Big Steps!

Guess who made it very official today! Theo took his first steps with no encouragement about sixty seconds after I took this photo, at 1:27 Pacific Time today. He let go of the coffee table (no news there - it happens all the time), gave me a big grin, and went about four steps to where I was sitting in the middle of the floor.

Unofficially he's been willing to let go and barrel back and forth between Michal and me for two weeks ago tomorrow. And Tuesday he took a few steps on his own, too, but that required lots of encouragement on my part and letting go and moving out of reach.

Too cute! I am sure many more will follow...

Theo Says Yeah!

Lately Theo's been saying "yeah" a lot. It's really cute even if he has no idea what it means. We got it on video only recently:

Theo at Ten Months

Theo turned ten months old Saturday. We took him camping on the beach to celebrate such a big milestone - double digits! He had a blast digging in the sand and trying to eat rocks. He also thought the scenery was pretty neat - worth kicking off a shoe for sure.

In other news, to celebrate on his own, Theo popped his first upper tooth through the gum. He has four on the bottom, and clearly felt the need to add to the set. He is putting all of his teeth to good use, since he eats almost everything now. We haven't tried nuts and he can't have honey until after a year of age, but he will eat almost everything else now. He still prefers his spoon-fed food to be fairly mushy, but finger foods come in all shapes, sizes, and consistencies. He will gobble as many goldfish as you can feed him currently, but I'm sure that will change. He also really enjoys eating whatever is on someone else's plate, although that's not always the best strategy as a lot of it gets dumped overboard. He sits down for meals four times a day, generally every 3 hours for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. He'll also freeload off anyone else eating at any time of the day, though. He still does not care for rice or rice products, or carrots. They make him vomit. He loves guacamole and yogurt and bananas and mangoes are still near the top of the list as well. Peas are fun to chase and eat, and macaroni and cheese and oatmeal are frequent meals as well. He nurses five to six times a day, which brings us to the sleeping portion of this update.

Theo is still sleeping nine to ten hours at a stretch at bedtime. He typically goes to sleep around 7:30 and wakes up about 7:00, with one nursing around 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. most nights. On a particularly plentiful eating day, however, he will sleep straight through that feeding until 6 or later. That's only happened a few times in the last ten days or so, but I imagine the trend will continue. He falls asleep either while nursing or directly after when taking a small (1 or 1.5 oz) bottle of breastmilk,but also can put himself to sleep if he doesn't pass out.

Theo has started walking around with only one hand for guidance. This leave his other hand open to get into things. In irregular surroundings (on slopes, on boats, etc.) he still prefers the two-hand method, but he's basically got his balance under control. He has taken a few independent steps going back and forth between me and the coffee table or bookshelf or me and Michal, but really he's putting one foot in front of the other and leaning in the direction he wants to go. He assumes we will catch him in theses case and so far he's been right. He will also take a few steps when he's holding onto a prized object of some sort, but he doesn't realize what he's doing. He's pulling himself up only on select items: people, the coffee table, the sofa in his room, and his bookshelf. He can get to his knees to pull things out of his toy bins no problem. His newest trick is to bend over while standing to pick something up. That way there's no need to sit down.

If he is sitting, he can scoot around without any issues. He travels far and wide to explore whatever captures his interest. He can do it outside or inside, over the hardwoods, tile, or rugs and carpet. It is definitely taking a toll on the seat of his pants, which are not quite up to the rigors of the butt scoot. He has scooted around so much that he has a sore spot on the outside of his right ankle from the constant rubbing. Band-aids are no match for the friction and socks generally mean he slips when he's standing or pulling up, which is more and more often these days.

