Ford Recently and Other Adventures

It's cooled off and some of the wildfire smoke has cleared out of Missoula, so Ford and I have been out and about over the past few days--and I've fallen behind on these weekly photos! We've also been back to the pilates studio twice for reformer and then barre class.  Ford did fabulously well being watched and taking a bottle from one of the co-owners and I got my derriere and various other muscles kicked back towards being in shape. Win win.

Last weekend we were still trying to escape smoke and drove out to Fish Creek to check out Montana's largest known Ponderosa Pine.  This is high adventure with a 7 week old.  Ford slept through the whole thing and then howled all the way home in the car seat.  Naturally.

The dogs enjoyed their dip in the creek. Chopper conquered his beagle fear of the water and then got overbold and had to be rescued from a log in the middle of the creek where he yelped loudly.  The dog is not the brightest, but we love him.

Stonefly exoskeletons! They look so prehistoric and fierce.  Trout love them. We saw some BIG fish rising and jumping in a deep pool up against a cutbank with a big log jam at the end.  Even I, who don't fish, knew this was prime trouty territory, but also full of some very smart fish since it was right beside the parking lot.

Anyway, Ford feels heavier each morning when I pick him up, I swear.  We'll see how much he weighs at his 2-month check up on Tuesday.  Fingers crossed that the first round of vaccination shots doesn't give him a little fever.  We're still working on consistently sleeping through 'til 4:30 am, but he's learned to love his swing and takes his morning nap in it.  I think he sleeps through the night when the MM swaddles him so perfectly that he can't work his arms out, but Ford has gotten pretty good at that.  At 1:30 am this morning, I did wonder if they make swaddling blankets with straps....but only for a minute.

The MM loves his chunkles.  Aka chubby legs. 

Happy Birthday to me, I'm turning 31 tomorrow! Quite a sea change from last year when we partied hard on a Friday night and then hauled our hungover selves out of bed to drive 4 hours to the Paradise Valley to celebrate my 30th. This year I'll probably drink one glass of wine, maybe go out to dinner if we can find a sitter and then go to bed at 9:30 pm.  I think that makes me officially, permanently old. I'm mourning that younger, freer self a bit, but Ford's chunkles more than make up for it.