Wine + Friends = Perfect Sunday

We finally found the perfect way to spend the weekend - picnicing in Sonoma with friends.  Tanner loved hanging with his buddy Jack too.

GIANTS

It was the quintessential SF weekend.  85 degrees, blue skies and lots of libations.   And  Tanner even enjoyed it too.  We took him to his first Giants game, which he loved.  He spent the whole time getting ohed and ahhed at by the fellow fans and staring at the big screen.  The Giants lost, but Tanner scored, with our buddy Mike buying him his first Giants hoodie and ball.  Tanner might actually be a decent pitcher.  He spent the whole walk home throwing the ball out of the stroller.

The awesome weather continued on Sunday, where we spent the afternoon picnicing and wine tasting at Cline Vineyard with the Ruders.  Pictures to come.

On the quick development front, Tanner is eating everything and anything - eggs (yolks only), blackberries, broccoli, cauliflower, bananas (his favorite), etc.  He's also just starting to show glimmers of hope for tummy time and pushing himself up into a crawling stance.  No movement yet, but I think we'll a video to post in the next few weeks.  Tanner also likes washing his hands.  Whenever I'm washing my hands, he has to too, which is a good thing considering they're in his mouth close to 24/7, along with everything else.  

Stick It Out & Hold It Up

Pimpin' Track Suit - ala Run DMC

Welcome to my crib

Feeding time has been hit or miss lately.  While Tanner loves his food, the experience (for Mom & Dad) is sometimes less than desirable - grunts of frustration, bowl snatching, crying, food in hair and eyes, you name it.  More often than not, Tanner's a lot of fun.  He's getting better at spoon control and now likes to stick out his tongue to show you what he's eating, followed by a big "mmmmmm."  He's also now feeding himself his bottle, even mastering the tricky angles.  In fact, he's doing it right now as I type, allowing me 5 minutes of new picture posting. 

Firsts

Unfortunately I don't have any pics for our big day of "firsts," but I'll indulge you with my seemingly endless banter.  Yesterday was a big day; though with Tanner quickly growing up, it seems like every day is something new to celebrate.  But for the benefit of the grandparents, I'll elaborate.

Tanner hates tummy time.  Hates it, hates it, hates it.  The second I put him on his tummy, I either get an angry cry or a rollover within 5 seconds, usually both.  It's been a bit of a challenge to get him to stay up, let alone crawl, which some of his friends are already doing in playgroup.  He's about as lazy as they come.  (Also with his eating, refusing to do it by himself).  I was practically militant yesterday on getting him to do at least a few minutes of tummy time.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised when he started scooting backwards.  I know this doesn't quite count as crawling, but it's baby steps.

Another big first was swim lessons.  With Jason and I both being water babies, we had pretty high expectations for Tanner.  And he rocked it.  We went to the Janet Pomeroy center for a 45 minute swim class filled with rubber toys, singing, floating and poopy diapers.  Tanner LOVED it.  The entire time, he was smiling, splashing and squeeling.  He was the model baby swimmer.  So much so, the instructor kept using him as an example.  Tanner even went partially under water, going up to his forehead.  He loved it so much, I couldn't stop him from trying to face plant himself after that.  (We'll leave that to the second class next week).  Hopefully we'll get Jason to play hooky from work one of these days to join us so I can take pictures and video.  I do want to share a funny story with you.  Since we were only going to be gone an hour, I didn't bring his diaper bag.  I just shoved an extra diaper in a bag with a towel.  Given that he had pooped 3x already that day (sorry, TMI), I figured I'd only get pee.   While getting him into his bathing suit (green speedo) in the locker room, I just ripped off his diaper.  Bad idea.  Poop turd went flying onto the bench.  I had no wipes, no diaper bag, nothing to clean it up.  Thank god there wasn't anyone else in the locker room.  I immediately grabbed Tanner, ran to the toilet area and got paper towels to clean up the mess all while trying to shove on his speedo.  It was a relative success....until I changed Tanner out of his speedo after class, which was, shall we say, was streaked. (Remember, no wipes).  Another mom just stared in horror to which I replied, "Like father, like son."

And the last big "first" were words.  Kind of.  Jason and I woke at 5am this morning to "dadadadadadada."  As much as I would have loved to hear "mama," I do think these count as first words, though Jason disagrees.  Leave a comment weighing in.  It was also very endearing because Jason didn't see him at all yesterday.  He left for work at 5:30am and didn't come home till 10pm.  I say he missed his "dadadadada," but Jason says baby babble.

