We did it!

We sold our car today. We're finally car-free, insurance-free, parking-space-fee-free, C02-free, freedom-free. Yay!

By the way...

They say the second child's triumphs are not nearly as celebrated as the first, and I guess that's true...but it's also true that most of them have come so late with Littler that we kind of stopped thinking about them for a while... For instance, although Littler has been able to sit since she was six months old, it was only if I sat her up myself. Her options until very recently were sit or lay down on her back (at least if she could talk and you asked her, I'm sure that's what she would tell you). Due to her lack of tummy time, she didn't start 'locomoting' until she was just shy of turning 1 year old, and when she did, it was not traditional crawling. We have a picture video we'll put up very soon showing what it looks like, but the way she moves is by sticking her legs out and then scooting her bum toward her legs, using her legs to propel her. It is very cute and silly looking, but it gets her from room to room and across the playground, so at least it works, even if it isn't as efficient as crawling. Her next big physical accomplishment happened today! Yay! As of today, Littler can officially sit herself up from lying on her back! This will be very useful for the several times a day that Little pushes her over flat on her back...

Gouda, Blackberries, Grammy, Grampy, Anacortes, and We

[more details later]

We all went to Anacortes, Washington last week to be with Daddy's parents, Grammy and Grampy. Our original plan, plan A, call it an audacious one, involved a week of camping by canoe. Plan B was to have a couple short canoe camping trips with camping in the wilderness. We ended up with plan Q, basically canoeing lakes and bays in Anacortes, eating yummy cheese, playing Vietnamese Boat, and taking it easy. Here's the typical voluminous volume of photos.

On the first day we explored Hart Lake by canoe. Little and Littler had never been canoeing, so we took it easy. Little had quite a bit of fun, but Littler didn't like her straightjacket--er, lifejacket.

Little loved the job of making sure the canoe didn't float off while we were getting ready. She also loved her lifejacket, and especially the "tail" it has [the strap that goes between her legs]. She was actually pretty proud of her tail.

Little had a lot of fun paddling.

Mommy caught a big one.

Littler is proud that she figured out how to sit up with her lifejacket on, and Grampy is just plain proud.

We picked somewhere between 896 and 934 quadrillion tons of blackberries, but only about 10 pounds made it home. How could that have happened?

We visited a little dairy and got some yummy gouda for fondue. They had a big daddy pig. Mommy had never seen such a big daddy pig. So Mommy wanted a picture of the pig. Daddy, blase and cool as he is, wasn't terribly impressed but worked the pig into the background of a much more attractive photograph.

Ok, so the pig was pretty big.

Our next canoe trip was on Whistle Lake. This was a much more secluded lake, and our explorations were top-notch. There are just lots of things you can't see from the shore! The weather was perfect [cold, drippy, damp] and the lake was completely idyllic. We spent most of the time drifting over submerged logs and navigating narrow gaps discovering lots of beautiful little inlets. Overall, it was a blast [the 1-mile portage was another issue].

We also all went canoeing in the ocean, at Bowman Bay, along with Mommy's sister Tick. It was fun, but Daddy doesn't think canoes and the ocean are great fits.

We went to the coast for sunset later and enjoyed the lighting.

Littler and Grampy.

Grammy and Grampy.

Our last canoe trip was in Little Cranberry lake. It was at dusk, and beautiful. The kids were not too happy but it was gorgeous.

Grammy and Grampy's house.

Getting the wiggles out.

A portrait of Grampy's brain.

We set the all-time single-day Transportation Diversity All-Universe Record by taking car, ferry, bus, plane, golf cart, train, foot power, and bikes to get home. And it was hot when we got home, so: