Dinner with Lauren & Kai (& Amy & Thom!)

So I'm shamelessly borrowing Amy's photos from our great dinner with them last Thursday:

These two were hysterical together.


Lauren reading Josh a story.

Sam drumming away - he really loves music!

I realized the other day that Kai really is Sam's first friend -the first person he's played with who is "his size", and who is "his" friend, not Josh's. It's great watching them get more mobile & interactive.

Thanks for the photos, and thanks for the tasty food! It was really great to see everyone!

First Day Of School

I know, I still haven't posted any photos from either Iowa or New Mexico... But I did get some shots of Josh's first day, plus his teacher's home visit last week...

My two attempts to get Josh to cooperate with a commemorative "1st Day of School" photo were not too successful...



So I tried to grab a few shots inside, but my battery kept dying...



The tongue-sticking-out-of-the-side-of his-mouth bit is Josh's new coping skill for photos...


His new teacher is named Kris, and she came to visit us last Friday night. Josh was really excited to see her, and for better or worse, now she knows what he's like when he actually talks...

This is the photo she took to use at school:


Nothing like trying to explain that your son really does sleep *inside* his pillow... It could be a long year. :)

Yes, that is his favorite shirt. We really do wash it... and yes, he needs a haircut - but he announced a few weeks ago that he wants to grow his hair as long as his friend Amelia's, so not sure when that will happen....

Railroad Show

Last Sunday we made another trip down to Auburn, this time to check out a model railroad show at the history museum down there.

(Note the doofus in the red shirt - he kept talking about how the guy who built that display died last year. Which led to Josh asking Carlos, "Why do people die?" And even better, "Is Sam going to die?" When Carlos asked him where that came from, he brought up this guy. Stupid jerk.)


The show itself was kind of a bust, but we discovered a pretty cool park, and the boys had a great time playing together. Plus it's always so nice to see Jon & Cody. Annaliese is already so much bigger, and looks just like her big brothers!


We finished up with dinner at Bill & Helen's, where I drooled over the affordability of housing in Olympia... I asked Josh what he would think of living in Olympia and going to school with Aiden, and he said, "I think I would just follow him around." Seriously, that's exactly what Josh needs!

Josh fell asleep on the way home. The next morning, the first thing he said was, "I'm sad Aiden's not here." How sweet is that? Cody reminded me that in Olympia, Josh, Aiden, and Grady could all be in the same kindergarten class together... as could Sam & Annaliese. (Plus, did I mention the crazy discount the Olympia Waldorf school offer siblings?!)

New Mexico Part 1

We left on another super early flight....
Sleepy Josh...

Smiling Sam...

I really liked this photo just because of the way they were sitting. Their shoulders were perfectly aligned.
Josh passed a disproportionate amount of the flight cleaning the plane... and then got really nervous when I told him how pleased the flight crew would be, and made me promise I wouldn't tell them... self conscious much?
Despite his concerns, the flight crew was super friendly. The plus to a direct flight was that this time we *could* check out the cockpit. The pilots were really nice & kept encouraging Josh to wear their hats & pretend to fly the plane...



Susie & Terry both drove down so we could all go out to lunch in Albuquerque.

After lunch, we took a train ride from the Botanical Gardens to the Zoo. Unfortunately, we didn't have the right kind of tickets, so we couldn't actually get off the train. Given how tired everyone was, that was probably for the best...
This isn't a great shot of the boys or the zoo, but I really liked how cozy they looked...
Josh seemed much more comfortable this time, and actually talked...
Until he finally gave in to the obvious & fell asleep...

Jake & a pregnant Salome drove up from Las Cruces the next day. Salome is just starting to show, but wouldn't let me take any pictures... :) She hasn't had any ultrasounds yet, and isn't planning to, but her family has a history of twins, so I think she's a little nervous about that!
I did get some cute shots of Jake and Sam. I think they were doing some younger brother bonding...

After lunch at the Rialto, we went to Plaza Drugs to have ice cream. This is an awful shot, but it's Sam taking one of his first ever steps!

On the way to Las Vegas, we stopped in Santa Fe to visit one of Carlos & Jake's childhood friends from Guadalapita , Annette. She runs a consignment store in Santa Fe that Jenny would really love.... She came to dinner a few days later with her boyfriend & her daughter Maggie. Maggie was amazing with Josh, and he asked me to take a picture of them together. He keeps asking when she's coming to see him again.. I honestly think she might have been the highlight of the trip for him!

Sam at 9 months

Sam turned 9 months old a few days before we left for New Mexico. Because of various trips & scheduling bits, his 9 month well baby check-up has been postponed until he's actually 10 months old, but all seems well. (Of course, they don't know about that whole battery thing...) During the last month, he's been crawling like crazy, and practicing standing up. He's taken a few "steps", but just by accident - he'll be standing, and then move a foot, more redistributing his weight than actual steps. He is eating baby food quite happily, and already really prefers to feed himself. His hair is really growing in, and seems to be curly... it's also a more golden tone than I remember Josh having, so maybe Sam will stay blonde?

Camping at Birch Bay

For Laura's birthday weekend a few weeks ago, we headed up to Birch Bay (near Bellingham) to go camping. It was Josh & Sam's first experience with tent camping, and things went great the first night.





Unfortunately, the coziness of our family tent was somewhat undermined by waking up at 6 am on Sunday morning to the sound of pouring rain - rain that continued nonstop until we finally gave up & headed home that afternoon...




On the plus side, Josh had a great time, we got to spend some quality time by the fire with Laura, and we have a cupboard full of S'mores-makings... maybe we'll even get a second chance to go camping before the November rains...