A Day for a Happy Father

Veronica and Daddy celebrated their first Father's Day together. The day started like every day should start, at Top Pot Doughnuts. V had a few nibbles of Daddy's raspberry glazed old fashioned. She liked it. Ever the gracious baby, V showered Daddy with gifts for the barbecue. Including a basting brush that V was anxious to try. We put the new tools straight to work and enjoyed some burgers.

But Daddy wasn't the only one getting new toys. V got some new wheels and she's goin' mobile. She can reach break neck speeds on the hardwoods and has hair pin maneuverability on the carpet... so we keep her on the carpet because we can't keep away from her new toy and she's going to break her neck cruising around the hardwood. We actually had to hide it Friday night when we going through the bedtime routine because she gets so excited about it. We couldn't get her to calm down when it was in sight.

Happy Birthday Mama!

We celebrated Mama's birthday this weekend. Nothing like good food, good friends, and good sleep to celebrate. At the top of Mama's wishlist was a long lazy morning, so Daddy and V scampered off first thing Sunday morning until we were summoned back by a rested and refreshed Mama and an order for buttermilk pancakes.

And Veronica learned a new trick. She came home from daycare tonight very excited to share it with us. Attempts to capture it on film were a challenge since V is such a ham and she switches into smile mode as soon as the camera beeps.

Kissin' cousins

Veronica met her cousin Sammy this weekend. Auntie Julie came over for Sunday Night Barbacue and V got to learn about dogs. As you can see, they got along great. V learned how to pet a dog and Sammy was very patient. Although he did get a little jealous.

Veronica's crawling has kicked into another gear. She is up on her hands and getting hard for Daddy to keep up with. She is even working on standing. But that's nothing compared to her moose hunting skills and ability to fly.

In other news, she had her first bite of chocolate chip cookie, brushed her teeth, and continues to refine her flirting skills.

First play date and first baseball game

Veronica had her first play date last weekend with Lena, who belongs to our friends Matt and Sarah. The girls are only a few days apart in age, so we have many years of comparing the girls against each other ahead of us. For now, we just compared notes on surviving the first few months and tried to get back in the swing of drinking cocktails.

Veronica also enjoyed her first Red Sox game last weekend. The Sox of course lost the game in the bottom of the 9th on a base hit that followed a two-base error with two outs. Which meant Veronica learned that being a Red Sox fan is something you earn through hardship... or maybe she didn't notice that at all. She had a great time at the game eating pieces of soft pretzel and hot dog buns, but did get scared when the cheering got too loud. Luckily there were a enough Mariner fans in the stadium to keep the place quiet. Thanks again to our friends Laura and Erin, who flew out from Boston because tickets at Fenway are that hard to get.

Mother's Day

Veronica celebrated her first Mother's Day with Mama last weekend. And one mother wasn't enough for our celebration, so Veronica invited Mimi out for a visit. We all piled on the Bainbridge Island ferry to spend the day playing games, walking on trails, and swinging at playgrounds. It was exhausting.

The developmental stages are flying by now. The ba-ba's started last week and she is just starting to mix in some ga-ga's. The feet are starting to help the hands with the crawling. And V is pulling herself up to stand. I caught her using her toy basket as leverage to reach up to play with the buttons on the cable box. And the musical talent she inherited from her parents is already fully developed... sorry sweetheart, that's all you get.

Flying the friendly skies to meet Baby C

Last week was a big week for Veronica. Veronica took her first vacation to Brookline to meet her new cousin, Carmen. Veronica was great on the red-eye and slept most of the flight to Boston. And Brookline had everything a baby could ever want. Veronica was as happy as we've ever seen her. Veronica loves to watch big kids play and she could barely keep her eyes off of Lucia (a.k.a. Dorothy Gale from Kansas). Which worked out well because Lucia is a natural performer. There were lots of new toys to play with. More toys than Veronica knew what to do with. There were even toys in the tub. The big girl tub that is. Now that she can sit up on her own, Veronica took her first tubby in a regular bathtub. Lucia did a great job sharing her toys with her young cousin, although she didn't have to share everything.

The most exciting part of visiting Brookline was of course the floors. Unlike the floors in Seattle, the floors in Brookline have rugs. And that means crawling! Veronica figured out how to do the army crawl while we were there and she chased every toy, Momma, and cousin in sight. When we got back to Seattle, the first thing we did was order some rugs for the floor because things didn't go quite as smoothly once we got home.

Apologies to all our loved ones in the Boston area that we didn't get to see. It was a short trip, but we promise to be back soon.

If you look carefully, you can see Veronica's first two teeth popping through. A few more days and those chompers will be ready for corn on the cob. V is certainly otherwise ready for summer.

Veronica had a special visit from Grandmom for Easter. Grandmom came loaded with an Easter outfit, bonnet and all. It was quite a lot for V to take all at once, but she got the hang of it.

And an addendum to last week's favorite things post: talking to Mimi on the phone. And this clip is just a fraction of how giddy V gets on the phone with her Mimi.