Neato Things to Do Now That You Can Go Wherever You Please All By Your Very Grownup Self

Escape from a diaper change.

Read, naturally.

Wear your pants on your head, of course.

Allow your mommom to cuddle you as if you were still a baby or something.

Ham it up with GranJan.

And - always a favorite with the parents - why nap when you can stand and yell?

On the Go

The Beginning of the End...for Ellie and Zilch

Well, I can't describe how it feels to watch this thing who, a short few months ago, was a motionless blob whose biggest accomplishment was pooping several times a day, take off into personhood like this, but we're pretty excited by the whole thing. Far more impressed, than, say, Zilch and Ellie who are busy finding new corners of the house to cower in. And to top it off, Freddy took his first real crawling steps around 8 am saturday and immediately set to work on pulling himself up on the furniture, which he succeeded in around 4:30 sat afternoon. Ai-yi-eeee! So what we did this weekend: babyproof.

Our Pilgrim's Progress

Another magical August at Naushon. Freddy got in touch with his New England roots these last few weeks as he braved the stiff currents of Woods Hole and the requisite accompanying flotation device, a howling nor'easter, ferocious ticks, vicious fishes (thanks to our brave fishermen for taming those beasts), a persistent gull with an eerie likeness to FRD's great-grandfather Riggs, oodles of adoring aunts and uncles and cousins and friends, a lively hike to Tarpaulin Cove, rustic baths, a father-son matching Woods Hole t-shirt cute-off, and more knockout sunsets than a little boy can shake some seaweed at.

Let's Go Bucs

Freddy and his dad did some serious father/son bonding today when they together donned their Pirates gear in hopes to rally struggling Pittsburgh. If they could just win a few more, they still might have a chance to not finish in last place in their division. I mean, how could this adorable goofy pair not inspire some bats?

In other adventures, Freddy took his GranJan and GranPete for a walk at the NC Botanical Gardens today so that GranJan wouldn't go too stir crazy while cooped up in Durham. He was a bit in the out-to-lunch-without-a-sandwich camp for the whole thing, but hey, it was 95 degrees out. And it's always super fun to hang with the Grans, no matter what's going on or what contraption people are trying you in now.

And one last note before Freddy goes offline while making his way up the eastern seaboard: crawling backwards, while far better than not crawling at all, has its drawbacks.

Frederella

Getting ready for vacation can be a grueling process for a baby.

There's all the laundry to be done.

And the monkey business.

And the cleaning of the floor on one's hands and knees.

And more monkey business.

Really it's quite taxing. Especially if your mother and father keep you toiling ceaselessly and don't even let you take one teensy weensy nap even though you beg and beg.

MomMom

Freddy bought himself upwards of 60 years of hot meals, unconditional love and free cable this morning when he woke up cooing "MomMom MomMom, MomMom." Other than insuring a permanant place in his mother's heart, Freddy's endeavors of the day have so far involved fierce intellectual jousting with Zilchie (we continue to await the day when we can say with certainty than Freddy is smarter than Zilch -- we probably have a good 2-3 years, right?), downward-dogging backwards across the living room, lounging with Papa, chowing down, and other general hilarity. Can't wait to see you tomorrow to show off some mad almost-crawling skills, GranJan!