Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Abby Meets Jackson
Last Monday our friends Dylan and Heather came out to Ann Arbor for a visit. That doesn't happen often since they normally live in Alaska. They've been in Minnesota for the last few months, keeping busy with their new son, Jackson. He's 12 weeks old now (I think) and oh-so-adorable. He makes the cutest grunting sounds. Dylan and Heather are pretty great too.
Their trip was unfortunately short--only 1 day and 2 nights. Most of the time we relaxed and ogled the babes. On Tuesday afternoon we hit the town and did our standard "visitor's tour" which includes food at ABC, a quit trip through Krauss (where my office is), a walk through The Diag, and a trip to the aesthetically pleasing Law School. We also went to Bivouac, where Alex used to work, to check out their 20% off sale. Sadly, Ann Arbor's famous Art Fair was not yet in full swing, due to start on Wednesday, so we were only able to check out the few tents that had been set up early.
Here are a few pics from the visit:
Addendum: Dylan and Heather's visit marked a very momentous ocassion in Abby's life. As expected, after several hours of galavanting around Ann Arbor, our dear Abby got tired. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that she was able to maintain a happy demeanor despite her tiredness as long as I was holding and entertaining her. It used to be that tired Abby equaled fussy Abby depsite my best efforts. THEN, wonder of wonders, she simply fell asleep in my arms as we walked back to the car!! No violent swinging on my part, no violent protesting on Abby's part, no pacifier, no nothing. She just simply fell asleep on my shoulder. Wow.
Their trip was unfortunately short--only 1 day and 2 nights. Most of the time we relaxed and ogled the babes. On Tuesday afternoon we hit the town and did our standard "visitor's tour" which includes food at ABC, a quit trip through Krauss (where my office is), a walk through The Diag, and a trip to the aesthetically pleasing Law School. We also went to Bivouac, where Alex used to work, to check out their 20% off sale. Sadly, Ann Arbor's famous Art Fair was not yet in full swing, due to start on Wednesday, so we were only able to check out the few tents that had been set up early.
Here are a few pics from the visit:
Addendum: Dylan and Heather's visit marked a very momentous ocassion in Abby's life. As expected, after several hours of galavanting around Ann Arbor, our dear Abby got tired. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that she was able to maintain a happy demeanor despite her tiredness as long as I was holding and entertaining her. It used to be that tired Abby equaled fussy Abby depsite my best efforts. THEN, wonder of wonders, she simply fell asleep in my arms as we walked back to the car!! No violent swinging on my part, no violent protesting on Abby's part, no pacifier, no nothing. She just simply fell asleep on my shoulder. Wow.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Convert
A while ago when Barb and Mel came for a visit Barb brought some gifts for Abby. One was a Pack'n'Play and the other was an ExerSaucer. I have to admit, I appreciated the thought, but at first glimpse was less than excited about the ExerSaucer (sorry Barb!). It is bright orange and lime green and has every other color in the rainbow smashed somewhere on it. To say the least it is garish. It has little gadgets all over it, most of which take batteries and make lots of noise. It even has a fake cell phone! It just didn't really seem like my style of toy.
But.
Abby is a rambunctious little baby. When she's awake, I have to constantly be doing something--lifting her up so she can stand, holding my arms out to prevent her from falling when she sits, fetching toys as she chucks them across the room, etc. etc. The other day I got tired of being the entertainer extraordinaire and went and got the ExerSaucer. Boy was that worth it. Garish or not, you can't argue with smiles like these. So THANK YOU Barb!
Charlie even got in on the fun!
But.
Abby is a rambunctious little baby. When she's awake, I have to constantly be doing something--lifting her up so she can stand, holding my arms out to prevent her from falling when she sits, fetching toys as she chucks them across the room, etc. etc. The other day I got tired of being the entertainer extraordinaire and went and got the ExerSaucer. Boy was that worth it. Garish or not, you can't argue with smiles like these. So THANK YOU Barb!
Charlie even got in on the fun!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
St. Louis Zoo
On the third day of our visit to Murphysboro we blew town and went to St. Louis. After having a tour and lunching at Schlafly brewery we headed to the zoo. For photo-maniacs like myself and Olivia, the zoo is a dangerous place. One could, hypothetically speaking, take hundreds of pictures in a matter of hours. Okay, okay, I'm not speaking hypothetically. Between the two of us, Olivia and I did in fact take hundreds of pictures. I will however, only post the cream of the cream of the cream of the crop.
The St. Louis zoo is an amazing place and is also free. It attracts quite a crowd--or at least it did on July 5th. I had almost as much fun watching the animals outside the cages as I did watching the ones inside. But we mostly only took pictures of the animals inside the cages (sorry Barb, Abby isn't in any of these).
Here are a few pictures of some of the better looking animals outside the cages.
In case you're wondering, Abby also seemed to enjoy the zoo. She slept through a lot of it, but seemed to be happy and intrigued when she was awake (see photos above).
With one exception.
The Lemurs.
