Garden of Words

The Baby Factory: Dinner Out

We're at the point as parents where it's really easy to let the whims of toddler life continue to pull our chains and run our lives. Knowing us, we're going to err on the chain and running side of that equation, but it was nice to go out for dinner with friends recently. Adam and Tracy called late in the afternoon -- their son, Carter, had not napped all day. Would we be interested in meeting at Kitchen 64 for an early dinner?

The pragmatists in our house (i.e., all of us) almost ruled the day and punted on the invite. Fortunately, they lost the vote and out we went. Carter, who is about Thea's age, did great. Thea required multiple walks around the parking lot.

But Nikole and I both had a drink, a good meal and time to connect with our friends. Which is a bit more than we allowed ourselves for Thea's first year in our lives.

The Baby Factory: Out!

This might be one of my favorite recent photos of Thea, snapped on Nikole's iPhone minutes before they were slated to pull up in front of our house -- and after Thea threw an almighty, not going to take a nap tantrum.

The Baby Factory: Gates and Goats

We spent a gorgeous afternoon at Maymont. When we got home, Thea and I spent time reconstructing our visit like so:

Me: What did the goats say?

Thea: Maaaaaa!

Thea: Gate! Gate! Gate!

Me: Did the goats go through the gate?

Thea: Run! Run!

Me: The goats ran through the gate?

Thea: Dinner!

Me: To get their dinner?

And, in fact, they opened the gates to the goat pen just after we arrived. The goats ran down a sidewalk to the barn to get their dinner.

The walking did not wear her out. We're well into hour two of trying to get her down tonight. (Hour two of night two, in case you think we're relaxed and rested.)

The Baby Factory: Be Nice

Thea's latest hobby is pulling the door shut behind her, and standing quietly between the door and the storm door. I'll say, "Where's Thea?" and she'll swing the door open for the big reveal. When I ask her where she's going, she replies, "Work!" And when she gets tired of playing this particular game and I ask her where she's going, she says, "Home!" and runs off to find a more interesting activity.

The sign she's blocking says "Be Nice or Leave".

The Baby Factory: Get Your Motor Running

It wasn't intentional, but the best possible move we could have made as unsuspecting parents-to-be (or I could have made as an unsuspecting husband-to-be) was to have settled into our little cottage in Richmond's Northside directly across the street from a relatively new elementary school.

One word: playground.

Or as Thea describes it with her New York-esque style of abbreviation (think Soho, Tribeca) -- the "po go".

The po go is almost a daily stop, even though Thea requests visits throughout the day. Even when it's raining. (We managed to get there between showers yesterday just to placate her.)

It's quite the neighborhood destination, and is usually packed around 4:00 on weekday afternoons and during sunny weekends. Sometimes, though, it is satisfyingly desolate.

On most days, Thea is content to simply kick around in the mulch, running and wandering from slide to slide to tunnel. She doesn't ignore the other kids -- in fact, she watches them like a hawk, studying their every move as if she's planning to one day seize control of the playground crew. And she's certainly not anti-social -- she has the names of dozens of her playmates memorized, and likes to fondly recite their names on our morning father-daughter strolls (with dog).

She loves the slides, especially the ones that are really high. (She does lower herself to her bottom three feet away from the drop-off and gingerly scoot herself to the edge before sliding down. Daring, but cautious.)

She also loves mulch, and is at the age where we're constantly having to assess whether we're being uptight jackasses or caring parents when we tell her to stop eating bark. To her credit, Nikole is very relaxed about her splashing about in dirt and mud and water. I, on the other hand, am a mild control freak. (I know. What a surprise.)

On October 17, I'll be a team leader at our elementary school as part of Hands On Day, a volunteer effort that is placing hundreds of volunteers on dozens of community projects around Richmond. It'll feel good to replace some of that mulch.

The Baby Factory: Labor Day on the Bay

Work and a host of other factors -- including our inability to schedule our lives around the sleep cycles of a baby who changes her sleep cycles more frequently than diapers -- meant that we only spent about 30 hours in Deltaville over Labor Day weekend.

But we had a great visit with Nikole's family, including her brother and sister-in-law and their full-on ball of toddler energy, Baker. Baker is two months older than Thea, and this past weekend was their first real interactive time together.

It may have been warm enough for the kids to get in the water, but the Bay was pretty choppy for much of the weekend and it wasn't exceptionally hot. Which was fine by us. Thea and Baker spent plenty of time digging around in the sand, and didn't seem to miss splashing in the water.

We kept filling the blue coffee containers with water. Baker enjoyed the quiet life of a research anaylyst, content to add sand to the water-filled buckets. Thea had other things in mind -- like pouring the water out as soon as someone set another full bucket down nearby.

Nekkid babies! Now this is the life -- if you're under five.

Or maybe this is the life. Baker seemed to enjoy his new career as a driver for Thea.

Proof that I smile. And that Thea is inherently cute. It just seems to come naturally to her, this cuteness.

Happy girls in the setting sun.

A little trick her Uncle Matt taught her.

I can just sense trouble down the road. Say 14 years from now.

The Baby Factory: Melon Machine

Since it's one of three foods that Thea is not allergic to, we've taken to stripping her naked and giving her a whole watermelon to play with during the day. The rinds we pickle for winter snacks.

One Word: Knot

One Word. You have 60 seconds. Start writing. Today's word: knot.

A simple slip, a bit of practice, the art of looping and then dissembling until something is strung together, becoming words and some semblance of a forgotten phrase about time, and energy and the connection between things that hold together with the most slender of threads, that hold us together still.