The Felix Helix

We haven't had any luck with the potty training.  Really, what we've done is introduce Felix to a new place to sit and read... with no pants.

Fancy!  It's video day!  Felix may have been completely baffled by the concept of using the potty last weekend (we tried - and failed - a three-day potty training program), but he's getting pretty darn good at his alphabet.  Here's a video of him pointing out some of his letters, and then singing one of his sadder attempts at the ABC song.  I promise he's usually more into it than this, but this is the most I've gotten it on video.  Also, sorry I sound so annoying!

We took Felix to the New York Aquarium this weekend, thinking that he would have a good time wandering around and looking at tons of things in water.  He definitely knows the word "FISH!" as he must have said it about.... 4300 times.  The place got pretty crowded with tons of really short people and the whole scene was a bit hyper.  After a lunch of one giant hotdog and about a cup of ketchup (which Felix ate like an italian ice.  Not kidding. Pretty nauseating!), we took him home and got a nice long nap out of him. I tried to get pictures, but hyper Felix + dark spaces = blurry pictures.  These are the best of the bunch. [Sidenote: I hate the date stamp!  Somehow it got turned on and in the one picture I really liked, it goes straight across Felix's face.  Annoying.  Worse, you can't just deselect it and make it go away.  It's embedded in the image so I had to retouch it out - which means it's not really out and there are now weird smears in the lower right hand corner of all these pictures.  GRRR.]

Felix got to spend some serious family time with the whole Shaw clan down in (on?) Hilton Head, South Carolina.  Grandma, Pop-Pop, Aunt Michelle and Uncle Chris, Uncle Andrew and Aunt Kristin and cousins Robbie, Cassidy and Jocelyn.  Quite a full house! We spent a lot of time at the beach, and in the pool.  Felix got pretty good at swimming with his floaties.  We're going to have to sign him up for some swimming lessons soon.  Every time we passed by a pool he'd go "AGUA!" with this pleading, puppy-dog-eyed face.   Kid has an addiction. He also out-ate all of his cousins, at every meal.  Good thing he appears to have Giles's build.

I don't know what it is about boxes, but babies love them.  This was a random big box at Sofia's birthday party.  You'd think that music, other babies, toys, CAKE would be more interesting than sitting in a box, but no.  Boxes are magic.  Also sort of magic is how well really really pale people - like me and Felix - reflect bright orange flooring.

We had dumplings for dinner the other day.  Felix decided that he needed to eat with chopsticks to0.  It was basically a huge FAIL as far as actually picking up food and putting it in his mouth, but it was still pretty darn cute.

Felix is so much fun lately.  I mean, he's not fun ALL the time - he's been a pain with eating anything other than fish sticks and cheese, and sometimes he's whiney for no reason at all - but most of the time... he's just fun. He loves putting on our shoes and trying to walk around (oh!  Some news: he now has two different words for "shoe" and "sock."  Hooray!  I was starting to worry he'd spent the rest of his life calling them "shocks"... or he'd resort to wearing some weird 2-in-1 spork-like footwear).  He loves getting flipped onto the bed.  He freaks out - in a good way - whenever he hears the word bath. Anyway.  I think lately Giles and I have both been a bit smitten (when we're not frustrated at the wailing every time he derails the wooden trains).

[Sorry, no cute baby pictures in this one.] On Sunday, Elise and I completed the New York AIDS Walk.  Six miles through Central Park and down the west side.  We (all 45,000 of us) definitely lucked out - the weather was beautiful.  About halfway (not even?) through, we walked by Elise's old apartment and got some coffee and lunch in the grocery on her old corner.  Obviously, not the most strenuous activity!  But my feet were definitely feeling it afterwards, and I was sore on Monday.  Anyway, stopping for our own refreshments at least let us skip by the water/snack stops which generally cause walking traffic jams as all the walkers tried to scramble to get some food. It was a really good time.  A big THANK YOU to all my donors.  Thanks to generous friends and family I managed to raise about $600 altogether.  Not too shabby, considering I don't think I've ever raised that much for anything ever.  The total raised was over $5.7 million. Sorry these pictures are so dorky...

It's kind of ridiculous that we've lived two blocks (well, two blocks and then a park) away from a zoo* for over a year, and we only just took Felix.  In fact, I don't even think we were the first ones to think of it for our playdate! Anyway - we had a lovely afternoon in the zoo with Steph, Navah, Dara and Sophie.  (Obviously, Felix is already quite a ladies' man.)  It was sheep shearing day, so the big bushy sheep in the farm section were getting haircuts.  Felix was a bit wary, but at least watched Giles feeding the goats and sheep.  He was more interested in the grates (as usual) than anything else.  We also saw the sea lions get fed while Felix ate a giant corn muffin in the messiest way possible, saw a bunch of monkeys and baboons, and saw a giant branch fall off a tree in the emu and kangaroo section.  Most of the pictures are from the photo-op turtle shells.  The idea is the kid crawls in and looks like a turtle.  Navah was skeptical, Sophie was having none of it, and Felix wouldn't get out of it. *I also need to point out that although the zoo is SO CLOSE, we were still super-late.  Hrm.   Someday, we will figure out how to get out the door with Felix when we're supposed to.  That may be the day we're leaving for college, but really, it will happen eventually.

Perhaps I was a bit over-optimistic when I picked this up at the baby store.