Jumparoo

Our friends Dan and Michelle and the twins came over for lunch today, and they brought a new batch of hand-me-down clothes and toys with them. The toy we were most excited about was the Jumparoo, which we knew was heading our way once Sierra & Max started growing tired of it. ("We" obviously means "Steph and I" in this context, since Evan had no clue they were coming... or what a Jumparoo is... or who Dan and Michelle and Sierra and Max are.) The twins' reaction when they saw it in our house instead of theirs raises the question of whether they were really tired of it, but Dan and Michelle wanted to reclaim a few more square feet of their living room and we were happy to help.

We didn't end up putting Evan in the Jumparoo until later in the evening (too much going on with the extra kids around, I guess), but he certainly seemed to enjoy his inaugural experience:

Doesn't he remind you of the Lord of the Dance?

Later on we figured out how to put batteries in the orange bear on the front (a more complicated operation than you might expect) to make it sing. Evan seemed to like this almost as much as he liked being in the Jumparoo in the first place (if you click on the picture to zoom in you can see him sticking his tongue out, which is his version of the big smile):

More Portraits

Steph had to take new photos of some of her artwork for a show submission, and while she had all of the lights and drapes in place she took a bunch more portraity pictures of Evan. There are too many pictures to post them all, so I made a few photo collages to share.

First, the whole-baby view:

And some closeup shots too:

As always, you can click on either of the images to see a full-size version.

New Old Baby Carrier

We tried putting Evan in our Ergo baby carrier when we went to the Oakland Museum's White Elephant Sale yesterday, but he was less than pleased. He seems to be a little too small to fit in it comfortably when worn as a back carrier (yes, there is at least one arena in which Evan is too small). We saw some cheap old-style external frame baby carriers there, but we asked ourselves "Do we really need another baby carrier when Evan will fit in the Ergo any day now?" At the time we thought "No," but as the day wore on and Steph had more time to ponder her growing dissatisfaction with the BabyBjörn and digest how much Evan doesn't like the Ergo yet we started to regret not getting one. (We've used the Björn almost exclusively ever since Evan was big enough to fit it - besides the stroller, of course - but I've always liked it more than Steph. Our discussions with several other parents confirm that it seems to fit men better than women for whatever reason. I think it has something to do with men usually having broader backs and bigger shoulders, but what do I know?) After the morning dog walk nowadays Steph usually has a complaint or two about her back aching, and the situation has only grown worse as Evan has continued to pack on the pounds.

So as we were driving away from the sale we already were regretting not getting one of the baby carriers we saw, and later in the day things got worse. We made plans to go hiking/dog-walking at the Fremont Marshes the next day, and even though it was going to be an easy walk ("hiking" is really overstating what we had planned) it would have been the perfect environment to try out a new baby carrier. Luckily, as with so many of our baby gear needs, craigslist came through in the end. Steph found someone who was selling almost the same thing (the frame is aluminum instead of plastic, with the added benefit that the aluminum frame model is a smidge lighter and hasn't been recalled for spilling babies!) for the same price (only $15!), so we went by her house on the way to meeting Chad and Elizabeth (the friends we were walking with) to pick it up.

Problem solved! The new carrier distributes the weight of our ever-expanding baby quite nicely, he seems to stay a little warmer than he did in the Björn (probably because his limbs aren't splayed out as much), he looks more comfortable (again, the splayed limbs), he gets to do a little standing practice on the brace behind the hip belt (or at least he gets to work on his toe raises), and it even has a few small storage compartments for things like keys and water. I'd say its a win-win-win-win-win. Evan seems to like it:


An added advantage of the new carrier from Evan's perspective is that it gives him ready access to Mommy or Daddy's hair:

Two final thoughts about these pictures:

1. Isn't it crazy how blue they are?! The combination of blue jacket, blue bear suit, blue baby carrier, and blue sky in the fading daylight did a number on our camera's color balancer.
2. All of Evan's cold weather outerwear includes bear ears. I can't explain this.
   

Oompa-Loompa Dance

Just because...

