Reason #38 that we love Taren

She sets up playdates at Maymont... ...with friends.

As I think I've told you before...

...no pants, no problem.

Passport

It's not as easy to get your minor child a passport as you might think. Finally, today after three tries and payment of the expediting fee, I think we've gotten one for little V.

So if you want a passport for your child, BOTH parents AND the child have to show up at the post office. Not at any time that's convenient for you- you've got to make an appointment. I can understand wanting both parents (although you can send a notarized statement) but do you really need to see the 17 month old baby? Really?

But Vake was a trooper. He sat in a chair and read the coloring book given to him by the postal worker. And as he was leaving after his mommy did all the paperwork, he blew her kisses and made her day!

Weekend Wrapup!

Super hot here in the RVA. Ugh.

Friday night I went out to Water Grill with some friends while E took it easy. If you live in the R-I-C and like seafood, don't walk, run there. It is awesome. While I was there I probably drank 15 glasses of H2O in prep for...

...Saturday a.m. when I woke up to run 9 miles at 5:30. It was a GREAT run- I felt really good- none of the niggling little back pain that I struggled with at 8 miles. Chief complaint was that I had something irritating on the bottom of my right foot. I was home by about 7:30 and we headed out to Baltimore- there will be pics but E and I were not as organized as we could have been and we forgot our camera.

Family weekend SO so so fun. Saw all the cousins. Ate awesome food made by Anne. Went to the Baltimore Aquarium via water taxi. Do have to say that the Aquarium was a little too crowded but not so surprised that we were not the only people who had this idea when it was 114 degrees.

Oh yeah, Vake figured out that he really DOES like icecream. Thank Goodness- I was starting to worry that I carried an alien baby and not my child.

I mean, really?

Have you ever seen a cuter toddler? I know, I know, I am biased. But come on.

This was on Daddy's blackberry from vacay.

Splash Pad!

Vake, Huff and Taren spent the day at Lewis Ginter playing at the splash pad. He LOVED it!!!

Hilton Head Island: Vacay!!!!

We've just gotten back from a whirlwind trip to Hilton Head!!! Eric had a bunch of Starwood points and we needed a few days away so we were able to get a place down at the Westin resort. It's about seven-eight hours away.

We left pretty early Saturday morning- by about ten or so and by about 2 we had reached- that's right- SOUTH OF THE BORDER. Now, there's only one other person in the world who knows about my long-abiding love for this place- my sister, Anne.

South of the Border, for the uninitiated, is as the name suggests, "south of the border" between North and South Carolinas. When we went to the beach when we were little, Anne and I were obsessed with the billboards that start on 95 when you cross into North Carolina.

Interestingly, I remember them as being greater in number and much more offensive than they are now.

We stoppped and took some pictures- it is a testament to the fact that I am now a mother and really care only about my son that I a) allowed this extremely unflattering picture of me to exist at all and b) am posting on the internet. Here's a closeup of Pedro's face.

Eric, who loves to take pictures of random things, wandered around taking all kinds of pics of South of the Border. I will spare you those. He also said, "Hey, if Vake's in a good mood on the way back, want to go to the top of the Sombrero Needle?" (There's a Space Needle cousin, the Sombrero, that you can ride up to the top. Needless to say, we did not stop at South of the Border twice- really there's only one stop required per beach trip.)

E's also really excited to share pics from SOTB with Becca, his friend from law school who is originally from South Carolina. And in my head I'm thinking, hmmm. Not so sure I'd be too psyched to see those little mementos from home, but ok. Whatever I guess.

We got to the hotel in time for some dinner and to bed.

Sunday morning, we woke up (Vake woke up) super early. In an attempt to push things a little later, we turned on the TV. Which kept him occupied for roughly 10 minutes. And then it was 6:30 am. And it is HOT in South Carolina then.

We spent the morning in Harbourtown in the resort of Sea Pines. Hilton Head is an example of an early planned resort community and the island is basically carved up into a series of resorts. We went to the one that has Harbourtown because I had read up about things to do with children and it seemed to have a lot of options- and it did.

Once we finished our morning, Vake took a nap and then we went back there for dinner and the children's show. Vake loves listening to musicians and did that for awhile before dinner.

Once dinner was finished, we went to where the children's show was going to play. The waitress at the restaurant had given him a lollipop, so he was a little distracted.

Then the music came on- great show for children by Greg Russell- the stage was packed with children. Vake had a hard time figuring out where he was supposed to sit.

And it is funny- it took basically all I had in me to let him try to figure it out and not go and swoop him up.

And finally, he got so tired that he did just lie down on the stage. That's when we knew it was time to go home.

Monday was a beach day, complete with beach toys and shovels.

And hats to protect from the sun, although this little boy appears to have my skin and not Eric's.

He was not a big fan of the sand or the waves at first but LOVED swimming in the ocean with his dad- and Anne and Mom if you are reading this you will be pleased to know that I kept all of my crazy fears about being bitten on the feet by crabs well under wraps.

