Third Third

Consider this post the Swimsuit Edition. :-)

With her June swimming lessons rapidly approaching, we had to do a test run of her swimsuits. And yes, I realize she'll kill me for this later, but I don't know WHY because I'm only broadcasting how undeniably CUTE she is!

Sure enough, her two-piece from last summer still fit her (though maybe not her expanded midsection) :-)

Next up is the swimsuit from Mama Jo. Like a ruffly, polka-dotted glove...

And then the one I found at Savers (a little big and saggy in places, but should be grand by late summer, when Mama Jo's might be too small).

After some superb modeling, we needed to give the water a test run, so we went to Deep Eddy on the 28th.

Had a grand time. And the resulting exhaustion from all the swimming and heat...
...wasn't anything a container of wet wipes couldn't fix. (Naturally.)

(Again, I'm just trying to get these pictures uploaded, so I'm not being particular about how they're uploading. If grandmas are wanting to print one that won't enlarge, please let me know. It won't be any trouble to e-mail you the full-sized file.)

Second Third

All of this post is from the 11th-13th of May.

Various faces (and feet) from a swinging session in the more junglesque part of our backyard:

Can't believe how big those feet are getting!

Her new ride (an iBert bike seat). So far we've just used it in little neighborhood rides. We're not exactly serious bikers.

A random clip of her playing with a toy in her room:

First Third

A Mother's Day hike (and the strangest place you'll ever see a fire hydrant!):



Morning blanket-time:

A short saunter with Dad (they are delighted about the squeak that came from the giraffe's head as she stepped on it):

Playing peek-a-boo from behind the bed:

Angry about the new line. This was Sean's genius idea for how to only have to baby-proof half our bedroom. Since we'd taught her to stay on the blanket and to not leave the living room, it made sense that she could learn to "watch the line," or not cross over the piece of masking tape. This picture is from the first day of the lesson, though-- clearly she wasn't happy with this line!!! She even tried to peel it up a couple times. :-) But she caught on fast, and it's come in handy in a couple different places.

Just some cute crib shots from May 3rd (the day after she turned 13 months):


A note to grandmothers: I don't know that these can all be enlarged for printing. Tell me if there are any you specifically want.

Dear Mosquito,

I know you are attracted to shallow pools of water for your prolific breeding purposes... but really, what were you thinking?
The fluid deep in my ear canal does NOT count.
And as I listened to your vibrant whirring slow to an occasional earwax-hindered thump, I am afraid all the head-banging, rain-dancing, ear-clawing efforts I could muster failed to save your life and my sanity. Now, with only half of your bloody body successfully extracted, and the other half no doubt shoved even further into my ear, I feel quite helpless-- in a paralyzingly disgusted kind of way.
You have ruined every last ounce of productive focus and stamina to which I had been clinging this evening. Are you satisfied, you wretched insect?
May you rest in the most unpeaceful state possible.
Quite sincerely,
Jenny

(More on Seattle coming later-- sometime after regaining my composure...)

Seattle, so far

Last night we had dinner at The Corson Building, getting quite lucky with last minute reservations since our flights all landed on time. For our Austin friends, think Dai Due family style (only, if you can imagine, even better... and that is not bashing Dai Due, which I would never do-- simply paying tribute to the amount of RAIN the northwest gets! To put it simply, I-- in my total lack of culinary knowledge-- am declaring that a foraged mushroom in the NW can carry any other item on your plate to new and unknown levels of greatness. And you just can't have that kind of fungi without serious quantities of rain... Sorry, Texas.) (And I really AM sorry, because I could never live somewhere where it rains enough to grow these different mushrooms, but they are sooooo GOOD.)
Anyway, we also got lucky with the people we sat next to and really enjoyed our conversations. They snapped a photo for us...
This morning we embarked on some real exploration, beginning northwest of downtown. We headed to Queen Anne for an awesome brunch at emmer&rye, did some walking along the shops, and then drove further northwest to explore the Sunday farmer's market in the Ballard area. I liked the stalls and all their awesome looking goodies, but I also liked how everyone bought stuff to eat and then just took a few steps back, plopped down on the curb, and ate it. The curb on one side of the street was pretty well lined. I didn't get a good photo of that, but here's a snapshot of one of the entrances.

Then our day started getting a tad convoluted with driving. Being the co-pilot with the map means dealing with roads that are both grid-system and then NOT AT ALL grid-system and NEVER with exit ramps or bridges where they OUGHT to be, according to the map. This defines that first rotten day of vacation for me. You really want to relax, but in reality you spend a lot of your time trying not to get carsick while studying the insanity of lousy urban engineers. But really, it wasn't too bad-- I'm especially grateful this day fell on a Sunday, when traffic is at its lowest.

Soooo, after the market and wandering through surrounding streets, we headed east through Fremont and then south through Wallingford to see Gas Works Park. Here are pictures of views from Gas Works Park over Lake Union...

and of Gas Works Park (which is kind of a crazy place, but rather smart in terms of turning an eyesore into urban development)...

Finding no ideal resting place (the other torment of vacation, when you keep expecting to turn the corner and see THE PERFECT SPOT to stop and soak in the view, but instead find another warehouse)... we drove back west (past Ballard, this time) to the Golden Gardens Park. This had a beach overlooking Puget Sound. I don't have great photos from there (the couple I do have need dust spots on my lens to be photoshopped out)-- I'll post those later.

For dinner we wound up at Lark, which is northeast of downtown and nowhere near the beach we were at... like I said, lots of driving at times-- but worth every minute of it! In short, the food in Seattle is awesome. It's like Portland-- you could really make a hobby out of eating here. Every meal we've had has been stellar.

Tomorrow I'm on my own and not totally sure what I'll do...