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...

Why we love and hate car seats

So we totally understand that car seats are designed to keep our little Hamslice safe if there were ever an accident. We are thankful for this protection and for the new LATCH system that provides even more safety by strapping the seat into the car in such a way that it doesn't wobble, and the hooks holding the seat in place are underneath and between the seats of the car.

But, there is a bit of a yin-yang present here. While Hamslice is safe, he is also seated backward, which leads to car sickness.

And, when he does throw up in the car (think the Barf-o-Rama from the movie Stand by Me) it projects onto the back seats of my car. That way, the stench will live in the car forever...heated by the sun.

AND, in order to remove the car seat to clean it, I get to shove my hand INTO the barf in order to undo the latches underneath and between the seats of the car.

And this, my friends, is why we love and hate car seats.

Hamslice at Artscape

This weekend was Artscape in Baltimore, and lots of people came out in the 96+ degree heat to celebrate the arts in the city. Hambone and I walked up there from our house with Hamslice in the stroller. Along the way, we ran across this rat board that of COURSE we had to play with



We did start to overheat after the long walk to the festival and the sight seeing at the thing itself, so we stopped by the fountain in front of MICA (Maryland institute for the creative arts) to splash around and cool off a little. It was a fun day

What's in a Name

So our son is so adorable with his sticky-up hair and bright smiles that many of the ladies taking care of him during the day have made nicknames for him. They range from variations on his given name (adding "Man" to the end) and so on.

His favorite caretaker calls him "boo butt" and takes great pride in the fact that he answers to that name.

Now that Hamslice is crawling, it's getting more important to get his attention. When we call his name now, he doesn't respond. It's like he doesn't recognize it. Sometimes we try the other variations, but the only one that consistently gets his attention is
"boo butt."

We're so proud.

Gratuitous Hamslice-age

I know I'm seeing many of you in a couple of days, but for those who aren't in the greater Michigan area, here are some pictures to help tide you over for a while.

This one here is documentation of the ongoing food circus at the house of Ham. See how Hamslice is reaching out to Maggie for a quick pet? Well, there's probably food all over his little hand as part of the bargain.



AND here's Hamslice looking pretty smug about the little deal he has going. See Maggie? She's also pretty pleased.



Here's Hamslice striking a pose with dinner all over his face, hair, bib, chair, and me.

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.

Getting to be an Old Pro

Yesterday I went to Wegman's to pick up some food for Hamslice. When I arrived in the baby food aisle, I noticed a fellow skulking off to the side. I walked right past him, grabbed the juice and Gerber's step 1 food, and went on my way.

In thinking about this, it seemed clear that the skulking fellow was a new dad. Boy didn't I look like the expert just breezing right through the baby products like I'd been doing it for years. That thought made me laugh right out loud, because not two weeks ago it was ME skulking around, waiting to see what everybody else bought so I could see what was the right stuff to get.

I wondered if he had the same desperate envy that I had. Early on in the "real food" process, I really had hoped that the selection would be a little more intuitive. I was jealous of anyone who looked like they knew what they were doing.

So now I guess I've figured a little bit out. But I'm not getting cocky about it. Not this early anyway.

Chillin' with Hamslice

Our little Hamslice caught a cold that morphed into a sinus/ear infection over the past few days. He was a sick little boy, and he only wanted to spend time with Hambone.

Here's Hambone showing me that "this fatherhood thing is a piece of cake."

Hamslice Ad Guru

One of my coworkers mentioned yesterday that Hamslice looks a bit like the Lee Jeans Icon "Buddy Lee". I looked this up today, and have to say the comment has a little merit. What do you guys think?

Cutest Baby EVER

There's nothing particularly new this week, except for a super adorable picture of Hamslice. We all went to the craft show this weekend, so he got to see lots of colored glass and crafts. Some of the vendors there said it would be good for his brain. I hope so.

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick...BOOM!

Yesterday I discovered that Hamslice is a big fan of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. We were listening to our IPod during breakfast, and the song "Boom, Shake Shake the Room" came on and Hamslice started laughing and laughing. Later, when he was fussy before bed I sang a little of it to him, and he perked right up with a huge grin.

Meanwhile, the ladies at day care are teaching him nice, practical things like how to drink from a bottle by himself. Seems to me that I am now the "bad" influence in his life. I think it's more fun to be on this side.

Strike a Pose

I was in the back seat with Hamslice this Saturday and snapped three pictures in a row -- what a range of expressions this guy has now. My Goodness

Surprising New Development

Hamslice is now in the phase (I am sure this is the first of many) where he seems to be actively trying to freak Hambone and me out. When we change his diaper, and are reaching for powder or a new diaper or what have you, he turns his arms completely backward so that his palms face toward the ceiling.

The first time he did it was with Hambone. And poor Hambone was so freaked out he didn't even tell me about it because he thought he had injured Hamslice.

When he did it to me, I thought for sure I had dislocated his shoulder and was racked with guilt. I told Hambone and he started laughing and told me about how he had seen the same thing.

I see we're in for quite a ride here. With such a sweet little face, it's surprising to know there's a stinker in there somewhere.

Fear Factor Cheese Night

For Christmas this year, Hambone bought me a subscription to the Cheese of the Month club, which was so sweet because I DO LOVE CHEESE.

The first shipment came to Hambone's office last week. He had it shipped there so he could surprise me with the actual cheeses. This round was all artisan soft cheeses, which tend to be a little...fragrant.

During that afternoon, one of Hambone's vendors came in, and said in a stage whisper, "I think something died in your office."

Later in the evening Hambone described the cheese aroma as "a dead rat wrapped in a dirty diaper." But, we were really curious to see what it would taste like, so we dared each other into taking a taste. We dubbed the event " Fear Factor Cheese Night. "

It was actually rather tasty, if you didn't smell it first. We ate most of it in a race between our tongues and our noses.

Ah, the things you do for love.

Gratuitous Hamslice Pic

Hamslice is getting bigger all the time. Recently he's grown into his 9 month clothes and shows no signs of slowing down.

He is also starting to figure more stuff out. For instance, he knows that if he whines long enough, *I* will pick him up. And he knows that Hambone probably won't. He has different jokes for the two of us as well. It's pretty amazing if you asked me.

Porking it up with Kiddo

This weekend my brother "Kiddo" came to town and went Wild Russian Boar hunting with Hambone.

They got a good one (Kiddo tried the Maim-then-kill technique) and on Sunday we processed it into a couple of ham steaks, lots of sausage, and four killer racks of ribs.

Here's a picture of Kiddo making sausage. We make all our guest chefs wear that apron. =)