Seattle Friends' Style: Part III: Big Game Hunter

Taren's been putting off dressing Vake up in his camo from Uncle Brad. Uncle Brad and his wife Cindy and their daughters Emily and Mary are some of my favorite people. Brad is Eric's good friend from law school, and Cindy is one of the nicest people you are likely to meet. Plus, she's a nurse and an amazing Mom...she's the person who remembers to bring the cheese sticks on a hike, whereas I am the person who is hunting for the Diet Coke machine. But I digress.

Anyway, Brad gave V some camo gear when we were in Seattle. Taren had been dressing Vake in and taking pics of all the clothes/toys we got in Seattle so I could post them, but had been putting off the camo shot. And Taren teases me as much as anyone about the fact I am dressing little V in "girls'" clothes...

So this morning, it was super quiet in Vake's room. Eric woke up and asked me if the baby should still be asleep and I went down to check on him. Lo and behold, my little baby had gotten out of his crib, dressed himself and gone big game hunting. By the time I found him, he already had the hide/pelt of a blue animal and he was so pleased that he was sitting on it!!!!

More Seattle Pics and We Get a Visit from Our Friend Aunt Jen

Not many things in life are clear, but one of the few is that Eric and I get a big F- when it comes to taking pictures with our friends when we go places. We do have a few more Seattle shots: I feel especially lucky to have one with my good buddy Emily and the famous Seattle Market Pig. I think Vake was sleeping or else I would have tried to get the same shot with him, too.

Once we finished walking (or at least trying to walk- it was VERY crowded) the market, we stopped for a little break and Vake perked up. Here's the first shot of Vake and Emily together. We then went on to the Sculpture Park, which is one of my favorite things in Seattle.

True story: Emily and I are playing underneath the big Alexander Calder and Eric and her Mom and Dad walk up to us. As they are walking up, she says, "Quick, hide, our parents are coming."

Ha.

These are some snaps from the Zoo. In one, little Evan is trying to blend in with the flora and fauna. In the other, two of our friends' children are trying to get a better look at the penguins.

This is a good picture from the picnic. How sweet were all the Gibson boys- they took turns holding and feeding Vake.

And last but not least, this weekend we got a visit from one of Eric's best friends. Jen got a chance to hang out with Vake and get to see him while he was smiling and happy.

Fashion, Eric's Seattle Friends' Style: Part II

In this picture, you can see Vake in his brand-new set of University of Washington football warmup clothes. (Neil is sitting here right now and says they are sweats but Mary Sabra and I like warmup clothes better...) These were a gift from the awesome Gibsons! You can tell that Vake is a little confused, probably because he knows that he is going to be a figure skater. He's probably thinking, "This outfit is fine and all, but where are my white sequined pants?"
In all seriousness, though, Taren had the strangest thing happen to her today. She came down the stairs and heard little Vake singing. Here were the words that she heard.

Bow Down to Washington,
Bow Down to Washington,
Mighty Are The Men
Who Wear the Purple and the Gold,
Joyfully We Welcome Them Within the Victors Fold.
We Will Carve Their Names
In the Hall of Fame
To Preserve the Memory of Our Devotion.
Heaven Help the Foes of Washington;
They're Trembling at the Feet
Of Mighty Washington,
The Boys Are There With Bells,
Their Fighting Blood Excels,
It's Harder to Push Them Over the Line
Than Pass the Dardanelles.
Victory the Cry of Washington...
Leather Lungs Together
With a Rah! Rah! Rah!
And O'er the Land
Our Loyal Band
Will Sing the GloryOf Washington Forever.

He was just finishing up as she walked in...

Here's what it sounded like. All I can say is that he's very advanced.

Fashion, Eric's Seattle Friends' Style: Part I

Despite my best attempts ,my attempts to have Vake be a champion figure skater seem to be being foiled at every turn. Specifically, on the trip to Seattle, my little fashion plate was given a number of outfits that are definitely NOT figure skating costumes.

Vake will model them all for pictures in the next few days, but I wanted to start out with this sweet little baseball uniform from Uncle Brook, mostly because it looks as though it is going to fit little V for about another 15 minutes.

