. . . the glory remains. Two weeks ago Erik, Alek, and I passed a major milestone as a family, and ever since then I've been trying to find time to write about it. Yep, we finally took the baby little boy camping. Friday morning we hooked up with Kevin, Kristin, and Oliver (4 months) - they took the bikes, we took the boats, and both cars were loaded to the top with nursing supplies and baby gear galore. Traveling with the baby boys turned a 5 hour trip into 7, but we made it to the Tsali campground by 3:30 pm, with plenty of light left for Heather and Kristin to hit the trails while the boys set up camp and cooked dinner kept Alek from wandering off too far. Then it was the boys' turn to hit the trails while K and H finsihed making dinner containing Alek and feeding Oliver. Finally, everyone was back together and we finally had enough adults present to compensate for Alek the Explorer on His Greatest Adventure Ever (Running Around the Entire Campground and saying "Baaaa!") AND make dinner at the same time. As the light was starting to fade, we made bedtime preparations for Alek, trying to preserve as much as possible of our normal routine. We started with a story (Goodnight Moon - from heart), then PJs, brush teeth, sing a song, OK, time for night-night . . . . and then the crying. In order to stop the crying, I crawled into the tent with him and held him until he fell asleep in my arms tricked me into thinking he was asleep. Lo and behold, every time I moved, he woke up figured out I was trying to leave, and the crying began again. Thus began the longest night of our lives. Have you ever seen a 13 month old with giddy insomnia? He was the happiest I'd ever seen him, cuddling with us, crawling around, trying to lie down, popping his head up, reaching out to touch my nose, going "PHPHPHHPHPHBTBTT" and running through every word in his vocabulary (all five of them) over and over . . . . "Mama! Dada! Baa!" He'd fall asleep for five mintes and look like a complete angel, and then it would start all over again. On the one hand, it was the largest chunk of time we'd ever spent awake together - and quality time has been hard to come by lately. On the other hand, it's not so cute at 3:30 in the morning, which was when he finally fell into an exhausted sleep for 3 hours. I woke up after MY 3 hours of sleep and swore that we were going home - I was afraid I'd permanently damaged Alek's fragile, growing nervous system (remember, this is a child who still sleeps 15 to 16 hours a DAY), not to mention what I'd done to my own. But his head didn't spin around in little circles, and his nervous system seemed intact, and actually, he went on to have a fantastic day.

So did we all - group hike in the morning, Kevin and Heather running the Nantahala in the afternoon, and Kristin and E going off on congruent bike rides in the evening (same trail, at least, if not the same pace - but Erik DIDN'T lap her!). We managed to squeeze a lot of life out of that weekend, albeit at the expense of sleep, but it was well worth it. Alek slept in the crib IN the tent that night, and we all did a lot better. Oliver was an angel the entire time and seemed to take quite naturally to camping - he didn't even mind the bath in the gear bucket. We all got in some more time on the trails on Sunday and then headed back home more tired and sore than we'd been in years, wondering why we ever thought this was a good idea waited so long. Come to think of it, that's not the first time I've said that about Alek . . .

Or, what Erik does with Alek while Heather is away

Alek's moment of triumph

The boys have been spending a lot of time together lately, thanks to my busier than usual schedule this month. This picture says it all. Well, actually there's more to it than meets the eye - this was not a planned photo shoot on the lawnmower; rather, Erik wondered where Alek had wandered off to and found him as depicted. Of course, his first instinct was to run back into the house to get the camera, leaving Alek alone to straddle the lawnmower and go "Vroom! Vroom!" in his spooky-deep machine-mimic voice.

Is it any wonder I worry about them when I'm not at home? How will Alek learn to be appropriately paranoid? What does he think life is about - having fun? Living in the moment? Making the best out of a few moments of unsupervision? Maybe if he got to spend more time around his chronically overtired, stretched-thin Momma, he'd realize that life is about doing the dishes and the laundry, not playing in the back yard and enjoying his childhood as it races by.

