August 30, 2009

She actually drank an ounce of water unassisted before the following takes place. It's DEFINITELY worth watching until the one minute marker...turn up your volume. :)

August 23, 2009

I never thought this day would come. Stella the six month old. I remember looking at a friend's baby blog and thinking that it would take three years for Stella to turn six months. The notion that Stella would one day sit up by herself or giggle or lose her incredulous amount of jet black hair or swallow real food seemed impossible. But here she is, as chirpy and mobile and constipated as any other six month old.

Her smile is as big as her jaw lets it go and she uses it whenever she pleases to whoever she pleases. Sometimes her grin is of the cheeky nature, with her dimples bursting and her lips slightly pursed, but usually its wide and full of uncorrupted hope. And just when you think her beam couldn't get any bigger, a wind blows down Main Street and her mouth opens just a crack wider, as if she believes the wind is trying to feed her mashed up banana or watered down droplets of squash.

Her laugh comes and goes much less frequently than her smile, which inevitably makes it even more profound and sweet than her fifty times an hour grin. We still drop everything when she bursts out, and after six months, lets face it, there isn't as much running frantically to see her do something as there was in week two when she would move her leg or blink. She seems to only let it go when she's in that perfect state of tiredness, where you can laugh and cry in the same minute. We kiss her ribs and hold her arms up in the air and she giggles and screams until we're laughing so hard we can't keep up.

Happy six months my little Stella bella.


August 17, 2009

Our little blanket has grown in size to coordinate with Stella's mobility. It started as a tiny, folded up patch of maybe four square feet. From there, not too long ago, it became half a blanket, a small rectangle patch that she could roll across like swimming lanes. Yesterday we were forced to open up our garage sale blanket all the way and this morning I turned around to see her in these positions. It seems we've come to the beginning of the end...




August 16, 2009

Not her first time swimming, but probably her first time in grass.



August 13, 2009

Last year my sister Julie and I hiked the first 210 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mexico border to Interstate 10 near Palm Springs. And since one of my life goals is to hike the entire trail, all the way up to Canada, I set out again this year. Veteran hiker Paul Kind and I began our modest fifty-five mile trek last Thursday and walked from Big Bear Lake (mile 265) to where Julie and I finished last year (mile 210). After what seems like many days of walking the trail over the past four years, I have only completed 1/8th of the PCT. :)

We spent much of the first day in the woods at 8000 feet. The second day took us along Mission Creek as it carved its way through a burn area. And on day three we found ourselves in the hot desert, walking our way through wind farms to the end.

Day 1: Mile 265-245




- Mount San Jacinto in the background. We saw it for the first time near mile 250. The PCT actually crosses near the top of San Jacinto at mile 185.



Day 2: Mile 245-222






- Can you find Paul?



Day 3: Mile 222-210





August 2, 2009

Her new thing is standing and she does it (assisted) whenever she can. The new vantage point means a whole new loft as she has never seen it before. She stares in every direction, taking in each tiny nook and every last colorful image. Even gazing upon mom and dad is different; she seems to feel as our equal now, as she stares at us face to face.



Attempting a hands free shot:

We left at 7:30am, just in time to hit early morning traffic on the lengthy Interstate 10, just in time to miss the standstill on Interstate 10 which occurs sometime around 8:10am. Within thirty minutes of departing downtown Los Angeles, we were taking the last curve the I-10 makes on it's long journey from Atlantic to Pacific and heading up the indelible Highway 1 towards San Francisco...





Slideshow