Okay Weather, Great Adventure

With some gentle prodding, I convinced Angie to go for a bike ride with me last night, with our daughter in the trailer. The weather was getting cloudy but the temperature was right and she agreed or acquiesced, either way we went. The ride was a little ambitious, but we had the trump card on our side: Carl Miller. Carl is an avid cyclist and unbeknown to him, I had elected him the emergency vehicle. We had decided to ride the Ravenel Bridge which is not a small feat as you know if you have driven over it, but to Carl it's a walk in the park. Based on that I had figured that if Angie and I, both novices, weren't able to make it back to the car, we could send carl back and have him come get us, or even better and way more fun considering his fear of anything under the age of sixteen, have him tow our daughter for us. (Chuckle)
Fortunately we did not have to have any help, although there was some great moral support and instruction, and all four of us rode the bridge from Mt. P to Charleston and back. Carl also is quite the photog and snapped a few pics of us huffing away.
I will also add a link to his new birding page, which is under development, but has some phenomenal photos on it.

lowcountrybirds.net

He also wrote the pages so be suitably impressed, while recognizing it is a work in progress.

Enjoy!

Glorious Weather

We had our first date with spring this weekend, and we loved it. Sunny and 75 on Saturday and Sunday had all our windows opened and the family outside enjoying the fresh air. I have some pictures from Sunday of Esme in her her walker while Angie and I cleaned up the garage and the yard. Here is the special girl in a special shirt. Photo credits go to Angie.

Average weekday evening

I took several pictures last night at Angie's request, it was definitely worth the bytes since we have some very sweet shots of our daughter playing on the couch with Angie.
First, let me tell you that Esme is feeling substantially better and is back to her regular happy self. She has added a few tricks to her repertoire, primarily a distinct opinion on which toy she wants, not a specific one all the time, but usually the one you really don't think she should play with, like my glasses, or every scrap of paper she can get her hands on. It had been quite easy to distract her and swap toys, but no longer. Instead she gets quite upset, and with a moue that would stop your heart, begins an escalating cry/scream indicating her displeasure. It tends to not last long, but if she glimpses the previously desired object she will attempt a fairly effective (for someone who can't stand yet) lunge for it. It has caught us off-guard several times, and we have narrowly dodged catastrophe on this steep learning curve. Another new trick is sitting up fairly reliably without any support. This has been neat to watch as she gets her balance and learns how far over she can lean, etc. Adding to the learning curve is that after only a week of sitting up she now will grab whatever is in front of her and stand up. The one that surprised me was when she was sitting in my lap facing me, and suddenly grabbed by shirt with each hand and yanked herself up and was face to face with me with a big two-toothed grin. Finally, we had a 6 month checkup and she was following her curves still, 27.2 inches (95th percentile) long, 15.5 pounds (35th percentile), and 55th percentile in head size (I forget the actual diameter).

I'll try and talk more about "Mom" and "Dad" soon, but suffice it to say we are okay.

More as things develop, love to all.