One!

Molly turned one year old on friday.

An incredible year.

Steps

It was just Molly, the dogs, and I last night since Trina had a dinner engagement with co-workers who were in town from Kansas City. On the hour drive back home from an all-day meeting in Burlington, I thought about how we would have a mellow evening of the usual routine. We would play on the floor for a while, then move to the kitchen where Molly would sit happily (of course) in her high chair eating whatever morsels of goodness we put her way, I would could dinner (Spanish style shrimp and mushroom risotto). After dinner we would play on the floor some more before she went to bed by 7:30. After that I would likely work up some photos, update the blogging about the trip to La Paz, and work on her invitations for her birthday party.

Not so much.

I picked her up from daycare at 4:30. She was her usual happy self and Jen reported that Molly had taken a few steps during the day. This wasn't a surprise since she had let go of the ottoman the previous night, took a step, and fell to the floor, laughing of course.

At home she was full of energy and we played on the floor for about an hour. I thought we would have an early dinner, so at 5:30 placed her in her high chair, gave her some puffs (a.k.a. 'baby crack'), opened an IPA, and began working on dinner. I chopped up some carrot that I roasted a little earlier for her and gave it to her along with some pieces of string cheese. She showed some interest, but not a lot. No big deal since it is a relatively new flavor. She was quite restless, so I gave her some Pirate's Booty (http://piratesbooty.com/) which she loves. This held her for a few minutes before she started giving it to the dogs. She was still very restless.

My dinner prep had not gone well. I had only managed to get the shrimp out of the refrigerator, rinse them, and place them on a cutting board for deveining. Molly was even more restless. Since she has three or four teeth coming in and was drooling a little, I gave her some Tylenol, and then prepared a bottle to hopefully ease her hunger more quickly. She downed the bottle with admirable speed. I thought that we could give dinner prep another go. Nope. She didn't want to sit still.

We played on the floor for the next two hours. She displayed a new level of energy I had not seen. She crawled to every room in the house and back. We played peek-a-boo multiple times. She climbed up her chair and over the arm of it into her toy box, where she played for a few minutes, then back up and over the chair. We walked all over the house while she held on to my fingers for balance many times. She played with her books, her doll, everything. She crawled around some more. Then as I was sitting on the floor where I could contain her in the living room she stood next to Trina's ottoman only using only one hand for balance, let go, took two steps, and fell to the floor (laughing of course), and crawled over to me. She did this a couple of times on her own, so after she crawled to me I carried her back to the ottoman where she would repeat the attempt at walking.

After about 10 practice runs at walking she moved to her toy boxes. She emptied them completely, then began putting some back in and taking them back out. We played with her toys until 8:15, when I thought she must be tired, despite not showing any symptoms. I prepared her bottle, carried her to her room, turned all the lights except for her night light, sat in the rocking chair, and gave her the bottle. She quietly drank her bottle and then turned around in my lap, laid her head on my shoulder, and started to go to sleep.

She was tired.

I placed her in her crib and expected the usual 10 minutes of crying before falling asleep. She uttered not a peep.

At last I had dinner at 9:00 and Trina got home soon after, quite fatigued, sore throat and all, and sad she missed out on the night's fun. I'm sure there will be more steps today since once she gets something she is persistent at perfecting it.

La Paz Vacation: Day 1

Our vacation to sunny La Paz began two weeks ago with the sound of an 80's rock tune blaring from our alarm clock at 2:00 a.m. Molly, Trina, and I were catching the 6:00 a.m. flight out of SeaTac, and Jess and Cooper were catching a 6:30 a.m. flight to Idaho Falls. All the bags were packed the night before, so all we had to do was wake, shower (I certainly needed the help waking up), down a cup of coffee, prep the kids, and load the mountain of luggage into the shuttle van. The shuttle van arrived at 2:50 and whisked us off to the airport.

At the airport, as I picked up one of Jess's bags from out of the van, out fell my camera bag onto the pavement. It landed upside down – where there is no padding. As I looked at it in disbelief, the driver said "At least it was just a computer." – indicating that it was obviously a bad thing to fall. I replied: "No. Worse, it is a camera." While I was loading car seats in the van he was loading bags and placed the camera bag under a 40 lb duffle bag!!! We pretty well had the airport to ourselves at 3:30 a.m., so getting through ticketing and security was a breeze. As soon as we settled in at the airport I checked the camera – the electronics were all screwed up. It would shoot, but all the displays were not working. I was speechless. I'd only had the thing working for about 6 weeks since all the repairs.

Meanwhile, Jess and Trina chatted about kids traveling and all to come in the future that matters (kids). I fetched a breakfast burrito from Qdoba, shot a few pics by adjusting shutter speed after I shot a photo.

Trina carried Molly on her pack when we were in the airports. This not only freed up her hands, but seems to keep Molly quite calm, and comfortable. Without the pack, she'd certainly have been trying to get to the floor and crawl around. She's not much of a cuddler unless it means we are feeding her.

2:00 a.m. is real early to wake anyone, let alone an 11-month old. Despite the short night, Molly was her usual cheerful self and was showing no sign of the previous day's vomiting (much to our relief- starting out a vacation in a non-English speaking country w/ an infant that has the flu is rather unnerving). Before long she was fast asleep.

A two-hour flight landed us at LAX. Molly had no problems with the flight at all, slept through some of it and all was smooth an uneventful. That was about to change. Upon arrival we checked the departures board for the gate for the next flight. It wasn't posted yet, so we laid low and took turns letting Molly walk around the terminal while holding our hands for balance. Eventually our gate was posted: #206 – a Delta partnered flight. Since all the gates around us were numbered in the 30s we asked a lady at one of the gates how to get to #206. She said to catch the shuttle at gate 39 to the Delta terminal, and so we did. After a convoluted tour by shuttle bus, the shuttle bus driver told us that that there was no gate 206 anywhere at LAX. Back we went to the Alaska terminal. We then found out that catching a shuttle was correct, but not that one. When boarding time arrived we all loaded on a bus and took a ride that felt long enough to deliver us in Burbank. We eventually arrived at an empty building in the middle of nowhere with a "206" painted on the side and our plane waiting next to it. And off we went with a plane full of blue-hairs that had booked a whale watching trip with National Geographic.

Molly took another nap on the flight and handled it perfectly. She received many compliments in the La Paz airport on how good she was.

The reward for the early morning was soon at hand: blue skies, warm temperatures, the first of many cold Pacificos, and a happy grandpa.

Each night we were treated to a beautiful sunset over La Paz before dinner.