Birthday Boy

For Brady's 2-9 celebration, we started the day out surfing. We think it's time to upgrade from a foam board to something that looks and feels a little more savvy. Unfortunately, those run a little more than the $100 we spent to get our Costco boards. Is it too soon to think about Christmas???
Brady's major gift this year was a camera. He has coveted Heidi's camera, as well as a few other friends' cameras, and thought that by talking about it long enough I would finally give in. A year later, I threw in the towel, and he purchased a Nikon D60 SLR.  Here are the first results of surrender:

Later in the afternoon, we went and played tennis for the first time since moving here. We are terrible, but there is something magnificent about hitting a ball hard, and having it go exactly where you want it to go. (When I reach that point, I'm sure tennis will be even more fun.) Zachary was not into sitting in his stroller with toys, and we discovered that he was an exhaused little chap the minute we gave in and went back to the car. He'd hardly been buckled up when he fell asleep.

We decided to use a sitter for the first time (discounting the five months he was with Heidi). She is a really great girl from our church, and loves kids. Her family will be watching Zachary on our kayaking adventure next week, so we wanted to get her aquainted with Zac. We left detailed instructions, including our 2 cell phone numbers. Unfortunately, we did not leave a phone, and we did not have a home phone. She didn't end up needing to call, but we thought that was pretty funny rookie mistake.

We ate out at Roy's, Paul's favorite eat-out on the island (right?). Brady ordered a tasty steak and shrimp dish, and I ordered a three-course special, which included chicken spring rolls, mac-nut snapper, and a delightful chocolate souffle. (When Kristen, Emily, and I made chocolate souffle at our cooking class, it tasted like eggs. This tasted nothing like eggs.)

The food was terrific, but we felt like we were eating at a mall food court. Not quite the ambience of Beach House. The restaurant made up for it by offering Brady a complimentary dessert (a gal he works with works nights at Roy's, and had this served up).

Of course, we had to come home and eat cake. Brady's mom gave me this recipe two years ago, and I screwed it up. The second time around, it turned out just fine. We sent half of it home with our sitter (instead of money...just kidding). I decided that I do not want to make cakes for our birthdays. I'd rather get a fancy dessert and eat it at the restaurant than have all kinds of leftovers. Cakes are for kiddos birthdays, or birthday parties. (We'll see how long I can stick to that.)

Speaking of birthday boys, Zachary hit the 6 month mark this week. He has chunked out overnight! A month ago, he was a relatively small kid for his age. I highly suspect he no longer fits in that category!

He's down to 2 naps a day, and that leaves him pretty exhausted around dinner-time:

He's a great little napper:
He loves to hold his own bottle now.
I think his two bottom teeth will pop in this week. It's delightful to watch him progress through these stages!!!