NSJ

Niko is sleeping through the night on a fairly regular basis these days. This is kind of like when somebody hits you over the head with a 2×4 for six months and then stops. Quite lovely, to say the least. Last night he actually slept from 7pm to 7am. Ironically, I spent 5am to 7am worried he was dead. The “worried child is dead” fear in parenting is a very confusing emotional state. If he is dead, I’m not sure I want to know, so I might as well go back to sleep. But who can sleep when there is a chance their child is dead? On the other hand, if he isn’t dead, and I wake him checking to make sure he is alive, my wife is probably going to kill me. So I spent two hours trying to get Sumo to go check on him. (Needless to say, Sumo is no Lassie. I hope Niko never falls down a well.)

Niko continues to suck down “solid” foods like a champ. (As Jon predicted, not an ounce of it sticks to his bones.) He has an uncanny ability to get his right foot into his mouth at the “messy pinnacle” of the meal. I’m unable to get into his head and figure how how he logically goes from “wow, these mushed up peaches are amazing!” to “I bet my right foot would taste good about now.” You could easily tell which mornings I feed Niko simply by pajamas food stains on the right foot. Like one of those National Geographic nature photographers, I managed to catch him in the act, right before foot got to mouth.

Next I’m going to try to catch a shot of him sleeping in his natural habitat.

With a trucker hat, of course. You can’t go wrong with a trucker hat.

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This whole adoption thing is just an elaborate ruse to give me an excuse to buy more Legos.

We headed north to D.C. on Thursday for (Uncle John’s sister) Laura’s Wedding. Huge thanks to Grandma Mart who drove down from CT to babysit the boys while we attend the festivities.

By far my favorite monument in Washington is the Lincoln memorial. While it is often overshadowed by the Gettysburg Address, I think Lincoln’s second inaugural is probably one of the most amazing speeches ever written. It is really only equaled by King’s I have a Dream speech. The memorial has the second inaugural carved into the stone across one wall in an awe inspiring way that always gives me goose bumps. Lincoln rarely used biblical references in his speeches but uses two here as massive explanation points. Even as an atheist, and regardless of your conception of god, the cause to which he applies a just and righteous god is breathtaking. The entire speech is amazing but I have two favorite sections. In speaking about the North and the South, Lincoln says,

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. 

Then in speaking specifically about the war he continues,

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether’. [Emphasis mine]

If you have five minutes, I strongly recommend reading the entire speech.

Anyway, we headed over and read Niko the second inaugural. I’m not sure he followed everything, but he did say “NAAA, NAAA, NAAA, NAAA” to the statue, which I’m pretty sure meant “you go, Lincoln.”  It is suppose to be the cherry blossom festival, but any cherry blossom in its right mind would stay inside. Too damn cold to be blossoming.

He was also pretty fascinated with the Vietnam War memorial. Even as a six month old, it is hard to not be impacted by the power of the monument. Little hands, big sacrifices.

The Eatons (Clare, Don, and Donny), Twik, and Jim joined us (Johnstons, Olbrys, Smiths, Morris’) for Easter at the beach house. I somehow managed to take no pictures of our guests. Our Easter tradition in FL involves a huge breakfast of Eggs Benedict masterfully executed each year by Grandpa Jere. With a bunch of helping hands he managed to serve all 17 of us a wonderful breakfast. It was augmented by Clare’s Monkey Bread which is kind of like crack disguised as breakfast. Niko doesn’t know what eggs are yet, or bunnies, or baskets, or really anything. So I can’t say he really noticed the holiday. As far as I know he might think of it as “day I dress up like a sailor.”

More… 

At this point, I would lean more towards “confused why the water tastes funny” than “happy in water.” I imagine to Niko, who has only eaten yucky formula, bland cereal, and mushed up vegetables, salt water must taste like something exploded in his mouth.

Niko performs a take-down headlock on his Aunt…

Niko borrowed sunglasses from Molly on Sunday. Pink is totally the new black.