Futbol!

As a parent of a first child, there is a certain amount of anxiety about a baby hitting his milestones. In Austin's case, we are a little nervous about the fact that he doesn't have teeth yet. The doctor says it isn't a concern until 18 months. But visions of gold baby teeth persist nonetheless.

Being in a nanny share with Kyle has calmed us down a bit. He has been crawling since six months and seems to beat Austin to all milestones. It's been humbling and the "all babies are different" adage really hasn't quelled the concern. Knowing that Austin isn't winning the baby race, though, does help us to reel in expectations.

Besides, Austin is happy and mostly healthy and that more than anything else should settle our anxiety.

All of this to say, we were surprised a couple of weeks ago to see him take a very keen interest in walking. He didn't crawl until just before Christmas and that is still just an army crawl. Crawling is not a milestone I kept telling myself, because that's what the books and doctors say. But I didn't believe it. Now I get it. Austin had his eyes on the bigger prize. All he wants to do now is have us walk him around. Clearly, he thinks crawling is for chumps! He is totally all about becoming bipedal!

The other day as we were walking together we came up against a road block. One of Jeter's stuffed toys (a blue stuffed animal of no particular distinction who we call "baby bunny") was in our way. Austin kicked it. Just like that, very naturally. Since then we've noticed he likes to kick things in his path. When it's an actual ball he likes to keep kicking it - like he's dribbling a soccer ball. Who knew this was an instinct? As an American, futbol (aka soccer) is so foreign, that one presumed that to kick a ball is a learned behavior. Not so, it would seem.

In trying to mute my milestone expectations, I think I may have I dampened them a little bit too much. So much so that this developmental leap took me by surprise. But it shouldn't have.

Austin is a wonder and a miracle and he jumps ahead leaps and bounds every day. We must not look ahead, but savor these moments of discovery before they vanish to make way for the next big thing, which happens quickly these days.

Retail Therapy

A jaunty foray into a first cold for the baby descended into a nightmare last week when Austin was sent to the ER after a febrile seizure. I will not recount the details here, because they are burned into my memory with a searing pain that will never allow me or Hayden to forget.

A few days after Austin's fever passed and Hayden's cold subsided we decided to venture out. Hayden's new old boss Ruth was having a holiday party in the late afternoon. Before that we decided to stop at an Oriental rug store in Bethesda that was having an auction to see if we could find something nice, but not too nice for the middle of our living room.

We parked and I ran in to case the scene ahead of Austin and Hayden. It was as expected: lots of rugs in a small, rundown "it's all about the rugs" shop. There were about 20 people sitting in chairs listening to an auctioneer. It was a retirement crowd. There were no kids or younger people. I hesitated.

One of the shopkeepers approached me and was quite friendly. She encouraged me to get the baby and even helped us carry the stroller in and around some of the rug piles.

They registered Hayden and me and gave us our own auction numbers. We peered behind the register and on the shabbily paneled wall were pictures of the owner with Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney and a various and sundry big politicians.

We were hungry. It was lunchtime and they had a huge spread of Middle Eastern food that was delicious. One of the women even ran around collecting non-spicy chicken and rice to feed Austin.

As we stuffed ourselves, we watched the scene unfolding. Two guys in work clothes were perched up above the crowd dangling rugs over a platform for them to view. The rugs were stunning and the auctioneer barked numbers and factoids as fast as one would imagine. 

Well folks, this is a fantastic Persian from the city of Tabriz in the sunny northwest corner of Iran where artisans painstakingly labor over the detail for at least two years. Can I have $10,000? How about $9,500? How about $5,000? Folks, this rug is signed by the artist. Note the intricate scalloped design along the edges. Can I get $2,500? $2,500! How about $2,750. $2,750! How about $3000? Can I get $3000? Going…going…sold for $2,750.

And of course that all came out if his mouth in about 30 seconds. People were buying and it was going fast. As I gulped down my kebab, a little afghan rug, about 2x1 came up. Price tag was $450. Opening bid $50. The next thing I knew my hand flew up and I was the owner of the rug. Hayden looked up, mouth full of dill-spiced rice with a big "huh??" expression on his face.

It felt good, in that, I just won a few quarters in the slot machine kinda way. In fact, after spending what would become the rest of the afternoon there, we concluded the set-up was very much like a casino. No windows, lots of food and drink, friendly service: the Trifecta to get you to spend money.

Hayden and I knew what we came for. There was a break in the action and we were encouraged to pick rugs we'd like to see auctioned. We went to the pile with the size we had in mind and the owner's son generously helped us flip through about a hundred rugs. We saw several that were amazing. One caught our eye early and the son went into this long spiel about where the rug was from, what the details meant and its worth: Qom (a place I had visited on my Iran trip), four seasons pattern, $12,000.

You see Hayd, we have champagne taste. Hayden looked unamused.

But then he got excited and so did I. Auction fever was setting in and we wanted in on the action. A few of our rugs came up on the platform. Our arms twitched. Not yet, we have to wait and see what the champagne will cost. We plotted our pricing strategy. No matter what we were not going over $1,000. Interestingly, when we arrived that threshold was much, much lower.

Then our beauty dangled before us on the platform. All the details rattled off in rapid succession by the auctioneer. Oh gosh oh gosh, how low will he go??!

Can I get $10,000? Gulp. How about 5,000? Gulp gulp gulp. Twitch twitch. And now $2,500? Ahhhh! Stay on target. Stay on target.

Ladies and gentleman these rugs are going for a steal. This one is a sophisticated blend of silk and wool. It is signed by the weaver. $1200. I’ve got $1200 (What?! Who the hell is bidding on our rug?!) Can I get $1,400? $1,400 from the gentleman holding the baby and sweating bullets. $1,400 going once. Going. Sold to 131!

There was absolutely nothing responsible about this purchase. We are now broke, with a rug too beautiful to have baby and dog crawling all over it. Sigh. The things we do to recover from trauma!