wine and memories

The other night Danyelle and I went downtown to this winebar called Cru off 2nd street to meet up with some of her friends.  I'm writing about it partially so I'll remember it, as I kinda want to go back again with Zach on a date night sometime.  It was a pretty cute place, lots of romantic potential, and the waitress was super nice even when Danyelle confessed she knew nothing about wine.  It's nice to to be looked down on when you ask for "something pink and sparkling."  I had a glass of a shiraz and later a guwerztraminer (sp?) with dessert, both picked pretty blindly (they were on the cheaper scale) and both were really good.  They had appetizers and other things to eat, including a fried brie plate that was pretty tasty.  

We've had the grandparents come by kind of in shifts, thought not planned at all.  D will wake up between 6 and 7am and Mom will hang out with him, maybe taking him on a walk or to the park.  Then he'll nap at 9am, by which time Mom will have to go to work but then Daddy will arrive, and stay through lunch until D's second nap.  Then Zach's parents will hang out with us in the afternoon, and generally everyone's around again for dinner and bathtime (we've been giving D his baths in the master bedroom, simply because it accommodates more "spectators" lol). D's been loving going outside, pulling at the doorknobs of the front and back doors, in spite of the heat.  His face will be bright red within minutes of walking out there, but he keeps asking to go out.  Silly boy.  Mom and Philip have found all sorts of hand-me-down toys for him, including a perfectly-sized electric ATV (the motor's been disabled, for now) that was hidden away in the garage somewhere, and D spent most of today just getting on and off it, occasionally pushing himself around (his feet just touch the floor when sitting on it, so he can kinda push himself around).  

We've also gone to see Grammy a couple times.  And this goes back to that "ray of sunshine" bit, as she gets so excited to see him and just watches him and asks questions about what he's doing and his development so far.  Today she brought over a few presents for him, including some Big Bird slippers that are way too big for him but that D immediately picked up and waved around, making it clear he thought they were quite cool.  

Daddy brought over two bulging photo albums today, filled with pictures from Chile and our first years after we moved to the US.  I scanned in close to half of one of them, and will try to work on some more tomorrow.  I imagine I'll have to leave some for later, maybe when we come back in October.  Some of the photos I remembered, many I didn't.  He said a lot of them were just negatives that he found in a drawer, brought them up here when he moved and had them developed little by little.  It's so cool to look through them and remember our favorite toys and clothes.  One picture showed our very sad-looking christmas tree, from the year we'd tried to resurrect a potted pine (it was a bit of a Charlie Brown tree).  And how funny to look back on pictures from Christmas, of jenny and I wearing our new swim floaties around our waists as skirts, since christmas comes in summertime in Chile and so instead of snow and mittens we got sunshine and summer gear as gifts.  

D and I fly back home tomorrow afternoon.  I'll miss D's entourage, for sure, and my ability to read an entire book in a matter of days thanks to other people entertaining my child.  But it will also be nice to get back home and see Zach again.  I know D loves all the attention here, he's been in an amazing mood even when clearly tired just loving it all, but I know he also misses his daddy just as I do.