Today Vake snoozed until about 10 am when he finally stirred and he was asleep tonight by about 6:45 pm. It will be interesting to see whether he makes it through the night tonight.

Vake and Al's Excellent Adventure

I preface this post by telling you that, try as I might, I'm not all that good at taking pictures at events- I get wrapped up in the moment and wind up missing something.

As you all know, Vake and I went to visit E and his family in Seattle this weekend- I left after work on Thursday. I will tell you that traveling with a baby alone is about roughly 3.8 times more difficult than traveling alone.

To kick things off, my stroller and I set off some super TSA alarms, so both the stroller and I had to go into a special room to be specially searched- and Vake was S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G. So the TSA guy wound up feeding him. V didn't seem to care but the TSA guy was definitely ready to see the hind end of us.

We loaded up in Richmond, no problem. Vake was a total rockstar for the Richmond to Charlotte leg of the trip. So much so that I cockily called Anne on the phone and said, "We're rocking it out. No worries. I don't know why people say traveling with a baby is so hard. He's doing so well." Here is a backwards pic of naive, naive me and Vake.

Somehow, I totally managed to miss the "sleep window" for little V and he SCREAMED for four of the five hours that it took us to get to Seattle. It was like a scene from a movie. He also took in almost 72 ounces worth of fluid. It was unbelievable. As you can imagine, I wasn't happy and he wasn't happy. I was pretty happy to do the baby handoff to Eric when we landed. This picture shows how he looked and how I am sure I looked and I know I felt.

But once we got our Seattle legs, we had a great time. We walked around the city and went to the zoo. Vake and Eric got some good quality time together.

This is Vake's favorite new way to nap. Upside down in his stroller.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to see friends and family. This is where it becomes obvious that I am not a multitasker: that is, I cannot take pictures of friends and family while hanging out with them. Oh well. At least I got this cute one of Brad and Emily.

Here's little V on his way to some of our fun-filled activities. This was the carseat that came with the rental car.

And if the first plane ride wasn't enough excitement, little Vake rode in a supermarket cart for the first time. Pretty cute. What's even cuter is the reason this happened. Daddy "couldn' t carry beer and the baby at the same time."

Grandma Sue's retirement party was at a beautiful park overlooking a river- so fun. It was a cool day. I was comfortable in a sweater and FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A YEAR non-maternity jeans. I cannot tell you how happy it made me to be wearing a pair of jeans without a panel for a belly.

On the trip back from Seattle, Vake was like a new baby. No crying. He took two good naps. All the people on the plane LOVED him.

And then, when he got tired, I just put him down on the seat next to me and he was out like a light.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

What's not to love about John Denver (and what's REALLY not to love about John Denver and Kermit the Frog (and by the way, Vake and I are currently really into the 35 years of Sesame Street CD and the Muppets Retrospective CD- poor Dennis who is staying with us probably has bleeding ears from It's Not Easy Bein' Green and Rubber Ducky))???

Anyway, in the immortal words of JD, Vake and I are flying to Seattle today. I am extremely apprehensive about this trip, mostly the Charlotte to Seattle leg, because if Vake decides he's not happy, we're pretty much stuck.

There's an upside and a downside to this travel. The upside is that we are flying first class because we were supposed to go with Eric. I am optimistic that the chances that we will be treated like human beings and the flight attendants will be nice to Vake are about 50-75%. The downside, we were supposed to go with Eric. That's the hard part. He had to change his flight plans because of work.

And his work is sometimes tough for a couple of reasons. First, although I LOVE, emphasis on the word love, my job, it is sometimes frustrating to realize that I am no longer the jetsetting lawyer I used to be. I sometimes miss civil practice. Second, the tradeoff for me having this extremely nice life with a job that I love, a house that I love, a family that I love is that Eric works all the time to provide it for us. And I am so grateful but there are times when I just wish he was home. It's the age-old work life balance.

Anyway, send all your positive karma to me this afternoon that Vake is true to his peppy, sweet little form and sails through 3,000 miles of air travel the way he's sailed through everything else so far.