Seven

Amazing to think this picture was taken seven short years ago. Happy birthday, sweet boy.

You heard it here first

Yesterday afternoon I went in for my eight-week prenatal check-up.

Yeah, that's right.

My OB cautioned me it was probably too early for the Doppler to pick anything up, then (mostly to humor me) he tried anyway. It took a minute or two, and then we heard the baby's heartbeat, soft but strong.

Toothsome

On Saturday a good friend of ours threw an 80th birthday bash for her dad at the Museum of Flight, and the invite included free admission to the museum for the day. So we headed out of town bright and early, drove over the pass, did a bit of shopping, had lunch at Duke's on Alki (mmm, mahi tacos!), and then headed to the museum. We did and saw lots of cool stuff, including walking through a retired Air Force One jet, checking out a model of a PBY (my grandpa flew one with the Black Cat Squadron in WWII), learning about the life and career of Amelia Earhart, and Jimmy's favorite, taking a spin in the X-Pilot flight simulator.

The party was finishing up so late, we stayed at a hotel for the night before heading home on Sunday. That morning before we checked out, Jimmy yanked out his third tooth. It's been dangerously loose for several days now, and I think the threat of losing it while eating breakfast gave him the courage to tug it out (he lost his first tooth last fall in a bite of banana and promptly swallowed it).

This morning he came bounding into our bedroom to show off the crisp dollar bill the Tooth Fairly left him. Funny, I remember back in the day feeling like the dime she left me was a veritable fortune, because I could take it to the dairy around the corner and buy a cherry Popsicle all by myself.

Good times.

Another byline

Boston Literary Magazine's spring issue went up today, and with it my poem "Gooseberry Pie". I can tell this is going to be a good week!

Geography according to Jimmy

A few weeks ago Jimmy got a new clock radio. The idea was for him to not only have a visual reminder to help him get his morning chores done on time, but also help him to get up on his own every morning in time to say goodbye to his dad before Jim leaves for work.

The clock radio also has a CD player, so Jim let Jimmy choose from our vast collection of mp3s and burned him a mixed CD. It's pretty eclectic; everything from "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry to "Dancing Queen" by ABBA to "Panama" by Van Halen. One of the songs, which is Jimmy's new favorite, is "Nations of the World", from the cartoon series "The Animaniacs".



For the last week he's been humming it around the house, and this morning it occurred to Jim and I we were missing the educational opportunity this song presented, so we printed up the lyrics and gave them to Jimmy. He disappeared into his room and we could hear him singing the song to himself with great gusto.

About five minutes later he emerged with a look of profound realization on his face.

"Hey, Mom! Panama is a song and a country!"