Chattahoochee Nature Center

Gabriel wore his new polo shirt today. With his daddy in his dark blue polo shirt, they were quite a pair.

Today we took Gabriel hiking for his birthday at the Chattahoochee Nature Center. We hadn't been there before, and we were surprised to find that they have owls and bald eagles there, as well as a beaver habitat, frog pond, and pitcher plant bog. There are several areas that recreate different Georgia ecosystems. We only had half an hour to hike around, so we went pretty quickly. It was a beautiful place, even though it was small. In the middle of the woods, we found the grave of a Civil War soldier and the remains of his family's home not too far away.

Whenever we hike, we stop frequently so that Gabriel can feel tree bark and leaves, and we pick up sticks and other things that he can hold and examine. He had a great time looking around and exploring.

We decided after our hike that we wanted to just hang around outside somewhere for a while, so we went to Azalea Park (or Chattahoochee River Park, depending on where you look), just down the road. It's a place with a sheltered picnic area, a really nice jungle gym, and a boat launch, so there were a lot of families there. We sat and watched the ducks and birds for a while (Gabriel loves birds and water, so we could have sat there all day) and then walked around. Matt saw a coworker who had broken his leg snowboarding, so he was hobbling around while his wife took photos of the park. We took some pictures too; there were some interesting sights there. For example, we found some ducks in a tree. Some of them had climbed quite a steep branch to get to their perch - it was pretty amazing. You can see them in the photo. The crabapples, dogwoods, and weeping willows are in full bloom right now. The crabapples seem to be everywhere we go. Every spring, they become so full with white blossoms that we half expect to see one explode with them some day.

When we got back to the apartment after hiking, church, and the grocery store, Gabriel was ready to walk on his own. We put him in his walker, and he walked from the living room to the kitchen, to the bathroom, to the closet, to the bedroom, and back to the bathroom. We found him in there banging on the toilet having a good old time. It sent his mother into convulsions, but we realized that all of this exploring is an important part of his growth, and that he is quickly growing into a smart little boy.

8 Months Old

Gabriel turned 8 months old yesterday. We made our traditional brownies and ran out of icing, so they just said "8". The weather wasn't too great, so we didn't take him out for a hike; we're going to do that today. We did buy him a new shirt, sleeper, and pants, but that was just because he needed them, not really for his birthday.

We watched Napolean Dynamite last night. On our movie scale of 1 to 64, we give it a 38. It was funny, but we would have found it funnier if our expectations hadn't been built up so much. Also, we had to watch much of it with subtitles, since Gabriel was sleeping. We don't recommend watching a comedy with subtitles.

We also finished City of God the night before last. That movie gets a solid 55. Despite getting off to a seemingly aimless start, it turned out to be a movie we will probably want to watch again. We weren't sure at the beginning that it was a true story, but the fact that it is makes it that much more powerful. It's disturbing, mostly because it's true; there are scenes that are not for the faint of heart. It sounds like a downer of a movie, but the central character tells a story of his life that is really worth watching.

One of our favorite TV shows is "Distraction", which is a game show on Comedy Central. The contestants have to answer questions while being, say, thrown around by professional wrestlers or having bottles broken over their heads. The winner has to face a round of questions where every wrong answer means the destruction of a prize. The "winner" last week lost all of her prizes. Every time she got one wrong, she had to push a plunger randomly wired to blow up a prize. She didn't even win the pudding. It's on every Tuesday at 10:30 pm. We recommend the "Appetite for Distraction" quiz game on their web site.

The NCAA basketball tournament just gets worse and worse. On the bright side, though, Patty is now in second place with her "Crunk Pix." We're happy for West Virginia, but they really messed us up. North Carolina, don't let us down!

TGIF

ot much to talk about today. We installed a counter at the bottom of our blog and ate spaghetti for dinner. Matt was in first place in our NCAA tourney bracket, but judging from his results today, he's slipped. Gabriel spent a lot of time walking around, and Patty spent a lot of time replacing lost shoes and socks. We're in the middle of a movie and a game of Scrabble and haven't been able to finish either. Tomorrow is the Peachtree registration, so we're really excited about that.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patty's Day! We celebrated by going to Toast for some Irish whiskey after getting an attitude problem at Gordon Biersch when we told them that no, we didn't want a booth, we wanted to sit at the bar. They saw the stroller and couldn't put together a plan in their tiny empty peanut shells of brains that the stroller could sit in the corner and we could fit just fine at any of the tables in the bar area, which wasn't smoky, by the way. They seemed to think that they were crowded. There were about ten people in there; they should have welcomed the business. It was strange, because we've always had such great service there in the past. Anyway, we walked outside and saw our friend Tim Kreiner, on his way to the party across the street which definitely did not look kid-friendly. We went to Toast, where we felt very welcome. All of the people who worked there were very friendly and we had a great time with our whiskey and calamari. The breading on the calamari was amazing; it had caraway seed and was very light and non-greasy. Their bread was also very good; one kind had rosemary, our favorite herb.

Gabriel had his flu shot booster today and did great, despite a nurse who was not the best in the world. She took out the needle before dispensing the vaccine, so she had to stick him again. It definitely hurt, but he was okay, just a little groggy from the experience for a while. He weighs 17 pounds 15.8 ounces two days shy of his 8-month birthday.

The NCAA tournament started in earnest today (one game was played on Tuesday). So far, Matt is doing better in his predictions. We are both doing well in our group but not the best yet. There's still time.

The family for whom Patty tutors is the Doziers. Mom Lisa is starting a photography business and did a photo shoot here in December. Yesterday, she gave us a CD with all of the photos as well as two framed black and whites. Here are some of our favorites.

Playgroups

We had two playgroups today - one through Piedmont Hospital (Tender Spirits) that takes place at our church and one through the Virginia Highlands neighborhood association. This was our first time at Tender Spirits, and we've been going to the other one since it started in October. We had a good time at both. Gabriel hung out with Mommy at Tender Spirits but was more interested in the other kids at the Flemings' house, probably because they're all his age. In Vi-Hi, he ate his first non-organic food: Gerber sweet potato veggie puffs. He only ate one tiny little puff (about the size of a Cheerio), so it hardly counts.

We had a voice mail from Jack this morning. He said that he's fine and would maybe try to call later. He's going to be out on patrol for the next few days, so we guess he'll call after that. He sounded happy, healthy, and energetic. We're upset that we had the ringer off; we'll have to leave it on tonight just in case.

Speaking of people from other continents, Patty's in touch again with the British family with whom she stayed 15 years ago. It turns out that they had a place in Orlando for a while and have been closer than we thought many times. They sold the place after 9/11 but still have friends over here. We hope to see them again, no matter which side of the pond we're on.

We finished a movie the other night called "Yojimbo", which means "Bodyguard." We give it a 53 on our scale of 1 to 64. It is the movie from which "A Fistful of Dollars" was remade. It was an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's book Red Harvest and drew heavily on American westerns, so it was only fitting that it be remade as an American western. It was also an inspiration for George Lucas when he made Star Wars. It starred Toshiro Mifune, who was to Akira Kurosawa what Cary Grant and James Stewart were to Alfred Hitchcock. We love Kurosawa movies and have also seen Seven Samurai, Rashomon, and Ran (which we own and is one of the most beautifully shot movies we've ever seen).