Uncle T's wedding weekend

The whole family all gussied up!











J on best man duty!











The groomsmen and the three "caballeros"









Logan playing with another groomsmen, Ted -- looks like the "angry scot" is winning this battle!





We went out to Cali to be a part of Uncle T's wedding. The event included the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner with over 60 people, a softball game on Friday, the wedding and reception with close to 250 people, and a post-wedding day brunch! Whew! That's a lot of people. L did great! He regaled people with his babbles and razberries and laughing. He impressed people with his signing, even if it is still fairly limited. He made tons of friends with his pop-goes-the-weasel style peek-a-boo games that he played while in the wrap. And even if he managed to pull a few buttons off of my top right before the rehearsal dinner, what can you do--he's just so cute!!

J's duties as best man were varied and interesting, from helping put up a "big tent" to returning a sat phone! Our "welcome" banner upon our arrival was to find out that Uncle T had accidentally hit the water main to the house and that we would have no water until late Monday! Eek - given that it was only Saturday afternoon, need I say any more!!

During the rehearsal dinner L had a fantastic time with J, N, I, & B. He got all of them laughing and giggling when he laughed and we had a great time at our table.

On Friday, he got to meet S for the first time. During the wedding, L & I went up to the lectern together to do a reading during the ceremony. We read a favorite Pablo Neruda poem, Sonnet XVII, and L tried to take the paper for himself. Thankfully I had the poem memorized, so I was able to keep my composure, and I with the experience that comes from day-to-day interactions of L trying to take things out of my hands that are "not for baby" distracted him with a sticky note and then kept on with the reading. Unfortunately, by the time the reception came around after all the prior days with busy schedules and with so much stimulation and new people, he was exhausted. But we did get to show off the family kilt for a little while before heading for sleepytime. We stayed for a little bit and then retreated to inside Grandma and Grandpa's house, a real benefit of having the wedding at their house!

In the end, L impressed the family with how mellow and happy he was. And we were just thrilled that the airplane rides were not nearly as painful as we imagined or feared! :)

Cali trip

Fun in the sun with Grandma and J at a park in Windsor Town Square.









Playing on the "picnic pad" on Grandma's porch with Titi D







Mom and L out in front of the barn!






Our trip began great. L made fast friends during the almost 5 hour flight with some women sitting kitty corner to us and managed to even make a friend through pulling the hair of the woman sitting in front of me! He did really well that first day until J & I stopped at In & Out burger on the way up to Healdsburg. We had a busy week: organizing, cleaning, picking up tuxes and rings, putting up a tent, helping grandma adopt a kitty, etc.

Some of our favorite memories of the trip...

• L finally learning how to play peek-a-boo on his own and initiating the game with everyone once he figured it out.
• L trying to "pick up" a bruise off my leg and trying to figure out why it wasn't in his fingers.
• Family trip to Oakville grocery, a favorite lunch spot of ours
• A visit from Aunt D who took a day trip from LA to wine country just to meet L
  
• Creating a picnic pad on grandma's porch to play on
• L meeting Newt the llama
• Spending lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle T & Aunt P
  
• Meeting cousins J & C, as well as Uncle J and Aunt H
  
• Meeting Alisal friends and lots and lots of family members for the first time
  
• Having delicious breakfast burritos and the best lattes at Cafe Notto
• J showing L the Vineyard Club where he used to spend his summers
  

Proof that people do spontaneously break into song, but aren't always able to get to the video camera as quickly as we might like to chronicle it!

Cousins!

On the day before we left, we stopped at Aunt H and Uncle J's house and L got to spend some good quality time with his older cousins, J (6) and C (3). L had a great time with his cousins. C played "catch" with L and J also enjoyed his play time with L.

Monitor Lizard Crawl

This video showcases his crawling and his pulling himself up! He is very happy with himself, as you will tell from his screeching! Hilarious. I will warn you though this is a longer video, 1m 16s so be sure to have a bit of time to sit and watch it. It is well worth it!

pulling himself out of the pool

Here is a fun exercise the little ones do at swim class where they pull themselves out of the pool, using toys as motivation, you just put them at the pool edge and they naturally "crawl" out. Pretty cool, actually!

naked baby!

Okay, there was at least a question "should we or shouldn't we" post embarrassing naked baby pics and of course J reminded me again that he will of course find something to be embarrassed about and be angry about as a teenager, so why not!

