Food and Drink, Continued

Learning to slurp.

Note that he is merely near the beer. We do not let him drink it.

Just before his screaming meltdown on the way out.

14

Before work on Friday, I turned on a broadcast of the annual 9/11 ceremony. Family members of the victims read out all 2,977 names. Watching the broadcast, I was struck by a few things. The tragedy of it. The wide net of the victims - they were young and old, male and female, of every race, from multiple countries, and worked jobs from busboy to hedge fund analyst. The terrorists didn't care. I wonder if part of the reason we respond so deeply to the attacks is because they hit everyone. Everyone sees themselves in those buildings.

Once the sun went down, I walked with Henry down to the waterfront. I'd never done that before.

The light refracted through a cloud and bent, slightly. I liked the effect. It looked - like it does every year - that the beams were going straight to heaven.

Weekend Getaway

Blogger has a mobile app now! Or perhaps, more accurately: I bothered to check that Blogger has a mobile app now! Remember when posting pictures on a blog was a big deal? I had to learn HTML to resize them. Anyway.

We're in the Catskills for the weekend and I'm in love. 

Fantasizing that your rental house is your vacation house is the best. You begin to think that this spare, rustic-mod way of living is attainable, because none of your possessions are there to junk it up. 

Yes, that is a Murder, She Wrote board game. There are also disco records and a turntable. I have Abba's Greatest Hits on right now. 

Happy Labor Day!

Food

So it's been a while, huh? Things are pretty good around here, but time is an ever-diminishing resource. We're making it work.

One thing that makes me smile is Henry's love of eating. I smile because of the abstract benefit: Henry is being inducted into the richness of taste! He's growing beautifully! What a perfect way for him to gradually wean from mommy's milk and become his own person! And I also smile because the sight of a nine-month-old in a high chair, opening his mouth like the Holland Tunnel and waving his arms like a subway crazy, is so freaking funny.

Henry will eat ANYTHING. For a while we thought he didn't like avocados, but he changed his mind. He usually gets a pureed food - I make batches and freeze - followed by finger food, which is where the fun begins. First, he gets P.O.'d when the puree is gone and goes into a medium-grade whine. Then I dump apricot slices or a chopped-up leftover caprese salad or half a banana or this incredible scam product called "puffs" onto his tray and the whine stops, as if snipped.

There are lots of things I like about being a parent, but this little thing of "Henry eating" is near the top.