Father's Day in Seattle

This past weekend, we all headed to Seattle to catch the Phillies play the Mariners.  Well, all of us except the kitties, who tried extra hard to be cute to get us to stay.

All in all, it was a successful trip  - or as successful as can be hoped for with a 14 month old.  Grady slept half the way there and all the way back and, despite a little trouble falling asleep, stayed asleep through the whole night.

After a long car ride, we were all pretty excited to check out our gorgeous views!

After that, we lounged for a bit and scoped out the room service menu

before heading to Pike Place.

It was a short trip, because Grady wasn't a fan of being confined after 3 hours in the car seat.  It was still fun to walk through the market and sample some delicious chowder.

The next morning, Grady and I let Daddy sleep in (since it was Father's Day and all).  I asked at the front desk for a nearby park, and they pointed me in the direction of the Seattle Center, which was about a mile and a half away.  We decided to brave it - no way Matt would be able to sleep in with us in the room.  The "park" was huge, but unfortunately there was no playground in sight!  We made due with this incredible fountain.

Grady was pretty impressed by it, and soon decided to try to figure out how to get down there.

 It's a long trip - and steep!  Can he do it?

He's down!  What next?

He made it!

Then it was back home to see Daddy and wish him a Happy Father's Day! Oh, and change clothes.  Grady and Daddy enjoyed some quiet time reading the paper

before we all headed out to the Aquarium!

Grady LOVED the fish - lots of DAT-ing.

with a few short breaks for mandatory photo shoots.

And THEN it was time for the big game!

 Heckling Ichiro

We were really hoping that Grady would be worn out enough to be calm and nap through the game.  Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.  Grady amused himself for the first two innings.  Then I amused him for half an inning by feeding him puffs (like fruit-flavored cheerios).  Then he was done.  JUST done.  So Grady and I walked around the stadium and shared a pretzel until he finally fell asleep around the 6th inning.

We decided to leave then to maximize Grady sleeping in the car (which was successful - he slept the whole way!).  Luckily, there was not a Phillies no-hitter going on, or Matt would never have forgiven his first born!

So what else is going on.

Grady continues to expand his vocabulary at an amazing pace.  He's added "NO!" complete with grabbing whatever object he doesn't want to let go of closer to him.  Oddly, I'm usually completely on the other side of the room when he does this and am not really that interested in taking his toy from him!  He also said "read a book" at daycare, and then said it again that night!  It was very distinct!  Also swing, shake, and possibly dinosaur among some others.  The most fun thing about this is the babbling.  Here's a sample as he "reads" an advertisement for shutterfly photo books that came in the mail.

Grady continues to practice his standing.  He's trying more frequently and going for longer periods, but still is not interested in moving from his carefully orchestrated pose.  He is very careful that one.

Grady has always been independent, but I'm continually amazed (and amused) at how willing he is to explore boundaries.  Today I let him on the driveway while we waited for Matt to get ready to join us for a jog.  He bee-lined down the driveway, turned left, and crawled straight past the neighbor's house before even checking to see where I was.  Then he continued to the end of the sidewalk, onto the street, turned left, and would have kept on going if I hadn't stopped him!  That kid wants out of this hell hole!

Okay, and since I posted a photo of Fuzz up above, here's one of Bes.  She sure likes to be part of the action!