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...

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.