I'm in a hurry...

I am checking out of the hotel on the way back to the plane. I had just eaten lunch and wanted to brush my teeth, but my toothbrush was already packed away.

Fortunately, the fine Hilton establishment at which I was staying had provided several bathroom amenities: shampoo, conditioner, soap and mouthwash. Perfect!

I grab the light blue bottle, flip the top open and down the hatch.

Funny thing, it actually crossed my mind (in the half second delay between the bath gel departing the bottle and arriving at my tongue) that something was off; did they add a protective seal to the mouthwash bottles? I had often thought that they should, being that you put some random liquid into your mouth, unlike simply rubbing shampoo in your hair.

Anyways, somewhere between that thought and the gel contacting my tongue I realized my folly. Being in a hotel room left me with little options in trying to get the bath gel from my now foaming mouth. I was forced to use Oakland tap water to flush my poor little tongue clean - a daunting task indeed.

I managed to find a small bag of peanuts in my flight bag to semi-eradicate the soapy flavor from my palate.

All in a day's work.

10 months old!

Van is 10 months old and he is as active as ever!

He has learned that he has a friend in Pilot and now will play with him. Van will get one of Pilot's toys and bring it to him. Pilot will (and does) take the toy and drags Van around on the floor.

Van has also learned to share - which sounds all nice and cute but really is not. His idea of sharing is putting a Cheerio in his mouth then taking it out and offering to an unfortunate bystander.

He has also found cars! He loves his toy cars. Van will drive them all over the house, down the hallway and up the wall. Kenny discovered a funny thing: Van hates his cars up-side-down. Put several cars in front of him on their backs and he will flip them onto their wheels.

Van is also becoming more communicative. He clearly expresses when he wants more food by "eh-ing." He is also starting to tap the page of the book to have us turn the page. He also makes a lot of weird gibberish noises - a lot of them and very loudly sometimes :)

Finally, Van has learned what a temper tantrum is. He is realizing that he does has a say in the way things might possibly go. Fortunately, we are, at this point in time, bigger, stronger, smarter, faster and more creative than he is.

Van is curious about everything, constantly exploring the big world around him. He is walking like crazy and he is super fast. You put him down in the living room and he is destroying the back bathroom 30 seconds later.

Van has four teeth right now, two lower front and two upper front. He took a short respite from teething, but some new ones are coming in. As a result, everything goes into his mouth.

Sometimes, his mood can change like that. Usually because his teeth hurt.

Finally, the smiling little boy we know and love.

Alaska Cruise

Did I mention we just got back from a super relaxing, food filled, family fun cruise to Alaska? Yep, it's true.

Our Last Day of Vacation

We did our laundry, stored our bags, went grocery shopping and now needed to get out of the house. So we went for a hike up to Kwaay Paay Summit in Mission Trails. It was a fun two hour hike in which Van managed to throw his pacifier and hat overboard during the hike. Fortunately, both items were retrieved on the the way back down.

Van trying out his new sun shade attachment... kind of.

Almost to the top!

Happy Mother's Day!

We went to BJ's Pizza for lunch on Mother's Day. Jen was granted several Mother's Day gifts:

First, two young girls gave her a See's Candy chocolate for being a mom.

Secondly, and more even more exciting, our server, gave a Jen a bendy straw for her root beer because "she looked like a straw kinda person."

There you have it!