Lu-Wow!

Last weekend the three of us flew down to Southern California to pack in some time with family and friends. The weekend was far too short, but we managed a visit with the Grove family in Thousand Oaks and Aunt Coleen's 50th birthday party in Orange County, plus a quick dinner with Scott, Claire and Holly on our way back home.
As you all know, Alton took his first steps over this weekend, and in hindsight we should have seen it coming. Most of the time at home he is not interested in being led walking around the house holding on to some adult's fingers. He realizes that he can get everywhere faster and independently (very important) if he crawls, so that is the vantage point that he prefers. It has always seemed like he didn't want to walk until he was sure that he would be able to trot around unfettered and not fall down, and until then he would cruise along furniture faster than Minerva in roller skates. Flying down south entailed two flights in each direction--no nonstops. So on our way down we landed in San Jose to change planes and stopped at CPK to grab dinner, when we looked up and happened to see Rick Fox (former Laker) picking up a pizza as well. After taking some pictures with fans, he settled down at the gate to wait for his flight--he was on our flight! Taking Southwest with the little people. Andy decided to finger-walk an antsy Alton around the seats at our gate to stave off boredom, and what a hit our little guy was! The darling of Gate A8. He would confidently step around, clinging to Daddy's fingers, then stop and wave to his subjects with princely grace, smiling benevolently and causing women to swoon with all the cuteness. At one point he stepped over to Rick Fox and his publicist, who couldn't help but coo at Alton and call him over with smiles. It seems no one is immune to his charms, but we knew that already.
Our first stop was with Andy's Uncle Scott, Aunt Denise and their son, Charlie, in Thousand Oaks. He was really excited about strolling around their pool with Scott and was bent on rearranging their patio furniture as well. The six of us piled in cars and we introduced him to Andy's grandparents, Chuck and Shirley, for the first time and enjoyed lunch with them. Alton was enjoying strolling around the patio in the sunshine so much that we were all on the edge of our seats lest he take his first steps there. We laughed that we had told Alton NOT to walk for the first time on this trip because we didn't have room to bring our camcorder with us. Scott urged us to borrow theirs, but we idiotically refused: "No, how will we get it back to you?" Doh! Silly mommy and daddy! Alton had a great time scarfing turkey and more at the dining table and charming the pants off of all the employees at Great-Grandma and Grandpa's living community. (Note: they did not actually remove their pants. That wouldn't be hygienic.) His little polar bear shoes were a hit there as well as at the airport the night before.





Then it was south to Orange County for the big Scarminach family shindig. Cousins flew in from Colorado, Texas, and Oregon (yay Hillsboro!) and it was really nice to see people we hadn't seen in a really, really long time. Many were meeting Alton for the first time. The party theme was a luau, and Coleen and Mike's backyard was transformed into a grilling paradise as we prepared to eat our way through the afternoon, hunkering down in patches of sun when we could. Alton had just gotten a consignment of baby/toddler clothes from his older (second) cousins *E and *O, and a tiki shirt of theirs layered over a long-sleeved onesie was a perfect match with the Hawaiian decor. He hammed it up for all of his great-aunties and uncles, rode shotgun on his Papa's arm, held hands with Nonna, reached for Uncle KC and demonstrated his stepping prowess for Aunt Cari and Uncle Julio. A great party for a wonderful lady, beloved by all of us, and a really fun time to spend with our family.




Which one doesn't belong?


Baby's first Bocce








This last picture is Alton putting an envelope on his head for a hat. He likes to dazzle us with how many sentences he can understand now. For those who haven't seen him in a little while, here are some things he knows and will respond to:
-What does the doggie say? (panting noise from Alton)
-What does the horsie say? (tongue clicking noise to sound like hoofbeats)
-What does the sheep say? (Baaa or occasionally, Maaa)
-Where is your ear?
-Where is your belly button?
-Comb your hair!
-Kiss! (my favorite)
-Put the hat on your head
He knows many words as we say them, like "banana," "sippy cup," and "Minerva," of course! He tries to say words repeating after us once in a while, and lately we've gotten a pretty clear "ba-na-na" out of him a few times.
We rounded out our visit with a dinner shared with our friends Scott, Claire and Holly. Holly was our one-way ticket back north to the LA area, Claire and Scott put us up for the night, and Scott dropped us at the airport in the a.m. on his way to work. What an efficient machine! Alton met Scott and Claire's dog, Max, and then acquainted himself with their Roomba. Holly gave Alton a "little teddy bear" for his birthday, and we figured out the perfect place for this birthday bear to ride home with us.