As a working Momma who spends too much time working at work and home, all I have to say about Alek spending so much time with his working Dada - who works from home and STILL does a better job of leaving work behind him than I do - is "Thank God!" At least someone remembers to laugh with Alek and play with him and follow his lead. I spend all too much time following him around just to redirect him toward something more "task oriented", like "Do you want to help Mommy cook dinner? Let's leave the kiddie pool and go inside."

In the past month we've watched Alek become even less of a baby and more of a little boy, who is getting bigger everyday. I realized last week that he doesn't need me to carry him in from the car anymore - he climbs out of the car, walks to the steps, climbs up them and knocks on the door for me to open it. And yet, when I come home just before bed time and try to sneak in a few minutes of cuddling before 7 o'clock (the usual bedtime), he holds onto his bottle as long as he can fool us into believing he's still drinking it, and doesn't want to let me leave - the poor kid was falling asleep standing up against the crib rails, but screamed every time I tried to walk away.

So instead of putting him down on his back and walking away like I'm supposed to (and watching him bounce up again to cry and grab at me, even if it would only last the usual two minutes), I did all the wrong things - I picked him back up, I laid with him on my chest for a few minutes, and I sang him another bed time song, even though he'd already had one. Sometimes it's worth it just to give him what he wants, especially when it's something that I need, too.

Favorite new truck - The Big Digger

What I really mean is first birthday PARTY, since that's when it actually hit me that I am not only a mother, but I am the mother of a one-year-old. And even that didn't sink in until I made cupcakes for the first time in my life - that just seems like a Mommy thing to do, even though I have no idea why I felt like it was so imperative that I make Alek his first cupcake. Alek turned one a couple weeks ago and we celebrated with friends and family on Saturday, May 6th. It was a big day, as days in the life of a one-year-old go: Alek got some extra naked time in his kiddie pool, played with some new toys and new friends, enjoyed his first refined carbohydrate, saturated fat, muffin-shaped nugget of chocolatey goodness, and got to stay up a whole 10 minutes later than his usual bedtime. Whoohoo! This may be the only time in our lives when Erik's and my idea of a good party coincides with our son's.

It's time for the first of what we hope will be an endless series of yearly reminiscences. Alek is almost a year old. That means a year ago, we hadn't even met him yet. He wasn't even "Alek" yet - he was "Baby", and I'd been calling him that for nine months so it took me longer than anyone to get used to his new name. (Now, it just rolls off the tongue: "Alek sit still" "Alek come here" "Alek don't throw that") Before he was born, he kept himself busy with Kickboxing, Spin, and Yoga classes night and day. When he was two or three weeks old, he would lie upright against my stomach and kick himself upwards. Now he climbs onto the foot-stool, up on the chest, and throws himself over the back of the couch. He slides down stairs on his belly faster than I can keep up with him. He knows that Bailey says "Woof," a duck says "Qua-qua-qua" and Grandpa Joe says "Pppppbhbpbht". He takes the spoon away from me so he can feed himself, he picks up his plastic cell phone and holds it behind his ear, and he knows how to put the candle back in the candle-holder. If you're used to interacting with adults, or even older children, a one year old isn't that impressive - think of all the things he CAN'T do: he can't dress himself, get into his own bed, write with a crayon, make pancakes, or drive a car. But when you start with a baby who can't even look at you or NOT hit himself in the head with his own flailing hands, much less hold a bottle, or throw the stick for the dog, every little thing your baby does is amazing. Until you realize that he's not a baby anymore - he's a little boy. And then it's amazing and a little scary. But mostly, it's all still amazing.

The theme of the month has been: "Let the baby do what he wants". Eating dirt, drinking from the dog bowl, lots of naked time . . . Alek would be perfectly happy as a Stone Age baby. Substitute loin cloth for diaper, and we're there. He's developed strong opinions about everything, and doesn't hesitate to express them. We hear this is a good sign, as it means he's growing up. Personally, there were a couple days where we were trying to find his registration materials to see if the warranty had just expired. (Turns out it has).

