What I've been missing

These are some of my favorite pictures ever -- they perfectly capture Andy's happy, funny personality. He can be such a ham, and it seems like he's always laughing. What absolute JOY being with him!

These are Bryn's glasses, actually -- I've been meaning to return them so they were sitting on our kitchen table (those who have seen our house know that a LOT of stuff sits on the kitchen table). Shawn took these pictures while I was working late this week. Seeing them made me realize exactly what I was missing while I was sitting in front of my computer.

Baby Beluga

We've officially had our first brush with the read-it-again! play-it-again! phenomenon that I know will last for Andy's whole early childhood. I bought him a "Baby Beluga" book based on Raffi's song of the same name, and he liked it well enough. Then I bought Raffi's CD and was reminded of the melody, so I started singing the words to him as we read the book. Soon he was insisting on "bay-bee" for every bed time, nap time, and many many other times throughout the day. We put the cd on repeat and listen to the song over and over. He insists on bringing the book to bed with him at night, and his first words when he wakes up are "bay-bee" (it used to be "MAMADADA!"). Today while we were just playing in Andy's room, he brought the cd player over and said "bay-bee" so I would help him play it -- but when Marlo Thomas came on instead, he was frantic! "BAY BEE!!!" So we ran out to the car in our bare feet to grab the cd and run back upstairs to play it. Total relief on his face when the wave sounds came on and Raffi starts singing!

A visit from Monica and Elisa

Although I had to cancel our lunch/play date to run into work last Friday, Monica brought Elisa over for an hour before I had to go. It was so great to see them! They've been traveling a lot this summer, and I've been a workaholic, so it's been a while since we all hung out. Hopefully we'll be able to plan lots more dates as we head into fall!

Giving Elisa a big push!

everyone wants to drive

Finally ... tomatoes

Andy has always loved tomatoes, so when a few started ripening in Shawn's garden, he was hooked -- unfortunately he quickly ate all of the ripe ones, and moved on to green. Now every time we go outside, it's hard to keep him from running behind the planter boxes where he knows he will find plenty of little green cherry tomatoes.

Yummy ... but SOUR.

From the blogosphere

Melissa had some more great photos from our trip to the fair, and Jen and Jerome's photos from Jen's surprise party are so fun! So I had to expropriate some of them for my own use here...

For a kid who LOVES trucks, including fire trucks, Andy was definitely NOT cool with sitting on the front of one. Bryn wasn't so happy with it either at the time, but that little girl can sure turn on the smiles!!!

Miss and Bryn trying to keep things down inside the spinning bear...

Me and my sweet pea.
Jen's surprise birthday party was a blast! For lots of great photos, see the link to Jen's blog at right!!!

Shawn does the "worm," always a crowd fave!

My ladies!

Did the Puyallup!

Bryn and Andy, ready to seize the day -- I mean the fair -- and all it has to offer! Rides, cows, rabbits, chicken (nuggets that is), elephant ears, scones and more cows! Once Andy found the fire trucks, it was not easy to get him to move on to the rest of the fair!

This sweet cow scared the pants off Andy when I walked away to take this photo and she turned to him and got in about a foot from his face and sniffed.
The merry-go-round ... Andy was a little nervous but as long as I was THISCLOSE he enjoyed himself!

Children's Museum

I can tell we're going to be spending a lot of time at the Children's Museum at the Seattle Center House this winter! What a great place to run run run, and to see all sorts of new things every time you visit. First, Andy prepared sushi in Japan ... ...then drove a jeep in Africa...
...spent some time on a sail boat...
...climbed through a whale...
...played in the water features...
...back to Japan to make a phone call...
...and on a motorbike in the Philippines!
When we reached our car after that long trip all over the world (and deep into the ocean) we found we had a flat tire! Luckily, I happened to be on the phone with Melissa at the time, who was nearby and has some tire changing experience! So, she swung on by and helped us put on the spare -- good thing too because I was planning to just drive on the flat until I reached a service station, which would not have been good. In no time Andy and I were on our way! Thanks Melissa!!!