Happy Hour at the Harbor

It may not be beachside in Phuket, but with good friends, a temperate summer evening and an equally scenic waterfront, we have little to complain about!

Tour de France, here we come!

Thanks to our friend Vince, who hooked us up with his neighbor who was selling a kids bike trailer for pretty cheap, Griffin can now go for a bike ride with his daddy! Here are some pictures of his first ride. According to Steve, he loved it!! They went for a Sunday morning ride with a local riding group, then stopped at the farmers market and got some yummy fruits and vegetables. Sounded like tons of fun! I wouldn't know....I went back to bed. :)

Walking walking!

It's official, as of early August Griffin has been walking, and for sure by the time he reached 14 months, he was really walking. Now it's mostly always his mode of transportation of choice (other than his firetruck, of course), and he can even run a little. And...dance a little too! He's not always all that steady, but puts forth a good effort!

Fun weekend in Baltimore

For my nephew Mason's 6th birthday, our gift to him was a weekend staying with us, doing fun stuff in Baltimore. We spent a whole day at the Maryland Science Museum, and another day at the Baltimore aquarium., including a dolphin show! We also went out for ice cream, walked the dog in the park a few times, and rode a dragon paddle boat in the harbor! And laughed a lot- Griffin especially, thinks that his cousin Mason is just the funniest thing ever!

Huge marble maze with hand cranks at the Science Center

Build-it-yourself water table the size of a whole room!

Turtles at the aquarium

Rainforest at the aquarium

Taking a little milk break from looking at all those fish!

Dolphin show!

Dragon paddle boats on the Inner Harbor

Chuck E Cheese, an American tradition

We spend a lot of time traveling and learning about traditions in other countries. For our non-American friends, here's a little piece of American culture- albeit a bit wierd! Chuck E Cheese is a kids restaurant that has been around for decades, even since I was a kid. It's a family restaurant that also has all kinds of games for kids, plus- yes, you guessed it, a mascot named Chuck. Chuck E Cheese, to be exact. And Chuck, or "Chucky" as people refer to him, is in a band, and has a cast of bandmates who are other mascot-type animals. I think Chucky is supposed to be a mouse, i.e. one who loves cheese, as in cheese pizza, and his friends are other types of characters. Every half hour or so, the band of mascots plays a song on the stage.

We recently went to Chuck E Cheese's for my nephew Mason's 6th birthday party. It's totally a birthday party kind of place. Pizza, cake, games (like video games and skee ball kind of thing), and musical performances by wierd larger than life sized mascot animals. Anyway...the kids had an absolute blast. Steve conveniently had a group training bike ride for an upcoming race he has next month, though he somehow napped through the ride. Funny how that happens. Griffin, however, thought the whole thing was absolutely hilarious, especially Chucky!

The man, the myth, the legend- Chuck E Cheese!!!

Chucky's band

Birthday party madness

The birthday boy (6 years old!) and cake

Griffin and his cousin Micah

Micah (5 months younger than Griffin, little brother to the birthday boy)

Grandma and two of her three grandsons

Happy Grandpa!

Two babies mesmerized at the party goings-on

14 Months old and Finally "Home"

It's been about a month since our last post, and I try to usually post about once a week. But we've had a busy month! We finally found a permanent place to live, and have moved into our new house. Here's a picture of our  new house, which is just a couple blocks away from our short-term house in Federal Hill. We are really loving this neighborhood, by the way! We still have a lot to do to get fully settled in the house, but it's nice to finally get our stuff from Thailand out of storage and have our own things with us again. And to create our new "home!"

Griffin is 14 months old today, and I have a lot of photos backed up from the last month that I need to post. But the most exciting thing to report is that Griffin is mostly walking now! Below is a little video clip from a week or two ago when he was taking 5-8 steps at a time. Now he stands up and walks on his own, and can take 10-12 steps at a time. He still likes to crawl when he really needs to get some place quickly, but I think those days are numbered. He's signing a few more things, but mostly just babbling constantly, without any clear words but with lots of conversation!