I think that may be one for the picture wall in black and white.

After an afternoon nap, we checked out the children's museum. It is smaller than the one in Richmond but he had a good time climbing.

And operating planes- Eric was beside himself with the idea there could be another member of the Boeing fan club in the family. (And I am not even kidding that we spent time trying to figure out if this model for the children to use was made out of old Boeing products.)

And finally we headed to another resort for another children's show.

Same general themes: guy doing the same kind of show with children all gathered 'round him, my child wandering off a little confused about where he was supposed to be.

Very tired by the end of the day!

We had a great time and learned a lot about traveling with small fry- mostly that it probably makes sense to try to get a place with two rooms and a place to cook- eating out is really hard and really expensive and frustrating with a child this age- BUT we loved being away!!!!

Raffi the Remix

I am so bummed that the quality of these pictures is so bad. Vake has gotten really sweet about his giraffe, Raffi, in the past two weeks- he wants to take Raffi with him wherever he goes. We were playing upstairs this afternoon and he was obsessed with getting Raffi out of the crib. I changed out the laundry and then went back into V's room and he had met with success.
Stupid Mommy didn't realize how important Raffi was and just put him back in the crib and there was a lot of woe associated with that decision.

And at that point, Vake took off with Raffi as fast as he could away from me.

And then gave repeated hugs.

On. Off. On. Off.

We're currently very into turning light switches on and off in the house. First choice is the switch by our sofa followed closely by a lamp in Eric's room. Rounding out the top three contenders is the light on his changing table.

On. Off. On. Off. On. Off.

You get the gist.

Canal Boat Ride

Today we took a river boat ride at Richmond's Canal Walk- I'd never been on one despite the fact that the Canal Walk area was completed in 1996.

We had a great day for it- we've had a respite from the heat which was also nice for my eight mile marathon training run today!!!!

Vake did his best to listen attentively- but even 30 minutes is getting on the long side for my constant motion machine.

He definitely was interested in the water around him- my water baby would have jumped in about six times if I had let him...

Seventeen Months!!!

Vake, you are 17 months old today!!!

You are growing and changing SO quickly. You are the busiest little boyin the world- always on the move. You are full on from the time the sun goes up until the time I put you down at night. You never stop moving. NEVER! You've got a super intense personality to match- things are really great or really horrible (wonder where you get that from- couldn't possibly be your mama????)

You weigh 35 pounds(!!!!!). You wear mostly 3t clothes but have some 2t and 4ts that work too. You wear a size 7 diaper (which of course they don't carry in stores and we have to order from diapers.com) and size 8 shoes (you need the size 8 more for the width than anything else- there's not a huge selection of shoes in double extra wide.

In the same way that you are enthusiastic about the good and the bad, you are a champion sleeper. Right now you go to bed between 6:00 and 7:00 and sleep until around. You usually take one good nap for 2.5 to 3 hours - always in the afternoon.

You are getting to be a pretty good talker but it is weird talking. You don't use many words in ways that make sense (only a couple, like dog and tick-tock). You use a lot that make no sense at all in context and then you've got a large vocabulary of crazy words.

You have figured out how a fork and spoon work and you really want to use them- it doesn't always go so well. You love to feed your dog from your tray and you are getting sick and tired of sitting in a high chair.

You have favorite books (Freight Train especially) that you will read again and again and then bring to your daddy and me to read.

Vpumpkin, we love you very much!!!!

Richmond Zoo

So we rolled out to the Richmond Zoo today.

I'd been pretty doubtful about the experience but the cabin fever was really starting to get the best of me. (And Eric, surprisingly, has no interest in going station wagon shopping...).

So we left for the Zoo. I thought there might be one monkey in a cage. We got out there and it was actually great. Don't get me wrong, you're definitely not at the National Zoo or the Seattle Zoo, but there is a lot of opportunity to feed and pat some pretty exotic animals.

We started our day by admiring the groundhogs.

Then Vake and Eric fed the emu. Who was extremely personable.

Vake actually chased the emu down the fenceline for a bit. I hope these pics give you some sense of how HOT it was out there. I think we are in for a MISERABLE rest of summer if this heat keeps up.

This little boy loves animals...

...and cheesing for the camera.

I think we were talking about not putting our fingers through the fence here.

So the craziest thing they have is the budgie aviary. You go inside and there are about 50-100 budgies and you buy a stick with birdseed on it and you are literally swarmed by budgies. There is a certain ick factor, but if you can put that aside, it is pretty cool and the budgies are so sweet.

Vake LOVED the budgies- I was trying not to freak out and simultaneously chanting "Gentle Hands, Gentle Hands."

Once all our seed was gone. we fed some extremely docile camels.

And then went over to the giraffe area. It's extremely clever- they've got this ramp so that the giraffes don't even have to bend their heads for you to feed them.

And once we were too hot and miserable to go on any more, we rolled out and went to Johnny Rocket's for lunch- as you can tell, someone in our house is feeling all better!