Old San Juan

After we were done at El Morro we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Old San Juan. We didn't really have a goal in mind, we just wandered around the town, sometimes following a self-guided tour and sometimes not. San Juan was founded in the 14th century (it's the oldest city in the United States), and you can still see a lot of the colonial architecture from the 16th and 17th centuries as you walk around the cobblestone streets.

This picture shows Steph and Evan in the gardens at the Museo Casa Blanca. The castle was originally constructed in 1521 as the home of Juan Ponce de León, the first governor of Puerto Rico. He never actually lived in it (he was too busy looking for the Fountain of Youth), but his family successor did for the next 250 years.

Here are Steph and Evan again (he'd fallen asleep for his morning nap by now, which is why the stroller is covered in a blanket), this time on the Paseo la Princesa, a beautiful promenade between the bay and the old city walls:

Old San Juan is full of extravagantly-colored buildings, which is one of its greatest charms. Here are a few examples:

El Morro

The first stop on our walking tour of Old San Juan was El Morro, one of the forts built by the Spanish to guard the port of San Juan. It sits on a promontory on the north side of the bay, at the end of the islet separating the bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Starting in the 1500s, the construction was spread out over 250 years in fits and starts, mostly spurred by assaults by the English or Dutch that highlighted shortcomings in the existing design. Nowadays it is a museum, with exhibits showing what life was like in the fort, its construction, and its place in history.

When you approach the fort from the city you see a long esplanade (the walkway is something like 400 yards long) with the citadel at the edge of the bluff:

I don't know how well you can tell from the photo, but it was extremely windy here along the ocean (it's pretty windy pretty much every day on the north side of Puerto Rico, at least this time of year). You can see that a bit better in this picture of the three of us just outside the fort looking east along the coast:

As we were walking from the parking garage to El Morro Steph noticed that something in the diaper bag (which has become her purse/backpack/all-purpose carryall) was making everything around it sticky. It turns out she'd put a lollipop from the last visit to the pediatrician (almost 2 months ago) in one of the outside pockets, and when we got soaked on our rain forest hike yesterday the wrapper had dissolved. Now the lollipop was melting through the fabric, which necessitated our first stop in the fort be at the bathroom to do some cleanup. It turns out this was not so bad, though, as the El Morro bathrooms have possibly the best bathroom view ever:

We walked as much of the self-guided tour of the fort as we could without taking any stairs, which fortunately was a good bit owing to ramps connecting most of the upper levels. These ramps were built so the garrison could move cannon from place to place easily, but they also worked quite well for a stroller. After risking losing our hats to the wind on the top level and working our way through the historical exhibits ringing the main plaza it was time for Evan's first lunch (now that he's eating solid food as well as breast milk Evan doubles up on all meals, plus an afternoon snack), so Steph found a quiet bench where she could breastfeed him. The main plaza may not be the best breastfeeding view ever, but it's not too shabby:

El Yunque

We spent most of our first full day in San Juan in El Yunque (which is actually an hour or so outside of San Juan), the only tropical rain forest in the United States. It is in the U.S. National Forest system, and has an interesting arrangement where it is free to enter the forest but you pay to go in the visitor center. I imagine this makes the locals happy, seeing as how they already know where they're going, but it was pretty cheap anyway (only $3/adult) and well worth the time if you're bringing an 8-month old who is going to limit your ability to hike around and see stuff.

The reason I mention the visitor center at all is because it's the source of the first two pictures I've included here. To get to the entrance you walk across a catwalk that goes through the forest canopy, which is festooned with signs labeling it a wildlife viewing area (the walkway, not the canopy). It wasn't immediately obvious what wildlife we were supposed to be viewing, but then we saw this little guy walking along the railing:

I think this is an Emerald Anole, although I didn't ask at the time and it didn't volunteer any taxonomic details. It was kind of an overcast day (more on that later), so the photo doesn't really show how incredibly bright green he was (and maybe still is... we've fallen out of touch since taking this picture).

Next, on the way back to our car we saw this crazily-colored tree trunk:

Given the way the bark was peeling off like paper leaving a smooth, shiny trunk it looks like some variant of eucalyptus, but the eucalyptus trees back home certainly don't look nearly as verdant. I'd be interested if anyone knows what kind of tree it is.

