I like big books and I cannot lie

Although I have recently found the allure of magazines...their shiny, glossy, tearable pages...their tasty, heavy weight covers...their bright colorful pictures...I am still more of a bookworm. Whether it's a new plastic classic like Water, Water Everywhere (in the picture below) or an old winner like Red Fish, Blue Fish, One Fish, Two Fish, I enjoy perusing a few books before naps and bedtime. Az anyam recently procured some wicked-awesome color and ABC books with lots of pictures of babies. They are soooooo cute.

I wasn't going to post about food or sleep for an entire week

I really was trying to focus on things other than food and sleep this week. I had all sorts of cool topics to discuss: my soccer ability, walking, Hayek's views on spontaneous order, television, riding in cars. Coincidentally, this week was the big event that my folks have been waiting for - I slept through the night Sunday night. And then I did it again last night. No new pictures have been taken of me sleeping (let sleeping babies lie), so enjoy this gratuitously cute shot of me:

Of course, there are other dynamics at work here. Sleeping through the night is me going to bed around 6:30 and sleeping until 5 or 5:30. My parents need to adjust their schedules accordingly and not stay up late reading. Priorities! I'm also trying to adjust to a 2-nap/day cycle instead of 3-naps/day. Because of this, I've been a bit ornery the last few afternoons.

I am a man of refined taste

I really enjoy reading. Very often it takes the form of my parents reading me stories about serious topics like wishing all the inanimate objects in my room goodnight or getting Balazska to sleep. I do enjoy fluffy reading as well at times.

So I was reading a US News and World Report, when I finally saw a magazine worthy of my intellect and gravitas. It was like love at first sight. I dove right in and ate it up.

Well, I tore out some pages and tried eating them up, but az anyam took them out of my hands before I could get a good bite.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5536985028851988957&hl=en

I don't just eat and sleep

You may have noticed a recurring theme in my postings the last two weeks - eating and sleeping. I do actually have other interests - walking, ladies, Baby Einstein and my newest passion, soccer.

I have become quite good. I am still working on some of the finer aspects of the game like using my feet, but I do enjoy rolling the ball back and forth to az anyam and az apam.

Bread with olive oil. That's what I'm talking about.

Cheerios? No. Chunks of banana? A bit. Bread baked with olive oil? Oh yeah.

Maybe it's the Strada Italianness coarsing through my veins, but when az anyam gave me the bread........it was like......magic. I was totally able to overcame the non-puree-edness of it. That piece of bread has been like marijuana, a stepping stone to other, harder substances. Last night I had some Honeycomb cereal. And I enjoyed it.

Sleep is like Nagy Balazs

At first it's kind of scary and annoying, but then grows on you. So you get more comfortable with it and start hanging out regularly. Trade some emails. Next thing you know you're in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans in a suit made of toothpaste and beer cans.



That is a not-so-straightforward way of saying, I'm sleeping much better now. I'll sleep at night for 7-8 hours in a stretch.

On an unrelated note, az anyam and az apam seem to be in much better moods lately.

Eating is just for home anymore

Az anyam and az apam tried something different with me this weekend involving one of my favorite pasttimes, once again, eating. We ate in a 'restaurant.' This is a place you go and 'eat' food that they supply. I thought this would be an interesting change of pace - a chance to see how the rest of the world eats...see what kind of pureed fruits and vegetables are out there.

There were all sorts of amazing non-pureed foods. It was quite a menu.

So what exotic food did I get to eat? Squash from home that my parents brought. At least I got to flirt with the ladies.

Food isn't always mush?

To this point almost everything I've gotten to eat has been mush. Good mush, but a pureed glob. I've had teething biscuits, but that's been mostly for my teeth not for the foodiness of it.

Az anyam has been giving me bits of real food to try and get me eating it. I haven't been very interested.

Go, speed racer, go.

A wise man once said, " I feel the need, the need for speed." Now I know what he meant.

I have been really persistent the last week with my desire to walk. Whenever az apam is around, I'm bugging him to hold my hands so we can walk around.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2030060002136604358&hl=en

Az anyam and az apam gave me a special present yesterday. Fast does not even begin to describe the speed with which I zoomed around the house and plowed into anything in my way. It was wicked awesome.

Additional thoughts on this morning's post

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9096670096061989606

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I weathered the storm of the last few days the best way possible - practically naked and inside my house. After all, it was my first snow storm. If you think about it, I've enjoyed many of my firsts practically or totally naked and inside - my first breaths, my first bath, my first diaper change.

What was different about this first is that az apam spent my first storm almost naked and inside my house, too. This bemused our terrorist neighbors.

She's hot and she's mine

Or she will be mine. This is Csilla. I get to meet her in a few weeks. That's assuming our fathers can agree on a dowry. Az apam is trying to decide whether she's more of a 3 or 4 camel kind of girl.

All I know is, if az apam messes this up I will be one unhappy camper.

Teeth is good and not so good

Life is all yin and yang. Plus and minus. Quid and quo. Dog and cat. My parents can't wait for me to start crawling/walking because then I won't be frustrated that I can't get around, but then I'll be walking/crawling. Similarly, I can't wait to get some teeth so I can start getting into some real food. I know - yesterday I complained about variety, but I was complaining about variety when it is squash, sweet potato and green peas and to mix it up you get zucchini. The variety I'm talking about is szekely kaposzta, sausage, pork roast, turducken, etc. The downside to getting teeth to eat all this is that I have to get teeth so I can do all that.


