La Familia Brophy

With the recent celebrations of Nathan’s 2nd birthday I have been feeling a little nostalgic for those days when Nathan was a little baby. He is really becoming a big boy now about to move from his crib into a bed, able to ask for most anything he wants, trying to assert some independence. It is exciting in so many ways but a little sad too.

It seems that he has been thinking this lately too. He has asked several times in the past few days to be baby NayNay while he drinks his water or juice. I happily comply as we sit on t he couch together as we did many times before. Somethings are different though like how he says, “More” if I am taking too long a break. He also knows that this is play as he coyly bats his eyes and tries not to laugh. He will of course always be my baby.

My neighbor has been asking me for months to teach him how to use his digital camera to photograph engine parts and then sell them on eBay. I finally went over during Nathan’s nap today.

We posted his first item, a propeller for a boat engine, on the site. It took a while because he doesn’t have a Mac so we had to download drivers for his camera and deal with lots of pop-up ads and all that. I don’t know how 90% of America uses Windows. Wake up, people. Whatever.

After that he suggested we have a drink. It was little weird it being about 1:30 in the afternoon, but he’s Albanian and I knew it was a gesture of friendship and gratitude, and besides I was curious to know him a little better.

So he pours me this stuff that he called Albanian Moonshine. It’s like vodka, except it’s made with grapes. It’s for sipping not gulping. And it was really good. I mean I could tell it was hard liquor, but it left a pleasant taste of currants in my mouth. So we hung out and talked about life, and the neighborhood and drank our moonshine. I turned down a second drink, and headed home.

As soon I was outside I knew that beverage had a much stronger effect on me than I’d realized while sitting down. I don’t know if it’s pure alcohol or the little glass was bigger than it looked or if it’s because I hadn’t eaten any lunch, but I was definitely tipsy. I think more time went by than I realized. I got home and Nathan was up from his nap and full of energy. Lisa and I agreed we better wait a while before driving to the grocery store.

Now it’s nine at night and I’m feeling slightly hung over. So the moral of the day, is watch out for that Albanian moonshine. If I’d taken that second glass I probably would have passed out on the sidewalk.

Update: Here’s the propeller auction. If you need a propeller, be sure to bid.

I’ll be traveling again soon, and I was packing up the stuff I’ll need from my office. Which got me to thinking of packing in general. What if your hotel loaned me clothes? Then I could just dress for my trip and change into my disposable outfit when I get to my hotel. I’d get a new one each day. They wouldn’t need to be literally disposable, they could be laundered and replaced by the hotel staff like the towels and sheets. They could just be boring casual business clothes, say a pair of khakis and a blue pinpoint oxford shirt. I’d change back into my travel clothes before checking out and flying home. I’d barely need any luggage!

The other day I was getting Nathan dressed in the morning before work. He going to be wearing a button up shirt like the one he’s wearing in the photo from the previous entry.

“Do you want to be a stud or a super-stud?” I asked. I was remembering a funny line from the TV show I’d seen the night before. that line was delivered by a salesman at a disco boutique to a nerdy teenager who’d just walked in.

“Super stud!” Nathan answered predictably, so I left an extra button undone for that super stud look.

Nathan then picked up a string of Mardi Gras beads he’d been given at Jordan’s furniture, and walked into the kitchen to show Lisa.

“Beads! Naynay! Super stud!” He cheered.

Lisa gave me one of those looks.

Nathan helped me cook today. It was the first time that I pulled a chair up to the counter and he got in the mix so to speak. We were making pizza and he made a big mess and it turned out terrible (thanks to that extra scoop of flour that got added because he was having so much fun). But I loved cooking with him and it kept him entertained while I got something important done.

I love how Nathan really looks at things. He bent right over and looked at the various moving parts of the mixer trying to figure out how that thing works. He really got into the flour and the dough too, eating a bunch of both which is probably why he didn’t eat much dinner.

Nathan had a wonderful birthday party today. We had pizza and cake and a laid back tractor theme. Here’s Nathan getting seeing his cake. All week we’ve been asking him how old he’s going to be on his birthday and his answer has been “Two! Hot cake.” We finally figured out he meant a cake with candles on it. Lisa made the cake, and it looked great and tasted great - it was an applesauce spice cake with cream cheese frosting. She doesn’t like me to share this, but she made her own apple sauce from local farmstand apples to make sure the cake was perfect.

I liked this picture of Nathan looking at fish at the zoo last weekend. I think the reflection looks cool.

I found this helpful video explaining how to fold a shirt properly. I love it. The video is in Japanese, but you can tell how to do it by watching the video repeatedly. I had to move it back and forth in slow motion a few times to really get it.

Nathan was a wild man this evening. He refused his afternoon nap, for the third time this week. That put him in this crazy mood where he can be laughing hysterically one moment and crying and biting the next. We try to just work with routine to get him calmed and ready for bed. He has dinner, then a bath then three books, then bed. It worked tonight. In some way he’s more exciting like this. A little scary too (just ask the cats) because when he comes running you don’t know whether he’s about to give you hug or a head butt. Here’ he is in his bath trying out his suds fashion statement.

Every now and then I like to expose our iTunes top 10 list. I do it when the list is getting a little calcified. I want to clear out the play count and have all the songs start with a level playing field again. Here the last rounds winners: