Great Grandmas Galore!

For the last week of August, Robin took his first plane ride to Buffalo, to visit his Great Nana.

But that's not all! The weekend before we left, we went to Colorado Springs to stay the night with Dean's grandma, so Robin saw his Great Grandma Virginia right before Great Nana. Such bounty! Dean's parents and sister came up to Colorado Springs as well, so we all went out to dinner together. We stayed at Virginia's apartment and Del, Cyndy, and Kathy stayed in a hotel room across the hall--Virginia lives in a building that is half apartments and half hotel, so they were able to get the room right across from her. The next day, we swam in the pool and then had Virginia's famous shrimp salad and pear pie for lunch. Dean and I ran off to explore the Garden of the Gods for a few hours after that while the doting grand-and-great-grandparents babysat.

Robin did really well on the plane to Buffalo. He shrieked a few times, but mostly they were happy shrieks with only a few cries. It was really great that we had Grandma Sue and Poppa Jim with us, so Robin had four laps to travel between. And on the first leg of our journey there, the seat next to us was free so we were able to bring his carseat onboard and strap him into the seat. For the second leg, the seat was sold but I think we scared away the man who had it (maybe it was me saying I would nurse him once we were airborne) so we had the space next to us empty again. They'd already checked our carseat at the gate though, so we weren't able to strap him in that time.

Sleep while we were gone was interesting. Robin was, of course, overtired from the trip (the only naps we managed to get him to take on the plane were when he fell asleep while nursing) and then he cried for a long time when we put him to bed because he was in a strange place. That happened for the next two nights (and days, with naps) as well, but each time the crying was shorter. For the second half of the week, he went down to sleep pretty well, although we still didn't have much of a schedule. He slept in a second-hand pack-n-play (playpen) that one of my mom's aunts found at a consignment store in Buffalo. There is nowhere in the greater Buffalo area that rents children's gear and it would've cost us $50 ($25 each way, for the second bag) for us to take our own. So it was cheaper to buy one there than ship ours. Crazy! We were going to consign it back and recoup some of the money, but we decided instead to store it at Nana's house for the next time. This way we'll save ourselves the hassle next time, and once we're done having kids in cribs we'll consign it back.

The trip home was a little bit more interesting. We were behind schedule so rushing a lot, and Robin had a full night's sleep behind him (as opposed to having been awakened 3 hours early, like the first trip) so he was not quite tired enough to sleep on the plane. He was, however, quite cranky by the end. We kept him from screeching by feeding him lots of Cheerios, one after the other. He didn't sleep in the car ride home, either, so after five minutes of nursing back at the house, he was out like a light. I did get him up to eat more solids and nurse once more before his more normal bedtime, just to try to get back on schedule.

So Robin has now been on four airplane rides. He's quite the little flyer!

I'll post more about the trip soon, but just wanted to get this up online. And now I'm going to bed, because just like my son, I'm quite exhausted from traveling. Good night.

Arousing Protective Maternal and Paternal Instincts

Dean decided to take an FMLA day yesterday and we spent it as a family at the zoo. At one point, we stopped by the mountain lion
exhibit. We couldn't see them at first, and then we finally spotted them, lazing about on top of a rock. Then Robin spotted a
tactile display of a mountain lion footprint in front of their exhibit which really excited him. He touched it and pointed at it, all
while emitting happy high-pitched shrieks. Once he did that, the heads of both mountain lions popped up, and one of them gathered its muscles beneath it in a clear stalk-or-pounce pose. Just at the moment that Dean and I asked each other "is he stalking us?" it hopped down from the rock and came right up to the wire fence keeping it inside. It stood up on its hind legs with its forepaws on the fence, and then fell back to all fours and stood right at the fence, staring at Robin (who was still happily shrieking and had no idea that something wanted him for supper.) Dean turned into muscle-Dad and glared at the mountain lion, and told it "don't touch my son, I'll poke you in the eyes, then we'll see how well you'll survive." The mountain lion stayed with us even after other people arrived in front of its exhibit, and it followed us to the edge of its enclosure when we left. It was really rather disconcerting to see a predator's "seek out the young/old/ill" hunting methods in action, especially when directed at my son. I've never really been concerned about meeting wildlife while out hiking before, but now all the news stories of mountain lions carrying off children while their parents run frantically behind are taking on a new light, and I'm thinking we should probably buy some bear spray for our occasional sojournes into the mountains. Don't touch my son!!!!! (No, I didn't take any pictures of the mountain lion. Sorry.)

In other animal news, we now have a snake. It's residing in the corner of our garage. Dean found it a few days ago while he was putting our dumpster away. We thought about trying to coax it out into the flower bed, but it quickly disappeared into a crack between the floor and wall of the garage when we tried, which leads me to believe it goes outside to eat and just calls the garage home. We have yet to make any serious attempt to catch it, and we're not quite sure what to do with it once we do. We have no idea where to take it to. I don't think I would mind it living in our yard and eating pests, but unless we plug those cracks up, it would probably just move back into the garage--and it would probably find other ways into the garage even if we did. The jury's still out on this one, so stay tuned.

And now for some lighter stuff. This is Robin's first grilled cheese sandwich.

This is a video of Robin crawling around in the fountain in Boulder, which I forgot to include with the last entry.

Let's see... what has the Wonder Boy done since the last posting? He's getting ready to cut more teeth... I foresee only a few more days before they erupt. He's a pro at getting up to standing and climbing stairs, and he's definately cruising now. He'll walk a little bit if we hold his hands, although he's not very enthusiastic about that yet. He's eating a wider array of solid foods (including finger foods, not sure if I've mentioned that before.) He's definately mastered the pincer grip (thumb and forefinger) so he's got good fine motor control. He even managed to pull a package of Ramen noodles out from under the pantry door. He's definately determined when he gets his mind on something he wants to do, and he's a problem solver and will figure out how to get at things. His reach continues to get higher and higher. He has learned to clap and point. Here are some pictures of the last few weeks.

My parents took us to Robin's first baseball game in mid July. Robin's got his ticket all ready.

"Take me out to the ballgame..."

Under the chair

A recent picture of the three of us

My friend Cora visited at the end of July. It was good to see her again, and she got to meet Robin for the first time!

Robin enjoying the blanket Cora's mom Fran made for him.

Cora and Robin playing together.

We went to the zoo while Cora visited. Here we examined evolution.

Seeing the tiger up close.

Keeping tabs on the baby giraffe (through the big one's legs)

Robin got a few visits from his great grandma at the beginning of August. Here they are sharing a bite to eat.

Last weekend we went to Boulder with my parents. We discovered the Boulder Asian Festival on Pearl Street Mall.

Robin enjoyed the music, and had tons of fun crawling in the grass.

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We have a big, long cardboard box that our exercise bike came in, and Dean turned it into a tunnel for Robin. He was unsure of it the first time we showed it to him, and it took several minutes before he ventured through. However, once he went through it all the way the first time, he turned right around and did it a half-dozen more times. Seems it was fun!