7 months

Gavin is 7 months old today, and he's a clever little destructive force. In addition to crawling, here are a few things he's been up to: opening the controls of our Freeview box and wondering how to open the cabinet door;



locating the box of tissues in my car and eating as many as possible before I can stop him;



enjoying books--I love that he's "eating" Green Eggs and Ham;


pulling my scarf off the doorknob and getting tangled in it;



sitting up unsupported, which enables a lot of new activities, like reading (ok, "reading"), as you saw a few photos above, and watching the rain, which is what he's doing in the first photo of this post;


laughing--a lot;

and crashing mid-action (but not napping regularly at all).
We sure love this little guy!

Crawling

Guys, this started Monday. Is our house baby-proof? No. Are we ready for it? Absolutely not.

Ready or not...

Olympics update

At the end of May we reported that we got tickets to an unspecified Olympic event (or two). We just learned what events we have tickets for--2 football games. (That's soccer if you live in America.) We're going to Manchester and Cardiff to see these games during the 2012 Olympics, but we still don't know what countries we'll see. We're excited anyway! We'll keep you posted on further details.

Profile of a dad

[This is a Father's Day tribute to my sweet husband who is also the best dad. I didn't actually interview him for this post, but I think I know him well enough...]
Offspring: Gavin
Time as a dad: 6.5 months

Hopes and dreams for Gavin: that his first word will be dad; playing sports together (because watching sports is something they mastered early, as seen above)
Favorite moments in fatherhood so far: meeting for the first time (the below photo is the very first one ever taken of Gavin, just moments after he was born--he's holding Jacob's finger); having Gavin sleep on his chest; being the recipient of the first smiles and later the first giggles; when Gavin started being able to play with his dad

Unforgettable welcome to fatherhood: catching poop in his hand on the day after Gavin was born--I walked in to see his open hand being filled with that newborn tar-poop

Perks of fatherhood: cuddles; getting out of parts of church to change or soothe Gavin (not that he was pinched or anything); the tax benefit (yes, we're dealing with an accountant here)
True confession: he loves the smell of Gavin's barf and likes getting barfed on in the morning before work so he can smell it on his shirt all day

Favorite things to do together: take a bath or shower; travel; shop; spin in my office chair; take long walks; eat, especially breakfast at the golf course and things I wouldn't approve of Gavin eating yet, like ice cream or reindeer;
Signature parenting philosophies/techniques: crying it out; no bib necessary when eating--a bare chest or shirt does the job just fine; onesie=fully dressed, no jeans/trousers required (I personally think he looks like a gymnast this way) Ways they resemble each other: obvious physical attributes (same chin, same feet, rosy cheeks, etc); both of them fight going to sleep; both like to sleep with their heads covered; neither can hold still very long

I pretty much can't get enough of these two together!

Happy Father's Day to a fantastic dad!

Little traveler

Gavin's country count is now at 10! His country of citizenship will be added eventually, but this is not too bad for a 6-month old!

foreign beverages

Instead of the usual extra post about food, I'm posting about beverage. Since we don't drink alcohol (and therefore didn't partake in any Russian vodka), you might be wondering what there is to say. But Jacob and Mike were on a quest to try every new/interesting soda they could find. The above "apple lemonade" was recommended by our tour guide (Heli) in Tallinn, and it was delicious. She said it's based on an old Soviet recipe.

The most enigmatic beverage-related story comes from Russia, where Jacob and Mike kept buying some kind of stale-bread soda (above). They found it revolting but for some reason continued drinking it. I tried a couple of them--it was awful. The diet Coke in the above picture is apparently the absolute most delicious Diet Coke anywhere. Both Jacob and Mike are Diet Coke aficionados, and they have declared the Diet Coke in Russia to be the best ever. (I did taste it; they'll be disappointed to hear I thought it just tasted like Diet Coke).There's no photo, but we encountered a soda with an amazing taste resemblance to the US candy Smarties (Fizzers in the UK). It was amazing. And we drank lots of Fanta, especially in Finland. There's the ambiguous "exotic" flavor above (delicious); and then there was this grapefruit Fanta below that was super-yummy.Michaela, who technically had never consumed anything other than breast milk, is sampling a couple of her dad's favorites below: mate (the South American tea); and, you guessed it, Diet Coke.

More (and better) trip photos

Mike has 2 things I don't have when it comes to taking photos: talent and a really good camera. So here are a few of his photos from our recent trip to Estonia, Finland and Russia. Mike, thanks for letting us post these!

Our latest travels

We just got back from an amazing trip, and the next few posts will cover the places we visited. We traveled with our friends Becky & Mike and their 4-month-old daughter Michaela and had a really fun time with them.
We flew to Tallinn, Estonia; from there took a ferry to Helsinki, Finland; then an overnight ferry to St. Petersburg, Russia. We then returned to Helsinki, then back to Tallinn.

Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn is a beautiful old city, and we're going to start telling everyone to add it to their list of places to visit. The picturesque old city was unexpectedly charming and cool and fun. The photo below is from our hotel room.
We took a great walking tour and learned a lot about Estonia and Tallinn, but we also really enjoyed wandering the cute little streets without a guide. There was something beautiful around every corner.