Alton Returns to the Land of His Birth

We recently returned from a trip down to California to visit family. First Katie and Alton flew to Sacramento to Grammy and Grandpa Rhyne's house (Andy flew separately because he was flying straight to Sac from a business trip in GERMANY--I'll let him post on his own about that experience) before the whole fam readied for Zach and Karen's baby shower over the weekend. Jennifer and Charlie (that's Grammy and Grandpa) made enough summer salads to feed an army while Katie and Alton (Alton really not so much) made a beautiful diaper cake centerpiece to give to the parents-to-be. I hate to toot my own horn, but just call me Satchmo....

Zach and Karen have created a really beautiful nursery for their baby girl (coming soon!) and Zach was prepping for fatherhood by holding his nephew Alton and putting Altie down for a nap. Alton responded in kind by picking Zach's pocket. Attaboy.












We had a very nice, but too short, time with the Rhynes and we look forward to visiting again after Baby Girl Rhyne is born, Alton's first cousin. He slept like a baby, if you'll pardon the expression, while we were there and enjoyed meeting Minerva's doppelganger Tye and his first CAT sighting at the Rhynefarm.

After the shower fun and Andy had to fly home to Oregon, Nonna and Papa Carnine (Pam and Steve if you're so inclined) drove Alton and me down to Santa Maria for a week of family fun. Alton got to meet (great) Aunties Coleen, May and Linda and Uncle Steve for the first time, and also visited his Great Grandparents Shirley and Don. He charmed everyone, of course, and while he was with his great-grandparents he rolled over from back to tummy on his own for the first time! Talk about wowing the crowd! We stayed with Aunt Cari and Tio Julio and he got to meet Jack zip-zipping around for Altie's viewing pleasure. We had Alton's portraits taken (more on those later), made his first trip to In 'n Out (sigh), enjoyed several nights of Papa's barbequeing and Nonna's hearty Italian cooking, hit the Pismo outlets and generally stole hearts and charmed all his path.
Alton and his Nonna at Jack's Restaurant in Orcutt


With Auntie Coleen

Katie's Cousin Maelle with Alton


Funny Faces with Tio Julio

Sittin' around with Papa


Bath time with Nonna

Ready for bed


Ready for anything!

New Photos--Mother's Day, etc.

Re-Posted Alton Album Link to Kodakgallery

Alton Kicks and Squawks

Alton doing his latest fun move: he grabs his feet! The "reverse crunch" move has been a favorite for awhile now, but up until the past few days he would just fling his feet backwards into the air, hiking his butt up in what we call the "reverse crunch." Then he added a roll to the side, and now the latest piece of flair in his collection is to grab his toes when he hoists them up to the sky. He tries so hard to get them into his mouth, and once in a while he succeeds, but either way he has a squawky good time.

The Infamous Doghouse - by Andy

So here it is... my first post. Since it's such a big project and Katie's mentioned it a couple of times, I thought I'd shoot out an update on the doghouse.

History: So now that we have a yard for the Nerve, we thought this would be a perfect time for her to spend all the time she wants outside and enjoy the sun - what little of it there is. So we installed a dog door and that gets her outside whenever she likes. Now we needed to keep her motivated to STAY out there. So I started researching doghouses. Apparently, they are a lot more complicated then the standard A-frame house that snoopy lived in (on).

The Plan: So the house I have chosen to build is actually two rooms - one as the "entry" and one where she actually resides. This separation is primarily to keep the weather out of the sleeping quarters and keep her comfy. Also, I am building the DELUXE version of this house - one that is double-walled with insulation to keep the interior relatively neutral. The roof will be hinged for occasional cleanings since Minerva continuously attempts to clone herself by dropping as much fur on the ground as possible. The last touch - there will be a small window in the front wall that can be opened to help air circulate on really hot days (I'm told they exist). The whole thing will be painted on the outside for weathering with paint that has been left over here. There's a lot of left over paint and I'm hoping that one of those cans matches the house. We'll see. I'm thinking carpet for the floor, but that thin office type carpet that you can buy in squares. In the end, Minerva's small round bed, the "kitty cat bed" as we call it, will go in her new quarters.

The Progress: So far the basic shape has emerged. The floor and exterior walls are together. A couple of the walls have insulation and the inner walls. There's still about 2/3 of this step to go. The roof is cut, but needs its basic frame to keep it square and keep it from warping. The window hole is cut, but the window itself still needs to be fabricated. And after everything is done, the whole thing needs to be painted for weather proofing. Lastly, the roof needs to be done - this will be done later mostly to spread out costs and since the rainy season is "almost over," rain shouldn't be a problem. The entry door still needs to be cut and will be done near the end of the project. And of course, the painting and finishing details. Yeesh, it sounds like a lot more when I write it out.

