One Wild Weekend (for some value of "wild")

Dinner tonight for our little one-year-old Popo had ravioli, carrots and broccoli. He loved the carrots, found the ravioli passable if a bit pedestrian, and was unenthusiastic about the broccoli. The degree to which he did or didn’t like the food, however, had zero bearing on how much of the food he ended up wearing on his face. Either he liked it enough to dive into it, or disliked it enough that whatever we tried to get in his mouth was smeared across his cheeks instead. So by dinner’s end he was orange and splotchy with little clumps of green leaves here and there …



He was … the Floronic Baby!

Speaking of connections between Popo and comic book characters, my geek friends who came to the birthday party on Sunday reported to me that they had looked for superhero toys for the boy but couldn’t find any that weren’t at least for ages 3 and up. On the one hand I trust my friends (well, on this matter at least) – they would definitely spend the time looking through multiple toy stores trying to find whatever they had in mind. And they would have no embarrassment about asking a store employee, either. So the Justice League and the X-Men have no representation for the under 3 set. Odd. I could have sworn that at some point in my life I had seen a Fisher Price Little People Superman but my memory has never been the most reliable of my faculties. (I almost just typed that as “faulties” – which would have been valid.)

The birthday was not without the comic book influence, of course. Superman and Transformers gift bags, Spider-Man plate and cup and silverware from Nana, super hero t-shirts from Uncle Very Little Bro. But most of the one-year-old safety approved toys ended up having a farm theme. So I still own way more superhero action figures than Popo; conversely, his collection of sheep and cow figures is now without peer.

It was an action-packed weekend even aside from the birthday party, having my Little Bro visiting. On the downside he asked me many times, “Have you seen [Movie I Probably Should Have Seen Because I Love Movies And These Movies Are Up My Alley But At Least They’re On My Netflix Queue Heh Heh]?” but on the upside we went to see a band my geek buddies are in. Little Bro left this morning, and the afternoon saw my wife Eshe and I taking Popo to have department store portraits done (the grandparents should be pleased – they turned out really well). Now the long weekend is finally winding down and the house is still a-mess with toys but I’m really, honestly OK with that.

The names Eshe and Popo are Swahili, by the by. Eshe means “life” (awwww) and Popo means “sleeps in the daytime”, which on the one hand may be the greatest name meaning EVER and on the other hand represents how very grateful I am that Popo still takes midday naps. So very, very grateful.