Summer Travel Take 2.1

So I've been meaning to update with a post about our vacation to California, but I seem to be short on time. Riley started "school" last week, and we're getting revved up for our next trip[s]. SO here're a few pix to tease you - I'll post more later!

Here we are geared up for one of our "hikes" in Yosemite. Riley thought the umbrella was funny [and I bet everyone else on the trail did too!].

Turns out, rocks ARE interesting!

On a walk in a Redwood grove.

weeeeee!

Back in SF, some interspecies communication.

In the city for dinner, Kristin snapped this family shot of us.

Summer Travel Take 1

Just a quick update before we leave for CA today. Last weekend was spent in Cleveland. Firstly, we had a wedding to go to, and Secondly we got in a nice visit with the Haucks. We had a great time!
The summer seems to be flying along. We're getting ready for our trip to Yellowstone, with all it's logistical complications. Other than that, not much to report!
Pix [does anyone else hate the way blogger is uploading pix these days?]....

The little man, practicing standing like a pro.

With Grandpa in Cleveland. I think this may be his first up-high shoulder ride!!

At the wedding, which we nearly missed. He discovered necklaces.

Spoon attack!

In the Hauck's backyard. This is also his first encounter with a sandbox. He liked rubbing his toes in it.
My boys, out for a walk in the park. I think they're both dashingly handsome.

Many silly people on a blanket!

My, How They Grow...

Wow, summers are busy!
So, first an update on our resident Robins, and part I of this blog entry...
It is absolutely astounding how quickly robins go from egg to flying! It's a darned good thing Riley doesn't grow that fast. In the span of something like 8 days, they hatched and then flew away. It was crazy. Here's a sequence...

Mama Robin feeding them on May 16...

There are 4 in there; this is May 21...

May 23...

May 24, they began to stand on the edge of the nest!

They flew away the same day! Look at the funny little short tail [hee hee].

Part 2 of the entry; Riley and more Riley [well, what else did you expect?]. He turns 8 months tomorrow, and I can't believe it. He's sitting great, and is starting to stand supported on furniture, although he's not pulling up yet. Still no crawling, but he's eating like a champ now. He also recognizes several words that we use a lot; chiefly "ceiling fan", "milk", and "kitty", as well as his name. Here's some pix from the last couple of weeks...

Pool party! We went to a BBQ a couple of weekends ago. Riley got to go swimming with some of his little friends. He liked the water ok, but wasn't thrilled with the splashing.

One disturbing trend is that Riley has begun a new sleeping program. Turns out, 6:00am is SOOOO last month! He's now regularly waking at 5am or earlier and not going back to sleep. Maybe because of the time change and the light in the room... Anywho, this was taken at about 8am one morning [Riley's still in his jamjams]. We were outside and Rew had already pulled up a large section of sod to start our new veggie garden. Very exciting.

Auntie G came to visit and we had a great time. I think they're having a deep philosophical conversation here, but it's hard to be sure.

A pensive moment...

Part 3; Here're some pix from Auntie Kristin's baby shower last weekend. We drove down to IN for the fun. The babies are growing quickly and Kristin looks fabulous and lovely as always! Here she is opening some gifts, with her sis looking on.

Riley pretty much ignored all the action, prefering to rub his fingers in the carpet. He looks so little here!

The Portle clan making dinner. They have a pretty cool house with 360 views of woodland.

We're off to a wedding in Cleveland this weekend, and to visit with the Haucks. Then we're off for a vacation in CA...

The Universality of Left Brain Dysfunction

So during a rare moment of having my arms free today, I picked up
one of my favorite books of poetry and read a few pages.  Oddly, the
page I opened to first was this poem, which I thought should possibly
be re-named 'On Parenthood';


The Armful, by Robert Frost

For every parcel I stoop down to seize
I lose some other off my arms and knees,
And the whole pile is slipping, bottles, buns,
Extremes too hard to comprehend at once
Yet nothing I should care to leave behind.
With all I have to hold with~ hand and mind
And heart, if need be, I will do my best.
To keep their building balanced at my breast.
I crouch down to prevent them as they fall;
Then sit down in the middle of them all.
I had to drop the armful in the road
And try to stack them in a better load.


Riley's cutting his third tooth today. Poor little dude.
This brings to mind that I'd promised pix of the first two...

He's protesting against his prunes + rice cereal here.
If you zoom in, you can see his two new chompers on the bottom.

peace out.

Catching up

So it's been a goodly while since I updated mostly because we've been busy but also because our sleeping schedule is once again on the fritz, and I seem to have less patience than normal [more later]. Where to begin....

Spring has sproinged here, finally. The trees are green and there is pollen everywhere [related to the above]. Before all this lovely weather hit us, we took a trip down to St. Louis to visit my family and stop by Wash. U. for some work-related items. This was Riley's first trip to STL since Christmas, and he's now big enough to notice the family dogs. They're awesome, aparently. He also discovered wind chimes. We were able to take an afternoon to visit the MO Botannical Garden [where we were married], to take advantage of the weather and see the garden in all its springy glory. Here are some related pix;

Here he is destroying these flowers. He liked the texture. Some ended up in his mouth.

Feet are fun! Oh, and he can finally sit in his stroller without the car seat.

With my Dad, exploring the wind chimes.

The weekend after [Mother's Day weekend] we flew to PA for a wedding on Rew's side of the family. Riley got to play with his cousin Brenna, who very nicely shared her toys and bedroom with him. He also got to visit with both of Rew's parents while we were there. On Mother's Day, we had brunch with Grandma, and then the three of us went to another garden [I like gardens] called Chanticleer that was fairly close. This was a great way to spend the day!

'sup?