As promised, here are the "after" pictures from this morning's adventure at Restaurant Starlu, where over 40 people donated their hair in exchange for breakfast ("Lox for Locks"), all for the good cause Locks of Love. After I agreed to do this, I found out it was going to be broadcast on the Today Show (video), and sure enough, there was a glimpse of me with my hacked off hair just visible for 2 seconds after the interview with the restaurant owner and before the commercial break. I have to thank the very kind and generous woman who volunteered to cut my hair, because I couldn't find a friend to come with me at 6:30 in the morning (or, at least I like my friends too much to drag them out at 6:30 in the morning). I also have to thank my hairdresser April, who I ran to afterwards, and who happened to have a cancellation and was able to turn the results of my impulsive good deed into something a little radical, maybe, but at least presentable. Well, it will grow out eventually. (P.S. If you have at least a 10 inch ponytail and are thinking of donating to Locks of Love, it's a great cause, providing wigs for children who have lost their hair for medical reasons. But words of advice, from my hairdresser: put your hair in at least two ponytails, not one big one at the back of your head, otherwise you end up with the haircut I have.)

We're cheating a little, because he's 9.5 months, but here's a handy list of Alek's accomplishments. For grandparents and other invested genetic contributors: just cut on the dotted line and wave around proudly.

• Teeth: Two on the bottom, two upper left, one coming in upper right. All extremely crooked.


• Motor skills: Has been "cruising" for a couple months, can take 5 unassisted steps, and climbs the stairs with ease. Just developed "pincer" grip but prefers to palm Cheerios still. Has a really weird crawl - he started off on hands and feet, went to hands and knees for a while, and now that he's gearing up to walk has gone back to hands and feet sometimes.


• Verbal skills: First word was "Phish". Or, "Fish". Or maybe it was "fffffisssshhh". He's moved on to "Da" and "MaaMaaMaaM . . ." which we take for "Dad" and "Momma." Close enough. (We still don't know what "Baaaa" means, but he says it ALL the time.)


• Higher cognitive function: Plays the "Sneeze Game", where he repetitively mocks a sneeze and laughs when you say "GaBleshoo".


• Higher language skills: Has developed his own sign. It's really clever. He shakes his head back and forth, which we think means "No." Or maybe it means, "I'm going to shake my head until I get dizzy and laugh!"

OK, this is also an iPhoto slideshow, a combination of a subset of the cutest and funniest photos from Alek's first nine months. The song, "The Little Potato" by Metamoro, is one we used to sing to him way back . . . oh, at least six months ago. (Isn't it funny how the first nine months of a baby's life go by so much faster than the last nine months of pregnancy?) The file is pretty big, so viewing it is somewhat slow and frustrating. However, two out of two grandparents thought the experience was "worth it". "At least we got to see it . . . eventually," said one member of our select test audience.

This "movie" is really an iPhoto slideshow put to music. Erik took a few candid photos of Alek during snack time one day, and when I was searching on the best "cheerio" music in my iTunes music collection, the next closest thing was "Where'd the cheese go?" by Ween. According to Erik, this song was originally commissioned for a Pizza Hut commercial, and there's a reason why you've never seen or heard of it before - Pizza Hut apparently changed their mind. But it was the perfect kind of quirky to go with these pictures, which demonstrate with tenderness and depth the relationship between a boy . . . and his Cheerio.

The video of the day serves two purposes. One purpose: Alek is really cute, bouncing around on the bed, playing with a bag of new diapers. The other purpose is to test said diaper to see if it can withstand the rigors of Alek's hypermotive antics and still contain the - ahem - occasional class-4 river. Without further ado - and I'm sure the old National Geographic crowd already has - click the play button!

The crying at the end has been edited out due to pressure from a grandparent over the last video. Thats not to say there wasn't crying, because, there almost always is. This has just been sanitized a-la our own domestic-spying operation. Hey, consider yourselves briefed about the crying. If we wanted to pretend there wasn't any crying, I wouldn't be telling you about it, right? Heh.