Potluck

Yesterday Cosmo and I continued our quest for air conditioning, visiting Marya downtown and then going to the Art Institute. I think my favorite places to keep cool (other than Marya's stylish workplace) are actually the buses. Nice and cool and the scenery keeps changing. Only received one piece of unsolicited advice: we hadn't even gotten off the bus yet and a woman told me I needed to put a hat on Cosmo because of the sun. I pointed out the umbrella next to his head. She went on a riff about how great it is that some men are finally stepping up and helping out--but I'm not sure she's willing to concede any of them are qualified.

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Cosmo is getting so strong, and is so interested in using all his limbs, that feeding time has come to resemble a wrestling match. Actually, it's more like trying to pump up a basketball while someone is dribbling it. Getting the nipple in his mouth is no guarantee that it will stay there, even when he's hungry. And he has no idea that he's being working against me, poor guy. When he achieves a momentary victory, it's very upsetting to both of us. But I have heard that milk baths are very good for the skin....

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Felix seems to come home singing a new song every day. "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "I'm a Little Teapot" have been supplemented by "Yankee Doodle" and "Frere Jacque" and "The Number Rock." And, after a long period of forbidding bedtime lullabies (Keir: "Felix, would you like me to sing a song?"; Felix: "No, no, no, nony nony nony no.") he now enjoys a song or three before drifting off to sleep. Our favorite is the "Hobo Song," which he calls the "Elbow Song." "Sing elbow song!" he commands. And, amazingly, he can sing all three verses along with us.

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Felix's joke-telling usually involves nonsense words, some of which can reduce him to helpless laughter when said back to him. "Pitty-pow" was the first one, then "smitter-smash" and its variant, "stitter-stash." The latest is "fizzy-fuzz." I know I'm forgetting a few....

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I'll try to post new photos later today.