Excitement in the big city....

This weekend we drove to visit with Sequoia's cousins Ryley and Aiden outside of DC, at their parents Sherri and Steven's house in Kensington. Sequoia's aunt Kathleen (Colleen's sister) and her boyfriend E.J. were also in town from Colorado.

Saturday Kathleen, E.J., Colleen, Sequoia and I all went to Eastern Market in DC to buy some vegetables. That trip involved a ride on the Metro, which Sequoia mostly slept through.

The main market building that dates back to the early 1800's and was originally commissioned by Thomas Jefferson is closed for renovations, but the market itself is still thriving in the streets surrounding the building. I am a big sucker for outdoor markets (don't really know why) and I really enjoyed walking down the rows of fresh vegetables and seeing the different goods being offered by the vendors. Sequoia picked out a beautiful watermelon. The day was pretty hot and the poor girl was a sweaty mess, but she never complained once.

Sequoia enjoyed her time getting to know her cousins better and, in the case of this picture, working on her guitar skills so that she can play with her daddy. Those are some pretty intense blues notes that she playing way down on the neck like that!

In the evening we were joined by cousin Clarence, his wife Danielle and his new 6 week old baby Emma. Emma is an absolutely beautiful, healthy and alert young girl and her parents are understandably proud of her.

Sequoia surprised me by remaining alert and mostly fuss-free for the entire day. She was passed from cousin, to uncle to friend all evening long and appeared to enjoy every minute of it.

Uncle Brian was the surprise baby expert managing to sooth both of the young infant ladies at different times. Sequoia spent a long time in his arms Saturday night.

Here Sequoia poses with her new little friend. It is the first time that I have seen her with a younger baby and it is surprising to me how big she has gotten in her 3 months.

Big enough to get her own pony? Not yet. But she was big enough to sneak a ride on one of Ryley's beautiful rocking horses. Ryley actually does have a pony and is a very good rider. She and her mom ride quite frequently - her mom being an extremely talented rider, competing in Dressage events with her magnificent horse Chancellor.

Here are the cousins together. The two older ones are a constant blur of activity, so this shot was harder to get than you might think. It makes me wonder why I am in such a hurry for Sequoia to start crawling....?

Sequoia's swimsuit edition.....

Sequoia went for her first dip in the pool on Sunday. We've been pretty excited about getting her in the water to see if she has inherited any of her mom's fish like qualities.

She was as calm as a sea turtle in the water and just enjoyed having her body float and bob in the water while Colleen and I held her loosely.

Sequoia got to share her first trip to the pool with her Aunt Kathleen, pictured here with Sequoia and Colleen, as well as with the rest of the gang that was visiting up at Sherri and Steven's house for the weekend.

Here she is resting in her surf gear on her surf towel. She's a cutie. I think her surf board must be leaning up on a palm tree just out of the picture.

And here she is with her proud mommy. I know that deep down Colleen has been terrified that Sequoia would take after her dad and prefer to spend her days on the water as opposed to in the water. Apparently that fear can be put to rest, unless Sequoia watches Jaws when she is 9 like her daddy did ... who would have thought that I would grow up to marry a shark whisperer after that traumatic event?

Finally done with classes...

Sequoia started going to classes at Mary Immaculate Hospital last October - about 6 months before she was born. Every Thursday night for 12+ weeks Colleen, Sequoia and I would drive down to Newport News for our Baby Classes.
Luckily we graduated.

As a bonus for taking the class (which was free to start with) we also earned the right to attend a month of Infant Massage class once Sequoia turned two months old.

It is basically a chance for more socialization and bonding time mixed in with some very valuable soothing techniques to help Sequoia with things like gas bubbles and stress...yes babies get stressed - it's not just tough on us parents.

Sequoia really enjoyed her classes for the most part. She enjoyed showing off her amazing coordination and strength. I know that she is just like all of the other babies out there, but I like pretending that she is something special....after all, she is about the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

So to stay consistent with my obnoxious, proud daddy roll, here are two shots that show how good she is getting at standing up. She can hold herself up with no help other than basic balance issues. Granted the duration of an unassisted "stand" is about 5 seconds, but it is fun to watch how much fun she is having mastering this skill.

She is even convinced that she is ready to start running. You have to admire the confidence and ambition the little gal has.

