O eating his birthday cake!
We travelled up to Baltimore for O’s first birthday party last weekend. A nice bonous was that we were able to see Anne and Jed’s new house. There was a lot for them to do, having so many people over for the party, but I think they were glad afterwards. It was a great party and it inspired getting all their new house stuff done. O is getting to be one muscular kid from all of his walking and crawling. Since O is a couple months older than E, I am always surprised by all the advanced things he can do.
O was kind enough to share his toys with E. One big surprise was that E could walk without Mom or Dad by pushing O’s little wagon. If you’d like to see E taking O’s wagon for a stroll, you can see a clip here.
She loved it so much that we’re going to get one of those wagons for her to practice her walking. Here is a picture of Mom and E playing on the floor.
On Sunday morning, we went to the National Aquarium in downtown Baltimore. Here is a picture of Anne, Jed and O in the very humid rainforest on the top floor of the aquarium. .
We went to this aquarium a few times before when Pete and Paula lived in Baltimore. I remember carrying the girls down the carpeted ramps (at different times) surrounded by the giant tanks. We still have the picture of Paula, Liz, Pete holding S, and me carrying N in the back pack. Both girls were asleep.
E is old enough now that she really watches the fish. Still its only about 25% of the time. The rest of the time she watches people. At one point she got both, a diver in the tank swam up to the window and waved at her.
To prevent E from ever having to buy me socks or aftershave for the next 30 years, I decided that I wanted to go on a family hike every Father’s day. I started thinking about it when we would go hiking with Pete, Paula and the girls in Maine. It was always a great time just being together. I don’t want E to ever get hung up on buying me something. I figured that E could make the peanut butter sandwiches and pick out the trail mix (with M&Ms ??) someday. Liz and I started the tradition last year when E was negative a couple months old. This year E saw a bunny, a turtle and a snake. We went early in the morning before it got too hot.
Here’s a picture of E and her proud Dad. After the hike we ran some errands and then returned home to our weekend project. On Saturday, we bought a cabinet for the garage. It is one of those particleboard ones that you have to assemble. This one has a lock. I wanted a place that I could put all the poisonous stuff in the garage (E is begining to get mobile, see the vid at the end). We started putting it together on Saturday but had to pause and go to a chili cook off at the house one of Liz’s high school friends. It was actually a chili/pie cooking contest. There were about 20 chilies to try. You start out with little Dixie cups thinking that you can try them all, but after about 7 you hit a wall. Then you try to eat a plate full of pie. I wish I could have taken the temperature of the outlet with all the crock-pots plugged into it.
While dad worked on the cabinet, E (with Mom’s help) opened her packages from Grandpa Pete and Grandma. E is very lucky baby. While she loved the outfits, I think she enjoyed the envelopes most. E seems to be learning at a very rapid pace now. She can now sit up by herself. It’s a multistep process, but Mom and Dad can no longer just put her down and think she is going to go to sleep. She is a bit like a weable wobble. Turn away and then back and she’ll be up again playing. She’ll even look at you and laugh.
If you’d like to see E starting to sit up by herself, you can see a clip here. In case you are guessing, all of those clothes had just been washed. 
Last weekend we participated in the “Race for the Cure” in Raleigh. It was pretty inspiring. 18,000 people were running and walking to show their support for survivors and generate money to fight breast cancer. At times, you could see a big a river of people stretching off for a couple miles. We walked to show our support, but also to give thanks for all the help that Becky received.
Above you can see E marching along with the crowd for her Aunt Becky. She was very happy to see so many people and waved often. After a while though, the excitement and heat were too much for her. I’d say she napped for about half the walk. Afterwards, she enjoyed sampling bagels with the other participants.
After we finished our walk, E needed a pit stop on the lawn. Here you can see her climbing around dad.
It’s crazy, but she got sick again last week. We got a call from daycare and she had a fever of 103. After many trips to the doctor, E has more antibiotics for an ear infection and conjunctivitis. On top of this she has a cold (that her mom and dad now have). Things got a bit complicated during the week because Liz had a business trip to Boston. Dad was going to stay home until a spontaneous plan was put together. E spent the day with her Nanny in Concord. Liz went to her conference and dad made up for lost work time. The doctor has assured us that it’s ‘normal’ for E to get sick so often. It definitely syncs up with fact that E only has Liz’s immunity for the first six months. E has been sick off and on since month seven. She has been feeling much better since about last Friday.