Return to Me

Among the gifts that Gulliver has received, one gift stands out as particularly unexpected and meaningful and funny. Petit Elefant and Victor came over soon after Gulliver was born and handed me a gift. I reached into the bag and started pulling out something a little puzzling. It was brown and black, and I couldn't quite guess what it was going to be, although it looked like it might be a little bit ugly or weird, which was what puzzled me, because I know Petit Elefant to have great taste.

When I brought the item out of the bag and could see it in its entirety, I started to laugh. And laugh and laugh. I had pulled out a used, somewhat dirty, stuffed beaver. But this was not any beaver. No. This was a stuffed beaver that I had made in my 7th grade home ec class. You'll remember that I did not have the best home economics experience in jr. high.

About eight or nine years ago, I was going through boxes of old belongings and came across the beaver. Although I had made it myself and put a lot of love and effort into it, I couldn't possibly imagine why I would need to keep a stuffed beaver, so I decided to put it in the good will pile. Then El Senor saw it and suggested that we give it to Petit Elefant and Victor for their sweet new baby, P.

The beaver has been a great friend to P and next their next child, C. But when Gulliver was born, Petit Elefant asked her children if they were ready to let go of beaver and give him to the next baby who could appreciate him.

So now, unexpectedly, beaver has made his way home again, and I'm much more inclined to keep him now that I have a baby who can enjoy him as a reminder of his mother's Canadian heritage. (I cradle him in my arms and sing, "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver, where still the mighty moose wanders at will! Blue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more. Boom ditty-ada, boom ditty-ada, boom ditty-ada boom. Boo-oom.")

And once more, I can say "suck it" to my home economics teacher. I wonder if any of those students who received honors badges for home ec have given their 7th grade projects to their tiny babies. I should think not.


(Here, beaver is pictured with Gulliver. Gulliver is a little blurry because this is an action shot. He is enjoying his swing, a great gift from Gulliver's aunts that allows me to get work done and blog and stuff. Gulliver is also enjoying his warm fuzzy blanket, a gift from Murray's aunt. Gulliver is so blessed to have received such gifts!!)

For the Feed Readers

Gulliver took a long nap today that allowed me to redesign my blog, which I've been wanting to do for a while, and which was easy to do because Murray recently bought a tablet. Check it out if you're just reading the feed! And for posterity's sake, here's the old one...

(You can see this needed updating!)

Ben Snapper

Speaking of Real American Heroes, I thought I'd share another Grandpa story.

The last couple of times we've had visitors over who have brought their kids, Murray has pulled out his toy boxes. They're old-school lunch pails. One has the Muppets on it and the other has Star Wars. Murray has filled these with some of his childhood treasures like Star Wars figures and Pez dispensers. Anyway, they're great for entertaining little ones. Our nephew the Bean has come to expect being able to play with these toys when he comes over. And that reminds me of visiting my grandparents when I was young.

My grandparents had a drawer full of kids' toys, and we'd anticipate the opening of this drawer every time we went over to visit. Among the toys in this drawer, there is one standout, and that is Ben Snapper.

Ben Snapper was a little old action figure, and I don't think that he was from any particular show or story or anything. He was just an orange action figure. So Grandpa made up his own story about who Ben Snapper was. My older brothers loved to play with their Star Wars toys and their G.I. Joes, but Grandpa always would tell them that Ben Snapper could get the best of any of them. When my brothers would very emphatically explain to Grandpa why G.I. Joe or Luke Skywalker was the best, Grandpa would simply explain back, "Yes, but everyone, no matter who he is, has got to use the toilet. And that's when Ben Snapper gets 'em!"

I don't expect a television show to be made about Ben Snapper any time soon.

Real American Hero

I don't know what possessed me. I went to Walmart last night to get Gulliver a few more long sleeved onesies after I realized how much I like them. And I saw these camo pants. And I bought them. Murray may hate me forever because of it. We are not much of a camo family, and Murray is now wondering when I'm going to go out and buy Gulliver his 4-wheeler and shotgun. But come on. I think that he's so cute in his little camo pants. They're just for indoors anyway. When we take him out of the house into public, we'll dress him in much more appropriate outfits.

(Gulliver wearing the sweater and hat that Daltongirl made for him. Daltonboy says that it looks like candy corn, and I think that Gulliver is the cutest candy corn out there!)

(One of Gulliver's sleep positions. So cute. One of these days I'm going to need to take a picture of the series of fat faces he makes when he's done eating. It's this facial ritual that he performs every time he's eaten enough to be satisfied and it makes me laugh every single time. I dread the day that he stops doing it... of course now that I think of it, it's probably best that he stops doing it before he reaches adulthood because performing these facial expressions in public would make for one poor socially-adjusted adult!)

Baby Gulliver

Yay---we found a blog name for our sweet baby! He will hence forth be known as Gulliver on the blog. Sweet little Gulliver. My sister in law complained about a lack of pictures this weekend, so I'm putting more pictures on the blog. The first three are taken by Ootsie at our photo shoot when he was 1.5 weeks. The second two are from our photo shoot taken at 2.5 weeks. So far, no photo shoot has taken place for 3.5 weeks. We are bad parents.