Bye-Bye, Cat! (And other tales of recent feats)

It's time once again that I do my memory the favor of chronicling a few of Jonah's most recent achievements.  As Bryan observed the other day, J seems to go through cycles of growth and development:  slower periods that he spends practicing the skills he's most recently learned, followed by parentally thrilling periods of rapid skill acquisition.  Right now we seem to be in the rapid portion of the cycle.

A few things Jonah's learned to do in the past month or so:

• Stack blocks on top of one another,
• Stack rings onto a stacking tower,
• Put things into other things, like toys into his toy basket (for a long while he was only an enthusiastic taker-outer),
• Clap,
• Wave goodbye,
• Share (often upon request),
• Feed others (Mom, Dad, cats),
• Get food onto his spoon and into his mouth, all on his own.

Jonah stacks rings on a peg.  So cool.

Jonah's spacial reasoning, especially, seems to be developing at a breakneck pace.  He can now easily find hidden objects, such as a toy--or a mom--covered by a blanket.  He knows, when he wants to find something like a missing toy block, to look under the furniture.  And he knows, when he wants to find something like a missing mommy, to look behind the furniture.  He climbs over obstacles and up stairs like they're nothing at all.  He chases the cats all around the house with impressive single-mindedness.

J knows exactly where those cats hide after
a few too many games of chase (through
the cat door to the basement).

Jonah can stand up on his own these days--at least for a little while before trepidation gets the best of him.  But he gets more confident by the day.  It won't be too long before he takes those first independent steps.

And his language skills continue to progress at a respectable speed, too.  His favorite word is undoubtedly "cat", which he repeats excitedly each and every time he catches sight of one of our feisty felines.  These days I think anyone with even a smidgen of imagination would recognize the word as "cat", too.  What used to be a sort of Klingon "xha..." sound has turned into a nice, crisp "caa", though we're still awaiting that terminal "t".

And, finally, there's his new appreciation of books.  Oh, I've been waiting for this one!  For most of his first year, Jonah's interest in books by and large involved two activities:  tearing and munching.  But these days he's learning to turn pages gently and (to a small but growing extent) in coordination with Mom or Dad's reading.  And he now gets amusement from what we're reading, too.  The Barenstain Bears and The Spooky Old Tree is a particular hit, possibly because of his mother's comically theatrical interpretation, which she herself learned (developed?) when reading the book with her parents so many years ago.  (It got giggles then, and it still gets them now.)

Anyway, here for your viewing pleasure, is a video of Jonah doing a least a couple of the things described above.  (Tip:  You may have to turn the volume up to hear Jonah; his voice is much quieter than mine on account of his not being immediately behind the video camera. Also, watch to the end to see a wave.  Sorry about the low quality!)

"Splash" of Summer

With summer in full swing, Jonah and I (and Bryan when he's not at work) have been trying to spend as much time as possible outside.  Admittedly, sometimes it's just too hot, and sometimes it's just too sunny.  But when we are outside, boy oh boy, are we having fun!  Nothing perks Jonah up like a little taste of the great outdoors.

Recently, we've been trying to come up with new activities for Jonah to try out-of-doors.  In addition to our usual playground trips (the swings are old hat now), we've been searching out opportunities to explore right around our own house.

So far we've:

• Drawn with chalk:

• Played with the dirt in the asparagus bed:

(This is a self-initiated activity and a huge hit--the inevitable end to any attempt to play in the backyard these days.  A proper sandbox--or maybe we'll use pea gravel in lieu of sand?--is forthcoming.)

• Taken a break from a summer heatwave in our baby pool/sprinkler pad (which resulted in superbly adorable photos):

Oh, good grief.  Come on.  How cute is that?

So, yes, we've been having a great deal of fun.  And there's more to come.  In fact, there's a very good chance that our next blog entry will involve Jonah's first genuine swimming pool...

Happy summer, everyone!