His favorite toys are the plastic beads we bought on a whim at the store, probably because he's had teeth coming in more frequently. We bought two more of the exact same thing so we don't have to move them around as much (stroller, car, home, diaper bag, etc.). He also really loves his spatula, and still enjoys moving around the house and banging it on different things. He adores the dog's cage, particularly the water bowl inside. He likes to stick his hand in and splash around. He loves books, both pulling them off the shelf or out of the bin and flipping the pages. He also still loved both Rocket and Tetley. I would estimate that each of them lose at least one handful of hair a day, but neither one will move out of his reach, so they must not mind too much. Tetley's tags are particularly attractive, especially since he got a haircut recently.

And nothing tops a bath, particularly if there are ducks and a cup involved. He moves from one end of the tub and back over and over again scooting to his heart's content.

He hates getting into the stroller or car seat, or really anywhere he is constrained. But he recovers fairly quickly, and still loves to go out and about. He likes the fish at home or anywhere else he sees them, and knows to look for airplanes based on the noise they make. He's still terrified of sudden loud noises like the blender and vacuum but is becoming accustomed to them again. He enjoys live music shows quite a bit, and sits for longer at those than anything else.

He's outgrown most of his nine month clothes and is hitting the limit even in some twelve month stuff, particularly if it's footed (like pajamas). Luckily most of his stuff is short sleeved even during the not very warm summer we're experiencing, and it's much harder to outgrow those items. A few nine month onesies will still fit with only a little extra showing at the neck. We will have to upgrade his sleep sacks in the near future even though they are labeled 6 to 12 months. He's just too long. On the other hand, he is just now getting into his 6 to 12 month shoes (size 3 I think). Before they had a little too much room in the toe and tripped him up when walking. Now he can manage in most of them with only a little spare wiggle room at the end. And he can be rough on shoes, especially outdoors when he sometimes drags his feet on the pavement.

With the exception of the crib, where we have never once found him sitting up, much less standing, he spends very little time lying down, on either his back and definitely not his stomach. He also has begun to hate diaper changes again because they require laying down for several minutes at a time. He has too much to see and do to put up with that inaction. He can handle steps up to about half his height. We have no idea where or how he learned to go over obstacles, but he swings one foot up and out until he can get his foot down and plows right along.

In sign language, he waves hi and even sometimes bye, but both are infrequent. He doesn't sign for changing as often, but that's probably because he hates the changing process so much more now. He does sign all done at the end of a diaper change. He has recently picked up the sign for more, and uses it to get more, mostly more goldfish. He is a huge pointer, and will point at whatever he wants these days. And once he sees something, he will not forget about it. It's harder and harder to distract him from his goal.

Overall Theo continues to delight and amaze us and we're looking forward, as always, to the next developments.

Camping on the Beach IX

This past weekend we went camping on the beach. It's an annual trip we take out to the peninsula and this year was the ninth year in a row. While it did rain briefly overnight, both Saturday and Sunday had quite nice weather and it was unusually warm for the coast.


Theo enjoying the view from the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island as we set out.


Unpacking the cars (Carrie joined us, driving up from Portland)


The hike in is tiring, especially in the shade. Time for a nap.


I love sand!


The campfire, ready for action.


At sunset.


Eating breakfast.


The hike out is also tough work. Naptime.


On the ferry home.


Post-camping bathtime!

See all the photos from the trip.

Annual Block Watch Party

Our two-block blockwatch participates in National Night Out which is pretty much our only summer get-together (we also have a holiday party each year in December). We went and Theo had such a good time that he stayed up an hour later than usual, which made his Wednesday a little sadder than usual since he didn't sleep in an extra hour. All the neighbors contributed to the pot luck, and one of our neighbors who is a musician had his jazz band play a set. [my photos] [a neighbor's photos]

Miscellaneous Weekend

Did a bunch of somewhat small events recently, and I took some photos:



On Thursday, Theo enjoyed a raspberry popsicle. [photos]



On Friday night our neighbors hosted a guest BBQ at the Jefferson Park Lawn Bowling Club. We attended one of these a few years ago where we actually participated in the lawn bowling, but this time we just attended for the food and left a bit early to put Theo to bed. [photos]



