vacation: day 3 (09/21/09)

As you have probably realized, I am falling behind on writing my blog entries about my vacation. My mom has been working from home since September 30 and now I know why she had so much comp time to use up after I was born. She keeps busy! And I have been busy with my activities (more about that whenever we get caught up).

Day three of my vacation started just how every day has started in Port Angeles for the last 40 or so years: at the Corner House. Bobby enjoyed his usual pancakes with strawberries and countless cups of coffee. Not sure what the others ate . . . something greasy, no doubt, also washed down by coffee. Not my mom though; she had water and something bland. Someday my digestive system will mature and be more tolerant. Sigh.

After enjoying breakfast, my parents and my grandmother walked down to the ocean and strolled along the shore. Another perfect sunny day. It was here that I put my baby feet in a patch of green grass. It felt just like velvet. I hate the grass in Texas. It is brown and crispy like straw. You would never dare to even touch the grass with bare skin. Yuck.

And then we went to visit with Bobby again while Sharon had an appointment. His physical therapist came over and we all went for a walk in Bobby's neighborhood. Bobby is speedy now! The picture of my mom holding me (see . . . she really DOES exist even though you never see photos of her) was taken in a back alley behind Bobby's house. You wouldn't believe the flowers and plants here. The back alleys in the northwest are prettier than even the parks and public gardens in Texas!

Liola joined us for dinner. She and my grandmother have been friends for 50 years. I also met Marge after dinner. Marge has been neighbors with my grandmother forever. Being in a different time zone made me a bit goofy so I was grouchy for these ladies but I enjoyed meeting them anyhow.

Stay tuned for my entries about our trip to Canada!

16lb 12oz

Today, I visited with Dr Cox for my four-month check up. No surprise that I am a rather large baby. I weighed in at 16lb 12oz and I am 25 inches tall. I am very healthy, according to my doctor. As you recall, I have never been on the scale without peeing everywhere. I did not pee on my nurse today though!

Dr Cox told me a funny (but rather sickening) story about one of his toddler patients who will eat nothing but Cheetos and Pepsi. If his fat pig parents try to feed him anything else, he will scream and get the Cheetos out of the cupboard to dump on the table.

Dr Cox encouraged me to be exclusively breastfed for as long as possible. Babies don't even develop digestive enzymes until 9 months old. My first food will be green veggies of some sort. My mom eats a lot of peas from Whole Foods so maybe I will try fresh organic peas first.

box of straws

In this photo, you will see my family of deer. You will also notice all of the pretty oak trees. On the day we arrived home from our trip to the northwest, the property next door was marked with survey flags. Uh oh, that cannot be good. The very next day, the heavy equipment arrived and all of the trees were promptly murdered, and subsequently burned. The noise is making me crazy! You cannot get a decent nap around here. My deer family is frightened and they are now just starting to come around again. My dad has been putting out extra birdseed for them so that they don't blame us for destroying their home.

And then there was the tarantula that must be a refugee from the deforestation. On Thursday night, there was a big (I mean BIG . . . like the size of my head) tarantula on the outside of our back window. My mom had a fit and told my dad that THIS was the last straw (she says that a lot these days).

And then came Friday morning. My mom woke up early to get some work done while me and my dad lazed around. Before 7:00am, we had another water problem. This time, luckily, we were home and the house didn't flood like it did back in May. My mom knows how to shut off the water supply very quickly now. The neighborhood water system was pressured up way too high again, putting all of the homes on the line in grave danger of exploding.

Does anyone want to buy my house? Tarantulas, scorpions, floods - no extra charge!

Oh yeah, and then let's talk about our trip to downtown Dripping Springs earlier this week. We went to buy stamps at the post office. It really hadn't been that long since our last trip to the post office. Well, it doesn't exist anymore. All of the shops were boarded up and there was a scrawny stray dog running down the middle of the road all ghost-town-style.

my great-grandfather

After I tired myself out at the ocean, I went over to visit great-grandfather Bobby and grandma Sharon. Bobby caught on pretty quickly that I have ticklish feet and I laughed and smiled at him. Even though I slept for most of the afternoon, we had a lovely visit. Since I am so cute, people just like to look at me and talk about me being so perfect. When I woke up, Bobby held me for a while. He said he had not held a new baby since my grandmother Roberta was a newborn (more than 60 years ago!!). Sharon held me for a long time too - until I got so heavy that her arms almost fell off.

The most interesting story of the day was Bobby talking about lowering the flag to half-mast when President Roosevelt died. I hope my dad got a video of that story.

We look forward to visiting great-grandfather Bobby and grandma Sharon in Florida later this year when they go back there. Seems like a nice life to spend summers in the northwest and winters in Florida.

vacation: more day 2 (09/20/09)

This is me, my dad, and my great-grandmother sitting a few feet away from the Pacific Ocean. Not the best photo ever taken. My mom must have caught us off-guard or something. You will see that my parents dressed me up like a dork thinking that it was going to be cold outside. My hood has bunny ears on it! By the end of the afternoon, I had pretty much stripped down to only a t-shirt so I could enjoy the fresh warm ocean air. It was the perfect day and we strolled along for hours watching the boats and the birds. There was so much to look at and everything smelled so good and clean. The sky is not brown in Washington like it is in Texas.

vacation: day 2 (09/20/09)

This is me and my dad at the Marine Science Center. I had never seen real fish before so I got bug-eyed with excitement. I got to put my hand in the fish tank to pet some creatures. Don't worry . . . I washed my hands afterward! I talked with the director of the Marine Science Center for a long time and I learned a lot about fish. It helped affirm my decision to be vegetarian. When my sister was little, she wanted to be a marine biologist. Maybe I will consider that too.

vacation: day 1 (09/19/09)

This is me in the Austin airport preparing for my journey to the northwest. We got off to a bit of a rough start; I had an episode of projectile vomiting before I boarded my flight. (I think I just got too excited and overate.) Once I got on the airplane though, I was perfect. I sat and chatted and played the entire flight. Everyone loved me and I seemed like a perfect angel - especially compared to the two bratty children who had to be dragged onto the plane against their will! So annoying. Alaska Airlines was very nice . . . family friendly. You wouldn't believe how much stuff you have to cart with you when you are a baby and the airline let us check a lot of stuff for free at the gate.

I slept for the entire car ride from Seattle to Port Angeles. So did my dad. When we arrived at my great-grandmother's house shortly after midnight, she had just returned from her 67th high school reunion and she was eagerly awaiting my arrival. I was a bit grouchy when I got there and I had to go directly to bed but she was so happy to see me.