Eli, Eli, O

Eli's got a nice bathtub, fun toys and very stylin' parents (Uncle Steve and Auntie Gail). He's six months older than me but I outweigh him by a good couple of pounds. On Saturday night we went over to Eli's house in the suburbs. Uncle Matt and Auntie Kristin were there too. Plus Brisco, who is big and gives kisses. (Seeger isn't a big kisser.) We played a lot and ate hot dogs and then at the end of the night we took a bath together, which for some reason parents seem to think is really entertaining. I wasn't crazy about the bath idea, then Eli let me play with his bath toys and lent me a pair of Hanna Andersson pajamas to wear afterwords. Eli rocks!

Rain in July?

Contrary to what you may have heard about Oregon, it rarely rains here in the summer. But we had rain this week so I got to break out the ole' rain gear. When my mom was little she called it a "galosh coat." My rain coat is a hand-me-down from my cousin Eric who lives in France. He sends me really cool Frenchie stuff. Truth be told, this coat is still a bit big for me (even truthier: this photo is a wee bit old. See those shoes? Cool, huh? Well, I grew out of them already...) but I like sporting it around town when it rains. It gives me Oregon cred.

Dining al fresco

Another thing about summer? We get to eat outside. And I get to sit in the Keekaroo again.

See when I first needed a high chair, mom and dad for some reason decided I needed some kind of Euro-wooden thing. So they ordered the Keekaroo, waited for it to arrive, assembled it and endured all its inconveniences. All the while, when we visited various grandmas and I used their regular plastic high chairs, which worked really well and were easy to clean up, they would look at each other and say "The Graco has its charms."

Finally they got a Graco and the Keekaroo was relegated to the basement. Until now. Now its getting a second life as the al fresco high chair. How many kids have an al fresco high chair?

My mama's rich and my daddy, well...

It's summer, folks. And the livin' is indeed easy. Mom and dad keep trying to get me to hang out in various bodies of water. It's gotten so annoying that I'm not even crazy about the bath anymore (though I still really enjoy the streaking).

But the rest of the trappings of summer are pretty great. It stays light until past my bedtime and there's pretty much always a walk to the park on the evening agenda.

It's supposed to hit 100 degrees here over the next couple of days. Dad's freaking out.

"Uncle Art!"

July 4th is Uncle Art's birthday. And given the direction our country is headed under current leadership (or so I'm told) it's more fun to celebrate Uncle Art than it is to celebrate being American.

Now, technically, Uncle Art is my Great Uncle Art, but, while he is great, we've already agreed that it's going to be Uncle Art. And that my first true, clear words will be "Uncle Art."

So there was a birthday party for Art last night and it was so fun. For one thing it was at Sandra's so there was all kinds of fun things to look at. For another thing, All of Art's kids were there -- Becky, Brian and Maggie -- plus Mario, Rob and Eva. Plus lots of other people who commented about how big I was. I ate lots of berries and some pasta and hamburger. I think it was the best party I've been to yet. And that's saying something.

Cousin Michael

My cousin Michael came to town this week. He's big so he got to do some things with mom and dad while I stayed at grandma's -- like seeing this waterfall. He's a lot of fun to play with. We went to the pool and for a picnic and for some walks. We had a contest to see who could try the most different foods at dinner. I tried: potato salad, fruit salad, hamburger, goldfish, ice cream and water. I wasn't crazy about the hamburger. The rest was yummy. Plus I had two different cheeses and crackers for an appetizer. But Michael still won the contest because he tried the brownies and one piece of walnut.