On Saturday, we went to a BBQ hosted by friends. [photos]



Sunday was Beacon Rocks, where about 7 bands take over a street next to the light rail station and play a free concert for the community. It's organized by a bunch of folks we know (and Sarah helps with the publicity) so of course we attended. We won a free wading pool in the raffle! [photos]

Family Photos from Atlanta and Cincinnati

We spent most of the last month on the east coast visiting family in Georgia and Ohio. All the photos of Theo on his adventures can now be seen online here and here. Keep in mind, however, that Xander (pictured here with Theo), who is 3 years old, had control of the camera and therefore the photos for a significant portion of the photos on my site.

Theo's June Photos

I finally got all the June photos uploaded. You can find the entire gallery here.

Theo's Nine Month Check-Up

Theo had a great visit to the doctor last week, mainly because the nine month check-up does not involve any vaccinations or other shots. He weighed in at 18 lbs and 14 oz, which puts him in the 36th percentile. In height, however, he rang in at 30 inches, which shoots him back up to the 97th percentile. That's three inches in three months! All that eating must be going to his legs. His head grew a bit, to 17.87 inches, which is not quite half an inch more than the six month measurement.

Seattle to Portland Bike Ride

This past weekend I rode in the Seattle to Portland bike ride for the third time. So far I've ridden it once every five years, and that's a good timeframe -- it's not so often that you're bored, but it's often enough to know you're still in okay shape. The ride consists of 204 miles and most people, including myself, do it in two days. I passed two guys doing it on skateboards and one on a unicycle along the way. The STP is generally pretty "easy" in that there aren't a lot of hills (the second day is definitely hillier though, and US-30 into Portland is a pretty unpleasant stretch as it's a major highway with lots of traffic) and I generally latched onto pacelines going about 20mph when I could. The first day was definitely easier in terms of finding a paceline to join since there are more people on the road (both the two day and one day riders) and everyone starts from Seattle in a 3-hour window. The second day, folks start whenever (though I suspect it's roughly the same 3-hour window of 5:30am to 8:30am) but the one-day riders (25% of the 10,000 riders) are no longer on the road, and since there are many different places to stop for the night, not everyone is starting from the same point (most folks seem to stop in Centralia and Chehalis, but I spent the night in Winlock; Napavine, Kelso, Castle Rock, and Vader all have folks overnight as well) so the group is both smaller and much more spread out on the second day, making it harder to find a group that's going the speed I want. The second day's hills also make it more challenging since I not only have to find a group that's going the speed I want on the flats, but a group that also goes the same speed I want to go downhill and (generally) a speed I can keep up with going up hill. Needless to say I think about a third of the second day I was on my own, while on the first day I hardly ever was on my own.

Ultimately I finished in 12 hours of riding (plus rests) with an average speed of 16.7mpg and a maximum speed of 39.6mph (hooray for drafting downhill!). The total odometer for the trip says I biked 215.60 miles.

You can see my GPS track below, and check out the captioned photos I took along the way.

STP 2011

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Bellevue, Washington

Theo at Nine Months

Boy, what a difference a month can make! Theo spent the majority of the last month traveling to see family, and he can home with an entirely new set of skills. Although he's been able to spin around in circles while sitting down for a while now, he can now intentionally scoot forward. He propels himself with his legs, kind of like a frog, so that both hands are free. In addition, two weeks and two days ago he learned how to walk. He still requires two adult hands to achieve this milestone, but now instead of standing, he wants people to tour him around various places. He knows how to turn and change directions, and it took him about three seconds to figure out that if he's facing you (which is typical when he pulls up on your fingers), then he needs to switch hands so that he is facing away. Otherwise his territory for roaming is limited. So he pulls up, lets go, switches hands, and takes off.

He went about four feet the first time he put one foot in front of the other, and he hasn't stopped since. I worried about the flight back since he likes to get around so much now, but he either understood that it was sitting only, or he wore himself out over the past three weeks moving around so much. Either way, it was one of the best flights we've had.

