Between Bagels and Rice: July spent exploring Seattle's waters

July was a busy month for us but on any day off all together we managed to get in or on some kind of body of water or another. We finally got some warmer weather in July and Oren dipped his feet in Green Lake a few times, in his kiddie pool in our yard several times and at the Green Lake wading pool once. He also became big enough (minimum weight requirement of 25 lbs) to be able to go on the canoes at the University of Washington Water Activity Center. Oren loved having his own paddle and let it drag along the water as we paddled around the Union Bay Natural Area where we spied several duck families, 2 turtles and lots of lily pads. Ryan thought he saw a bald eagle but it turned out to be the white hat on a photographer. There was evidence of an eagles' nest though so it was an honest mistake. Oren was such a trooper on the canoe that the following week we took him on a rowboat ride on Green Lake out around Duck Island and back. Daddy was a champ and rowed us all the way around while Oren dipped his hands into the water and made a few attempts to fall in. Oren even got a turn on the oars.

His giraffe was a coveted item amongst the little kids.

Slightly blurry but if you look carefully you can see Mt Rainier in the distance.

The biggest thing to happen in July was that Oren switched to a big boy bed on July 4th! While other people were planning BBQ's with family to celebrate the 4th, our family was putting together Oren's Ikea toddler bed (including a trip back to Ikea for a missing piece) so that we were all together on Oren's first bedtime routine getting into a big boy bed (crazy long work days and ER shifts often prevent us from all being together for bedtime). We did not know how Oren would respond to losing his beloved crib but we definitely did not anticipate the instant love and excitement over his new bed. I guess we did a good job of hyping it up. Oren immediately placed all of his buddies in bed with him and wanted to "play on the new bed" all the time since. On the first night, after being put to bed, he did get up to open his door and peek out once but has since always remained in bed (except to pick up the occasional fallen stuffed animal) until we get him up in the morning. Amazing!

Apparently lining up stuffed animals is a heritable genetic trait!

Little Monkey Oren

Our original plans for the end of July was to fly out to NYC to see Oren's cousins but everything fell apart when Mama ended up in the hospital the day before we flew out. As a result the "week off" ended up being spent at Swedish First Hill. Oren quickly fell into the routine of visiting Mama and bringing all of his buddies, discovering the cartoon network on Mama's TV (Mama does not approve) and eating yummy sweets. Oren did get to go another boat trip before the end of the month - he got to go out on Lake Sammamish and even swam in the waters with Daddy to make up for not going to NYC.