This weekend we joined some friends in the Sierras for a wonderful car-camping trip. We hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, swam in the reservoir, and introduced Griffin to the joys of sleeping in a tent. He was a natural—falling asleep by the fire and then sleeping soundly through the night despite the cold. Click on either image below to see the full photo album.
Griffin and I went to Noah’s Bagels today to purchase bagels for our camping trip. Little did we know that we would stumble upon a wormhole to a parallel universe. A universe much like ours, except stuck in the 1950s. And their agents were buying bagels.
Griffin rarely cries during diaper changes—he giggles and smiles and generally seems pleased-as-punch to get his fresh, dry diaper. It was, therefore, surprising that he started crying this morning right after I fastened on a new one. Continue reading The Affair of the Diaper (A Mystery)
Yoni and Laura joined us for a trip into SF today to visit the new California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park. Griffin slept through most of it, but awoke in the aquarium and loved all the colorful fish. It was the first time he has engaged at all with any museum exhibits.
Perhaps the magical ticklish spots are not so magical after all. We haven’t gotten the same reaction again.
Griffin has always been a bit ticklish, like he will grin if we run our fingers over his stomach during a diaper change, but it has never been extreme. Tonight, however, Sarah discovered his real ticklish spots: at the edges of his neck and shoulders! He was laughing like we’ve never heard.
This morning Griffin managed his first unassisted roll from front to back. He has made it onto his side before, and has made it with some help, but this time he was on his tummy in the middle of Grandma and Grandpa Stocco’s bed and managed to flip onto his back with no parental (or grandparental) guidance! Tummy time, for Griffin, often sounds a bit like torture. He grunts and groans, huffs and puffs, turns red in the face, but hasn’t had the coordination or muscle-strength to crawl or roll. At this point he can’t repeat the feat reliably, but with a bit more practice he’ll be falling off the furniture in no time.
Griffin’s first tooth emerged today! We still can’t quite believe it. (Sarah was convinced that his increased drool and fussiness was due to teething, but it seemed to be too soon.) His left lower central incisor pushed through his gum and it’s companion (to its right) looks to be not far behind.
The wind and rain let up enough today for us to get out on the lake. Griffin wore his brand new life vest. (I thought I would get laughed at, or reported to CPS, when I asked the sports store people if they had infant life vests… but they totally did!) He was a trooper for the first part of the trip, but definitely got fussy while we explored the eastern end of the lake. We didn’t want to push it, so we headed back to the dock after 20–30 minutes and left him with Grandpa Jeff.
We took the red eye from SFO to Minneapolis early this morning and Griffin was a champ. He fell asleep at the airport in SF and basically slept through the flight and the two hour drive to St. Peter where he woke up in time to be cute for breakfast with the Stoccos. On the flight, however, he did something that I will never forget.
Sarah was sleeping with Griffin wrapped up on her lap next to me. I turned out my light for a bit, trying to sleep. After about fifteen minutes, I gave up, turned the light back on and pulled my book out of the seat pocket. I glanced over at Griffin, and saw his eyes open, squinting up into the light. “Uh oh!” I thought, “I blew it… he’s going to scream for the rest of the flight!” He looked around sleepily for a moment, anxiety melting away as he saw Sarah’s face above him, then my face glowing in the darkness. His eyes fell shut and he smiled the biggest, happiest smile as he sank back into sleep.