I said a cheesburger please....

Yesterday was our little Sequoia's 4 month birthday. That meant another visit to the doctor's office for more vaccines, shots and general measurements.
She is doing great by all accounts - staying at the very top end of the developmental scales which pleases her parents immensely. We realize that all babies tend to catch up with each other around two years old, but Colleen and I are both pretty impatient people, so it is helpful that Sequoia is not making us wait too long for each new development.

One of the newest developments is that she was given the green light to start on "solid" foods. I am certain that she has been more than ready for weeks since she has been showing an incredible amount of interest in our meals for the past month, but we both agreed to wait until the doctor's told us it was OK.

She dove right in to the eating from a spoon thing. We started her on the most basic option available - rice cereal - and due to an inability to follow directions, mixed up 6 times as much as we were suppose to. That did not matter since our little chow hound managed to take care of all of it. Please notice I did not necessarily say EAT all of it, although she did manage to eat the majority of it. She chose to wear the balance of it in spite of our best efforts at being smarter than she was.

The funniest part of how messy the meal was is that we had just given her a bath ... maybe an hour before her first feed. Needles to say she got a second bath a few minutes after her first feed. Being a bit independent and determined to do things herself and her way (where in the world could she have gotten that from?) she was adamant about holding the spoon so that she could feed herself. I did not want to break the news to her, but she was as bad at getting the food in her mouth as both of her parents - note the stream of rice cereal headed for her elbow...

Anyway, she is growing up pretty quickly and we love watching her discover new things every day. The critical measurements from the 4 month check up were

- Weight 13 pounds 9 ounces
- Height/ length 24 3/4 inches
- Head circumference adorable

Colleen and Sequoia will be down in North Carolina at Mamasita's and Pop-pop's house all this week, so there probably won't be any new posts until next weekend.

The three R's...

Sequoia has been brushing up on the three R's

Reading

Relatives
and Roadtrips

One of her favorite things to do lately is read her magazines and books. She absolutely loves to grab the pages and turn them, crumple them, tear them out or just gum them.

Last weekend her cousins Will and Christopher came down for a visit. They also brought along their parents, my brother Mark and his wife Gena.

This was the first time Sequoia met her uncle Mark and she was struck by how much better looking and intelligent her daddy was than her uncle. Well her uncle Mark must be doing something right since her cousins are turning out to be great young men.

Last night Sequoia and mommy took a road trip down to Virginia Beach to see some of their friends down there.

Sequoia got to meet Sage who had worked with Colleen at the Aquarium.

She also spent some couch time with 2 year old Delaney, the daughter of Laurie - another Aquarium alum.

Sequoia evidently spent part of the evening hanging out in Delaney's old bouncer that has since become the home of Delaney's stuffed animal friends. That accounts for a few more R's...

Reduce
Re-use
and Recycle.

There is always an educational side to these posts....

Happy Saturday....

I guess a lot of people must think that I am the most obnoxiously proud father ever ... but honestly that is not the truth (I hope...if I am then I appologize). I mean yes I am pretty proud of my little girl, but it is more a sense of amazement that causes me to ramble on about her so much.

What she represents to me is an insight into parts of the world that were previously not even close to being on my Radar. She makes me laugh and smile and dream and worry and wonder about a world that in many ways did not exist last year. Colleen and I are enjoying the journey with our new little tour guide.

Often the ride includes stops to spend time with an ever increasing circle of friends. As Sequoia's group grows, so does ours. Here she is sharing a snack with her friend from Baby Class, Brooklyn.

Here she is holding hands with her new friend, Elayne, who is also a March baby. Also enjoying the play date is Jasper - yet another March baby.

Sometimes the journey involves finding new and exciting ways to travel - like being over six feet in the air. Other than ducking doors and looking out for ceiling fans this is a pretty fantastic way to fly.

No matter where the journey goes, it always revolves around mommy. There is something magical about the way the two of them play together. Either Sequoia is very advanced for her age or Colleen is just a big kid herself. I'll let you decide.

Possibly the thing I am best at is providing my little angel places to fall asleep on. I must be a pretty boring dad, but that's ok since I certainly love having her snoozing in my arms.

Sequoia ahoy-a.....

Yesterday Sequoia took mommy out for a boat ride with Becky and Jeremiah on their boat. This was her first boat ride and gave her a chance to break out the nice life jacket that Pop-pop and Mamasita gave her, along with the great sun hat that John and Dee Thornton gave her...the cute face was a gift from her mommy.

It's not easy striking a relaxed pose when you are wrapped up in a mattress like a giant sausage, but Sequoia managed to relax and enjoy the ride.