They startled her nearly to death by bursting into a cacophony of screams just as we stopped to look at them. I think they thought it was glorious fun to scare young zoo patrons. I have a different opinion.
This is the lemur.
This is Abby post-lemur.
The St. Louis zoo is an amazing place and is also free. It attracts quite a crowd--or at least it did on July 5th. I had almost as much fun watching the animals outside the cages as I did watching the ones inside. But we mostly only took pictures of the animals inside the cages (sorry Barb, Abby isn't in any of these).
Here are a few pictures of some of the better looking animals outside the cages.
In case you're wondering, Abby also seemed to enjoy the zoo. She slept through a lot of it, but seemed to be happy and intrigued when she was awake (see photos above).
With one exception.
The Lemurs.
They startled her nearly to death by bursting into a cacophony of screams just as we stopped to look at them. I think they thought it was glorious fun to scare young zoo patrons. I have a different opinion.
This is the lemur.
This is Abby post-lemur.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Polistes Metricus
AKA, the wasp that stung me in the eye and ruined a bunch of otherwise cute pictures.
It was my first day in Murphysboro at Olivia's house. The morning was going splendidly. Abby was in a great mood, the coffee was delicious, and the weather was fine. The boys decided to go outside to enjoy said weather and play with the dogs. Shortly there after I decided to join them with Abby. I rounded the corner from the garage to the backyard gate and noticed a wasp flying around the gate. I waited patiently for it to fly away, not wanting to expose Abby to a nasty sting. Finally it wafted off on the breeze, far enough away that I decided to go for it. I opened the gate only to discover two or three more wasps hovering around. I quickly shut the gate while swatting them away from Abby. Whew! We made it. And then BAM. One of them hit me on the eyebrow and started stinging. And it kept stinging. It stung while I ran away from the gate holding Abby in front of me yelling to Alex "TAKE THE BABY! TAKE THE BABY!" It finally stopped stinging when I got a hand free to swat it off. Ouch. This is the aftermath.
This is it's nest after Dennis kindly ripped it out of the gate to prevent further such stings.
And these are the otherwise cute pictures it ruined.
It was my first day in Murphysboro at Olivia's house. The morning was going splendidly. Abby was in a great mood, the coffee was delicious, and the weather was fine. The boys decided to go outside to enjoy said weather and play with the dogs. Shortly there after I decided to join them with Abby. I rounded the corner from the garage to the backyard gate and noticed a wasp flying around the gate. I waited patiently for it to fly away, not wanting to expose Abby to a nasty sting. Finally it wafted off on the breeze, far enough away that I decided to go for it. I opened the gate only to discover two or three more wasps hovering around. I quickly shut the gate while swatting them away from Abby. Whew! We made it. And then BAM. One of them hit me on the eyebrow and started stinging. And it kept stinging. It stung while I ran away from the gate holding Abby in front of me yelling to Alex "TAKE THE BABY! TAKE THE BABY!" It finally stopped stinging when I got a hand free to swat it off. Ouch. This is the aftermath.
This is it's nest after Dennis kindly ripped it out of the gate to prevent further such stings.
And these are the otherwise cute pictures it ruined.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Murphysboro
For July 4th weekend Alex and I drove down to Murphysboro to visit Olivia. It was Alex's first trip down. Based on the amount of fun that was had, I'd say there will be more such trips in the future. We somehow managed to cram in a lot of fun AND a lot of relaxation. It's hard to get that balance right, but we did well. We went boating and swimming, ate at one of the best BBQ joints in the US, watched movies in our mini-movie theater, ran in the rain, went to a July 4th BBQ, visited Schlafly brewery, and went to the St. Louis Zoo. Of course, Olivia and I had to split the blogging material up equally, so you'll only see parts of our trip here. The other parts will at some point appear here.
First things first. Olivia hasn't seen Abby since she was a month old. That was a long time ago in baby development. Back then, Abby was nothing but an eating, pooping, crying machine that wanted nothing more than to bounce on the Yoga ball. Now she's an eating, pooping, crying machine that smiles, giggles, spits, sits, and is in general pretty entertaining. I was slightly worried that Abby's recent bout of clinginess would interfere with Olivia's enjoyment of Abby, but it turns out that Olivia is a perfect substitute mommy. We suspect it may be because we look so similar or smell similar, but maybe Olivia is just a natural mommy. In any case, Abby took to her like a Diadasia to a Sphaeralcea, or I guess a bee to honey.
First things first. Olivia hasn't seen Abby since she was a month old. That was a long time ago in baby development. Back then, Abby was nothing but an eating, pooping, crying machine that wanted nothing more than to bounce on the Yoga ball. Now she's an eating, pooping, crying machine that smiles, giggles, spits, sits, and is in general pretty entertaining. I was slightly worried that Abby's recent bout of clinginess would interfere with Olivia's enjoyment of Abby, but it turns out that Olivia is a perfect substitute mommy. We suspect it may be because we look so similar or smell similar, but maybe Olivia is just a natural mommy. In any case, Abby took to her like a Diadasia to a Sphaeralcea, or I guess a bee to honey.
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