Sep 30 2003
This Weekend
The weekend started off with Sammy having yet another nasty ear infection. The doctor doesn’t think he has them often enough to merit putting tubes in his ears (thank goodness), but she’s concerned that he’s not healing completely through one course of antibiotics. We’ll have to go back after a few weeks to have him checked out again.
Luckily, though, he pulled out of it quickly and we were able to take him on the promised buth (bus) ride. For Sam, buses are the king of the road. When I take him to and from daycare, he vigilantly looks out for the big vehicles and exclaims, “buth!!!” whenver one drives up and “bye bye buth” when they drive off. He’s even cried when they left 
So, we packed up the little guy and took him to the Park & Ride where there were hordes of people lined up to catch buses down to the UW football game. Local politicians were also out in force, passing out their pamphlets and shaking people’s hands. One of the liberal environmentalist campaigners (much approved by this family) was heartily impressed with Sam’s interest in public transportation and called him a “good little commuter.” :laugh:
Watching the buses stop and go was apparently MUCH more fun than actually riding in one. I guess being inside the bus wasn’t that much different for Sam than riding in the car. He did like kneeling on the seat and looking out the window, something he can’t do in our car because he’s strapped into his seat.
When we arrived downtown, we took him to FAO Schwartz to see the huge clockwork contraption that’s in the lobby and to wow him with the talking animals on the second floor. We both thought he’d get a kick out of the giant piano keys on the floor, but it never dawned on him that walking across them was causing them to make music–there were far too many other things that grabbed his attention for him to process that as well.
While we were there, my pregnant self decided that it was time (yet again) to eat. We wandered around a bit and then ended up in the Pink Door, a restaurant just off Post Alley. There weren’t any kids in the place, so we were a bit hesitant to take Sammy there, but I was so hungry I couldn’t wait any longer. (Prepare yourselves for a little parental bragging.)
Anyway, I’m sure some of the other customers groaned to themselves when they saw us toting a two-year old boy into the restaurant, worried that he would be noisy and otherwise irritating. I think they were much relieved as the minutes wore on because he was totally content to sit in his chair, sip water from his own glass and dip bits of french bread into the dish of olive oil on the table.
The people sitting next to us smiled over at him every once in awhile and later on in the meal, they told us that he was “as good as gold.” We had to agree 
Then, the waitress came to clear off our dishes, and, as if to prove those nice people correct, Sam handed her his dish. What a helpful little guy!
On Sunday, Uncle Will came over for dinner. Since we didn’t get to see him on his birthday, Robert & I decided to make a little celebration out of the meal. Robert barbecued shish-ka-bobs (how do you spell that??) on the grill and I made my famous potatoes. Afterwards, we had some cake. I put 30 candles on it since Will had turned 29. I thought it was customary to put an extra one on for “one to grow on,” but for some reason, Robert & Will thought that was odd/funny. Am I an oddball, or do any of the rest of you do this too? Anyway, we lit up all the candles and had will blow out the inferno:
When we saw all that smoke billowing up from the cake, we all burst out laughing. I guess we’ll have to use fewer candles next year 
(One per decade maybe?) It was a lot of fun.
During the quiet times this weekend, I put the finishing touches on my new design for Quixotic Pixels and reopened the site. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out
