Gazing at ballon animals in the middle distance

Nana and Uncle Ted were only with us a week. But in that time they managed to:

Snuggle with short people,

watch short people gaze into the middle distance,

enjoy Sylvia's first balloon animal and

Rose Festival Parade,

and settle in for a big smile.

Much love!

Summer 2010 Highlights - Part 2

The end of the break continues....

What summer would be complete without a visit to the zoo where you can even ride the hippos (bet you can't do that at your zoo),

and comparisons to bears are inevitable.

One of the major highlights of the summer was a week long visit with Nan and Uncle Ted in Newport, OR. Now the sun may have refused to shine on the beach for more than five minutes at a stretch but we persevered through the rocky shoals (sandy beaches) in search of quarry.

When reality grew stale we headed
to the Newport Aquarium to tussle with star fish.

Is that the sun,
why yes...quick everybody outside and get on your whale.

Much tasty food was had by all.

Dessert please.
(Please ignore hand of papa that is making a move to "clean" the cone which looks in danger of dripping. Thanks mom for the tip).

Followed by a walk home in the arms of your uncle.

Summer number three draws to a close.

Tree Hugging

A few small pictures showing from a recent visit from Nana and Uncle Ted.

Sylvia, a Portland native,
explained Tree Hugging to to her Nana.

Then she took Uncle ted for a tour of the local pet store.
Can you say, "Buy me a Chinchilla".

New dress and a phone call to Lele.

Why Lobsters Don't Wear Sunscreen

When not swimming or playing (eating) sand, Sylvia made good use of her time with walking practice. Her skills are definitely on the upswing.





It may come as no shock to our gentle readers that Australia is the world's finest source for high quality sunscreens. Makes sense: lots of sun and fair skin. As sensible, modern parents we dutifully slathers our child so that approximately .0001% of sunlight was able to penetrate the thick film that coated her from head to toe. That with a hat and her snappy purple sun suit meant that she was quite safe thank you very much.

Actually, all this precaution was good as the sun was very intense and we all managed to get some color. Though not as much as our lobster buddies below.








We bid farewell to the Cape and soon after to our east coast family and wended our way home to Oregon, where a 107 degree heatwave was just around the corner. (No pictures of that. It was too hot to move, let alone come up with cute pictures with witty captions).

Summmer Trip: NHM-CPD

The dinnertable has been having technical difficulties recently (a certain operating system that shall remain nameless was having stability problems) and this has delayed the posts. Things seem stable for the moment so let the baby pictures commence:


Straight from Northampton we three (Aurelia, Sylvia and myself) motored down to Cape Cod (Eastham - how do you pronounce that? With an "H" or no. Not sure there is a right answer) to be with my mom and Ted. Upon arrival Sylvia got her first dip in the Ocean.

She was clearly intrigued with the waves and all that granular stuff that seemed so edible...

(Note to National Weather Service:
wind direction can be gauged using my hair)

Since it was getting late we decided a little swim in the kiddie pool and a snack would be a good warm up for tomorrow's beach adventure.

Next episode: Tomorrow's big beach adventure.

Summer vacation: CLT-BOS

One two hour, non-air conditioned, airplane ride and we landed in Boston.

Nana was quick to sweep up Sylvia and show her that life in the big city includes new fangled high chairs,

curvy mirrors (normally used for checking one's golf swing),

and snappy kimonos for puzzle playing.

After a bit of decompression, i.e. bagels and lox, Sylvia, Linda, Ted, Aurelia, and I motored on down to the Boston Childrens' Museum for some fun n the worlds best living room. Sylvia entered the fray and was quick to install herself at the train diorama and car area.

Our arrival in Boston did not go unnoticed. G-pop Jim and g-mom Louise made them selves available mid-week for some fun at the Aquarium. (For more pics of the visit see Louise's blog).

After swimming with the fish we spent some time walking along the port.
Sylvia broke with tradition and actually took a nap in her stroller.

This was followed by tasty food at Wagamama and the first installment in Sylvia's new series:
Great Playgrounds of the Northeast.

Sylvia walking abilities are improving day by day.
She still hesitates but the climbing structure is too great a temptation.

The movie has a happy ending. Baby and play structure are reunited.

The day concluded with dinner at a child friendly restaurant in Cambridge.
While Sylvia waited for her meal to arrive she engaged in a rousing game of peek-a-boo.

Party Girl

A few days after Sylvia's official birthday, she was host to her first party. After much cleaning of house (I'm always sure the guests will be inspecting our upstairs back closet) and baby we (Aurelia, Linda, Ted, Ian and I) greeted Sylvia's buddy Akio and his adults, Nina and Jake. The group quickly got down to the important business of blowing bubbles and eating puzzle pieces.

Just minutes later the party really got started with the arrival of Lena and her adults, Dana and Brett.

During the party ted and Lena took time out to discuss the relative merits of balloons versus puzzles,

(Lena clearly prefers balloons)

Linda and Sylvia enjoyed the crowd,

and Ian perused our increasingly large collection of sleep propaganda, this one titled, "I'll See You in the Morning."

Our generous friends and family gave Sylvia some sweet gifts. Thanks!

Here Sylvia models a new dress that will fit this summer.

There are many birthday cake legends in our family. Some follow the mode, first perfected by the Greeks, of "My birthday cake was so natural is had no sugar, was made from raw oats and water and the icing consisted of tofu and sad songs." Others consist of various recollections about how, in our youth, we managed to strike our cakes with blunt objects (Ian-Hammer), had allergic reactions to an ingredient (Fidel-Strawberries) or ate twice our body weight in one sitting (Miguel-no just making that up).

I am happy to report that Sylvia's cake contained sugar (not too much), flour and nary a shred of tofu. As the movies below show, she seemed to enjoy it. Happy birthday sweetie!