After leaving the visitor center we headed higher up the mountain ("El Yunque" is the name of the mountain in the center of the forest, but it's also used to refer to the whole forest) to have lunch at a picnic area and then take a short hike to La Mina Falls. While we were eating lunch we were reminded why it's called a rain forest as the skies opened up and dumped on us for 10 minutes or so. The picnic tables were in very nice little pavilions set amongst the trees so we got to stay comfy and dry (except for the 100% tropical humidity) for the time being, but this was just a warning of things to come.

Our plan was to walk to the waterfall and go swimming in the pool at the bottom before heading back to the car, so Steph and I were already wearing bathing suits and we had towels with us. This ended up being rather fortunate, since the shower during lunch was not the end of the day's rainfall by any means. When we were passing by some of the picnic tables again (we had to go back to the car after lunch to leave the stroller and some extra stuff there before starting our hike) it started raining again, so we ducked into one of the pavilions to wait out the worst of it and better prepare Evan for the weather. The temperature dropped several degrees when it started raining, so we bundled him in pants and a jacket (he wasn't going to be doing any work on the hike to keep warm, after all), plus we cocooned him in our camp towel to keep him dry. Here we are in the pavilion, waiting for the rain to let up a bit:

As you can see, Evan seemed happy enough with this arrangement, although he liked it even more once we started moving again (Evan is not a fan of lollygagging on walks):

Here's one more picture from the pavilion, a self-portrait Steph took of the three of us. I wouldn't say our rain avoidance interlude is necessarily worth three pictures, but this may be the best arms-length backwards-camera self-portrait ever taken, and Steph deserves to be complemented for pulling it off:

Notice how well centered we are in the frame, and the wonderful composition... a truly remarkable accomplishment!

Anyway, we waited for 10 or 15 minutes while the rain got stronger and weaker, but it never really stopped. Eventually we decided to just press on and get wet. As it turns out the water above wasn't that big of a problem (we did get soaked, but we were planning on going swimming anyway), but the water below made things interesting. The trail sloped downwards the entire way with a bunch of stairs, and the rain made the stone very slippery at times. Add to that the extra 20+ pounds of baby and the difficulty seeing where I was putting my feet (because of said baby) and it made for a bit of a challenge. We were able to manage well enough, though, and after half an hour or so we arrived at the falls:

Since the temperature had cooled down with the rain and Evan seemed to be contemplating getting fussy we didn't go swimming after all, although you can see some other people couldn't pass up the chance. We stayed at the waterfall for a few minutes to take it all in, then headed back up the trail. As it turns out, climbing stairs with a BabyBjörn is a bit awkward since every time you raise your foot your thigh bumps into the baby's dangling legs... just so you know.

We'd hoped to do another short hike a little further up the mountain, but by the time we got back to the car Evan had made it quite clear that he was ready for a nap. So we buckled him into his car seat and spent the rest of the afternoon taking a driving tour of the rest of the forest and the surrounding area (a moving car isn't quite the soporific it used to be, but it often does the trick). We didn't see any other babies on our hike, though, so we still felt rather adventurous.

Big Boy Stroller

Upon our return to San Juan we checked into our hotel and then walked around Condado (the neighborhood with most of San Juan's touristy hotels, including ours) for a bit to find a place to eat dinner. This isn't so remarkable in and of itself, but Evan sat in the stroller without his car seat (which clicks into the stroller) big-boy style! Steph has actually been walking him around the park on the evening dog walk this way for the last week or so, but there's no photographic evidence to corroborate her claims. Now we have proof! Here are Evan and I in front of La Casa Ashford (a historical landmark in Condado):

And here are Evan and Steph at a playground next to the beach:

Neither of these pictures show it, but Evan doesn't always just sit nicely in the stroller. He sometimes likes to kick a leg up on the food tray at the front of the stroller so he can spread out and really relax. We haven't caught it on camera yet, but when we do I'll be sure to pass it along.

