Hot Fun in the Summer-ish Time

First things first, check out this sort of recent video of Ira making his earliest attempts at speaking with, like, consonants and such as opposed to the primate like "uuhhh uhhh uhhh" that he's favored in the past. This video is a few weeks old (creation to posting time is still a bit slow, I'm afraid) so he's starting to incorporate more and more sounds in spectacular fits of babbling. I will record examples of this soon.


Ira learns to make consonant sounds. from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.

Okay so maybe this isn't the best example of Ira's burgeoning ability to communicate vocally. But he is pretty cute, isn't he? And listen to how great Kirsten can vocalize.


Now on to bigger things- Ira's first trip to the beach! We took Ira to Perdido Key, Florida, on the Florida-Alabama border home of the world's best Mullet Toss.


Ira in the sand from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.


Ira at the beach. from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.



Ira and Kirsten in the shade.



Ira with his cousin, Holley.



The shovel, like everything else, quickly ended up in Ira's mouth.



When you're a baby, people think it's cute that you only wear your underwear at the beach.



Here, Ira prays that I don't make him nurse from my hairy nipples.



Ira, Kirsten, and Ira's cousins, Holley and Jacob.



Getting ready to leave.



Ira was asleep minutes after leaving the beach.

Craziness

These aren't great quality videos; they were taken by Ira's teacher on her cell phone. But they're amazing. You have to see for yourself.


Ira Climbs. from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.


Ira Climbs from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.

I don't know what to say. Are babies supposed to do this?

Happy Mother's Day!

This is Ira's first Mother's Day, and he got excited. For his grandmothers and great-grandmothers, Ira developed an entirely new way to paint. Who needs finger painting when you can use your whole body? The cards won't make it to their recipients until Monday (Sorry!!) so I can't post a picture of the artwork, but we've got some pictures of the artist at work.









As you can see, Ira's not afraid to get a little messy for the sake of art.

For his mother, Ira took a more restrained approach. With the help of his teachers, Ira used just his hands to make this beautiful keepsake.



It looks a little like he only has four fingers on his left hand, but I guess its the thought that counts, right?

We're so lucky to have such a great bunch of mothers. Kirsten and I both want to express our deep love for our mothers and grandmothers.

And Ira and I are lucky to have the most wonderful mother of all taking care of us. We'd both be lost without Kirsten. If Ira could talk I'm sure he'd say that he loves his mommy more than anyone else. She's done a great job so far, and I'm proud to be married to her.

This is the first Mother's Day since my maternal grandmother, Mary Jane Bloodworth, passed away. She was an amazing grandmother to me growing up, and it still makes me sad to think that Ira won't get to know his great-grandmother. She is missed.

Happy Mother's Day, to our mothers and all the mothers of the world.

Two posts in one day?

After posting those pictures of Ira in the fountain, I realized that I haven't added these videos yet.

This one is kind of old, probably 3 weeks, I guess. Here, Ira is just starting to crawl. Just a few weeks later and he's already improved a lot. He's still using his arms and dragging his legs, but he's starting to figure out how to use his leg's, too. The horrible noise you hear is one of Ira's favorite toys. It's a rabbit that sings "Polly Wolly Doodle" with two frogs singing back up. It's the most annoying thing ever, and Ira absolutely loves it.


Ira Crawling from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.

The second video might only appeal to true, die hard Ira fans. This was recorded around the same time as the video above, but it's long, poorly lit, and plotless. Sounds like some of my favorite movies, actually. We were just having some fun with Ira and the camera after waking up one morning.


Fun with sleepy Ira from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.

Ira in the courtyard

I'm at work right now. Kirsten and Ira just left the library. They came to have lunch with me, which they do most Saturdays when I'm stuck at work. It was too nice outside to eat in the employee break room so we sat out in the library's courtyard. I snapped a few pictures on my cellphone camera of Ira playing in the fountain.

After getting back from Memphis, we've spent so much time debating Elvis Presley vs Carl Perkins that I've forgotten to blog about all the awesome stuff we've done this month. It's been a busy month for us. We've had visitors and dinner parties and races and rock and roll and on and on; it's exhausting just thinking about it.

The day after we got back from Memphis, we picked Nana (Kirsten's Mom) up from the airport. She was supposed to go with us to Memphis but unfortunately wasn't able to. We were sad that she couldn't see Graceland with us so it was nice to have her stay here in Nashville.


Ira and Nana playing.