The past few weeks have been a little bit taxing on all of us as my teeth have pushed their way through. This weekend was a Eureka moment as a top tooth finally broke through. The other top tooth broke through yesterday. You can kinda, sorta see them in this picture:



Az apam's attempts at taking this picture beg the question - is he annoyingly persistent or persistently annoying? Discuss.

Yesterday was a weird day as I got used to having these two little sharp things at the front of my mouth. I was definitely weirded it by them every time my tongue touched them. As you can see in this picture, today is a much better day. I'm in my PJs, I have the clicker and no teeth pushing their way through my attached gingiva.

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas

Cheerios? Not really. I know I was complaining about not enough variety, but now things have gone overboard. Bananas, apples, peaches, apricots, pears, squash, sweet potatoes, peas, beans, prunes, carrots, plums, chicken, yogurt, rice cereal, oatmeal, mixed cereal, three types of teething biscuits.

I think I've tried just about everything that exists by now, so we can just stick with the bananas and pears from here on in. No need to try anything else.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=702087544830633585&hl=en

Fridays are for laughing

Yesterday's posting was serious. I brought up shattered dreams and food, world domination and sumo. All heavy topics.





Yesterday afternoon Shirley Neni came over. It was a grand old time. She's fun to laugh at.



As you go off into the weekend with great gusto, I give you your moment of Zen*:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5318921287525839091



*Craig Kilborn not the other guy.

I am skinny, way too skinny

It's hard for us lightweights to get any sympathy. I've been trying to gain weight for a variety of reasons....to be bigger than everyone else, to aid in my quest for world domination, to aid my sumo career and the food looked so yummy, etc.

I had another doctor's visit yesterday and got mixed news. I'm only 20 pounds, 4 ounces and 29.5 inches. This is 11 ounces per inch of height. Up from my previous densities of 9.57 ounces/inch in October and 8.25 ounces/inch in July. The downside is that I'm no longer putting on the 1.25 ounces per day required to get me to optimal weight/height ratios, the epitome of intimidation and masculinity.

All I can do is soldier on and keep stuffing my face with new and yummy foods - recent additions to my diet include mixed cereals, prunes and plums. Wait a second! Maybe that's my problem, I'm eating enough but az anyam has waged a secret campaign against my weight gain by having my food pass through me quickly. The genius of it! Once she starts mixing ExLax into my Hot Cocoa I'll know she's really out to get me.

I'm walking, yes indeed

The crawling thing has not been going too well lately, so I've decided to skip crawling. It's really just for babies anyway. I'm too mature for that. I just want to walk.

For example, yesterday az apam was carrying me around the house after he got home from work. He had trouble figuring out why I was complaining. Finally he put me down and we walked around the house together. Two things left to figure out and then I'll be golden: balance and stopping.

Walks in summer, spring and fall? YES

Walks in the winter? Not so much...





It's not that I mind the walking per se. It's that I actually like being able to move when going for a walk. I sometimes feel like Randy from A Christmas Story. Not how he eats, even though there are similarities there too. I think there might also be some subconscious conflicts as well.....I am quite frustrated by my inability to move and so when I see others going for lengthy walks while I sit in my stroller like a stuffed sausage.....I struggle with that. I really do.

It's getting better all the time

I think I pusshed my luck last week. That night I got up five times may have been a bit too much. Since that night my parents have been ignoring me when I wake up in the middle of the night. Well, not quite ignoring me. They lie in bed listening to me scream. Well, not quite both of them. One of them lies in bed listening to me scream while the other one sleeps.

It actually hasn't been all that traumatic. The first night I cried for an hour once. And then I let the parents sleep until 4am. Then az anyam came to feed me since I had not eaten since 7pm. Since then I've only gotten up once a night and cried for a relatively short time. I then go back to sleep until about 4am. After that I nap for a little bit more. Nobody expected me to take to this sleep thing as well as I have, especially me.

A series of distractions from pain and misery

I've two things best take me away from the pain of having enamel, dentin, cementum, and dental pulp force their way through my gums.

Sleep and distractions. Sleep came OK last night, but as I mentioned yesterday....two nights ago...not so good.

The other great thing for keeping me from my suffering is distractions. Az anyam is great at keeping me distracted. Yesterday we had music class and play group. Even better was that Najm (Nagymama) was here for a few days. She has the coolest car - it was the color of rock salt when she arrived, but then she put water on it and it turned reddish/purple.

Deep, dark secrets

Deep, Dark Secret I: When a boy gets to be a certain age, his body starts going through some changes. I have reached that age.

I'm starting to get teeth. They hurt. No, they HURT. I actually woke up five times last night. I've been gnawing on anything I can get my teeth into. Sippy cups. Pacifiers. Az apam's nose. Az anyam's sweater. Blankets. Spoons.

Deep, Dark Secret II: Grouchiness is contagious. I've been a little bit grouchy as my body has gone through these changes. Suddenly everyone else in the house is a little more grouchy. Which leads to Deep, Dark Secret III....

Deep, Dark Secret III: If you talk to az apam today, be very, very careful. He's a wee bit grouchy.