The Very Sleepy Caterpillar

Benjamin has a new and very endearing trick these days. He sleeps on his stomach now, since he is such a big guy. That in and of itself, not that cute, I know. But now when you put him down in the crib, on his back, if he is a good sleepy baby, he does an immediate flip to his belly, the instant he touches the mattress. And once he is on his belly he does this adorable little caterpillar wiggle, to get in exactly the right spot, or exactly the right position, or exactly the right who knows what. It is so cute. And its very extended. Not just one little wiggle. But wiggle, wiggle, wriggle, wiggle, wriggle. And then he zonks right out. HOWEVER, if you put him down and he does not do the belly flip, he arches his back and loudly voices his disapproval of going to bed. I have to slink out then, and try to ignore the complaints. He usually does stop complaining and fall asleep within 10 minutes or so. Thank goodness. I on the other hand, no longer get to wriggle into exactly the right spot and sleep in extreme comfort. If I get to sleep at all, it is surrounded by children and animals. They are slowly ganging up on me to take over the bed. Not the most restful, actually.

The Arb... part 2

There were too many cool pictures from yesterday's photo outing to include along with the birthday pics, so I am adding a second part to the post, too commemorate a few of my favorites.

Happy Birthday Adventure Dad!

Today was a big day! We celebrated 5 birthdays (Loren, Madelyn, Lee, Andrea, Isabelle) and Father's Day. We had the traditional pancake breakfast at my parents, and the traditional bbq dinner at Loren's parents. In between, we scouted photo locations at the arboreteum with Judith and crew, and shopped at U Village. At birthday dinner, Benjamin ate some tissue paper, inherited one of his dad's baby blankets, and fell asleep in the car on the way home. It was a big day all around. Happy Birthday, June birthdayers!

The Cascades welcome a new hiker

Today was Benjamin's first hiking outing! He has snowshoed before, when he was just a tiny little guy, but this was the first real hike. Loren decided that he wanted to celebrate Father's Day in the great outdoors, and since his birthday is tomorrow, we rescheduled Father's Day for today. Benito got him a case of mac and cheese from Costco for Dad's day. It was a big hit, as I suspected it might be. We went to the BOB with Judith and Madelyn for breakfast, and hit the trail a little later than usual. It was a short hike though, so that was ok. We went to Talupus Lake, of I-90, and it was great. Pretty lake at the end, not too crowded, and lovely snow everywhere. Benjamin decided it would be a good idea to sleep for most of the return trip, which I thought was pretty clever of him. We also noticed that of the 7 or so groups of hikers we encountered, I think 5 of them commented on how cute the hound is, and only 1 even mentioned the boy. I guess its a different audience out there. After the hiking adventure, Grandma Pat came over to babysit, and I took Loren to Ray's for his birthday dinner, where we ate the traditional salmon, and watched the sun set. It was excellent. We had to stop on the way home and buy my Dad's Father's Day present, which can only be purchased at the liquor store. Well, we got to the Wallingford location at 8:50, and it turns out it closes at 8. So we are standing outside the door, looking bewildered, and trying to decide what to do, when a frat boy in a white car drives by, and yells out the window "The U Village store is open until 9", which I thought was pretty funny. So we raced over and made it on time. Yay team!

Yoga master baby

Benjamin was showing off his yoga for me on the changing table tonight. Maybe he realized I was about to leave for yoga, and wanted to show me that I could do it at home? Or maybe he just wanted to remind me how much more flexible he is than me. Anyway, he has added a new trick to his repetoire, which I find to be hilarious and adorable. He eats his feet. Well, foot. And in one case, foot and thumb simultaneously. I think that even if I could get my toes into my mouth, they would not be pleasant to eat. His are so tiny and soft and cute though, that I can totally see why he wants to eat them. I want to eat them myself, actually. Note that here he has changed his yoga practice location from dog bed to changing table. Smartypants can do yoga wherever he happens to be. The reason that I got the camera out to begin with is that I love his little grey truck pajamas. Thank you Henry! (and Old Navy). He is just so darn cute and cuddly in them.

the sign says

We had our first sign language class with the peps group at our house tonight. No photos, sadly. It was pretty fun, although I did knock a canister to the floor, broke it, and cut my hand. But as far as the signing, we'll see how it goes. It reminds me a lot of dog obediance school. The class is really to train the parents how to use sign language with the baby, and how successful you are (or not) really depends on how much you stick with it. Hopefully we will be better with this than we were with dog training. The dog ate almost a whole plate of thin mints at the end of the night. Now, it wasn't entirely her fault, because they weren't on the coffee table, which she knows is off limits. They were on the window bench, which must have seemed like grey area between floor (ok) and coffee table (no way). And I can hardly blame her, because I find them irresistable as well. I wish she could have stolen oreos, or some other boring cookie. I'm sure she would not appreciate the difference like I do. On the plus side, she did have very minty fresh breath, and was not sick or anything.

Happy Feet

Benjamin has been a finger walking machine this week! All he wants to do (well, mostly) is walk around. Its very cute and funny, and very hard on the back. He has taken a great interest in watching the cat, and trying to chase after him. Bailey is too tricky and fast to get caught though. And Benjamin is not all that fast anyway. Another funny thing that has been happening is Maisy has been licking Benito's feet. He doesn't hate it, but he doesn't really like it, and he gets kind of alarmed and squirmy. Its how I feel about her licking me too, come to think of it.