Five counties in one week

Jack has been very busy getting acquainted with his home turf. This past week, he went to five of the nine bay area counties-- six if you count driving through San Mateo county on the way to pick Danny up from the airport. I don't, but it would better complete the contiguity of our circuit around the bay. ALAMEDA county is right here in Oakland, of course. That's easy. But I do have photos to show off of some Berkeley friends, finally. The girls were rapt with adoration of a sleeping little Jack. The boys preferred to make fun of the pose he struck in sleep.

CONTRA COSTA county was for my OB appointment, where my OB informed me that, yes, that nurse who told me I couldn't start running when I did was alarmist and that "non-runners just don't understand that runners have to run to feel good." I love my OB. For SAN FRANCISCO, we hopped on bart again and successfully navigated the labyrinth of elevators with our stroller all by ourselves this time. Ok, so there were only two elevators per station, which might not constitute a labyrinth exactly, but sometimes they were cleverly hidden and it's always unclear whether they will actually be in service. We had lunch outside at the ferry plaza with Liz, wherein I consumed a blue-cheeseburger, sweet potato fries, and a strawberry milkshake, and Liz consumed a bowl of soup. (Isn't breastfeeding great???) I regret that I don't have any pictures to share from this because it was an absolutely stunning day and that doesn't happen all that often in the city. Jack and I wandered up and down Market Street, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the city and sunshine on our faces. MARIN county beckoned us for a birthday party of our friend Lucy, which gave Jack his first trip to the ocean, at Muir Beach. Danny suggested I put his feet in the sand, but since his feet haven't really touched much of anything yet, I didn't really think it would be that impressive to him. The views, on the other hand, were quite impressive, even if he can't focus beyond two feet right now. Danny and I enjoyed them at least. Photo kudos to our friend Scott for the bottom two, which are conspicuously the two good ones.

And finally, SANTA CLARA county we got twice in one week, to visit Great Grandma on Wednesday since Aunt Wanda had just gotten into town, and again yesterday for Great Grandma's 86th birthday. Wanda and Annette made Jack a very special present (which is a pretty good deal, Jack, since it was somebody else's birthday!), which they called a "quilt" and I call a work of art. They patchworked together this whole forest scene with leaves and rocks and river and even a bear hiding behind the reeds-- "so that he's not too scary," Annette explained. I think they intended it for a blanket or a throw, but it's just too nice for Jack to spit up on, so it's going up on the wall instead. Above his crib. Whenever we get around to setting up his crib. All of Grandma's kids except my dad (I guess I am his stand-in representative) came to celebrate her birthday and we sang a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday in the worst singing voices imaginable, as has become Chaplin family custom. I think we outdid ourselves this year, though, as evidenced by Grandma cracking up over her cake.

And that was our week.