Sorry for the long wait… The new pictures are up on the album. Everything in there is new, so you won’t have to wade through stuff you’ve seen a million times.

The last picture is of Tru in his new tye dye t-shirt from the Portland Saturday Market (an open air hippie marketplace, as if you couldn’t tell by the shirt). Tru’s getting a lot better at understanding the things we say. We’re working on a little sign language with him, and that’s helping the communication too. It’s fun to realize that he understands something that I just said…

We want to go camping with Tru to see how he’ll do. We’ve got a “group” camping date already set for August and we want to be sure we know how to deal with a crazy baby out in the woods. We tried camping last weekend, but got rained out. Tru did pretty well in the hotel room though. We just set up a sleeping area on the floor with some blankets and he slept there without incident. Well, almost without incident. Amy decided it would be a good idea to take his blanket away while he was sleeping. This disturbed him enough that he woke up and rolled over. But he rolled over the wrong way and got his head and shoulder caught between the floor and the bottom of our bed. He was stuck and that really woke him up quickly! Fortunately he responds well to a little rocking, and he spent the rest of the night on our bed. He’s a bed hog. He sleeps all sideways and pushes Amy and me off the edges. I guess that’s why we don’t let him sleep with us at home…

We’re in Michigan for the week and Tru’s meeting lots of new people. He’s hanging out with his grandparents who have joined him in forming a mutual admiration society…

His nap times and eating times have been kind of messed up since we got here. Since we’re always out and about, it can be tough to keep him to a schedule. He’s generally sleeping ok at night though.

He’s been amazing lately–he’s initiating “peek-a-boo” games with people, and you can tell he’s thinking about things before he does them. It’s cool to watch his progression. I like being Tru’s dad…

These last couple of days, Tru has really been getting serious about walking…he’s cruising all over the place. Falls a lot, but he’s built Korean-tough so it doesn’t bother him!

We slapped a few more pictures up on the album…

Well, Tru inherited a little inflatable swimming pool from his cousin Benjamin and he digs it. Yesterday it was around 90&deg here, so a little splashing was a welcome relief. Apparently there are special diapers that are made for swimming…prolly need to get some of those. Just a note to those interested–regular diapers will not stand up to the rigors of an inflatable swimming pool…

Speaking of diapers, Tru’s cousin Benjamin is making the transition out of diaperland, but it can be rough. The other day he was running around naked in their driveway and decided to lay a brick (and by “brick” I mean…well, you know what I mean). Then he stepped on it. Ew.

Tru went running through the sprinkler today. He loved it! More pics on the daily fix…

Sorry for the lack of entries lately… Amy dislikes this color scheme, so it’s gonna change soon (since she’s done with school). Tru’s looking forward to spending days with her! They’re starting tomorrow morning by going down to the park with a bunch of other moms and kids–mom’s way more fun than dad…

Tru had a hard time sleeping last night–woke Amy up from about 2am to 4am with his crying. He felt hot when I fed him in the morning and sure enough he had a 100.8&deg temperature. We gave him baby Tylenol and Amy went to work. By 11am his temp had risen to 102&deg and he was not pleased. Fortunately he was also pretty lethargic and just laid on me and slept pretty much the whole day. He was perking up by the time Amy got home and be the time he went to bed this evening he seemed to be back to normal.

You might be noticing new colors on this page…you can thank Amy for that! Oh yeah, one more thing…the comments should be working now.

Some of Amy’s coworkers bought Tru a big red wagon. We put it together over the weekend and he really digs it. He thinks riding is ok, but he really likes to get behind it and push while someone else is pulling. If you stop pulling he just digs in and pushes harder!

We tried a new look for church yesterday…it went over pretty well. Those Quakers aren’t as stuffy as you might think!

Last night Amy trimmed Tru’s hair a little more, so the mullet is gone. Sorry, I didn’t get any photos to commemorate the mullet’s brief life.

Tru’s been working on his walk–he can do about 6 steps in a row, as long as he’s got a goal to walk toward. Food works well. He’s also got his wave down pretty good and he even knows when to use it. He’s been a pretty spontaneous clapper for a while now.

I’m surprised at how my baby-minding skills have become honed. I know when and what kind of poops he’s gonna have before he has ’em. The solid suckers come in the morning–we call ’em “rocks”, as in “Tru dropped a rock.” The loose stuff comes in the afternoon and is usually speckled with telltale signs of previous meals. We just call that kind gross, as in, “Oh, that’s gross.” Poops are pretty much time-based, though the other day I was coming close to convincing myself that I knew what kind he had just by the smell.

This afternoon Tru was playing in the backyard and he found a little stick left over from the deck-building project. He was having a good time with it, pointing at things, scraping the grass and waving it around. Needless to say, he also wanted to put it in his mouth. I started moving his hand away and saying “not for your mouth”. Of course he kept trying, but I kept moving his hand and saying the words. Pretty soon he stopped trying to put it in his mouth as much and if he tried, I didn’t have to move his hand. I could just say the words and he’d stop. Cool. My kid listens to me.