The evening was pretty although the York only offered up a series of perch and oyster toads. Sequoia was only marginally impressed with her mommy's fishing skills. With all the talk about mommy being the great shark girl she had pretty big expectations.

With the fishing being more of an exercise in drowning bait than fighting fish Sequoia decided to take a nap in Becky's arms.

On the way home though she woke up, put on her sunglasses (also from John and Dee) and enjoyed the evening breeze in her hair.

All in all it was a successful first boat ride. I can only imagine how many more days she will spend on the water, but with the way genetics are reported to work, it will be a significant portion of her life.

That may be one of our better gifts to her.

Five years in review...

So here we are celebrating our first anniversary as a family. Five years as husband and wife and seven years inseparably together - but our first year as a family.

We've certainly been through enough to write a book about - maybe a short book, and not necessarily an interesting one, but still, it could fill a book. But the most recent chapter has the biggest plot twist of all - the addition of Sequoia. Colleen and I have always been active and have enjoyed countless hikes, camping trips and kayaking adventures. We now have this little person in our care and the prospect of introducing her to all of these wonderful things excites us beyond belief.

The thing that I find unexpectedly spectacular is that far beyond the obvious and wondrous things that we get to share with Sequoia, it's the everyday little adventures and discoveries that we are privileged to witness that are often the most fulfilling. The greatest hike pales when compared to the magic and joy of discovering your own feet. The most exquisitely crafted story is a mere vehicle to the realization that you can turn the pages of the book yourself .

I know that Sequoia will accomplish phenomenal things during her life, and Colleen and I will take great pride in her journey. For now, however, we are in awe of the process that has started at such a young age. I entered this with few preconceptions about what to expect, and I never would have expected to see such depth of personality and character during these early weeks.

So, although Colleen and I can't wait to share our passion for the wonders of the natural world with our daughter - for the moment we are quite content allowing her to educate us about the surprising beauty that is contained within the simplest elements of everything we do.

That has to make you smile....

Grin and Bare it....

Just to be certain that we have something to embarrass our little girl with when she gets a little uppity in her teen years, Colleen took a series of classic bare bum shots of Sequoia with her little purple puffer fish. Can you see any resemblance between them?

Sequoia is an adorable little cutie-pie....

I hope that she does not resent us too much for posting these shots. I just could not resist showing off her natural side.

Grin and Bear it....

Ok, let's admit it...
watching your kid 24/7 can lead us parents to do some pretty stupid stuff. Stuff that somehow sounds amusing to a sleep deprived mind.

Ever since Colleen's Uncle Billy gave us this cute LL Bean Bear complete with a well made field jacket, I've been wanting to see how Sequoia would look in it.

Nope, I can't explain it. There's no logical reason for it....

But there you have it.

Ava two who...?

On Tuesday Sequoia drove down to Virginia Beach to visit with some friends. She got to meet her newest friend Ava Namiko Hoffman who lives at her mom's house. Her mom is Andrea and she used to work with Colleen at the Virginia Aquarium.

It always amazes me when Sequoia is the larger and older baby in a group since in my eyes she is still a tiny little newborn. It is fun to see the progress she has made in such a tangible representation.

Ava Namiko (not to get confused with Ava Page) is a very alert, active and beautiful little lady. From what I hear, she is keeping her parents quite busy ... but don't they all? I look forward to meeting her myself one of these days.

From the pictures it looks like Sequoia did OK with sharing her personal space with young Ava. With these little youngsters you never really know what to expect. Half of the time they hardly acknowledge that there is another baby there at all, and other times they become fascinated with whatever young thing is flopped down in front of them.

Colleen and Sequoia also stopped by and had lunch with their friend Elizabeth. Elizabeth will always hold a special place in Sequoia's world since she is the one who gave her the Snorkeling Sea Turtle that she loves so much.

Horizontal is history ...

Colleen and I have our 5th wedding anniversary coming up this Saturday and I have been spending some time thinking about all of the changes that we have experienced in the past 7 years as we have grown together as a couple - changes of careers, changes of coasts and certainly changes in perspectives. It has always seemed like a pretty fluid and expanding landscape that we lived in.

Well now that the biggest change of all has taken control of our world, all of those previous experiences seem almost like a single memory of how we prepared ourselves to welcome this little dynamo into our lives. Change has taken on a new dimension of scope and time as everything has been condensed into enormous advancements measured in micro-meters. Every day this little girl discovers some new and amazing ability. It is absolutely impossible to keep up with her developing world although we try desperately to identify and appreciate things from her vantage point every day.