Here Sequoia is being held by Pat, our instructor for the 12 week Baby Class as well as the Infant Massage class that ended last night. Pat has a powerful personality and voice that fills the room with her infectious happiness. Sequoia had 12 weeks in the womb of listening to her every Thursday night. We thought it was funny that in massage class Sequoia would go out of her way to position her head so that she could just stare at Pat whenever she was talking. I am pretty convinced that she recognized her voice on some level.

Now that Sequoia has graduated from her Massage Class she is once again finding time for some of her favorite pastimes like sitting in the Bumbo on the underwater activity mat with the Tiki-Hut and assorted marine animals...she likes to keep things interesting.

Sequoia's picnic and pals....

So as I was saying, we went to Maymont in Richmond on Saturday and had an absolutely great time. We went to the nature center and aquarium (see previous post) , walked around the grounds, had a delicious picnic and went to the petting zoo.

I think Sequoia has impeccable taste when it comes to picking out an outfit for a picnic - even if it means stealing Colleen's hat.

Sequoia got a lot of exercise in general yesterday, but in particular she spent the entire time we were eating doing her version of sit ups and push ups - all in an effort to perfect (read duplicate) her ground breaking roll-over.

Picnics are a wonderful time to just relax and enjoy each other's company.

I love how easily amused Sequoia is. She keeps getting better about finding ways to entertain herself and it is fun to keep reminding ourselves that every little thing she does is an experiment in self discovery.

But is not all about self discovery ... yesterday she discovered the wonderful world of farm animals that live at Maymont's petting zoo.

I love this shot of her with this old billy goat. She was absolutely enthralled with the animals and would strain and stretch to get closer to them or to see them better. At one point all of the sheep and goats starting bleating because it was time to eat. Sequoia must of thought it was pretty funny because she starting laughing in response to their bleats.

Maymont has some beautiful gardens. These are just a few of the flower beds near the petting zoo. The entire facility is geared towards educational programs. Normally we would have walked the entire grounds but some huge thunderstorms were rolling in so we cut our trip short.

But not before Colleen and Sequoia got up close and personal with some of the inviting flower gardens along the way. It was an absolutely wonderful day together as a family. Sequoia was on the go all day and never complained once. She is the definition of a wonderful little girl.

Sequoia visits her first aquarium....

All I can say is it's about time. I was beginning to wonder if Sequoia was ever going to make it to an aquarium. Well she managed to make it just before her 3 month birthday.

Saturday we drove over to Maymont in Richmond. Maymont is a really cool park that has an aquarium/ nature center, a petting zoo, a regular zoo, an old Victorian era mansion, a beautiful Japanese garden and acres and acres of rolling lawns and shaded trails. It is a perfect place to go for a picnic and some walking. The best part is that it is free.

Sequoia was really awake and alert while we were there. Anyone who thinks that a kid who is just under three months is too young to appreciate something like a trip to the aquarium obviously has never spent time with one that was awake.

We had a ball watching her reactions to the different fish and animals in the nature center. The tanks were really active and kept Sequoia very entertained.

She got to get up close and personal with fish bigger than she is - like this big old carp.

She also had a great view of some pretty sturgeon. We think it would be ok if she chose to grow up and be a sturgeon conservationist.

One of the funnest things for us was watching her at the otter tank. Colleen used to train river otters when she worked at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. She would love to do that again one day and I doubt she would mind if it was a mother and daughter training gig. The resident otters were in their glory wrestling and playing with each other right in front of the tank. Sequoia was fascinated by them and would move her head around to watch their antics. I could have stayed there all afternoon. This was a big step up from our little 55 gallon tank at home. I am certain that this is only the first of many, many trips to many, many different aquariums.

Graduation cookout with her bud....

Last week Colleen, Sequoia and I went to our friends house for their son's high school graduation party. It was a really nice cookout on their deck.
Sequoia got to spend some quality time with her best bud Grant.

A friend of the family took some nice shots of our family relaxing on the deck.

I am particulary fond of this shot of Colleen and her little sweetheart.

And you can always use another family shot. It is somewhat rare that all three of us manage to get in the same shot.

Rollin down the river....

