there's a piece of dirt on your nose

Oh, no, it's snot! Or so the joke goes. And boy, do we have a lot of dirt here! All three of us have colds at the moment. Luckily, Nate's seems to be pretty mild so far, and he's mostly just stuffy. We've learned, however, that he HATES getting his nose wiped with a tissue. In fact, it makes him cry and scream. This seems awfully dramatic to me, to be perfectly honest. But it's the kid's reaction, so what can I do other than wipe away the snot and then the tears (with a clean tissue, of course!)

new sensation

While we were in Middlebury, Nate had his first taste of something sour (and seemed to like it!)





























While playing with Grandpa Carlson, Nate gave him this snazzy hairdo.


































...with Great Bumpa (aka "the cookie man")














And some misc. shots...

vacation perils

I can't imagine that the gigantic field surrounding our house was a tip-off that we were out of town.

a busy week

It's been a fun but tiring week, especially for Nate. He was in great spirits and a sweetie throughout our travels, although he hasn't been napping very well. We're headed back to Rochester tomorrow to get back to the grind. I'm still under the weather and as the unofficial photographer for the Carlbohudaksons, I've been slacking off on pictures from the Vermont portion of our travels. But never fear, good blog readers, I'll catch up tonight.

bizzaro weather

When we arrived in Boston late last week it was in the 40s. It was a good 20+ degrees warmer in Rochester, so we were a bit unprepared for the chilly temperatures. As we pulled into Middlebury yesterday, the thermometer was reading 92. Since when is it hotter in Vermont than, well, anywhere else in the continental US? Once again we find ourselves unprepared for the weather because it is May and we figured why would we need shorts?

We are having a nice visit with Gramma and Grampa Carlson so far, and Nate met his Great Bumpa (aka The Cookie Man) last night for the first time. I think Bumpa's a little bummed that Nate can't eat his baking yet, but for now those of us with teeth are enjoying our fair share of the goodies. Today Aunt Holly should be joining us for the rest of the weekend. I have a nasty cold and have been spending a lot of my time resting, but it's great that Nate has lots of people around to play with and hold him while Mommy is on the mend. Pictures to come soon (of VT, not me with a cold-induced red nose.)

blasts from the past

This has been a fun trip so far. It's also been somewhat of a shock to me. When we arrived Friday night my dad (aka "grandpa") scooped up Nate and offered to show him around the house "where mommy grew up." It hit me that we were in Grandma and Grandpa's house, and that the way I remember visiting my grandparents is the way Nate is probably going to view my parents' home. No wonder my parents always seemed to know their way around my grandparents' places - they actually LIVED there. To me it was such a foreign place, but to them it was still home.

Then on Sunday we had a brunch with some local family and friends. It was so great to see everyone and introduce people to Nate (who was relatively well-mannered despite being immensely tired), but it too was somewhat emotional because I could look around at the many phases of my life - friends and family from when I was born, kindergarten, middle and high school, college... Like a little episode of "This is Your Life" punctuated with yummy food.





















My family went for a walk around the arboretum, where I learned to walk, rode a bike for the first time, crashed a bike for the first time, wiped out rollerblading (in the same place as the bike incident)... Thad broke his collarbone rollerblading once - I think we should keep Nate away from them in case there's any genetic component to rollerblade injuries. The lilacs were amazing, which was great because I think Rochester's lilacs are probably peak now too, so we didn't miss out on the flowers altogether. Nate was quite amused by an older Russian (I think?) woman who was asking us questions in Russian that we obviously couldn't respond to very well.
















Nate also had fun meeting other babies and kids. He met his cousin Freya for the first time and he tried to eat her. He's definitely well into that phase where babies want to put everything into their mouths. He also clearly does not understand that other people are, well, people, and that cousins are not for eating.

We also got together with some of our college friends and their kids. It was particularly interesting to see him with our new friend Julia who was born 10 days after Nate. It was fun to see them together to see where they are similar, what they're doing differently, etc. And just to spite their parents, Silent Nate spent the day talking up a storm and Julia The Talker clammed up, despite their parents claims to the opposite.

travel update

Well, so far, so good. Nate weathered the drive really well. Better than we expected, actually. However, he woke up earlier than usual and didn't nap well at all today. And, although he was in relatively good spirits, he was a bit of a zombie. Hopefully he'll settle into his new digs soon. Probably just in time to hit the road again and head up to Vermont!