My New Favorite Thing

Quite naturally, Cheetah is my favorite thing. Well, Tarzan is my favorite too.
(Shut up, I have a few favorites, okay?)
But this.
This is my new favorite thing today:

This is me and it's a party at meal times.

Story Time

Both Tarzan and I love to read and we want to pass that love along to Cheetah.
Some days he looks like he's picking it up:

And other days he'd rather play with something else:

 

I love the expression on Cheetah's face as Tarzan reads to him in this picture though:

It's such an expressive face that I open this up to you, the people with the senses of humor, to caption it for me.
To that end, I promise to send a dozen of my best cookies (your choice) to the person who submits the funniest caption for this face.
(Tarzan will be the judge.) And then I'll post it.

This is me with a second contest.

Musings of a Ghetto Librarian

I worked at a branch library in South Central Jungle yesterday. I was helping a patron find a book and I overhead a drug deal. A community college student was sitting in the corner studying and loudly talking into his cell phone. I didn't hear the drug in question but he was running through his price list. I wonder what drug costs $20 a gram? Anyways I stepped into view and he froze. I reminded him of the library policy on cell phones and asked him to take it outside.
Later I was on the reference desk and overheard a little girl singing the nursery rhyme about monkeys jumping on the bed. The song normally goes:
"10 little monkeys jumping on the bed,
1 jumped off and bumped his head.
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
'No more monkeys jumping on the bed"
Her version went like this:
"10 little monkeys jumping on the bed,
1 jumped off and bumped his head.
Momma called the police."
Wow. Kids say the darndest things.
Today while I was at work, Jane and Cheetah visited me.
It was awesome.
Cheetah danced on the reference desk:

And he had a ball playing with our toys.

In fact he couldn't decide whether to read or play he was having so much fun.

Summer Adventure #3

The last weekend of June we traveled to Salt Lake City for the wedding of a friend of Tarzan's family.
It was Cheetah's first time on a plane and other than the eternal taxiing of the aircraft that caused him to finish nursing before we actually took off, I feel he weathered it well:

And despite his screaming for the first third of the flight waiting for his ears to pop, once he had adjusted, he charmed everyone, including the flight attendants and gossiping college girls sitting behind us.
The wedding was on Saturday but we left the Jungle Thursday night to spend some time with Tarzan's brother Phatfiddle, Liezel and their family on Friday.
We met in the morning for some play time and catching up. (It's been a while since we've seen them.)
**I must apologize for my distinct lack of photos on this trip. I was intently focused on Cheetah having a positive experience and making sure he slept, which he does not like to do when there is new stuff to see. And this whole trip had a lotta new.**
We stopped for lunch on our way to a local farm/petting zoo and sadly for Cheetah, Daddy was not sharing his hamburger:

 

No matter how long and hard he stared:

Liezel and Phatfiddle's children are almost 5 and 3 so while Cheetah was a novelty at the farm, he was not much good for playing:

He was slightly interested in the geese:

But no one looked as cute in their hat as this kid:

I am *so very* thankful that Cheetah sleeps well at night because he doesn't nap well during the day, even when we're home and it's boring. He did sleep good Friday night which was excellent as Saturday was the day and it was both lovely and busy.
The happy couple:

At the wedding luncheon our family contingent took up an entire table:

The food was very picturesque:

(And, thanks to Gamma, Cheetah got to try roasted red peppers and pistachios that day. (There was a romesco sauce on the chicken.) Mommy was mean and drew the line at the chocolate pudding.)
He also ate his own food:

But all eating stopped when Uncle Phatfiddle pulled out the violin:

During the actual wedding, Mommy and Cheetah hung around outside and despite all the cool sites to see:

Cheetah got bored - it was a Saturday in June after all, so the temple was a little backed up, but we amused ourselves as best we could:

Cheetah discovered that Gamma wears a lot of really cool adornments:

And she's always good for a cuddle:

There was a reception following the wedding but Tarzan - being bishop - needed to be back for early morning meetings on Sunday so we dashed off to the airport to catch our flight:

Cheetah was exhausted, so he slept most of the way home and didn't even wake up when I moved him from the car seat to his bed.

This is me and it was a big adventure.

Local Specialty

It didn't seem weird at first glance:

And then I looked again:

I think they thought it rhymed, but did no one proof this thing? Ever?
I wonder if there's a closet business in this somewhere...

This is me and I don't think I want one.

The 4th Revisited

It would seem that the fireworks that are sold in abundance in our neighborhood are of an inferior quality compared to those that Tarzan remembers from his youth.
The sparklers we purchased fizzed hot and then out so fast there was no writing names, shapes or even letters with them.
So no cool pictures of that to show.
Instead I give you our Independence Day dinner of...haute dogs. We made everything but the actual hot dog ourselves.
First I present a Chicago dog:

With homemade buns, relish and pickles and the tomatoes were grown right outside the window.
There was also an Indian dog:

With a mango chutney and grilled onions, also made here.
The obligatory coleslaw:

And then we let the seven-month-old play with the matches:

This is me and how we celebrate yo'!

July 4th 2015

You'd think Independence Day was a month long deal, like Ramadan, from the number of explosions and illegal fireworks we have seen in the sky around our house lately.
And sometimes during the day, when the pretty colors are hardly visible.
Mistake or stupid person?

It's really just today though.

And for the first time ever, Tarzan and I bought some sparklers and little fireworks to set off in the back yard. (Of course we choose a year with a drought going on to experiment. We're geniuses.) We'll see if I can follow Rocketgirl's instructions and example and get some cool pictures.

Happy 4th of July everybody!!

 

This is me, celebrating.

Summer Adventure #2

For those of you who don't know, my sister ATL is a children's librarian. For the years she lived with Tarzan and me, she was going to school and working for the county library system. First as a page (ha!), then an aide, and then a librarian. When she got her cool new job in 2014, it was as the children's librarian at a branch far, but not too far from our house. She loves it and they love her.
And, now that Cheetah has arrived, and sits up on his own, ATL suggested that we come to the story time her library has for babies. (They do all different ages, from baby through middle school age specific story times.)
We finally made it in the middle of June - and despite her usually having 3-6 babies and mothers attend, the day we went, there was just ATL, Tarzan, Cheetah and me:

(And Tarzan took the pictures.)
Well, one other mother and little girl came late and then left early:

But mostly it was just us:

We did an adorable activity with a glove and Velcro while singing "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," 'danced,' played with the shaker eggs; Cheetah loved those and did not want to give them back:

And of course read some books:

We also worked on facial expressions:

Perhaps that was inadvertent...
By the end of the day, he was wiped:

This is me and it was very cute.