My First Meal

My name is Harrison Jay Fein, food critic and special contributor to the "Team Fein" blog. Over the weekend, I received an unsolicited invitation from a local chef to christen her new menu. On Sunday I arrived dressed for the black tie affair. I expected a glass of Cabernet and fillet Mignon but was surprised to find something out of the ordinary... dare I say... extraordinary! Using a bottle of the finest vintage of mother's breast milk available, "chef mom" mixed the milk with a little dried rice cereal to form a fantastic mush. The texture was new to my tongue and my taste buds danced with joy at the amazing flavor combination. My pallet was satisfied although when it came to swallowing, I just couldn't bring myself to do it so I just spit it out instead - much like wine tasting, no? The excellent food was well paired with fantastic service; everyone should be so lucky to be spoon fed - I didn't lift a finger!
Rating: ***1/2

The Deck, Part 1

Just before Harrison was born, Michael decided his next project would be ripping out the aging deck with it's rotting boards. At the end of June, he enlisted our neighbor (and carpenter) Ed to help him frame the deck which the literally banged out in a day. The weekend before last, Steve/Zaidy helped Michael begin the layout process. As you can see below, we opted for composite decking as opposed to solid wood. With the composite, we won't have to refinish the deck every other year and it is more resistant to weather and wear and tear.

Michael hopes to have this completed in a couple of weeks so we can enjoy the weather. That said, we are currently in the midst of a heat wave, the likes of which I have never seen around here. Once a year we get a couple of hot days into the 90's but we have at least a week of it with some parts hitting triple digits. For years my dad has said if he ever moved up here he would have to get a place with AC and I keep telling him it's not necessary; usually we just open the windows, no problem. Since we saw the severity of the weather coming last week, I made Michael go to The Depot and buy an AC unit. The unit is in our bedroom, along with the dog kennel and a the play yard; the whole family is sleeping together and we eat picnic style on the bed. Mom and dad have been watching "tv" on the laptop via Hulu and Amazon because while it is a comfy 72* the rest of the house is 88*, stuffy and a bit humid. I actually wish it would get cloudy and rain! "Hottest Day Ever Expected"

Jump-a-Roo-ing

Harrison loves his Rainforest Jumparoo. His teacher at school, Miss Ashley, tells us he is so happy to be in during the day and considering he spends time in it at home as well and doesn't get bored tells us that he just loves the jumping and the little toys surrounding him. I tried to take some action shots but the lightening was a bit low so the came out a bit blurry.

Harrison can plant his feet solidly on the ground. In the shot above, he is in the middle of jumping upward.

He loves to grab on to the green bar holdin the animals; he clenches it like you might clench the bar in front of you in a roller coaster car.

Monthly Milestone

Here is Harrison's progress report at school:

A Monthly Milestone

This month your child has developed their social skills by talking with teachers and other students!

Your child has also accomplished rolling over from stomach to back while developing his physical skills.

Harrison has worked hard developing his emotional skills by showing teachers his personality through playing with toys and teachers!

Your child has also excelled this month in his cognitive development by talking more with teachers. Harrison talks with teachers like he is having a full conversation with us. It is just the gooing and gaaing but Harrison is talking with us more and more every day!

Independence Weekend

It was HOT this weekend! The house was in the '80s and the best way to cool down Friday afternoon was to put on shorts and leave the babe in a diaper and go sit outside. With the sprinkler watering half of the lawn, there was a nice cool breeze floating by to take the edge off.



This picture reminds me of those old paintings in European cathedrals where Christ and Mary have halos painted around their heads. I know I am biased but I have always thought my babe was angelic, cherubic and perhaps even "the chosen one!"

Our sweet little bug!

On the 4th of July, we went over to Uncle John & Aunt Shivonne's house. She and I reminisced about the first 4th I spent with their family which was also the first time I was officially introduced to the Byrne/Smee/Haistings clan. That day was dreary and cold (at least to my warm blooded Vegas veins), my toes were freezing in my Birkenstock sandals and my teeth were definitely chattering. As the kids were shooting off fireworks, I was shivering yet refusing offers of blankets (I didn't want to be a burden) and thankfully Shivonne retrieved a big wool coat and draped it over me. That said, the 80 degree weather was easily the warmest I remember in my 12 years in the Puget Sound.

Great Grandmother Peggy just adores her only great grandson. He was getting rather cranky by the time we took this picture and we actually had to leave about 45 minutes later after barely eating dinner. We wish he could have held out longer so we could enjoy more family time.

We managed to keep him awake on the car ride home and by the time we put him to bed around 8pm, he was exhausted. So much so that he slept through the very loud fireworks... everyone in our neighborhood seemed to have M80s & M100s (which are of course illegal) and set them off as late as 1am.

Unfortunately these are the last pictures I will likely be able to post for awhile. While enjoying the 4th with our neighbors, I set up my camera and tripod to try my hand and shooting fireworks. I turned around in my chair and turned back just in time to watch my tripod and camera smashing into the asphalt. I love that camera and I am SO mad at myself (there was no one else I could remotely blame it on). The repair work on the lens is as much as a new one and the shutter on the camera body is bent and won't open/close properly... and that's just the stuff I know is wrong. I am going to have to ship it off to Nikon for repair work for a few weeks. Whah! The good news was that I could retrieve all the above pictures from the memory card so at least there is no loss there.