Two close friends of ours, Alexa and Brian, tied the knot last weekend in an extremely personal and touching ceremony surrounded by family, close friends, and woodland creatures. It was a fun-filled weekend that flew by all too quickly. A few highlights included:
- Alton's first bachelorette, yes, bachelorette party
- The squirrel that ran in to the ballroom during the wedding ceremony
- Brian's groomsman who prepared Alexa for married life by outfitting her with a hard hat and utility belt to go with her wedding gown
- The pelting rain the whole wedding day that seemed to symbolize a "clean slate" for the newlyweds...hey, it's Seattle, they are there for the rain, right?
- The cat that sauntered in during the first dance--they seem to attract four-legged friends
- Andy and Alton's custom-made, matching yarmulkes lined in purple to match bridesmaid Katie's dress
- Stuffing Alton's ears with cotton during the reception, and tossing him into the frontpack baby carrier over my bridesmaid dress when he was up way past his bedtime
- Spending way not enough time with our friends from Seattle, San Diego, Pasadena and Des Moines :-(
Just as we were about to make our way down the aisle, the 6-year-old flower girl turned to Alexa and said, "Alexa! Why are you getting married?!"
Alexa: "Because I love Brian!"
'Nuf said.
Jen loves Alton's suggestion to make baby-lifting a new workout plan
Holly got her hair highlighted to try to pass off as Alton's mom. Nice try.
Gary looks like an old pro with this baby stuff
Kinses together: Alexa, Holly, Claire, Jen and Katie
Brian sneaks in some quality time with Alton the night before the wedding
The happy couple--Mazel Tov!
Claire and Alton having some fun before dinner
The Banana Republic Gang (don't ask--at least we dress nicely)
Sassy girls, Alton in frontpack
Bride and Groom share a cute moment during the dancing
Mr and Mrs show off their moves
The two happiest people in Washington
Scott and the little mensch say farewell!
So things have been moving a little quickly what with the crawling and sweet potatoes and all, so I'm going to travel back in time to the end of July to tell you about the week-plus visit we had with Nonna and Papa Carnine. I can't mention every activity we did in detail because this post would be too long, but suffice it to say that we made sure our out-of-town visitors saw EVERYTHING. We (in no particular order) visited 6 wineries, went to the Portland Brewer's Festival, visited with Mom's cousin Barbara, hit the International Rose Garden, celebrated Alton's 6 month birthday, went berry picking, fed Alton his first food, had two picnics, went to Alton's first swim lesson, fed Mom a bucket of crustaceans, read books, had a barbeque, had two visits from a plumber to fix a leak, went to Powell's City of Books, ate some delicious berry cobbler made from our berry-pickin' berries, had dinner with Matt, Di and their boys, took Minerva and Alton for several walks, saw Mamma Mia (KT and Mom) and Batman (Andy and Dad), rode the MAX, ate burgers outside at the Helvetia Tavern, and had lots and lots of fun. Here is a selection of pictures of our fantastic visit....
We waited to do a wine-tasting trip with Steve "Just call me Bacchus" Carnine. Patton was one of the ones we visited.
Alton says, "Why walk when you could ride?"
The breathtaking view as we picnicked at another winery.
Our merry little band chilling on the grass at another winery.
Alton, Nonna said read a book, not eat a book.
Nonna's lap makes a good high chair.
Papa and Andy are strategizing at the Brewer's Festival.
No more beer. :-(
Alton's view of the Brewer's Festival
Ready for the swim lesson
In the water!
Mom with her Cousin Barbara; a breathtaking view of Lake Oswego
Who loves his Nonna and Papa?
Check out the rest of Steve and Pam's pictures here.
No sooner do I publish my previous post about Alton nearly
crawling than he surprises us all by pushing hard with his feet against the ground and officially crawling forward! So sorry that we do not have video yet of this feat, but I wanted to share the fantastic news. After all of mama's daily workouts on the blanket stretching, rolling, reaching for objects, Alton crawled for his dada when he was enticed with Andy's wristwatch! Oooh, shiny. We will try to get this on film soon. Hooray!
P.S. Still doesn't like the rice cereal. He also dislikes avocado and applesauce. Maybe I should move on to the Bs.
We can't believe that half a year has passed already. July has been a very busy month with many family visitors in from out of town and Alton hitting so many milestones. So we wanted to catch everyone up on the latest goings-on of our little six-month-old man.
He Rolls
Earlier in July he got very good at rolling in both directions: from his back onto his tummy, and from his tummy onto his back. He likes to roll over and over to get where he wants to go, so if we lay him down on a blanket and turn your head for just a minute he's already across the room.
He Scootches
Besides rolling wherever he wants to go, Alton can alllllllmost crawl on all fours. He gets onto his tummy, reaches as far as he can with his arms (usually we are enticing him to reach with something...of course he prefers remote controls and cameras to his own toys) and then hitches his bottom into the air and his knees underneath him to do a little semi-crawl, scootching movement. We had to install our first "real" baby gate!
He Eats
Now that he is six months old, we started Alton on real food in addition to breast milk. His first food was rice cereal, and so far he really does not like it! He seems a tiny bit more tolerant of this spoonful of mush than he was on the first day he tried it, but not by far. When we get a bite into his mouth, he swallows it with this tiny little gulping sound and then looks at us like we just fed him a bite of mud. We're looking forward to trying other foods to see if he likes those better.
He Swims
Alton's six month birthday was also his first swimming lesson at our local aquatic center. So far he's had two lessons, one with Mommy in the water and one with Daddy, and he has taken to the water like a duckling! He smiles and has fun with all the fun moves and songs that the parents do with the babies in the water, and when Andy or I float him along on his tummy he "frogs" his legs out behind him the whole time. Andy even briefly dunked him last week and he just blinked the water out of his eyes and coughed out any that got into his mouth. Looks to be a future swim team member for sure.
Pictures to come....
