfunky Griddle in Berry Hill, near our house.

Let's Get Pfunky!

John Patrick samples a pancake at the Pfunky Griddle in Berry Hill, where we ate breakfast last Sunday before church, for Jude's birthday.

Flying Solo

Jude left this afternoon to attend Barrack Obama's inauguration in Washington D.C. as the 44th president of our country, so I'm flying solo with John Patrick for the next couple of days. It's more than a little strange to be here with him at home, overnight, without Jude. I'm not worried about being able to handle things, especially since our nanny, Carley Farley Meade, will be with him tomorrow and Wednesday, during the day. Still, it feels weird for Jude to be gone, because we work together so closely, day in and day out, to care for John Patrick. She does the heavy lifting, no doubt, but we work pretty well together.

Right now, it's actually kind of peaceful. John Patrick is upstairs in the "men's lounge" (a.k.a. nursery), sleeping. I'm going to head up in a few minutes myself. Normally, Jude gives him his first bottle of the day about 7 or 7:30 a.m., when he wakes up. I'm looking forward to doing that tomorrow morning. He's always so happy to see us when he wakes us in the morning, so it should be a great way to start my day.

Hold Your Applause

Big, big moment tonight.

I was able to slip away from work a little early tonight, so I called Jude to see if she needed to work late. She did, so I took the handoff from our nanny, Carley, and settled in to play with John Patrick for a while before dinner. We sat on his blanket in the den and read my favorite children's book (and one of his favorites), "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See," written by Bill Martin, Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle.

I was laying in the floor, on my back, and John Patrick was sitting on my stomach facing me. I've got the book memorized, so I balanced it right side up, on my stomach, and "read" it upside down, while he turned the pages. Of course, I made animal sounds, as well, which he normally gets a kick out of.

When we finished the book and he closed it, I set it down on the floor and started clapping and saying, "yeaaaaaa." John Patrick looked at me, laughed, then clapped his hands three or four times and squealed. I started laughing and clapping louder. It was pretty cool. He's never actually clapped his hands before. Usually, he just stares at me or holds my hands and tries to clap them together, which is kind of cool in and of itself.

Another milestone, I guess.

Leftovers

Food Fight

Last night, John Patrick wasn't interested in eating dinner. It was a test of wills, between the two us. As you can see from these photos, he won. I lost.

Log Ride (Rated PG-13)

Okay, this post is not for the faint of heart.

Tonight, a little while after I got home from work, Jude took John Patrick upstairs for a bath. As is typically the case, she placed his blue, plastic "baby bath tub" in the big bath tub, filled it with warm water, checked the temperature, then got John Patrick undressed. She carefully set him in his bath tub, which is normally when he begins to splash around and play. This time, however, his reaction was different. Very different.

Instead of smiling, laughing and playing, John Patrick stared up at Jude intently, with a look of concentration and concern on his face. He began grunting and, well, you can imagine what happened next. Jude lifted John Patrick out of his bath tub, hoping her suspicion of what was going on was wrong. It wasn't. John Patrick had left her a present in his bath tub.

I walked into the bathroom and saw John Patrick sitting in the floor on a towel, naked. Jude was staring into his blue, plastic "baby bath tub," inside the big bath tub. Not saying anything, just staring. As I interrupted her reverie, she looked at me, puzzled, and said, "here's something new." I looked in John Patrick's bath tub and there it was . . . a log, a small, baby-sized log, floating around in the water. Of course, I laughed.

John Patrick just sat in the floor on his towel, wearing nothing but a smile, acting really, really proud of himself. Man, he's something else, isn't he?