Water Play!

It's been H-O-T, hot here for the last few days, so Pierce and I have been spending lots of time in the shady backyard playing at the water table and in the baby pool. Even with the chilly temp of the hose water, Pierce loves splashing around.
Fueling up for playtime!

Pulled himself up! (and look at those thighs..) Tentative first splashes
Peek-a-boo! Copying Sadie rolling in the grass. Perfecting his "Mr. August" pose
Excited about pool time!

Animal Lover

Pierce loves Sadie the dog and Carter the cat, and thinks they are pretty funny creatures. He gets excited to see them, and will often peer around corners to see if he can find one of them. Lately, he has been fascinated by their food bowls, and will haul across the room to splash in their water dishes. The video below shows how pleased he is to discover one of his beloved pets at their feeding station.

Lazy Days of Summer

We've been in a heat wave for what feels like forever! We've spent a lot of our days indoors in front of the a/c, at the mall or at the grocery stores. Thank goodness we had Nana here as a distraction from the mundane. She and Pierce spent time reading and playing the piano together. They played lovely duets!Yesterday was a rainy day, and after Pierce's afternoon nap, I thought we could try a new game. The idea behind the game was to use a plastic cup to move cotton balls from one container (plastic tupperware) to a metal one (bowl) and explore dropping the cotton and other objects into the containers to hear the different noises, weights, etc. Well, Pierce will show you in the following series what he thought of my idea. "You want me to do what with these things?" "Gee, Mom, cotton balls are REALLY fun! Great idea."
"Can't I just tear them up or throw them behind me?"
Turns out Pierce had a better idea of what to do with the plastic container:

Summer Adventures!

My last three attempts at posting have been thwarted by the internet gods. Blogger refused to save my first post, and Firefox quit twice at pivotal moments while writing last night. So after writing long and wordy posts three times over, I am going to just give highlights from the last 3 weeks in the hopes that the 4th time is the charm....Perhaps I will now post more regularly to avoid publishing pitfalls!

Our summer kicked off with a trip to Dallas to see cousins Peggy and Barbara Moore make elegant debuts during a weekend of family festivities. They looked gorgeous and won over little Pierce with their hospitality and charm. Congratulations to the girls!Peggy and Barbara looked so beautiful! One week later, after a fun Father's Day hike with Dad, Pierce flew out to sunny CA for a trip to Nana and Pops' house in Tiburon. I made the flight solo, and Pierce continued to be an exellent and cooperative little traveler. He immediately adapted to CA time, and we filled our 10 days with walks, visits with friends, pool time, two museum trips, and playground romps with Nana and Pops. It was a great and relaxing trip, and even provided Halsey and I a chance to do a 2 night getaway to Sonoma. It was our first nights away from Pierce together, so was a little anxiety producing (at least for mom), but he had a blast at Camp Nana!Father's Day hike in the Fells. Pierce loved his backpack ride!
Above: Getting ready to swim in Tiburon. Below: No more paparazzi, please!Digging around at the playground!Checking out the "Pond Room" at the Bay Area Discovery Museum!Thanks for a great visit, Nana and Pops!

While we were away, Pierce picked up some new skills: crawling (still prefers his belly on the floor, but, boy, can he MOVE!), sitting up from a laying down position, first word--ball, and saying on and off to the lights in a room! He was proud of himself for each of these accomplishments, but most proud of his sitting up. He gave himself a HUGE round of applause the first time he did it and made sure to see that all of the people in the room were watching him. Too funny! The video below is taken back at home, but combines his sitting up, crawling and saying ball.

Since returning from CA, we've had lots of time for swimming at Myopia with Marmie, celebrated the 4th of July with the Harrisons and the Bourques, Aunt Darcy and Marmie and Papa, and had a return visit from Nana! He has also learned to wave, say 'bye and dog, and has started pulling himself up to a stand (which usually just involves a lot of jumping up and down on his knees). He seems to soak up everything you say to him now, and it's pretty amazing that he is trying to converse with you.It's hard to believe that we are almost halfway through July and that Pierce is nearly 11 months old. The time has flown!