We joined Erika and Benjamin for an excellent hike on Mount Diablo this Saturday. Not only was it a gorgeous morning for a hike, but we saw cows and snakes too!






We joined Erika and Benjamin for an excellent hike on Mount Diablo this Saturday. Not only was it a gorgeous morning for a hike, but we saw cows and snakes too!
Griffin has eight teeth already. Since he started teething at three and a half months, we definitely have our fair share of things for him to chew on. I’ve been reluctant to give him teething biscuits because of the concern that he might bite off a piece and choke on it. But lately as he’s been working on tooth number eight, he has been gnawing and biting things he shouldn’t. Namely me. That kid can chomp! My shoulder and arms have been receiving the brunt of it, and it seems like his desire to bite is increasing. More teeth on the way?
With a little reluctance, I picked up some very healthy looking teething biscuits at the store today. I took one out of the package and clunked it on the counter. Definitely hard as a rock. With Griffin sitting in his high chair, I handed it over. He immediately liked it and started gnawing away. He attacked it with gusto, and since he was such a mess and seemed to be enjoying eating, I decided to feed him some some squash and yogurt, too. Definitely the messiest feeding to date!
New for fall 2009, the most fashionable ladies are wearing this season’s hottest accessory: barf.
If you’d like to recreate this look, make sure to get a six month old and have him barf on you without any warning. Extra hotness points if it gets in your hair and on your face.
We have a house guest this weekend named Roger. He’s the dog of our friends Yoni and Laura, and with all due respect to Dusty (may he rest in peace) and any dogs in my life presently, he’s the best dog in the entire universe. He’s patient, gentle, comes when you call him, likes other dogs, loves a good scratch, plays fetch, chases squirrels, and curls up in the cutest little ball when he takes a nap. He also likes to lick Griffin’s face, gets concerned when Griffin cries, and lets Griffin tug his ears.
Yesterday was our first full day together. Griffin met him after waking up in the morning, and much giggling ensued. Griffin was fascinated by Roger! Simply watching him walk around the room made Griffin laugh, and Roger seemed to like getting Griffin’s attention. I could tell they were going to be friends. We went for a walk, took naps, rolled on the floor, played fetch. It was a good day.
The afternoon is when the stare-down happened. While there are many of Griffin’s toys strewn about the house, Roger seemed completely uninterested in them . . . until Griffin started playing with Mr. Mushroom and Mr. Mushroom let out a squeak. Now like I said, Roger is the best dog ever, and being the best dog ever means you have manners. I stumbled upon this scene after starting to cook dinner:
Roger resisted Mr. Mushroom all afternoon and into the evening. It was only after Griffin went to sleep that Roger dared to gingerly take it from Griffin’s play mat. He gently gave it up after I said no, but he still wanted to play with it thinking it was a toy for him. While Roger seems to understand much about the human world, he must find it rather confusing that babies get squeaky toys, too. With Mr. Mushroom out of commission, Griffin and Roger are back to finding each other intriguing.
Much to our surprise, Griffin loves pickles. Andrew gave him a taste one night expecting to get a very dissatisfied (and very funny) face, but to the contrary, he started heartily gnawing away on it. Thus far, he really only sucks and nibbles on them without actually eating them (any time he gets a chunk, he spits it out), but I’d say overall they’re a hit.
We have crossed over into solid food, folks! Griffin is in love with bananas. He also ate some rice cereal today, but banana was the clear winner. I’ve been wanting to officially introduce him to real food, and today just happened to be the day. With six teeth already, I’m sure Great-Grandma Doris would say, “It’s about time!”
Nancy and Raven were at a big health care reform rally in San Francisco on Wednesday. And they sure photograph well. Here’s a link to the article: Hundreds rally for health care reform at San Francisco City Hall | The Public Press. And the pictures:
In case the article ever vanishes, here’s a PDF for posterity:
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.