What a weekend! We had Ezra's first visit to the cabin, which was far more successful than we had thought. It's not that we are "glass-half-empty" kinds of people, but we were pretty realistic about an extremely mobile baby in a cabin that is far from child-proof, a dock with no barriers to the water, a boat that is usually full of spiders, and grounds that are surrounded by poison ivy.But! We also have a lake full of splashable water, a fantastic raft for the kid, a freezer full of popsicles, a bunch of new toys, loads of hummingbirds and an amazingly patient dog who entertains us all when she's not getting stung by wasps. We also have wonderful games of cards and audiobooks to keep us laughing, and that's not even mentioning the amazing amount of naps we all took.So overall, it was a great weekend. Would I have wanted several more days of it? Ehhhh... nah. Three was just about right. Next year will we stay longer? I hope so. More photos of the vacation below.
Soon after we arrived, we could hear thunder in the distance and the sky darkened. Seriously, the universe was telling us, "You have arrived at the most peaceful place you know, now go to sleep." The storms were wonderful.
Here, the savages try to figure out how to get outdoors as the rain begins to fall.
And this was the sky at about four pm. Yeah. It was awesome. (This is the view from our bedroom at the cabin. Many, many photos are taken from this spot as I am the ultimate lazybones when I'm up north). You know how you can tell? If you look real close, you can see the screen from the window in the shot. #LAZYBONES
And this was that same view around 8:30 pm, when the weather settled down, but still left us with pretty clouds.
The next day, we headed out to the dock. While the humans sunned / played on the docked pontoon boat, we watched Magda explore the shoreline. She ran into a flowering bush and then ran out swatting at her face which had... bees? wasps? creatures? stuck to it. She got them all off, but then had four large welts for the rest of the day. You can see two of them above. See where you think she's furrowing her eyebrows on her forehead? Nope. Those are stings/bites.
Besides playing by the lake, there were many naps. Like this one.
And my-oh-my look at that nap hair. That right there is just like his late Grandpa Sookie's hair.
There was also splashing in the lake. That was super fun until Ezra began to cup the water in his hands and drink it. This was about an hour after we had watched Magda pee in the lake. So.... we put him back in the boat. Blech.
This year, the cabin owners added a hummingbird feeder, and we had them all weekend! I love the sound of their wings...
Another lovely sunset...
A cool birch tree spotted on our hike...
Yup, hikes.
More naps...
And that's about it! A lovely time indeed.
What a week! We had Eloise (my amazing niece and Ezra's amazing cousin) stop in town for a few days at the start of the week with her boyfriend as they are driving across the country. Oh, how Ezra loved them. Oh, how they make us feel so old.They arrived just as Jamie was recovering from a very serious stomach bug, that I then contracted the next day. That was no fun at all. AT. ALL. Then, on their last day in town, Jamie's mother (Eloise's grandmother) came to town. While she was here, we had swimming and zoo visits and tons and tons of fun. Photos are below -- Enjoy!....Oh. And um, I forgot to blog last Friday. Plum forgot. Because I'm old. I apologize.
Oh dear, sweet Magda. Your world is about to get rocked.Magda has, for the last 10 months, just hopped up on the couch or slinked off to another room whenever Ezra began annoying her with his crying or chasing or "petting." But this weekend... it happened. He is now pulling himself up into standing, mostly so he can be eye-to-eye with the Vizsla. I love how in the photo above, she's not even looking *at* him. She's looking *above* him. Like you do when you're giving a speech to a large audience and you are terrified, but trying to appear confident.And let's be clear, Jamie and I are also a bit terrified. The Spawn just began crawling two weeks ago! And now he's standing? And taking steps? I thought we had a few months! Man, I was wrong. And let me be clear, he only takes steps when using a prop (like an ottoman) as his walker.But let's get on with the rest of the week, shall we?
Playing ball is one of his favorite hobbies. We like it because a) he shares the toys with us and that's important and b) he loves to put the balls into other things (like cups or boxes) and that's good training for his college basketball scholarship.
I just threw this one in because I couldn't resist.
See? Another ball in his hands. But do you notice something else? His eyes have changed color. They are now a very, very brown hazel, instead of the grey green. This makes me sad as I looooove Jamie's grey eyes, and I hoped Ezra would inherit them. But alas, it looks like they may be the color of mine in the end. We'll see...
And in case you were under the impression we are all smiles and happiness over here, we still have fits. Especially when we have woken up from a nap and instead of mom getting us out of the crib, she stops to take a photo.
This week we also took Ezra swimming for the first time! This was at our neighborhood park, and we were stunned that it wasn't more busy.
The pool Ezra is in is only 8" deep. Over the wall is the "bigger kid pool," which I think might be 2 feet deep? 1.5 feet? Not a lot deeper, but intended for kids bigger than Ezra. He's already scheming on how to get over that wall.
This weekend we also had brunch with Chris! He made us a *delicious* meal, and we had so much fun catching up.
And I just wanted to get in another shot of Magda. She is just so fantastic these days. It's so hot and miserable that she's getting much shorter walks, but she's still been a total superstar.
