Seis Puerqueños

That doesn’t think “Dooce” is entertaining at all? I just may be…

(If you don’t know who that is, I have saved you the trouble by not putting in a link so you don’t have to waste your time. You’re welcome.)

Monday was my Grandma Shirlene’s birthday. She died in 2004, but it is hard to forget her birthday because it is two weeks after mine and a day after my cousin’s and we always had an excellent end of August birthday celebration.

Grandma’s favorite gum was cinnamon Trident. I never actually asked her if this was true, but based on the one million packs (over half of them stale) in every corner and drawer in her house I think it’s safe to assume. I have many fond memories of chewing lots of stale gum at her house.

Sometime during our “courtship” Aaron and I realized that we both loved cinnamon Trident the most. And we both lamented that they had recently changed the recipe to add some sort of anti-cavity junk that made it taste worse and lose flavor faster. Eventually they stopped making it entirely. We were both very sad. We found some once or twice in Ecuador, but it was hard to find and also lost flavor even faster.

On Monday we were in Redmond for a job interview for Aaron, and had a bit of time to kill plus he had stinky breath, so a stop at the store for gum seemed like a good idea. I waited in the car with Harmon and guess what Aaron came back with?

That’s right. Cinnamon Trident. Thanks Grandma Shirlene, for a birthday miracle!

Aaron just posted this on his blog, because I made him scan it in. But I bought it and read the label first, and suggested it’s submission to engrish.com, so I’m reposting it to get all the credit.

It says:

USE WEARPROOF AND CORROSION-
RESISTING PLASTIC. MORE CLURABLE
THAN THE WOOD ONES.
MORE HARD AND USE MORE LONG.
EASILY WASH AFTER USE.
THE PRODUCTS WILL NOT BE WAR-
PED FOREVER.

So I supposedly speak some Spanish. Or a lot. And although we speak a few words to Harmon, I doubt that will get him the fluency level that could be achieved if I spoke it regularly. But I ALWAYS forget. Probably that pesky English first language thing.

The plan: Speak entirely Spanish to Harmon (and Aaron?) every other day. I will get myself a sign on the wall or something that says English on one side and Spanish on the other. Maybe that way my brain will remember. And maybe Harmon (and Aaron?) will learn at least some Spanish. I’ll keep you posted on how that actually turns out.

Today: English
Mañana: Español

Harmon’s growing up. And getting into lots of trouble. And standing up. And he’s cuter than ever.

A little over a week ago, Harmon was getting into trouble, so I put him in a laundry basket. That kept him happy for a minute, but then he decided to show his powers and lifted himself up from a sitting position. Since then, he’s stood up several times, and uses his powers for good and evil.

Yesterday, on his month-day, he pulled open the drawers on Kelsey’s drawer thing, and used them to hoist himself up, whereupon, he proceeded to empty out the drawers. He has taken a couple of falls, but seems undeterred. Kelsey thinks it’s especially cute when he’s kneeling. He still needs something to pull himself up, but it won’t be long, though he’s all upper body strength still, and not very good at balancing.

In the last month, he’s also done a lot of swimming, including once in the middle of Lake Washington, several times near the shore, and quite a few times at Grandmomerie’s (Mo Mo’s) pool. He has so much energy, I’m pretty sure I could just let him go and he’d paddle off by himself, but swallow inordinate amounts of water in the process.

We got a small wading pool, and probably wouldn’t have made it through the heat wave without it.

As I said, he loves to get into trouble, and nothings safe. He can get into anything, and with his standing up abilities that means anything.

One time, he got stuck, but he managed to get out on his own.

He also got to go to the zoo and see all sorts of animals. I hear he’s a particular fan of the monkeys.

Not only is Harmon celebrating double digit (months), but Kelsey celebrated getting old (see earlier post.) For her birthday, we went to a concert in the park and Harmon rocked the night away. Long after his bedtime, instead of getting cranky, he got giddy, laughing at mom and any passersby. Yes, several ladies came up to tell him how cute he was. Even a strange dude tried to use Harmon’s charisma to score points with his lady friend.

Kelsey made an awesome blackberry pie, and blackberry jam, but Harmon likes his blackberries straight, and unwashed, and all over his face, also preferably unwashed.

One more important milestone in Harmon’s life also occurred in the last month. He found out that he’s going to have a sister.

Last night:

10:35pm: Aaron goes to the bathroom to get ready for bed. I hear a thump which I assume comes from him knocking over the mouthwash or something. Upon exiting the bathroom he asks if I made the thump. He checks the yard and all the doors. Maybe it was the fridge turning off it’s high cycle, it is pretty loud. No big deal we decide.

10:42pm: Reading in bed, about to go to sleep. Congratulating myself that it is “so early”. THUMP from Harmon’s room (on the other end of the house from the fridge). We both jump up and run in at lightning speed. He was asleep until we got there, but the motion sensor light right outside his room is on right by the side yard gate. Harmon is happy to see us and wonders what game is going on with mom and dad looking out all the windows.

10:43pm: Aaron goes out and checks the entire front and back yard, I watch out the window to make sure he doesn’t get ambushed (yes I am paranoid). Also we think maybe a car hit the fence tripping the light? We get a lot of accidents on the corner by our house.

10:50pm: After determining there are no bad guys in the yard, I am still shaken up. I decide Harmon needs to sleep in our bed for safety from bad guys.

11:05pm: Harmon thinks this is the best night of his life. He is laughing and smiling and climbing all over in the bed. Eventually we tire of his cuteness and I settle down enough to make him go back to bed in his room.

11:30pm: I get Harmon pretty much asleep, and walk to the front room to turn off the porch light. I walk back in the dark and kick a toy mailbox full of blocks and send them flying everywhere and treat our house to another loud noise. Sorry everyone. Harmon awake again.

11:55pm: I am still in bed trying to figure out what the thump was. I finally let myself believe it was a bird (or bat?) because they do fly into our house during the day a ridiculous amount. And a bad guy that is so loud is not a very good bad guy, so we could totally beat him in a battle. So either way, I guess it’s safe enough for sleeping now.

I was uploading pictures today and remembered what I found when making myself my favorite food for lunch on my birthday:

That’s right, free baby corn with my corn. I know, I felt it to be a birthday miracle as well.