Water Baby

I think I have one! Oh my, does he love the water! He learned just how much when we were in Texas (I still owe you some pictures and videos of that good fun). This week, we got one warm (72°) day and decided to hit up Greenlake to enjoy the sunshine. It turns out the wading pool was open. I wasn’t sure how Carter would feel about it as he does tend to clam up in new situations sometimes. Not this time. He sat in my lap while I dipped my toes in the pool. Then I tried to dip his toes in the pool. He immediately stuck his little legs out at a 90° angle demanding to sit in that water.

I didn’t have his swimsuit on, so I just plopped him back in my lap while we watched the action. But he would have nothing to do with that. Squirmy pants mcgee wanted to be in the middle of the action.

I stripped his shorts and sat him down. He immediately started splashing and giggling.

ah, so nice and cool in here!

Surprising me and himself with splashing his face and not getting upset about it!

splash splash splash!

And then he was off. He did not want to sit still. Not one bit. The pool is about 75 yards long, maybe? It gets deeper (probably about 2 feet deep) in the middle. At one point after chasing him, I stopped helicoptering stepped back a tad and let him crawl thinking he would turn back when it got too deep. I finally stepped in as the water got to his chin. He would have kept going.

gotta go talk to that cute baby girl with the belly

I tried to force him into some breaks as his knees and tops of feet were getting skinned up from the gravel bottom (talk about pool toe!). He was a little more content in the deeper waters.

cooling his jets for a minute

When we got out of the water, I dried him off and put him back in his non swim diaper and shorts which was a major challenge. Diapering has become a battle (you’d think it was baby torture) as it is since he started crawling, but now that he was so near his beloved water? Oh my. I finally strapped him back into the stroller to go home and he was a pouty pants about it. He usually is pretty easy going about being strapped in and going places with me. Not that day!!

staring longingly at the water

He drowned his sorrows in his sippy cup full of cool water. He drank the whole thing on the way back to the car (I’ve struggled to get him to take more than 1-2 good sips per day!).

depressed about leaving the pool

I suspect the Greenlake wading pool will become a summer stop off for the Lpod. So much fun!

The Spoilers Come to Town

Two of Carter’s biggest fans came to visit last week! Scott had his first week of school and was headed down to the Bay Area, so Mimi & PopPop decided to come help me out. It had nothing to do with the fact that they wanted to love on sweet CJ. Our week was packed full and come Tuesday morning our house was quiet again. Apparently too quiet for my child who discovered his screeching capabilities over the weekend.

We were fortunate enough to have some amazing weather. So we went to the park to swing on the swings.

save me from the swing

CJ wasn’t a huge fan. Once again. He liked the swings the first time. Since then: “Meh. Get me out of here!”

i said save me, don't make me do it again!

We rode on the merry go round. Which apparently is very fun after a few minutes!

spin spin spin. upchuck blueberries? maybe.

We went down to Pike Place Market to get some fresh produce and flowers. We wound up with a lot more than that. The market is dangerously delicious that way.

rows and rows of goodness

Thankfully, we hit it up in the morning before the major crowds showed up.

hiding under his hat. vampire baby thinks the sun is too bright.

The Copper River Salmon season began the day mom & dad came into town. The market was full of the delicious fish. We picked some up from the Ballard Fisherman’s terminal later in the week to grill.

get your fresh copper river!

We went to Ray’s Boathouse to soak up some rays while taking in the views of the lovely Puget Sound. Carter is really enjoying sitting in the highchair at restaurants now. No more infant seat, he’s a big kid now!

dining al fresco for the first time in for.ever.

We picnicked at Greenlake with some of our friends. I think I enjoyed my  last picnic with a stationary child. The other mommas were chasing their children to the lake and beyond. Crawling and walking and running will come soon enough. For now, I love my sitting munchkin!

picnicking with my buddy

We went to Fremont’s Sunday Market to pick up baubles and treats!

searching for hidden treasures

We were silly and ate our socks. That kid likes when he makes his Mimi laugh.

being silly

We wandered through the arboretum and stood under a “snowing” cherry tree.

it's raining cherries! hallelujah!

And checked out the amazing Azaleas, Lilacs and Rhododendrons.

bright pink azaleas

All along Azalea Way!

azalea way

We showed off our teeth! Two more are making their way in these days.

teefs. lots and lots of em.

And we blew bubbles.

what. is. this?

Lots and lots of bubbles.

can i catch it?

We tried to catch them, but didn’t have that much luck.

maybe this one?

Most of all, we laughed. We had a lot of good times with Mimi & PopPop in town.

ha ha. poppop! did you see that over there?

They love to spoil CJ in the best way possible. Lots of hugs and kisses.

hey, mimi, you come here too!

And always willing to help CJ learn something new.

hi mimi!

I left out the weeding, planting, chair fixing, nail pulling, curtain installing, map hanging, cooking, shopping, and voting they did too. My house hasn’t had this much fun in ages! Those are two efficient people!

happy as a clam

Thank you for the visit, mom & dad. The time you share with us up here is so precious. You made our week without daddy a lot more fun than it would have been otherwise! Love you both!

Earth’s Belly Laugh?

***warning – this post is full of self indulgent pictures of carter. unlike the rest of this blog these days.***
(why didn’t they invent the sarcasm font?)

Well, we were a couple of days early. Maybe even a mere 18 hours early. But we hit up the tulip fields in The Skagit Valley on Sunday. The daffodils were in full glory, and some tulip fields had popped. But yesterday afternoon and today we got a lot of sun and the fields REALLY popped as seen on the news this evening.

Maybe Carter and I should go back while daddy is at work this week? Hmmm…..

Who would take pictures of he and I together?

And what good are they without Scott?

He’s the one who makes Carter laugh.

And helps me take the collection bins to place my sweet child.

So others can take his picture. It’s something about babies and flowers, I suppose. I’m confident in my pre-Carter years I took pictures of unkown munchkins in tulip fields. Maybe it’s their innocence paired with natural beauty?

It’s almost intoxicating.

Oh? Sorry. Was that too much? Kids are sweet. Flowers are pretty. Is that okay?

Ahh. Better. Smiling boy.

His face below looks like “seriously mom. STOP embarrassing me. okaaaaaay, that’s funny.”

And this is just one of my most favorite pictures of all time.

He’s sitting in the mud. I think he likes it!

No, wait. Really! Guys!

I was tellin’ a joke!

And the chicken said….

Sorry. I get side tracked easily these days. I have a little ham on my hands (nooooo, I was talking about Carter, not Scott!). We had a great family adventure up to Skagit Valley. I’ll be sure to keep you guys up to date if we go back this week (sun is to be expected despite the SNOW that fell on us this morning).

Stand Off

On Tuesday after our doctor’s appointment where we learned that no new progress is being made on the delivery front, Scott decided to distract me and take me to the beach about 2 miles from our house. We sat there to watch the sun set. It was so beautiful and peaceful. This time of year is great. The weather is a little chancy, the kids are back in school, and the beaches are quiet. And sometimes you catch a beautiful, warm evening.

september sunset

It had been pretty cloudy all day, but warm. It’s unseasonably warm right now, but those who think our summer was too cool are loving it! I too am loving it. I’m not quite ready for hats and scarves … or the heater in the house. Some of the fall color is making it’s way out though. It won’t be long before the hillsides are covered in red, orange and gold. I love the change of leaves, it’s beautiful.

the start of fall

The sunset was great, thanks to the clouds we had.

i was trying to block the sun with that big ole belly

A park ranger was cleaning up some barricades when we got there. It turns out a baby seal pup was hanging out on the beach all day. We just missed seeing him, but there were a lot of seals hanging out just off the shore. A guy showed up just after we did with his fishing rod and some waders. He hopped in the water and was fly fishing right there off the beach. We noticed he kept moving around and stopping, trying to figure out where to go next. Then we saw why. That little dot just past him is a silly harbor seal. The two of them had a stand off for dinner, I suppose. The seal wouldn’t budge and was just staring down the fisherman. We were all laughing pretty hard. I think the seal won and got his dinner. The fisherman probably had to stop at the grocery store on the way home.

a funny stand off

I guess it was a stand off sort of like me and little CJ. I want him to show up, he’s late. He’s got no interest. Where are you little guy? You coming to meet us soon?

Ehplains, Boats, and Balls, Oh My!

A big heat wave hit Seattle while our visitors were here. Funny how that happens. We set records when all you Texans came up for our wedding and we had 4 days of 90° and higher temps when you all came back. Interesting. We decided to take advantage of the heat and hit the lake. This was Piper’s first trip on a boat. I’m not sure she was too keen on it at first. She fussed for a second when we put on the life jacket, but got over it. She sat very stiff for a long time like the below picture. Just in my lap stiff as a board, only moving her eyes.

what are you people doing to me?

Then I handed her off to her momma and Mimi. She loosened up a little. Kind of.

seriously. this thing is uncomfortable. and why is there no car seat?

And then we started moving (7 knots) and she started saying “wheeeeeeeeeeeee” in this really soft voice. It made us all laugh, so she laughed with us.

ok. this is ... wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ... fun.

We took the long way to Lake Washington and cruised the houseboats of Lake Union (as per usual with all of our precious, delicate cargo these days). All of the adults were wowed at the parking job of the big ole yacht between the two houses. Mimi or Melissa said “Holy Moly!!” and Piper repeated “Holy Moly!!!” over and over again. We tried to get it on video, but she was on to us.

holy moly parking job

Of course, Lake Union has the Kenmore Air landing strip, so there were tons and tons of ehplains ehplains ehplains to be seen. Piper has some excellent hearing and vision. Before any of us even knew what was going on she had spotted the airplanes and would tell us about them. I think she liked seeing the float planes so close up.

ehplain ehplain ehplain

She was very snuggly with her mom on this trip. I like to think that she was having so much fun that she was thanking her momma for bringing her to Seattle with lots of hugs and kisses.

lucky daughter, lucky momma

We even got her to wear her sunglasses for a little bit. She juts out her chin to try to hold them on.

cool kid

She looks like a Seattle girl to me, she knows how to appreciate that sunshine.

o my goodness, i love seattle!

We floated past Bill Gates’ house. Most of it is underground, but it’s a very large compound with several houses on the property. I like how low profile it is, quite beautiful!

maybe we can make this the family compound?

I’d say this girl was over her discomfort within a few minutes of boating. By this point, she was holding on to the Bimini top and checking out the world around her. She was singing quietly or calling out the ehplains the whole way around the lake.

let's rename this lake to piper's lake

More hugs for momma.

sweet moments

On the way back to the slip, we pulled off at the public docks at Ivar’s for some fish and chips. Once again pushing this little girl’s limits and she just went with it. I hope baby Lpod was taking lessons.

fish and chips at ivar's

We finished dinner and made way for the slip, I’d say Piper was pretty comfortable on the boat and with the life jacket by then, huh?

im the king of the world!

We caught a glimpse of the sun dropping behind the Olympic Mountains on our way back in. It was a perfect day!

august sunset over the olympics

I hope we’ll get to take the other cousins on a boat ride some time in the near future. They were sorely missed. Next time, ok? PopPop, you need to come check out your old friend Hot Water to make sure we’re taking good care of it.