end of summer

Summer is officially over. We are so sad. It was a good one. One-year-old Neko is a pretty fun little guy, and we've truly enjoyed being at home with him all summer. This summer, Neko took his first plane trip, he learned to really walk, he went to the swimming pool for the first time, he learned to moon-walk, he learned to spin around in little circles, he ate his first corn on the cob, got his first bike, took his first trip to Boulder, and started napping in his crib (no more car naps!). We got into a pretty good routine. Now everything has been disrupted, and we've all gone back to school. Boo hoo.

I'm going to miss drinking our morning coffee on our back deck while Neko plays in the yard, dinners outside with Emag (he's moving back to California), and lots of park trips. We had Emag over for dinner last night to celebrate his birthday. Neko's become very fond of his uncle Eric. He held hands with him and walked him to his bike when he let last night. He thinks Emag is really funny (he is) and they have all sorts of silly games they play together. It's nice when the people you care about form special bonds with your child.

I'm going to post some photos of Neko climbing. He climbs on everything. He climbs up the stairs (fast as lightening), he climbs onto the patio chairs and stands on them. He can climb onto the Kettler, the bike Aaron found on Craiglist after Neko climbed onto one that belonged to some other kid at the park. We've enjoyed pushing him around in it. And it grows with him so that eventually he'll be able to ride it on his own.

He climbed onto this all on his own. We were chatting with each other, looked over, and saw him riding this car and laughing wildly. He is such a little thrill-seeker. He loves going down the slide, and taught himself how climb up, turn himself around, and go down on his belly. His fearlessness scares me sometimes.

We took Neko up to Boulder one day to walk around. We ate at the farmer's market and spent some time walking around the Pearl Street Mall.

The good news is that we'll get to be home together every summer. We are definitely lucky in that respect. Aaron had to be back in the building on Wednesday. Neko and I spent the day together. His school opened on Thursday, and although I didn't have to be back at work until Friday, I decided to take him in for a few hours Thursday so that he could get used to it without having to spend an entire day there. It was nice to have him ease into it a bit. He came him pretty exhausted on Thursday but seemed much better on Friday. They said that he was the only one who didn't cry and seemed to be happy all day. He also napped well in his cot. They've got tiny little toddler beds for each of them on the floor. We bring bedding for him. I think I might get a special pillow for him and a tiny backpack. So here we go, another year. Hoping it's a good one.

**I just added a video to the last post too. Up next: our visit from the Dubravacs.