Mr. Mom

So Dianne took off to The Great White North (Canada) this weekend and left Me alone with the baby for 3 days and 2 nights!

Here are a few thoughts:

Being a single parent must be hard! I have a whole new respect for single parents (and for stay at home mothers!).

Maddie was great, she was on a steady schedule, she at well from the bottle, and she slept well both nights. None the less, I'm exhausted! I didn't realize how constant caring for her would be. I mean every little thing you do revolves around her and the mood she's in or if she's asleep or awake. It's crazy.

Also, I love her to death but she is a terrible conversationalist. You get really tired of talking to yourself and eventually crave some sort of social interaction (Sunday morning I had cabin fever so bad that I went to the mall just to walk around). Luckily, I planned ahead and had some company lined up: Friday was Grandpa, Saturday was football watching with the boys, and Sunday was with Auntie Amanda.

Last thought:

Being alone for the weekend brings into sharp focus how lucky I am to have a wonderful woman to share being a parent with. By far the hardest part of this weekend was not being able to laugh and joke with Dianne about whatever Maddie was doing. Be it farting or burping or smiling...

One more thing:

Maddie didn't poop the entire weekend until right when Mom got home, just in time to change the diaper. Sweet.

Giggles!

Just wanted to post a short clip of Maddie doing her new thing.

Happy Halloween!

Our "Little Sasquatch" enjoyed her first Halloween on Friday. As you can see, Mommy pieced together a beautiful Bigfoot costume for her. She was way more cuddly than scary.

It's been along time...

Hey all,

We're sorry that it's been so long since our last post, but as you know, life gets busy. Here are a few photos of what we've been up to lately:
We went on another hike a few weekends ago. Maddie, Dianne, Dave, Amanda and I all went up to Sequim and hiked the Dungeness Spit which is the most boring hike ever. It is worth going out to the start of the hike and checking out the view. But then do yourself a favor and turn around, go back to your car and go to the Hiway 101 diner for a nice shake.
Then we went down to Bend Oregon for my brother's (JJ) wedding. The wedding was beautiful, the weekend was awesome and Maddie loved bathtime with Grandma Mimi.
Maddie has become extremely smiley as of late. This one was snapped and emailed to me while I was at work last week.

And earlier today we searched for a pumpkin patch that could become a family tradition. After 3 duds, we finally found a cute little one out on Bainbridge Island.

Swimtastic

Maddie's getting used to the water with the help from dad (thankfully these aren't the hairy legs of her mother)! I think we have a water baby in the works. How many gold medals did Michael Phelps win again???

These booties were made for walkin'

So we went on our first family hike today. We hopped in the car and headed up to Cresent Lake north of Port Angeles. We hiked the Spruce Railroad Trail which curves along the lake for a few miles. Maddie was fantastic: first she slept for 7 hours straight last night (which felt amazing): then only cried for about 5 minutes total during the hour and a half car ride: was either awake and smiling or asleep and smiling for the entire hike: and waited until we returned to the car before she blew up her pants... twice.

After the hike we stopped by Fat Smitty's, a sweet burger joint in Discovery Bay that has great shakes and burgers. All walls, ceilings, doors and pretty much every other surface are covered in old one dollar bills. It's quite a site as evidenced below.


We basically had the best day ever and I imagine we have many hikes / burger joints in our future.

A Day in the Yard

Today Maddie enjoyed a beautiful day in October. During the day she helped Mom plant iris bults in the front yard. Then when Dad got home from work she rode the lawn mower. No we don't have a riding mower, but when you're hitching a ride in a bjiorn...what else do you call it?

She's pooped now and sleeping/drooling on Dad. All in all, not a bad day.