Side Raspberries

Logan has this very cute way of doing raspberries - kind of out the side of his mouth. Here is a picture and a video of him. The video also features his helpful side of rearranging laundry, particularly socks and bibs. He has some decidedly clear ideas about how and where they should go and it is most definitenly not in the baskets that I have set aside for them!

Fun in the Sun

We took advantage of a super sunny day and had some family time out on the front lawn. And L got to practice his pincer grip on the grass instead of on me!! Stay tuned for some pics of J at L's swim practice.

Mom's Day

Mom's day started out a bit rough with a early early morning wakefulness, from like 2:30-4:45 am. By 4ish, I was crying from exhaustion. Not sure why L was so wakeful, it isn't like I even drink any caffeinated beverages. But things got a bit better as the day neared a reasonable hour. As a family, we went to our favorite little breakfast joint, Blondies - of course I ordered their yummers chocolate chip pancakes. Then we headed over to the artisan market, only to realize it didn't open for another 2 hours, which was okay, because L really needed to get home for a nap. After his nap, we headed back over there, but this was its first week so there still were not a lot of local vendors. Instead we went to the mall for some Starbucks, pick up some wedding gifties for J's brother, and then to Macy's for a mom's day giftie for me. Back in time, for another L nap, and then L & I took a bath, and then J took over L duty so I could enjoy a long soak by myself.

1st ER visit

Wednesday morning L wanted to help mom do some laundry, so we were in the basement together and while we were folding laundry on the floor, L was practicing his new standing and cruising abilities, except he lost his balance. Typically he falls on his bum and then to the side, so I was right there with my hand to catch him, except this time he fell straight back and the back of his head his the concrete. Thankfully it was partially cushioned with a bit of laundry, but barely. He screamed and screamed and screamed. But after a few minutes, he calmed down.

I called our family doctor and she said despite that it was essentially his nap time, not to let him sleep for at least 2 hours. So we nursed and then I decided that a good way to divert his attention was to read. So we sat on the couch and read some of his favorite finger puppet books and his all time favorite, Bear Snores On. But before we could finish Bear Snores on, he vomited. So we picked up our stuff, and got in the car to drive to the ER. The Sparrow pediatric ER was really nice, very welcoming, and all the staff there were super supportive.

L got checked out from a PA and then the head peds ER doc. They said he looked great. Pupils good, strength even, no mushy spots on the head, no discharge or blood. He did have a slight bruise by his eye, but we actually think that that was unrelated and probably a book related injury (he is an active reader). They also did a CAT scan to make sure that everything was okay inside his noggin (which is was). He got a clean bill of health. Our plan of attack is to relocate the jumperoo to the basement so that he can be a bit more "contained" while doing laundry rather than trying out all of his new cruising abilities.

It was definitely a hard and emotional day. That night we were all fairly snuggly to make up for it. He is doing just great now, and we saved the hospital bracelets, knowing that this will be the first of probably many visits -- especially since it seems like L has no fear and just throws himself into situations with no care or caution.

Milestone alert!

Well, it seems like once again, the blog will devolve into lists of important milestones or events rather than narrative, but what can I say, we're busy folk! In the past, oh say 1 1/2 weeks, Logan has or is mastering a few exciting skills.

• Pincer Grasp: This he loves to practice on dad's arm hair, blades of grass, and the teeniest, tiniest pinches of skin, particularly when nursing...ouch
• Pulling himself to standing: He is really getting quite good at this -- his favorite piece of furniture to use is by far the coffee table, but has used practically every other surface in the house which is within his reach
• While standing shifting weight from one foot to the next: This is a totally new one - today for the first time he started to put all his weight on one foot and then the other one, so it looks like cruising isn't too far behind!

He is also signing and imitating more regularly:

• "Up" - this is perhaps one of the most difficult signs that we have taught him so far, and yet it is probably the one that he wants the most so he is working hard on it - on a fairly regular basis he signals (or tries to) for us to pick him up [index finger pointing up]
• "Nurse/Milk" - this sign while fairly easy, he has only imitated a few times after I have shown him, but not necessarily produced it on his own yet.
  
• "Waving" - today he imitated us waving goodbye to our neighbor - it was a single very slow wave, but very cute! :)

To come...Hopefully this week I will download the pics we took today while we played on the front lawn.