Weekend Visit

After hearing that Susannah has been confined to our couch, Matt and Stacey took a trip to New Haven with Baby Kate.

Aparently, Baby Kate likes to eat. If you tell her there's no more food, she cries and makes faces like this.
Here she is trying to auto-cannibalize her finger.Danny was very excited about playing baseball and soccer with Matt. He's wearing his bike helmet for protection.Kate, happy after she ate a whole banana.
Leigh threatening Kate with a drum stick. This is what happens when your older brother toughens you up.This is what happens when a 3 year-old makes you play all day.Wake up!
That night, Danny said that he "was really sad when Matt left" and "I want him to come back the day after tomorrow." After we tucked him in and turned out the lights for bedtime he said, "I had a looooong day playing with Matt!"

Leigh reads

Leigh's verbal development seems to be coming along ok. She has most of her books memorized (on a one-word per-page basis).

The first word she says is "saurs."

Eating and vomit-avoidance are a little slower to come around. She wears no shirt in this video because of some sort of vomit incident.

Please excuse her hair. Our standards have slipped a little with SHV on bedrest. I like to call this her crazy Gary Bussey or crazy Russell Crowe look.

Last Day in Portland

During his epic meltdown on trip day 2, Danny told me, "6 days is toooo loooong. I don't like this place. I want to go home to our regular home in Nu Haven!"

By the end he was saying "that was really fast!"

Here's a morning shot in the Rock house. Every morning Pete fills up that creamer with orange juice and warms it up in the microwave. Ida then pours it back and forth; Miki crawls around like a wounded soldier, yelling for a medic.We ate lunch with MAV, met all her attorney friends, and rode the Portland Tram. Danny wouldn't let me take a picture of him on the tram, but "next to this trash can" was okay.Maggie and Arthur have a good neighborhood thing going on. In this photo, I think only one person in the front yard actually lives in the house. That would be the kid with the green vest and firefighter boots, Walker.
Arthur brought us over the day before and Walker immediately asked Danny if he wanted to play. A minute later he told me, "I have an astronaut suit!", ran inside, put it on, and continued to play baseball. The next night Danny and I were eating a cookie in the Bradford driveway when we heard the front door open and Walker cry, "Do you want to play!?" Danny answered, "Yeah!" and ran over there. This all confirms what I realized a few months ago - DHV needs a big brother. I snapped some group photos during a break in the action (Danny hit that window in the background a few times, a hazard area for lefty hitters). D Hawk wouldn't stop hamming it up.Yes, he did wear that McNabb jersey each day. He wore a Ryan Howard shirt under it, too.

That night we slept at the Bradfords and had bedtime story with Theo and Elsie. Soon after this photo Theo started to climb on Dannys head and he started screeching.Lastly, a bonus photo of Theo looking for worms to eat.

More Portland

DHawk went for a little walk to a ferry in the morning with cousin Ida and Aunt Ella. He kept repeating, "I will not ride de ferry!"
Here they are, seen on the other side of the river. Once Danny saw them over there, he decided he did want to ride the ferry.
Once over the river, many stones were thrown.Crossing back.
Off to a playground in the afternoon.
Don't miss the United Airlines Captain's wings on his fleece!
A hollow tree.
45 minutes in the baby swing. Look at the difference from the last time he was out West.
Dinner at the Bradfords quickly turned into another "naked party" after Ida got a wild look in her eye and tore her clothes off. Danny even took off his pants and underwear and started jumping off the chair. Here Elsie gets ready to examine her father.
These cousins are wild!

Dan trip to Portland

Danny and Daddy flew out to Portland on Thursday. Mommy was, unfairly, left at home . . . on bedrest.

After an uneventful flight out, we hit the Oregon Zoo first thing in the morning. Danny moved through the habitats like he was on a time limit. It was tough to take pictures, but we got some good polar bear action. Maybe they liked how cold it was that morning.

We drove to Ida and Miki's house and Danny fell asleep.

I thought it was all jet lag, but it turned out he had a fever! I don't know how he made it through that freezing morning at the zoo like that, but he spent the next 20 hours in bed, watching Ice Age: Dawn of Dinosaurs. Some tylenol and motrin pepped him up the next day. We took a walk to the neighborhood creek with the cousins. He threw so many rocks his arm hurt.

Danny had an epic meltdown later that evening. DKV is not going to soon forget it. He seems to have recovered by Sunday, when we went to Mt Hood to try out skiing. Here is the intrepid Hawkins on skis for the first time. He asked for skis and "sticks"; we got them for him and off he went. He never asked how to ski, or what he was supposed to do; he just started going. Amazing. After going up a long uphill trail, he declared he was tired and I carried him back down to the car.

No meltdowns tonight, and I'm hoping for another good day tomorrow.

the Gastro

Gastroenteritis from yesterday (left), meet gastroenteritis today (right).
Danny is back to normal. He has packed Mama's seat with bags of her favorite toy cars and they are flying to Portland together.

Ice Hockey, Hawk Style

Between the Yale hockey games and the Winter Olympics, Danny Hawkins has turned into a real hockey fan.
With the USA-Finland game on for ambiance, he sets his men up in the rink (Richard Scarry's Shapes and Opposites) for a face-off . . .. . . and knocks them all down.
This is another game he invented on his own, indoor ice hockey. The helmet and pants are mandatory equipment. The jersey he wears everyday. The "skates" are courtesy of the Berenstein Bears, and work pretty well for sliding around on the floors. Here he awaits a face-off.Occasionally someone on the other team checks him into the boards, "I got jacked up!"