And lastly, one more shot of Ezra (and his brown eyes) walking toward me. Man-oh-man. Not a baby anymore.Also! Since I left you high and dry on Friday in terms of internet shares, I'm making up for it today. First off, have you seen 
This week our guy was crawling like crazy, playing ball with us and feeding himself all kinds of foods like waffles, raisins, cheese, prosciutto and his new favorite, PICKLES! We had an awesome weekend full of time with good friends, delicious food and long walks around the neighborhood. There was also an amazing thunderstorm that took down trees and power all over the place. Luckily, we kept our power, but the neighborhood had some serious cleanup to do (as you'll see...).
Ezra got to play with his buddy Eero's *amazing* toy collection on Saturday, including this giant, helium balloon. Yeah. This was a hit.
As were the Sunday morning waffles that he fed himself (and Magda).
After waffles, we took a walk around the neighborhood -- check out this downed tree. You can barely see the red car trapped underneath.
And apparently being pushed around the 'hood in a soft breeze is exhausting.
Later, we had lunch with Nyberg, and the boys played with their tongues. As you do.
And this kid might end up as a drummer. He loves banging crap against tables. This was his "drum solo" with his sippy cup on the high chair today. Love his rock'n'roll face.
Startin' him early.
And there's my sweet, sweet girl who's stellar behavior just blows me away week after week. Holy crap, does she melt my heart.
So, here's the deal. Most of these photos are from our week away on vacation. They are happy, wonderful times.But things around the house are not so great right now. My mom has gotten much worse at a pretty alarming rate. I'm trying to make plans for my work this week in case I need to get home right away. There are many, many tears being shed and a lot of sadness.But these photos were taken before my mom fell ill, and before we knew what was around the corner. And I don't want to forget those happy times. Also, there's a bonus treat at the end.
Ezra and Uncle Steve in Oregon playing a bit of soccer.
The cousins got buried at the beach. It's kinda hard to tell, but they were transformed into a 2-headed mermaid. Yes. Those are sand nipples.
Another shot from Jamie.
Oh how I love watching him drink from his cup.
I shot these today because I did want to capture him *right* before he started crawling. And I love how happy he is to see Magda here.
See what I mean? We are almost off to the races.The photos below were taken by the lovely 
What a weekend! On Saturday, we left bright and early and flew with Ezra to Portland, where we then rented a car and headed west to the coast. It was an amazing day. First off, it was my birthday. Yes, I am now 40. With an infant. Life is funny.Second, it was Jamie's first Father's Day weekend! So we wanted to make it special, and man did we win at that.We managed to keep Ez completely entertained on the 3.5-hour flight on Saturday (a modern-day miracle, or the best gift ever), and he was in a super great mood, charming the flight attendants like crazy. Then we drove into the city and grabbed a quick lunch at 
Once we got to the cottage, it was only 3:30 in the afternoon thanks to the time zone (we fit a LOT into this birthday, I tell you). So we settled into the place (Ezra loves the bed), and then we met up with Jamie's brother and sister-in-law and all the cousins. Oh man, did we have fun!
So far, we've all eaten a lot of pizza, a lot of berries and had a lot of delicious wine. There have been games of badminton (the above photo is Jamie beating his brother, but then they put money on the game and Brother Steve took over), movies watched, boogie boarding on the beach, amazing meals at fancy restaurants and delicious birthday cake.
Ezra is completely enamored by all of his cousins, but Emma here seems to have stolen his heart as he cannot keep his eyes off of her. It's adorable.
Here he is hanging out with Eloise. We realized on this trip that I was Eloise's age the first time I met her, and she was Ezra's age. Crazy.
And his Aunt Amanda who makes him super happy...
Here is Cousin Johnny making a very important call in the badminton game.
Ezra loves playing with Uncle Steve's hat.
Here is Eloise and Theo watching the competition.
Emma and Ezra again, hamming it up.
The beach here is just as lovely as the last time we visited. And it's pretty empty, which I love. Having this much gorgeous space to ourselves in June is such a treat.
I love this shot of Johnny heading out to boogie board.
And this was my favorite moment of the weekend, when Jamie and Ezra napped together on Father's Day. Oh man. These guys bring me so much happiness.
Well kids, it's almost time for our summer vacation. This has me packing Ezra today between answering emails and finishing up last-minute work details. And this girl here? She knows what that suitcase means. And until she sees her stuff make its way into said suitcase, she's a little depressed.There was a lot of moping around the house today. Heavy sighs. Avoided eye contact.Aw, man. I'm gonna miss her so much. But I'm pretty sure she'd rather stay here playing with her dog friend all week than fly inside the belly of a cold airplane for seven hours. So she's just gonna have to trust me on this one.For your internet share of the day, 
This week we had visitors from Ann Arbor, Ezra's 9 month check up, one night where we got TWO hours of sleep, an amazing meal at Bar La Grassa, lots of catching up on Orphan Black and lots of vizsla snuggles.
No shots at the Doctor this week, just a general check up to make sure all is well.
It's a real skill to glare with one eye.
And Ezra had loads of veggies this week with lettuces, tomatoes, asparagus, zucchini, potatoes and cucumber (and chicken, turkey, bacon and hot dogs to balance things out). This kid? He loves to eat.For your internet share today, I loved