ET Madison Adopt picnic

This is a picture with my zoom lens, of Elias being brought back to the picnic by our friend K. K is very attentive and has variously referred to Elias as her "baby" and her "husband." [I'll let others insert their own commentary here.]

Despite the great weather, people, location and food, the picnic wasn't really relaxing, with me constantly tracking and/or chasing down Elias. He tends to range far, and quite often will casually insert himself into other families that interest him. Many people commented on this, from "he's so friendly!" to "He's quite a handful, isn't he?" Completely contrary to his behavior at home, in public he doesn't seem to care where I am and ignores my calls. Towards the end he decided it was time to go home so set off to find the car, which was quite a distance but still in sight. I caught up to him right as he neared the parking lot, much to the delight of a man who'd just drove up, who kept exclaiming how beautiful he is, and that he is of royal blood (referring to the legend that King Solomon & the Queen of Sheba founded the last Ethiopian dynasty). He also flirted with me a bit, which is a rare event indeed. Around 7pm, his bedtime, I carried Elias back and packed up, and we set out for the car again, but by then he'd changed his mind and ran back to the group. I kept going, hoping he'd follow, but of course he didn't. When I got to the car I left the loaded stroller to go get him, and saw that another mom had loaded Elias into her wagon and was towing him over to me. What a nice group of people.

Today I finally got to take off Elias' bandage from surgery and give him a bath. The upper cut is about 3 cm long and looks serious, but doesn't bother him in the least. Both incisions are healing very well. The surgeon said they might not even leave a visible scar. This whole surgery was so "easy," at the end it didn't scar me, either.

Incidentally, Elias' waning appetite has revived. Tonight he gobbled down two hot dogs, 1/2 a large apple, a bowl of egg salad, sliced carrots, and some leftover mac&cheese, followed closely by his bedtime milk. It's a good thing his stitches are so low, so they aren't endangered by the stretching skin over his bulging belly.