Just Drive It Off A Cliff

Bleh. They want $7,000 to $8,000 to fix our "new" (2001) Subaru we bought less than a year ago. Bum engine. We are just so discouraged...

Full Circle

As I type this, my Gram and my Grandpa Red are a few doors down in the retirement home mess hall eating together for the first time in 44 years. Awkward? Yes. After exchanging pleasantries, they proceeded to gripe about the eggs. I don't think they'll get back together (in fact, Red just said he "doesn't want to see another birthday) but at 80, I guess it's hard to remain too bitter about divorce drama from nearly a half-century before.
We're leaving for the airport in about an hour, and I'm not sure if Alec will weather the return trip as well as he did the trip here. He's off-schedule on his naps and we won't be back in Chico until 8 p.m. or so.
It's been a fun trip, but it will be nice to get back home to Daddy and Kitty.

Grand Old Time

Since my last post, we've been to the Phoenix Zoo, which was super-fun but also super-hot.
My mom and I about keeled over, and it was only 11 a.m. Alec had the time of his life. He loved the tiger "cat!" and the decidedly non-zoo ducks, turtles and sheep. The carousel--not so much. He liked running around it, but when my mom tried to put him on he made the baby-sign for "scary" and said, "Bye!" He's also been swimming twice in the 90-degree water at the old folks' home. The Merced River will be a shock when we go to Yosemite next month!
Alec also got to see his Grandpa Red, and proceeded to set about destroying his room: Dr. Pepper can out of the trash and onto the floor. Stuffed cats off the bed. Picture Red's stepdaughter painted as a child: upside-down and stepped on. I think it went well.

The Old Folks at Home

I'm still at the old folks' home so can't post any photos, but here's the update:
We had a great time at the Grand Canyon for Gram's 80th. She said it was everything she hoped it would be. (She said some people had described it as "just a hole in the ground.")
We had some trouble getting there because the rental van blew a tire, which apparently turns out to be the reason why you should buy that stupid damage waiver insurance because now they're trying to get my mom to pay for a new tire. Anyway, some Good Samaritans from the Volunteer State volunteered to help Jordan change the tire and, after getting a replacement tire, we were back on the road.
Alec wanted to "go go go" at the Canyon, and even though there were plenty of barriers it made my legs weak so I put him "on leash." Baby on a leash! I never thought it would happen. He learned a lot of new words, including "bus" and "donkey."
We're hoping for a trip to the zoo tomorrow or Monday, but it will have to be early because it's a cloudy 111 degrees here in Phoenix.

Sunrise, Sunset

I'm writing this quickly from the computer lab in retirement home in Phoeniz, Arizona.
We had a good trip--long, but good. For some reason I assumed that since Alec is so mellow, he would be a little angel on the plane. Well, he was happy and "full of beans," so the passengers behind us got a lot of "hi"s. There was also some struggling to get off my lap, which was remedied with a coloring book and stickers. Alec loved when the plane took off (both times; we had a layover in Salt Lake City). He'd stiffen up, kinda shake, smile and then say and baby-sign "more, more."
We had breakfast with Grandpa Red this morning. He looks old, but OK. And today is the 80th birthday of his ex-wife, my grandma, the reason that we are leaving in just a few minutes for the Grand Canyon. See ya!

Out of the Frying Pan...

In less than an hour, Alec and I will be on our way from 107-degree Chico to different climes. Arizona. Yes, cool, crisp Arizona, with its gentle ocean breezes and ... oh, wait.
Anyway, we should have fun on our trip to the Grand Canyon and Phoenix. We're driving 3 1/2 hours to Reno to catch a flight (Sacramento was too expensive) and I'm expecting Alec to be the agreeable fellow he usually is. If we have any trouble, I'll call in reinforcements in the name of "RPO"--Rolie Polie Olie DVDs.
Stay tuned for blogging and photos from the road.

My Baby's Daddy

It's almost Father's Day, but I already gave Tom his present: a little scrapbook of pictures of Alec and Jody together. Jody, our "firstborn," turned 15 a couple of weeks ago. It's funny to think how we were so worried that she might be too "set in her ways" to accept an interloping baby into the fold. But we have pictures of Jody curling up to newborn Alec, Jody sniffing 3-week-old Alec's bottom--even Jody eating off of Alec's highchair right in front of him. Now, Jody steers clear of Alec when he's being wild, but seems to have some fondness toward him. Alec definitely loves Jody. He runs toward her saying "hugs!" and tries to give her kisses. And when we're out and about, I'll mention we're headed home and he asks, "Cat? Cat?" and makes the whiskers sign on his cheek. He just recently started trying to say Jody's name, calling her Jo-Jody, which must be a compliment since he likes JoJo the clown from JoJo's Circus so much.
So, happy Father's Day to Tom, who has raised the best cat ever and is doing a class-A job with the best boy ever.

Tom said I'd be Lucy

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Sweet life

"Unexpected" would be a good word to describe this last week. It was a week ago Sunday that we heard the sad news that Tom's much-loved cousin Val had died unexpectedly, at only 44. We headed south to attend the service at the San Fernando Mission. It was not the circumstances under which we would have liked to visit family, but once there Alec had fun with his cousins, especially Mayzie and Grace.
Alec's favorite activity, besides "kick kick kick"-ing in the pool, was walking around the pool dropping in whatever he find, from Grandpa's glasses to Mayzie's toys. He also learned some new words, including, "Mine." The relatively peaceful car trip (probably 20 hours of driving altogether) was brought to us by Rolie Polie Olie. 

First he was tiny...

Alec used to be a tiny, newborn baby. I'm going through the Costco CDs trying to get the photos onto my laptop, but turns out you have to click and save each one individually. That would be, like, 10,000 clicks. Carpal tunnel anyone? And I'm supposed to be working on grants and work and stuff. So, here's as far as I got.
Today Alec put away some stuff he was playing with and said to himself, "Good job." (It came out "Gud jub."
He played in the backyard turtle sandbox for an hour and still wasn't ready to get "out, out, out."