In other new skills, Theo drinks from a straw now. He has been drinking from a cup or glass for months. But previously, when given a straw, he would chew it or play with it rather than suck on it. One Varsity Frosted Orange fixed that. He mastered it in very short order, and drank a good portion of my Frosted Orange to boot. He also practiced on peach milkshakes from Chick Fil A, so I have a feeling he'll have very positive associations with straws for a while.

Just before Theo started walking around, he added a fourth meal of solids, between lunch and dinner. So he's eating solid food about every three hours now: breakfast between 8 and 9, lunch around 12, a snack in the afternoon (usually at three unless he's sleeping), and dinner closer to 6. He nurses about five or six times a day most days, for just shy of an hour total. He still has one feeding during the night at four or five, he nurses again when he gets up around 7, then before both naps, before bed, and usually once more during the afternoon sometime.

He's still a great sleeper, especially overnight. He did well with the transition to east coast time, and even better coming back to the west coast. He goes to sleep around 7:30 most nights, wakes up between four and five to nurse, goes right back to sleep, and sleeps in anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours. He's usually worn out again by 9:30 or 10:00, and naps can range from 30 minutes to about an hour and ten minutes. He's fairly consistent about taking two naps a day, unless we're out and about during one of them and it happens outside the house in the sling or the car. Then sometimes he'll catch an extra short nap to help make up the deficit. He's still a distinct side sleeper, and for whatever reason, loves to stick his feet through the bars of the crib. That usually means that a sleep sack is required. At least three times during our trip, he got his entire leg stuck between the bars when he wasn't wearing a sack. He also generally rotates so that he sleeps parallel to the short sides of the crib. He's way too tall for this, but must like something about it. Otherwise he will scoot to a short end and prop his legs up so that his butt is against the bottom and his legs are out to the side or top. He has really taken to the flat hedgehog and grabs onto it when put drowsy into the crib, rolls over on his side, and passes out.

Theo loves attention - the more the better. He still loves going out, but has definitely hit the mama preference phase. As long as he can't see me, he's entirely okay. But as soon as I pass within his sight, he expresses a preference for me. Part of this attachment may be the result of traveling and staying in various new places where he wasn't as familiar with the environment, but it's definitely continued now that we're home as well.

Theo gets a huge kick out of banging things, although he seems to understand that hard things bang better. Most soft items he rarely tests for this feature. My parents had some silver mixing bowls and those were extremely popular. He also enjoyed canisters with plastic lids during our trip. They not only made great noise, but they rolled well. And very few things beat a ball these days. Theo will play "catch" rolling or throwing the ball "back" to you in turns. It rarely goes one hundred percent at the person playing, but it's clear he's trying. Now that he can scoot around, he likes to toss the ball and scoot after it, and repeat. And repeat. And repeat until he runs into something more interesting.

He pulls up on fingers only so far, although he will lean on the right height stuff. The light bulb for pulling up on furniture and other inanimate objects has not gone off yet. He can stand on his own leaning against his toy baskets or bookshelf or the coffee table, and play with things, but hasn't really started cruising. He does know to sit down when he finds something good walking around, to free us his hands for exploring. The mechanics are not one hundred percent, but he plops and doesn't seem to be bothered by the inelegance of it.

He really enjoys feeding himself finger foods now, too. Generally during mealtimes he requires something to keep his hands busy, either a toy or food. He has discovered graham crackers, and animal crackers, and both are very popular.

He's outgrown quite a few clothes, so we stocked up again while traveling, both from gifts and clearance items. He's moved into a size three shoe, which is a bit big and impairs walking slightly. Luckily nothing really slows Theo down once he's on his feet. If there's an obstacle, he plows through, over, or both, generally without slowing down to even acknowledge it.

