Poor Putty

The good news is that Putty came through his surgery very well and the early prognosis on his prostate cancer is excellent.  The bad news is that he's still not feeling so hot, so they're keeping him an extra day in the hospital.  But there was one very short visitor who seemed to make him feel much better!

In case you're wondering, they didn't accidently remove Putty's eye instead of his prostate -- it just got a little irritated somehow during the anesthesia process and patching it helped it feel better.  Of course, we think he just wanted Walt to think that his Putty was a pirate.  Aaarrrgghhh!!

Outside!

This particular title has been a long time coming.  It's Walt's absolute favorite place to be.  He doesn't have a sign for it, yet, but he communicates his desire to be there quite clearly at his first glimpse of daylight each day.

Well, this weekend Walt was in luck.  Aside from church and naptime, he spent most of the weekend outside.  Today was the Ragin' Cajun Crawfish Festival in downtown Memphis.  If you think there is no way a 15 month-old likes crawfish, think again.  (Wardrobe credit: Putty's trip to Connecticut last year.  Don't worry, Walt doesn't have the SAT score for a trip to New Haven, yet.)

Thanks to the Lareaus and our friend John for the invite to his apartment adjacent to the festival grounds.  (Mommy only attends festivals if the VIP treatment is in effect.)  Consequently, Walt had his own special patio on which to enjoy the poor, little crustaceans and his usual assortment of crackers, cheese and milk.

Of course, with all of that activity nearby, you can only imagine where Walt wanted to be.

Afterward, we cashed in an old gift certificate at the local pub with the Lareaus.  Both Meredith and Walt were quite a hit on the patio.

At long last, the sun began to set, and it was time for Walt to call it a day.  We squeezed in a few more precious minutes of outside time on the sidewalk just before bedtime.

Download MVI_4127.AVI

He gives good hugs.  I can only imagine what next weekend holds.

Fifteen Months (And a Week)

Sorry for the delay in the fifteen-month post, but the wireless access at Keeneland last Saturday (the actual fifteen-month b'day) was spotty at best.  Seems that your typical race-goer just doesn't have the same blogging obligations that we here at Walt's World do.  But now I'm settled in for the evening, with the baby snoozing in his crib, the dog snoozing on the couch next to me, Josh off playing basketball with lawyers, and Lionel Richie crooning "All Night Long" on the XM radio.  (The last song was "Man!  I Feel Like a Woman!" by Shania Twain.  What is this station?)  Anyway, I'm now ready to fill you in on the past month.

Every time I go to write the monthly update, I think, "Gee, it's only been a month, surely he's not doing anything too different."  And then I go back and read the previous month's post and I find that at fourteen months he wasn't walking (now he's practically running), he had just a few signs (now he's got more than a dozen), and he only knew two bathtime animals (now he knows four -- fish, duck, turtle, and hippo).  Now, that's progress!

The walking is definitely the major development of this month.  And it started just in time, because I'm guessing crawling down the sidewalk in shorts just wouldn't be all that comfortable.  And we spend a lot (I mean, a LOT) of time outside.  In fact, if Walt is awake and not otherwise occupied by eating, harassing Evie, or carrying our shoes to the four corners of the house, he is generally standing at the front door whining to go out. 

You can usually appease him with a quick trip out to the front steps to point at airplanes arriving at Memphis International and wave at all the passers-by (who are always delighted to be greeted by the mayor of Nelson Avenue).  And it is super-fun to stalk birds on the lawn or play with your new ball. 

But sometimes, the yard is just a little too confining and he wants to broaden his horizons, so he'll head over to the new jog stroller and bang on it, as if to say, "Driver!  To the park!  And make it snappy!"  And off we go.  At least once, sometimes twice a day.  Fortunately, we have a killer park only six blocks away with lots of swings, slides, and even real, live train tracks on the embankment running alongside it.  Sometimes, the train engineer waves at us, and let me tell you, that is just awesome.

His signing is coming along quite nicely, as well.  In his repertoire are milk, more, eat, banana, apple, Evie, all done, bath, potty, no, bird, fish, and dada (but NOT mama!). 

Walt signing "milk".

Oh, and a special shout out to Gram for teaching him the sign for
"cookie", which he uses approximately 17 million times a day.  Hey, you
never know when the old folks might break down and give out the goods!

"Cookie!!!"

It's a good thing he's taken to the signing so well because there hasn't been much progress in the talking department.  He's great at the sound effects -- trains, dogs, truck horns, etc. -- but about the only words he says consistently are "all done" and "thank you" (which comes out more like "ta-ta", but we get the point).  It's not as if he doesn't jabber on incessantly, but so far, we haven't been able to translate much. 

So, I guess that's about it for this month.  By the way, if you noticed that the pictures in the post A) are better than usual, or B) took longer to load, you can thank/curse the very cool Nikon D70 (a digital SLR camera) that we are borrowing from my parents for a bit.  Check out the "April Pics" folder at left for some other shots taken with this remarkable piece of equipment.

