Summer fun

Finally, it feels like I am in my summer routine.  After we got back from California, it took a few days to get Trey back to a napping routine which made Mama a little nutso.  But we seem to be in the groove again and are able to enjoy our summer days.  There are a lot of pictures in this post, but if you are like my husband, that's all you look at anyways...

One of Trey's new delights in life is to have the windows down in the back of the car.  He giggles and waves his arms and smiles the hugest smiles...it might be one of my new delights in life too.

It is hysterical to watch Randy eat breakfast in the mornings.  He has two willing helpers ready to pitch in at any time.

Here are a few pictures from our CA trip that I didn't get downloaded for the official CA post.  One day we went hiking with Doug and Carmen.  We were turned away from the waterfall we wanted to hike because of a full parking lot, so we continued to drive up the windy, windy, windy road to find a short hike with some nice views.  

Here are a few pictures of what Randy has been doing this summer.  If he isn't working some long hours at the Primate Center or playing with his son, he is on the river.  

On fourth of July weekend, we went hiking/walking through Washington Park.  Afterwards, we met Kris and John at the new Hopworks by our house.  I am delighted to find that they have outdoor seating and are only 2.5 miles away.  Yahoo!!

Oh, and this walk is an attempt at one of the hill walks from my book.  We didn't make it very far into the walk in part because my husband doesn't have a lot of patience for my reading of guidebooks on our hikes.  Go figure.

After a quick stop at the Swap n Play, Randy, Trey, and I enjoyed an afternoon at Breakside, our local haunt.

So, if you read my blog, you may remember that I am trying to do all of the hill walks in Portland Hill Walks this summer.  I have quickly learned that these walks are not stroller friendly.  I haven't tried to use our new hiking backpack by myself, but if I want to achieve this goal, I will need to do that.  This picture is from the St. Johns walk I did last week.  I only had to take Trey out of his stroller once to lift the stroller over a gate.  Big improvement over last time.  And I also think that I need to either a) read the entire walk description before I go or b) listen more closely to what the author says because when she said "Walking alone, especially for women, is not a good idea," I should have paid attention.  Someday one of these hill walks will be enjoyable.

Here is Trey with Dominic, Sarah Falcon's son, at the Swap n Play.  If it sounds like I spend a lot of time there, it's because I do.

Yesterday we took Trey to his first swimming lesson.  As you can tell from the pictures, he loved it!

Later in the afternoon on Saturday, we went to the Mississippi Street Fair with Kris.  It was packed!  Luckily, we were able to stop and rest in the shade at Muddy's which is owned by my friend Dyer.  The banana bread I got for Trey was DELICIOUS, and Randy said that the sandwich he ate had some of the best egg salad on it that he'd ever had.  

Neil was doing a tasting of Imbue at Pastaworks.  

This is his vermouth that he makes and it is fantastic.  

Look for it in your local wine stores, New Seasons, liquor stores, etc.

Relaxing at Muddy's

The day ended with some short ribs from Gartner's and a great summer dinner on the deck with Kris and John.  You can't get much better than that!  

Today Randy is fishing with Adam, and my dad and Sandy are coming up for a visit.  Should be another great summer day!  

Crawling! Scooting! Pulling up!

Trey is finally crawling on all fours!  He's been doing the army crawl for about a month and a half, but on the fourth of July he started doing the real crawl.  Here he is going to one of his favorite spots in the house.

He also loves to stand, and it doesn't matter if it is against the couch, the ottoman, the tv stand, the chair, the train table, and now the crib.  He's getting better at pulling himself up (he can do it on the ottoman because it is shorter) but often needs a little boost.  He's also working on cruising along the furniture which his PT said is an important step in learning how to walk independently.

Train table at Swap n Play 

Tupperware drawer 

I came in to this a few days ago.  

He's on his knees, but it's only a matter of time...

Here he is on his new scooter from my dad and Sandy.  I learned the hard way (as did he) that he's not ready to be unsupervised just yet.  Oops.  (I have a bad feeling this video is going to be sideways and I don't know how to rotate it. )

Now that Trey has figured out how to move, he does not like to be still or be on the floor in one place.  This makes life a lot more fun for him and a lot more exhausting for Mom and Dad.

First haircut

Why is the first haircut always such a rite of passage?  Is it because they go in looking like a baby and come out looking like a little boy?

Trey's hair went from cute and curly in the back to shaggy and out of control overnight.  I went to Little Klippers with Nyree to get his first haircut.

Shagmeister waiting with his Aunt Nyree 

Sitting in the firetruck.  

As a slow motor kid, I'm super impressed by his balance. 

Looking pensive...and unruly

Not too sure about what is going on... 

I was afraid he was going to leap out of the seat at this point.

Luckily, they are pros and distracted him with lots of new toys. 

What are you doing to his sweet curls?  

Oh, that's right...making sure it doesn't look like a mullet. 

My baby, all grown up 

Look, Mom, it's a huge comb!

A few extra random thoughts:

So on Saturday I was at our local park which is not an off leash dog park.  I admit there are times that Randy and I have let Tango off leash, but we always leash him up if we see other dogs or children.  I was mostly amused and slightly annoyed to see two people in motorized wheelchairs with their dogs off leash.  My first thought was: "How are you going to be able to restrain your dog if it goes up to another dog (even if that other dog is on leash)?" and my second thought was: "How are you going to be able to pick up your dog's poop?"  Maybe their dogs are really well trained.  Who knows.  I still think it is weird.

