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July 10 - Last week when Jeff was gone, I had one really long meeting, several
hours. I had to change Ethan in the middle, phone to my ear, just in his
playpen upstairs. I got started OK, but then he peed while I had his diaper
off. I was looking frantically around for something to mop up with, and the
next thing I knew, he'd pooped too. The playpen sheet is washable, of course,
but BOY was it hard to have a meeting while dealing with this.
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Last week Ethan learned to play with the light by my bed. It has a dimmer
switch on it, and he just slides it back and forth, clearly entranced that he
can make the light go on and off. Especially on. On Wednesday we had dinner at
Karla's, which was really nice of her. It was fun to see the twins, as they're
so different from Ethan. They're much more active than he is, crawling all over
the place, on top of each other and Ethan, wherever.
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Dad and Martha just visited, too.
It was really nice to have them. Ethan has started pointing, particularly at
lights. He clearly gets the connection between the light switch and the light
going on He says "mama" a lot.
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July 11 - Ethan learned to clap today! And to open and shut Jeff's desk drawer.
He put lots of torn-up pieces of paper towel in it. Ethan was clearly tired
earlier, and I tried to nurse him down, but he just wouldn't go. So Jeff held
him on his lap for a while, and he just dropped
off. So cute.
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July 12-14 There are many Hoppers in town,
which is fun. Angie and Wayne, and Christy, and Dave and Angie and Nicholas. I
was really busy with Shohei Kikuchi's workshop (which was awesome and
exhausting). Nicholas is cute and
big. They played together, and even took
a bath together, more successfully this time than last time.
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July 16 - We did a show at the Oregon State Correctional Institution, which was
good fun, and way lower security than the prison we played at a few months ago.
(Though I find it too sad to imagine visiting a husband in jail.) After we'd
set up and eaten, and we were standing around waiting to start, I started
talking to Kristy. She often asks after Ethan (or "musubi head," as she calls
him), which makes my milk let down.
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So as soon as I started talking to her, I thought, "I hope she doesn't ask
about Ethan!" and the next thing I knew... my milk let down anyway. Naturally I
hadn't brought nursing pads, so I fled to the little bathroom. Fortunately
there was a little maxipad dispenser, so I took one, tore it in half, and
stuffed it in my bra. Instant nursing pads! So I was saved, and got a good
giggle out of it besides.
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July 18 - CD release party! It was
great. Jeff and Mandy came, and brought Ethan. The setup of the performance was
interesting -- the "stage" was a long narrow area, with bleacher seating on
both sides. We'd reworked everything to work in that setup. As it happened,
Ethan was in his stroller directly across from me during "Ha!", and it was pure
joy. He clapped and danced, and clearly loved it. I have never had so much fun
playing taiko. Also, after the show, as we walked through the crowd, he kept
touching people we passed. Like he just wanted to say hello.
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July 20 - Breakfast out at Utopia Café with Mandy, Ann, and Zack. Then we went
out to Vancouver Lake, and I took the baby in the water. We had dinner at Ann
and Zack's later, and Ethan actually crawled for the first time, on the grass.
When we got home he'd forgotten how, as he prefers to scoot on hardwood floors.
Also, earlier in the day he started signing for "more," though Jeff didn't
quite believe it. He just claps, rather than tapping his fingers together, but
I think it's close enough.
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July 21 - Ethan remembered how to crawl -- but only on the grass. Inside he
still scoots. He definitely does "more." In fact, tonight we had miso soup for
dinner, which he LOVED. He kept signing "more" and then pointing to the soup.
Given a choice between Cheerios and the soup, he pointed to the soup. He's
really communicating with us! He also does this cute head-banging baby rocker
thing.
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July 24 - He named his big gray dog "Indigo." Really, he just said, "Inigilo"
while talking to the dog, but we chose to take it as a name. It's a good name.
He was eating some bread in his chair in the kitchen, and I guess he got bored
because he tore it up into little pieces and then very carefully lined them up
on the window sill.
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July 25 - He climbed the stairs today! I was in the kitchen, and he was in the
living room. I heard him doing something, and when I went in to see he had
climbed up one step. So Jeff and I sat on the stairs, me above him and Jeff
below, and watched as Ethan climbed about 7 or 8 steps up. He did it very well,
though it was a bit frightening for the rest of us.
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July 31 - We had the NRA (that's Neighborhood Remodeler's Association) over at
our house, and made yummy food -- grilled fish, miso soup with clams, grilled
eggplant, that sort of thing. Ethan loved the miso soup again. He said,
"ohhhhh" a lot -- people thought it was funny, that he loudly expressed how
positively he feels about the food. Really fun. I also got a great ping-pong
game, with Lori. We rallied for a while, and then she said, "OK, let's have a
quick 11-point game," but it turned out we had to go to 14 because we were so
well-matched.
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ethan
