Yo-ho, yo-ho!

Avast there, ye swabbies! It's Captain Jack's great adventure on the high seas coming at you! But first . . . a few catch-up photos.


Jack's Nanny bought him this neat 4th of July outift on her last visit (on the shirt and matching cap you can see the little ants carrying off the picnic items, and on the back pocket a little ant is waving the flag). He has worn it twice since but unfortunately has managed to horribly soil it on each occasion (in a manner which does not need to be detailed here) before we have been able to get a good photo of him in it. So we made a special point of getting a good snapshot today.

Shot this while home alone with Jack -- trying to further document his patented "Retired Businessman Living on a Pension in South Florida Bodysuit" look which is all the rage here in Southern California. Jack is pretty fascinated by the blinking orange rangefinder on the camera.


What better dessert after a nice dinner with Mommy than rich, delicious fingers? Please note enormous puddle of drool above Jack's left hand. I am reasonably certain we could irrigate certain portions of the Sahara with the amount of drool emanating from Jack these days.


Tummy time . . . always an adventure. It's only so long before being on his tummy will make Jack crazy. Have to shoutout a big thank you to our friends Isaac and Julie for the Boppy pillow seen here . . . it has really helped out with this all-important tummy exercising and made it last much longer for Jack, and makes for cute photos besides. Jack is really getting good at turning over, except he gets one arm pinned under him and has not yet really grasped the function of arms yet (apart from their immense usefulness when it comes to jamming hands into his mouth), so he gets about 2/3 of the way and is just like, ah, to heck with it.

He does make some sort of flapping clutches at his bottle at feeding times and is really good at grabbing the little toys that hang off his gym. It's really cool to watch him slowly pick up new skills . . . but especially to see him flash that absolutely beaming smile which is on his face almost all day long. He really is a very sweet-natured, cheerful little baby who only gets grouchy when he is very, very hungry or sleepy or both.



Today Jack and Mommy and Daddy drove over to San Pedro to take in the LA Tall Ships Festival. Jack really enjoyed getting out and about and really got a kick (for a while) out of his first extended time spent facing front in his Baby Bjorn.

Jack and his enormous chubby jowls cut a fine figure in the Bjorn as you can see.


The Tall Ships event was nice to look at. The lines to get on the ships were incredibly long and the San Pedro seafront complex is just kind of unpleasant and inconvenient for walking around with large numbers of people. So it only took us about 90 minutes to see all the ships as well as we could and enjoy them. Because of the peculiar design of the prosaically named "Ports O' Call" complex it was really hard to get a good angle on any of the ships for photography purposes, but it's neat to see them up close.


After all that seafarin', Jack needed a good old snooze.


After the quick trip home and a delicious meal, it was time once again for a fine dessert of baby arm, that succulent treat.


That's all the photos for now -- see ya later, Dudes!

RAAAARRRR!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates. There really hasn't been much to share. The other day we took Jack to what will be his daycare facility come the end of August, when school starts again. It will be a little traumatic, I think, to be dropping him off there every day. I'm not anxious about it, as it seems like a very kind and loving and well-run place, but I am also not looking forward to it much.

While we were there I managed to get jack actually giggling for the very first time. G was talking to the day care person about the place and Jack was kind of cawing for my attention. I let him grab my two index fingers and then pretended he was shadow-boxing with them as I shook my head back and forth and made a funny noise. Well let it not be said that I am less than the very soul of wit, because this produced a long string of throaty chuckles rising to a giggling shriek. So uplifting to hear!

I repeated it until he finally was like, phew, that's exhausting, I need to suck on my hands for a while to calm down. That's his new favorite activity -- it's what he's trying to do in the pre-bathtime photo above. He often makes such large popping/sucking noises it's hilarious. Sometimes he has his hands crammed so far in there he's gagging on them like Lindsay Lohan.

But not much to report other than that. A nice photo, below, of Jack and Mommy curled up after a long day at the job.

It's good to be the king.

It must be nice to just kind of lie around most of the day, not doing much, pooping your pants. Wait, that's what I did for most of the 80's. Not the pants-pooping part. At least, not often.


Our good friends the Soyes, Paul and Kathleen and George and Maddy, sent us an awesome little rocker/beach chair for Jack. You can't see it, but it's embroidered with his name on the back and a little shamrock. So darn cute!


If you click the link below you will here a kind of toned-down version of what I listen to all day while Jack plays on his little mat. This is the low-key variant of Jack's little coversations with his toys. Sometimes he's really lecturing them in a loud and strident voice, but every time I tried to record that for an audio post, he of course clammed right up.

