Visitors from California

Great Grandma Robertson and Great Aunties Rebecca and Cindy Rae traveled from Santa Maria, Los Alamos, and San Rafael yesterday to come see Tate. What a treat it was to walk out the front door when I heard the car drive up, walk out to them, and introduce the little guy. Smiles all around! We had a lovely day visiting here at our house, passing Tate around from one lap to another. We headed to Silver Peak for more conversation and good food, before they headed to a Circus Circus hotel room we can see from our balcony! They're coming back for breakfast this morning, by which time I hope I can show them this video:

A Special Gift

Our good friend Elizabeth is not only the very best colleague that I could really ask for at the museum, but she is also a talented artist, a great humorist, and a loving adoptive aunty. While Monica and I are both really happy and excited for her that she's been accepted into the graduate printmaking program at the Rhode Island School of Design, we're also sad that she'll be leaving for the other side of the country. She'll be missed a great deal, and, I suspect, she'll be missing little Tate. She made this wonderful print of the little man over the last couple of days. Note the little peanut shapes in the green field behind Tate's figure. She has been perfecting her practice of a mode of printmaking called cast acrylic monotype, a kid of relief monotype printmaking developed by the Bay Area artist Joseph Zirker, who had an exhibition at the NMA in 2005.
Also, Tate has begun laughing at 10 weeks of age. He's been practicing with his diaphragm muscles for a couple of weeks, but for the first time this week he had an honest to goodness laugh at tickles to his second little chin, and funny little sounds his mom and dad make for him now that their sole goal in life is to provoke such sounds and smiles. Great Grandma Robertson will be arriving Saturday to witness it all.

An American River Trip

Tate had his first trip to the American River yesterday. We drove up and over Luther Pass along the West Fork of the Carson River, along Highway 88, and around Highway 50 past the Angora Fire burn area. Once over the pass, we dropped into the watershed of the North Fork of the American River to get to our friend Ann's cabin. The American River is pretty amazing. Perfectly clear, and cold. It's flowing reasonably well yet, despite the fact that we're in a pretty serious drought year. The forest fire danger is already "extreme" everywhere in the Tahoe Basin. Further to the east 60,000-70,000 acres are on fire near Winnemucca. But July 7, 2007 was a beautiful day in the mountains, bright and warm, with a nice breeze. We had a great time hanging out with friends from the museum, and enjoyed temperatures 10-20 degrees cooler than they are down here in Reno. Tate even kept his sunglasses on!

Sweet Grinning Boy

It's sort of shocking how fast time goes, really. Before Tate's birth, I had gotten in the habit of writing most mornings at dawn, prior to Monica waking, and during the quiet dark hours. Now I see I haven't written in almost two weeks. It's a strange kind of time warp to be in these days. But what a wonderful warp it is. Tate went to the Bay Area last weekend with his mom to see three college girlfriends, two of whom have infant boys. They gathered for a weekend of food, fun, and reminiscence, and had a great time. What was most amazing being away from the two of them for four days was that by the time they returned, Tate had learned to grin. He had grinned many times already, but they were frequently uncontrolled or uncontrollable facial expressions. Suddenly we can now make a funny noise at him or sing a song and his mouth opens up and he'll smile and gurgle--his big eyes will narrow, and you can see his familial smile lines at their corners.