Persons unknown were brave enough (or stupid enough) to step out onto the thin ice of Lauralhurst pond.

Ronin was feeling better the next day (at least, when she was doped up on baby acetaminophen) so I decided to make birthday cupcakes while letting her ransack the plastic container drawer.

She has been in a food-throwing mood lately and so getting her to actually calm and taste the thing before automatically sweeping it onto the floor was complicated. We managed to get a little swipe of frosting on her lips while she was thrashing back and forth and eventually a few teeny bits managed to work their way into her mouth for her to taste. She promptly dropped the tantrum and focused her attentions on the cupcake in front of her.

Basically she ate the frosting off of it, gave the muffin below a few pokes with her index finger and then fell apart.

There you have it folks: A child who will not even eat cake.

We’re just back from the pediatrician. She got a bunch of vaccinations and it was horrible. By far the worst round of vaccines yet. Ronin was sobbing convulsively and I’m still a mess although Ro is now sacked out and hopefully will sleep well tonight. I’m trying to recover with wine.

ANYWAY. I had a post prepared this morning, when times were more innocent and carefree.

My mom always calls me on my birthday and tells me the story of my birth (“Then you came out and you were LAVENDER!”) so perhaps I should continue the tradition.

This time last year I was a total mess after staying awake all night long counting out contractions and attempting to go to the bathroom. And THEN, I couldn’t pee at all and it hurt SO BAD! So we went to the hospital and an hour later you were born! HOORAY! You were covered with slime and screaming your misshapen head off and yet you were SO CUTE. Your dad got to hold you and you immediately peed all over him. A couple hours later you finally cracked an eye and gave him a look that said, “I will cut you.” We were pretty sure we had chosen the perfect name for you, little baby Ronin.

She’s been blowing through the milestones and I’ve been neglecting my duties cataloging them here. She moves like lightning and babbles nonstop. Some of the things she says are REAL WORDS. Confusingly, there are a lot of words in our little world that start with the letter B. Book bird block ball bunny Batbear box big blue butterfly bowl bug bead… Ronin refers to the majority of these as “ba,” with the exception of Batbear, who she calls “Dat-da.”

She shows preferences for certain toys. Her favorites are a tiny little bear in a purple superbat outfit (“Batbear;” thanks Jeff!), a neon green alien being (“Roswell;” thanks Chris & Kevin!), and Throttle the turtle (handmade by Ilana!), who we’re all familiar with. She calls them Dat-da, Bubba, and DAY (said in a high pitched sing-song voice).

The learning words thing is pretty far out. She gets very intense and singularly focused when you mention one of the words she is big on (see Yoda) and when she’s pitching a fit over something or another, I can usually say something like, “Ronin, go get a BOOK!” She shuts right up, her eyes get huge, her mouth goes into a little O shape, and she starts shouting, “Bu! Bu!” charging across the room to pull them all off the shelf. Another fun game is to recite one of her books and watch the gears crank. She’ll go over to the shelf, get the right book and bring it to you, crab-crawling across the floor with the book in one hand.

Stat-wise, she’s right in line with length (29.5in), head circ. (17in), but her weight has dropped sharply as far as percentages go. She’s 18lbs 9oz, which is only about a pound and a half more than what she weighed at six months. She’s so much taller but she’s stretched out of her baby fat stores. Next up: peanut butter and butter sandwiches with a hearty whipped cream chaser.

We continue to offer her the hated solid foods. The only foods Ronin likes lately are cheerio-like cereal pieces, cheese, dried banana chips, Turkey Vegetable puree (a jarred baby food flavor and in my opinion, totally vile), and anything sweet and sugary, like marshmallows. Joshua discovered the marshmallow at Whole Foods the other day, much to my dismay. We are not feeding her marshmallows (yes, I am the un-fun mother).

[Ronin, by the way, LOVES dogs. If “hot” was her first word, “dog” was definitely her second. Cody, Michelle’s dog, was surprisingly lax about having a shrieking monkey underfoot.]

She has about a hundred teeth coming in. Ghostly white lumps moving at a glacial pace. She has one finally about to break the surface and she’s been quite beside herself these past couple of days with the pain and irritation, sleeping fitfully and biting everything in front of her. Not only bites it but assaults it with her face. Sometimes things are soft (the edge of the bed) and sometimes they are hard (the edge of the coffee table). Not surprisingly, she has a cut and a fat lip from botched attacks on various furniture in the apartment. We’ve been giving her chunks of raw carrot to gnaw on. She teethes on the carrot chunk and we like to think that she manages to ingest a carrot molecule here and there but mostly she just spits the bits out onto your shirt.

We’re pretty much obsessed with her. I’m emotional already so I’ll just stop here before I get all mucousy and can’t taste my wine anymore. We love you little monkey. I hope you feel better tomorrow and we’ll all eat cake. With marshmallows.

Ronin often refuses the spoon. Last weekend, I just gave up and let her do it herself. Maybe that’s all she wanted. Unfortunately, it’s pretty messy.

We just heard from the new owner of the Time Machine. Donald is doing a complete refit. It will look great with a new paint topsides.

The rudder of my dreams. The design for this is based on Bill’s rudder on Wing and a Prayer. It is firmly mounted in a (break away) sleeve but can be raised out of danger to operate in shallow water or pushed deep for maximum performance.