I'm back

I've been gone for a while I know, but we were out of town, the camera was on the fritz, etc, etc. Now we are back in the Classic City and anticipate being here for a while.

In the past week I've been at both my grandparents' houses. Actually it isn't 'both' because I have four grandparents. Nonetheless, I was spoiled rotten, and am now having a hard time going back to our family-wide grad student life style.

As you can see, one of my most recent pleasures was running into this Elmo doll at Yia Yia's house. It has a paci just like mine, and I feel certain that I am more deserving of the opportunity to enjoy it than Elmo is.

Don't worry Connor. "We" decided to leave it at Yia Yia's so that we could all enjoy it when we are there. 

day five twentysomething

No new pictures, for once again, the camera batteries be dead. Argh. But I'm maintaining the status quo, going to school twice a week, maintaining a constant diet of Baby Einstein and juice, and growing my hair back to its optimal length. I'm also soothing a stressed out dad in the midst of interview season, and a fatigued mom, in the midst of pregnancy season. Where would they be without me?*

The response to my new web movie has been outstanding - three people vetted it, so I think it is OK for me to put the link here.

Also, we are getting close to 8,000 hits here at the Barritt page. Look out google. Look out lonely girl.





*(the actual answer to this is probably "somewhere other than inside the house after 7 pm every single day")

Big George

Some say that I haven't really been keeping the fair weather cycling fans up to date adequately on my blog - there have been private inquiries about my feelings for the whole Landis affair, about Levi Leipheimer's move to Discovery next year, and about my dad's continually increasing fitness, speed and power. This isn't the forum to address any of those things, because they aren't really about me.

But, in a rare divergence from policy, I have to give kudos to Big George Hincapie today. He's had a rough year, crashing out in Paris-Roubaix and not really doing anything in the TdF. But today he won the US Pro in his adopted hometown of Greenville, SC, and will get to wear the stars and bars jersey for the next year. Hopefully there will be tiny replicas of said jerseys available in Greenville, and hopefully Cam and Thomas will want to send one to their friends. Wink wink. (I'm only 16 mos and 25 days, but I wear 18-24 mos. size right now).

Anyhoo, way to go George. This is the greatest thing to happen to Greenville since they built that wall around Bob Jones University.

day five fifteen - the first cut

before:



















during:
















after:

Did someone say....new shoes?

 

day five eleven - School's in forever

today is my first day of school. Sort of. It's called Mother's Morning Out and it is at the church down the street. Presumably it is going to be a lot like when mom and dad go to church on Sundays, but this time I'll be in the nursery for three hours. (For those of you who were curious, mom and dad aren't pentecostals - were they, I'd be used to being in the nursery for 3 hours). So, that means three times the goldfish and three times the juice of the normal one hour sentences I get at church. Also, it probably means three times the destruction as I throw toys and turn over bassinets for an eighth of a day.

I got new shoes for school at Target yesterday. They are sweet. Pictures should be forthcoming. Maybe after I get my first paid-for haircut this weekend.

I'll be sorry for this later

Dee Doll just mailed me this picture from the last time I was at her house.

A little explanation:

I was in the tub, relaxing, thinking how nice it would be to read The Grand Inquisitor chapter from the Brothers Karamazov again. I became myopic, and the thought became an obsession - to the point that I jumped out of the tub and pulled off every book I could lay my hands on until I found it.

I never found it. 

day four ninetytwo

Time is flying, and I have very few pictures to show for it. Mom says she took some that might be going up soon.

My paternal grandparents (Dee Doll and Papa Jim) came down and spoiled me this past weekend - took me out to eat, played with me, and all that good stuff. They were amazed at my vocabulary, or at least my understanding. They'd say "bring me the yellow ring" and I'd go pick it up and bring it to them.

Some of you may say that because I have never used the words 'bring,' 'me,' 'the,' 'yellow,' or 'ring' that this isn't really part of my vocabulary. Balderdash. I'm choosing the right time to bring them out. In that way, it's a lot like wine. Would you rather have Sutter Home or Chateau La Tour?

