happy halloween!
October 31, 2007, 8:33 am
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Love,
Daddy Penguin, Huck Penguin and the Penguin's Friend
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[ 2 comments ] ( 24 views )
good answer
October 27, 2007, 8:56 pm
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Poor little Huck had a very rough week. He had a bad case of constipation that resulted in spontaneous and frantic laps throughout our apartment along with the constant aroma and orchestrations of Huck-toots. In the midst of this he also developed a painful sore on his tongue which made eating almost impossible. It’s sad to watch your little child in so much discomfort, but mostly you would never have known because sometimes kids are troopers.
Here are my two favorite things about Huck right now (besides his regained ability to poop regularly). All day long he tries to figure letters out, and here’s what we hear him say: “oatmeal … o-o-o-o-o-oatmeal … o starts with oatmeal” or “Rug … r-r-r-rug-g-g-g … rug starts with r and g” or just when I begin showing him off in front of other people: “Kimberly ... k-k-k-k-k-Kimberly ... C starts with Cimberly.” He has many, many alphabet books so it was just a matter of time before he began understanding it. (I'm calling Harvard first thing in the morning.)
And my very favorite thing is his answer to general questions like these: “How did you get so smart? How did you get so wonderful? How did you get so cute?” His answer is always a simple “Mama.” And believe me or not, no one coached him on that one.
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[ 7 comments ] ( 55 views )long live the harvest festival!
October 21, 2007, 7:13 pm
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Saturday was our neighborhood's beloved Harvest Festival, which Troy and I used to go to by ourselves before Huck came along. I think we were the only non-parents there. When our six year old nephew Noah was one and a half, we got to experience the festival the way it should be, which is with a kid. Now we've got our very own kid and it's more fun than ever!
I wish everyday could be the Harvest Festival ...
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[ 4 comments ] ( 37 views )what we know about huck these days
October 19, 2007, 9:29 am
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He’s 36 pounds and 36 inches.
He counts very high, but here's what follows 29: "Twenty-ten, twenty-eleven, twenty-twelve, twenty-thirteen ..."
He’s the worst hide-and-go-seek player ever. He "hides" by standing in a very obvious place, jumping up and down squealing. When you stop counting and begin "looking" for him he runs to you screaming. When we play this at home he always hides under the blankets on the bed and expects you to as well.
He’s very compassionate. When Kadin got hurt at the playground the other day Huck immediately went up to him and said, “It’s okay. It’s okay.” When I woke up this morning and discovered I had another ear infection, he told me he just wanted me to feel better and minutes later made me a get well card all on his own. And it worked: my spirits were instantly lifted.
He loudly whispers things that he thinks might be inappropriate to say out loud (“he doesn’t have any hair”) and things that ought to be spoken at normal volume (“I want to look at the photo album”).
He gets a little thrill, I think, out of doling out his precious goldfish crackers to the other kids who stand around him and beg. He makes them ask for it first with a “please” and gives them one, maybe two at a time. Slowly.
He enjoys reading and being read to more than anything in the whole world and would do it for hours if only we’d let him. These days his very favorite is “The Yummy Alphabet Book of Herbs, Spices and Other Natural Flavors” because every toddler should know about eucalyptus, tarragon and xocoatl (the Aztec word for chocolate).
He’s a playground evangelist, loudly breaking out into his vacation bible school songs (complete with sign language) while on the jungle gym or going down the slide.
His favorite band is Balthrop, Alabama (not a kids' group at all). He calls them "the people from Brooklyn" and sings their song “Explode” all day long. The other secular song he sings often is Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” His rendition is very loud, passionate and breathy, and quite embarrassing when we’re at the grocery store. (I want to thank Michael for both of these songs.)
He told someone his name the other day in sign language. This skill was news to his parents and creeped us out a little bit.
And lastly, he is very "cool," just like his dad. (see photo)
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[ 6 comments ] ( 41 views )one of those weekends
October 16, 2007, 2:21 pm
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Last week was one of those weeks for me. First Troy lost my wallet at a neighborhood pizzaria, then I almost killed him, then I had to comfort Huck who took the whole loss very personally and kept crying about it and trying to convince me that the man who took it was going to call and return it, then I had to explain to Huck that I was never going to see my wallet again because the odds of a nice honest person finding it on 181st Street and returning it were too small but I'm not bitter, and right before that we went to Huck's new doctor for his first ever appointment but she got stuck out of town and didn't make it, then we went back the next day to see the wonderful physician's assistant and their computers were down and we had a really long wait but thank goodness they had made a photocopy of Huck's insurance card the day before, then I went to the bank to replace my debit card, then a few hours later realized my new card had no expiration date on it so had to go back to the bank to get a new-new card, then we had to order new credit cards and new insurance cards, then I had to go to the DMV to get a new driver's license, then I somehow taped "Grey's Anatomy" in Spanish. You know your problems are small when one of them has to do with a television show. But still.
