Xavier at One Year, in Four Perspectives

Your milk mustache is no match for my yogurt goatee. (But don't let that stop you from supporting Movember!)




When the lids on the plastic tubs contained a warning about not closing babies inside them, it seemed a bit ridiculous. At the time.

The One-Shoed King, with his scepter upon the throne.

On May 19, 1984, when I turned one year old, my mother recorded the following about me in her journal:

"Pots and pans are still favorite toys and he regularly empties the cupboard of them. I find lids in every room of the house, so cooking becomes a treasure hunt."

Well Mom, my boy is just like me.

The Good Stuff in Life

After catching a good sale on them last week we bought for the first time what seems to be a staple of childhood: Goldfish crackers.

To say that Xavier likes them is an understatement.



Not even the siren call of the once-formidable computer can compete anymore against the crunchy orange aquatic creatures. A moment ago he climbed on my lap looking to bang on the keyboard, but promptly turned and reached for the bag the moment that it caught his gaze, as if the small orange and white paper sack was a beacon whose brilliance wholly obscured the light emanating from the 15-inch screen beside it.

Thank goodness they have them in whole grain, at least. While Cheerios are still our snack of choice for him, due to their lower sodium content, I suppose mixing it up a bit is inevitable (and not wholly undesirable). Let's face it: humans like variety and while children have a high tolerance for repetition, they're not an exception. To wit, another recent introduction, Kix, is both kid-tested and approved.

In other snack-related news, it's Tuesday, which at SAIS means it's Cookie Hour come 4 o'clock. Today, however, following a heavenly full-body massage (thanks to Groupon and Serenity Day Spa) I came home to spend the afternoon helping Cherry, who's still feeling sick from something she caught over the weekend. Of course, this meant that I missed out on the weekly cookie and coffee free-for-all that lifts spirits to continue studying afresh through the hump of the week.

Not to be thwarted however, I took matters into my own hands, whipping up some chocolate chip delicacies whose warm, fresh-from-the-oven gooey-ness paired with milk more than did justice to the Cookie Hour name. (Although, let's be honest, "Cookie Hour" is a bit misleading since the hour lasts a good 3-4 times longer than do the cookies in the face of a hoard of ravenous grad students.)

Xavier, always happy to play with kitchen utensils in bowls, helped me to stir up the dough. He was also happy to take a couple of licks off the spoon afterward, though despite his accompanying me to class yesterday, he's going to have to wait a while yet to partake in the other joys of grad school, like cookies.

Not that he won't enjoy the pleasure of cookies until then (making them with the family is a rite of childhood as well, after all), but we'd like to keep the general sugar ban going for a good bit longer.