1st Birthday!

This past Saturday was Davis's first birthday and we had a wonderful time. We started the day off with a trip to the Horse Retirement Farm in Alachua. Mom and Dad and Chase met us there. Daivs loved feeding the horses, but he also tried to eat the carrots himself a couple of times. Next we picked up a beach bike with baby seat that I spottted on craigslist. We took Davis on a quick spin and then we took his seat off so we could use it on my new trike. That afternoon Chase and Tim took D to the park while I got dinner ready. Once mom and dad arrived at our house we opened gift and had cake- it was a simple celebration but it was so so nice.
It really doesn't seem like its been a year already- feels like someone put this past year in fast forward. I must admit that as he changes I learn to appreciate each new time with him. Now that he is walking, and climbing, we go the park all the time. I also try to let him walk some when we go to public places. Which is why I ended up getting him the monkey backpack with leash. Yep- I have my child on a leash. I always though that leashing your child was aweful/funny, but that now joins the long list of things that I said I woudln't do but I now do. The problem is that I never understood how fast and determined a one year old could be until I was in charge of one ALL the time. He loves those doors that automatically open, like at Publix. If he sees those- forget it- he is out the door.

Another new phenomenom is our dust trail. We leave a heavy trail of Cheerios wherever we go. You can spot a table at a resteraunt that we have destroyed by the number of Cheerioss on the floor and the tons of wadded up, chewed up napkins on the table. Wondering if we made it to church that morning? Look for the scattering of Cheerios all over the seat, hymnal and stuck in the offering envelpes. I really try to clean up as we are leaving, but many times we are leaving because Davis is screaming and that leaves little time to gather the Cheerio debris.

Now I've never been one to have a super clean car, but having a baby has taken it to all new levels of filth. Not only is there the usual stockpiles of stale Cheerios in every crevase, but we also roll around with several of Davis's outfits, socks, shoes and blankets in the back. These outfits may be clean or dirty when they got in the car, but due to the high number of food particles and flying milk sippy cups in the car, they are always dirty when I find them. Plus Davis thinks that as soon as you get itn eh car, its time to kick off your shoes, pull of your socks and chew on them for a while. So sometimes I find his socks and shoes once we arrive at our destination, but sometimes I don't and they join the heaps of mystery clothing in void of the floorboard. Oh and toys too, of course- we have all kinds back there and they are usually sounding off making me think that there is some kind of Emergency Vehicle behind us. I try to clean it out about once a week, but its back to trashed again in a matter of hours.

But even with the all the Cheerios and dirty clothes, I am absolutely loving staying at home with him. Somedays are rough, but overall this year has been the best of my life.
Jenn

Davis’s Favorite Things

He might only be 11 months old, but Davis has already let us know that there are things on this Earth that he likes and things he really doesn’t like at all. This list describes his favorite toys, non-toys, and activities.

1- WALKING- That’s right, he is walking. He started kind of trying it out in December, but he is really moving now. He will still crawl when it is imperative that he get somewhere quickly, but he is walking more and more each day.


2- Swimming- He still loves swimming in the pool with Pops, but with all this cold weather, he hasn’t been in the pool since early November. Every time we go over to mom and dad’s he looks out at the pool and crawls/walks up to their pool fence, trying to figure out a way to get in. Thank goodness we enrolled him in those Infant Swim Resource classes. This video is his graduation back in early October. He was in winter clothing- to practice in case he was to ever fall in during the winter months. It is a little hard to watch, but I feel like it was very important for us to do everything we could to make sure that he is safe around water. Of course we still watch him like a hawk, but he is so quick and a good climber- if any child could figure out how to get in, it would be him. The lessons were NOT one of his favorite things, but I’m hoping that he will enjoy it more when he learns how to actually swim in February. In ISR they teach babies under 1 year old to roll over and float, mainly because they are too small to grab onto the side of the pool. Once they are 1 year old, they are taught how to roll over float and then swim to the side.

3- The Dishwasher- It doesn’t matter what Davis is doing, if he hears that dishwasher open, he is on the move towards it. I don’t know what his fascination is with it, but he tries to crawl into it, pull things out of it, and throw silverware from it. I have to try to open it very quietly and close it quickly. This may be something that all babies are fascinated with- I saw Tim’s niece Rebekkah climb all over heather’s dishwasher at Thanksgiving- or maybe it’s just a Garrett baby thing?

