Stella's First Hike (with bonus "car" video)

Today was one of those glorious days that reminds me why I love living in the Pacific Northwest: the sun was shining and every direction I turned revealed beautiful snow-capped mountains, the Olympics, Rainier, the Cascades. It was the perfect day to go on a hike, which was exactly what we did, with another friend from our PEPS parent group and two of her friends from her childbirth ed class.

View of the Olympics from around the corner from our house

I had never hiked Rattlesnake Ridge, and besides the beautiful weather, it was great to go on a weekday (it's close enough to the city that it gets mobbed on the weekend). Apparently we made a notable sight, four women, four babies, hiking up to Rattlesnake Ledge. (Though the father I saw carrying one kid on his back and one on his front had all of us beat!) All the babies did great. I had a little trepidation this morning, sure I would forget something or that Stella would lose it at the top, making for a really long trip back down the trail, but she was either fascinated or asleep. She seems to do well in the outdoors--which is great news since hiking is one of my favorite things to do. I thought I'd need to develop the "10 Essentials" for hiking with baby, but we did OK with one fresh diaper, the Soothie, and a burp cloth.


And we're off!


My first trillium of the season


The view from the ridge


We made it! Unfortunately, it was too windy to hang out here for long


Hiking is hard work, apparently even when you're riding on someone else's back

It was a great day--fun to be in the outdoors, meet some new people, and get a peek into what summer could be like. Besides today's great hike, we've been having the usual daily routine, which has recently included an incredibly happy Stella in the evening when I get home from work. As I mentioned in the last post, she's started hanging out in her "car" in the kitchen while I make dinner. The other night I captured some of that fun when Stella was feeling talkative:

.

And she's still doing lots of rolling, but no action to get back to her back. The 360 is still to come!


Look at me, happy on my tummy! And still not rolling back yet....

In a week and a half we're scheduled to go to Texas to visit my family as a little birthday present for me. Let's hope the swine flu doesn't cause any problems.... And we'll get to see how Stella does in the heat (and see how cute she looks in her dresses that haven't gotten much air time yet).