Portland is for Lovers: 9 months

James turned 9 months old last month. 9 months is a pretty big number. We're officially in the last quarter of his first year and it's coming up fast. It is much harder to photograph James at 9 months than it used to be....he's super active and wants to grab/eat the camera every time he notices it (and now, nothing gets by him, so that pretty much means all the time...)

Hey - what is this thing, anyway? Can I pull it off and put it in my mouth?

Freestyle standing - or perhaps practicing his surfer moves.

The look of happiness and mischief.

Adam & I also celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary last month. Mark & Elaine were fabulous babysitters and we ate great dinner at a great French bistro downtown, then went to Pioneer Square to lounge on the park benches and people watch (one of my favorite Portland activities), and at the end of the night walked down the Portland City Grill for dessert. I had never been but a good friend recommended we try it, if only for the view. It's located on the 33rd floor of the US Bancorp Building (the top of the tallest skyscraper downtown) and my ears actually popped going up. This was the highlight of the evening - totally romantic and beautiful and lovely to feel like were sitting at the top of the world. We tried the chocolate souffle which was amazing. Over the past couple of months we've finally started being pretty comfortable leaving James with people we know and actually just taking breaks together. Something I plan to continue to do plenty of.

Another fun part of our date was picking out a nice toy for James at my favorite toy store, Finnegans. Finnegans is locally-owned and just a really neat, whimsical store - lots of unique, good-quality toys and fun stuff you don't normally find at chain stores. We were pretty giddy realizing we actually have a legitimate reason to be there now (being as we're parents, so definitely only going in for the sake of the kid) and we realized this was the first time we had just gone out together and bought James something new and nice just picked out for him. One of the things I love is that so many of our toys, clothes, baby gear, etc. were borrowed or bought used - in fact, almost all our toys fall into this category. Great because if it's something James didn't end up liking, or being a good fit for whatever reason, we didn't have to invest much. I've bought tons of stuff at consignment sales, and both of James's grandmas are thrift stores queens. Truly the way to go when it comes to baby stuff, and it's a better use of resources (ours and the earth's). But every once in awhile...it's a nice treat to get something brand-new and enjoy the fun of unwrapping the package and knowing it was special and just for him.

We picked out a dump truck made of a soft-style plastic that bends a little and doesn't hurt if it hits you in the head (which often happens when James gets excited and waves his toys around). He likes it quite a bit, but I have a feeling it'll be more of a hit when he's a just a bit older and understands how to make it roll across the floor.

Hey guys - I love my new truck but I think I like you more.

We love this picture because James looks a lot like his older cousin, Yuri, in this photo. Even though she's a girl, is a few years older and is half-Japanese, she makes this same expression and looked exactly like this when she was about a year old.