I'm embarrassed and sorry that it has taken me so long to update Felix's blog. That is becoming a recurring motif of this blog, I should probably consider renaming it. Besides, Felix is two now, he should be doing it himself. So what have we missed? Christmas was a good time, my birthday was a riot, my Seahawks lost to the hapless Bears in the NFC championship game, and of course Felix's birthday on March 10th. He is already two! But, before he turned two, it was either in December or January, happened what I think is a very funny story. The story, a short story, is precipitated by Felix discovering chocolate. Felix loves chocolate. Anyway, so on that December or January day I walk into the kitchen and see Felix squatting in front of the cupboard in which Renae keeps her baking supplies. Renae happens to make the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had, and therefore keeps a supply of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chips on hand. At some previous date Felix must have discovered the chips, and on this date thought he would indulge his tastes. When he sees me walk into the kitchen, he looks up at me, smiles, and then thinks to say "daddy go out".
I then ask, "should I go?".
He responds, "daddy go out, bye bye".
"Okay, I'm going, bye".
"Bye".
"I love you, Felix".
"I love you, bye".
So I walk out, but he's not convinced I left. I peek back around the corner and see Felix still looking over in that direction, making sure I left. He sees me, and reminds me "go, bye", smiling the entire time. I thought it was so funny. But I don't know why he did that. I have not yet had refuse him something he has asked for. I'm not sure why he thought that I would not allow him to have chocolate and that he would have to take it without me knowing about it. Perhaps Renae has been in that situation where she has denied him, but she doesn't recall.
I am continually awed by the process of Felix learning new concepts. One he has recently learned, or became aware of, or is now able to express, is not knowing. The first I noticed is when I asked him where his shoes were, he looked at the spot were they are usually kept, thought for a moment, and then said "I don't know". I thought, perhaps, he learned a phrase that, to him, meant, 'not there'. A few days later, we were looking at pictures of animals and he was naming them as I asked what they were, until we came to one he hadn't seen before. He considered the picture for a moment and then said, "I don't know". And shortly after that, we were playing with a set of four balls, one of each color: red, blue, green, and yellow. The yellow ball was not around so I asked Felix where the yellow ball was, and he looked around and then replied, "I don't know where it is". I found that really fascinating for two reasons: first, he used 'I'; he was aware that it was he, the individual, that did not know- and second, he was conscious of the fact that things exist outside of his knowledge.
Blah, blah, blah, alright, onto the pictures. The first one, the one at the top, was taken by Renae at Ikea. Renae was there without my knowledge or permission. Anyway, that pose Felix struck is his lounging position; he will sit like that on our couch while watching Clifford.
Speaking of Clifford, Felix loves Clifford. Felix's aunt Rachael painted Clifford on our window for Felix's birthday party. If it ever comes up in a Trivial Pursuit game you may be playing, Clifford's family name is Howard.
The picture to the right was taken in late November, can you see how much younger Felix looks? This picture was taken at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, that is where Renae and I got married. We were joined in this picture by some people we don't know.
And finally, Renae and Felix enjoying some homemade pizza and another picture.
It appears that I need to put some text under the pictures in order for the pictures not to run into the previous post.
