18 months - frequent flyer

at the unripe young age of not-quite-one-and-a-half-years-old, little PD havlan has already racked up more travel miles than an army brat with a pilot's license. mexico: been there. maine: been there. the moon: not ruling it out. and for the last three months the exploring has continued. basically if you say "marco" our little man has been too far away for you to hear him say "polo". also, he can't say "polo" yet, but we're working on that.

at the beginning of march PD and mommy flew to north carolina to visit our friends, the seilers. mommy doesn't have a camera attached to her hip the way daddy does, so this pic isn't from that trip, but it sure is cute!

read on for the location and thrilling sequel to this picture!

at the beginning of april our superhero and mommy drove to philadelphia to visit mommy's friend margot and her growing brood of human knock-offs. they were joined by the always-great-to-be-around margaret sadovnik and her own beautiful knock-off. so it made perfect sense that they line them all up for some highly competitive... "baby races".

as you can see, PD brought along his game face.

let's go back for a moment to a simpler time... or was it a more difficult time?
whatever.
it was definitely "a time". january, 2010, when aunt pam was kind enough to come to new york to help oversee the origins of our little superhero...

an instant classic!

flash forward to late april, 2011, and it was time for PD to head down to atlanta to pay his own visit. and being as he's a baby and all, he found a way to make it...
ALL ABOUT HIM
(http://bit.ly/GZCve9)

it's not the most exciting video we've ever shot, but it highlights PD's early love of water, shows off his very advanced "regaining your balance" skills, and features none other than the one and only aunt pam.

and the adventures of the traveling poopy pants is not over!

at the beginning of may, mommy and baby once again left daddy behind and flew to jacksonville, florida, to visit mommy's friend kara and her new baby, max. this trip resulted in one of my favorite pictures of the last few months courtesy of the lovely kara scremin who asked for nothing more in return than to be mentioned in the blog. hi kara!

kara sent this picture to me with the caption "how cute is your kid?" i think you know my answer.
and you gotta love how he's rockin' the natural "whale tail" bangs. sweet look.

so what was daddy doing during all these trips? aside from sleeping? and cleaning? and working? and walking charlotte? and watching do-it-yourself home improvement shows on HGTV?
actually, that was about it.

but finally, at the end of may, daddy got to come along for one of the many rides. i was off work for a week and we headed to california to visit the west coast thomases and say happy birthday to kobi...

this was at the oakland zoo waiting to ride the tiger that appears to be attacking them at the moment.

the birthday party was out of this world, mainly in that there was a space theme - including a space shuttle cake, a space shuttle pinata, and what i imagine was a NASA-sized budget. but in a preview of his commitment to fight evil in all its forms, parker was perfectly happy to spend most of his time patrolling the yard for wrongdoers...

this is not the look you want to see on a cop's face. even if that cop is a baby cop!
(idea for screenplay: rookie cop - played by a baby - gets partnered with veteran cop who's one week from retirement. tag line: "sometimes it takes a baby... to make a man". working title: baby cop and tisdale. just brainstorming here, but i'm thinking matt damon as "tisdale".)

but i digress.
after the party, it was off to...

continuing with what we hope will be a lifelong tour of our national parks, we spent three beautiful days in yosemite staying at the yosemite lodge right at the base of yosemite falls where we ate yosemite sandwiches and wiped our faces with yosemite napkins.
(you get the point. basically everything in the park has the word "yosemite" in it.)
everything, that is, except for...

"nevada falls".
who needs a gym when you've got access to a two-and-half hour stairmaster-like hike with a 30-pound baby on board. PD was sleeping in this picture, but he was awake for most of the hiking and seemed to enjoy it, easily keeping pace with his astonishing 99% singing/1% crying backpack ratio.

the top of nevada falls, and yes, we had to walk back down.

mariposa grove. one of many wildly beautiful spots. no books, no CD's, just a natural classroom of colors and textures and sights and sounds.

two giants: one sequoia, one baby.
(guess which "giant" fell on it's face just after this picture was taken.)

and finally...
the thrilling conclusion i promised you!
it pretty accurately sums up yosemite's effect on our general family mood.

seems like time for a song, doesn't it?
today's super tune for a super baby is from a super star with super moves and super grooves.
it's james brown's "super bad", and you have to be super-crazy not to...
dig it.

Sometimes I feel so good
I jump back
I wanna kiss myself
I got soul
and I'm super bad

of course, in this instance the word "bad" means "good"... as was consistent with the cultural vernacular of the time.
long story short, if there's one thing me and mommy agree on - and for the record, there are at least 2 or 3 things - it's that our little superhero is as bad as they get.