Hamslice on the Move!

Last night Hamslice started crawling! Hambone and I are so excited... Or, we were until he crawled over to the tv and yanked on the wires. Looks like we're into quite an interesting new phase.

What we were super surprised by was how fast he went. Hmm

Food Fights & Father's Day

This weekend was Fathers' Day, and Hambone and I went out for dinner to celebrate on Saturday night. When I came downstairs from getting ready, I stumbled across this extreme napping event on the sofa. Hambone was pretty pleased with himself for getting Hamslice to sleep.

In other news, we've started having some hilarity around meal times. It turns out that Hamslice and Maggie the Dog have formed an alliance. Their deal goes like this: "Psst... Maggie... I think I'm full now, so I am going to throw all my food down to you. Just wait under my chair and you'll get your share."

Which has been interpreted by Maggie as "I will shuck and jive and do every trick in the book, including panting so loudly I sound like Darth Vader to see if you give me food any sooner, because I just can't wait until you're done."

The thing that irks me about this, is that I had Maggie a loooong time before I met Hambone or gave birth to Hamslice. During these years, I taught Maggie a whole cadre of tricks designed to get attention and delight whomever she's doing them for. So... she knows how to stand on her back legs and give "high five" and roll on her side & hide her eyes, as well as bark on command and several others.

Meal time is now a total circus, complete with at least TWO CLOWNS, and most of it is my own doing.

*sigh*

Hamslice in the Sun

The weather has been absolutely terrific lately, and Hamslice revels in his time outside. Here's a picture of him under our crepe myrtle bushes in the back yard, just drinkin' up the sun...

The Furminator!

To visit our home is to understand what it's like to live with a gigantic, shedding dog.

As most of you know, Maggie the dog is a wonderful, awesome big brown dog. We all love her to pieces, but as Hambone often says, "she's perfect except for the SHEDDING."

While I don't often shill products on the blog here, I would be remiss if I didn't let all my pet owning readers know about the FURMINATOR which is a new-ish de-shedding tool. I guess it pulls the dead undercoat out of the fur in general.

We got one last weekend and *seriously* we pulled two garbage bags worth of shedding off of the Mags, and since then we've only seen minimal shedding for the whole WEEK~!

I want to get everyone one of these. I still can't believe how well it worked, and believe me I have tried Everything else.

Get one!

Dancin' the Night Away

This is fun -- Hamslice has just discovered dancing to music, and it's cracking me and Hambone up.

Because Hanslice can't stand up on his own yet, he sort of bee-bops by bouncing up and down while seated. So far his favorite song is the canned music from his Cookie Jar toy -- we see him playing with the buttons on there and then dancing when the music starts. It's adorable.

Yesterday, we put him on his John Deere baby tractor. The tractor has a button where the sound of the engine starts when you push a button in the steering wheel. Get this: Hamslice started DANCING LIKE CRAZY TO THE THRUMMING OF THE ENGINE.

Hambone and I laughed so hard. I guess a John Deere engine is the sweetest music of all.

Wanting to be BIG

This morning, Hamslice decided that he was officially a big boy. To that end, he wouldn't eat any baby food or cereal -- he only wanted pieces of fruit, Cheerios and american cheese. AND he wanted to put the food in his own mouth, no help from Mom, thank you very much.

I was so surprised, but I have to say it was pretty nice to be able to clean up the kitchen while he fed himself. Hmmm... so it just gets easier from here? (I can hear you all laughing. I'm sure we still have a ways to go)

Hamslice also has decided that he doesn't like having his clothes changed on the changing table anymore. Oh the wailing when he sees me walking toward it.

On the plus side, he's started giving Mommy some kisses and hugs, which is such a nice bonus. Right now his kisses involve him opening his mouth as wide as he can and sucking on the apple of my cheek. Then he bites a little with his two little teeth and grabs big fistfuls of hair.

I'll take it. =)

A Bit of Shameless Promotion

At work, my group just finished work on this golf game that I thought I'd share with you all. It's terribly addicting, so beware...

Golf Game

Hambone as Big 50 Builder!

Yesterday Hambone and I went to Remodeler Magazine's BIG 50 awards, where they honor the top 50 builder/remodelers in the country. On the way to the event, Hambone mentioned that he was one of the award winners. He's subtle like that.

The awards dinner was at the Ritz Carlton, and I have to say it was all very "top notch." Hambone, of course, was unfazed.



Here is the display of his award -- he won for "Niche builder" because of his green philosophy and his historic Baltimore geographic targeting. Here's his Web site



After he received his award, he made a funny face out of his dessert.

Baltimore's Kinetic Sculptures race

Today was the Kinetic Sculptures race and per the norm, Hambone and I took some champagne, OJ and bagels up to Federal Hill park to watch the show. Hamslice came too, but he slept most of the time.

