Ross, Rachel, Helen, and Arthur

Rachel and I are trying to green the place up a little, and while we don't feel like we're up to a full compost pile, I did some reading on having a worm bin to put kitchen scraps into. So Helen and I prepped a 'worm bin,' and I ordered some red wrigglers. These photos are of us putting the new worms into the bin.

The whole family went to Maker Faire Bay Area this year. Everyone had a good time. We managed to meet our friends, the Woertinks, there and hang out a bit. We ate less-than-good-for-you fair food, saw lots of pedal-powered contraptions, people in funny hats (steampunk, furry, you name it), and a higher-than-average number of buckles per-capita.

Arthur is walking now. The first photo to the left was early in the month, where he was standing up, and moving a step or two while leaning. Naturally, this evolved into more steps at a time while bracing on things or other family members. Now he is toddling by himself (although rarely very far, crawling is still the most reliable locomotion mode), and climbing on things. Like this last photo, where he has pulled out the bottom drawer, climbed into it to stand up and open the drawer above him.

Yesterday was free comic book day. Comic books have been a family tradition for at least two generations now, so I figured I should start prepping the third. I tried explaining to Helen what we were getting but that really didn't work. I finally just told her that we were going to get books for free. She dug that.

Arthur turned one year old last weekend. We had a lovely time in Illinois where we got to see family and friends (full image gallery).

Arthur at 1 year is a lot of fun. He is not walking but he is cruising along furniture and using objects as walkers such as his piano and the garbage can. He loves to read books and rip out the flaps. He chatters constantly and gestures with his hands. His favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and if he is in a good mood, he will do the signs for it, too.

His big achievement this week is that he says "Duck!" He might actually mean the animal as well, since we can sometimes get him to point at the duck in a book when he says it. I actually had to look back in this blog to see that Helen's first word was "Hi!" I'm such a bad mother.

So I resolved to do something special for Rachel's birthday this year. Last fall, a company moved into Moffett Field called Airship Ventures that does sightseeing trips around the Bay Area. Their prices are kinda steep, so we both put it out of our minds. However, it turns out that they have same-day seats available for a good deal, ever the bargain hunter, this seemed perfect.

This was a busy, fun, great day. I'll start at the beginning, which was slightly later than usual (I assume because Helen's internal clock was still off due to jetlag), but started with egg-finding. A good time was had by all, and you can see Helen defending her stash from her marauding brother:

Later that day, the party started. Our friends Joel, Dana, and their 3 year-old Xander came over, as well as Fred, Nina, and their 3.5 year-old Emma (who heroically drove down from the Chicago suburbs for the day). My parents had brought out a lot of old toys that they had for Helen and Arthur, which were a big hit with the kids. We were all a little wary of the dynamics between the children, but things seemed to go well.

More pictures after the jump, or see the whole gallery.

One of the things that we went to IL for this weekend, was the marriage of my cousin Todd Beyer to Tamara Evans. Arthur and Rachel spent most of the ceremony in a nearby nursery room (better for everyone, really). Helen was entranced by the whole ceremony. She had been to a wedding before, but she was only one and a half at the time and surely didn't remember. She carefully watched the whole thing, taking in all the details. Afterward, the Wedding couple left the church in a horse-drawn carriage (really they just went around and then took pictures in the church). The carriage was hanging around to take the wedding party to the reception after the photos, and so did a lap or two around the church with some of the kids (see Helen looking regal and aloof below).

Of course, the reception was a good time for Helen and Arthur as it turned out. There was a bunch of blue-hued chocolate and jelly beans on the table which Helen enjoyed (you may be able to see her blue mouth in some photos). Helen had a good time dancing on the dance floor and meeting new friends and running around the hall with them. Arthur did too, he mostly crawled around after the big kids, and would occasionally sit and swivel his arms and shoulders back and forth (like a sitting twist) to the music, it was adorable. Of course, the centerpiece for any party, as far as Helen is concerned, is the cake, and she avidly watched the cake cutting and then disassembly until she had a piece in hand.

All-in-all we had a good time, caught up with family, and actually stayed later than I thought we would considering we had an hour and a half drive back to where my parents live.

The Fortneys told us about the Harley Farms Goat Dairy and how they had gotten tickets for the tour. Well, we couldn't resist tagging along. At first while we waited, the kids could go into a small pen to pet some very small baby goats. Finn was having a great time and Helen seemed interested, but timid around the goats, as per her usual arm's length approach with strange animals. The next step was to go out into the large yard with the goat herd, which was cool, but way too much for Helen. The goats were just too big and too unpredictable, and she eventually asked to 'go home' we settled by getting her out of the goat yard. To her credit, she did come back in a little later. Then we moved on to a smaller pen with a ton of baby goats, which Helen continued to be uninterested in.

Then we went on to the milk-a-goat stage of the tour. The tour guide explained everything and asked who was going to go first. To my utter astonishment, Helen raised her hand, and was the first person to milk the goat. After the milking, we got taken into the dairy to see their equipment and the guide showed us how they packaged the cheese. Finally, we went up to the loft and the big table to eat some cheese and bread (a big favorite with Helen). It was fun, I was a little down on the experience for a while, since Helen really did not seem to be enjoying herself amongst the goats, but things really picked up for her during the milking and cheese-eating, so there you go.

After bath tonight:

Helen: Pretend you don't know it's your birthday.
Me: OK.
Helen: And it's Saturday. I'm Bala and you're Mala.
Me: Oh, Boy. It's Saturday and I have no idea what I am going to do.
Helen: Here you go.
Me: What's this?
Helen: It's a card.
Me: What's it say?
Helen: It says "Happy Birthday."
Me: Wow! It's my birthday?!? Thank you for the card, Bala!
Helen: And now I am going to make you a chocolate cake with strawberries and candles.
Me: I LOVE chocolate cake.