The joys of sugar

Strawberries = so-so
Strawberries + chocolate = heaven!

Friends

I think one of the funnest aspects of Atticus' age (18 months already!) is getting to see him interacting more with other kids. Granted, there is still a pretty long waiting period for Atticus to warm up to other children (we have to see them at least a half a dozen times first), but he does have a few friends now that he enjoys seeing. He will now actually play with these kids rather than just tollerate them being in his presence and resorting to crying when they come within two feet of him.

It's also interesting to see how these kids play without really having a verbal communication. These guys are still mostly in that stage of speech where they need an interpreter, but they still seem to get their point across to each other. Often times this is one saying something to the other, which is met with a blank stare. Then one or both go into an excited rant with lots of pointing and gesticulating. This is pretty funny to watch, but remembering being in the exact same frustrating situations in foreign countries makes it a tad sad. Only a little. Mostly it's still funny.

Fashionable hair

Atticus has never been one for hair care. He despises having his hair brushed and barely tolerates having it washed. This makes for some interesting hair days, as we tend to just let nature take its course.

Yesterday Atticus' hair looked just about average for him, meaning the front was slicked down with whatever he put in it at breakfast (I think yesterday it was butter) and the back was a frizzed mess of bedhead. We were walking by a bar down the street and two men were standing outside. These two buff, well dressed men looked like they stepped right out of a magazine ad. They both said hi to Atticus and chuckled as he walked by. I heard one say to the other that this little boy had the same hair style that he'd seen people get at salons.

Cool without even trying. Way to go, Atticus.

Growing

Atticus had his 18 month checkup yesterday. He's bigger than we expected. He now weighs in at 21 1/4 lbs and a bit over 32 inches. I didn't think he weighed that much. With his tall slender build, it looks like he's got the Kerttula genes for size.

...and we're back!

Why haven't we posted in over a month? We've been working on getting a new camera now for a few weeks. When you have something really great in the wings it's hard to go back to the plain ol' camera that we had before. But now that we've got this new toy in our hands, expect a lot more photos!

Here is a bit of a sampling from our weekend. If you look at it in pictures, it seems like a busy weekend, but really we've been mostly lying around the house or the yard the whole time.