BoyOhBoh

We've had a few warm days here in MD, so Hamslice has been sporting the "diapers only" look. He thinks it's terrific.



And here he is with Hambone, trying to dial Hambone's blackberry. He's remarkably tech savvy for being such a little guy -- he can work the TV remotes and does some interesting things with our phones.

HamsliceAndConstructionUpdate

Thanks to all of you who have called and emailed over the weekend reminding me that it has been too long since I posted info on this blog. I know you're hanging on my every move, and in the interest of keeping you all from getting your own life, here's a big old posting with lots of pictures.

Below is Hamslice wearing his dad's hat and his swimming suit. Over the weekend we pulled out a small swimming pool for him and he had a lot of fun splashing around in it.



It should be noted that Hamslice is now so cute that random strangers give him presents. When we go to the store (any store) together, people stop us and hand him things like stuffed animals and sunglasses. It's a phenomenon!



Hamslice got distracted from swimming, though, once Hambone started pounding bricks out of the wall between the old house and the new one. He wanted to help very much, but was relegated to simply watching and providing editorial comment here and there.





For Mother's day, Hambone sealed the roof up to keep any future rainstorms from flooding the kitchen, and then pounded out the first hole separating the old house from the Shed. See the light coming through the second floor there? That's our laundry room. This morning there was a bird on the dryer.




We discovered that a family of ROBINS has taken up residence in the rafters here. There are little baby Robins right now, and we're perplexed about whether to continue the construction on schedule or wait for the Robins to take flight. What a dilemma. Right now we've got about 12 weeks to figure it out. Hurry up and grow, Robins!

ThePeacock

Last weekend Hambone and I got a babysitter, and actually went to a party like grownups. It was a strange new experience to be able to go out and ... you know... not have to watch the kid all the time.

At the party, things got a little musical toward the end. The highlight was when "the Peacock" (I have no idea what his real name is) got up and started singing the blues. See the video below and share the joy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0IQNbD-XJA

YodelingHamslice

This is probably why Hamslice will resent us as a teenager, but we couldn't resist. Grandma T sent over this German costume that Hambone and his brothers wore when they were little kids.

Hamslice seemed to like the outfit just fine, and did some catwalking and posing for us. We couldn't stop taking pictures although we kind of knew the whole time that he'll really hate those pictures later in life.

I guess that's what being a parent is all about. LOL

MayorHamslice

So our little Hamslice has developed the skill known as "Working the Room." These days, every time we go somewhere in public, he stops absolutely everyone and gives them a huge smile, waves and says, "Hello!"

And once they say Hello back, he gives them another wave and says, "Bye-Bye" before moving to the next table or group of people.

We went to Dave & Buster's this weekend (a restaurant) and it took almost 20 minutes to get out the door. And he had a full-on fan club by the end.

=)

MonkeyShirtedHamslice

Our little Hamslice is turning into a little kid now, so I guess I should stop referring to him as our baby.

He's started talking a bit, but doesn't quite get all of the words right yet. More like he'll shout out a syllable from a word instead of saying the whole thing. Right now "Monkey" is "moh moh"

I have discovered, to my chagrin that there are combinations of words that could be misinterpreted during this phase. For instance "Blue Socks" comes out like "Buh Sh**" and so on.

In other news, I've also discovered that chicken nuggets (purchased for Hamslice) are the new bane of my dietary existence. I can eat three platefuls myself before he has even one bite. What is it about the nuggets? Sometimes I dream about their breading and how the chicken grease runs down my chin when I bite into them. I need an intervention.

BuildingOutTheShed

A few of you have been asking how the buildout is coming next door. Here's a picture, we've been able to frame in most of it, and there's siding on two walls so far. I can't complain, really.

Yesterday I came home from work to find Hambone on a ladder in our current kitchen (not part of the build) bashing the ceiling out. Evidently now we are putting in a temporary wall in the existing house so we can cut a giant hole in the wall between the houses. If I understood Hambone correctly, there will be 9 foot holes in our walls open to the other side prior to the construction being finished.

Also, it now turns out we're renovating our current house too.

Stay tuned...

HamsliceEmployee

Hambone couldn't resist getting Hamslice a company jacket. Here he is all decked out as the newest member of Hawkeye Construction. So cute.

HamsliceRodeo

Last weekend, Hambone and I took Hamslice to Port Discovery, a children's museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. There were lots of fun climbing toys there and a water display that I'm sure Hamslice would still be playing in if we hadn't dragged him home.

