Holding Hands

How sweet is this? Tayloe and Addie holding hands. They dined together twice this past weekend and T2 was generous enough to share his snacks.

Some Kid in the Park

I haven't a clue who this kid is, but he popped into our plastic tunnel at the park.*

Addie kicked him out and reigned supreme.**















* but isn't his hair so cool?!
** or he just got bored and moved on to a less occupied tunnel of his own

In to Double Digits

On her last day in single digits, Addie wore her 9 month T-shirt. Talk about procrastinating!

Last weekend she attended her first, first birthday party. Addie spent most of the party picking up specks of fallen deli meat off the floor ignoring her cohorts although here you can see she's taken an interest in the big kids. Happy Birthday Ethan, Madison and Kylie (and parents Morgan and Darren who should get their own celebration).

With the arrival of 10 months, we've also jump-started (again) Addie's menu after realizing we were complacently stuck at 2 meals a day, no cheerios and no chunky food. Circle up the food wagon, we're behind. I got a good wake up call last weekend talking to the other parents at the party. Adding garlic to her menu wasn't one of the suggestions, but she didn't seem to mind gumming a head of it (pictured above) or chomping on our garlic fries yesterday. We've now added a third meal (aka dinner) as well as some less liquefied foods, mooshed table food and cheerios. I will admit after being very defensive about Addie's eating habits, I really enjoy the cheerios thing. She picks up one at a time, studies it like a jeweler evaluating a diamond for occlusions, and then pops it in her mouth. Happy 10 months Flower!

Uncle "Blue Demons" Drew

Congratulations Uncle Drew for getting accepted to DePaul! How could you not want to go to a University whose team is the Blue Demons? Addie agrees, even if her wishes are coming out a little crinkled.



Cap said that if he was in High School he wouln't care what some old lady and her baby said, even if the baby was his niece. Well, I'm gonna ignore this sentiment and wish Drew a big congratulations. We care, you care, we all care. Oh wait, that's "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream." Much better.

Prune Foot

Prune Foot Recipe:
Soak baby for 25 minutes in heated pool. Serve warm.

Rocks are Gneiss

Wow, a geology pun. Schist! Oooh a second geology pun. Stop me!



So, geologist or archaeologist?

I’m not sure if playing in the dirt and eating rocks is necessarily a sign that Addie is on her way to being an archaeologist or a geologist. Or that her perfect point will make her a ballerina or her running commentary will make her a news anchor. But haven’t you heard the stories? Larry, the orthopedic surgeon, who loved his plastic stethoscope as child or Carl, the architect, who was never separated from his Lincoln Log set. Can favorite toys as a child indicate a career or is hindsight just 20/20? Mom and Dad – did I have a favorite toy because I’m still wondering what I should be doing with my life. Do tell.


But back to the rocks. The best part of being a rock lover? Sharing it with a friend.

Tennis Anyone?

Addie likes to play with the tennis ball, but she really, really doesn't like sitting on the grass. Plunk her down for a sec and she protests and tries to remove as much of her skin from making contact with the evil prickles as possible as shown here by her leg lift. Oddly she prefered the hard concrete over the green lawn that surrounded the pool at our Fab Modern home in Palm Springs.

My friend Doug and I are big tennis fans and have seen the US Open together as well as the Pacific Life Open tournament. I'm sort of a poser because I might be the only fan that doesn't actually play the game. I make up for that shortcoming by my enthusiasm. Doug has to wear chain mail however when he sits next to me because I can get so excited over a really good rally and bruise his thighs in my death grip.

Pre-Addie, we could easily watch 14 hours of tennis a day. I didn't have the expectation that we could do that this trip but we also didn't expect that Addie would have a low-grade fever for most of the weekend that would turn out to be an ear infection. Well, I've learned that lesson. Nota Bene: if your baby has a cold and then gets a fever, it's an ear infection and you better be taking her to the doctor. Poor sick baby! Cap was so wonderful staying with her at the house allowing me to sneak away for a few hours to catch some tennis. We got almost no sleep though with a feverish, restless Addie. She's doing great now and will be returning to daycare tomorrow.