Ira naps with Nana.

Two weeks after Nana stayed with us, we participated in the Purity Dairy Dash 5K/10K. Kirsten's done this sort of thing before, but this was the first 5K for Ira and me. We had a lot of fun, even though there were a lot of people who ran the 10K faster than we walked the 5K. They handed out ice cream sandwiches at the end, which was a little weird.



Ira and Mommy going for the gold.


At the finish line. As you can see, we kept a very leisurely pace.

After the race we kicked off our week of music. It all started when our good friends The Besties came to town to play a show. Ira couldn't pass for 21 months much less 21 years old, and, since they ID at the Five Spot, Ira had to stay at home while Mommy and Daddy went out for the night. Ira stayed with Chris and Lindsey, his first official babysitters (Thanks, guys!). Even though he missed the show, Ira got to hang with The Besties when they came over and made us dinner. For those of you who don't know, The Besties are our old friends from Tallahasse - Marisa, Kelly, and Rikky - plus our new friend Frank.


Frank, Rikky, Marisa, Kelly and Ira.

Although it was great to see those guys again, the highpoint of the week for me came Saturday afternoon. We went back to Grimey's for the first annual Record Store Day. There were cheap records, undercooked veggie burgers, and, most importantly, David Berman, the singer of the my favorite band the Silver Jews. I met him once before in Athens, GA, and luckily he didn't seem to remember my starstruck blubbering from that night. I managed to hold it together this time, and we got a nice family picture and talked about our trips to Israel.



Later that day we all went to the Rites of Spring festival at Vanderbilt with Ira's babysitters, Chris and Lindsey. We weren't sure how Ira would handle the large crowds and loud noise, but he was pretty happy to be there. I don't know if he liked the music, but he was into the flashing lights. As a testament to the resilience of a baby, he actually fell asleep in the midst of all the chaos.






This is right before he fell asleep.


This was, by no means, the end of the month, but it's all we took pictures of. Last week was the end of the semester so I was busy with homework. Yesterday we went to watch runners at the finish line of the Music City Marathon, and I'll post pictures as soon as I get them. I've a couple of new videos to post, but I won't be able to do it tonight so look for those soon. Ira's really growing and starting to move all over the place. He hasn't mastered crawling yet- he's still dragging himself across the floor- but he's already trying to walk. We'll keep you updated as things progress.

Soulsville USA

We were supposed to meet Kirsten's parents in Memphis this weekend, but unfortunately Kirsten's dad was unable to travel due to health concerns. On the bright side, we were still able to go to Memphis by ourselves, and we had a great time. We stayed on the end of Lonely St. (seriously) at the ridiculous and wonderful Heartbreak Hotel, just across the street from Graceland, a place I've always dreamed of visiting. You should check out all of the pictures of our trip, if you want, though I'm posting a few of my favorites here.



This is absolutely my favorite picture from Graceland. Priscilla and Lisa Marie, Kirsten and Ira. It's poetic.


We weren't sure what Ira would think about Graceland. Obviously, he was enthralled.


Another great picture. For some reason (probably the embroidered tiger jumpsuit) Ira was very happy here. We tried to find a jumpsuit like this in his size, but, alas, we were unable. I'm sure though, if determined enough, my mom and Aunt Beth could find one.


A somber moment for the family as we pay our respects at The King's grave.


A not so somber moment, though still graveside.


Here, we're about to board Elvis's plane, the Lisa Marie. Ira, however, was tired of Graceland.


For this last picture you're going to have to use your imagination. This is the Stax Records Museum of American Soul Music, the coolest museum in the world. Stax records was like the Motown of the South, home to Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Booker T. & the MGs, Isaac Hayes, and tons of the best musicians in the world of soul music. For some reason, they don't allow cameras in the museum so you don't get to see how much fun we had. There was a dance floor with flashing lights and life-size projections of Soul Train dancers, and Ira loved it. Kirsten got down (literally) on the floor with Ira, and they danced for at least 20 minutes. I think the docent knew how cute this was and that I was going to take a picture as soon as he turned his back because he watched me like a hawk. So I'm sorry. You would have loved it.

We also went down to Beale St., but Ira was not into it. He stayed in the stroller hiding from the drizzling rain. I didn't take any pictures, but you're not missing anything. We're definitely going back to Memphis again in the future, back to the Stax Museum and to check out the Civil Rights Museum (when Ira's older) and maybe the zoo. All in all, Memphis is a pretty cool town.