Exactly.

day four eightyone

Time keeps slippin away for the B-man. Summer is like that movie Groundhog Day, with each day pretty much like the rest, but for an undulating nap schedule. It's been really hot here, so we've been inside a lot. But there is a new show that I've really started to like, and miraculously, it is scheduled every day at just the point where my cabin fever is manifesting itself in raw agitation. It's called Baby Einstein. I don't know when it comes on at your house, but you should keep an eye out for it.

We do have a few pictures, though there haven't been any real pictureworthy events lately (but isn't life really lived between "events"?).

Here's me wearing the team gear while I watched Oscar Friere as he pipped Zabel at the line in yesterday's HEW Cyclassics Race in Hamburg:
















And for those of you who don't care about cycling, here is me eating beans:

















And if you find yourself with a few minutes free, give a listen to my favorite of the recent Fresh Air interviews, where you meet Darrell Scott and his dad.

day fourseventyfour - Clairvoyance

So I was looking over the blog, rereading things I've read before, just like all of my loyal readers do when they are bored and yours truly hasn't been keeping the masses entertained with new posts. So I read over to the right that I can communicate with babies in utero. Well, that was all I needed to try to find out a little more about my coming sibling.

Here's basically how it works. I take the hat that mom knit a few weeks ago - see two or three posts down - and pull it down all the way over my eyes. Then I can summon said sibling. Here is what I learned:

"At 4 1/2 inches long (head to bottom) and 3 1/2 ounces, I am about the size of an avocado. In the next three weeks, I'll go through a tremendous growth spurt, though, doubling my weight and adding inches to my length. My lower limbs are much more developed now. My head is more erect than it has been, and my eyes have moved toward the front of my head. My ears are close to their final position, too. I'm even growing toenails."

I was a bit nonplussed by that bit of information. It was so, um, impersonal. Like it came right off the internet. So I asked more pointed questions, like, "do your prefer PCs or Macs?" and "are you a boy or a girl?"

But the kid turned on me and started asking me questions, like "why won't you stop headbutting mom in the stomach?" and "why do you need brown bear, brown bear read to you six times a day?"

We are going to have some issues.

PS - speaking of my clairvoyance/summoning powers, please look back and see my post of July 1. I called that Floyd was going to win. Ha. If any of you made any money betting on this, I'd like my cut.

day four sixtynine - My Summer Reading

 

This happens to be me reading Chick on the Go. Predictable, and somewhat sentimental, but it is sort of the book equivalent of comfort food. I'm also reading:

Goodnight Gorilla - a huge book, conceptually and literally (it's like 16x20)
I Spy: Little Wheels
Baby Blessings Bible
Damn Good Dawg: The True Story of Uga VII
Let's Go Visiting
Where's My Baby
Blindness, Jose Saramago
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?
Death Comes to the Archbishop, Willa Cather (thanks Aunt Millie, it's coming back ASAP)

Anything else I should read before the hustle and bustle of fall is upon us? 

day foursixty - what is this?

I found this the other day on the kitchen table, and immediately asked mom what it was. But since my vocabulary is limited to sign language for 'light' and 'more', verbal approximations of 'bye bye', and a few animal sounds, she wasn't really understanding my question. She just got up and ran to the bathroom. I followed her in there, and lovingly slammed the toilet lid on her head, thinking she was playing a new game of hide and seek with enhanced gutteral sounds.

I never got my question answered, but I remain certain that there is some mischief afoot.

day fourfortyfive - my new angry/tough guy face

It is so hard to look tough when you're wearing a fuzzy pink hat.
Someone has to model mom's knitting for her...

day fourforty - Armageddon

OMG!!!! Just 24 hours away from my second Tour de France, the first Lanceless tour in eight years, and my world comes tumbling down. Here I had been saving my nickels and dimes (literally - I crawl into the laundry room and the dirty clothes hamper and take the coins out of mom and dad's pockets) and had been betting dilligently on MrBookmaker.com, placing all of my hopes and aspirations on Basso. I was really counting on this to pay off, maybe even to cover tuition for my first year at Williams College. Or Amherst, Chris.

