Legs

On Saturday Davis's cousin Taggart woke up at 2:30 in the morning and made a 6 hour drive to meet up with us in San Francisco. While we do think it was a bit crazy, we were very glad that he made the trip. We hadn't seen him since our wedding and it was both wonderful to catch up and to introduce him to Oliver.

Our first stop of the day was the aquarium. Oliver was much more interested in the aquarium than he was the zoo. We have two fish at home (Fish 1 and Fish 2 -- we don't want to get too attached in case our fish nurturing skills aren't up to par) and Oliver says hi to them daily - we actually think fish (pronounced ishhhh) might be his fourth word (dog, duck and quack being the first three) (the little guy clearly has a special spot in his heart for animals).

The aquarium had a tank where we were allowed to touch the animals - carefully and with one finger. Not trusting Oliver's rule-following ability, we just let him take a look at the fish swimming around.
Another animal at the aquarium was a snake. Davis is not a big fan of snakes, but wanted not to project his feelings - and allow Oliver to come to his own conclusion. At this point it looks like Oliver does not agree with Davis - he seems pretty in to snakes.

We had lunch on Pier 39 and Oliver loved watching the sea lions clap and play. I think he would have stayed there all day watching them - to pacify him (and us - the sea lions were pretty neat) we had lunch overlooking their "playground." Entranced by the sea lions, it was one of few times Oliver has sat still in a restaurant high chair.

After lunch we decided to do a walking tour of San Francisco. While I understand there are a lot of hills, I do think Davis mapped out a route (a 6 mile route) that was all uphill. Oliver chose not to be involved in the trek and slept on Davis's back the entire walk. However, once we arrived on flat ground he woke up and wanted to push around his stroller (next trip he gets to push the stroller up the hills).


The men in Davis's family have very distinct legs - Oliver is no exception. We had hoped to take a picture of all the boys - Oliver, Taggart and Davis - either at the pool or walking down the street - just to show the strength of a certain gene pool. However, once Oliver caught on to our plan he would have none of it.
However, if we had been a group of Japanese women, or Banana Republic employees, Oliver would have struck a pose. While in Banana Republic a woman saw Oliver checking out the clothes (trying to rip multiple items off of hangers) and asked if she could take his picture. We said - sure. Next thing we knew Oliver was surrounded by about 10 Japanese women all snapping pictures of Oliver. After strutting around a bit, Oliver got down on the floor, rolled around, and smiled - and smiled - and smiled... When the women left Oliver then found himself surrounded by Banana Republic employees. Again he wiggled and smiled and was in heaven.

Thank you again to Taggart for making the drive to see us. We had a wonderful time and we do hope that it is not another 2 and half years before we can get together again.

Sticks

Some more stories and pictures of our trip to California.

Although Oliver has long been in love with Davis, after spending a whole day, alone, with Davis, Oliver is even more in love. These pictures are from after I got back from meetings - Oliver had no interest in me, he just wanted to spend more time, alone, with Davis. I tried to hold his hand, he pulled it away. I tried holding him, he just wanted to go back to Davis.


Now, sticks -

We spent the majority of the day on Friday at Muir Woods outside of San Francisco. It was beautiful. I had never seen redwoods before and was quite impressed with the size.

Oliver, however, was much more impressed with a stick he found.

A couple people from the area suggested we check out the Tourist Club - a beer garden in the middle of the woods. Drawn to the idea of picnic tables, games, a grassy field where Oliver could run about, and some good German beer and food, we decided to make the trek. Luckily we chose the shorter, albeit steeper, trail because when we got there it was closed. Wishing it was a Mexican beer garden (it surely would have been open) we climbed out of the woods and went off to find a sandwich. It did look as though it had the potential to be fun - so, if anyone is headed out there, check it out for us - and let us know the hours.
We were given tickets to the baseball game Friday night - the San Francisco Giants vs. the Oakland A's. After a day of hiking in the woods and an afternoon excursion through San Francisco's Chinatown we were a bit worried we were pushing our luck with Oliver. As we got closer and closer to the stadium and the fans got rowdier and more animated we were increasingly worried that maybe we had made a bad decision. However, as soon as we got to our seats Oliver started to clap and laugh. He clapped, laughed and flirted his way through four innings. Just before the fifth inning he made it clear that he was done with the game. We think it is because he knows that five innings make a game, and he wanted his first full game to be a Red Sox game.

The boys, tired after a long and exciting day.

Pacific

This past week I had to go to California for work. Rather than stay home, Oliver and Davis decided to tag along. Oliver was an amazing traveler. Although travel is a bit different with an 11 month in tow - neither Davis nor I could believe how wonderful and easy Oliver was to travel with.

On Thursday I was in meetings all day. When I returned to the hotel room I was greeted by two very smiley boys, a dozen roses, a bottle of wine, some half eaten (very wet) goldfish crackers, and a photo essay of their day.

Here are some highlights:

Walking down to Half Moon Bay; Oliver's first view of the Pacific.
Giving it a thumbs up
Kelp
Oliver has several toy dinosaurs. I guess when he saw these he stood still, with his mouth open.
Relaxing at the pool.
Afternoon snack.
Not captured in the pictures is the new trick Davis taught Oliver - to press the elevator buttons. Oliver was very excited to show me this new trick when I got back from work.

I'll post more pictures from the trip later.

Water baby

Davis may have a companion with him on his swim across the English Channel next September - this past weekend Oliver showed us, once again, that he loves the water, and doesn't mind the frigid early summer water temperatures.

Over the past week Oliver has gone from taking a few steps here and there to being pretty good at walking. Show him the ocean, and he is pretty good at running. Oliver had no interest in playing with his beach toys - every time we pulled him out of the water, he ran back down. Oliver and Davis therefore spent much of the weekend jumping the waves and swimming in the water.






Between joining Davis at the YWCA's master's swim and spending as much time as he is in the cold ocean water, Oliver may have a chance at being the youngest person to swim the Channel.

In case you are wondering, I did, once again, forget Oliver's hat. At least this time I had an extra shirt to tie around his head - no more monkeys on his head.

Time out

Tuesday night we took a picnic dinner to the beach. When we arrived it was that perfect end of day sun, and the water was that perfect end of day color. And the sand was still warm -- it was a perfect evening. When we arrived there was just one person on the beach - a fisherman. Just was we arrived he caught a fish and then headed on his way, leaving us with an empty beach.

It was a perfect night. We hope to enjoy more picnic dinners on the beach - and welcome anyone to join us.