People often ask us how Alton does on the plane journey. The answer to that is: great! Andy and I are fairly experienced travelers ourselves, so we try to combat any mishaps or baby woes with lots of planning, planning, planning. We have carefully combed through Babies 'R Us, recommendations from friends and baby web sites to find travel gizmos that really work for us, such as the rolling wheels that attach to our car seat and allow us to stroll it through parking lots, airports, and on and off public transportation with ease. Three of the biggest issues that toddlers have on planes are boredom, the inability to get up and move around, and ear pressure pain on the plane's descent. We tackle the first issue with toys (And, to be honest, with the plane itself. It is amazing how many times Alton finds it amusing to raise and lower the window shade.), the second with short flights, and the third with nursing or sippy cups. This trip brought Alton's flight tally up to 11. We will be sad when he turns two and we have to start paying for a seat for him, but we'll make sure to sign him up for a frequent flier program! We use those Southwest free flights as fast as we earn them. And speaking of Southwest, during this trip guess who was on the cover of their in-flight magazine? Food Network's Alton Brown! What a photo op.

We are glad to be parked at home for awhile, and in April the visitors are coming to us! Look for some posts about that. The summer is going to be jam-packed with travel for us, with some family events, friends to visit, and even a wedding! Alton says he'll see you there!

Cupcake Smash!

Here is footage of the actual cupcake smash from Alton's birthday party here in Hillsboro on Jan 31, 2009. The little voice you hear in the background saying "Altie! Altie!" is his little friend *B.

Vintage Alton: Birthday Car

I have been very, very bad about uploading video from our camcorder to the blog, so I am vowing to try to be better at this. The video below is of Alton "driving" his little push toy around--this was a gift from Aunt Cari and Uncle Julio for his birthday. The video was taken a couple days after his birthday (nearly two months ago), and shows how awesome he is at turning and steering his little car, less than a week after he'd gotten it. We only wish we had gotten him one sooner! I joked that he is only one year old and already a better driver than his daddy. Andy would take offense, except that he knows it's true. Love you, sweetie. :-)

Walking! The Video

Walking baby steps! As I mentioned before, he is extremely reluctant to practice his new skill now that we are home. This video makes it look easy as pie, but there was a lot of coaxing with the banana chip in my mouth that I edited out of this video!

First Steps!!!!

This is NOT a drill, folks: we had first steps over the weekend!!! Will post further about our fun trip down to Southern California, but had to hurry and get pictures up of the little man taking his inaugural solo steps on Coleen and Mike's patio in Huntington Beach. We always say that he does the most new stuff when he's out of his comfort zone. And no, of course we didn't get them on video, we've been shouting mental expletives for not bringing the camcorder with us on this trip. But enjoy the stills and we'll capture him on video ASAP; he's quite shy now that he's home and knows the camera is turned on him.
Enticed with a flower lei...

He reaches for it...

A quick glance down at the feet

And the left foot inches forward!

Right foot follows suit!

Watch the ground to clock his forward movement!




Resting from all the excitement.

Big man.

Picture Perfect! - by Andy

Now that we have Photoshop on our new computer, I was very excited and curious about what we could do with our long list of pictures. Have some fun, but stay tasteful. Katie had used the software before at work and was planning on using it here for other work that may come up. My experience was precisely zero. After sharing the blog with a coworker, he mentioned that the Diet Coke picture would look cool if I could make it black and white and only show the color of the DC can: a procedure I've come to know as 'blended color and black and white.' I searched Katie's library book on Photoshop and found many useful articles on color and such - nothing about blending color and black and white. I searched online and found an article that looked promising. I printed it out, brought it home and started the process of figuring out how to add layers, change their color settings, etc. I eventually figured it out and I was very happy with the results. I decided to use a different Diet Coke picture than the one on this blog so that you could actually see the DC in AJ's hands.

With this new found skill, I showed off my work to Katie. I told her that I thought this would be a good idea for some other pictures we have. Katie thought a picture of AJ and cousin *P from our recent visit to California would look cute. The picture I chose may not be the best of each little one, but it's cute nonetheless.

So by now I was excited about how great these were turning out. At the same time, though, I was cautious not to run amok and apply the treatment to every picture. So I searched our endless picture archives for a couple of days and came across this one from our trip to California for Christmas.

I started looking for other options. "This is a great skill, but it has limited applications," I thought to myself. "Is there another way I can highlight pictures with this skill?" So I tried switching what was color and what was black and white. This one's actually one of my favorites so far.

Now, I started LOOKING for things to take pictures of that I could apply this skill to. I remembered taking a picture of AJ on his colorful foam mat and thinking that it would be a great pic. Further investigation of said picture revealed too many blurry spots to successfully change the colors. So I tried taking a new one. Getting AJ to sit still and play with a big ol' SLR camera in his face proved too distracting. So I was stuck with sneaking pictures of him with the iPhone camera. This picture's not bad, just a little grainy. I really like the background as well.