He loves funny noises from people, but loud noises like the vacuum or blender send him straight to crying now. If he thinks you're doing something entertaining, he will reward you with a giggle. A few repeats and he's laughing hysterically. He's definitely still ticklish and will laugh when you make the sign for tickle, even before you actually touch him. His belly button is a particularly good tickle spot now, but under his chin, arms, around his hips, and the bottoms of his feet are also popular tickle spots.

Theo still loves all the animals, whether they are his or not. In fact, his first assisted steps were to walk over to a friend's dog. He tries hard to be gentle with animals but gets so excited when he's close to them that he starts flapping and hitting them. He's also bad about grabbing onto fur or tags and not letting go. Luckily Tetley is fairly permissive of this behavior and Rocket doesn't let it get that far.

Theo's favorite activity by far is bath time, although a kiddie pool is just as good for splashing and chasing toys around. He can spend twenty or thirty minutes in either easy, and we usually extract him after that. He's graduated to the big bathtub, although he would probably still use the bath bucket. I just feel sorry for him with his toes up past his ears squeezed in there.

Overall, Theo remains a delight to watch and interact with. We look forward to more milestones and developments in the months to come.

Seattle to Portland Bike Ride

While Sarah and Theo are still in Atlanta, I've returned to Seattle and am riding in the Seattle to Portland bike ride Saturday and Sunday. It's a 204 mile, two-day event. I've done it twice before -- with Sarah 5 years ago, and also 10 years ago. I seem to have this every-five-year thing going on, which is about right -- it's often enough to know I can still do it, but not so often that training takes up every year. You might have seen some of my STP training rides posted on the blog via Everytrail in the past few weeks; it's now time for the real thing. Starting tomorrow at 5:15am pacific time, you can track my location in real time below (to conserve my phone's battery, this will update only every 5 minutes).

Theo at Eight Months

Today Theo celebrated his eight-month birthday today. We took the usual photos (and more photos) with his giraffe before breakfast, having learned from experience that last thing before bedtime is not always the best time of day for sitting still and smiling. It turns out, before breakfast is also not the best time for smiles either. At eight months, Theo cares a whole lot more about a) breakfast and b) the camera than c) the giraffe. He tossed the poor giraffe aside repeatedly, whereas he normally plays with the ribbon and the antennae quite happily, and refused to settle for anything but the red camera, and could not otherwise be distracted by much.

A few flaps of cloth garnered us a token smile or two for posterity's sake, but those were nothing compared to the gales of laughter we normally get with such nonsense - such delight that Michal and I tend to be in tears from laughing with him. We discover random things at least once a week that Theo finds hilarious, including the word "woo", as seen on video.

In addition to this morning's photos, we served up some scrambled eggs for a birthday breakfast. The eggs made him smile, which is a good sign, but they also made him gag, as he didn't spend enough time chewing the tiny bits. I mixed the remainder in with his pear oatmeal (just what it sounds like - oatmeal with a cube of pear mixed in) and he had no objection to that concoction. All in all, it was probably Theo's most proper breakfast to date. In the past three days, he has also increased his food repertoire to include spaghetti, bread crusts, and toast, mostly in an effort to widen the finger food possibilities. He's mastered picking up o's, although he is still perfecting the release mechanism and timing. Each o no longer gets the brilliant smile of satisfaction and he will stockpile them in his mouth limited only by his attention span, which thankfully is still quite limited. (Look! The dog! The cat! A spoon! With food on it! Ahhhh....)