Beach Nap

After having lunch at Happy Belly's, which is on Jobos Beach, we went a little further down the road to Montones Beach for the afternoon. Montones is a relatively quiet beach (more people than on Shacks Beach back at our condo, but not nearly as many as Jobos) with a neat sheltered pool on one end where the water is shallow and protected from the waves - it seemed like the perfect place to give Evan a little more ocean time.

Before we could worry about that he needed to take his afternoon nap, though (that's what you do on the beach after lunch, right?). I don't normally write blog posts about Evan's naps, but this was his first one ever on the beach! Exciting, huh? Plus, he got to sleep in a tent - kids love tents!

As you might be able to tell from the picture, this was no ordinary tent - it was Kelly & Josh's Instent! It has a rather clever frame mechanism that sets up super-quick... I thought it was cool, but Evan didn't seem that impressed.

We don't have any pictures from Evan's time in the water, partly because Steph and I both wanted to be in the water too and we didn't want to risk getting the camera wet, but mostly because Evan didn't enjoy it very much. It was extremely windy when we were there (as it is most afternoons on the northern shore of Puerto Rico), and Evan seemed like he'd had enough excitement for the day by then. This was probably because of the tent.

The Morning After

The morning after the wedding we woke up bright and early (a vacation with an infant is only partially a vacation), like normal. We went to Hilary and Brian's villa on our morning walk to help them pack up and see them off on their honeymoon. Luckily they had most of the things that were going home with my parents ready - Evan is not that good at packing, so he wasn't going to be much help. He is good at being held, though, which he demonstrated with Hilary:

Hilary and Brian left Sunday morning for their honeymoon in Antigua, but the rest of the family was staying until Monday at least. That afternoon we decided to take a short trip down the coast to try out a new beach, and we stopped at a place on the side of the road, Happy Belly's Bar & Grill (a name like Happy Belly's just begs to be remembered), to get some lunch. Despite the name I don't think anyone was blown away by the food, but we did all have a good time watching Evan and his cousin Lauren entertain the crowd:

Hilary's Wedding

Because Stephanie and I were both in the wedding party we didn't get any pictures of the ceremony. And because we left our camera in the diaper bag the whole night we didn't get any pictures of the reception. Fortunately, it being a wedding and all there were plenty of cameras about. All of these pictures are courtesy of my aunt and uncle, who have long been documenting the goings on of our family... thanks Buck & Ginny!

The ceremony and reception were both held on the beach (well, technically not on the beach, but close enough) at Villa Montaña. The picture on the left shows the ceremony setting, and on the right the reception layout in the beach front restaurant (which was reserved for us for the night):


Here's Brian waiting at the altar for his bride-to-be:

My mom took care of Evan during the ceremony, so he had a front row seat for the proceedings (she turned him around once the show started):

You may notice that Evan is wearing the closest outfit my mom could find to the groomsman's attire, just for good measure. He got to go barefoot, though, unlike the rest of us.

After the ceremony (which went off without a hitch) there was a cocktail hour, although we didn't get to participate (i.e. eat and drink) that much since we were busy taking pictures. At least we did have time to get a snapshot of our little family with my parents:

Finally, it was time for the best part of any wedding, the reception! We put Evan to bed in Hilary and Brian's villa, which was on the other side of the gazebo from the restaurant, and joined in the revelry. Here are all the cousins of my generation who could make the trip later in the evening at the bar (which was wonderfully close to the dance floor):

And here are the newlyweds, taking a short break after their opening dance (which was very nicely choreographed, by the way):

It was a pretty great wedding... definitely worth making the trip to Puerto Rico for.

Sandman

One of the best parts about taking a beach vacation is that we got to introduce Evan to sand. He has seen sand before at the playground, but since he's not mobile yet the playground is more of a visual rather than tactile experience for him. Going swimming at the beach means digging your toes into the sand, though, and squishing it between your fingers. Evan was more than willing to give it a try:

Picking up sand also requires one to eat a little sand, which I didn't catch on camera but did certainly happen. Not as much as we expected, though.