And then, BAM: http://velonews.com/tour2006/news/articles/10176.0.html

This is like one of those moments you always remember. My dad was at home sick that day the space shuttle exploded (the first one). My grandparents were at school when JFK got shot. And I was walking around the living room wildly swinging a yardstick when I found out about this. (NB - the yardstick swinging was not in response to the story, swinging the yardstick is rather indicia of my own happiness and contentedness.)

Regardless, all that talk about the rising surge of American talent may come to fruition now. George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer are definitely contenders. But if I can find anymore money between now and tomorrow's prologue, it's going on the world's fastest Mennonite, Floyd Landis.

Any other takers? Free money. Pete Rose Style.

also, as promised

 
 
 
  

as promised

 
 
 
  

back from the beach

Last year this was me at the beach:



Me, this year, the same beach:





We had some big times, especially Cousin Connor and me



but we didn't take too many pictures, given that we are all relying on getting copies of the pictures YaYa took with her new kick-heiny camera:



So - when YaYa delivers the goods, I'll share all of our doings, for good and evil. There may even be nudity.

day fourtwenty

You'd be amazed how busy a summer can be. I thought it was going to be easy street - days by the pool, dusks of sipping umbrella drinks, sleeping 12 hours a night. Well, some of those things have happened - I do sleep 12 hours these days, at least when I am at home. But the days slip by, and at the end I am busy and exhausted, and can't really account for what I have accomplished that day. For example:

Diary, June 6: woke up, ate Kix and banana. watched that show about the sloth on PBS. what is a sloth? whined a little bit to indicate boredom/sleepiness. Took a nap (2 hrs). Woke up. Ate bean salad, yogurt, half of sweet potato. Them mom and dad pretended that one was reading to me, but while the other was attempting to cut my hair.

I do enjoy being 2 lbs lighter now that they cut off most of my locks. Anyway, then I played with stacking rings and toy cell phone. Then I attempted to use the high chair as a battering ram to knock down the baby gate leading upstairs.

Whined again. Took nap (2 hrs). Woke up. Ate chicken, green beans, shells and cheese. Was driven around neighborhood in stroller. Took bath. Went to bed (12 hrs).

So basically, I eat, sleep, and play a little in between. This isn't really that different from what I was doing this time last year.

day four'o'four - Come thou long expected Biped

Well, the day has finally come. I can really walk - hardwoods, carpet, grass - makes no difference to me.

You don't believe me?

Believe it. Note, however, that dad didn't realize you can't rotate lil' movies the way you can rotate digital picture files. Just cock your head to the right. In fact, those of you who can read lips behind pacis can see me mouthing, "No dad, turn the camera."

NB - there ain't no sound

more pictures are coming

I can't find the camera, so we don't have any new pictures. We'll find it this weekend I assure you. News of the week is that I'm walking. Not really like my younger, precocious cousin Connor (notice I didn't say 'more precocious'). He's rambling all over the house, judging from the innumerable internet movies his proud (duly) parents continue to send (taunt us with). My steps are calculated - completely efficient and rational. If I need to get from mom to dad, and the distance is less than 4 feet, I'll walk. There's hardly room or time to get down and crawl. If I need to go from the armoire to the sofa, I may walk. Otherwise, it is still much faster to use the 'My Left Foot' crawl that many of you have seen.

OK. Have to go. We're going out to lunch at a restaurant that actually sells tater tots. Never had them before, but I'm expecting big things.

day threeninetysix

So this is what grass is like? We have green stuff in our yard at home, but it has lots of clovers and sticks and pecan shells and rocks and patches of dirt in it. I thought I knew a good reference point for the word 'verdant.' Now there is a whole new understanding since I played in my YaYa's yard.

By the way, does anyone know how to give a 13 month old a haircut? I'll be home tomorrow. You can come over and give me one then. Or you can just leave suggestions.

day threeeightynine

There aren't going to be any pictures for a little bit. I'm on a road trip with mom. We took off to give dad a little space to study for his exams. And it seems that when his creative juices aren't flowing, mine aren't either. So . . .

