I think I clocked in about 1000 miles in driving distance in the last week or so, just tooling around the state like a madman. Just drove my mom home today, after a 4 day visit and it was fun - but it's nice to get back to routine.

The Fourth was as usual, a blast. It was the first time Alex got to gander at the exploding shells of happiness, but since it was two hours past his bedtime, he was captivated for about five minutes before he turned his head and zoned out. Brendon and Maralise joined us once again, as we joked about how next year there would be three babies to juggle between all of us. We're still not sure if it was the third or fourth year we had been doing this, but I think we settled for the fourth go.

I really enjoy watching my mom play with Alex, I think in part because I get to see how she probably played with me when I was a baby. To see my mom get so uninhibited, cooing and chirping and loving her grandson is like a window into my own childhood that I have since forgotten (not purposely, just too young to recall.) Alex thinks his grandma's the bomb, he laughs and interacts with her pretty easily. On Saturday when I was driving my mom from Seattle back to Bellingham, I sneezed and apparently scared the bejesus out of Alex, who started to sob uncontrollably. I had to pull over the van and hold him and let him molest a stuffed Serta sheep to get him to calm down.

But listed above are some photos. I've been posting more pics because I feel like my writing's gone a little downhill. I take better photos than creating prose.

Banana.