Things that have been amazing me lately have been a combination of both physical acuity and spatial awareness. She has mastered rolling over in both directions - onto her belly and then again to her back. She is thrilled by this and entertains herself for hours. She is making a valiant effort at crawling, although the belly and the earth refuse to separate. She insists on having us help her stand and has balanced upright for as long as 5 seconds unassisted.

Just tonight she was introduced to her new (used) stand and swivel entertainment center. It allows her to stand and hold herself up and rotate a full 360 degrees around. I think the pictures speak for themselves...she was pretty happy with the new freedom. When Colleen pulled her out she stood Sequoia next to the saucer so that her hands rested on the edge and Sequoia stood there unassisted, holding herself up for about 45 seconds ... she is only 3 months old. That astounds me...and makes me glad that we've had the luxury of writing this blog so that in a few years I will be able to catch my breath and remember these precious weeks.

Another groovy development has been that Sequoia has learned to turn the pages of whatever book or magazine that you are reading to her. She started this while I was reading a Martha Stewart magazine to her up at Aunt Sherri and Uncle Steven's house a week ago. I'm not certain why I was reading a Martha Stewart Home magazine, but now it will be a part of my personal family folklore forever. The page turning thing fascinates me because it represents so much - that Sequoia realizes that there is something on the next page, that she can manipulate things to get to what she wants, that the story has something to do with the pages turning. It also represents a pretty big step in coordination.

Another thing that startled me when I first learned it, but now I would not want it any other way, is that babies need to learn to laugh and smile. Well anyone who has followed this blog knows that Sequoia was born with a smile, but over the past weeks and months she has developed the most disarming and wonderful belly laugh. It absolutely breaks us up when she gets going. Added to that her wonderful array of vocalizations, we can and often do, spend hours on end just talking with her. I sing songs and very often on cue she fills in her little parts. I can't describe how that connection makes us feel, but it certainly makes me realize that the journey Colleen and I started 7 years ago was really just a warm up for this part of the adventure. It is hard for us to picture ourselves as just a couple at this point and we are anxious to share our good fortune and passion for the world around us with our daughter. So although this is our seventh year together and our fifth anniversary, in many ways it feels like our very first.

Betting on 5 in the 6th on the 4th.....

This weekend was full of firsts for Sequoia. It was her first Fourth of July, her first day of rolling over whenever she felt like it, her first fireworks and her first horse race.
Uncle Brian and Sherry came to town Friday to watch a friends' horse race at Colonial Downs. Colleen, Sequoia and I drove up to meet them for the races and fireworks.

The horse was number 5 and named Wicked but Worth It ... a promisingly feisty little name for a two year old filly who had never run in a race before (like most of the other two year old filly's in the race). She is a beautiful horse and we laid out Sequoia's college fund in hopes that the little filly would upgrade our choices to include the Ivy League

Well it was a dark and stormy night as we watched Wicked But Worth it fade along with our two dollars. Sequoia did not let it get her down though and went on practicing her standing up and flirting with people. Later in the evening we got to watch a nice fireworks display before heading home.

Brian and Sherry spent Friday night at our house and that comes with the built in benefit of getting to share in our tradition of starting the weekend with Banana Pancakes and a walk through our woods. We even tossed in a little Wimbledon and some scattered showers to add to the calm and easy pace of a good Saturday morning.

In the afternoon we drove down to Yorktown for lunch and a walk along the beach. It was a very refreshing day with storm clouds being blown around by a brisk breeze. I think Yorktown is a very fitting place for Sequoia to have spent her first Fourth of July weekend. We all enjoyed our visit and are now looking forward to the arrival tomorrow afternoon of the Murphy grandparents. Like I've said before, Sequoia likes to keep a busy social calendar.

Making daddy proud....

OK, so I know that I need to let Sequoia grow up to love what she loves and not put any subliminal pressure on her to follow in my footsteps ... but I could not help getting her a lacrosse stick of her very own. Even if she doesn't end up getting a scholarship to the University of Maryland the stick should prove useful in defending herself from Yukon.

I'll admit that I bought this stick back when Sequoia was about 2 weeks old. There's actually two in a set, so perhaps she'll need a playmate to practice with.

Starting on solid foods...??

Sequoia has been steadily keeping herself near the front of the development curve, so it should not come as a surprise that she has started eating solid foods.

However I think it is safe to say that although we all probably expected squash to be one of her early foods, nobody would have guessed that she would be eating entire yellow squash raw.

Well I am not certain if it is Sequoia's ambition or Colleen's inability to follow directions, but Sequoia has decided to skip the normal baby mush vegetables and start eating veggies straight from Pam and Harry's garden.

The approach may be unorthodox, but you can't say the little girl wasn't having a good time.

Note to the grandparents...she won't actually be eating anything more solid than milk for another 3 weeks or so.