Geoffrey's Birthday

It was three years ago today that Geoffrey Shannon Curtis Wortham was born at Barnes Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Today, we had a little party at his school. They have a tradition where the birthday person gets to pick a classmate to be the sun. The birthday person holds a globe and walks around the 'sun' as many times as they are years old. The class then sings happy birthday and then everybody had cup cakes.

When we got home tonight, we presented Geoffrey with a cake and sang him happy birthday. Geoffrey is very modest. He didn't really accept that today was HIS special day until nearly bedtime. Geoffrey put in his PJs, brushed his teeth, and climbed into bed with Mom. When I finally got Jacob ready for bed, he decided that he wanted to lay in Mom and Dad's bed in the middle between Mom and Geoff. Geoffrey really didn't want to give up his spot and Mom reiterated that it was Geoff's birthday and that he should be able to choose. While Jacob was fussing with me about this, I heard Geoffrey say, "It's my birthday, it is."

Geoff loves his brother very much and usually just gives in when Jacob indicates that he wants something other that what Geoffrey wants. I was very proud to see him stick up for himself.

Geoffrey on beans and Jacob on robot heads.

I had a really great talk with Jacob on the way home tonight. We were talking about weird diseases you can get from malnutrition (rickets, scurvy and the like). He told me about knockyourheadoff. Apparently, this is a rare condition where you have a fall or something and knock you head off. He went on to tell me how they replace your head with a robot head complete with painted on hair. I asked Jacob what they do with your real head, do they perhaps put it on a robot body? He said, "No, they just throw it in the garbage." Awesome!

The pic is Geoffrey snapping beans with mom. You can check out the video with his how-to here.

Updates and changes

Hey everybody. I forgot to mention last time that I have posted the pictures for October. Also, I uploaded a couple of videos to our YouTube page. In addition to that, I have added some links there on the right. They should be pretty straight forward. The only one that might need a little unpacking is that last one. There is a service called Bot-a-blog that will send you e-mails when a blog that you are following gets updated. Seemed pretty handy so I created an account and added a link. If you click on that link, it will take you to a website where you can input your e-mail address. From that moment on, when this site gets updated you will get an e-mail. Pretty cool, huh?

Helper

A colleague and I have discussed some characteristics of our children that drive us nuts but that we will be proud of when they are older. Geoffrey is stubborn and independent, traits that he shares with my friends daughter. When he is on his own, these traits will make him strong person who will not be easily swayed by the influence of others. Right now they make him an unmanageable pain in the neck. Last night he was moving a step ladder into the living room to get something from the top of the entertainment center. Realizing what was happening, I went in there and got it for him. He made me put it back so that he could get it himself. He will frequently ignore your advice and make his own mistakes. The best you can do sometimes is to remind him of those mistakes.

The picture that accompanies this post is of Geoffrey and Grandpa carrying stuff out to Grandma & Grandpa's truck. While he is nearly unmovable, his is at least not inconsiderate. Minnieland, where the boys go for daycare, gives out suckers on Friday afternoon. On the couple of occasions where Jacob is not there when I pick Geoffrey up, Geoffrey always gets extra suckers for Jacob. This weekend, he was very concerned when he heard Grandma and Grandpa talking about the dogs being too distracted to eat. He chased one of their dogs around the kitchen with it's food bowl making every attempt to get it to eat. Back to the photo. Geoffrey is always willing to lend a hand. In fact, he can be kinda pushy about it, helping people against their will. This picture is Geoffrey, helping Grandpa.