Theo eats three meals a day, with the biggest usually reserved for dinner, the last meal of the day around 5:30. Lunch happens at 12:30 or beware, and breakfast is a slightly more relaxed 8:30 time frame. Until yesterday, dinner held the record at eight cubes, but he polished off nine cubes at lunch to blow that record out of the water, especially since the last six cubes were fortified with rice cereal. Theo can't stand rice cereal - he still throws it and everything else he's eaten in the last half hour up if you try (and I tried the homemade version too just to be sure), but we've got to get rid of the box somehow. He demolished one cube of chicken, two of sweet potato, and six of nectarines with the added rice cereal to set the new record. As you can probably tell, we're moving on to proteins. He got chicken last week with no complaints from anyone but me. (If you want my opinion, the best dieting strategy is to puree all your food into mush and voila - no appetite.) He's been consuming a little less than a large container of cottage cheese per week since we introduced it a few weeks ago, although he does eat less of it in one sitting now. Yogurt is fully back in favor as we've determined it had nothing to do with the outbreak of eczema, but avocado is definitely still top tier, with yogurt and mango and now possibly nectarine coming in second. He likes oatmeal, and we've taken to adding butter to his foods for a few extra calories. Theo still sports two teeth in the lower middle with no signs of any others impending.

Theo nurses about six to seven times a day for a total of about an hour. His daytime feedings are much less intense as he is easily distracted (see above). His best feedings are right before or during a sleep cycle, and to some extent, I think he's made a connection (unintentional on our part) that nursing means we're about to put him down to sleep. Therefore, he resists during the day, or makes sure to pop on and off to combat any sleepiness that ensues. I have, after three months, stopped pumping after every daytime feeding, and we've stopped supplementing with pumped milk after every feeding. We do still offer some extra milk from the bottle at night, although he generally only takes an ounce or two at most. I pump before bed and most nights it comes out roughly even. At last measure over a week ago, he weighed in at 18 pounds and 2 ounces, so it's definitely not affecting his growth too noticeably.

Theo gets up at 7, which usually means he wakes up between 6:20 and 6:45 and lies in his crib talking or otherwise until we go fetch him at 7. By 7 p.m. he is fairly insistent about starting the nighttime routine, which consists of changing into pajamas, reading two books, getting bundled up for the night (more on this section in a moment), and nursing before being put down. He wakes up almost regularly at 4 a.m. for a feeding, although he can go as late as 5:30 a.m. occasionally. Now that the weather hits 60 degrees some days, and the house heats up from sunshine to over 70, we have managed to wean him to sleeping in a onesie, fleece pajamas, and his thicker "winter" sleep sack. Prior to that, we put him in the long-sleeved onsie, fleece pajamas, folded a blanket in half and wrapped it around his middle under his arms so that there were actually four extra layers on his belly, and velcroed that in place - all before putting him in the fleecy sleep sack. He still woke up with cold hands and ears some nights.

For whatever reason, Theo not only seems to be a side sleeper, but he also appears to prefer sleeping side to side in the crib. By this I mean that he shoves his feet through the bars and squashes his neck at a somewhat awkward angle so that he can fit in the shorter distance between the sides of the crib rather than the much more accommodating length of the crib. No matter which way we place him in the crib, he generally rotates 90 degrees to obtain this desired location by the time he's done resting.

Theo naps two to three times a day, depending on the length and timing of the naps. He is generally ready to pass out by 9:00 a.m. again, and the latest he's managed is 9:40. He sleeps anywhere from 25 minutes (a bad nap) to 1 hour and 20 minutes (a very good nap), but on most days is reliably up again by 10. His next nap can start as early as noon, but is more generally between 1:00 and 1:30, especially since lunch perks him up a bit. If he has a thirty minute nap (usually because we're out and about, so it happens in the sling, stroller, or car), he will generally head back down later in the afternoon for a third and final nap. Otherwise he's good to go for about four to four and half hours until 7:00 or bedtime, whichever he determines comes first.

Theo still loves the animals, with Rocket taking top spot simply because she is less available and attentive. Tetley is usually good for a laugh, too. As for toys, Theo loves things that don't belong to him, like water bottles, cups, spoons, paper, and cards. He has definitely learned object permanence and cries when things are removed before he finished with them. More importantly, it's much harder to distract him unless the new token is as "forbidden" as the removed item. In the actual toy department, Theo still enjoys his 0-ball, his Easter eggs, his bucket, his maraca, and his one giant plastic orange bead. He likes to listen to his jukebox music box.