Here's a picture of him in the Cowboy exhibit. It turns out that he likes cows much more than horses. He ran up and hugged the cows and kissed them on the noses, while he seemed skeptical of the horses.

yesSIR

Now that Hamslice is talking more and more, I'm learning that we have, indeed, spawned a little smart alec. For example, yesterday he ate his oatmeal too fast and burned his tongue. After much "To-Do" about it, he looked right at me with real anger and said "Mommy" as though I had fed it to him myself on purpose.

We're also getting into the capers and hijinks of an 18 month old. He especially likes to imitate Hambone and me when we do things like slam our fingers in drawers. He listens to how we say "OW" and then for the next hour, we hear "Ow. Ow. Ow" as he apes us from the other room. Gales of laughter between the imitations, mind you.

If Mom were alive, I am sure she'd say "Well? What did you expect? He's YOUR kid."

MoreNephewPics

BenjaminThomas

Last night Kiddo and Mrs. Kiddo had their baby, named Benjamin Thomas. Gorgeous little guy...

ANTICIPATION

I just heard that Kiddo and his wife are in the hospital having their baby today. I can't wait for pictures!!! When I get them, I'll post them here so you can all see =)

AHomeforHamslice

This weekend it warmed up in Baltimore to the mid-sixties and we all got a taste of spring. To that end, we went to Target and bough Hamslice a little lawn chair with a cow face and ears on the backrest. It's his new favorite -- he brings it from room to room with him, and sits in it to eat, watch TV and color. Of course, he can't sit in it without his John Deere hat, no way.



In other news, we're making some progress on the Shed build out. In this picture you can see our brand spanking new footers that were poured at the end of last week. From here it will go quickly. (you can hear me laughing, right?)



Here it is from the other side...

HamsliceGrowingHair

See? The hair is coming back.

What's not coming back is my ability to write titles for these posts in English. As soon as I put spaces between the words, the font changes to SandScrit or something.

Anyway, for all you Hamslice junkies, here he is:

TheRealSlimHamSlice

On Sunday, after taking an Iron pill, I decided it was time for HamSlice to get his first "Big Boy" haircut. I got out the shears and gave him a quick little buzz. I thought it was cute, however HamBone was completely undone.

HamBone was caught a little by surprise, because I did the haircut without giving him enough warning. I think he's still a little peeved.

Now our cutie little HamSlice looks a little bit like Eminem, which is a bit of an adjustment for everyone. The ladies at daycare screamed when I took off his hat this morning. I think they're still rubbing his little bald head.

FullyFurnishedHamslice

So we realized this weekend that our house, while absolutely littered with kid toys, is really filled with grownup only furniture. Poor Hamslice tried to color a little bit but couldn't find a good place -- the floor wasn't good because his feet were in the way, and the table was too tall. (Plus Mom kept getting all hyper about crayons on the wood)

So today we went to Ikea to find some furniture just for Hamslice. We got him a tiny toy chest, a table and chairs, and a markerboard/chalkboard Easel.

He was a happy boy

Merry Xmas Hamslice

We took Hamslice to see Santa again this year, this time Uncle Kiddo and his wife (and bun in the oven!)

Looks like somebody still doesn't like the jolly old guy. One of these years we'll get a smiley picture, I'm sure of that.

"I see you"

Little Hamslice has a new phrase! When I say Peek-a-Boo, he says "I see ya." It's the cutest thing, because he has a very matter of fact tone to his voice. Instead of the sing song version that I'm sure they use in daycare, he states it like a fact. I See Ya.

न्यू लिंगो

Ohhhh kayyyy. For whatever reason, this blog has decided to translate my subject lines in Arabic or something. I'm not sure what to do about this.

On another note, Hamslice has learned a couple new words, including "NO" (his favorite) "Moo" (said when playing with his farm toys) and, much to our delight yesterday evening "Nite Nite"

I sense we're on the verge of great things here.

Marci Shooting Guns

Fun stuff, really.

Teething, oh Joy

Poor little hamslice is getting four new teeth all at the same time -- two of them are molars! He's got the fever and snot factory nose to go with it, and he's just miserable.

In his new condition, he's also decided that the only food he really likes is granola bars. Well, those and GoldFish crackers. I'm getting concerned about nutrition, so I am sneaking healthy food in with this foolishness. For instance, last night we had Mac & Cheese (tastes like GoldFish, so he'll eat it) with peas and tuna mixed in.

Am I in for years of this? Gosh. I am sure I'll run out of tricks before long.

