The Things We've Handed Down

Since the death of my parents, I've been on a mission to find my roots. This song by Marc Cohn has been a catalyst, lyrics dancing in the background like Trevor tugging on my shirt sleeve. I'd be hard pressed to find more poignant words to describe to my children who and why and how they are.
___________

Don't know much about you
Don't know who you are
We've been doing fine without you
But, we could only go so far
Don't know why you chose us
Were you watching from above
Is there someone there that knows us
Said we'd give you all our love

Will you laugh just like your mother
Will you sigh like your old man
Will some things skip a generation
Like I've heard they often can
Are you a poet or a dancer
A devil or a clown
Or a strange new combination of
The things we've handed down

I wonder who you'll look like
Will your hair fall down and curl
Will you be a mama's boy
Or daddy's little girl
Will you be a sad reminder
Of what's been lost along the way
Maybe you can help me find her
In the things you do and say

And these things that we have given you
They are not so easily found
But you can thank us later
For the things we've handed down

You may not always be so grateful
For the way that you were made
Some feature of your father's
That you'd gladly sell or trade
And one day you may look at us
And say that you were cursed
But over time that line has been
Extremely well rehearsed
By our fathers, and their fathers
In some old and distant town
From places no one here remembers
Come the things we've handed down

Time for me to fly...

The symbolism of this picture is unavoidable.


He's getting so big.

525,600 minutes

In the span of what seemed like only three months, we've gone from this:


To this:

Happy First Birthday, Grayson Thomas Morris! Your dad is proud of you and loves you very much.

In a pretty rare event, Emily gave birth to Grayson on HER birthday... so both are celebrating today. Love you Emily, happy first 29th birthday!

Pick up, it's for you

My son has a toy phone, and when you push the various buttons, different recorded messages or sound effects play.

You'll hear things like "let's call Daddy," or "let's call Grandma." But on most of them, you just get a sound effect.

Most of the sound effects are as heard through the earpiece of a phone, like the sound of a phone ringing on the other end of the line. But the sounds that make me smile are the ones I know Grayson will never hear during the practical use of a real telephone. Things like a dial tone, or a busy signal.

I wonder why they even put those effects ON a phone these days. When he pushes those buttons, I always wax a little nostalgic.

So what is a child to make of one of THESE?

When I was a child, we were on a party line. Ever experienced one of those? You literally share your line with neighbors, so when you pick up the phone to make a call, it's possible that, instead of a dial tone, you'll hear their conversation. So you have to hang up and wait.

And wait.

Yeah, that Lela Plumlee was a talker.

The nine-month-old "chip off the old block"

Grayson is getting more and more handsome every day. Good thing he takes after Mommy!

These are a few shots from his 9-month photo session.

Mmmm, chinese food

I walked into the kitchen this morning to pour a cup of coffee, and when I returned, I witnessed my son trying to eat his first wild game meal.
Kramer the cat was lying on his side. Grayson was straddling him, holding him by the front leg and the scruff of the back of his neck, and had Kramer's head in his mouth. Mmmm, fur.

Kramer was being very patient. He's a great, baby-friendly kitty. Maybe it's his old age.

I considered naming this post differently. Something about eating... something. Use your imagination.

Lady killer...

Here's Grayson in all his Fall glory. He gets cuter every day...

Semen's in...

About three blocks from our hotel here in Mystic, Connecticut is one of the area's best seafood restaurants. It's called Seaman's Inne, and I can't drive by without giggling like a moron.

Yes Blogarita, there IS a Mystic Pizza, the actual restaurant after which the movie was named. The film (Julia Roberts' first) was shot on location in Mystic. You can have Mystic Pizza delivered anywhere in the US, although it's pretty expensive. I'd say on a scale of 1-10, their pizza is about a 6. Very good, (not great) but the ambience and novelty more than makes up for it. There is an old saying about pizza and sex... but I don't want to reference it in the same post as Seaman's Inne.
We stopped at one of the many roadside fish stands yesterday, and had lobster rolls and clam fritters, two things you can't find anywhere back home. It is clear to me that, where my diet is concerned, I will have to write this week completely off.
As we enjoyed our lobster rolls, Grayson enjoyed fresh Elephant.

C, in answer to your question, we were here during Christmas last year and took the Mystic Seaport tour. The old whaling ships are fascinating to walk through. We went below deck and found that the fishermen must have been really short. At 6'3", I had to duck almost the entire time.

We took Grayson for his first trip to the beach yesterday. He got to play in the sand a little, but given his tendency to put everything he touches in his mouth, we didn't let him play for long.

Speaking of, he got his first tooth today! His right-middle tooth on the bottom is poking through and he definitely has the teething attitude.

Tomorrow is the wedding (the reason we're here) and Monday we leave for home. I miss being able to do anything we want anytime we want, but Grayson has been a total joy on this trip. He's a great little passenger and he makes us smile a lot. I can't wait to take him on our next trip, especially as he starts being able to remember the things we do with him.

We be trippin'

We picked the absolute worst time to drive through NYC. Traffic made me wonder how people live and work here without killing each other.

Yesterday, we took a break and hit a little cafe' called the Olympia Tea Room near Watch Hill in Rhode Island. We sat in their sidewalk seating area and watched the boats. We gulped down a double order of raw oysters-on-the-halfshell, then walked around the shopping area with Grayson until it started getting dark.

We're staying in Mystic, Connecticut at the Hyatt Place. It's a nice suite hotel with plenty of room for all our stuff. (traveling with a 6 month old, you have to take everything - the hotel staff thought we were moving in.)

We'll check in again later.

Oh and by the way HAPPY BIRTHDAY Grayson, who is 6-months old today.

Night

It's late and there is a cool breeze blowing in the window of my office. I'm listening to a Billie Holiday/Frank Sinatra jazz station streaming in from some far corner of the world. A cup of hot tea is helping me stay focused on paperwork.

Em had class tonight so Grayson and I had lots of time together this afternoon. I think he's showing signs of teething - he was pretty cranky and needed direct contact a lot, so I ended up holding him most of the evening. He sat on my lap and we watched television awhile, but mostly he just watched what I was doing.

I didn't get much work done, but there won't be many nights like this. Good times...