Theo has a distinct preference for smooth jazz and possibly classical music. We learned this taste in music by trial and error when he fussed in the car with Michal's music playing. Once we changed the stations off the rap and techno, we didn't hear a peep out of him the rest of the trip even though he was still very wide awake.

As for movement, Theo can and will pull on just about anything horizontal. Instead of crawling or rolling to get to things, he has learned to pull on the blanket. Since he's almost always sitting on one (a side benefit of not rolling off), objects on the blanket come to him. He still hates tummy time, but will lean, roll 95% of the way onto his belly, and hover and stretch to get to desirable objects. He stands extremely well, especially if there is anything to lean against or hold onto, so it's only a matter of time before he's truly mobile. He has no concept of self-preservation, and squirms and throws his weight around when you're holding him now in an attempt to acquire whatever has grabbed his attention - the faucet, pots, things in the refrigerator, etc.

Overall, Theo remains an extremely happy easy-going boy with a few distinct eating and musical preferences. He still loves to go out and about and has only a bit of anxiety when we leave his sight at home or worse, when we hand him off to someone else but he can still see us.

Happy eight months Theo!

Theo and Friends

We took Theo to the park on Sunday to enjoy the fabulously warm (ie 70-degree) weekend weather that is long overdue this year. We threw all three boys into Theo's little red wagon and took some photos before he made his friend cry. Then we calmed his friend down and did it all over again, including the making him cry part. I would feel worse about it if the photos weren't so darn cute. In order from left to right are Theo, Colin, and Leo. Guess who's about to cry? If only Theo didn't seem so pleased with himself...

May Photos

Theo had lots of fun adventures in May, including the previously posted photos from our trip to Mexico, and sprouting his first two teeth. See the entire lot of photos here.

IMDb: What Do I Do?

I'm pretty confident pretty much no one knows exactly what my team does, so I had some time to kill and took a giant screenshot of the IMDb title page for The Hangover II and highlighted the components which my team (which consists of me and 3-4 other folks) works on. Where I've highlighted an entire component, we're rendering that component and likely own the pages and functionality it links to. Where I've highlighted just a link, we own the page that it links to. Click through for a full-size image.

Twin Falls Hike

On Memorial Day Weekend (that's last weekend) we took Theo for his first-ever hike in a brand new backpack carrier. It is a pretty easy hike -- 2.4 miles round trip with 500 feet of elevation gain -- but about the right length for Theo. He took a short nap but otherwise seemed to have a great time. Have a look at all the photos, or check out the GPS track below:


If you prefer a more detailed view, see the hike on Everytrail.

And finally, here's the carrier we bought:

Sunday with Theo

Sunday we took Theo to see the Nick Cave exhibit at the Seattle Art Musuem. If you have a chance to see this exhibit, we all highly recommend it. Even Theo was totally enthralled. I don't really care or know much about art but this stuff was fun and fascinating for all ages.

In the afternoon we took Theo on his first hike to Twin Falls. He seemed to like the hike but did not see much of the falls, as you will see in the last photo.

More Photos from Mexico

As promised in Sarah's post a week ago, I've uploaded more photos and videos (of Theo in the pool in particular!) from our extended weekend trip to Cabo, Mexico. You can see them all here and don't forget about Sarah's photos as well.

Theo's First Cheerios!

Theo got started eating oatmeal this week, which made him eligible to eat Cheerios. We had previously given him some rice cereal which he could pick up and put in his mouth, but he never quite got the concept of releasing, so it always came back out of his mouth. With Cheerios however, Theo soon discovered that he could let go and eat the O. He had a great time eating maybe 6 of them, and he'll be getting more for sure.

While I have your attention, I'll note that the Rhododendron has started blooming in our front yard; it's been a pretty cool spring so it's quite late -- last year it went off in February.

As usual, click the images above for a gallery of more photos.