Summertime

My summer is almost over. I only had seven weeks off and now i realize that 4 of those weeks have passed and only 3 more are left. At first I was really worried about spending all that time at home with Gideon alone. I filled the days with activities and outings. And now, though it is intensely difficult at times to be alone with a little person whose needs and demands always supercede your own, I'm very glad that I had the chance to get to know my little one a lot better. It is amazing to see how much he has changed and now he's going to be a year old.

But what else, have I been doing, you may ask.

Well, when Gideon lets me, I have been:

Watching TV
The complete Jane Austen-They're replaying all of these Masterpiece Theatre miniseries on our digital PBS station. Ad nauseum. Suffice it to say, can I watch another adaptation of Sense and Sensibility again and again? Apparently, I can. I liked Persuasion particularly.

Penelope-Christina Ricci is a self satisfied pig. Fact or Fiction?

Death Note-Bizarre anime series about this sociopath who wants to control the world. Very Japanese.

Project Runway Five (finally)-It's definitely too early to tell who I like, but I'll tell you that I was annoyed they kicked Jerry off. Yes, the raincoat was ugly and somewhat stupid,but it was fully lined! It wasn't some pathetic collection of trashbags sewn together in a loose and hideous fashion.

Reading Books
David Sedaris-His new book was PRETTY funny (not as entertaining as Me Talk Pretty Someday) but the last chapter was incredible. He is just that quirky and self effacing.
Jumpha Lahiri-Her newest collection of short stories was along the same course as all Lahiri stories-but the first two from Unaccustomed Earth made me gasp for breath. Some Amazon reviewer called it melodramatic but I thought they rang too true.
Guns, Germs and Steel-I'm trying to get smart. It seems very common sense but in amazing detail and great examples.

Eating Well

I have a secret. That you can not tell my pediatrician. I feed Gideon... table food. A LOT. I don't check for nuts. Or eggs. Or wheat. Or whatever the heck you're supposed to check for. One day I put something in his mouth and he ate it. And I have been addicted ever since. I don't give him eVERYTHING I eat. But I take risks. I play Russian Roulette with my baby's palate.

Given that, this week I am cooking things that I think he will be able to eat.

Korean Chicken Stew: He has to get these flavors in, people! I'm not going to put in the spicy sauce, so it will be a tasty soy infused chicken, potato, carrot and onion concoction.

Mac and Cheese with tuna: This is my favorite macaroni and cheese recipe with a can of tuna thrown in. Babies over twenty pounds can eat one ounce of tuna a week. I will probably just pick out the tuna, since I don't think it's that soft.

Pasta e fagioli: Pasta and bean soup. I like to use my hand blender to puree this for gideon so he can eat it all up!

I am definitely going to try to go to eat dosai this week. I must have dosai. And that is that. Then gideon will eat dosai. but will he EAT dosai?

Spoiled.

Gideon's birthday is coming up! Yes, one year ago he popped out of my oven two months early! The topic is birthday presents.

I have been pretty open about saying that I do not want to spoil this child. But then I enter a store. And I want him to play with the things in the store. Which requires using the cash.

I know there are better ways. There are flea markets and yard sales and even Value Village. But can I help that the Target is so shiny and clean and available to take my debit card?

Here is the list of things that I may or may not be getting.

1. Stride to Ride Lion

Gideon has nothing to ride on! Nothing to walk on! Except a laundry basket and some folding chairs, which I am fairly sure are not that exciting for him.

So he needs this:


We tried it out at Babies R Us and though he was mostly pushing it around on his knees and adamantly refused to mount it, I think he will like it more as he gets older.

2. Baby Mozart?

At my mom's house lives a keyboard that I bought one summer to teach myself how to play piano. I even took lessons. This ... did not work out. So now the keyboard lives at my mom's house with a cover over it in my old bedroom. When my mom takes Gideon upstairs, he goes straight to that room, pulls the cover off and begins to pound on the thing, not realizing that it is powered by ELECTRICITY and that the red button must be pushed for the noise to happen. The keyboard has all these jazzy features and electric rhythms and the like, so usually he ends up playing some pretty strange stuff. But now he could have:



The "Baby Grand" piano.

3. Alphabet Blocks

I have been eyeing these at the Target for a while. He has a "sea" themed set we got at a church tag sale, which he actually likes, and I AM a teacher, so what the hey.




4. Busy Ball Popper



Busy. Balls. Popping. Enough said.

Chris insists that we are buying him too much stuff. I agree. But then I see THIS:



I need this. My baby needs this. He needs this outfit and he needs those shoes and he just looks so classic and cute and ORGANIC.

I'm not getting this (yet). I know historically speaking that Gideon will forgo most toys in favor of the lid to a tupperware container which he will wave hysterically in the air, alternately chomping on it and smiling wildly like, LOOK!!!! A 25 cent plastic lid!!! I love it more than anything you could possibly buy me. But I must try.

First Update in...Oh who's even counting anymore???

At least it's videos and photos!!

FIRST he starts with this stuff:


Gideon Starts Crawling from Jane Yang on Vimeo.


Then he moves to ... THIS???

Stairs? Yes Please from Jane Yang on Vimeo.

And photos, which I occasionally remember to take, because this baby is growing FAST!