The ol' ball game

So last week we went to see the Long Beach Armada play the San Diego Surf Dawgs here at Blair Field in Long Beach. Jack helped Mommy keep score and as you can see, he found it tremendously exciting.

The big thrill of the night was Rickey Henderson -- yes, that Rickey Henderson. He plays for San Diego's independent league team -- apparently still under the impression that a major-league team will offer him a contract any day now, and who knows, stranger things have happened. But still, at 46, he's still spry and a gamer, putting on a good show for the fans and being a supportive and positive member of the team, by all accounts ("Rickey's just one of the guys," said a Dawgs player in the LA Times -- don't remember hearing this when Henderson was a Met, but whatever.)

Meanwhile back at home, Jack has been trying to flip over in earnest and has been successful on a few tries! Also, over the last few days he has become a real jabberjaws, regular holding extended conversations with his dangly mobile and gym toys, the nearby pillow, Mommy, Daddy, basically anything nearby. Just kind of "Aaaah baaah yaahh yahh vaah" kind of noises, with an occasuional "HyAAHHHHH!"or screechy, happy "ayyyyyyAAAHayuuuuAHHH!" hollered out from time to time, going on for hours, really cracking us up. His laugh, such as it is, has evolved too, from a kind of throaty "hurrh" to a more gurgly laughing sound, to an actual laugh today for the first time! G was getting ready to go shopping -- where she is right now, with jack -- and Jack was lying on the bed blabbing away, so I went in for a tickle attack and snuzzled his big ol' chins with my beard. Well I guess this tickled him a lot because we got a whole bunch of genuine chuckles out of him, to our delight. I have shot some video of Jack and I hope to have it online soon.

Here you can see Jack doing his best to flip over on his back.

And here, you can see Jack saying, "Ah, screw it," and flopping over on his belly again.

Meanwhile let it not be said that our lad is anything but the very picture of sartorial splendor. Here he proudly models the very latest bodysuit from the Hyman Roth "I'm a retired businessman living in Havana on a pension in the 1950's" line.

And what I wouldn't give to be able to relax like this:

Teddy bear's picnic

Jack went on his first picnic on Sunday. Mom and Dad took him and a picnic basket full of wine, cheese and Italian salami to Point Fermin Park over in San Pedro, just a few miles from our house in Long Beach. Jack snoozed for a while but when he woke up, seemed to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. I am a little disturbed by his slight resemblance to Karl Rove in this photo, however.

The park has incredible views of the pacific and steep cliffs to the sea -- I gather there are walkways to get you down to the rocky/sandy beach areas below where seals (we counted at least 8, including a momma seal and her three pups) and whales and dolphins (didn't see any of these) frolic and relax in the sunshine.

Also, the park features a beautiful, restored lighthouse built in 1874.

It burned brightly until Pearl Harbor, when the California Coast went dark to minimize the risk of invasion or bombing. Then the top was sheared off and replaced with a boxy radar installation. It was restored in the mid 70's and actually lived in by the park ranger until the last couple of years, when an extensive restoration took place.

There's no light in it presently -- I took a little tour of the lighthouse and the guide told me the actual, original light is the subject of a lawsuit right now and they hope to return it to the gallery soon. Meanwhile there is quite a view from up there:

We had a lovely day and will go back often. On our way back to Long Beach we stopped in San Pedro's shore village area, which has seen better days and is not at all as nice as the one in Long Beach, which we hit to feed my funnel cake jones. But there was a cool little brig there, the Swift of Ipswich:Checking their website I see the vessel is one of four in their fleet, which is used to take young people to sea and teach them sailing skills. There's a volunteer meeting this week, and I think I will go!

Back in Long Beach, Jack patiently let us wheel him around while Daddy pursued his rarely-consumed treat, funnel cake.

Back at home, Jack stands up to make an important point and tries to act tough:


But it's all a charade and within moments his true nature -- that of a jolly little imp -- is revealed:


We have to make sure Jack gets plenty of tummy time! This is fun exercise for a while.... but soon the seething rage emerges from a frustrated little fellow who hasn't quite figured out how to use his arms properly, so he ends up kind of lying there like a figurehead on a sailing ship!

We're back!

bigsmile, originally uploaded by laughograms.

