Portland

Despite arriving in time for a lovely heat wave, we had a great time visiting with Amy & Dustin and their lovely little boy Asher. Molly was very curious about the baby, but more interested in his toys. However, Asher was completely enthralled with Molly. He would watch and laugh as she was non-stop motion around him. It really was super cute to watch.

Once we got in and grabbed some drinks at a local coffee shop it was time to put Molly down for her nap. She was sleeping in Asher's room and luckily it had a window a/c unit. She went down without any major issues and Amy and I headed out to the store to grab lunch. After the kids woke up from their naps we headed up to some shops in the neighborhood as Amy needed to pick up a baby shower gift. We ended up at this awesome little kid's store called Grasshopper and Molly scored a cool little robot toy and a lady bug ball. They had a ton of other toys I thought were great, but we only had so much room in our suitcases so I resisted.

We then headed out to dinner at a great local microbrew/restaurant called The Hub. Portland is very kid friendly and they had an area in the corner with chalkboards, table with a train set, books, and other toys. Molly hung out while we waited for our table. A little girl hopped up into the chair next to me and handed me a book and simply said, "Please." So I read to her until her family left. The mother came over and told me I didn't have to, but since Molly doesn't let me read to her I said it wasn't a problem. I am looking forward to story time so I was more than happy to oblige. Right now Molly will let me read 1-2 pages and then she quickly shuts the book on me. However, she is totally content to flip through pages on her own.

On Saturday we hit another kid friendly place for breakfast. We were in the last booth before the kid area so we could eat and keep an eye on Molly at the same time. This one had a little toy kitchen set up, some see-saw type toys, books, and one of those magnetic drawing pads that erase when you move a tab across the bottom. Molly loved that one the most and asked to be put in a high chair so she could sit and draw with the occasional request that you erase the page for her. It was a super yummy meal and Molly was having a blast with all the toys. I really wish more places around here catered to kids.

That night we headed to the baby shower/bbq that Amy's friend was having. It was super kid friendly and the couple hosting it had a boy that was just two weeks older than Molly. It was still really warm out, but there was a bucket of water with some toys that Molly cooled herself off in. She also had a blast going up and down the slide... over... and over... and over. We took off around 8:30 since we knew we needed to give her a bath before bed time and didn't want to push it *too* late.

Sunday we hit a local park that was nice and cool from all the redwoods and the play structure was completely in the shade. Molly ran around and then crawled into the stroller when she was done. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:55, but Molly was yawning as we went through security just before 2:00. Unfortunately the waiting area by our gate was pretty busy and loud and Molly had no interest in any attempts at taking a nap. We let her run around and do the buckles on her car seat a million times until we could board. Unfortunately our plane was late in arriving so we were late in departing. Molly was pretty good on the plane considering nap time had come and gone. She finally crashed out for the last 10 minutes of the flight as we were coming in for the landing and that was it. N put her in the bathtub as soon as we got home and she went down for bed at her normal time. Luckily she slept a full 12 hours and had her normal nap today.