Looky Daddy rules. Be sure to read back a few weeks for the story about the toe.

Our new business plan

World' Best Husband is preparing to take a business trip.

(Wait, which sounds cooler - 'a business trip' or 'a gig'? He's got that coveted gig, one that combines public speaking with performing. And with paying the mortgage. Incidentally. But it does mean he'll be away for a night, and it does mean he gets to obsess about packing - material for the show, clothes, promo materials, the magical Sleep Machine. Dude, it's like he's going on Galactica. I am trying to sneak the baby into one of his bags, and it seems there's little chance he'll notice, except that the baby would eat all the granola bars for the trip and then what?)

Him: "Well, I have the cooler for the trip, and some Gatorades, and...hmmm, what's in this Target bag? Ah! Snacks'n'maps!

Me: Did you say "Snacks'n'Maps"?

Him: Yes! Snacks'n'Maps!

Me: And should that be the name of our national chain of roadside stands? "Snacks'n'Maps"?

Him: Yes! I believe it should! "Snacks'n'Maps"!

Me: Or maybe "Maps'n'Snacks"?

Him:..........................................You're fired.

Before and After

Well, he's not a baby anymore, exactly.
He had his first haircut this afternoon. If you had driven by the barber shop at 1pm, you might have guessed that the sign read 'Free Appendectomy Day (anesthesia not included)' rather than 'Tiny Tots a Specialty'. Never has there been a tantrum like this one...and yet Kim, our cutter, was just brilliant, completely non-plussed, working steadily and carefully - and astonishingly quickly - as he writhed and bellowed.

I have no pictures of the cut itself, as I was holding him in my lap for most of the cut. (At the end, we switched, and his dad pinned him against his chest for the last bit of the back.) Beautiful taupey wheat blond locks rained down everywhere, along with tears, and the occasional snot gob.

The special pineapple-and-hair-flavored lollipop cheered him up a little, though he mostly held it - he doesn't quite know what candy is for.

On my other blog, I had said that I could

envision a barber shop like the one my dad and brother went to - the big chair with the booster, the cotton cape, the fat guy brushing his the little hairs off his shoulders with a little soft broom, the stack of Field and Streams and Argosys.

I don't imagine anyone will have a small black-and-white TV with a wire coathanger sticking out the top, playing westerns or a Yankees game...

well, when you check my flickr stream, you'll see that we came pretty darn close.

you'll also see what an all-American boy eats for a special celebratory meal, after the worst public tantrum in world history.