Minivans, Carseats and Sheet Goods

We bought a minivan. It's a Toyota Sienna. Nautical Blue. Which is marketting for Navy Blue I guess. I wanted a vehicle that could haul an 8x4 foot sheet of plywood. I couldn't have a truck because mounting Trent's car seat in the bed just wouldn't be safe. So, it was a minivan. Some of you are busy subtracting cool points from my tally. Assuming you ever had me down for any to begin with. My only defense is that other than "coolness" there is no metric by which an SUV is better than a minivan. What are the units of coolness anyway?

Trent Talks It Up

Trent has made some progress on his talking. He's started using more words intentionally. He's learned to say "please" as a prompt when he wants something from Tina or I. "Thank you" appears to be more difficult. After all, he's usually already gotten what he wants by the time "thank you" becomes appropriate. He uses the word "ball". When we're looking at picture books Trent will point at balls that appear in the pictures and say "ball". He's learned to say the word "moon". That word comes from the classic Goodnight Moon. Trent can point out the moon in the window and say "moon". Trent can also point at light fixtures and say "light". He's also demonstrated some understanding of the scripting associated with using a phone. He picks up a lot of things that are vaguely phone shaped and make taking sounds into them. He usually ends up by saying "bye bye".

Trent Rolls One Way

Tina and I observed Trent roll over last night. When motivated by a tempting rattlely object, he can now roll over his right shoulder onto his stomach. Once on his stomach, he can also nudge himself forward slightly if an object is placed in front of him outside his reach. He has not yet demonstrated the ability to roll from his stomach onto his back. And when the tempting object is placed to his left, he won't roll left to get it. Hopefully, this doesn't mean he's a republican.

Trent's Allergies

After Trent's four month pediatrician appointment, we had some blood tests done. The little guy had a pretty tough day. Four shots and a blood draw. The results of the blood tests are back and Trent is allergic to...nothing that we tested him for. Tina tells me that these tests have the potential to yield false negatives, but we're going to try reintroducing the foods we've been avoiding. Tonight we had pizza! Tomorrow night Chinese! It's good to have all the tools back in the box.

The Cow Skull

I promised to hang up the cow skull as soon as I had a place to put it. Now that I have the shop put together, I have that place. As promised, here is the cow skull.

Where Has Rhett Been?

Well, the short answer is supervising Trent and in the shop. I've been putting together a wood shop to pursue one of my many dreams. This one involves making furniture. I'm a big fan of Norm Abram's New Yankee Workshop. My shop isn't as well equiped as Norm's, but I can still do some stuff. I recently did some introductory exercises on the scroll saw from a very good book. I produced basic sillouettes of a cat, a fish, and a butterfly.

Family Brunch

Most of the Hudson side of the family in the are got together for brunch last Sunday. We hosted it here at House Hudson. The two featured guests were Hilary and Rob's son David and our son Trent. We have a bunch of new pictures. There are some good ones including a picture of Great Grandma Otto holding Trent and Trent and the Caterpillar.