Water Sports

This week I bought Andrew a water table to put out on our balcony, in the hope that it would happily occupy him when at home this summer and distract him from his favorite activity, which is climbing up to the computer desk, banging on the keyboard, and managing to rename files and otherwise wreak electronic havoc.

Now I was not so naïve as to think he would calmly maneuver the boats around and propel the little water wheel while staying completely dry like the children on the box. However I foolishly didn’t quite expect the following, all of which occurred within about 2 minutes of Andrew encountering the water table:

1) He was surreptitiously holding on to a small piece of graham cracker, which immediately dissolved (and seemingly multiplied) leaving gooey graham cracker paste in the water, all over the table, on the balcony floor, and all over Andrew’s hands and face.

2) Every vessel in the water table was immediately repurposed as a means of conveying water into Andrew’s mouth. Seriously, it was as if he had been stumbling through the desert for days without a drink. He is often like this in the bath, too. Why didn’t I see this coming?

3) After trying to drink from the water tower, the two little sailboats, the pouring cup, and a few other toys, he vigorously chucked each of them across the balcony. This was repeated several times.

4) The pouring cup was retrieved and immediately put to good use emptying water from the table on to the balcony floor. Now that one I really should have seen coming.

5) The water table was seized upon as an excellent climbing structure (this is where I drew the line).

It was a frenzy of gleeful activity that was remarkable even for Andrew. These pictures and the video don’t quite capture it, but here you go.

Happy Father's Day!

Andrew, Carrie and I went to the lovely Morris Arboretum today, and celebrated Father's Day while we were there. Free access to the Arboretum for Penn employees makes it a pretty good deal for us, so Carrie and I treat it like a very nice park and visit whenever the mood strikes us.

Andrew gave me a very nice photo book as a Father's day gift, to remind me of all the cute photos that he's posed for over the past year.
He had a blast with the model trains, and spent about half an hour pointing excitedly at the trains as they chugged past, and tried in vain to chase them down. He's fast, but not fast enough apparently.
We couldn't get him to smile for a photo--he was very serious carefully watching all the trains.
He and the little girl next to him learned where this train came out of the tunnel--they spent quite some time waiting expectantly for the next pass.
Andrew also spied the resident groundhog who we frequently see ambling about the arboretum. I first saw this guy in 2003 and spent some time chasing after him myself. I nick-named him 'Morris,' and always keep an eye out for him when we visit. It's nice to see that Andrew is following in his daddy's footsteps and diligently chasing after poor hapless wild animals....
Of course, we couldn't get through without Andrew spending some quality time with the various fountains. It may look like I'm tossing him into the fountain here, but I assure you I'm restraining him from plunging in headlong. Carrie and I took him to the pool and let him splash around in his kiddie pool later today so he could get his fill of playing in the water.
The rare family photo from a passerby who isn't afraid to try using a DSLR camera.
It was a great day for us--hope it was the same for all the fathers out there!

Party Time for Andrew

It's very difficult to take pictures of Andrew lately without him lunging at the camera. Witness my attempt below to photograph him in his party finery:

Photos of his back are a little easier to obtain, but not quite what his nostalgic mother will want a week/month/year/decade from now. This shot is cute, though, as Andrew and his cousin attempt to break out of the tent. Their older cousins gleefully ducked underneath and lapped around the tent over and over, but the little guys were stymied.

Here is a little clip of him dancing before spotting the iphone. Does anyone know of an app that will prevent me from taking vertical videos EVERY SINGLE TIME I use the video camera?

Tasty treat

Andrew got a bonus with his breakfast this morning, licking a spatula covered in yogurt. He was quite pleased, probably because he is ignorant of the fact that this childhood ritual usually involves cookie dough or brownie batter.