4- Cheerios- these are favorite snack. He gets them everywhere and he has started sharing them with the dogs. Yet this is not the worst Cheerio story we have. A couple of months ago we were in the docs office for shots and they asked me to take Davis’s clothes and diaper off so that he could be weighed. The nurse was right next to me when I took the diaper off only to discover that Davis had a Cheerio stuck to his private parts. I kind of laughed and said, “Wow, these things really do get everywhere”. She didn’t have too much of a reaction, so I figure either she sees that all the time or she thinks I don’t ever clean my child.


5- The Roomba- The Roomba is big crowd pleaser at our house. Davis loves to chase it, the dogs love to chase Davis chasing it, and I like that it actually picks up a few hairballs while keeping them entertained. And if you know our house, you know that we need to use the Roomba often, so it’s a good thing that everyone likes it. I’m hoping to get a Scooba one day- the robot that mops your floors, but I am afraid that we have so much hard surface flooring that it will wear out the Scooba. I’m holding out on that one until they have perfected the design.

That’s all on his favorites list right now. I can’t believe it, but his first birthday is rapidly approaching. I'm debating on how much of a big deal I want to make of it. We have lots of other parties to go to for the other boys in our playgroup and I may just want to have a small family celebration. Whatever we do, the evidense will be posted here.

First Haircut & First Christmas

December was a big month for Davis. On December 22, Tim, Mom, Dad, Chase, Davis and I all pilled into our wagon and headed to Disney World for Davis's first haircut. How did we all fit in the car? Tim was driving, Chase rode shotgun, Mom, Davis and Dad were in the back seat and I rode sitting backwords in the way-back seat. Riding in the way back wasn't as bad as you might expect and I think I'm the only one small and flexible enough to get back there. I will admit- it was a little overboard to go all the way down there and pay admission to get his hair cut, but it made it way more fun than just getting it done here in Gainesville. And we really needed to get his hair cut before Christmas- he had this wierd side rat tail thing going on that I just couldn't stand anymore. I do not recommend going to Disney on Christmas week, though. You would never know that we have a recession going on- tickets were full price even for Florida residents and the place was PACKED. But still, Disney knows how to do it right, and the video of Davis's haircut is supercute. After the haircut is finished, they give them their first set of Micky Ears that are embroiderred with "First Haircut" on the back. Note the big bruise on Davis's forehead from trying to dive into the side of the daybed.

Davis was jsut too little for many of the rides, but he LOVED Its a Small World. I think he also enjoyed the Enchanted Tiki Room, the one where you walk into a Polenesian hut and there are huge singing birds everywhere. Once the sun went down, we had enough of the crowds and the cold and Davis was tired so we pcked up and headed home.

Later that week, Kathy, Todd, Allie and Weston came down from Christmas. Davis opened his first Santa gift- a Cozy Coupe. Its still a little big for him to ride in, but he loves pushing it around. He also got a great Pop Up Playtent from Mom and Dad, a Backpack carrier, a drum, and lots of other loud toys. Davis was still too young to really know what it was all about, but we enjoyed starting some Christmas traditions with him, like Tim reading the Night Before Christmas. I can't wait for next year when he really knows whats up.

We really enjoyed the visit with the Tolfords. Weston brought his Xbox and I discovered that I love the Rock Band Game- especially playing lead guitar. I have some great footage of Todd belting out Hungry Like a Wolf. I now agree with Tim in thinking that I would love to get one of those, actually probably a Wii. The day after Christmas, everyone came over to our house to try some of Tim's smoked wings and pulled pork, made on his new smoker.

Many people have been asking if Davis is walking yet and the answer is - a little. He will take four or five steps, like moving from the sofa to the coffee table, but if its a long distance he always drops to the floor and crawls it. He is a really fast crawler-sometimes we play a game where I chase him and he crawls away as fast as he can- I dont know how he can giggle so loud and crawl that fast at the same time. He has five teeth now- three on top, two on bottom. I am still making his food, which now consists of a little chucnkier foods and some crackers as a snack. Its so great when I give him a cracker because he will raise it up with one hand, wave it around and howl like he has won the big prize. Somedays it seems like he and I are in a race to see who can eat the most bananas- he can bite off a whole piece of banana now and its definatley his fruit of choice. He is also saying Mamamama and Dadadadada. Sometimes I think he might actually know that Im mamamama, but I cant be sure yet. He is DEFINATLEY making the sign for milk- he loves the bottle and it will be tough to ween him from it in the next few months. Its still really cute when he pushes away the food Im trying to give him and he emphatically makes the sign for milk. The look on his face just says, "Hey woman- I need something to wash this down with now!" I had no idea that they would be able to communicate with you so much, even before they started talking.

He really has so much personality- I'm amazed. Unfortunatley, it seems as though he has inherited my short temper for now, and he is pretty loud when he airs his complaints. As you can tell, many of his development skills are centered around eating. When we go to church, I usually have to come stocked with lots of Cheerios to keep hum busy/quite. I sometimes bring some Tea Biscuits, too- a not too sweet wafer that kind of a cross between a cracker and cookie. During the Christmas Eve service at church, Davis decided that my brother Chase really needed to try one of these Tea Biscuits. So Davis took the wet, slobbery wafer out of his mouth and tried to shove it in Chase's mouth. Chase was horrified, not wanting to offend Davis, but definatley distguisted by his generous offer. Whats worse is that Davis does this ALL the time with the dogs and they take him up on it. I fear for how much dog slobber and fur the child has ingested.

So thats all thats happening around here!

Jenn

Deadlines- My First Video and Cookbook

Last week we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Garrett family up in Atlanta. It was great to see everyone, including the newest addition to the family, Kim and John's son Asher. Davis had a blast playing with his cousins and I can already tell that Davis and Caleb are really going to be tearing it up when they get older. Davis is 8 months younger than Caleb (Kim's older son) and Rebekkah (Heather's youngest daughter). Davis is about 9 months older than Asher, so when everyone gets a little older they should be great playmates. Unfortunately, I don't have lots of pictures from the trip- it was really crazy with that many babies around and I just didn't get the photos I would have liked.



The Thanksgiving holiday fell right in the middle of some big deadlines for me. You might be wondering why I would have ANY deadlines as a stay at home mom, but I find a way to make things stressful. I needed to get a video made of my Miracle on Main Street Event- that was the big toy giveaway that I chaired for the Junior League of Gainesville this year. It was a great event and we have lots of ideas to make it even better next year. Well I wrapped up the video just before we left town for Turkey Day and I have posted a copy of the video here.

Taste of the U...

Recipes from "Siste...

By Jenn Lane Scott G...

Book Preview

When we got back in town, I had two big deadlines- finish the cookbook I was making on Blurb for my great Aunt ("Sister") and get our Christmas card designed so that I have a shot at getting it to people before the holiday is over. I really buckled down this week and got some help from Mom (watch Davis) and everything is ordered now! I have included the link to Blurb for the cookbook- I love that Blurb because anyone from the Lane/Scott clan that wants a copy can order it right there. Of course, I don't make a profit from the book, I just wanted a way to make it easy for everyone to order without me having to print a bunch of copies. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but I already see some changes that I have to make for the next "edition". Sister doesn't really use any recipes, so when I asked her how she made her cornbread, she told me the ingredients and how she mixes them , but she didn't have any amounts. Well I meant to go back and add what i thought the amounts were based on my own experience making the recipe- I just perfected my cornbread this year after 7 years of trying. Well I forgot, so if you look at the cornbread page, there are no amounts. Maybe that was a subconscious way of not making it too easy for anyone else to perfect their cornbread- the staple of country cooking????

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and look for our Christmas card in the mail!

jenn

Halloween- new tricks, no treats (for Davis, except for sweet potato)

This posting will be mainly pictures because we have so many cute shots of Davis in his Peanut costume. Davis recovered from his first cold just in time for all the Halloween festivities. We started the day with a visit with Granny, then we headed home for a nap. After his brief morning nap, Davis made a great/horrible discovery: THE DOGGIE DOOR. Tim and I had worried he would find it eventually, but I didn't think it would be this soon. I left him in his room for a second to grab an outfit for him that was in the dryer. His room is baby proofed so i thought he would be fine. What I didn't know is that Napoleon popped in the doggie door right as I left, and Davis saw him. Apparently, Davis scurried right over to the door and Napoleon hopped back out it- which Davis thought was hilarious. I heard the laughing and caught a glance at the two of them playing with the door through the courtyard (the house is U shaped so I can still see Davis through the patio doors even when I'm at the front of the house). I grabbed the video camera to catch him on tape for Tim.

So after I pulled Davis away from the thrill of the doggie door, we headed over to Amanda and Grey's house for a playgroup Halloween party. It was great- Amanda's new house is gorgeous and the back room is baby proof. Davis and Grey are really starting to play together, even without Amanda and I parking them next to each other. Davis scurried right over to Grey's mock four wheeler and helped him tip it over. This may be a sign of things to come and I think those two are really going to get each other in trouble in a few years.

After Amanda's party, the hubby's joined us for some Trick or Treating in Katie's neighborhood, Mentone. We had a great time just parading the babies around and Davis seemed to like seeing the older kids in their costumes. As it got dark, we headed to Gigi and Pop's house so they could have a visit with Mr. Peanut. It was a great day- one of those days that was so fun you wish you could live it over again.

This is my last posting until my Miracle on Main Street Event this Satuday! That's also Tim's bday so hopefully I can muster up some high energy between now and then.

jenn

First Time Away- part 2

Sorry for the delay- Its been crazy getting back to normal. So back to vacation highlights....

On Friday, Tim came into San Fran and we spent most of the day at Golden Gate Park. They have a wonderful botanical gardens where we picked up lots of ideas for our yard and our pond. Every time we come out to Cali I get some great gardening ideas, but I have to try not to get too excited because the extreme heat and humidity of Gainesville means that we can't always have the same kinds of plants as Northern California. That was my biggest frustration with Sunset magazine- I would see amazing California gardens in there, and then everyone here would tell me how you just can't grow things like that here. But we try anyway.

We also checked out the De Young museum, where they were installing a new Maya Lin sculpture. If you aren't an artist, but the name sounds familiar, it is because her design won the competition for the Vietnam Memorial while she was a Harvard Architecture student. So it was a treat to see her new work be installed at the museum. I thought for a second that one of the installers might be Maya- this would have been my version of seeing some mega sports star in person. But unfortunately, a guard told me it wasn't her and when I got a little closer to her I realized that Maya would have been much older than the girl I saw.

To wrap up Friday we had drinks with Em and Ben at this great place called the Orbit Room (I lifted the photo from the Examiner- a bartender and his creation). They make tropical drinks with hand crushed ice and lots of fruit. Tim had the best bloddy mary of his life there I had a great Mai Thai. The drinks were wonderful (well worth the stomach pangs- I'm not supposed to drink hard alchohol) and the setting was a fabulous art deco building- enjoying good, fruity drinks and good architecture- I was in heaven. Tim and I spent the night at the Parc 55 hotel. It was nice and right on Union Square, but not historic or anything.

The next morning I trekked over to CB2 (http://www.cb2.com/). That's right- there IS a CB2 brick and mortar store and I was there. Actually it is store #3 in the US, the other two being in NY and somewhere else that is cold and urban. Tim and I tried out all their sofas and chairs so that I would be able to make decisions about potential dining chairs and sofas. Unfortunately, some of the chairs I liked the best visually were the least comfortable, so the search is back on for dining chairs. While we were in Union Square we went to H&M (http://www.hm.com/), a HUGE shopping fav of mine and I bought an absolutely enormous scarf. Seriously- its the biggest I have ever seen.

Then we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf to get on Em's party boat and watch the Blue Angels overhead. We nearly missed the boat, no pun, because of some crazy San Fran parking, but it was great once we were aboard. After the cruise we had bday cake and drinks on the lawn in front of the Ghiredelli building. Natalie (Em's sis who made a surprise visit) and I ran into one of the Blue Angels while sneaking into a nearby hotel lobby to use their ladies room. speaking of, thats my best traveling tip. If you are ever traveling in a big city and you need to use the restroom, but you are terrified of a public bathroom, your best bet is to walk in confidently to a hotel lobby. Walk in as if you are staying there and head for the ladies room. If you walk in a dont immediately see it, head for the hotel bar to give you time to figure out where it is. That can also throw off any suspicious bellmen. Of course, it helps if you are dressed up a little bit- I wouldn't try this if you are backpacking across Europe sporting some dreads and 50 pound pack.

So after we celebrated thouroughly, Tim and I headed to Windsor in Napa Valley to stay with a good family friend, Bill Sloan. We arrived around 9pm and went to bed soon after, completely exausted.

The next morning we enjoyed an awesome omelet with Sloan and his girlfriend Gail at Omelet Express in Windsor, then we headed for the Vino!!! We went to Sterling, of course, and took the Tram up the side of the hill to the winery at the top. It pretty touristy, but at only $20 a person, I recommend it. We also went to Clos Pegaus, a winery that features a great outdoor sculpture garden and it just happens to be my parent's favorite. We also zipped down to St. Helena to see the historic buildings at Beringer, then we enjoyed a nice picnic dinner at a little park there. We decided to skip Schramsberg because of their exorbitant tasting fee of $35 a person, plus we would have to wait until the next day, but they would charge our card that day. Um, no thanks, Schram- We'll just pick up a bottle at the Jonesville bottle shop and sip it by the pool when we get home. The Schramsberg is actually cheaper in G'ville than it is at the winery.