Thursday as I was headed out to work I noticed that somebody had managed to crawl in to my side of the bed and lay claim to my pillows. It made me a bit suspicious ... after all Colleen is obviously still asleep herself, so how exactly did the wee one get in there? Maybe she crawled over from the nursery by herself?

Well as I have said several times, Sequoia has been getting pretty active lately. We give her lots of exercise including plenty of time in her adorable Bumbo seat. This has been building her strength to match her natural curiosity and desires. But, no she is not crawling yet, much less climbing out of the crib and then up in to our bed.

But Thursday evening she did hit a major milestone as a result of all her efforts - she rolled over by herself. Of course neither Colleen nor I managed to be looking at her when she did it, but she did it. We are extremely proud of her as this is a big development and something that she has been working really hard at - seriously, she works and works and works at it. Her little brow gets furrowed with the concentration and she grunts and strains, but rarely gets frustrated. Rolling over - that's big stuff around here.

So naturally we broke out the video camera and laid her out on her blanket in the middle of the living room and filmed about 20 minutes of some very compelling footage - Sequoia cooing, Colleen coaching, Leo begging, Yukon demonstrating how to roll over, Sequoia trying to roll over -

but still no actual roll over for us to watch.
I have this strange feeling that every time we turn around Sequoia stands up, does a little Irish jig and then lays back down.

I'm not fooled by this innocent little face.

Daddy knows his fashion....

Way back in the olden days before we actually had Sequoia and were getting ourselves prepared for her arrival, we bought a lot of stuff. Almost every trip out of the house involved buying some piece of equipment that we had become convinced we needed. Worse than that, almost every trip, regardless of whether or not it was baby related at all tended to end with me coming home with some new outfit for my soon to be daughter.

This is one of those outfits, and we have been dying to try it on her. Partly because it is just adorable with its pretty appliqué on the pants leg and the hippie like details of the shirt. But quite honestly the thing that made me buy this outfit and continues to amuse the daylights out of me is the fact that those cute little pants are capris!! How could anyone who has ever seen how short and chubby baby legs are come up with the idea of capris?

Anyway, they look absolutely adorable on her and are quite possibly the best fitting pants she owns. All I know is you have to admit - her daddy knows how to dress his little girl.

You can't spell "Father's Day" without "Sequoia..."

Yesterday was Father's Day and, no offense intended to my dad, I had never really paid attention to the holiday before. I mean you have 365 days a year to let your parents know how much you love them- certainly one made up holiday couldn't really be very important.

Well now that I have my little girl hanging around the house pretty much everything is being reevaluated and looked at from different angles.

Sequoia, Colleen and I had a very nice day together yesterday for my first Father's Day. Sequoia bought me a nice hat that cleverly uses a picture of a Sequoia Tree and the word "hugger" to get it's point across.

We hung out in the front yard for awhile, enjoying the nice weather and posing for some pictures to prove that I am sort of fond of my little shadow.

Knowing how much I enjoy reading and how badly I want to pass that love along to her, Sequoia also bought me two books to read ... they are both a bit advanced for her, but I like to occasionally mix in some real literature in with her Good Night Moon and Good Dog Carl. One book is about the first man to swim the English Channel. That sounds like an appropriate adventure story for Sequoia who is signed up to take swimming lessons next month.

She also bought me a pretty little ceramic picture frame for one of the above pictures to be framed in. It says "Me and my Daddy" on it. It is destined for my new desk in Deltaville.

She also treated me and Colleen to a very enjoyable lunch at the Crab Deck down at Gloucester Point. The weather was beautiful and the food delicious. We enjoyed the nice breeze, the boats coming and going and the casual atmosphere. Sequoia sat on my lap through the entire meal, well up until I needed both hands to eat my ear of corn.

We walked around the marina looking at the boats in the slips, the colorful sponges growing on the floats, the juvenile blue crabs on the pilings and schools of silversides swimming around trying to avoid the large sea nettles that were cruising around.

All in all it was a wonderfully simple and enjoyable Father's Day. I still believe that it is a made up holiday ... but one that has far more significance to me than I ever could have dreamed possible. The best gift Sequoia gave me, not counting her smiles and kisses, was this fun Butterfly Poem that she and mommy made at BabyGarten class. (you can read it if you click on it)

So a heartfelt thanks to my two wonderful girls for making my day so special. I am very lucky to have them both in my life.