Why I Love Crocs

Because when you release your child out the back door wearing nothing but their Crocs and they poop down their leg to fill the shoes with poo and undigested raisins, you can just flick the shoes off the patio and spray them down with the hose.

Not that this happened to me today or anything.....

Colorado Pics

Here are some more photos from our trip.

Colorado Cruising

We just returned from a week long roadtrip through southern Colorado with my parents. We had a fabulous time and saw some amazing bits of the country. We went to the top of Pike's Peak, visited 3 different natural hot springs, toured ancient Anazasi ruins at Mesa Verde National Park, and saw lots of farm animals and tractors along the roadside--all of which were pointed out by Ryan. Ryan can now say "Grammy" and "Gym" (grampy?) My parents were positively basking in the glow from their time with Ryan. Here's a sampling of the photos.

Lessons Learned

Things I learned today about my son:

1) The space between Ryan's front top teeth is exactly the same as the width of a penny. He lodged one there this morning. :)

2) He can sing! He started to sing the ABC's today, except he says C B and then hums a bit. I think H and I are in there too, but I was so impressed with the singing, I forgot to listen for real letters.

3) He recognized broccoli as such, without a prompt. He hasn't eaten as much broccoli as other veggies, so it is worth mentioning. This is also a word that someone not used to translating could understand. Hooray for English!

4) He started asking for T.V.--specifically Elmo DVDs. Except he pronounces it D.B.

We had an awesome Father's Day, celebrated on Saturday. We went to the Washington Brewer's Festival in Kenmore . We got several tastes of yummy beer, ate good carny food, and soaked up some sun and tunes. Ryan got to hang out with us, and figured out how to climb in and out of his stroller on his own. He also experienced his first bounce house. Good times all around. Jeff has requested the Beer Fest again next year.

Our Hard Work

I haven't been blogging because I've been out DOING! We've had AMAZING weather for Seattle in May/June, and it's showing in my gardens. We have lived in this house for 3 years now, and this is the BEST the gardens have looked! We were blessed with a good base of plants and bushes that came with the house, but have been inundated with weeds and grass between the plants each summer. We attacked early this year with 1 1/2 cubic yards of mulch.
The veggie garden at the south side of our house is new this year. And it's grown twice as big since I took these photos a week ago! (I counted three baby yellow squashes tonight on one plant) The raised bed garden is in its 3rd year also, Ryan is in charge of the watering there- and he does a great job.

We went camping on Orcas Island for the weekend. Ryan did great! The only way I could get him to wake up on Sunday morning, was to make Blueberry pancakes and tease him out of the tent with them! He enjoyed every bite.

Book Review

a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5258692.Real_Food_for_Mother_and_Baby_The_Fertility_Diet_Eating_for_Two_and_Baby_s_First_Food" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"> Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating for Two, and Baby's First Food by Nina Planck

My review

While interesting in theory, I found the detail of this book overwhelming. I can't say that I agree with some of the food choices made by the author either. I am putting this one aside for now, and may pick it up again later, but I am currently feeling a bit self conscious reading about how to eat when you are pregnant. I'm not currently pregnant, but was 2 years ago, and I feel like I'm analyzing all of my food decisions from 2 years ago! My son is healthy and happy, why should a book make me feel weird about that?

View all my reviews.

San Diego 2009

We're back from a fun filled week of sand, sun, and lots of animals. We went to the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and Sea World.  We also ventured out to Coronado Island for the beach and conquered the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) by taking a train to the Mexican border and buses and trains and taxis all over town. We also walked our little legs off. 

When I was a kid, my sister, brother and I would marvel at how our pets had "grown" when we were away on vacation.  I don't think Claudia changed much, but I am amazed at how much Ryan has changed in a week.  Yes, we were together that whole time, but getting him back into his environment at home and seeing these changes is amazing.  New words this week (phonetically spelled for fun): anmals, big bus, choo choo, jam-gees, cream (includes lotion, sunscreen, and diaper cream), sham boo (Shamu).

 

 I took over 170 photos of the trip, and will not bore you with all of them. Many of the pics I took are for Ryan to see all of the animals again.  I think his favorite parts of the trip (photos of all) included: wrestling with blocks in the pit at Sea World, wrestling the bolster pillow at the Omni (see blurred photo of action), getting wet at the wild animal park, eating ice cream at the zoo, and digging in the sand at the beach. 

This was our first real vacation with air travel etc, and we had a blast! Too bad I have to deal with unpacking and laundry now. :(