Here and Everything In It

So Long, And Thanks For All The Sun

Alas, our time in California has come to an end. It is always so hard to leave beautiful places and go home again, but California is especially difficult to leave because we're also leaving behind awesome people.

As per usual, Sara and Edward went above and beyond regular hosting duties, and we went for tonnes of walks together, Brad and I got to go out to dinner TWICE while Sara and Edward babysat Innis, AND they were super cool about Innis's, ah, vocal attitude.

But despite all his screaming, Innis decided rather early on that Edward was indeed his BESTEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD:

And it turns out that Edward is a professional "ah!" player (wherein Innis yells AH! at Edward from across the room, and Edward responds in kind, over and over (and over) again).

And, of course, Innis and Cy bonded, even though they probably weren't aware of it. The plan is to take pictures like the following every few years or so to mark Cy's progress as he grows into his feet and hands and ends up eventually towering over our little gorilla:

And though that picture is really cute, I want to show you this one as well because it's pretty hilarious:

Innis is all, "what? Do I smell?"

We had a great, great time. Thank you to Sara and Edward for being awesome, and for the cookies and the muffins, the homemade ice cream, and the quinoa salads, and the taco-truck tacos.

And from the mouth of babes, here's some photographic evidence of how much fun Innis had -- by the end of our week in California, he was drooling hearts:

Swimming Lesson

On Sunday, we took Innis to the local pool for his very first swim ever.

I think he enjoyed himself.

All Babies Should Be Born In California

 At this point, taking Innis back to the frigid north in a week's time seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

Reasons 1 through 3 gazillion:

Saturday morning, we walked about six minutes from Sara and Edward's front door to a farmers' market, and just as we got there, a full-on parade with horses and marching bands and floats and tractors and belly dancers and baby goats stomped by in gloriously loud fashion:

 

Innis: OH MY GOD! Is that a DELOREAN?!!

List Of Things That Make Me Blubber Like A Fool

1. The Big Reveal on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

2. Cheering Crowds (see #1)

3. People Who Are Really Excited To Win Stuff (see #1)

4. Watching Innis Watch Horses

5. Marching Bands

Call it new-mummy hormones, call it a love for John Philip Sousa, call it an appreciation for synchronized youth, but marching bands now put a wiggle in my heart, prickles in my nose, and tears in my eyes.

Add something like this, and my olfactory system is pretty much doomed:

But the fun didn't stop with the parade, as we then went to a baby shower for Sara and Edward's friends Ben and Meghan, and while Innis got to play in the park with Dad ...

... Mummy got to paint a onesie for the new baby at the arts and crafts table!

Here are some beautiful designs that other guests painted:

I mean, really. An arts and crafts table for adults. At a baby shower. What a great idea. And, you know, I'm not a baby shower connoisseur or anything, having only ever been to one other shower of the baby variety in my entire life, but I think, according to my limited experience, that this baby shower was pretty much awesome. The hosts even passed out envelopes for us to address to ourselves so they could send out the thank you cards in a timely manner (and not six months after the fact like yours truly). That, people, is organization.

AND THEN, after the baby shower, we went to a roadside fruit stand to buy a whole flat of strawberries, then Edward took us to experience the consumerist phenomenon that is Target, and then we all ate homemade ice cream with locally grown almonds and fruit.

And basically, it was all very wonderful and exhausting and ultimately culminated in lovely naps in late afternoon sunshine:

Clearly, Innis was meant for these warmer climes. He's never been happier, or slept better, or eaten more. Dragging him home sort of breaks my heart, but we only have another couple months left north of sixty and then he'll be wallowing in all the humid summertime mugginess Ontario has to offer.

And I know: Ontario won't be California. But it'll do. For now.

Patio Diner

Turns out the only way to make Innis love food even more is to feed him outside:

And then let him have a wrestling match with Dad aferwards:

And then finish it all off with some cuddles:

Almost Crawling

But not quite ...

Seriously, Who Hates GRASS?

Innis does!!

In a concerted effort to negate all my plans for his California/Natural World Stimulation Extravaganza, Innis has turned out to be somewhat of an indoors type who hates direct sunlight, grass, wind and, well, the world.

These pictures were taken after a catastrophic toppling while sitting in the park which landed him on his back, in the grass, where he was tickled in the neck by all those evil green poky thingies coming out of the ground:

But at least he likes trees:

As long as he's the one doing all the touching.

Baby Needs A New Pair Of Shoes

Hi! We're in California! Lots of things have happened in the last few days!

Let's start at the beginning ...

Saturday came sooner than expected, and we all managed to pile into the truck by late morning despite our plans to get going at the crack of 8am. So, one baby, five dogs, and two adults, crammed into a teensy Toyota Tacoma with one hockey bag, two schoolbags, two suitcases and a baby seat? Turns out packing for a trip with a child and several billion canines produces a total luggage weight much greater than the combined weight of the travelers actually doing the traveling.

Two of the five dogs were fosters, one of whom was Woody, the dog we've been trying to get our foster paws on for three years:

As it turns out, foster dogs aren't such great travelers, and about an hour into our journey (as I was crammed into the rear bench seat in the truck cab attempting to soothe a perpetually screaming infant), I started to hear some strange clicking and sliding noises coming from the back of the truck. Turns out Woody had expelled some anxiety diarrhea into her crate (she was separated from the general population due to previous anti-social interactions), and was sliding around as though she was on skates and sloshing all that nasty business over the edge of the crate and onto the other dogs' blankets.

Needless to say, Scarlet was pissed.

So we stopped on the side of the highway, and while I corralled the other four dogs, Brad hauled everything (Woody included) out of the back of the truck for a deep paper towel scouring. Half an hour and a novel's worth of swear words later, we were back on the road.

After that, everything went rather smoothly, and we dropped Silver off at her rescue and Ida met us in Calgary to pick up Woody:

Innis was pretty good on the plane from Calgary to Sacramento; some crying, some runny nosing, but he spent most of the time whipping his head back and forth, looking for pretty ladies to flirt with. He certainly spread the baby love, shooting gummy grins to anyone within firing distance.

... and also took some in-flight pictures of himself, apparently.

Now he's got a cold, but is not (surprisingly) that much more miserable than usual because of it. We're trying to keep his snotty little self away from Cy (who is adorable), so that we don't end up with a house full of cranky, sick babies.

We're not going to let the sniffles get us down, though, and have been going on our walks in the sunshine just as planned. Innis is slowly getting into the groove of being in a stroller, though he's still adjusting to the idea of not being carried absolutely everywhere. For now, the little emperor must be satisfied with his chariot.

Cy is still small enough to fit into Sara's carrier, and though the weight maximum for such an apparatus is 35 lbs, I don't think I'll be carrying Innis around in one any time soon, mostly because I value the alignment of my spine.

I did, however, fall prey to the enticements of the local baby store, in which I spent more money than I probably should have, but figured that one pair of baby shoes won't break the bank.

Well, maybe they dented it a little bit, but -- c'mon -- how could I deny this little face?

And this little face needed shoes.