foobaw

spent an overnight trip with the boy at my sister's to watch the west virginia-william & mary tilt.

as with the beach trip, his behavior was exemplary. unlike the beach trip, however, his excitement was tempered enough for him to recognize bodily cues that led him to go to the potty on his own - number 1 *and* 2. he even asked to go at two restaurants and at the ball game. 

wvu won the game, btw, in unconvincing fashion. but it was less that they fell ass-backward into the victory as it was that they finished strong enough to pull out the win. 

lets just hope it was rust that needed scraped off and not some performance drop-off reflecting a coach in over his head. 

summer recap

well, the month's almost out and i've got three posts. 

probably because it's been pretty busy. (though i could probably say that for the summer as a whole.)

as i'll likely not have the chance to recap in detail, i'll have to just hit the highlights:

• it wasn't even summer yet when our publisher announced her semi-retirement, which put into play a series of management shifts that put me into an actual office for the first time since i was a grad student.

• all the while, my sibs and i were busting grapes to put together a golden anniversary soiree that included a photographer, videographer, slide show, documentary and folk dancing. did i mention this was supposed to be simple? somehow we got drawn into an anniversary party arms race and it made things a lot more stressful than we planned for. 

• that said, the evening was full of serendipity and love. folks went above and beyond what was necessary to make it a memorable and enjoyable event. and seeing friends and relatives i hadn't seen in decades was a true blessing. 

• spent most of the summer finding replacements for me, another copy editor, and our web editor. not one, not two, but three applicants that we made offers to turned us down. talk about wastes of time. (we're only just now close to filling spots we first advertised in may.)

• after an uneven summer behavior-wise, the boy pulled his shit together long enough to have an astonishingly uneventful trip to the beach with the full complement of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents bearing witness. 

seriously, he slept well, ate well, was polite, non-confrontational, non-crazy, and fairly obedient. he put to lie any concerns we ever made known to my sibs and parents about his behavior. we really thought we'd turned a corner. 

(while we would learn later we hadn't, i was so grateful to see the change that i was reciting the divine praises daily for the duration of our trip.)

• the girl. holy crap, the girl. she's turning into a person. we're going to have our hands full. 

• dad finally got his other knee replaced. he sailed through surgery fine. the boy and i met him at the nursing home where he went to rehab for a week.

his convalescing at home in the presence of wifi allowed us to facetime him on our iphones. this seems to have gone a long way to getting recognition of him and mom by our kids who don't get to see them nearly as frequently as they do kris' folks.  i hope this helps with the girl, especially. it took a long time for her to warm up with my family at the beach. 

which takes us to the start of football season. i think that recounting deserves a post of its own. 

so i say farewell to the summer of 2013. it's been a memorable, exhausting and wonderful blast.

thanks be to God. amen and amen. 

off track

it's been one of those weeks in toddler-land.

just last week, it seems we'd rounded a corner and that the boy was becoming ... a boy.

the kind that uses the bathroom without prodding and eats at the table and knows how to amuse himself quietly.

lately, though, he's regressed. markedly.

he'd rather hide and dump in his pants. (and even stand and puddle in his room and onto his train set.)

he won't sit still for meals or even at the table. and when he does, we're the ones who wind up shoveling food into his mouth.

he's been a jumping bean of twittering video dialogue, ping ponging from wall to wall. he seems intent on drawing and keeping your attention by acting like a blithering, overgrown baby. 

i don't understand what's happening -- if he's going through another system upgrade or succumbing to another round of food allergies. 

it's disheartening to go through weeks of breakthrough behavior, only to have our relief and expectations dashed by setbacks like these. 

tradition

my sister, joy, has been celebrating her birthday at the nakato japanese steakhouse for almost 40 years.

i think she was younger than her eldest niece when this "tradition" began, as it usually coincided with dad's annual beach workshop held by wake forest's bowman gray school of medicine.

while the exotic nature of the japanese style of dinner prepared in the round has been dulled somewhat both by ersatz franchises that now reach into the mountain state and the loss of the mysterious, refined atmosphere to commercial volume at the myrtle beach locale, the food remains a treat and the show still amazes the younger members of the party.

of course, the amazing part for kris and me was our boy's behavior on this visit.

the last time he was here, he was barely mobile and i had to entertain him by walking him around the restaurant to play in the decorative indoor rock gardens.

this time, he mostly sat in place and took in the cooking theatre, and, after some initial hesitation, tasted and enjoyed the ginger soup and wolfed down most of his mama's calamari dinner. he even got to practice using chopsticks -- a big draw for him.



his sister, on the other hand, was more than a handful, growing bored with straw and the ice water, then the chopsticks, then the sitting. it became her turn for the big walk around the restaurant.

daddy wound up having to gobble down his steak and shrimp supper, then, after copious photo ops as the wait staff worked to get us out for the next party, i had to take the girl with me to the bar as i more or less chugged the glass of sapporo that i didn't have time to consume leisurely with my meal. yeah, i was that dad.

still, cupcakes followed at the condo, along with yummy key lime birthday cake for my sis. the boy ate the icinged halves of two cupcakes; his sister at the chocolate truffle filled halves of his leftovers. (she finally learned to like sweets on this trip, as she also became a fan of chocolate chip cookies.)

all in all, a good night for the fam.