Holidays, Folk Fest, and FIRST STEPS!!!

Last week, the four of us (Griffin included) had a busy holiday. After going out to the Grandparents' cabin at Falcon for a few days, we went camping at Big Whiteshell Lake. Jen used to camp there all summer as a kid, so it was all about the nostalgia for her (my family did a few times too... wonder if we met when we were little?).

Now, camping with a baby and a dog is fun, but is it easy? No. But fun. There is a finely orchestrated method to it: tire out both the dog and the baby to the point of exhaustion so that they pass out. Which worked OK. Except for when Griffin wanted to "defend" us from people walking to their camp site by barking at them, or when Robin woke in the middle of the night to play... for 2 hours.

They weren't the only ones to wake us in the middle of the night. I awoke in the middle of our last night camping to hear a subtle crunch crunch sound outside of the tent. I waited. It didn't leave. Fearing a bear, or worse, a skunk, decided to wake up Jen. Wanting her not to make any noise, I put my hand over her mouth and went shhhhhhhh as she woke up. After groggily realizing that she wasn't being kidnapped, Jen reasoned to me that it didn't sound big enough for a bear. Then we heard a crash outside the tent and froze. Then I got manly. I assured my wife and sleeping daughter than I would protect them. I got out of bed (in my underwear mind you), went to the door of the tent, mustered my courage, and peeked out the window. It was just in time to see a coyote walk by, and move on to the next camp site. I was shivering, but I tell myself it was a cold night. In the morning, we realized the coyote pulled the dish towel we were drying the dishes on, causing them to crash on the ground. That wasn't reason the coyote was there though. It turns out sleep deprived parents - diligent as they may be normally - will forget to put the dog food away when camping. I think it ate the bowl too. Oh, and Griffin? He woke to give a muffled growl, and then promptly went back to sleep. Good boy.

Then it was on Robin's first Folk Fest (unless you count the womb). She had an absolute BLAST. In the children's tent I took Robin to see Mr. Mark, and she really liked to watch the other kids dance and yell. Our little girl really started to advance around then too. She is now fairly consistently waving at people and saying "hi", and every once and a while, she will say "dada" in context. And she certainly darts her eyes around looking for Jen when I say "mama".

But the biggest momment happened right at the end. Jen and Robin were at main stage, and I had gone off to Big Bluestem to watch Patrick Watson (which was really great; poo poo to you Kristen). During a great song, my cell phone embarassingly went off. It was Jen, so I answered it to hear her yell "BLARG BLARG!!!". "Hmmm", I thought, "I'm not sure what that means. Pardon?". To which Jen answered "Robin's first steps!!!". I packed up then and there to head back to main stage and find them. She had taken two steps, and then plop. For the next of what I'm sure was an hour, I tried to get her to do it again. Finally, while reaching for some random real estate ad in my hands, she took two steps for me too! When we catch it on video, I'll post it up.

Two more weeks until back to work. We have a carpenter working right now, so that upstairs is almost done. So very close...