To Pittsburgh and Back

What a fun week! Wednesday morning Caleb and I flew to Pittsburgh to visit Grammy and Grandpa. Randy joined us on Friday. Caleb had a blast being spoiled by the grandparents and getting introduced to lots of his admirers.

There was lots for Caleb to explore in the backyard, so we spent lots of time outside. Grammy and Grandpa have a fish pond complete with fish and frogs...but Caleb was just happy to have a place to throw rocks. There were lots of flowers to smell, birds to see, and paths to explore. And Tess was always a happy companion for Caleb. Caleb is still talking about Tess a lot.










On Friday morning, we all went into Pittsburgh and visited the National Aviary....what a cool place. We all enjoyed getting up close and personal to some great birds.





A Steller's Eagle


A double-crested cormorant





Caleb and two huge victoria-crowned pigeons




Feeding the Lories






Hi Mana!


After the aviary, we went to my favorite Primanti's restaurant for lunch.



The amount of food Caleb ate was incredible. He ate....


...and ate...



...and ATE!



We also learned the he loves BBQ sauce!



Caleb also enjoyed time at the pool with Jan. He was a wild man in the water. He probably fell completely under 6-7 times and loved it.



We took Caleb to the Spring House, a local dairy, to have a look at the cows. This little calf got up close and personal. Caleb was also very excited to "drive" a real tractor.







Caleb also enjoyed bath time at the Grandparents house...lots of bubbles and even "mud" soap.







Here's a picture of Randy and Dad as twins!



Bye-Bye Pittsburgh...at the airport with Franco Harris.

Tiny Baby

We got our first glimpse of Caleb's new brother or sister today. Pretty exciting! The baby is so small that if we had gone in yesterday, they wouldn't have been able to see it. From what I've read, the baby is the size of a sesame seed. During the exam, the technician asked me to hold my breath and when I did we were able to hear the baby's heart beat. Right now it's beating about 106 beats per minute. The picture below shows the yolk sack and the baby, but I'm not really sure which is which.

Yard Visitor

Caleb and I had an unexpected visitor in his play area today...a fairly large milk snake. Caleb found it hiding under his play wheelbarrow. When I first saw it, I was scared to death because Caleb was seconds away from picking it up...and I wasn't sure what kind of snake it was. We ran inside to get a nature book and the camera and discovered that it was a harmless milk snake. It was obvious that it had eaten recently because you can see a fairly large bulge in it's abdomen. It retreated to a hole in the stone wall for a while, then quickly moved on. I couldn't resist touching it as it climbed up the wall...it was so silky smooth! I took a few pics and a couple videos. Cool!

Father's Day Weekend

We started out our Father's Day weekend on Saturday morning with Caleb's swimming lesson "graduation". Since it was the last class, I was able to watch and get some pictures. It was really cute seeing all the dads there with their kids. I captured three different videos of the guys singing and swimming....and lots of pictures.


























In the afternoon, we drove up to New Hampshire to have dinner with Randy's co-worker Dave and his wife Coreen...and their kids Alida, Annaliese, and Avery. Caleb had so much fun playing with the big kids.







For Father's day celebrations, Caleb and I made breakfast in bed for Randy and had a few cards and a gift. It was a gray, cool, and rainy day, but we did manage to dodge the sprinkles and get in a nice walk in the morning. After lunch, we headed back to New Hampshire to look for some stray Mississippi Kites, which we were lucky enough to find. Caleb made things even easier by sleeping the whole trip. Randy spent his usual guy-time with Caleb out in the yard when we got home and is now getting the little guy to bed. Caleb and the baby-to-be are so lucky to have Randy as their Dad. He is the best! Happy Father's Day!!

Choo-choos and Ice Cream

Caleb and I went on a real adventure today. We headed into the city to attend the Scooper Bowl, which is a fundraiser for the Jimmy Fund Cancer Charity. For the bargain price of $8, we got to eat all the ice cream we wanted...which was a lot! The other exciting part was that we got to take the T...or choo-choo! Caleb hasn't been on the T since he was really little, so it was fun for us both. And we got to go with most of Caleb's friends: Matthew (and mom Alison), Ryan (and mom Kristen), Sophia and Tyler (and mom Adrienne), and Gabriella (and mom Andrea).




I knew that Caleb liked ice cream, but I had no idea how much. All the moms packed healthy snacks for the kids to eat on the train and while we were at the Scooper bowl, so Caleb had a nice appetizer of carrots, blueberries and cantaloupe before he gorged like crazy on ice cream.




From the left: Ryan, Gabriella, Caleb, Matthew and Sophia. Notice how only Caleb is intently eating his ice cream!



After three scoops of ice cream, I had to put my foot down because I was worried he was going to get sick. He was very upset. Most of the other kids only ate part of one scoop! Luckily there was plenty of fun to be had besides eating ice cream. Caleb got a kick out of being tickled by Matthew!





Here is Caleb as one giant sticky mess! I had to spray down his stroller when we got home.



The other highlight of out outing was this giant dog! I thought Caleb may be afraid of it, but he totally loved him.







After some water and a change of clothes, it was time to head home. Caleb enjoyed his T ride home. Of course he was full of "choo-choos", but I only got part of one on the video below. I definitely see more trips into the city in our future!