Daddy's Day!

This is how we spent our Father's Day - keeping cool in the kiddie pool and down by the river. That was after Annie helped Daddy eat his blueberry, rice pancakes and sausage in bed in the morning, and after Daddy got to "sleep in" until 8:45, and before Harry devoured broccoli doused in butter and cheese at Daddy's favorite restaurant - Old Spaghetti Factory!

First Annual FOO Trip

We met up with some Friends of Ours (FOO) in Zion's National Park for a couple days of camping with all of our kids (ages 8 months to 3 years). The kids did surprisingly well (given Harry came down with a cold the first day and the tent was literally blowing on top of Annie in the middle of the first night). Jon, Meghan and Riley (aka "monster") came from Albuquerque and Alison, Corey and Dillon (aka "peanut") came from L.A. We all hiked to the top of Emerald Pools with the babes in backpacks, and Annie made it nearly to the top all by herself (Grady had to give her a shoulder ride up the last part). We were very proud of Annie for hiking all that way and rewarded her by letting her run naked in the pool -- she loved it! I had to carry Harry part way down in the pack -- all I can say is we won't be doing too much hiking until Harry can carry himself! We are already looking forward to next year's FOO trip!

Harry is ONE

Harry had quite the celebration(s) in Utah for completing his first year. I'm not sure what he thought about it all -- Annie, on the other hand, was unstoppable - she "helped" Harry open all of his presents, "helped" him play with all his new toys, and "helped" him eat his birthday cake. I'm sure she would have "helped" him wear his new clothes too if I'd let her (she'd probably fit in some of them). We took the kids swimming on Harry's B-Day: he spent the first 10 minutes crying, the next 10 minutes grimacing, the next 10 minutes smiling, and then the rest of the time he was literally dunking his face into the water! He practically started swimming on his own he was so anxious to play in the water.

Blowing Bubbles and Slurping Noodles . . .

are Harry two newest accomplishments. The other night in the tub he just stuck his face right down in the water and started blowing bubbles -- he must have learned from watching Annie, but it surprised Annie and I and we all started laughing. Harry started clapping for himself (also a fairly new accomplishment thanks to Bonnie). Then, we decided to try giving him spaghetti noodles. He was grabbing it in fist fulls and shoving into his mouth, and sure enough he began slurping his noodles - what a cute mess! Annie is so excited for Harry's Birthday, mostly because she knows there will be cake (without sugar of course) and a party. We decided to turn his car seat around since he's well over the 20 pound minimum - he loves riding forward like his big sister and I love watching all of his expressions from the rear view mirror!

"I have a Harry."

Annie and Harry hung out with Oma and Opa last week-end while Grady worked on his presentation for the Math Geek convention ("Workshop on Petascale Computing: Its Impact on Geophysical Modeling and Simulation" -- I almost fell asleep just typing the name), and I flew off to L.A. to visit my long-time girlfriend Alison and her 8 month old son, Dillon. I know the kids had a good time because every time I called to say hello, Annie could barely stop long enough to say hi. Usually she was yelling about having one of Oma's "cherries" (the bright red, sugar infused ones) or playing store with Opa.
Harry has been teething for a couple of weeks now -- he's got 4 coming in on top. I think 1 or 2 have finally broken through. He's walking on his own now (on purpose) and getting ready to turn ONE - how did that happen???!!
A little boy asked Annie at the playground the other day if she had any brothers or sisters. She replied, "I have a Harry." It was adorable. We also had a conversation about homeless people (stemming from her questions about Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" song). When I told her that some kids don't have any clothes she said, "they just have pajamas?" I told her sometimes they don't even have p.j.s. She said, "they just have naked time?" She got upset when I laughed because she was so serious. We decided we would take some toys, clothes and food to the homeless shelter. That made her feel better. Of course she wanted to take them toast with berry jam. I told her maybe we could take a jar of jam instead.

To Market, To Market To Buy A Fat Pig!

We had a great time with Nana and Poppy. Grady and I even got a night away which meant sleeping in the next morning -- it was great! We met downtown at the market on Saturday morning and caught Annie hungrily shoving a warm homemade powdered sugar doughnut in her mouth and Nana and Poppy standing by with more! I think she got away with eating at least 3! When we were leaving the market Annie told me, "there's no pigs mama." Poppy had to explain that he told her the nursery rhyme about buying a fat pig at market. We forget Kids are so literal sometimes. Harry starting pointing for Nana and now he wont' stop. You carry him around and he just points at everything. Its pretty cute. We had a great day at the zoo and both kids had a lot of fun climbing and playing at Camel's Back Park. Harry crawled/climbed up all the playground equipment by himself. He also discovered our stairs at home and climbed all the way from the bottom to the top as quick as he can go! He loves doing this and when you take him away he cries. Actually, he's been getting pretty good at throwing little fits when you take away something he wants. Annie and Nana set up a "store" upstairs with jewelry and haircare products. Annie played in her store for hours - and making everyone come up to buy something including Uncle Dan and Erika (same name, same spelling, different person). We also had fun rocking out to Steven Stills in the car - Nana riding in the back, back with Jelly! "Think I'll go back home!" We can't wait for their next visit!

Harry's growing up!

Annie likes to tell us, "Harry's growing up." Indeed he is. He took 3 and 4 steps yesterday so we're officially calling it: He's walking! Unbelievable. They really do grow up too fast. Here is Harry showing off his mohawk! Isn't he cute.