What 7 Years and a Kid Do to You

I was just cleaning out my inbox and I found a bunch of old pictures that my dad emailed me.  Here's one from May 2002 when Jason and I flew in from Hawaii for my brother's college graduation.  It was the first time my family met Jason.  Who would've thought that I'd be posting it on a blog about our kid 7 years later?  God, we looked so young and well rested.

Tannah

Jason, Jon & Kyle (circa when sweater vests with ties were cool)

Tanner & Taylor (our friend Jamie & Dirk's little hottie)

Tanner and Nana

Tanner & Winnie (who's 3 months preggers! congrats!)

Tanner & Emma (Jason's cousin)

Tannah - that's Tanner for Boston or Brooklyn accent, depending on how you say it.  Yup, we survived the long awaited, much anticipated "Tanner Takes The East Coast Tour."  3 states and 100+ adoring fans in 8 days.  Our venture started with a few nights in West Newbury, MA with Nana, Grampy Eric and Uncles Jon and Kyle.  But before we get to all the fun, I have to give Tanner props for being an awesome flyer despite being touched by every woman and man in line for the airplane bathroom.  (UGH!) He was so good that on the way back, he scored us first class ice cream and cookies from an adoring flight attendant who said he was a perfect passenger.  Now back to our visit. I have to preface that the entire week seeing family and friends was awesome and jammed packed.  I'm leaving out a ton of good times, laughs and special moments just because there are so many of them.  So despite the somewhat short post, the week was long on wonderful memories.  

Our visit began with a massive Tannah Open House at the Warnes with close to 35 relatives and buddies from Boston.  It was so wonderful to see everyone, and kind of weird at the same time.  Last time we were back in MA for a family/friend event, there were no kids.  This visit there were at least 10 little ones running around the house.  My times have changed.  After a few days with the Warnes, we headed to CT for Grammy Sandy, Poppy, and Uncles Scott and Jorge time.  While there, Tanner met all the Brooklyn-ite family and friends who kvelled over him.  While in CT, we did a photoshoot, which surprisingly Tanner was in rare (happy and not drooling) form for.  We scored the CD, so my next job is to upload some of the pics to the blog.  Stay tuned; they're to die for.  For real.  All the other pics on the walls of smiling babies don't even come close to the no lip smile and lengthy lashes of Tanner.  After a few days in CT, everyone, including Nana and Grampy Eric headed down to the main event - Great Grandma Freda's 95th birthday in the Poconos, PA, where the kvelling ensued.  As you know (if you're an avid Lil Warne blog follower), I have a very special relationship with my Grandma Freda.  (See this blog).  I think seeing her sing Yiddish songs with Tannah on her lap was right up there with some of my most favorite moments in life.  I still think back to when I was a little girl and used to snuggle in bed with Grandma Freda.  It's hard to believe she's now snuggling with my son.  Like always, the visit was too short, but it was nice to get back to California weather (which has been in the 70s the past 4 days!).  Here's a video of Tanner in his new duckie tup, which he loves.  Beware, this is not G rated.

Space Invadors

Big .5

It was a big week.  Tanner turned the big 6 months.  I can hardly believe he's now closer to 1 than 0. There were also many other milestones to celebrate - first taste of rice cereal (big success), first drink from a sippy cup (less successful) and Jason and I flew.  Kind of. Over a year ago, Jason's bros, Jon and Kyle bought us gift certificates to iFly, which mimics skydiving. Unfortunately we were preggers at the time so we couldn't go, but with the rainy Bay Area weather lately, it was a perfect outing followed by In-N-Out.  Essentially, you're thrust into a 100mph+ wind tunnel with your spit covering you and the instructors faces.  It was awesome.  You get to go 2x for 1 minute each, and on your second run, the instructor takes you up 20 feet and spins you around just like the Matrix.  I was shocked that so many young kids were there.  There had to have been at least 10 kids under 8, and only a few were crying and peeing in their pants.  (The age minimum is 3.  I know what Tanner's getting for his 3rd birthday).  

First Date. He's a Swinger.

Tanner's been hanging and swinging with his girlfriend Rose lately.  Now that he's 6 months old, he's really got the moves.

TTTWD

TTTWD = Take Tanner to Work Day.  Tanner now has his own office at Jason's work.  Well, it's actually Jason's office, but he's taken over, as it's now filled with monkeys, rattles and a big car seat.  Thankfully Jason's office mate is already used to the Warne "smell," if you know what I mean.  Today was Tanner's third visit to Goodby, this time for a full 5 hours while I had a marathon interview.  Jason brought him to all his meetings and was pleasantly surprised when his buddy Hart brought his son, Dash too.  If I don't get the job, perhaps I should just start a daycare at Goodby.

Quite Limber