Swinging

First time on the swings. Wheeeeee!

Grandpa's Birthday

We packed Spud into the car and travelled up to Virginia to celebrate Grandpa Chadwick's 70th birthday last weekend. We celebrated at Mountain Lake, which is a nice old resort near a lake on a mountain. We stayed in a fancy tricked-out cabin in the woods.



Grandpa finished up his 60's with style. We toasted him with champagne.



He opened presents.



Grandma made him a cake. Candles were not considered prudent because the cake was not thought to be structurally sound. But it tasted good.



Grandpa got some quality time with Spud. Here he's teaching him the fine art of couch chillin'. By the time he is a teenager he will have perfected this skill.



Grandma got some quality time too.



Mountain Lake is where the movie 'Dirty Dancing' was filmed. Claire has seen this movie about 200 times. While we were there, Claire met a handsome and brooding dance instructor with a propensity for shirtlessness. Their love was doomed because he was from the wrong side of the tracks and because that puffy-haired girl got there first.



So we had to settle for visits to all of the movie-related locations on the hotel grounds, helpfully marked by signs.





Patrick Swayze stepped over this chain in the movie. I'm not sure if he was shirtless at the time or not.



The best part of the weekend for the rest of us was the delicious buffet food in the hotel. During one 24 hour period, I consumed no less that 5 pieces of pie and cake. I will star in a new sequel: 'Chubby Dancing'. Spud semed a little disgusted at the gluttony, but he put away a considerable amount of food himself.





There was a giant checker board. He played it using Spud rules, which involves pushing all of the pieces into one another and then off the board entirely. He also got to swim in the pool and got to swing on a real swing for the first time ever.



And even though "Nobody puts Baby in the corner", we did in fact put the baby in the corner.

Father's Day Uptown in the QC

Charlotte is known as the "Queen City". I don't know why. Also, when you travel into the QC, you don't go "downtown", you go "uptown". Again, no clue. It's jes the way we do thangs roun these parts. We's good people.

Anyway, we went uptown to the QC today for Father's Day. But first, Claire made us a delicious breakfast of scrambled cheesey eggs, crispy turkey bacon, a melange of strawberries-raspberries-blueberries (aka berries), cantaloupe, and chocolate croissants. YUM. Spud thought it was just delicious. He ate it all, except he doesn't seem to care much for the cantaloupe. The food he wants most of all is the food you are eating. He points at it and says "At", which means, "I'd like to eat thAT, even though you are about to put it in your own mouth." He does this at every meal, and screeches intermittently if we don't hand it over at a reasonable interval. It's like having an affable but extremely pushy puppy.



Then a quick splash in the pool. Spud inherited his mother's disdain for cold water, so he hasn't enjoyed the pool experience much until today. It's been in the 90's the past few days, so the water is nice and warm-ish now. So it's mostly fun, although he does tend to avoid the open water and must cling to something. Either the edge, or Mommy.



Then we headed out. First to Amelie's French Bakery in NoDa for lunch. Claire got another chocolate croissant and I got an eclair. Spud pointed at both and got to sample some of each.

Then we headed further uptown to Trade and Tryon, the center of the city. On Sunday it's pretty quiet and you can actually find parking. We checked out the fountains. I think he was concerned at first that he was going to have to get in the water.



Notice our tropi-cool Father's Day shirts. Mucho aloha dude.



We examined the various streetside artworks on display.



We sauntered about in a park.



We snacked.



We thought some deep thoughts, and some shallow ones too, and we learned a little bit more about the great big world.



We strolled carefree under loving and watchful eyes and we belly-laughed and we soaked up the warm summer day.

Walking Tall

I can't decide if he reminds me more of a drunken frat boy after his first 12-pack, or a ravenous zombie staggering in search of delicious brains.

One Giant Leap

Spud has taken his first steps! For a few weeks now he has been able to stand straight up without assistance from a prop, and he has also been "cruising"; walking along, holding on to furniture and such or walking while holding our hands. Over the weekend, he put it all together. He stood straight up, got a determined look on his face, and then kind of stumbled for two steps before flailing back to the ground in a heap. But he did it! In the few days since, he has added more steps and is getting better and better. I'll add pictures as soon as he does it in front of the camera. In the meantime, here are some shots of Neil Armstrong's first steps onto the floor of a secret underground sound stage in a bunker in Arizona...I mean onto the virgin face of the Moon.