Exersaucer

One of the items on our roster for Memorial Day weekend was for Andy to put together Alton's Exersaucer (a gift from our friend Micki!) since he is big and strong enough to hold himself up while sitting in it. He looooves it. It's a riot of color and sound in a frogs/ducks/pond/bugs theme. There is music with counting and colors and shapes and a plush froggie and flowers and fish and he it so cute when he plays with it.

Fun with Alton

Some gratuitous Alton cuteness....

Alton Rolls Over!

So Alton rolled over alone for the first time on April 22. We were in the midst of moving from our corporate apartment to our new house and on our very last night in the apartment, we gave him a bath, then put him on the bed and I was doing a little baby massage. When I flipped him onto his tummy to rub his back, he rolled onto his back all in one motion--woooop! Since then, whenever we put him on his tummy he would try so hard to roll over, usually stopping himself from completing the act because he would "chicken wing" his arm out and get it in the way. But on May 25 we put him on his tummy and not only did he flip over to his back quickly, he did it about 7 times in a row! Each time we put him back on his tummy, he would roll right over to his back.

We took some video of the little man in action. Now he won't spend any "tummy time" playing at all. Whenever he is on his tum-tum, he rolls over to his back right away. Hopefully once he starts being able to roll over from back to tummy, the crawling and scooting will not be far behind.

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was fantastic! Alexa and Brian came down from Seattle for the weekend to explore our new house. We made the world's biggest cheese fondue...Alexa and I both maintain that you can never have too much cheese, but our dairy hangovers in the morning should have clued us in to the fact that yes, you can. Despite the melted mesclun of bleu, jack, gruyere, romano and fontina in our stomachs (just typing that made my tummy hurt a little bit), we powered through and ate a chocolate fondue as well. Weeks later now, my selective amnesia has already kicked in and I wouldn't mind doing it again.

Sunday morning Andy dressed Alton all snazzy-like and made PINK chocolate chip pancakes topped with strawberries for us all. Alton got me flowers, a knitting book I wanted and some yarn. Now if he could just help me find the time to knit....

Our House in the Middle of Our Street

We bought a new house! Our adventure in Oregon can "officially" begin because we have our new digs. We listed our condo for sale as soon as we left California, so after a few weeks settling in to the corporate apartment we started out with a realtor to hunt for our new home. We visited lots of nice places, and are happy to share some of the highlights with you:

• A house used as a rental where the master suite was clearly occupied by the teenage son in the house...approximately 40 pairs of Nike Air Jordan sneakers were carefully posed around the room.
• The mother/daughter who were so dedicated to maintaining their Hawaiian Tropix orange glow that they had a tanning bed in one of the bedrooms.
• The family who had commissioned a work of "art" to match their mid-80s couch with the sprays of color that look like fireworks--in shades of pink, silver and forest green. It complimented their living room decor, which featured porcelain plates, prints and figurines of forest creatures like grizzlies, bald eagles and squirrels.
• The "diynetwork.com" house, where the people had decided that they didn't just want to try ONE of the painting techniques they saw, they wanted to try them all: brushing, sponging, striping, bold colors, tone-on-tone, a CHARCOAL room...we would have had to fill the bed of our truck with primer to try to cover up what they had done.

Our new house is in a very cute neighborhood; it's a newer development off of a street that winds and curves and goes off into the country near the horse properties and llama farms. Our subdivision has a little park and is a two-minute walking distance to the elementary school (aww, can you picture little Alton in school?). The house has a front room where we have put the beautiful piano that Ma and Pa Rhyne gave us. There is a living room that opens up into a dining area with a sliding door to the little patio in the little backyard. Nice big kitchen with a GAS RANGE and a bar where we could put barstools for fun, and a small powder room in the little hallway that has the door out to the garage. Yay! A garage for Andy to work with power tools and build Minerva a doghouse and wear safety goggles and say things like "cantilever," "joist," and "hacksaw." It's two-story, as most houses in Oregon are, and the upstairs has a laundry room and three bedrooms, which includes a master suite with walk-in closet, bathroom and a huuuuge soaking tub. Then there's a second bathroom and a small office-type room that has a window but no closet; we have turned that room into a playroom for Alton. We are going to take a little walking photo tour and will post that later. We're mostly unpacked at this point--our move-in date was April 21, but we've been in the house for about 6 weeks now. So wild to think that this will be the house where Alton takes his first steps! Come visit!