Mother's Day

After waking up with a smile, mom and I headed out to the coast to the Plantation for their Annual Mother's Day Breakfast. Although a bit rainy, it was really fun to see grandma Deanne, Larry, and Aunt April.

After breakfast, we headed to Grandma's house to socialize with some of her friends. I was thrilled to discover that she had toys for me to play with and books to read.

A couple of lemons doubled as balls to throw and teething toys.

In the evening, we headed to Healdsburg to have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Miller. Aunt Sheila was also there with plenty of kisses and fun.

Baby Signs

On May 8th, mom and I went to Russian River Brewery to have lunch with Grandma Deanne, Aunt Julia and her boyfriend Bryan. During lunch I decided to show off some of my new signing. I am particularly taken with the "hat" sign. As a result, I insisted that grandma wear my hat...

And she kindly obliged...
Mom and dad are very happy that I am signing to them. It is much easier for me to tell them what I want. Some of the signs I am using now are: food, more, milk, water, "all done", diaper change, bath, hat, bird, dog, fish, book, airplane, tree, flower, ball, car, and kisses. And lately, I have been doing the sign for spider to get my parents to sing to me the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song. They fall for it every time, even if I ask them to do it 5 times in a row!

Rocking Zebra

Look, mom! No hands!

One of my favorite toys now is my zebra. I can sit on it and bounce, or rock back and forth. I am not able to get up on it myself, but mom or dad are quick to help me out.

First Steps

I have been deceived by my own mother. On April 29th, I was getting ready to go on a walk with mom and Sheila, when suddenly I realized I was standing by myself! Mom had released her support and positioned herself a couple of steps in front of me. At this point, I was still fairly unaware of what was going on. Mom gestured to me to come over and so I did. I took three steps towards her. It was then I realized that I wasn't holding on to anything and I sat down completely in shock. Actually, I was a little scared, but mom was squealing with joy and excitement. I am not sure what she was so happy about! Since then (nearly 3 and a half weeks), I have been on strike. Every time I think someone is letting go of my hand, I get jelly legs and drop to the ground. That will show them!

Luckily, Aunt Sheila was there and had a camera. Check out the evidence and decide for yourself, if this is child endangerment...

Keller's Birthday

On May 2nd, the family went to Hank's Creekside to celebrate Keller's 1st birthday. It was lots of fun! Here are a few pictures of the day...

Here is Keller opening up the gift I helped pick out for him, a push walker. Mom picked out an outfit to go with it, overalls and a collared shirt for the Middletown boy:
Keller waiting for breakfast with his parents, Gordy and Katrina:

Me and dad playing before breakfast:

Reading with Papa to settle me down. Breakfast happened close to nap time and I was a little sleepy to be out and social:

Kindergym

On May 1st, mom took me to my first Kindergym for beginning walkers and scooters. There were 4 other kids there, but most of us didn't notice. We were too busy figuring out what all of the play equipment was about. It was fun playing ball, crawling on stuff, and pushing carts around. Mom and I met a nice boy named Diego and his parents. At the end, the teacher took out a parachute. We sat around it and sang songs, she blew bubbles around us, then we played parachute games. I was fine with the singing, but not so into the parachute. At one point, all of the moms threw the parachute into the air and we all went underneath. I was definately not OK with that! Overall, though, it was a fun time. I think I will let mom take me back next week...

Tongue Tricks

Here is one of my latests tricks...

So, not only can I stick it out, I can move it around and make noise. It is amazing all of the sounds I can make this way. Some days, it is all I can think about. Mom and dad laugh at how often I am wiggling this thing back and forth.

4/30/10

Dinner out with Extended Family

We went out to Aleworks to visit with a new baby in the family, Cruz (and his mommy and grandma, of course). The Middletown crew was also in attendance. It was pretty funny trying to get us all to take a picture. Mom said getting all of us to look at the camera is like herding cats. At least she got one where everyone is focused on me...

Hiking in Pt. Richmond

Aunt April is on a mission to hike in most of the East Bay Regional Parks. So, on April 24th, we decided to help her out and join her for a walk around Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline in Pt. Richmond. That's right, mom took me to Richmond for the first time. It was actually a darling historic area with cute buildings and a gorgeous view of the bay. Here we are at the shoreline park getting ready to hike:
I really enjoyed trying out the "new" backpack Teri found for us at a garage sale. It was fun to be higher up on mom's back. It also also put me in better position to pull her hair and grab her hat.

Great views from the trail:

Picking a wildflower along the way. I think it only made it into my mouth once...

Aunt April taking it all in:

This is mom and I after the longest ascent. It was a bit steeper then we expected and Aunt April had to help us out a little along the way.

Overall, it was a very fun time. I slept on the car ride back, which was good, because we had a birthday party to attend that afternoon. My girlfriend Violet turned one. It was really fun! She was very sweet as she delicately picked at her birthday cake, one small bite at a time. Happy Birthday, friend!

Middletown & Cal Pine Day

On April 17th, mom and I went to visit our Middletown family. When we arrived, I got a tractor ride with my Papa.

Next, the fam headed down the street to Cal Pine Day where there were many things to see.

Two little guys checking out the goat babies.

Sweet Baby Keller: Lunch time at the ranch. Grandma Joan joined us for an outdoor picnic with food from the local Mexican Restaurant. I got to eat my favorite: chicken, beans, rice and mole.

Look what mom did after she cleaned up all of the food from my face and hair:

Aunt Sheila's Birthday

On April 16th, we celebrated Aunt Sheila's birthday in Healdsburg at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was big fun! Mom and I had the very important job of getting the special pastel de tres leches cake (which you can see below). At the bakery, the lady who helped us offered me a cookie (which I couldn't have, because it was too crunchy), and she also held me while mom took care of the payment. She was very nice. Aunt Sheila kindly let me share some of her cake with her later and it was quite yummy.
Some pictures of the evening...
Hanging out with Grandpa:

Chewing on the string of one of Sheila's balloons. She had to have known about my balloon obsession and that she was going to have to share one with me...

One of my favorite things to do is "drive" around the house and go through dad's legs. Sometimes, he sneaks in a kiss as I come through...

Here I am very proud of myself: