We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo

I took Eli to the zoo on Monday--technically his second trip, but the first where I thought he might be able to see something.

Despite being well rested and well read, Eli was a grouch. Fuss buster. Cry baby. Pick your term. As I was thinking I might have made a mistake by going there that day, and wondering how loud he would have to scream for the zoo to kick us out for disturbing the animals, we made our way to the African Savannah.

We walked onto a viewing deck where there were two giraffes eating. I guided Mister Fuss Busters eyes to the giraffes, and he fell totally silent. For five solid minutes, he was completely and utterly transfixed by the giraffes. He just stared, and nothing else mattered. It was amazing. One might say I was just as transfixed on him as he was on the giraffes.

Terrible picture--iPhone has its limits--but this was to neat to skip documenting.




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Cousins!

We were really excited to be able to spend the weekend with Ryan and his family. As you can imagine, hijinks ensued:




Eli is in the middle in his usual position with toes pointed in the air. The rest are his cousins Spencer, Ava, Tyler, and of course, Eli's twin cousin, Carter.

We got a lot of good time at some local parks. We went to an apple orchard for cider and donuts. Ryan gave us a tour of Detroit, which is much more interesting than I know you're thinking of right now. Lunch at Zingerman's, where we had a brush with moderate fame in Ed Helms. It was a great weekend and we are glad we had the chance to see them.

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Sadie 2001-2009

I thank her for all she gave me.







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Sad Sadie News

Sadie has advanced kidney failure. When she saw the doctor four months ago, everything was fine. I finally picked up that there was a problem when I realized she had stopped eating. The disease is terminal, although the timeline is highly variable. My sense is that the best we can hope for in time would be measured in weeks, but days is more likely

She's hospitalized right now to get iv fluids, which will make her feel better. The doctor will teach us how to give her the iv on our, so she can be at home. We are, in short, entering end-of-life care for her, making her as comfortable as possible.

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The Cowgirl Eats Some Pumpkin' Eli

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Two From Zion

The second part of our Utah trip was to Zion NP, which has a couple of the most unique hikes you'll find in a national park. The last half mile of Angels Landing extends out on a fin of rock and has many chains to protect you and help you on the exposed route that can leave you walking a three foot wide trail with 1,000 foot drops on either side. The other is The Narrows, where you hike in the Virgin River into a narrow canyon that's 50 feet wide and 1,500 feet tall. Susie got to do all of Angels Landing and close to two hours in The Narrows, but neither was appropriate for little Eli (Ive done each hike on previous trips)

Here are two pictures from Zion. The first is just some adorable cuteness, and the second is Susie and Eli on the first hike we did in Zion to Hidden Canyon. Yeah, the fall colors were awesome.






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Bryce

Last Thursday, we boarded a plane to Las Vegas then went straight up to Bryce Canyon NP. I can't say that much for our lodging--it advertised "clean rooms" and if that's how they want to separate themselves from the competition, something is wrong. But the park is fantastic.

We spent three days in the park. On our first day, we hiked down from Bryce Point into the amphitheater that's so famous and went on the Peekaboo Loop, so named because you wind all around the rock formations, always coming around a corner and seeing something new. The picture below is from that hike.

On day two, we did a hike down across the cliffs, but a less well-travelled part of the park. In the 5 hours we were out there, we didn't see a single other person. We did see towering cliffs of reds and oranges and pinks and whites. There will be no pictures posted to the blog from this hike.

Our third day was a short hike since we were also travelling to Zion that day. Again, we walked along the cliffs in the farther reaches of the park.





Eli has been a great hiker, the star of the trail as always, but he's actually been very difficult when it comes to eating. For now, we are going with teething.

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Head, Fingers, Knees and

Before Eli was born, I was talking to Mark about what he liked about being a parent. One thing he said is that, through them, you get to experience everything for the first time once again. From riding a bike, to swimming in an ocean, to your first "chapter book", all things we enjoy as adults, but never with the enthusiasm that our kids have.

A couple days ago, I decided to give a good introduction between Eli's hands and his toes. I brought his towes to his hands and as he clasped them, his eyes opened as wide as saucers and he grinned, suddenly aware that the feeling in his toes were caused by his very own hand. For about five minutes, I'd bring his hands to his feet he'd grab on for a bit, then let go.

The next day, we practiced a couple more times. And the day after that, I walk up and find that he had grabbed his toes all on his own. Now, he's an old pro.




The bad part is that now he always has these toys to play with, even when he should be sleeping.

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Family Vacation, Part III

In Yosemite, we hiked up above the Wawona tunnel to Inspiration point and Stanford point. It had snowed a couple days earlier, and snow was still on the ground. Our highest point had snow, some wind, temperatures about 45 I'd say, and an excellent view.

The Wawona tunnel is almost a mile long and it's situated such that when you come out the end, you look straight up the heart of the valley. So there we were, sunset bathing El Cap, Half Dome, Bridal Veil Fall, and Eli had his head turned the other way, tracking each and every car that went in and out of the tunnel.




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Family Vacation, Part II

When you go into yosemite from the northern route, the road goes to about 6,000 feet before hugging the mountain and dropping to the valley far below. This is beautiful anytime, but it's simply incredible when you do it at night and the moon is rising over Half Dome.

Our hike on Monday started on the valley floor, and went up the Merced river to Vernal falls. There's a granite staircase that runs a long ways on the canyon wall as you climb past the falls. The trail is called Mist Trail, for during the spring you can get soaked by the spray from the huge waterfall. But now it's a relative trickle (and yosemite falls is totally dry, which is very sad).