With Grandma, at the wedding.

Mother's Day in the garden.

Family portrait [can you find me?]

So, since the weather has improved, we've been spending a lot of time outdoors. It turns out Riley loves it. He enters this sort of Zen state, which I take as a good thing. However, we suspect that he has some seasonal allergies [at least, we hope that he has seasonal allergies and that he's not allergic to the cat]. He has been getting increasingly snoggy, and has developed a very sad wet cough. The Dr. thinks it might be RSV, but after giving him benedryl his condition improved drastically overnight. Time will tell, but for now, none of us is getting much sleep, and Riley has stopped eating solid foods altogether. Oh yeah - so, after a month of trying, Riley had finally warmed up to the concept of bananas and we were able to sneak in other bites of things like cereal and prunes and applesauce [although he really doesn't like applesauce]. In the last week thoug, he's boycotted all solids. So back to square 1. At this rate, he'll be 8 months old and still not eating real meals. So frustrating.

He has figured out how to shake things in the last week. This is one of his favorite toys at the moment.

Looks like we're not the only ones losing sleep. This is our nest, over the garage.

Don't Step On Those Worms!

So, yesterday morning started by Rew and I having an interesting conversation, while still in bed and trying to ignore Riley's whining to get up. Perhaps this was fueled by the fascinating soil macrofauna lectures in my class last week [go earthworms!]...or maybe I'm just crazy. Anywho, I wondered aloud something along these lines;
"If we didn't have things like fungi and worms, I wonder how much poo the Earth would be covered in."
Minutes later, Rew had calculated a back-of-the-envelope approximation. The answer is that there would be poo about 100m deep covering the whole Earth. Even if he's off by a couple orders of magnitude, it's still a sea about waist [or waste! hah!] high.

So that just goes to show you, that you shouldn't step on those poor little worms when they get flushed out of the ground by a heavy rain and are flopping about hopelessly on the sidewalk. You never know when you'll need them around!

On another note entirely, we've been trying some solid foods with Riley. This has not met with success. We've tried rice cereal several times [no good] and I made him applesauce [even worse]. Mind you, this has literally been a effort of just a few days and he has already figured out how to clamp his little mouth shut tight and never face the spoon directly. Little monkey. I can't even use my finger to sneak the food in there because he's figured out that trick too. I don't know how we're ever going to make any progress with this. On top of that, we had a playgroup this weekend with 2 other 6mth olds. They are both WAY ahead of Riley in both mobility and eating. Poo! [and we've come full circle].

This past week we also had our first adventures on a playground. Riley LOVES swings. Rew also took him down a slide which eventually prompted smiles. Very cute.

This was our second attempt with the cereal. He makes this "what are you doing to me?" face.

Here is the first applesauce attempt. Shortly after, he actually choked on it and Rew had to turn him upsidedown to smack it out of him. Yay. Positive relationships with apples being built.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still smiley, even after those apples attacked him.

Birthdays, Birds, and More!!!

Well, it's been forever since I posted. Things have been crazy busy here. Since the last post, we've been on a family trip to Houston [for the annual LPSC shenanigans]. Riley did very well on both flights, no thanks to the airlines. Word to the wise...don't EVER miss a flight during March. Apparently the entire country is on spring break and all direct flights to anywhere anyone wants to go are booked solid. We broke this rule, and paid for it dearly, having to take a flight wicked early the next day to New Orleans, and driving 6h to Houston. On the upside, it was an interesting drive! Riley did great - much better than his exhausted, frustrated, and stressed out parents! For those of you not in Planetary Science circles, this year the conference was moved to a new resort area in the Woodlands, TX. This had some advantages for the stroller set, as there were nice places to walk, ducks to watch, and bumpy sidewalks that put babies to sleep! Riley and I had a nice time - no idea what Rew did ;) It was also very nice to see our friends and their new family additions, although some key people weren't there that we all missed!

Since LPSC I've been super busy with class responsibilities [since I got nothing done at the conference]. We've had some nice weather and have been able to get out and stretch our legs some, although it's gotten cold again. Spring is sortof here- we're just starting to see a few of the early blooms around town. We had a nice visit from my parents the weekend after LPSC, and Rew and I were able to get out and see our first movie since Riley was born! We saw Monsters vs. Aliens, which was very silly.

Other big events in Riley's little life include sleeping at night in his Pack-N-Play [!], trying his first solid food [epic fail], and hitting his 6month birthday! At his doctor's appointment, he weighed in at 19.25lb, 28", which is actually less than we were expecting. On Rew's birthday weekend, we took our first trip to the Brookfield Zoo! This was great fun for all. Riley really likes birds of all sizes. Not sure if he really focused in on the larger animals, but we think he saw the llama in the petting zoo. In any case, we'll go back often!

I now have to go, because somebody is scratching and pinching the bejeezes out of me. Assorted pix below.

Part of the riverwalk next to the hotel [which you can see in the background] at LPSC. We spent many quality hours walking here and checking out the "wildlife".


GB^2 and our new friend Libby! She's very silly [we know, we're experts on the subject].


The little dude, actually sleeping in his own little bed! We sleep better now too! Well, some nights we sleep better. Some nights we just don't sleep [a disturbing development to be sure].

Somebody's birthday cake [not naming names].

Riley in his dapper little Easter outfit from GreatGrandma [overalls and shirt]. The sweater and hat were 'cause it was both chilly and very sunny on Easter.

That's a very silly-looking animal.

Riley LOVED watching the birds in this enclosure hop and fly about. They were...

Rainbow Lorikeets. They were indeed very brightly colored and fun to watch [for adults too].

Us all bundled up in the central part of the zoo. We were on our way to the primate house.