Arthur had a busy day today (Labor Day). First the state fair with Jess, Bubby, and auntie Em and uncle Mike. At the fair he ate parts of a walleye cake, pizza, turkey sandwich, and fresh squeezed lemonade. Then, off to Eva’s house to play (below) while papa drank a gin and tonic and mama stayed home. All this with a 40-minute nap. Induro-baby.

As you can see here, Arthur visited Bubby at her job at Abbott Northwestern. He was introduced to Adria’s work friends who said they knew him well since Adria talks about him ALL THE DAMN TIME! (the didn’t really say the damn part)

After returning from a bike ride in the little bike trailor art rides in, he made a great face.

This is Art and his friend, Evva. They are the same age and Art will be going to Evva’s house while I teach this fall, and she’ll come to Art’s house another day of the week.

Here Art is having some breakfast and wondering what his bunny is looking at!

Finally, this is Art at art class. We took a class this summer for 12-24 month old kids and did all kinds of projects. Most of the time Art just stared at the other kids, so this picture is actually quite accurate.

That's what Art said to me for the first time after he and I had a nice dinner at the Midtown Global Market. He was sitting in his high chair and afterwards, looked up and said "I belub bloo" (translation: I love you). I picked him up and he gave me a big squishy hug. It was really great.

Here is a picture of Art’s frog wearing pants, a t-shirt and, lo and behold! A diaper. This morning marked the second time that Art has asked that the frog get a “new dia-ter”. He still mixes up a lot of his consanants. I can’t even beging to spell what he says for watermelon. I actually think his version has five syllables… but I digress!

So, tonight Art asked that the frog get a new diater again, so I happily put one on him. Then he wanted to take it off. Then he pulled out a pair of shorts from his dresser and said, “On!” So we put the frog in shorts. Then I got totally pumped about this whole dressing-the-frog thing and pulled out Art’s newborn clothes. I got one of his tiny, newborn diaper covers, newborn knit pants and a newborn t-shirt. Then I dressed the frog in these better fitting clothes (pictured) and we got distracted and jumped on the bed for a while. Then Art brought the frog back into his room, said “New Diater!” and lifted the frog up to his changing table! Smart!

Then he wanted me to nurse the frog. I obliged. Pictured you see a well dressed, well pretend-fed frog.

I’m out of town for the paper and Jessica just wrote a nice e-mail updating me on the comings and goings of Arthur:

Well, as I told you the morning was a little annoying, but later we got together with Erin and Evva at Sovereign Grounds and then he took a nice, long nap. Then Art helped me with some basic chores. He helped me put the dry clothes into the bag to bring upstairs and he helped me get the plates put away by taking each one out of the dishwasher and handing it to me (he did the same thing with forks but then he got distracted by the pie cutter). We played in Maura’s backyard, not knowing if anyone was home, and Emily invited us in. Art and Maura ran around their couch about 15 times and Kris grabbed them and swung them around. We had ramen noodles with chicken, carrots and scallions for dinner (he liked the scallions!) and for lunch he had a spinach pie thing at the coffee shop. He had a bath and he put his own toys away and unplugged the tub. Then he laid on his stomach in the tub and watched it drain out. He noticed the water whirlpooling down and said, “Round and round”. We read lots of books today- wheels on the bus, bus stops, Gumpy’s outing, ABC, Moo, Barnyard Dance, Roar and More, Polar Explorer Bear, First Word Book, and lots of sticker sticking. We did not play with the ball toy today, but we did do a little playdough making a fry. We went for a short walk outside, we rode the bus (to the coffee shop), we jumped on the bed a little, we put a giraffe rattle to “sleep” and covered it with a blanket (actually, a shirt), then we woke it up and put it back to sleep, over and over. That was fun. Let’s see… what else? I think that’s about it.

He asked where you were a several times and I told him you were at work.

I love you, HOpe you sleep well.

– jess