Of course, if you're going to play in the sand and the salt water you have to get cleaned off before you can come back inside. Fortunately Evan is a big fan of the concept of bathing, even if it is in a cold shower outside:

Aquatic Adventures

If you go on vacation to a Caribbean island you're going to spend some time in the water. We certainly did. Evan had done a little bit of swimming before, but he'd never been to the ocean. He seemed pretty eager to give it a shot:

Evan had a great time standing in the wet sand where the waves could gently lap at his feet (you can't see his face that well, but he was definitely enjoying it):

When we tried to take him in a bit deeper he wasn't so sure anymore. I think the water was a little cooler than he was expecting (the bulk of his swimming experience having come in the bath), and at times the waves came in kind of fast. Besides, when you're only two feet tall the difference between water splashing around your legs and water splashing around your ears isn't that much. I think he'll be up for more trips to the beach when we get back home, though.

Swimming in the ocean is only part of the story... there's also swimming in the pool. We didn't have a pool at our condo but the resort had two, so we took it upon ourselves to visit them on several of our trips down there. Here we are at the beginning of one such session, getting used to the water:

I think I took this picture of Evan, Steph, and my mom just after Evan started experimenting with the concept of splashing:

And finally, here is Evan's best approximation of actually swimming:

Puerto Rico

My youngest sister Hilary chose to have a destination wedding in Isabela, Puerto Rico, as I've mentioned briefly before. Seeing as how Puerto Rico is a nine-hour trip for us, minimum, we decided to make a full week-long vacation out of it.

The flights to Puerto Rico, while long, were relatively painless. Most importantly, Evan demonstrated once again that he's an excellent travelin' baby. Here he and I are having some fun in the food court during our 4-hour layover in Houston:

We spent a night in San Juan, the capitol, at the beginning of the trip, then met up with my parents as well as my sister Hallie and her fiancé Mark the next day to drive across the island to Isabela (a two-hour drive). Isabela is a small, largely undeveloped community in the northwest corner of Puerto Rico with one quiet, beautiful beach after another. The wedding took place at a very nice beach front resort, Villa Montaña, where most of the guests stayed, but because there were so many of us from my Dad's side of the family in attendance we rented a few condos just a 5-minute walk up the beach from the resort. This basically meant we could hang out there most of the day without having to pay to stay there at night, although we did have to suffer the indignity of bringing money with us to buy food and drinks. We learned to cope, though.

This is a picture of our back yard at the condo:

While we were in Isabela we spent most of our time doing beach things... swimming, snorkeling, playing in the sand, reading in the sun, and other general forms of laying around. Here Evan and I are getting ready to go swimming down in front of the resort:

Also while we were in Isabela, of course, my sister got married... we think. They won't know for sure if it took until they get their marriage license in the mail, which could be quite a wait given how dedicated Puertoriqueños are to getting things done in a timely matter.

At the end of the weekend the rest of my family had to fly home, so we drove them back across the island and spent the last few days of our trip back in San Juan. While we were there we spent a day in El Yunque, the only tropical rain forest in the United States:

We also spent a fair amount of time walking around Old San Juan, the exceedingly picturesque part of town where the Spanish first built their settlement:


As you might expect, we had a great time. So much so that I won't stop talking about it for the next 8 or 9 posts!

Chaiya

Our friend Chaiya was out here on vacation for a few days, and we were able to get together with him twice over the weekend. We saw Chaiya and his wife Amy in New York when we were there just after Thanksgiving, but somehow we managed to not take any pictures (which is not really that unusual for us, unfortunately). We made sure to remedy that at lunch after we got a bunch of the old gang together at the climbing gym:

It's not the best picture of Evan ever, but it is a good one of Chaiya.

Portrait

We spent some time this weekend trying to take a nice portrait of Evan as part of a birthday present for my mom. I think we got a few pretty good shots, both with:

and without clothes:

We eventually went with one of the diaper-only poses -- the facial expressions he made while on his tummy were just too cute to pass up.

Color Coordination

Evan is such a stylish baby he even plans for the effects of redeye when choosing his outfits:

I don't think you could match the blue and red of his eyes to the stripes on his shirt any better if you tried!