Farm Tour

I love me some fresh summer veggies.

So does Bryan.

And so will Jonah, I expect. He's already a fiend for carrots, beets, asparagus, broccolli, and butternut squash, to name a few. And he hasn't even tried them fresh out of the garden yet.

He will this summer, though. We started a few veggies from seed in the spring, and even though some didn't make it out of the seedling stage (and others that we originally planned to grow are still sitting rather disappointingly in their seed packets), we have enough progressing in the backyard to sustain our gardener's anticipation.

Peas.  I don't think I've ever had a truly fresh pea in
my life, so I'm excited to try these.  And those
are strawberries in the containers behind the peas,
though some critter keeps eating them before we can!

Mesclun fresh from garden to plate could
just about convert me into a salad person.

We won't be able to pick our asparagus for
another year or two, but for now it's
growing and ferning like a champ.

For those many, many, many veggies we don't have the space/time/know-how to grow on our own, we rely on our farm share--our membership in a local community-supported agriculture program, or CSA. This year we've actually selected a collective of farms: a group of Amish farmers in Western Pennsylvania who collaborate to provide a relatively wide a variety of organic produce as well as organic, pastured meats and other farm products to their CSA members.

Which brings me to the main subject of this blog post... A couple weekends ago, to celebrate the beginning of our CSA season, Bryan, Jonah, and I drove out to our neighborhood of farms to eat, tour, and meet our farmers face-to-face! Here are a few snippets from our field trip:

Jonah checks out the baby lambs penned
alongside the strawberry patch.

After picnicking and getting to know some of the other members/farmers/CSA-staff, we headed out into one of the fields to pick ourselves some strawberries. Regretfully, I don't have any pictures of that, nor of Jonah trying his first strawberry, which came out of this field. I will say, though, that a local farmer once called the strawberries you find at your standard grocery store "California imposters" compared to our local variety--and, in my experience, his words were by no means exaggeratory. The local strawberry here in Western Pa. is in a whole different league of strawberries: deep red all the way through to the core and positively bursting with ripe, sweet berry flavor--every one the best strawberry you've ever eaten. Anyway, hopefully we haven't ruined lesser strawberries for Jonah forever, but there it is.

Strawberry-picking was followed shortly by a trip to one of the farmer's ice houses. This is a refrigerated warehouse where the farmer stores his winter produce Amish-style: with an enormous wall of ice, carved in blocks from a nearby pond. Jonah thought it was cool (no pun intended!), but mostly for the acoustic qualities of the warehouse.

From the ice house, we climbed onto a horse-drawn wagon for Jonah's first hayride. Through the fields we rode, taking a gander of the Swiss chard, Russian fingerling potatoes, and broccoflower we'll be enjoying later in the season.

On a hay ride. (That's actually more hay
growing in the field behind us.)

At our last stop, we were able to walk among the chickens whose eggs we'll be receiving on a weekly basis--and even to hand-collect a few eggs to take home! Jonah was a little freaked out by the population of hens, I have to say, who were both extremely vocal and numerous. But he enjoyed petting one of the new chicks back nearer to the quiet farmhouse.

About to enter the chicken pasture.

Jonah cautiously inspects the chick
for possible threats before petting.

After about four hours out at the farms, we hit the road with a cup of hand-churned (yes, hand-churned) goat's milk ice cream--and, of course, with great anticipation for the beginning of our veggie season. Looking forward to more fun culinary adventures (and probably a few more farm trips) with Jonah this summer!

Northwest Vacation: Part III

Following wedding festivities, Bryan, Jonah, and I headed back toward the coast for the last leg of our journey.

In Sacramento, we said goodbye to Grandpa and Grammy, but we also said a long-overdue hello to some old friends from waaaay back in our China days. Aijun and Bryan worked closely together back at the university there, and they've remained close friends and colleagues through the many years since. These days, Aijun is working at a university in Sacramento, and, very recently, his family (wife and son) made the big move from China to join him here. We don't get to see them very often (a six-hour flight is shorter than a fourteen-hour one, for sure, but it's still not close), so on those rare occasions when we do happen to be in the same neck of the woods, we try to take advantage.

