PC is the place to be

Ahhh...Putnam Camp. We spent a lovely few day in the Adirondacks at our perennial home-away-from home. This year we stayed in the Shanty Attic and enjoyed cook-out/campfire night only steps way from our room.

Immediately upon our arrival, Micah, clad as a Nigerian native, gravitated towards the extreme-croquet set and claimed a wicket:
He held onto it as we made our way up the steps to the Shanty Attic:
Our first order of business was to head on down to Buttermilk Falls (if you are prompted for a password when you click on the link, type "stoop"), off of Hulls Falls Road.
Micah enjoyed scrambling up the bank from the river, the first of many scrambles this trip.
Some more scene from around camp:


And of course, one of the best parts of the trip was getting to see baby Mateo 'Matato' Fiori again, along with his dearly missed parents, Nick and Kristin.
Please be patient with us as we catch up on our blogging. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

another potty repoo-rt

Two nights in a row!! Yay! Hopefully Micah has overcome his hangup and will be good to go (No.2) from now on. I hope our travel doesn't mess him up too much. He's been very excited about going on the airplane to see Grandma and and Grandpa, especially because he knows that Mommy will be meeting us there. I'm trying to convey to him that she won't be there until next week so he won't be disappointed when she doesn't meet us at the airport.

In other news, occasionally Micah comes home with an art product he's made in school, but yesterday was the first time that he brought up his 'project' on his own. He talked about the smiley face and dinasaur (he mistakenly called it a T-Rex) that he had glued to some paper. Incidentally, Micah seems to be entering the Dinosaur Phase, which will likely last for about 10 years. Someone has a dinosaur book at school that he mentions quite a bit. Is there anyone out there who would like to give Micah his first dinosaur book? (and no, "That's Not My Dinosaur," which he already has, doesn't count.)

poo-gress

Micah has been making very good progress on potty-training and now goes diaperless all day without accident. He's been a bit more reluctant to go No.2 on the potty, instead electing to hold it in. As of this evening he'd been corked up for a few days, and I knew that he had to get it out or things would get worse. I fed him a big dinner and waited for the GCR to kick in. Minutes later, he made a start for the corner, his favorite spot. Luckily, I was paying attention (this time) so I whisked him off to the bathroom before he could get going. He protested at first, but soon gave in to the simple call coming from his bowels. After one reading of the Grandpa Tree and three times through Everyone Poops, he got to dump/flush and enjoy some PBME (the E stands for Euphoria).

unwinding at the beach

Until we actually moved here, I didn't appreciate how nice it would be to pop down to the beach at a moment's notice. Friday afternoon we were vexed by the combination of lingering coughs, and upcoming experiments, international travel, single parenting and LA traffic. We were to spend the night with Corinne, Stacey, and Lia before dropping Amy off at LAX for her trip to Nigeria, but we delayed our departure to give rush hour a chance to expire.

With time to kill, we headed down to the beach. Micah immediately enlisted us in burying his legs.
Amy and I ventured into the water, but Micah was a bit more tentative. The closest he came was this:



In the video, he's saying over and over again that he's "da done" (all done), i.e. I'm not having fun, Daddy, put me down.



It was sunny and pleasant, if a bit bright, and we left feeling relaxed and restored. As we scrambled to finish packing at the last minute, Micah munched on some grapes.
After dropping Amy off at the airport, we spent the morning with Corinne, Stacey and Cousin Lia at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market at Virginia Avenue Park.



Micah really loves his big cousin!

Lay up

No, not the basketball maneuver, rather what you do in the morning when you get out of bed. In the dictionary of Micah, one "lays down" to go to bed and "lays up" upon awaking. That little kernel of a Micah-ism will have to tide you over until the new camera arrives early next week. Of course then I am just taking it with me to Nigeria on the 16th--but I promise, we will get you some visuals soon. I think Micah may be even cuter now (if you can even begin to imagine such a thing!).

In other news, we have gone bold, and eliminated diapers during the day. At day care he is in pull ups during nap time, but other than that Micah is finally learning the ramifications of peeing in one's pants when there isn't layers of highly absorbent material between you and your skin. Of course, WE too are learning the ramifications of such an arrangement, and as Melodie so aptly foresaw, some "scrapping" has ensued...but all in all Micah is adjusting very well and we are being diligent about making potty a routine throughout the day. We have even picked him up from school twice now in the same clothes we dropped him off in--which is surely a good sign. The impetus was the book, "Diaper Free by 3" which I voraciously read in one afternoon. I really wish I had of read it before I had Micah, but there you have it. I've always said Micah is our practice child.

camera kaput

Micah broke our camera by unceremoniously dropping it on Amy's foot. We'll get it replaced ASAP so you can enjoy more antics.

Alta, UT

Wow! What a great weekend. Good friends...amazing views...a babysitter two nights in a row... and a D.J. to provide some booty-shakin' rhythms. What wasn't there to enjoy? Why we didn't stay a week, I'm not sure...

Stachel's wedding weekend up at the Rustler Lodge in Alta, UT provided a picture perfect venue for the two to publicly decree their commitment and love. We were with the sporty set, for sure (pre-wedding day hike to a 10,000 foot summit, wedding day yoga and fun run at altitude), but the timing of Zack's cover helped solidify his rank among the crowd of Olympic qualifiers, state champions and exercise junkies.

Zack (actually) gave a really good toast to the happy couple and only a few people suspected (correctly) that he was responsible for the "prodigious colon" comment making it into the wedding ceremony address. Don't ask.

We were having way too much fun to remember to take photos, but here are some highlights. We'll get the names of the folks who took some awesome shots of my going to town on a monkey pinata which garnered me some notoriety among the 220 attendees and Zack and I on the dance floor busting out some of our signature moves, that garnered us the title of "Best Couple Ever" by the bride's sister/celebrant--I guess sort of a misplaced comment given the event and all. But hey! We'll take the compliment.

Micah by the pool:

Micah in the pool:


Micah post-pool:

Steve and Rachel (and the back of the Bride's father's head)

Sylvia, Rachel and me:

Antony, Steve (pretending to be shorter than he is) and Zack:
The theme from Mortal Kombat proved to be quite popular:


Us being us:


It was exhausting having so much fun!


The classic parking lot shot--only prettier:
The "forced smile, beautiful backdrop" photo:

Outside

If you live west of the Mississippi, you should check out this month's Outside magazine. If you bust out a magnifying glass you may recognize that trail runner, charging up the hills above Oakland, on the cover of the mag.

Upon arrival at the Salt Lake City airport this weekend we noticed that Zack's cover (damn! I just gave it away!) vied with Brangelina's twins and in a couple of newsstands' displays he actually won out:


We're so proud. I guess one cover photo does trump two magazines' tables of contents and an article--especially in one so reputable and as widely read as Seventeen Magazine's College Zone!

island excursions

We splurged a bit to get a better view of those landmasses off of our shores, and took a catamaran ferry to the Channel Island National Park. The view below is of Scorpion Harbor on beautiful Santa Cruz Island (the largest of the chain).

We inquired about age restriction for kayaking. Looks like we just have to wait about 11 more months before we can take Micah out in a tandem with us. The guide assured us it "rocks the kids to sleep." I'm skeptical and think a better plan would be to strap a paddle to Micah's hands and have "Row, Row, Row, your boat" on repeat on some portable speakers. Given his enthusiasm for running on ahead, I suspect I would have to do very little if sharing a kayak with him.




There were of course loads of cool "TUNNELS!" to explore:And cool rusted out relics from an era gone by (with excellent poky and jabby things for tender young skin)



The highlight by far was the pod of 100 or so Common Dolphins that we saw heading out to the island (in addition to several seals, but alas no Blue Whales). This photo doesn't do them any justice, but you can see how close we were.

As cool as the dolphins were, it was a bit windy on deck...
So we moved indoors for a tamer ride.
But Micah wasn't content to sit and merely be taken along for the ride; he wanted to "drive" the boat:
Micah brought us into our slip expertly and we called it a day. Next time, we'll do it right: kayak camping!

new songs

This week Micah came home from preschool singing a new song, "Row Row Row Your Boat" with accompanying hand motions. He also has a new favorite bathtime song: "Woo-woo" by Milkshake. We listen to it five times during his bath tonight. The stereo kept falling into the water off the edge of the tub, but fortunately it still works! Thanks Cousin Joey for sending us the new 'yic (music)! (The windmill is a big hit, too.)

Micah in the bath:

what you've missed

Hmm, let's see... Since we last blogged, Micah got sick and had to stay home from school, Amy's been to the Bay Area for work twice and to OC once, we had fun in the 4th of July parade (sorry, no pictures), and then hiking up to the Punchbowl, a fabulous swimming hole in Santa Paula Canyon. Sorry, I forgot the camera again. It was a lovely place, but don't take my word for it:

Is this what Micah will be doing there in 15 years? Yikes! I hope not.

Is Micah napping enough at school? This week, he kept on falling asleep in the backpack on the way home from preschool. This makes him pretty groggy before dinner.


Sometimes I think Amy just thinks of him as her little dress-up doll. We'll, he does need the sunglasses and hat in SoCal.


Though he doesn't like getting too close to the water, Micah really likes the beach. This week we made a beach pit-stop during an after-dinner jog along the waterfront bikepath. Micah enjoyed watching the surfers. Apparently only the beginners are out at this time of year because the surf isn't serious enough for the big kahunas. Not all of the beach is smooth sand. "I wan go bumpy, 'troller, rocks," he says.

After school today, we went to the beach. On days like today when the whole town is fogged over, I actually like going to the beach because then you can actually enjoy it for a while instead of overheating and burning in 5 minutes. Someone before us had dug a pretty big pit in the sand. Micah climbed in, lay down on his stomach, occasionally touching his cheek to the sand, and got to work on a serious bowel movement.

Here he is as a lion, back at home after his bath.

tour

Here's a brief tour of our new residence. Please keep your voices down when we go into Micah's room. A few more improvements have been made since this video was taken, e.g we now have mirrors in our bathroom (after almost a month).



Congratulations to cousin Joey on his new home! We love boxes.