She wasn't feeling terrible the entire time thankfully and we got to spend a full day just hanging out poolside at the house while Doug and his parents went to the tennis center. Jamie and Clara came over and we camped out in the shade of two giant palm trees and took the little ladies swimming. And, yes, that is an empty Red Stripe. Addie was air-drying in the buff here when the sprinklers suddenly went off. Jamie had seconds ago gone into the house. I was only able to rescue one baby and, so sorry Clara, grabbed Addie. Thankfully all babies, cameras, towels and toys were eventually rescued. Clara didn't seem too disturbed by the experience unlike Addie who was wailing and then proceeded to pee on me. Good thing we could just hop back in the pool!

I loved our back to back weekends in the desert but I must admit I'm looking forward to returning to our quiet routine at home. Didi is excited about that too. I think she might be under the impression we are moving out and our first night back from Palm Springs, we woke up and found her resting her paws on Addie who we had in our bed. She knows the baby comes with us so maybe if she's on her then we won't forget the cat too.

Thanks Doug Doug for sharing your tennis weekend with us! Go Fernando!

(check out more pics from our weekend on flickr)

Batta Batta Swing and Other Tales from the Desert

My Dad is a huge baseball fan and on Saturday he got to take Addie to her very first game. He warned me that if you haven't been to a spring training game before, you'll be hooked. Sure enough, I'd be up for a White Sox vs Diamondbacks game in Tucson anytime. You get to sit right on the field and eat delicious El Charro quesadillas. We all were expecting to take turns walking Addie around the concourse, but instead she sat happily with us or on the dirty cement floor trying to pick up scraps of peanut shells and mustard packets. She even learned how to clap this past weekend and put her new skill to good use. Going to Astros games with my Dad as a kid is one of my fondest memories. We'd drive home from the Astrodome with the moon roof open and I'd put the seat back all the way and stare up at the stars.

Dad also got to have a serious talk with Addie about her future, college choice, career path.

You know, Grandfatherly advice.

And no vacation would be complete without some pool time. I can't wait for this coming weekend in Palm Springs where we'll be splashing around in between matches at the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament. I can't wait because my bestest college buddy Doug gets to meet Addie, and I get to see Andy Roddick.

And back to some desert rock exchange. We had hoped to go stalk quail in the Javelina picnic area but they were scarce. I did spot a giant jack rabbit so big I thought it was a small deer. So where were all the birds? Good thing GranJanne taught Addie how to activate the bird songs book so we could enjoy the call of a Cooper's Hawk indoors at least. I read in one of my bird nerd books that the sound of a mourning dove sounds like "who cooks for you." So true and who does cook for me? Trader Joe's I think. I certainly don't.

GranJanne, Grandpa Mit, Great Grandma Vede, Pop Pop and Nana - giant hugs and some slobbery rubber ducky love from Addie!

Return from the Desert

We're back from our wonderful Desert Sojourn to Tucson only consoled by the anticipation of our upcoming weekend in Palm Springs. I loved showing Addie the beauty of the Sonoran Desert and she loved eating granite. The best part was all the attention Addie got. She played with a gaggle of loving grandparents and is surely going through withdrawal today.

We had a Gravity Meets Laptop experience in the airport and hope that our photos will be recoverable, so stay tuned for a more elaborate update on our trip.

Hugs to all the G-parents.

When All of Gate 2 is Your Oyster

We've made it to Grandma Janne's house safe and sound in our PT Cruiser RCC (ridiculous clown car). When we went through security with our 2 laptops, film camera, the car seat, stroller, 3 carry-on bags, ourselves and the baby I found it rather amusing that they made us take off not only our own shoes, which we expect, but Addie's shoes too. Seriously. We even had to get a second plastic bin to put her tiny little ladybug slippers. Never trust a baby in ladybug shoes. Our flight was delayed leaving Addie plenty of time to explore Concourse C, entertain her fellow travelers and for us to down a pint of ale. She was an angel on the flight and then slept like the devil when we got to Janne's. We are sooo sleepy but nothing that a little Starbucks won't fix.