One Fun Weekend
This weekend was packed with activities and with fun. On Friday I took Marcus to Castle Island by T to meet a friend--it was a lot of fun, but very exhausting. Baby took a four-hour-nap on the way home (he started on the beach, then slept through the walk to the bus, the bus ride, the walk to the subway, the subway ride, the walk home, the schlep up the stairs, and the relocation to the bed), and then I took a three-hour nap after Robert got home. Between the extreme heat, the salt air, the water, the walking, and the sunshine, baby and I were indeed pretty sleepy.
Saturday we spent the first part of the day home in the coolness, eating peanut butter waffles for breakfast and just playing and napping, but then there was a late afternoon softball game on the Common.
Marcus has already proven his affection for softballs; this week he turned his attention to the bats waiting by the side of the fence. Since it was swelteringly hot, no one really wanted to warm up or take practice swings (or move more than they had to at all), so baby generally had the extra bat all to himself. He was walking like crazy at the softball game, just taking independent step after step.
Later that evening, when we went to Kristijan's birthday party, Marcus kept up the walking, going all the way across the room at one point. Perhaps he was inspired by Lukas, Kristijan and Olga's competitive three-year-old son, who kept saying (adorably), "He has tiny feet. I have GIANT feet!" and so on. Meanwhile, Marcus was quite happy playing with Lukas's toys and getting some snuggles from his grandmother while we all enjoyed a lovely dinner.
On Sunday, Robert's father and his friend came to Marcus's final parent-tot swim class, which was officially declared open-deck for grandparents and visitors. There was a lot of free swim time as well as some songs and some refreshers on the skills (again, more for the parents than the kids), and--the hit of the day--rides around the lazy river pool in a big foam canoe (video at the bottom of the page). Marcus had a great time, as did Robert, and their spectators of course enjoyed it immensely.
After class we headed up to Lynn and celebrated Marcus's birthday six days early by going out for dim sum at Jin on Route 1. Marcus loved the beef curry puffs, the beef ribs, and the pork congee (leftovers of which he also ate today for breakfast), and he happily sat on Great-Grandma Helena's lap to eat. He was so intent on his beef rib it was hard to get a picture, actually! Back at Helena's house, we had a lovely Italian bakery cake (strawberries and cream and genoise) with balloons and a candle, and Marcus got to crawl around and play and generally make himself adorable.
After yesterday's Boston-based family celebration, we're gearing up for a full-on onslaught of first-birthday festivities this week. Today I made cookies (mainly meant for the staff, but plain enough that grabby babies/kids should be fine with them) for the daycare, and we're going to bring them in on Wednesday along with little birthday favors (books) for the other kids in Marcus's "class." Some cookies are also going into Robert's office, and on Thursday we're planning an lunch out at Super Dumpling with Marcus and Robert and me and anyone from Robert's office who wants to join us. After all, I had lunch there with Robert and two co-workers when I was in early labor on this Thursday last year, and Marcus's first real restaurant experience was here when he was two weeks old, so it seems fitting.
Finally, here's a cheating catch-up--videos that are (with one exception) not from this weekend, but which I hadn't gotten a chance to edit and upload before today.
Marcus on the Cape (8/1/09) part 1 (long)
Marcus on the Cape part 2
Marcus in a canoe from his final baby swim class
Marcus playing with a big cardboard box a week or so ago