So I think I'm good for now. Of course, I will keep my eye open, but I also think it's time to find new ways to make the cute pictures SUPER cute. If you have any picture you'd like to have "the treatment" applied to, let me know - we'll work something out. :)

Mom, was I dead then?

Recently while googling friends' names for fun, a pal found my brother's name online...on a headstone. K.C. spread the word and a quick search later, we all saw the site that mentioned the grave of one Keith Charles Carnine and directions to a cemetery in Castle Rock, WA (no pictures). The very oddest thing, however, was that with regard to the birth/death information of this person, the website simply read: "No dates." Castle Rock is a small town conveniently located off of I-5 about one hour north of Portland, so Andy and I vowed that the next time we drove to Seattle and passed through that way we would make an effort to stop and get photographic evidence.
We spent this past weekend in West Seattle with our very close friends Brian and Alexa (the newlyweds who just bought a house!), so on the drive home this afternoon we mapped out our detour to Tower Road Cemetary in Cowlitz County. It rained on us for awhile, but as we neared our destination the downpour lessened and we found ourselves driving for a few miles off of the main highway down winding country roads. We pressed our noses to the window and squinted out the wet windshield to find what we were sure would be an extremely small graveyard. We were not wrong. I worried that seeing my brother's name on a grave would completely freak me out, and was comforted by the thought that according to the website we'd found, the dates on the grave would be blank. Of course, a grave with a name and no dates isn't exactly reassuring. We joked that it was the stuff of ghoulish short stories, episodes of The Twilight Zone, and urban legends told at slumber parties in between sessions of "light as a feather, stiff as a board."
While we were driving, Andy and I had been speculating about what we would find when we got there. Locked gates with "Private Property" written on them? Those little plastic cups that hold fake flowers? Actual mourners? We were both expecting something akin to that old graveyard at Disneyland's "Haunted Mansion" ride, with big crumbling upright headstones covered in ivy. It was a combination of all that, save for the mourners. We actually drove right past it at first because the sign was so old that the painted lettering had completely faded. We backtracked to a tiny field flanked by farms and surrounded by a chain-link fence that thankfully had an open gate and a small shoulder where we could park the car. There was no parking lot, and the nearest cross street was a gravel lane with a forbidding sign reading "Private Road--Do Not Enter." Andy jumped out of the car with camera in hand while I waited with Alton in his car seat. Drizzle continued to fall around us on the misty, evergreen-lined hillsides, giving our errand an even more eerie feel. The cemetery was probably only about 1,000 square feet, with both old and new graves, some with the brightly-colored fake flowers. Andy strode through the damp grass, paused and looked like he was scraping at something with his shoe. Success!
When he returned with pictures I saw that the grave had dates after all, but wasn't nearly as creepy as I'd imagined it would be. The stone was flat to the ground, shiny marble, and only ten years old. This Keith was an old man who was apparently married to a woman named Alma. This was just a cool brush with someone who must be a very distant relative somewhere far back in the family tree, and not a blog posting that ends with "...but when she called her brother that afternoon, a strange woman answered and said that no one by that name had ever existed: she didn't have a brother at all!"
Oh, and for those who do not know (most of you), the title of this post comes from a funny family story. When K.C. was a child we were recounting some event that had happened before he was born, and so K.C. verified with Mom: "Was I dead then?" Because obviously if it happened before you were alive, you must have been...dead!

Prior to all these shenanigans, we spent a very fun weekend with Alexa and Brian in their new home. It's a cozy place built in the 1930s with a lofted master suite, two bedrooms on the main floor, and a finished basement that they've turned into a gorgeous and relaxing den. Our housewarming present to them was manual labor, so Andy and Brian sawed, sanded, painted, drilled, etc., while Alexa and I shopped for fabric for the curtains I am sewing for them. Alton was ENTHRALLED by their two cats, and we had a couple of near "first steps" moments when he would spot them from across the room and lunge forward determined to try to catch them. Below are pictures of their view from the dining room and Alton messing around. I decided to try for some artsy-fartsy shots of him in their front living room, a beautiful mix of contemporary-meets-classic decor, and I really like how they turned out. Enjoy!









And finally, during the last short leg of our drive home Alton started getting fussy, so we turned on some music. The song was from a kid's sing-along CD and Andy and I started belting "On the Road Again" at the top of our lungs in a bid to soothe the baby. We looked back at the car seat and this was the look Alton was giving us: a mixture of confusion, condescension, and just plain old "what the heck?!"