And finally, on Monday, Tim and I went up to Healdsburg, had lunch at a great French cafe and went back to St. Helena to meet up with Em and Natalie. We enjoyed a bottle of bubbly with them at Mumm, a gastronomic tasting at Robert Sinskey, a quick taste at Pine Ridge and then back to San Fran for dinner at Straights. At 11:30pm we boarded the red eye flight to ATL and on to Gville. We missed Davis so so much. It was heaven when we finally saw him. Jenn

First Trip Away

Davis is now 7 1/2 months old and Tim and I have gone on a little California vacation without him. Davis is chilling at mom and dad's (Pops and Grams/Gigi) while we are away. I know I am incredibly lucky to have mom and dad right there in Gainesville to care for him. He LOVES going over to their house and we have spent the night there a couple of times so he is used to sleeping there. Even though I miss him terribly, I know he is having a great time with them. I do fear that he will not remember us when we get home- he is so cute when Tim comes home or when we see mom and dad. We were in the grocery store over by mom and dad's the day before I left and we saw mom in the store. I had Davis in his new push car that he can't get enough of. I rolled him up beside her and when he saw that it was mom he shrieked with joy and raised his arms over his head. It was so adorable and I was so happy that he would recognize her even when we were in a public place. So I felt great about leaving him with them, but I still cried a little when I left.

So even though this is supposed to be a little get away for Tim and I, it is day 2 and I have yet to meet up with Tim. He is out at the Nerdery in San Jose packing up an instrument. I call it the Nerdery, but its actually a great company that Tim does a lot of collaborations with in mass spec. He is really excited about getting this instrument and I'm happy that we could tag on this bonus trip at the end of it. So I spent yesterday hanging with my good friend Emily who lives in San Fran.

Yesterday we did the informal "So I Married an Ax Murderer" movie tour. We ate lunch at Fog City Diner and took the ferry over to Alcatraz. Alcatraz was creepy, but I loved the history of the building and the island. And the self guided audio tour was really great. They rented you headsets like they have in many museums- it was included in the tour price. I would really like to see more historic sites and museums post these tours online so that people could download them to their own ipods and maybe look a little less nerdy. I also wish that I could have produced a few of these while working at my last job in place of HABS/HAER documentation, but we were never able to convince our clients that it would be as valuable as 4x5 photography. I hate doing 4x5's and the photos just end up sitting in a drawer in Tallahassee. I love how these audio tours add a human perspective to the historic structures and they can really do a wonderful job of explaining the value of the historic site to the lay person. So I highly recommend the Alcatraz tour even if you aren't an old building junkie. It was full of great scary stories and the views on the boat and on the island were incredible.

While we were in the island, the Blue Angels just happened to be practicing for the air show this weekend. It was great to see the San Francisco skyline with jets flying by and the boats on the water. It was great, except for the restrooms. Maybe they were going for the whole "prison" experience, but the restrooms outside the prison cell could have been cleaner. So as I left the restroom- the on that is located at the top of Alcatraz island- I stepped out into the beautiful California Sun and all of the sudden, this Blue Angel jet flew right behind my head. It was crazy loud and I swear I could see the whites of the pilot's eyes. Of course, I was already a little jumpy after hearing the audio tour about an Alcatraz break out attempt and the Marines coming in to stop it, so when a giant jet screamed by my head, I was a little shaken.

After taking the ferry back to the harbor, Emily and I headed for the Ghiradelli building. This is a really touristy area of San Fran, but it was fun to see it. That's when I had my second big scare of the day. I was leisurely strolling along enjoying my usual afternoon diet coke with splash of regular, and this crazy, dreadlock homeless guy (or so I thought) waving giant branches jumped out of a bush behind a trash can right next to me. I screamed out loud in front of the hordes of tourists. People, including Emily, were laughing hysterically. Emily gave the dude a buck and I realized I had been set up. That guy is a regular down there and we watched as he wedged himself behind the trash can to set up his next victim. As I wrote this posting, I have found out that this "Bushman of Fisherman's Warf" is not homeless, he is a street performer and he claimed over $60k last year in income. Only in San Francisco, but hey, I admite it was really funny. I was exhausted after my second big scare so we headed to the Buena Vista for their world famous, and much needed, Irish Coffee.

Feeling relaxed and wide awake, we decided to take the trolley home. There was a little bit of a wait, but we were able to see the sun set as we stood in line nest to the harbor. When the trolley came, Emily knew just were to sit so that we could hang off the running board in front seat of the trolley. It was a blast! By the time we made it home, we were completely exhausted so we ordered some Thai food and called it a night. I did have a chance to meet Ben, Em's new boyfriend, who was great. He is planning an awesome boat party for her 30's birthday on Saturday. So we will stay in San Fran until then, to celebrate with Em and watch the Blue Angels from the water.

I'm looking forward to seeing Tim today (Friday) and I miss Davis so much. I have a few things in mind for today, but I'll wait to see what Tim wants to do.

Jenn