Baby Gate Fail

I was working the other morning when I realized that it was quiet - TOO QUIET. Conan had been playing in the living room, which was all baby-gated and secure, or so I thought. But when I checked he was not in the living room, but rather had managed to squirm through the cat-opening in the kitchen baby gate and was happily playing in the cat water. I snapped this picture before he knew he'd been caught:
It doesn't show that well in the photo, but he's soaked and there's water all over the floor. The thing I find the most amusing is that he was being completely silent - sneaky baby! When he's playing with something he knows is alowed, he squeals and burbles and jabbers. Aparently he knows to keep quiet when he's doing something he knows he shouldn't. Such a smart little guy. :)

We've since increased the baby-gate security somewhat. We do have to leave an opening for Iggy to get through (geriatric three-legged cats don't jump!) so there will always be a weak spot in our baby-proofing. I'll just have to keep my ear tuned for the quietness of trouble!

Mama!

Conan called me Mama! He's said it a couple of times before that were a little ambiguous, but this time there was no mistaking it. He looked right at me and said it. I don't have any words for how happy this makes me.

Stair Climbing

Conan's current favorite activity is climbing the stairs. If the gate isn't up, he's on them, fast! We let him climb them with supervision, and he loves to go up again and again. He's a pro at going up, but hasn't figured out going down. He especially loves to play "chase me" and try to get away crawling down the hall at the top, giggling like crazy. He was a bit confused by me following him with the camera, instead of trying to catch and tickle him, so I wasn't able to get top speed & giggles. You'll have to come over and see it for yourself! :)

Long Sleepy Weekend

He must be getting ready for another growth spurt, beacuse we're getting 3-4 hour long naps all of a sudden. Not that I'm complaining! I've taken a few naps myself this weekend. :) In the true spirit of Labor Day, we've done very little all weekend long. I'm actually very thankful for the rainy weather - without it I would have felt like we needed to get out and either recreate or work on some projects. Instead we stayed inside, cooked, ate, and rested. Perfect!

Garden Harvest

It's harvest time! The tomatoes are ripening, and I'm overwhelmed with cucumbers. No time to make pickles with Conan on the scene... maybe next year. Luckily the beans are winding down now, they've been tremendous this year. My corn crop has been pretty small - I was relunctant to weed out very many of the volunteer sunflowers this spring and the corn really didn't like growing up in the shade. The plants got about 2.5 feet high and the ears range from 1-5" in length. Perfectly sized for Conan! They are so tender and delicious. On the other hand, I have never had so many sunflowers; I've been able to pick and give away big boquets of them all summer long and it is such a luxury. I can always buy corn. :) My zucchini crop mostly failed (I know, I didn't think it was possible either!), I just harvested the first - and probably the only - zuc I'm going to get from the garden. Not that we haven't been well-supplied with zucchini; between the office zuc pool and Dave's garden, we've still had plenty.

Heather Meadows

This past Thursday Conan and I joined Great Grandma Joy, my cousin Fergus and his fiance Svea, and my cousin Heather and her two girls Hazel and Hannah for a picnic and hike up at Heather Meadows. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and we had a great time. We had a delicious lunch, and then set off down the trail to Bagley lakes to explore.
The snowfield in the middle right of this picture is where we hiked to, we went around the upper Bagley lake, across the snowfield at the head, and came back up the meadows at the bottome of Table Mtns scree slope. The blueberries and huckleberries were ripe and abundant, we ate them by the handfuls as we walked. The lowbush berries were just thick, and sooo sweet.

Conan really enjoyed his first time in an alpine environment. What he didn't enjoy was getting slathered with sunscreen every couple of hours, but mama insisted. Got to keep that pale baby skin protected!

Hazel, Svea, Hannah and Fergus crossing the stone bridge at the lower end of the lake.
Grandma Joy, looking back from the head of upper Bagley lake.
The wildflowers were surprisingly abundant for as late in the season as it was. There were thick, beautiful stands of Grass-of-Parnassus, asters, and arnica along the lakeside trail. Up close to the snowfield where the ground had just recently been exposed we found monkey flowers, waterleaf and marsh marigolds.
Conan rode in the Ergo on my back most of the way, and seemed very comfortable. He fell asleep for about an hour in the middle of the hike. Other than it being a bit hot to hike with a warm sweaty baby pressed up against my back, it was really comfortable for me, too.
Hannah and Hazel eventually waded in to this small pond. It had newts!
Hannah really wanted to carry Conan, so for the last leg of the hike we let her pack him in the Ergo. They both thought it was really fun.

Walkin' Scooter Toy

Tombi showed us that Conan's little scooter toy reconfigures into a walk-behind toy, and boy does he love pushing it around! He hasn't figured out turning around yet, but no matter - ramming it into things is fun too.