Hank is 2!

Yeah, yeah I never post anymore. Hank is 2! Huzzah, we welcome you our toddler overlord. Mama's working at the library PT now and daddy's super busy with, you guessed it, busy season. Uncle watches Hank and they have the grand times together. Here Hank is with one of his birthday presents, a phone, of course. He'll be having a party with family and friends in a couple of weeks.

Hi There Folks

We're back in Seattle and finally settled into our new place. I've been staying home with Hank while I look for a new job. We've been having a grand time. Hank loves going to the library to play with their felt board, then jetting over to the park next door to take advantage of the good weather and the slide.

Photographic evidence!

Now we just need a game plan for the winter!

110 Degrees? Problem.

I'd bet you all thought daddy had taken over this blog for good. You can put down your champagne, the party’s over; mama’s home.


We went to LA this weekend to get out of the heat. Here's Hank with his very own brand of root beer. OK, not really his brand, but close enough.
He was pretty scared of the ocean still. But we got in some fun anyway. We all had a great time people watching at Venice Beach and throwing sand and wading at Manhattan Beach. I'm a little sunburned and sore after all the walking around we did, but it sure was nice to be outside during the day.
I needed a picture of this t-shirt for the library and Hank was kind enough to model for me. This is one of the out-takes.

110 degrees? No problem!

Mama takes Hank swimming frequently. I like this charming closeup of him in the pool. Damn you Blogger that I can't make the default photo size larger. Please click for full effect.

Walter and Hankasaurus roam the earth together

This is Walter.

Hank loves him so much that I couldn't keep him out of the picture, even distracted with a comb AND a brush (if only I had remembered a bowl full of mush) . Mama and I took the Hankasaur to Toys R' Us to pick out a bear. After spirited dropping of more traditional bears, he carried around this one the longest. At the time, the bear was almost larger than he was, so carrying it even half an aisle was a sign that Walter was the one.

How did we choose Walter as the name? In honor of Clinton dropping out, we wanted a failed presidential candidate, and Walter's name seemed the cutest for Hank to mangle as he continues learning to talk: "Wall-tear". Here's another shot of Hank's attachment to the big guy. Lick!

Memorial Day Photo Slam!

We traveled to Ellisland for Memorial Day - Hank rarely lacked a new area to explore or someone to play with. He also picked up "no" from Grace. I read some of Eric's book and attended Fort Building 101 taught by Prof. Scott. Echo enjoyed shopping with Liz and crafted some crafty things with Laura. Lotsa photos below:

Grace (Ellis!) looking fierce...

...until felled by strep throat. Get well soon!

Which goes better with ham, Scott or the pineapple?

Crayons on cement meant skullduggery for Laura.

GROG!
(We're retiring his bottles this week - he likes sippies just fine.)

My favorite pic of the trip - "Scottball" on the trampoline.

Thanks for being gentle, kitty. Tough being baby's white whale.

Not that the meeting was entirely tension-free.

Hank had a great time in the huge yard with so many playmates,

but we were not entirely safe from Hankasaurus' alter ego, Tantrumactyl!
(Isn't it cute? Until he gets older, at least.)

Literature

Hank has a new favorite book:

He'll go to his bookshelf, pick up one book at a time and discard* it until he finds this one. Sometimes he brings the book to me, but usually it's daddy who gets the honor. Then he opens the book to his favorite animals for his chosen reader to make the animal sounds. He really likes the dog, kitten, chick, lion and tiger. My guess is that these are the animals that daddy has the best noises for. Less desirable are the penguin, macaw, elephant and zebra. Time to brush up on your animal impersonations daddy.

*toss it behind him, he's a machine.