I love Halloween

Halloween with the Hams

So we went shopping for Halloween costumes at Target this weekend, and found some really interesting stuff. As you can see from the photos below, Hamslice liked his Baltimore mouse costume, but did not like the scary dinosaur one. (I think it was supposed to be a mutant ninja turtle?)

Hambone enjoyed his Family Guy costume, but didn't buy it because he said it made his head hot.

It's that time of year again

The air has turned a crisp for fall, and we were finally able to break out the camo sweater that Auntie bet made for him over the winter.

Hamslice likes the sweater a lot, it's very comfy. =) Thanks again Auntie Bet!

OKAY OKAY. Sheesh!

Many of you out there have started haranguing me about putting more pictures of Hamslice up on here. I snapped a whole bunch of pictures of him as he was starting to walk on his own this weekend, here they are in no particular order...

Video your vote -- are you gonna?

This is an interesting thing I saw on YouTube. I wonder if this is possible. Maybe I'll bring my video camera to see if they'll let me grab some footage

Independent Hamslice

This weekend, our little baby boy started standing on his own. He even took a couple of steps forward, although they were mostly designed to keep him from falling. Where does the time go?

Hamslice, Caliente

So I learned yesterday that a 1-year old and Carne Asada do not mix very well. At dinner yesterday, it seemed like a good idea to fry up the Trader Joe's Carne that Hambone had defrosted over the weekend.

Poor Hamslice -- I put a few bites on his plate, and he jammed them all in his mouth right away. He was starving, and I guess it looked like something he wanted to eat.

After about 30 seconds, (when the peppers kicked in, apparently) he spit all of the meat out, started crying and drank 1/2 glass of water. Oh what a bad parent I am.

I made him some chicken nuggets then, so we could get back to bland, but he was suspicious of me. He eventually ate them, but there was a great deal of crying and throwing them around first.

(sigh)

Testing this out

Hi guys, sorry about posting boring work stuff here, just wanted to test out the embedding links from YouTube here

Executive Hamslice

For fun, Hambone bought a toy PDA for Hamslice a few weeks ago. It's very cute, with a dial on the side that moves little fish across the screen, and buttons to push that make it ring, vibrate and chatter.

Hamslice has dabbled with it a bit, but not shown a whole lot of interest. In the mean time, he has ridden home from day care with Hambone every day, and Hambone is glued to his PDA.

Yesterday Hamslice picked up the PDA and shouted "Hewwow!" into it, just like dad. We are so proud.

Hamslice Beach Bum

For the Labor Day holiday, Hambone, Hamslice and I went to Ocean City, MD. The weather was terrific, the surf was up (but not too high) and we had a chance to relax together as a family.

It turns out that none of us are real beach people... for instance, the whole "bathing suit without any other clothes on" thing is really not our bag. Hamslice was the biggest drylander of us all. He was splashed by one wave, and then didn't want to get within 50 feet of the water for the rest of the trip. (sigh)

Our friends the W's came to share the weekend with us, and we had the pleasure of getting to know their four kids a little better. Usually when we see the Ws, they've already put the kids to bed. This was an education in family dynamics and sibling-ness.

Here's a pic of Hamslice on the beach catchin' some rays and chillin' with his toys...

Happy Birthday Hamslice

Yesterday was Hamslice's birthday. We got some nice cards from Uncles and Aunts, and a big bunch of gifts from Grandma T. Here's Hamslice on his new bike and in his new wagon.

My favorite pic is of Hamslice eating his birthday cake =) Happy day, little man...

Here's to the Happy Couple

Yesterday Dad got remarried to a nice woman named Lucille. They seem quite happy together, so I thought I'd put a picture of them up here for those of you who haven't seen them together yet.

They're on their honeymoon in Alaska (or ... probably on their way still) for the next couple of weeks, and then they begin the rest of their lives together.

I hope they are as happy together in the future as they are today.

Otakon 2008, Craziness in the City

Otakon 2008
Originally uploaded by stbjr

This last weekend was Otakon, which is an event at the Baltimore Convention Center where hundreds of teenagers (Gosh I hope they are still young) dress up like their favorite video game character and flock together to talk about their games and other topics.

We didn't know it was Otakon this weekend when Hambone, Hamslice and I started taking a walk around the harbor. Let me just say that the People Watching was exceptional this time around.

Hambone said the City should put out a Freak alert, similar to an ozone alert. That way when Otakon is in town, we would get a radio announcement that the Freak level is RED. Just a bit of warning...