Sweet Home Chicago

Over the 4th of July weekend the Rios trio headed to Chi-town to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Fun was had by all.

Moses acclimated to his Chicago car seat just fine and proceeded to munch on his blanket with the usual gusto.

We hung out on the floor...

...and played in the bed waaay past our bedtime.

We enjoyed the company of both Aderholdts junior and Aderholdts senior in the suburbs. It was great to see you guys!

We also got to take a boat trip courtesy of Skipper Grandpa Bruce...or is it Grandpa Skipper Bruce?

Moses even had his own Moses-sized life jacket! Although if you look closely you'll see that he was less than enthused.

I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed getting a better look at Chicago from the Chicago River. It's a beautiful city!

And I think Moses would agree! He especially liked it when we went under bridges and let out boisterous noises of approval each time we emerged back into the sunlight.
Thanks for having us in your beautiful home, Grandma and Grandpa!

I sat on Sophie

Many of you may know of Sophie the Giraffe. She's a most excellent teething toy! (I will spare you the details now, but ask me sometime and I will tell you why.) However, Sophie squeaks in her middle...especially if you sit on her. And I sat on Sophie.
It is now the sign of our new life, that squeak. Many a time we sit on the couch only to be greeted by her friendly objection. I've been thinking of writing a haiku about it. It begins well enough: "I sat on Sophie..." Anyone care to fill in the rest?

Around our House in June

Before our half-month of travel in July, we had a bit of time to hang at home. Here's what we do during our days.

We like to play with "Britt", our flat, Australian sheepskin teddybear.

We like to look in mirrors at the "handsome fellow" looking back at us. This shows the first day Mo realized he could look into the mirror and out at the real me. It was pretty fun to see his startled little face.

We like to meet friendly neighbourhood hand puppets. Although Liesel's puppeteering skills seriously wig Jeremy out, they certainly come in handy with Moses!

Boy, do we have fun!

Okay, so I know this is weird, but all three of us shared giggles when Jeremy tried to balance a Hershey's kiss on top of Moses' head. The balancing act didn't last long, but here is the successful nanosecond caught on film. (I know, we're easily entertained. Never claimed that we weren't!)

And, of course, we sleep. Not long ago all of Moses and then some could fit in this chair. Now he hangs off the edge. Here's wishing you sweet dreams and a goodnight's sleep...and may your feet not hang off of your sleeping spot. :) Goodnight all.

A Trip to Texas

In Early June Mo and I traveled down to Texas to visit family and to introduce him to friends in Big D.


Moses enjoyed getting see Grandad again and the two of them spent a good deal of time together relaxing in that good ol' green leather chair.

With a huge thanks to my sister in law, Joy, and my dear friends Drusilla, Annie and Erin, a 'Meet Moses' party was held and much fun was had by all. Here Moses is pictured with Nana Dru. Unfortunately, I don't have photos to post from the actual party as I was busy hobnobbing with guests. But take my word for it, it was a bash!

The new ginormous Texas Stadium opened while I was in town and I got to be Dad's date to THE opening event: Lee Ann Womack, George Strait and Reba McEntire. The stadium is Texas sized, seating 100,000 people. Quite the event!

Dad and I have this thing with cotton candy (sort of a tradition, if one can have a tradition with spun sugar?) so here we are enjoying the stuff at the concert. It's a good thing we did because it was the only food we had to fill our bellies that night. The biggest opening night blip was that the concession stands completely ran out of food. Oops. Thanks for the fun night, Dad!


And because we couldn't get enough of sports stadiums, Dad, Aunt Joy, Moses and I headed to an afternoon Rangers Baseball Game. We think our guy was the littlest sports fan there that day. He and Aunt Joy had the most team spirit as they both modeled their Texas Rangers attire.

Joy and I enjoyed bathing Moses and Dad's cat, Athena, was curious about this new little house guest. If there ever was a cat the curiosity really did kill, Athena would be the one.

We think we enjoyed the baths a little more than Moses. "Geez, Mom. Really?" Is he already thinking these thoughts?

Dad definitely had his hands (or lap) full but he seemed to take it in stride.

My "Superfly Superbaby" fast asleep in the room where his Mom grew up.

To top off all the fun of the visit, Dad treated us to his now famous chocolate covered strawberries. The first batch was a little iffy...(see above) even though he followed the directions (I am his witness to this!) the chocolate hardened in the bowl before we could even dip the silly strawberries.

But he persisted...

...and made a tasty end to things. Thanks for having us, Dad. It was great to see everyone in Dallas. See you next time!

Old

I'm getting close to being up-to-date! Yay!

I am a blogging machine. A machine, I tell you!

Go ahead, I know you're thinking it. He supposes erroneously.

Step 1: Experiment by putting fingers near mouth.

Step 2: Open eyes wide and ravenously stuff both hands into mouth.

Step 3: Display glee.

Older

Some of our picks from the 1 to 2 month days.

Ah, Vancouver in the Spring.

Nothin' like a good nap!

Almost cute enough...

Definitely cute enough!

Love these little cheeks! Jeremy affectionately calls them jowls.

What was meant to be a cute picture of Moses' face ended up revealing a subplot. Take a look at Jeremy's hand...

Oh, the jollity!

One simply cannot have enough "Bumbo" photos. (For those of you who have not had the fortunate experience of owning a Bumbo, it's a baby-sized seat that allows little ones to sit up before they can balance the weight of their own heads. Poor things. Can you imagine if most of your body weight was in your head?)

Anyone else think he looks a little bit like Yoda here?

Nothin' but blue eyes shining on me.

Moses has amazing blue eyes. Jeremy's eyes are brown and mine are green. Moses also has blonde hair, very fair skin and dimples. As he seems to have inherited just about every unexpected trait in the gene pool he's earned the name "Recessive Boy".

According to Jeremy, yawns are one of the sweetest things that Moses does. He particularly likes the small end-of-yawn sigh.

Oldest

In an effort to catch up I present to you some favourite pictures from Mo's "early days". You know, waaaaay back before he was 5 months old. Here we go...

Spring was beautiful in Vancouver and we enjoyed many walks in our neighbourhood taking in the cherry blossoms and magnolia buds. Jeremy's in the background, pushing Moses in the stoller.

Our walks extended to "our beach" when Moses was about 4 or 5 weeks old. I love living in this place!

I had a bit of a learning curve when it came to figuring out baby clothes sizing. It's not like I can have 'try on' sessions to see what fits--basically, if I can wiggle it on, it stays. However, this day was definitely an 'oops'! I did make an exception to my 'if I can wiggle it on' rule and changed the poor kid before he got completely lost inside his clothing!

One of Moses' favourite pasttimes is standing. Don't know why. But he loves it and has been standing since about week 4.

Anyone know why these pictures are so grainy? (Seriously, it's not a sarcastic or rhetorial question.)

Here Moses is pictured with his buddies from our prenatal classes at the South Community Birth Program (a fabulous place!!!!). From the left we have Alasdair, Karin and Moses (who was the first to meltdown after this photo was taken).

Moses' first visit to New Hope Alliance where Jeremy is pastor. I think Moses might end up being the church mascot (at least until another baby is born).

Chillin' during the service.

This is one of many, many blurry pictures we have of The Mos. The kid is wiggly. Very wiggly indeed. But this is a typical happy and blurry day in the life of Moses Root Rios. Thanks for checking in. Stay tuned for the next post "Older."