Erika Meets the Pacific Ocean

We just returned from visiting the Oregon coast. Erika's big cousin Andy got married out there and a fantastic time was had by all. While the rest of the US was scorching hot, it was about 70F the whole time on the coast as usual for the summer. We enjoyed it greatly.



Erika is really enthusiastic about trying on sandals. Yours, mine, hers, it does not matter. Over and over and over again! 

Meet the hose

What better time to get acquainted with hydrodymanics than a lazy summer day? Here Erika appears to have violated the laws of physics with a stream of water.

Happy 4th of July!

We explored Marymoor Park today. It's really large, but cupcake was not much interested in plowing it with this tractor. In one area, dogs are permitted to run free of leashes, and we thought cupcake would like to see all the doggies jumping in the river and all that, but nope.Being sniffed by two great danes (they looked like small horses!) and hearing other dogs bark with joy while fetching (lots of fetching going on everywhere) she was rather overwhealmed and so we moved on.
Tonight's fireworks will be throwing stuffed animals out of the crib and shouting "boom!" She's been practicing for some time at this. 

Eating, sleeping, etc

Here Erika shares a meal with Meah-Meah as she calls her favorite stuffed animal. She not only will try to feed it with a spoon as expected, but also try to get it to nurse from mommy. If this weren't enough, Erika will attempt to breast feed Meah-Meah herself! Now that's nurturing.

After a hard day of trying to nurse inanimate objects, cupcake demonstrates how to fall sound asleep in her bed. And yes, she's the one who picked out the color. I think she went with bright orange only because the store was out of hot pink which is her usual first choice.
 

Nature 'n stuff

Today was a very pleasant day for a walk on a farm. 65F is just perfect if you ask my opinion. Erika and her stuffed favorite, meow meow, have a grand time.

Little tiny goats? hmm.


We moved on to the Chateau St. Michelle for a change of scenery and less goats.

One crazy-looking pigeon.
 

Visting Ohio Summer '06

Although it took us an insane amount of time and effort to get there (never, ever connect through O'Hare at any time of year) the company was worth it since Erika bonded with everyone. Below is 4-generations of bonding.

Grandpa Keith keeps a watchful eye out for cupcake.


Here we are in udder paradise. My only regret is that I'm not in this shot.
 

Cousins in Ohio

Great aunt Eileen prompts Erika to say, "ooooh"
Uncle Chuck was the first to get Erika warmed up to an assortment of people which Erika will be shocked to discover she's related to.

Cousin Maura and Erika enjoy each other's company.

A very Garveny moment.

Visiting grandma Gladys and Ernie

This Mother's Day weekend, we took advantage of the great weather and drove to Portland to see grandma Gladys and Ernie. Here Erika demonstrates how she can reach thing on the table. Ernie is not so sure it's a good idea.


Erika and Tashi the dog attempt communication.

Nothing quite as fun as running around in the grass!


What a toddler we have!
 

Cupcake meets more friends

This weekend we invited the Mathises and the Karteses* over just to make it hard for me to form the plural of names already ending in s. We had a great time and Erika is happy to explain it all.



Here, Erika exclaims "oooh!" while Keetra Kartes, Mia Mathis, and Zoe Kartes pose for a picture. What can be cuter than this? I submit - nothing!

Mr. Phil does me a favor by climbing on his roof to remove a large branch which had fallen there a week ago. I'm too uncoordinated to do such climbing and affraid of heights - not to mention widths.


After a hard evening of socialization, Cupcake relaxes by talking to a video of all sorts of interesting things, for example this cat. The cat seemed to respond at least as well as the late great Bippy Cat; and without soiling my sock drawer.
*Note these plurals are now correct. The Chicago Manual of Style told me so.

Visiting Friend; Hiking in Park

Below we see Erika and her pal, Isabelle, who came to visit on Saturday. Together, they make an unbeatable duo of unstoppable cuteness.

On Sunday, we went hiking at nearby St. Edwards Park. It used to be free to go to Washington State parks like St. Edwards. Then someone decided to collect money for the parks, so it cost $5 per car for a long time. Just recently, it was decided that it cost more than $5 per car to hire 50 people to collect and count the money. So it's free again.
Jackie and Erika stop for a break. Well, Erika didn't do much hiking, but she liked being pushed in the stroller. This allowed her to be able to point at things and exclaim "wow, wow, wow" as well has hum with overall satisfaction.
 

Farrell-McWhirter park

As it has been exceptionally sunny lately, our playgroup went to Ferrell-McWhirter park in Redmond. This park is a working farm and has all sorts of animals besides the usual picnic benches and swings. Here is Erika getting up close to one of the horses on the farm. You can tell her intense interest as she squats when she wants a good look at something.

The pig had babies and Erika was fascinated by the piglets

Below is a close-up of mama and her babies. After looking at all of the animals and having lunch, Erika naturally wanted to swing. and swing. and swing some more. Even though she has sleepy eyes, she still wanted to swing some more. You can never swing too much, you know.
 

Concentrated Cupcake

In this photo, Cupcake takes a break from reading books with her pink, stuffed... uh, something 'er other which we bought at Ikea, to watch a bit of Barney the Dinosaur. Transfixed, she exudes the sophistication of someone who has recently mastered proto-sentences such "bubbles go-go wow!"
Note that the pink toy, which we have named Jergenblaat, has an exceptionally large "Do not remove this tag" tag, with two smaller auxiliary tags bearing cryptic symbols. This was a real selling point for Erika since that's just the kind of thing she likes to ponder and twiddle. We dare not remove them or it would impact Jergenblaat's positive mojo. We wouldn't want that.

Saturday morning

Now that Erika walks, she is able to spend more time on her own playing. In this picture, she's showing her abiding intrigue with the camera. "Someone has to poke the lens, it might as well be me."
 

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt!

The Easter Bunny was a lot taller than I remembered him.

We had very nice diffuse lighting today, so I was able to capture Erika being completely unimpressed by the entire Easter Egg hunt concept.

Pick up plastic eggs and put them in the basket which is in the form of a hollowed out dinosaur for no apparent reason. Isn't it obvious what to do?

Jackie, Erika, and Ilene make their way back home at a liesurely pace. Egg hunting is hard work.