Highlights include (you can see these in the video) the blue Wombat, Fi Fi the poodle, the Pope Mobile and more. The idea is that the sculptures need to be human propelled, and the course takes them up a huge hill and across the Chesapeake Bay. We like to catch them at the top of Federal Hill when they're going slow during the climb.

It's terrific good fun each year. We never miss it.

Downward Facing Hamslice

Big news! Last night Hamslice rolled over in his crib for the first time. When I went to get him this morning, he was doing a near perfect "Upward facing dog" yoga pose. I'd been wondering when he would get around to rolling over, glad to see he's up to the challenge.=)

It seems these advancements come in spurts. He's also trying to figure out how to make different sounds. His newest one is the "inward groan" which sounds a little like this

Hamslice Strikes a Pose

As many of you know, Hamslice can certainly work the camera. Yesterday at breakfast, he was hamming it up big time, so I snapped some pictures. If you play the movie, you can see his super star modeling =)

After breakfast, when he was in his bouncy chair, Maggie came up and shared her rawhide treat with him. All Hambone and I knew was that we looked over at him and he had the rawhide hanging out of his mouth. Interestingly, Hamslice really REALLY didn't want to give us the rawhide. His little teeth were clamped on that thing so hard -- it took a few minutes to get it away from him.

In other news, The Ham Family will be traveling to Michigan for the 4th of July holiday. All of you out there that want to take us out for breakfast can write in and we'll save a time slot for yeh.

See you all soon!

Little Ebes version

Little Ebes made this version of the video -- it's adorable!

Thank you Auntie Bet!

My brother and his wife came to visit us last weekend, and they brought a sweater that Auntie Bet had knit for Hamslice.

It's the most adorable thing, knit from camouflage patterned yarn. It's the perfect thing for a little tough guy. For now it's a bit too big, so we are looking forward to him sporting it in the fall as he rides his John Deere plastic lawn tractor around the cement pad in the back yard.

Thanks Auntie Bet!

One more time with My version of Sound

A couple of Hamslice fans have offered to put music behind the air guitar video. I can't wait to see how these videos look =)

To stay with them all, I've taken a crack at this too. Here's Hamslice playing Air Guitar to Guns N Roses.

Hamslice as Air Guitar Champion

Last weekend we all went out for lunch in a rather rowdy restaurant. Lots of '80s heavy guitar music there...

Hambone pointed at Hamslice and mentioned that it looked like he was playing air guitar along with the music. I'll be doggoned but I believe he's right. Click the video -- someday I'll put music to it, but for now here's the visual anyway.

Air guitar enthusiasts, look out.

Yes! Michigan

Last weekend Hamslice got a whole new batch of clothes from Auntie Nina to fit his growing body. This new size (12-18 months) made me wonder what was hanging out in the closet for him in this size.

When I peeked, I was quite pleased to see that his University of Michigan outfit now fits like a glove.

How nice that I can now balance out the Iowa Hawkeyes paraphernalia that he's been sporting since birth.

Go Wolverines!

Hamslice for President

I do believe Hamslice has been inspired by the presidential race. Yesterday when I was snapping some pictures for Grandma T, he gave me this very "commander in chief" pose.

Hmmm. Maybe there are big things ahead of him =)

Becoming Friends

Miss Maggie Moo and Hamslice have regarded each other with great curiosity from afar to this point. Last weekend they started to interact a little more, where Maggie would give Hamslice a tiny lick on the cheek, and receive huge smiles and giggles.

On Sunday, Hamslice reached out to Maggie and grabbed one of her lips in each fist. She was so sweet... she just stood there waiting for him to let go. Since then, however, she's faster with the kisses and doesn't stand within grabbing range.

And so it goes.

Hamslice, Extra Large

When we went to the doctor the other day, the doctor took his height, weight, and head circumference. I watched closely as he charted them on the "Normal" graph. Hamslice has a perfectly normal sized head, and weight that's in the 75th percentile (which is still in the normal range, according to the arcs that indicate normal on his chart).

However, when we got to height, Hamslice wasn't even CLOSE to the normal range. He must be three or four inches taller than other babies his age. I mean, the dot on the chart was way out in space above the arc of "normal."

This makes a lot of sense to me, because when I look at Hamslice in the crib, I can't help but think, "Man. With a body like that you should be walking. What's up?"

See how he's almost outgrown his pack-N-play already? He is growing about an inch a month!

Just call me "Bob"

Lately both Hambone and I have abandoned our quests to get Hamslice's first word to be "boogers" and "boom," respectively. Hambone heard me coaching Hamslice to say "Mama," which prompted a counter-campaign for "Dada."

Yesterday morning, I went to get Hamslice for breakfast. He rolled over in the crib, gave me the most brilliant smile and called me "Bob."

Since then he has called out for "Bob" a couple of times.

I hope he knows how much his "Bob" loves him.