Secondly, I find myself more and more annoyed by the people who stand at the end of off ramps with signs asking for money.  The thing that almost bothers me more is that my annoyance with them and my avoidance of eye contact makes me feel like a bad person.  Am I the only one who feels this way?

Tomorrow is my least favorite holiday of the year.  I'm glad Randy gets a day off and all that, but I HATE fireworks.  I hate what they do to Tango, and I hate how people in the neighborhood continue to fire them off until the wee hours of the morning for DAYS and DAYS after the fourth of July.  It's one night, people.

Just for kicks, check out what our life was like a year ago:  7/4/10 blog entry.  Wow, look how we've all grown.  

Our trip

We just got back from our week long trip to Riverside, CA to see Doug and Carmen, Randy's parents and, more importantly, Trey's grandparents.  We had a great time at their house, had homecooked meals three times a day, and got a lot of relaxing accomplished.  It was quite toasty down in Riverside getting into the low to mid 90's every day.  Carmen took time off from work to be with us, so Trey got a lot of Grandma Time.

This is where I spent every morning while Trey napped.  It was gorgeous out and so perfect.  Unfortunately, it got pretty hot in the direct sun after about 30 minutes, so I usually moved into the shade (but kept on reading!).  My poor pale skin got a sun rash from this minimal amount of sun exposure!

This picture is symbolic of Trey's time at his grandparents' house.  He was often shirtless and moving around on the floor.  He is making some good progress in the motor department.  Carmen helped him to crawl on all fours and he got better at that; however, whenever he wants to get somewhere he quickly drops to his stomach and crawls that way.  He has also learned to pull himself to standing which is a great step for his motor skills.  

He showed an interest in walking around with help from one of us.  His steps looked like high kicks and he was pretty unstable at first, but he improved over the week by leaps and bounds.  

Playing with Grandpa Doug 

Getting ready for our trip to San Diego

On Friday we drove to San Diego to visit with our friends Kim and Shane.  They had their baby at the end of April, and we were looking forward to meeting Baby Kaili.  We went to lunch in Del Mar at an oceanside restaurant.  It was a little cloudy when we arrived, but the sun quickly came out and we had a gorgeous day by the ocean. 

This picture doesn't really illustrate how hard it was to please Trey during lunch.  He was Wiggle Worm Extraordinaire (in this picture he is trying to crawl out of my arms) and also quite cranky and tired.  The ocean, the company, the food, the wine...they were all wonderful, but my pleasure was slightly dampened by the fussiness of my sweet boy.

Randy and Shane with their strollers

This isn't quite how they looked together in Beijing.

This is what Trey looked like after lunch while he was on the swings.  The other pictures we took were worse (or better depending on how you see it).  He was so tired that we had to call our day trip short and head back to Riverside.  Trey was asleep in the car within five minutes.

On Friday night, Melissa (Randy's cousin's wife) came over for dinner with her son Kainoa (he's the one on the right if you can't tell - the boys were dressed the same by chance and they also look quite similar).  Last year at the family campout, I had fun watching Kainoa who is about a year older than Trey thinking about all of the things Trey would be doing when he was Kainoa's age.  I had a similar experience this time since Kainoa is about to turn two.

On Saturday we went on a hike near Big Bear.  Here is Randy and Trey using Kainoa's backpack.  We definitely need one of these:

Randy teaching Trey some important fishing points

I love this picture because Trey has this expression on his face that says something like "What do you want now, Mom?" or "Stop disturbing me while I'm eating," or "You talkin' to me?"

This was Trey's reaction to his first taste of orange.  He makes this face yet he opens up wide for more.

 Trey had so much fun with his Grandma.

Cozy time with Grandma Carmen

I love this picture.

On Sunday we went to Doug's archaeology lab at La Sierra.  He was working with some colleagues to get things ready for his trip to Jordan on Tuesday.  The pieces you can see in these pictures are from their dig site in Jordan and the giant pot/vase thing is from the Iron Age in 1200 B.C.  The guy told me the official name for it, but I already forgot.  

Trey did better on the flights than I expected. I got some tips from friends which I used (take some new toys, take some favorite toys, make sure he's hungry when you take off so he will suck on the bottle in order to help his ears).  I was pleased that his amount of crying was minimal and also happy that we only had to deal with one poopy diaper in those tiny airplane bathrooms.  Trey was satisfied by the snacks we had in our bag and the free cookies from the flight attendant, and Randy and I were happy with the free booze (although I will say that the 6am flight was a little too early for both of us...the man across the aisle had three beers...sort of gross to me first thing in the morning).

Overall, we had a great time and our goal of Trey bonding with Grandma and Grandpa Clark was achieved.  He will see them again in August for the Clark Family Campout.  It is good to be home and now I can dive into summer vacation with my boy!

My sweet boy

Every day Trey does something that delights me.  Often it is the expression on his face, his smiles which seem neverending, or his giggle as I tickle him or hold/toss him above my head.  One thing I have loved since he was very young is his habit of shaking his head for no apparent reason.  He stopped doing this for awhile, but recently picked it back up.  Here he is, happy as can be, reminding his mama about why she loves him so...