2 years ago....

2 years ago, Lindsay laid our first baby. We called him Seth. Seems like yesterday. We spent the last couple of days celebrating with Seth, despite the fact that he didn't really get what was going on. On Friday night, we went to Target with a gift certificate from his Grandma Shields. We let him pick out a bunch of toys, whatever he wanted until the gift certificate was used up. So, we came home with a bunch of toy animals, and a couple more balls to add to his never-ending collection of spheres of all sizes and colors. His favorite choice of toy was this life-like squishy toy lizard ("wizard"), which he cuddled up with as he went to bed that night.

Good thing it was just toy, because it turned out to be a short-lived pet. It lasted less than a day, when he lost it at the...

Birch Aquarium, which is actually just down the street from us, although this was our first visit. Our friends Pasi and Lisa came with us to witness the unbridled enthusiasm that is Seth in the event that our activities involve any kind of living animal.


This is Seth reading up on the mating patterns of the California State Marine fish, the garibaldi--not to be confused with the state freshwater fish, the golden trout. Who knew we had state fish?

He also enjoyed the tide-pool stuff outside the aquarium, and got to pet a real starfish,

and play with these toy ones.

He loved the shark tank too.

A fun family outing.

Then we came home to open presents,

blow some bubbles,

light the candles,

blow them out,

and eat some cake!


Which, by the way, was delicious. Lindsay is a master. She made a 4 layer, white cake with a layer of dulce de leche, another layer of cocunut and creme, and another layer of macadamia nut daquois, all frosted with dark chocolate ganache. (Plus, a whale stencil design to top it off). It was out of this world.