You'd think that, after living in China as long as we did, we wouldn't quickly forget Chinese custom, but it turns out that when we arranged this get-together with our old friends, we didn't quite properly anticipate what we were in for.  Aijun and his wife Ye had prepared a spectacular all-day feast to celebrate our arrival.  Consequently, we spent the large part of Sunday afternoon eating.  More Dungeness crab, whole lobster, plus a variety of classic Chinese dishes like fried egg and tomato, steamed dumplings, Peking duck, and watermelon piled high.  Between meals, we spent time getting to know Aijun's son, whom we last met when he was only two months old.  He's now four--and not lacking for energy!

Monday morning, while Bryan and Aijun went off to discuss work-related matters, Ye and I took our little ones to the Sacramento Zoo.  It wasn't Jonah's best zoo trip.  He was getting over a little cold and, I think, finally beginning to feel worn out from all our traveling.  But we did manage to have a little fun.  Here we are on Jonah's very first carousel ride.  He did not not enjoy it, at least.

Andy, me, and Jonah at the Sacramento Zoo.

After the zoo, it was past time to meet our train for San Francisco.  We rushed to and through the Amtrak station and found some seats with, literally, about five minutes to spare.  Then we were on a two-hour train/bus ride to SF.  It was Jonah's first train ride--and, come to think of it, probably my first train ride Stateside.

On the Amtrak.

San Francisco was another short stop.  We only had about 24 hours total before our flight back to the Burgh.  All of us by now feeling a little bit weary from our two weeks away from home, we decided to take things slowly--just enjoy a couple bits of this last city at our own relaxed pace.  Along those lines, first stop: our hotel, just a couple short blocks from Pier 39 for walkability's sake.

Jonah tries out our bed before we nap at the hotel.

We rested up, sated our appetites with some traveler-friendly (if not artery-friendly) fast food, and then...eventually...headed out to the aquarium at Pier 39.  I love aquaria, and Jonah seems partial to them, too:

Anchovies!

Jellyfish!

Turtle!

Jonah fell asleep pretty much as soon as we left the aquarium, so, with him in my arms, Bryan and I took just a short walk around Fisherman's Wharf, then headed back to our hotel for room service and a good night's sleep.

Next day--last of our trip--we started by strolling up Columbus Avenue to find ourselves a cafe breakfast.  Here we are at Brioche French Bakery & Cafe, where Jonah enjoyed some of our breakfast sandwich and crepes.  He really eats like a a champ.

I love that, if you consider the image in
the mirror, this is a true "family" photo.

Bellies filled, we walked back north a few blocks to take in the view from Telegraph Hill.  Check us out about halfway through our climb.  You can barely make out the Gold Gate Bridge in the upper right.  Winding Lombard Street is between those two tall buildings in the skyline but not really visible at this resolution, unfortunately.  In any case, it was a lovely view of the city.

We took more pictures from up by Coit,
Tower but none with us in them,
so I like this one best.

With our last couple of hours, we then headed back up to Fisherman's Wharf to show Jonah its famous sea lion population.  He was fascinated, as, I admit, I always am.

This picture does not capture the multitude
of sea lions very well, but it does
have a cute baby in it.

Finally, we made a quick stop at a sushi bar for some lunch before our flight.  Jonah couldn't manage it, though.  He fell asleep before we even got to the restaurant (which was nothing special but not bad either--we'd picked it only for its proximity to our hotel and its child-friendliness).  He slept straight through our meal, even as I dripped soy sauce and wasabi on his poor, tired, little head.  My angel.

Time to get this guy home.