We went about half way up to Nevada falls, but the failing light and frigid temperatures forced us to turn around.






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Family Vacation, Part I

We started off with two nights on Stinson Beach, where our house was right on the beach, complete with a cordonned area of sand to keep the riff raff out. Eli got to put his toes in the water, which went about as well as you would expect for 55 degree water. We took a couple of long walks along the beach, playing in the waves as we could.

Due to a very bad night with Eli, I did get to see something that I may very well never see again: a beautiful full moon setting over the Pacific. Now, who can tell me why this is something I may never see again?




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Out with the Old, In with the New

Today is my last day of staring at this for eight hours a day:




And the start of me staring at this for 24 hours a day:



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Mom Got an iPhone!

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Happy New Year!

On Friday, I left work early and met a friend who was staying in Japantown. (The friend's name is Michael, wife's name is Susan, and son's name is Elliot.) Susie and Eli joined us for a relaxing stroll among the sushi restaurants and the Benihana, and Michael took this excellent picture of us.



That night, we all went over to a friend's house for dinner to celebrate Rosh Hashannah. Everyone had fun except for Eli. We're glad we didn't go to the synagogue.

In totally different news, the two directors at work who run our antitrust practice are leaving and starting their own firm, effective at the end of the month. I'm sure they'll make me an offer to join them, but they haven't made it yet. I can't stay at my existing firm--everyone will lose their job, even if they don't get an offer to join the new firm.

I don't think this should affect my family leave plans, so I'm still going to have an awesome rest of the year.

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I Can Explain

My Boss: "Did you know that you're wearing your shirt inside out?"
Me: "No, but I can explain."
Boss: "I was just pointing ot out to be polite, but if there's actually an explanation, I'll bet it's interesting."
Me: "Well, this morning, Susie shook me and said, 'Did you know it's 8:45?"
Boss: "Did you know?"
Me: "No....But I can explain."
Boss: "This sounds like we have a theme for the conversation."
Me: "Well, I was up with Eli three times during the night, for a total of more than two hours. It was the same for the couple of nights before."
Boss: "Wait, you told me Eli was a very good sleeper--6, 8 hours no problem."
Me: "Well, I can explain....Actually, I can't explain this one at all. For the past two weeks, we get maybe 2 to 4 hours. Eli works in mysterious ways."
Boss: "Maybe he's afraid of sleeping through his alarm and showing up late for work."
Me: "Cute, but I didn't sleep through my alarm. I turned it off."
Boss: "You turned it off?"
Me: "This I can explain. I didn't want to wake Eli."
Boss: "You were worried about waking up a baby who already wakes every two hours?"
Me: "We have a rule in our house: You break it, you bought it. I didn't want to end up dealing with him, and then being late for work."
Boss: "But you were late for work."
Me: "Ok, I'll admit to a certain lack of foresight, but-"
Boss: "But you can explain."
Me: "Exactly. It was 3:00 AM when I made the decision to turn off my alarm, and I wasn't thinking straight."
Boss: "So you got the extra sleep this morning, and despite this, you ended up with your shirt inside out."
Me: "As I said from the beginning, I can explain."
Boss: "And the reason is...?"
Me: "The reason is...fine, I have no reason."
Boss: "Don't worry. I've got four kids and you can keep blaming them for random stuff like this for years to come."



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Angels Camp

Mom and Dad were here in SF from Tuesday through Friday. Then they left to stay in Angels Camp for the weekend, and they were kind enough to invite us along. It was over 100 there, so our little boy who likes to be outside needed something cooler. Up the Sierras we went!

On Saturday, we went to the 7,500 foot level, up Ebbetts pass, to Mosquito Lake. It was a cool 81 degrees there. We did a hike of 5 or 6 miles out to Heiser lake, and a beautiful view out to the central valley. Here's Susie and Eli by Mosquito lake as it got dark.




We're in Calaveras county, so note that Eli is appropriately dressed in a froggy shirt.

When we go hiking, Eli's favorite thing is to look at the trees. So of course on Sunday we had to go to Calaveras Big Trees state park that has two big groves of Sequoias. Big, fat, trees. We all loved them. We also had a nice time playing in a big river in the park. I made it all the way in to the snowmelt river, Susie got her legs in, and Eli got his feet in, which was more than enough for him.

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Bon Voyage

Susie and Eli left to join her family in Martha's Vineyard for the week. 6 hours later, I walked in to our corner store and the manager looked at me and asked, "Michael, what's wrong?" I'm not sure it was a good idea to let them go for a week. I made Eli promise not to do anything new.




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The Favorite Cousin Competition

We have a very strong first entry in the "Favorite Cousin Competition". As part of a bar mitzvah present, Zach's grand parents gave him a trip to San Francisco to see the Phillies play. Since we just happen to live here, they spent some time with us as well.

I'll be honest. From a teenage boy, I'd be satisfied if they looked at Eli and said, "He's cute. I'm going to check Facebook now." Zach did this, of course, but then he came back. I know he'll deny it, but he and Eli got along pretty well. He held him, played with him, watched him, all on his own volition. Then--and he'll surely deny this most of all--he even sang along to Raffi to keep Eli calm. Ain't it great to be crazy?




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Wiggle Time

Susie and Eli are away for a couple of days. In Eli withdrawal, I have finally tried to figure out how to get our videos to the computer in a usable fashion. Here is my first attempt, raw footage at its finest.

Giants 7, Phillies 3!

I invite all friends and family who like Drumsticks to come and visit.

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