New Photos - James, Stephanie and Melanie

My brother James, his wife Stephanie and their daughter Melanie arrived for the Thanksgiving holiday on Friday.  Davis and Melanie are so far getting along well, though Davis seemed a little confused that Melanie didn't go home last night.   Today, the kids played a lot and we went to the zoo before naps for everybody.  Tonight, we went out to dinner, which was stressful but great.  We're all excited to have Grammie arriving on Monday.

Here are a few pictures from the last two days.

Weekend shenanigans

John and I haven't had much time to blog about Davis' new developments, but last week he started to pull up to a stand and last night he took his first steps while supporting himself. He's also doing more tummy-off-the-ground crawling, versus his preferred method of commando-crawling. On Friday, John and I took advantage of having a weekday off to take him to the tumble-gym.

Last night, Grammie sent us out to dinner for our birthday treat. We went to EVOO a favorite restaurant of ours that did not disappoint last night. We both chose a three course prix fixe menu with wine pairings. It was fantastic, especially since the wine pairings allowed us to try wines I would not have picked for myself. We followed it with a trip to the wine store across the street to pick up a couple of them (a Verdicchio and a Moscato d'Asti).

A few other things we've done this weekend include shoe shopping (finally!) for both John and myself. Also, John and I bought our joint Christmas present. It's a strobe flash kit for studio lighting. A while ago we borrowed a backdrop from our friend Dave, but have been wondering about how we were going to light the room for some artsy baby/family photos. We dropped into a photo store on Saturday and were wooed by an entry level lighting kit. Watch for some photos in the future! Here's one of Domino John captured while playing around with one of the lights.

In Seattle

The remainder of our trip to Seattle went surprisingly well. Davis did great on the landing and after a slow meander through the airport we picked up our bags, got the rental car and headed to my mom's in Issaquah where we will spend the next 10 days. My brother James, his wife Stephanie and their 11 week old Melanie arrived later that night and we had a nice reunion and family dinner.

One of our biggest concerns about this trip has been how we would handle the 3 hour time transition. Since Davis usually wakes up between 5 and 6 in the morning, we would have real sleep issues if he stayed on East Coast time. In the end, he has handled it better than Kristen or I. We put him down for a nap at his usual East Coast bedtime, but woke him up after about an hour and a half. We were later put him down at 8:00 Pacific, and while it was a struggle to get him down, he slept great last night.

We've already enjoyed our time in Seattle. We really have missed the beautiful green mountains and the peacefulness of my Mom's and it has been great to sit, relax and enjoy ourselves. Seeing James, Melanie and Stephanie has been great - it has been far too long since we last saw them. This morning we went into Seattle and Davis met his great aunt for the first time over breakfast at one of our favorite breakfast places.

Here are some photos from our trip so far:

Morning play time:

Practicing sitting up with Grammie:

Playing in the new exersaucer:

James and Melanie:

Grammie and Melanie:

Grammie and Melanie:

Steph and Davis:

Cousins:

Cousins part deux:

Melanie and John:

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