I know. If you haven't already, you can watch this, and entertain yourself until I come back with hot new pics and witty commentary.

http://www.thankyoustephencolbert.org/

Try to watch the videos, if you haven't seen them.

In truthiness,

Barritt

day threeeightyone

Dad's away at school studying for exams, and mom is momentarily disposed with finding a broom.






In the meanwhile, I'll help myself to some Cheerios . . .






. . . and I think I'll make a chicken quesadilla.

New Post coming soon

We've got some great pictures coming, but we just need to decide which ones to use. Don't give up on us.

day threeseventytwo

I was a little miffed by the lack of birthday comments I received, but I suppose many of you are timid and apprehensive of leaving comments on the world wide web, believing that somehow your personal identity or credit card information could be stolen by such risky activities.

Anyway, it's been hot and sunny in the classic city, and I fortunately have a roof on the modified rickshaw that my parents are constantly toting me around in. The pictures are for all of you, both the savvy and the wary.



Go ahead. Leave a comment. No one is watching.

Happy Birthday to Me - now do we start over with counting days, or keep going?

365 days ago, I was born. Where has the time gone? What was I doing a year ago today, you must be asking yourself? Furthermore, what have you spent the last year doing?

Maybe you met all four sets of your quarterly goals, and your portfolio increased its value. Maybe you are among the dozen or so women I know to give birth in the past year. Maybe you became a dad for a second time. Or you ran a marathon. Or you survived yet another Chicago winter. Or you passed your PhD comps. Or you started your own private law practice. These are all noble accomplishments, and I commend you for them.

But at the end of the day, are they anything compared to:

1. adjusting to life outside of a womb
   
2. learning to breathe through the mouth and nose
   
3. learning to eat through the mouth
4. learning to scream
5. learning to drink from a cup
6. learning to stand up
7. growing teeth
8. growing hair, getting it cut, and growing it back
9. sleeping 11 hours in a row on a regular basis
10. moving to the Classic City
11. sitting in the bathtub by myself
12. eating hundreds of Cheerios, one at a time
    
13. smiling and laughing on demand
14. occasionally eating rocks

The answer is clearly in the negative. So to celebrate my superiority, we had a little birthday party. Grandpa and YaYa came down for the festivities. Riotous it was indeed.

The birthday cupcakes mom made:
















Going,
















going,
















gone.

I'm coming to find you in Birmingham!

Ha ha ha! The domain data for Number 5,000 is:

uab.edu

Apr 6 2006

11:12:37 am

1

0:00

You know who you are. More importantly I know who you are! Uncle Sidney, you can play this off on Aunt Millie, and vice versa, but you share the same mailbox. I will be arranging with cousin Connor to determine exactly the right time to strike with my 'present.'

HIT ALERT!!!!

27 more hits, and we'll be at 5,000. The 5 thousandth visitor gets a stinky diaper in their mailbox. He he he he he he he he he he!

I know where to find you!

Ha ha!




Ha!

day threefiftynine - 6 more days of being zero years old

It's been a good week. I only had to wear pants a few times -I'm getting to wear my 'bubbles' as mom likes to call them. Dad calls them 'eggsuits' for the Humpty Dumpty-esque visage they evoke.

What else? Dad turned 30. We rocked out at the law skool talent show (yes, the 'Law Revue') at the 40 Watt. Mom made an awesome tart, with strawberries. Some kids are allergic to strawberries, but I haven't had one hive since I tried that tart.































I supposedly saw Great Uncle Tom yesterday. I think he was actually my maternal granddad, because they talk and look really similar and both have beards. Regardless, it was big fun.
















compare with this guy, my real granddad















Saw Maddie yesterday. She is growing like a weed. Her blog is also growing like kudzu (see link to right), slowly overtaking all acclaim originally reserved for me. She'll rue the day when she realizes that the changes kind of slow down in a month or two. Then you'll all come back to me. Yes.