Week 22 Day 1: No America Cake for Bear

I would say Happy Memorial Day, but that just doesn't sound right considering the operative word is "memorial." Today you're supposed to remember and honor folks who have lost their lives fighting for our country and you do that by grilling cheese-product-infused hot dogs, drinking cheap beer, and eating America Cake.

We didn't really do any of those things here. For one thing, Gavin is too young for cake, America Cake or no, and he and I are vegetarian (we're working on Stacy, although she doesn't eat meat very often and doesn't eat any red meat or pork) and no one here drinks beer. Especially not cheap beer. We did, however, have an impromptu vegan nachos get-together with my sisters Amanda, Christine, Laura and her girlfriend Jamie. We were also joined by our bearded friend Brad who blew a bike tire in Detroit on the corner of 7 Mile and Woodward and called Laura and Jamie to rescue him. And Brad, Laura, and Jamie did, in fact, get beer, but it wasn't Naty Light, it was Red Stripe. And Christine drank some kind of weird apple beer. I don't know. Personally I think beer tastes horrible. Like carbonated nail polish remover. I'll stick to Slurpees (which Brad and Laura were oh so kind to get for me on their beer run).

I think Gavin was a little in awe of Brad's beard, though possibly a little freaked by it, too. I don't think he's ever seen someone with a beard before -- and anyway no one has a beard like Brad's. While Brad was all game for Gavin to grab his beard, he never did. Brad, by the way, is the designer of Gavin's Baby 2 Momz logo, which started Gavin's rep as the baddest ass baby rapper in Detroit. Just about everyone in my family including Gavin has a t-shirt of, as does Brad. Men's size small, preferably v-neck because he likes to show off his hairy chest, in case you ever want to buy Brad a t-shirt.

It amazes me that Gavin could one day be a hairy dude like Brad some day. Though I suspect he'll be a bigger dude. But we are raising him as a lover not a fighter, so Brad has nothing to worry about.

In other meeting-new-people news, Gavin also met Rachel, a friend of Stacy's. They were out of touch for awhile, but now that they're back in touch a meeting between Rachel and the Bear had to be arranged. I think he made a pretty good impression, even if he was a bit crabby during dinner (he did not dig what Stacy was feeding him. The kudzu was especially unpopular. Granted, Stacy wasn't really feeding him kudzu, it's just what I call the Japanese green she bought at the farmer's market. The lady selling the stuff couldn't even pronounce it, so I have no idea what it's called. Personally, if someone's hawking some weird plant they can't even pronounce, my first instinct isn't to buy it, purée it and feed it to my son. But that's just me). Mostly he put on the charm and cuteness, which is pretty much his default mode. He even did a little showing off. Stacy and I were sitting on the floor of his room with him between us taking turns encouraging him to walk back and forth. At one point I stood him up and Stacy held out her hands and he walked four and a half steps, his new record. We have Rachel as a witness in case there are any doubters (read: haters) up in here.

He also walks all over the house using his walker. I never would have gotten him a walker since I have only heard bad things about them, but this was a hand-me-down and he really digs it. And I don't think we're damaging his walking development. He still prefers to crawl if he wants to get somewhere in a hurry. The walker is just for fun. And by walker I don't mean an exersaucer with wheels where your baby sits in it and scoots his feet to propel himself down the nearest flight of stairs. I mean something that looks more like a little lawnmower he walks behind and pushes around the house. In fact the other day he was pushing his walker and Stacy said he looked like a little bald dad mowing the lawn. The fact that he was wearing a plaid button down shirt and khaki shorts certainly didn't hurt the look.