Visit to Mt Vernon: a tale of increasing mobility.

So Charlie is really moving these days. So when his Aunt Dana and Uncle Andy visited, we went to Mt. Vernon where there should be plenty of room to roam. It was a great day and Charlie spent some time in the backpack (thanks so much, Stuarts, we use it all the time).

We found that GW had alot of goats, and Charlie, having always loved animals (see here - courtesy of Stavlunds), so he enjoyed watching the big bulls.

and he really got into the baby goats.

Notice in the last picture he is no longer in the backpack? Well in the next picture, I think you will sense the glint in his eye, the glint of a convict who is about to break out of his chains...

...and he is off first crossing GW's cabbage field.

And then up the hill...

He pauses for a photo op...

Overall a fun time was had by all!

Uncle Andy and Aunt Dana are up for a visit.
Charlie and Andy got along well at first, but then had a little tiff which led to out and out fighting on the couch. Lets watch as our hero tries to defeat his visiting villain uncle:

"Our hero starts by using pillow camouflage to stalk his victim...



But he us uncertain how to react to the same tactic from his uncle.

So he attacks...

and is clobbered...

and buried...

He rests. Strategizing.

Rising from the chaos he feigns confusion.

Using his victims softness against him, Charlie turns and, smiling, attacks!

but outweighed by a factor of 5 or 6, against an opponent with a

ridiculous reach advantage there is little hope as our hero is pummeled.

Defeated at last he says...

Lets do that again."

While I know all three of this blogs readers are primarily interested in Charlie I thought i would put a couple of milestone pictures up of my new bread making phase of life.

Sourdough Ciabatta (2x) and a grapefruit rosemary sourdough white.

and just so you can get a feel for the texture and crumb, a close, but poorly formatted shot.

Anyway it excites me.

Oh, and by the way, if it was not already apparent from the fact that I actually posted pictures of bread, any attempts to retain any "cool" quality I once had, real or imagined, have now been completely abandoned.

Spring in DC means....

...cherry blossoms.

So we took some time for a long walk with about 10,000 of our closest friends to look at the clouds of pink flowers down by the tidal basin. Tiring, yes, especially for a pregnant woman, but also for the guy with the 27 pound kid on his back.
Here are a few pictures from our walk.





We also found that Charlie really liked pointing out the

planes as they came into National Airport.

He REALLY liked it.