This is the Franklin Primeval

Wonderful relaxing weekend in the Quinault Rain Forest. Nice quiet hikes, windswept beaches, and quiet evenings by a roaring fire. And great company of course:


Stayed at the Lake Quinault Lodge again. Love that fireplace:

Great place to stay, and the breakfast is awesome, but if you're looking for dinner I'd recommend getting out and heading up the road to the Salmon House Restaurant. Anyway...

Franklin's first look at the ocean! A windy Beach 1 during high tide's maybe not ideal, but you sure feel the force of something on a day like that!


Also took in the view at Kalaloch:


Even more fun—and less wind—back at Quinault. Had a great time showing Franklin some of the epiphytes on the Maple Glade trail:

As they say,

... The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green...



Emily got some nice footage of him checking out all the water and moss:


Just love the way things look in the rain forest.






Speaking of rain, I thought it would be fun to try measuring Franklin against the lodge's rain gauge (their record: over 15 feet in one year!)


Franklin had other ideas :)


But we got a decent family photo out of the deal:


Did I mention the breakfast was great?

Franklin recommends the salmon and cream cheese omelet.



He also recommends getting a paper coffee cup to play with:


Took one last hike on Sunday:


Enjoyed the views:


And got ourselves nice and tired for the drive home:

Until next time. Have a great week, reader!

One Year, Five Days, and Going Strong

I can't resist... here's one more shot of our one-year-old on his birthday:

For more, please see Bria's set on Picasa. Thanks again for the photos Bria!

In the meantime, today was Franklin's one year doctor's appointment. Three vaccines, a blood draw, and everything is looking good. Growing bigger and stronger every day. Even jumped a few percentiles in weight:

Not bad!

Here's the full breakdown from Group Health, in case you want to dig into the numbers:

Height: 2' 4.94" (0.735 m)
Weight: 20 lb 11 oz (9.384 kg)
Head Circumference: 18.31" (46.5 cm)

Percentiles:
15.47%ile based on WHO length-for-age data.
39.9%ile based on WHO weight-for-age data.
60.22%ile based on WHO head circumference-for-age data.

So, there you have it. And now we're off for a relaxing weekend in the Quinault Rain Forest! Cheers, reader.

Happy Birthday Franklin!

Had a great time celebrating Franklin with some great friends on Sunday. Can't believe he's one already!


Many thanks to Vios Café: great food _and_ a fun play area for the kids:


Thanks also to Cupcake Royale: I think he approves!


Back at home, he's been making the most of all of his gifts (which may require off-sight storage soon at this rate...). Like this music box from Grandma Christine:


And the pretty awesome Punch & Drop:


Plus I just heard from Emily that today, since he's a one-year-old, he started going out for "recess" at daycare! Hopefully we'll get some photos or video of that soon.

Thanks again to everyone. It's been a great year!

11 Months, 30 Days, 9 Hours...

Just a few short hours from the big day! In the meantime, here are a few recent photos Emily's taken of our young man as he enjoys his last few days at Age 0.

Reading the news yesterday morning with dad:


Stylin' in some new shoes:


On the climbing equipment at daycare:


Speaking of the Intergenerational Learning Center, the current newsletter has a cute photo of Franklin, but also a nice account of the origin and growth of the ILC:

ILC News February 2013 by Yancy Hughes Dominick

And finally, here's the adorable card they helped Franklin make:

All right, reader. Big day's tomorrow. I'd better go make sure everything's ready!

♥ Be Mine ♥

Doing a unit in class on functionalism and the possibility of machine consciousness tomorrow, so I figured putting Franklin in this outfit would give me the perfect image to get things going:

Emily and I have never made much fuss about this holiday, but the timing seemed too good to ignore.

Franklin also the other day received this related gift from Wendy:

Pretty cute!

And thanks to Wendy for coming over last weekend to hang out with Franklin while Emily and I saw Side Effects. The movie was pretty entertaining, and the cast was great, but the real fun may have been back at home:

That's from Facebook. If you want to read all the comments, try the large version.

Well, I'm off to enjoy one of the delicious cookies that Emily decorated at Katrina's the other night:

Thanks Katrina! They're delicious!

Hope you have a happy one, reader!

Handy Dandy

Emily and Franklin picked up some (washable, thank heavens) paint and paper the other day, and we gave the little man the chance to make his mark.

Did I mention how wise it was of Emily to get washable paint? :)

But a couple handprints ended up looking pretty cool. Maybe the best of the bunch:


Meanwhile, he's made the leap to technology, and is now using those hands to feed himself with a spoon:

Also using the spoon to fling applesauce, but ate an impressive amount yesterday. Quite a guy.

Finally, Magen the other day shared these great photos of the Iwanski kids using some pretty sophisticated tools. Snorkel set:


And a diaper on an Elmo doll:

My favorite part of that might be the response I got when I asked if Elmo was in fact wearing a diaper: "Elmo IS wearing a diaper...one that was a part of Amelia's birthday gift from you guys. Evan actually loves to play with Amelia's doll...so this was a way that everyone could enjoy changing a diaper :)"

Speaking of, I've got something to do. Until next time!

Oh Hi, MOHAI

Spent a fun and informative afternoon at the Museum of History and Industry (you can call it MOHAI if you'd like) last weekend. Even more fun since we were able to tour alongside Tyler, Jenn, and Jeff.

Franklin was pretty comfy touring some exhibits with Jenn and Tyler.

We didn't see half of the cool stuff they mention in the New York Times review that ran when it opened in December, but we're definitely looking forward to visiting again soon. If you happen to be in the area, you really have to see the exhibit on the Seattle Fire: the singing and lights seem silly at first, but all of a sudden I realized I had just learned a ton about the fire. And I got to see Franklin bop around and clap to the music, so that's not so bad either :)

I also really enjoyed the interactive topographic map that showed how all the canal building and regrading have shaped the city. Super cool and a little mind-blowing.

Meanwhile, Jeff had some fun with the green screen in the temporary exhibit on cinema in Seattle:

And just by the way: boy do I wish movie theaters hadn't replaced movie palaces. Anyway...

Since then, it's been kind of hectic, but fortunately Franklin and I have been able to enjoy some quiet walks in the rain. And I love how helpful he's been lately:


Finally, it's February, so we've got a big day coming up! Many of you may be too far from Seattle to make it, but in case you're curious here's a shot of the invite we sent out:

And if you would like to stop by and wish him well, reader, let me know & I'll put you on the list!