Firsts for All of Us

The last week has marked a number of firsts for all of us.

The first "first" I must mention is Annabel's crawling. Today I watched Annabel push her upper body and rump up at the same time while propeling herself forward by her tippy-toes: a kind of crawling plank pose, if you will. (Greg mentioned he saw her do this yesterday, but I only have proof of it today.) It's not terribly elegant, but she can certainly get around this way.

Last week Annabel got her first upper teeth: four at once! It seems the worst of teething is over. Annabel has renewed vigor for eating solid foods and is sleeping better too: 8 hours or so at a stretch.

I'm not sure that any of us had been to a Bastille Day party before (certainly Annabel hasn't), so this Quatorze Juillet we celebrated in grand style at the Corson Building in Georgetown. Clara enjoyed the bouncy house (if you squinted your eyes you could imagine the Bastille) and the French moustache painting. We all danced to Caspar Babypants (Chris Ballew of the Presidents of the United States of America notoriety) and ate crepes. Clara also participated in her first chicken race. Her chicken did not win, sadly, but that did not keep her from being absolument contente.

The other notable "first" that happened today was Greg, Clara, and Annabel's trip on the new light rail. (I was away at my writing workshop at Richard Hugo House: my "first" class since the girls were born.) Greg rode his bike with the girls in the Chariot to the Columbia City station where they were the second family to board the inaugural southbound train. They rode down to the Othello St. Station where they enjoyed watching a Chinese dragon.

And tomorrow marks a big first for all of us: We are headed on our first car-free vacation to Portland. We are going to ride our bikes with girls in tow to the light rail station. We will take take light rail south to the Tukwila stop. From there, we'll bike 2.5 miles to the Amtrak station. After a little over 3 hours on Amtrak, we'll arrive in downtown Portland, just a few blocks from our hotel, all without the aid of a car. We plan to take lots of pictures to document our low-carbon-footprint vacation, so check back soon to see how we did it (we hope!)