Songs that played on XM while I wrote this:  "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney & Wings, "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis & the News, "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls, "Lucky Star" by Madonna, "Ain't No Woman" by The Four Tops, "Valerie" by Steve Winwood, "Small Town" by John (whatever happened to Cougar?) Mellencamp, "True" by Ryan Cabrera, "Got to Be Real" by Cheryl Lynn, "Calling All Angels" by Train, "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson, "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John, "Hard Habit to Break" by Chicago, "Dream Lover" by Mariah Carey, and "I'm Free" by Kenny Loggins. 

I like a random assortment of music as much as the next girl, but this is a little ridiculous.

Off to the Races

I know we owe you a 15-month post, and it will appear shortly, but for now, here's a recap of our trip to the races in Kentucky for Easter weekend . . .

We arrived at Great Aunt Jane's house on Friday afternoon and let Walt stretch his legs a bit by running some basketball drills up and down her sidewalk.  (Yes, that's official Kentucky bluegrass in the background.)  Aunt Jane even showed him a few moves she's picked up from watching the 'Cats all these years.

Unlike last year's 42-degree-and-raining debacle, race day this year was gorgeous.  We met up with our usual motley crew of family, friends, friends-of-friends, etc. and enjoyed some tailgating before heading into Keeneland.  Fortunately, Walt got a good nap in the car before the festivities began, so he was raring to go by post time.

He was too short to reach the betting window, but he had a good time anyway . . . cheering for the horses (Download MVI_4076.AVI
)
and socializing with the crowd.

But it's hard work cheering that hard all day and by the time we pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward Louisville, our little race fan was too tired to even finish his snack.

Easter morning we awoke in the "hospitality" apartment at Cousin Collier's apartment complex and were a little worried that the Easter Bunny might not have been able to find us.  But our fears were unfounded because not only did he find us, but he even filled Walt's eggs with his favorite . . . fruit puffs!  How did he know?

However, the Easter Bunny apparently left the chocolate version of himself in his car when he went to the races the day before because, well . . .

Oopsie.  Oh well, Walt didn't seem too interested in anything but the fruit puffs anyway.  We enjoyed a rockin' good Easter service at Cousin Collier's church (we think Walt may be a charismatic Christian at heart -- he clapped and smiled all during the singing), and then a tasty lunch before we headed for home.  (But, of course, not before a photo op with Collier.)

We put some miles on the ol' carseat, but it was lots of fun.

A Day in the Life

Okay, okay!!  We get the message!  Here's your new post . . .

Walt is a very busy little boy these days.  When you're only awake for ten hours in a 24-hour period, you've gotta pack a lot in!

Gotta play with your cool new ball.  (Mommy managed to find the only ball at Target that does not have Sponge Bob Squarepants or Dora the Explorer plastered to it.  It actually says "Four Square Ball" on it -- isn't that great?!)

Gotta build some stuff.  (He's finally getting the hang of putting blocks together instead of just taking them apart.  Next week we'll start working on the concept of load-bearing walls.)

Gotta do some train maintenance.  (Woo woo!!)

Gotta entertain the ladies.  (Meredith seems to be wary of his charms.)

Gotta hang with your bros.  (Over some cheez-its and sippy cups.)

And after all that, you still gotta help Mommy with the laundry.  (A kid's work is never done.)

No wonder he sleeps fourteen hours a day!

(Are you people happy now?)

Go Fly a Kite

Who are we to argue with Ben Franklin?

Walt watches the kite intently.

And sometmes he even got to help.

"Don't worry, Dad, I've got it."

"What do you mean, 'The kite broke'?"

"Oh well, I'll just sit here and figure out which of these houses I'm going to live in."

"Pity about the kite, but I do love a good fountain!"

P.S.  You know how you check here, hoping for a new post?  Well, we check hoping for some new comments!  How about some love for Walt's World?!

Rockin' Walty

If you look closely in the background, you'll see the band.  While Ginger helped throw a baby shower for our friend Kate, Walt and I attended Memphis' first Rock 'n' Romp event today.  Rock 'n' Romp is a well-established, kid-friendly, summer music series in the Washington, D.C. area.  The series recruits qualitly local bands and has them perform in a setting that is convenient for parents of small children.  Today marked the debut of the series in the Memphis area.  Lucky for us, we were invited (thanks to our friends the Chockleys) and it was only a few blocks from our house "in Dan Harper's backyard."  So, Walt and I loaded up the jog stroller and headed over for some live music.

Walt tried his hand at one of the many instruments lying around.  You can see more in the background.

Above is a shot of Walt entertaining himself . . . and me . . . between bands.

And finally.  It's never really a sucessful event until the police show up.  And they did at the first ever Memphis Rock 'n' Romp.  Look closely.  It's a bad picture.  I rushed the shot.  They were leaving and I didn't want them to come back and start asking questions again when they saw us taking pictures of them.  Believe me; I wasn't the only music-loving parent taking photos of the squad car pulled up next to all of the strollers.

Apparently, one of the neighbors doesn't enjoy rockin' and rompin' as much as we did.

For more information about Rock 'n' Romp, click here: http://www.memphisrocknromp.blogspot.com/