Fun Times, Sad Times

Daddy, let's update the blog!

For the 4th of July, we all congregated at my Aunt Kim's place in Eagle Creek, Oregon (outside of Portland) for a big party. After the bocce ball, awesome ribs and playing in the inflatable kiddie pools (THREE of them this year!) we brought a bunch of folks back to Seattle for a couple of days. My Dad flew in to Boeing Field on Thursday morning, Ali left her newly remodeled travel trailer behind in Oregon and drove up Thursday afternoon, and my brother-in-law Eric flew in on Saturday to join us. We had a full house!

Eric & Alex getting silly on the floor (Guess which one has a MS in physics?)

On Saturday, Dana, Eric, Me and my Dad all went over the bushes to the South of our condo to play a short round of golf at the Jackson Park city course here. It was a gorgeous afternoon, and despite our general lack of skill at the game, we had a ball. This was only my second real golf game ever, and considering that I was asked to leave the course for going too slow in my first game, Saturday's best-ball game was a marked improvement!

Our golf pro, Gene, shows us how it's done. He's caddy'd on the PGA Amateur Tour

"So I'm supposed to hit this thing over there??"

Eric gunning for the green from the rough on the 3rd

Three of our intrepid golfers, Eric, Gene and Dan

Eric sinking a putt, Dana and Gene watching in silent awe

Our condo is just behind that big fir tree

On a more somber note, on Friday morning we got word that our very dear family friend Bob had passed away after struggling with the "Big Black Bear", cancer. Bob and my Dad met at work when they were both fresh young guys, and our families have been close ever since. Us kids were almost interchangeable at times. It is a very tough loss for everyone.

Finally, we have come to realize that Alex does not really like his car seat. He gets fussy just about anytime he's awake and strapped into his "Baby bucket". This can make car rides none too pleasant when he wakes up and realizes he's in a car, facing the boring gray seats, and hungry. Anytime outside of the car we can toss him in the Baby Bjorn, but the car seat is the only way to travel by car for some time to come. Maybe we can work on this and create more positive associations for him, but I just don't think he's a big fan of the thing.

We have found the surest short-term fix is to distract him long enough to forget about the situation. We have a leftover paper flag from Canada Day in the back seat, and anytime he gets upset, whoever is sitting next to him can usually buy at least 5 minutes by waving the flag around above him, brushing it across his hands or cheeks, or when worse comes to worse, letting him try to stuff it in his mouth. After the novelty of the Maple Leaf wears off, it's a free-for-all to try and find other objects, songs or facial expressions that will hold his attention. We have gone through bright neon pink key rings, various stuffed animals, fishy-faces, pulling on Daddy's hair, every Christmas song we can remember, and much more.

Why is it that Christmas songs are the only things I can think of to sing when he's fussy?