Baby Picture Sunday

I did a real story yesterday, so today you get baby pictures


Shopping and looking sharp in that jacket.


Grandson Elias is eight months old now.


I may be a messy eater, but I've got great eyes.

Johnson County BBQ

Johnson County BBQ



Johnson County Dems BBQ day was mostly family day for me. I tried to write but just got too busy with the people I love who I don't get to see enough at the end of the campaign. But I did get some pics. (the one above is cribbed from the DI, the rest are mine. Around the table it's Ethan, me, Koni, nephew Owen who's big and growin', sis in law Keri, and Hayden.)


Keynote speaker Tom Harkin (here with Ed Flaherty) arrived and left early, so we got the backwards supper effect of dessert first.



The actual dessert.


Harkin devoted roughly one line of his speech to his unnamed opponent ("I'm not taking this for granted just because I'm not running against a member of Congress.") Spend most of it talking up Senate chances in other states and on his reluctant vote for the bailout.


By tradition, the elected officials serve the food. Here's senators Becky Schmitz and Joe Bolkcom and (partially blocked) Patti Fields from the school board.


State Reps Mary Mascher and Vicki Lensing watch open seat House candidate Nate Willems; open seat contender Larry Marek also spoke.


Dave Loebsack.



Most importantly, this was my grandson's first BBQ.

A Full Bag's Harvest on the Smallest Farm

A Full Bag's Harvest on the Smallest Farm



We picked us a Big Bag O' Produce today on the Smallest Farm and the colors mixed very nicely.



E is for Ethan and for eggplant, Hayden has a perfect tomato. The perfect ones are slicers, the less perfect ones are salsa. Two varieties: Daddy's Dangerous Salsa and Mama's Mild Salsa. (It's not truly dangerous yet: the habanero peppers aren't ready.)



Ethan helps me illustrate just how tall the sunflowers are; Hayden took the picture.



Ethan took this artsy extreme tomato close up.



A perfect classic eggplant.



A jar of refrigerator pickles. The one that looks like my cat Xavier is napping.

We met a couple friends today:



Mr. Toad managed to escape from the boys in one piece, thanks to his excellent camouflage.



Mothra here was hungrier for chives than for her usual lunch, downtown Tokyo.

Baby's First Fair

Baby's First Fair

This is, of course, the REALLY important fair story.

My daughter and I have been to the county fair almost every year since she was four, and this year the tradition moves on to the next generation.



There's an excessive cute factor here. Not naming any names, but some people wanted to pick him up and not give him back.

I'm noticing people with babies more now. See, I never really had a baby in my life -- I met my daughter when she was three and my sons when they were four and six. So the baby thing is new for me. I thought we'd be the only people humping a stroller through the cow barn, but babies were everywhere.

People with babies always check out all the other babies and strike up conversations with all the other parents or grandparents. But as they walk away, you can just feel them thinking: "Mine's cuter." And they are, of course, wrong.



Elias isn't quite sure about the piggies yet. He's only four months old so he probably doesn't know yet that he's an Iowan...



but he does know how to hold the bottle.



Mama's beads look like a fun toy.



Grandpa, of course, had to stage this highly partisan shot. I didn't see any elephants.

Baby Update

Baby Update



Told you I was burned out on political writing this weekend, and fortunately I have a grandson to show off to my readers.



Elias turns three months old this week.



Koni's cool with me making her a grandma at 39 ("step" is not in the vocabulary of The Family With Five Last Names), and is still handy with a ba-ba. Uncle Ethan is only five, after all.



Jimiya of course always loves getting her picture taken; Daddy David, not so much.



OK, three human being posts in a row is enough; I promise my readers and editors I'll have some actual content next.

Grandpa

Just Call Me Grandpa


Welcome to the world Elias James! 7 pounds, 4 ounces, 19 inches, caught on a Mister Twister (it's an old Deeth family joke: the only things measured in the pounds ounces inches format are babies and fish). My daughter is a mama as of 7:48 a.m.


Our first three generation picture.


Grandpa got about an hour and a half of quality cuddle, and he slept through it all.

Update: More pictures!

My Own Big News

My Own Big News

When you strip away all the Hallmark hoopla, it's really quite simple to get married in Iowa (provided the male to female ratio of the couple is 50-50). Just takes a couple IDs, a few days, two witnesses, 35 bucks for the license and 50 bucks for a magistrate and you can do it.

So 3:00 Friday... we did.



Romantic in its extreme simplicity. Didn't tell anyone who wasn't on a need to know basis beforehand. We didn't want anyone to feel left out, so we left EVERYONE out. Didn't even tell the kids till after the fact. But now that I told the other bloggers, I need to post this so I don't get scooped on my own wedding.

We'll do something fun with more people... later.

UPDATE: Thanks for all the comment love, folks. Our witnesses were not the cats, but rather Koni's sister Lori and Brian Flaherty, best known to most as fearless leader of the JCDems. Lori's baby Owen -- now officially my nephew -- was also on hand.