As I said, family, food, and magnificent views.  We had a really spectacular trip.  And, although we're glad now to be back home--working in our own garden, playing under the trees in our yard, cooking up  delicious meals (with the farm-fresh produce that just started to arrive for the summer)--we're already looking forward to our next out-of-town adventure.  And I'm sure it won't be long from now.

Vocab Genius

I have to interrupt my retelling of our vacation adventure to brag about Jonah's very latest achievement. Let me first preface my announcement by clarifying that J's been saying a couple of words with regularity for some time now (two months maybe?): mama, cat, an oft-repeated greeting that sounds an awful lot like "hey there"... These are words/phrases that he hears all the time at home, and, as our pediatrician has advised us to maintain lenient standards when it comes to judging whether Jonah is using words, we count these few firmly among his first.

But today Jonah used his first (recognizable) word that we don't use daily at home, and he pronounced it with shocking clarity (and in exactly the right context). We were attending a party at a friend's house when the neighbor appeared with her little dog. After asking if Jonah could pet the dog (Jonah had had his eyes on the creature since it first appeared), we put him down by the dog's side, and Jonah reached out and said, "dog-gy". Twice.

Not yet ten months old, this kid!

Oh my god. I was so proud.

Northwest Vacation: Part II

And now we come to the big impetus behind this the whole trip northwest: the wedding of Jonah's Uncle Brad and Aunt Lori. Well, almost. First we had to get there.

Ambitiously, we had decided to make the trip from Washington to Northern California (the wedding was to take place on Lake Tahoe) by road. It wasn't Jonah's first road trip. But it was by far his longest up to the point. In order to give Jonah ample breaks from his carseat, we spread the trip out over three days, making many stops along the way.

Three generations take a break at
a playground mid-road trip.

We stopped to hike along the Avenue of the Giants
on the Northern California Coast. There's Grandpa
and Grammy alongside a giant redwood.

Jonah, tuckered out from either (1) being in
the car or (2) playing with the new
maracas Grammy bought him.

Even so, it was clear at times that we were trying Jonah's patience, so we were glad when we finally made it to Lake Tahoe. Big props (and thanks) to Brad and Lori who did everything they could to make this an unforgettable wedding weekend for everyone. The lovely couple generously rented a large lakeside villa, hired a personal chef, and even arranged a private yoga lesson for all the wedding guests to enjoy as a big, combined family. Hence, once we arrived in Tahoe City, all we had to do was relax, take in the views, and, optionally, take advantage of the local hikes and yoga lesson. We did all these things.

Bryan and Jonah take a nap at the villa in Tahoe.

Part of the view from the villa deck.

A view from one of several hikes
we took around the lake.

Bryan, Jonah, and I love hiking together.  Even uphill.

The wedding ceremony itself took place at a breathtaking location on Emerald Bay. Jonah, always a sucker for beautiful weddings, cried through the whole thing. (:-P) Seriously, though, it was just beautiful. What more can I say?

This is where the wedding ceremony took place. Not bad, eh?

Afterward, the whole party headed back to the villa for a fantastic dinner catered by our aforementioned chef, Chris Taylor, who deserves a shout out all of his own. He prepared some seriously scrumptious food over the weekend, using a variety of fresh, local ingredients (including morel mushrooms for which he foraged himself). And his presentation was equally thoughtful and beautiful. In fact, if this sort of thing interests you, I would direct you to his website (http://www.ckcproject.com/1/post/2013/05/paid-to-play-all-day.html), where he's posted some fantastic photos from our several celebratory meals; were I less honest, I would steal some of those photos and post them to my own blog. Here, at least, is a photo of the table that awaited us when we returned to the villa from the ceremony:

The dinner table settings were inspired by local natural
life, much like the meal about to be served.

Thanks to Brad and Lori's friend Fellipe, who provided some of the above photos (including that of the table setting) after I discovered I had a dearth in that department.

And that just about covers our trip to Tahoe. Next up: San Francisco.