Daddy's home alone while Mommy and Baby are enjoying a couple more weeks with family in the East. We had a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks with grandparents in Orange County and Long Island. Baby got to discover a seashore that is sandy and warm and inviting. He's been splashed in the face by waves, crawled through the shallows, almost ate a snail, kicks and splashes in the pool, roots around in the soft sand, sweats in the afternoon heat. Noah is becoming quite the fun little person.

He was baptized by Pret on June 26 at Beachwood, just like his Mommy was in 1971.

He's doing lots of fun things these days, besides just being charming like his Daddy.

We're feeding him on his high chair during our meals. At first, we fed him, but now he prefers to grab his food in his little hands and feed himself. It's a good thing, then, that he's mastered the pincer grasp with his thumb and forefinger. (It's actually fun to watch; he'll assume the pincer with both hands, in anticipation, when he's getting ready to do anything which involves grabbing.) Chunks of avocado, sweet potato, fresh peas, cheerios, pineapple, watermelon (he likes to squeeze and juice the chunks before eating them). Other fun foods include gnawing corn off the cob (slowly), sucking on lemons (fun face but he keeps coming back for more). Of course, the fancy pincer grasp is often not sustained for long, and eating is done by mashing the fist into the mouth. The same fist which he uses, of course, to scratch behind his ear. Bright orange sweet potato is easy to spot during post-meal cleanup. So far, we haven't fed him canned food. But with Mommy taking care of the major nutritional needs, we'd rather see if he can learn to eat fresh foods and skip the jar phase.

He has the physique of a baloon animal, and looks very handsome in his blousy tank-top/shorts hot-weather combination. He gets into fits of real laughter these days. Daddy found that hopping up and down with Junior on his shoulders in the pool elicits lots and lots of laughing.

He had great fun playing with cousins Krissa and Katie, who sat with him and played with all sorts of toys. Ditto with cousin Danny.

Now that we've had him with Uncle Corey again, the resemblance is striking. Definitely gets his eyes and his face from Corey. Lucky kid!

He's aggressive with the pets who are tolerant.

Daddy's souvenirs from the vacation were systemic poison ivy (or was it sumac) from weeding at the in-laws, and a hand swollen by a wasp sting for 2 days from weeding at the parents. I should stop weeding. (Of course, the first thing I had to do when returing to Anchorage was spend 2 hours weeding out the very thick chickweed.)

Speaking of weeding, our daisies have become a nuisance. They are massive and tall plants, which even hide a 5-foot tall rose bush, but do not have much strength, so that the thick flower stems fall down onto the rest of the plants. Oy. Most of our garden is green still, not flowering much yet - probably due to the very hot weather and likely low watering.

Our deck-rail replacement project (upgrading the rail to code) has turned into a find-the-rot exercise, with major rot found in a massive timber supporting the deck. Gotta fix that first, THEN move on to the railing, then onto the decking... it's always something.

Daddy looking forward to farmer's market tomorrow where he hears that some new produce is out this week due to all the warm weather. Maybe some nice berries or greens? Very exciting.

The trip was wonderful of course; it's great to just go back East and be there, with no grand plans. Long Island is relaxing as always, Blooming Grove is warm and comfortable. We were glad to see everyone. Had a great hike with Jeff and Donna and Noah to Mohonk, on the Schunemunk Ridge. The perfectly Hudson Valley hike: dramatic topography interlaced with old, old woods roads and lots of history, with rustic gazebos perched out on cliffs or on lilly ponds.

Long, long layover after arriving Chicago from Newburgh let me appreciate that airport more than I had. Unfortunately, now that we tend to take Alaska or American in order to access the smaller airports in metro NY, we have to go through Chicago. (Our usual trip had been via Minneapolis on Northwest, a much more comfortable place to spend a layover. Local coffee roaster, quiet and relaxing corners, an observation lounge...) From earlier flights, my impressions were that ORD was a crowded, mall-like warren with very obtrusive security gumming up the works. But my tour of the adjacent terminals was actually quite fun, with a bit of variety and an artistic underground tunnel connecting the parts of Terminal 3. What really changed my mind was an art exhibit between the American Airlines and United terminals.

It's called "The Material World". If you pass through Chicago sometime soon, take a half-hour to wander over and spend some time there. It was really something.