Playing to Win

Two great days of play recently. First Franklin enjoying his play gym:


And then the Jayhawks, making their way to the Final Four:

Can't embed here, but CBS has some good highlights online. Rock Chalk!

Also been enjoying the lovely spring weather with our handsome young man:




And it's fun that he's growing big enough for some of his clothes, like this super cute onesie with the DC neighborhoods that Deron and Haley sent him:

More fun soon. Happy Wednesday, reader!

Thanks Nana and Papa!

Franklin loved meeting his Nana and Papa this past week:

They flew in from Indiana and spent a few days here enjoying the city, making us some tasty food, and getting to know our little man.



It's been a little chilly, but we went for some nice family walks. And chilly means cute hats all around:


Franklin's also grown into (and then out of!) some more of his clothes, including this handsome houndstooth piece that he got from Jamie and Monique:


He also helped me prepare some salmon and spinach for Nana and Papa:


And of course he's been enjoying cheering on the Kansas basketball team! Sweet 16!

Plum Fun

Thank goodness Emily took this photo so I could see Franklin's cute face while I was giving a final exam on campus:


She even got some pretty good video footage:


So, we've been having a great time this week as we approach Franklin's one-month birthday (!!!).

Even found time to do some cooking. Made a delicious pork tenderloin in prune sauce.

So yummy!

Hard to take good pictures of food, so here's the photo that ran with the related story in the Times:

Oh, and speaking of food, Michael was kind enough to send this picture of Franklin and Bria at Assimba:


Okay, reader, we need to run. Two major events coming up: Franklin is meeting his Grandparents on his mom's side later today, and tomorrow he gets to start watching his first NCAA basketball tournament. And don't worry: he's picking Kansas to win it all :)

In Transit

Love this wide awake photo Emily took the other day:


And I love that our first major family outing was a resounding success. Took the bus and met some friends for dinner at Assimba Ethiopian Cuisine.

Franklin was great, the food was delicious, and it was so cool to be out with our friends and our amazing little guy!

Bonus Update, 18:00 12 March
Our friend Amir was kind enough to share a few photos he took at dinner:


Amir had a great caption for the next photo:
"Franklin's Big Appetite. Who Needs Injera?"


Speaking of taking the bus, our theme for Franklin's room (still in progress, but we figure he'll be in our room for a few more months...) is mass transit.

Started putting up some wall decals today:

Emily found these awesome transit decals made by decal farm.

All done!

Naps and Taps

I know I've been a little quiet lately... trying to get out from under a mountain of grading as Winter Quarter draws to a close. Thankfully I've also been able to take time to do things like watch this amazing guy nap:


And he and his mom have had some nice walks while I've been in class. Here they are getting ready to go:


Franklin also has strong feelings about politics, so he was thrilled to see President Obama get this endorsement:

And if hearing that little bit of Tightrope has you wanting more, well, I did post it on this blog a while ago...

All right, back to Plato and Aristotle for now. Cheers!

Birthday Bath Day

Franklin's looking great at two weeks old!


Also enjoyed a birthday bath:

Well, maybe "enjoyed" is too strong... but we're getting there!

And...
Bonus Section: Marmot Update!
Recently received the report on the Olympic National Park Marmot Monitoring Project, which we took part in last summer:
Report to 2011 Marmot Volunteers
In case you're wondering about the area we monitored, I've marked it with an arrow.

They also put up this video about the project. See if you can spot us lingering in the background!

Marmot Monitoring Citizen Science from Science Learning Network - NPS on Vimeo.

And that's not all: the call just came out for the 2012 project! We're going to talk it over with Franklin soon and see what he thinks of spending a few days counting some cute rodents with us :)