Abby and Gina fixed me breakfast in bed for Fathers Day. I’ve never had BIB before. It was nice. (Photo by Gina.)
Abby had her 3-year doctor’s visit on Thursday and she’s apparently healthy and everything. The nurse cruised through everything so fast I almost didn’t get any pictures. She put Abby on the scale and weighed her before I could get the camera and flash in position. She weights 32.5 lbs., which is in the 70th percentile. Next they went to measure her height. She is 38.5 inches tall, which is in the 80th percentile.
In the past I’ve been labeled a swimming poolophobe based mainly on my yearly pronouncements that swimming pools are really just big tanks of p*ss. I have a whole comedy routine about how everyone pees in the pool and those who say they don’t are liars. When our neighborhood pool closed in Johnson last summer due to high levels of pee byproducts, I was completely vindicated.
Despite all that, I really enjoy swimming. I do prefer to swim in a lake, river or the ocean. I realize natural water bodies are arguably just as contaminated as your average pool. Certainly some bodies of water are clearly unfit to swim in.
I had a great idea for photo of the rising full moon from the top of Pinnacle Mountain, so on Friday I set out to complete the first part of my idea, which was to get to the top of the mountain. The trail is only .75 of a mile long, but it’s uphill all the way. Pinnacle Mountain State Park is only a few miles west of Little Rock and it’s a very popular place. The trail traverses great expanses of huge rocks and so many people have been over the trail the rocks are worn slick in most places. Slick enough to slip on even when dry. The mountain is about 1,000 in elevation (the highest hill around) and provides a commanding view of the Arkansas River, Lake Maumelle and other lesser mountains to the south and west.
I got to the top about an hour before the moonrise and about two hours before sunset, so I had some time to kill. In wandering around the peak looking for something to shoot, I was drawn to the ubiquitous graffiti. I decided to make a little photographic study of the marred rocks.
We gathered at Funland in Burns Park to celebrate Abby’s 3rd birthday on Saturday. No drama like last year. Abby announced that there would be no traditional singing of Happy Birthday. I didn’t get very many decent pictures. I was too busy jacking around with the video camera and other tasks.
With the Stay At Home Dad Experiment moving into a less intense phase, Abby and I won’t be spending as much time together, so we’re hitting some of our favorite spots this week. We headed down to the River Market to ride the streetcar but the a sign at the streetcar stop said they wouldn’t be running until further notice. Bummer.
So went over to check on the Junction Bridge to see how it is since they reopened it. It’s the same. Afterward we hit the riverfront playground. I always thought the fountain next to the play area was just a fountain. We hadn’t been down there since it warmed up and so hadn’t seen the fountain operating. Turns out the fountain is actually part of the playground. There’s a big button you push to make the water jets come on. Abby is really big on fountains now. Last week Gina let her wade around in a public fountain and now when we leave to go somewhere Abby asks if there will be a fountain there.
On our way downtown, we drove through Mount Holly Cemetery, which, as luck would have it, has a big fountain, and Abby wanted to get in it. I explained how her wading in that fountain would be disrespectful of the dead. When we got closer she saw a bunch of birds frolicking in the cooling waters and asked why it was OK for the birds to get in the fountain. Then followed a long conversation about the habits of birds and how they differ from people.
So when she saw the kids playing in the water thing at the playground she about lost her mind. She ran down and stripped off her shirt and shoes and started to take off her shorts. I explained how total public nudity is bad manners. She said, “But I want to be naked.”
Today is Gina’s and my 15th wedding anniversary. I wanted to wear red Chuck Taylors in the wedding and Gina refused to let me, to her everlasting regret.
Happy anniversary, sweet baby.
When we went to Nashville awhile back we drove through a swampy area and in my desperation to entertain Abby on the long drive, I sang to her “The Legend of Woolly Swamp,” an old Charlie Daniels song. She spent the next month asking me to sing “the swamp song” to her. Then she would quiz me about why the various parts in the story of the song happened. As in, “Why did the ghost of Lucious Clay get up and walk around, Daddy?”
Since she likes the song so much I decided to take her to a real swamp she could get up and walk around in: the Lorance Creek Natural Area south of Little Rock. The swamp was swarming with gnats and it wasn’t really that interesting. On the way back to the truck she fell in the parking lot and scraped her knee and the palm of her hand. The scrapes bled a little and apparently hurt. She was done for the day. I had to carry her into the house and put polysporin and a Band-Aid brand bandage on the wound. After that she just wanted to sit pitifully on the couch and watch TV.
Abby’s Gramps gave her a fishing rod on Easter and she had a big time fishing in the bathtub. When we got home she wanted a fishing rod at her house so she could fish in her own bathtub. So the next week we got her a Barbie fishing rod and tiny tackle box at Wal-Mart. I was looking beyond the bathtub, so I also got some hooks, bobbers and split-shot sinkers.
In order to go fishing for real, you’ve got to get a tin can and go dig up some worms in the back yard. She found digging worms enjoyable and we found quite a few, though they were small.
Abby and I whomped up some breakfast for Gina for Mother’s Day and served it to her in bed.
This is kind of an out take from the breakfast-in-bed photo shoot, but I had to use it because it was the 10,000th shot on my D90. The counter rolled over to 0001.