OK, so, it has been a long time since updates, or for most of you, friends and family alike, phone calls, contact of any human kind. Be gentle with us, we only got down to the last couple of boxes last night. We are all moved in now, just some pictures to hang and knick-knacks to put away! Jack has been just so wonderful. He smiles all the time now (except when he is hungry or just waking up). But he loves staring into Mommy or Daddy's face and after a few seconds, this radiant, jolly smile. He started smiling a few weeks ago when I'd stroke his hair but now it is all the time and I just can't look away. He also is making an effort to laugh! Right now it's kind of a "hhewww" when he is particularly smiley. He is a smiley, happy, very pudgy little baby (who has just discovered the tasty virtues of his hands, but is still learning not to cram them all the way into his mouth). He had his two-month checkup just after we moved, like the 30th or so. He passed with flying colors and is in like the 98th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for length. In the words of our wonderful pediatrician, "he's huge." Jack got his first round of shots that visit, which put him in a foul temper that afternoon, but he cheered up late night. The scoop on our move can be found over at my blog. Jack and I have been spending our days sleeping and unpacking, but with most of the settling in done, we have been taking exercise walks down the extensive beach paths in the afternoon.

But you want to see pictures, right? I will start with these -- we have a plethora of smiley Jack pictures so here you are -- maybe it will brighten your day to have these around. I know they make me smile.

chairsmile2, originally uploaded by laughograms.

chairsmile3, originally uploaded by laughograms.

I couldn't decide which of these to post, so I said, to hell with it, they're both going up.

newcrib, originally uploaded by laughograms.

A momentous occasion in the new place -- Jack finally gets a crib and a room to call his own. (Well, kinda. Mommy's desk is in there too.) Jack's in his crib for only the second time tonight and frankly Mommy and Daddy are having the harder time adapting. It was high time given Jack's enormous size (25 inches, 14 lbs at 2 months). He'd be wiggling around in his bassinet and his arms and legs were thudding against the thing, like a bird in some enormous egg or a baby dinosaur getting ready to hatch.

veryrelaxed, originally uploaded by laughograms.

As you can see, Jack really knows how to relax.

lilsport, originally uploaded by laughograms.

On July 3d, Jack took in his first baseball game! It was off to Blair Field here in Long Beach to see the Long Beach Armada take on the Surprise Fightin' Falcons. Both are part of the independent Golden Baseball League. One of the greatest things to see in the last 10 years is this proliferation of independent baseball leagues. Some day we might get back to the days when every town, big or small, had their own team of journeyman players barnstorming around the region. Rickey Henderson plays on one of these GBL teams! Anyway, as you can see Jack was all suited up for a ball game and ready for action as usual! It was great fun, real cheap and a real close game with some very good pitching. The team announcer pronounces the team's name "Arrrrrrrr-mada," like a pirate, and there is a kind of cheesy but delightful pirate ship in the outfield that fires off cannons when there is a home run, to the accompaniment of the theme from "Pirates of the Caribbean" -- the ride AND the film! Jack was very alert the whole time and we all had loads of fun. Jack even got a little certificate for attending his first professional baseball game.

july3d, originally uploaded by laughograms.

After the game there was a modest but nice fireworks display. We had a lovely family evening at the park. I gather the fireworks which in the past have been set off over the Queen Mary were cancelled for lack of funds, or something.

terrorbird, originally uploaded by laughograms.

Earlier during the game, Arby I, the fun-lovin' parrot mascot of the Armada, was walking past while G was standing with Jack in the walkway (we were in the front row). "Hey Arby, how about a picture with my wife and baby?" Arby cheerfully spun around and to G's surprise -- and Jack's, if you can discern the look of stark terror on his face -- Arby, extremely gently and in a well intentioned way, scooped Jack into his arms for a photo. G and I weren't upset by this -- he did it very skillfully, as I am sure he does every night -- but we were surprised! As was Jack . . .

terrobird2, originally uploaded by laughograms.

As you can tell from the look of bewilderment on Jack's face being held aloft by a 5-foot-tall parrot, no matter how well-intentioned, was not on his list of things to expect. This expression has nothing on the wide-eyed look of alarm when Arby the Parrot first took hold of him. Fun pictures but not at all what we had planned!

bosoxbaby, originally uploaded by laughograms.

I mean, what a puss on this kid. For the momentous occasion of the Home Run Derby on Monday Jack was all suited up in his snazzy Red Sox uniform courtesy of Uncle Teige and Aunt Becca . . . Just like Daddy (and Mommy for that matter), as you can tell he takes a dim view of those who wish to separate him from the remote.

cubsbaby, originally uploaded by laughograms.

Naturally we had to save the Cubs outfit for the All-Star Game tonight. Jack however scotched plans to wear it during the game by pooping himself right up his chest -- don't ask me how -- while we were on our afternoon walk down the beach. He had a merry old time watching daddy try to swab off the gallons of poo and do a complete wardrobe change in the beach parking lot.

chairsmile1, originally uploaded by laughograms.

Finally, one last super-cute pic of Jack.