Playing hot potato, I mean, baby

Yesterday was the first day of the Ann Arbor Art Fairs and, as in years past, we braved the teeming masses for an afternoon of art and heat.  This has long been a tradition for Jon's family and is one that we have come to enjoy.  Yes, count us among the population of locals who really enjoy the Art Fair, in spite of the traffic and crowding it unleashes on the city.  Of course, this year the visit provided a different kind of art for the extended family to enjoy - the newest member of the family.  In fact, the party game during lunch, and again during the after Fair party, was Hot Potato, with Calvin playing the part of the potato, of course (for evidence of said game see all the new pictures in his week five photo album).  Ultimately, we enjoyed the Art Fair as usual, avoided buying any art as usual, and really savored the food at the after party as usual, all with Calvin (who mostly slept) in tow.  Don't worry, Calvin, you will get to enjoy all the tasty food indirectly.

By the way - can you find Calvin in these pictures?  We'll give you a hint - he's ensconced in high tech sun protection and baby wearing gear.

Calvin in live action!

It's amazing how quickly Calvin is changing, and just recently we have found ourselves getting to the really good part - the part where he is still pretty easy to get along with, but beginning to really respond to us and to his environment. He started smiling over two weeks ago, and added giggles last week, then just a few days ago he started to grab at things, perhaps mostly by accident but he is beginning to work more with his extremities, that's for sure! Though we have nearly an hour of what would be categorized as fairly boring footage by most folks, the following is about a 90 second snippet of some of our favorite moments. We especially like how, in the final seconds of the clip, Calvin gets frustrated trying to maneuver the giraffe and takes it out on the elephant: "what are you looking at? I'll just bop you in the face and then you won't laugh at me anymore for not being able to chew on this giraffe! Hah!"

Yep, we're townies

With the Art Fair looming around the corner, many of the actual locals, or "townies" in A2-speak, are packing up and heading out, if they haven't already. Then there are those who choose to stay and fight for their rights to the town - hence the second annual "townie" party. Well, even though we're now in the outlying township, we still feel like we've never moved away, and being a "townie" is just a state of mind, anyway. So, it was off to the "Ingalls Mall" (who knew that space in front of Rackham had a name?) to celebrate with the rest of the bunch. It turns out that townies are a weird crowd, from the barefoot hippies to the standard local character Shakey Jake to the absolutely unusual at-least-80-year-old man wearing a white top hat but no shirt. But we guess that we fit in alright - we had a dancing baby on the tabletop, after all. Curtis joined us for dinner as well. We all felt badly for the Dutch carillon player up in Burton Tower whose concert of classical bell tolling had to compete for sonic attention with the RFD Boys. Ah, well - we'll have to make it back to another concert in that series later in the summer. We topped off the night by passing the near-empty not-so-local Ben & Jerry's to wait in a local line at local Stucchi's for a local root beer float. In the words of Curtis, holler at your local!

Ice fishing and playing in the sprinkler

It was 95 degrees outside this afternoon.  Even our air conditioned house was hot and the dogs were less than enthusiastic so Jon thought he would help them out a little by keeping their drinking water cool with ice cubes.  No such luck.  The ice cubes lasted all of 30 seconds - maybe - before Ollie came loping away from his cool spot in front of the air vent and tactfully fished out one cube after another, leaving a very wet trail between the bowl and the kitchen floor where he ate each one.  But that wasn't our only run in with water today.  In the heavy evening air we decided to water our parched lawn.  Since one of our sprinkler heads was askew Jon thought he would fix it while it was running so he'd know when it was right.  Again, no such luck.  The head proved determined to remain misaligned, and Jon returned looking as though he had fallen in a pool somewhere.  Not a bad idea given the weather, though.

And, in baby news - Calvin has just outgrown the newborn diapers and will now be wearing the size ones.  Calvin is excited about this, but we find it both sad and exciting in the same breath.  Things happen too fast - tomorrow he'll be asking to borrow the car!!!

Just Calvin having Saturday fun

Calvin wants you to know that being a baby is hard work - you don't even get the weekends off!  It's Saturday afternoon and already he has played games, eaten, endured several diaper changes, and napped - twice!

Playing the "standing" game (likes to stand, but needs help with balance).

 
Smiling in the magic fingers (read: bouncy chair)

 Hearing a story before naptime in the nursery