milestone

Just so I remember...


Today while Sammy boy was standing in the middle of a room surrounded by his grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousins, mom and dad he decided to stand all on his own for the first time.

I was so proud I almost cried.

Not only was it a significant milestone, but the timing meant that our loved ones got to share in the magic.

And let me tell you, it was MAGIC.


I love this little baby so much my heart actually aches for him and my arms long for the warmth of his little body every night when I lay down to sleep in my own bed.

Jungle Adventure

We spent Sunday afternoon at Jungle Adventure. It was surprisingly awesome. But again, HOT!


When we drove up and saw Swampy, the world's largest gator we knew we were in for something special. I love an animal park that seems like the animals might actually get out. There's something really charming to me about keepers who carry knives...you know...just in case

There were old rotten boardwalks built over the swamp that felt like you were going to fall thru with every step

Me...getting my Brittany Spears on

These turtles were everywhere...and clearly were fed really well. All I had to do was hold my hand out above their tank and they swam over and clawed their way up the wall to get some snack

He was so hot there were little beads of sweat popping out on his nose!

I was really hot too...clearly he is my son

Park entrance, Swampy, the world's largest Gator

Tourist time

Today we spent the day at the visitors center at the Kennedy Space Center. I have to admit...being there...made me feel so inspired and energized to keep pushing ahead with work.

I was surprised that it felt much more roomy laying on my back looking up at the sky

This was my second national historic mechanical engineering landmark...maybe I should try to visit them all?

A very familiar looking mock up...

It was hot, hot, hot and HUMID today...Sammy was a trooper! So proud of my little guy

The Saturn V rockets...most powerful rocket ever designed 

Just really dumb

I left my cell phone in Colorado, so if you need to get ahold of me, email is best...or the ear doctor's phone.

He remembered to bring all 3 of his Apple devices...

Ocean front view

On Wednesday we all flew out to Florida for a week. I'm still blown away by the project I'm working on...driving across the NASA parkway and seeing the vehicle assembly building just across the water is amazing. 

While we are here we are staying in a 80's fantastic condo just steps from the ocean. Every morning before I take off for work I've gone out and watched the waves roll in. Sammy dipped his little toes in the Atlantic and only got a little scared.

The condo we are staying in has wall to wall carpet and Sammy is loving it. He's crawling his funny little crawl all of the place. One leg he uses like normal, but the other one he keeps straight and swings out around to the side. We've started calling him peg leg Pete.

We are still getting the hang of vacationing with the baby. Altering my expectations of how much we can do has been tricky. Almost every time the ear doctor and I look at each other and wonder if we can stretch Sammy's time between naps the answer is no. It's just better to go home and let him sleep...a tired 9 month old baby is no fun for anyone.

BTW - His photo this month is going to be late since we are away from home.