After surviving the week we all cheered up when our dear friend Greg (who was in my UT class) came for a visit from Texas! Huck took to him almost immediately and the two became fast friends. Shannon and Susan joined us for an evening of fun and Huck's heart almost exploded with love. On Saturday morning we went to a Halloween party at the church and Huck 'n Daddy got to try out their penguin costumes. (Troy would like everyone to know that his is a work in progress.) That night we adults went to Harlem for a wedding at the Cotton Club (another UT friend) while Huck spent the evening with Tiffany, Brian and Kadin. It ended up being another one of those wonderful weekends that just keep on coming.
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[ 6 comments ] ( 43 views )fireland
October 10, 2007, 2:47 pm
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To celebrate our friend John’s 40th birthday, we joined a wonderful group of people on Fire Island this last weekend. (Huck thought we were going to Ireland.) We all stayed in a house that John and Shana rented, complete with a hot tub on the deck. And since it was unseasonably warm, we got to spend a day on the beach playing Frisbee, running through the ocean, watching the deer that kept showing up, collecting seashells, building sand castles and getting suntans. Thanks, Global Warming!
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And for all you loyal Huck Heads, our brother in-law Nathan has made some really neat changes to the website. Check out our Photos and Home Movies pages! [ 4 comments ] ( 44 views )
trouble
October 6, 2007, 9:21 pm
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When Huck wears this t-shirt, people always laugh and say, “Is that really your name? Are you Trouble?” The facial expression that follows this question is a very definite, "Oh, yes."
He's a little bit of Trouble. For instance, here's what he says to the ladies at the playground: “Hey, good lookin’, whatcha got cookin?” Most of my mom friends have little crushes on Huck, and both of my sisters do.
The other evening we were at our friends Jeremy and Megan’s place and Huck became quite interested in a certain lady named Christa. He helped himself over to her side and began wooing her with talk of crickets, explaining that they make that noise by rubbing their wings together. She very innocently took part in the conversation until I made Huck leave for a moment to go pee-pee before we headed home, because I’m every boy’s dream come true mother. When we returned a few minutes later, a young man was next to Christa. When Huck discovered this he gasped loudly, ran over to the guy and shouted, “Excuse me, I was sitting there!” The young man lifted Huck up into the air and placed him back in his rightful spot, being the true gentleman (and Christa’s boyfriend) that he is.
Recently Pappy got frustrated with the way Huck was “eating” his dinner and finally excused himself, saying he was upset and needed a time-out. Huck continued his antics and so then Paps said, “Now I’m getting more upset. I am going out to the hall.” I chuckled to myself, feeling that Troy was being a little melodramatic about the whole thing and glad that for once it wasn’t me. After a few moments he returned and apologized to Huck, explaining that he was beginning to lose his temper and so he needed to go out of the apartment for a minute. After getting all cleaned up from “dinner” Huck asked Troy if they could get real mad together and go look for their tempers in the hall. They did it again tonight. It’s therapeutic for two trouble-makers like Huck and Pappy.
Twice now Huck has announced in public that my armpits were wet. In Starbucks he shouted that I had a "bagina," yet again making me question the decision to ever, ever teach him that word. And speaking of mommy parts, Huck recently told me that one day he would have a baby in his tummy. (Most of our neighborhood mom friends are pregnant right now.) Not wanting to break his heart, I nodded and said things like, "Oh, really? That's neat." He told me he would name his baby Maddie and that people would call her Madeline and he would tell them no, no, her name is Maddie. The next day he walked around with two tennis balls in his shirt. He took them out and named his new babies Jeremy and Megan. Twins!
Lastly, Huck and I go to Music Together class every Monday morning, and if you didn’t know better you'd think he was miserable. He sits on my lap or right beside me with a totally blank expression on his face. He doesn’t really do any of the gestures or play the games and he barely makes a peep for the entire 45 minutes. After the very first class I worried that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, until I was giving him a bath that evening. He sang one of the songs word for word, very articulately and very enthusiastically exactly like this: “I had a little turtle, his name was Tiny Tim. I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim. He dranked (sic) up all the water, he ate up all the soap, and then he burped last night from a bubble in his throat.” And that is how every class has been since. He sits there with the world’s most bored look on his face, all the while carefully memorizing the songs so that he can knock my socks off later.
Trouble.
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[ 4 comments ] ( 43 views )