We've had a fairly quiet week this week, as the rain has returned to Seattle leaving us somewhat housebound. We did manage to get out and about earlier in the week before the weather set in, taking Isobel out for an afternoon of caching with Mum & Dad. We were able to finally drop off a few travel bugs that we brought back from Australia on our last trip, and found our 600th cache ... more than five years after we started! Isobel also got a few more finds, she's almost into double figures .

I finally received my beta invitation to Ravelry this week - after reading so much about it and hearing reviews on some of the knitting podcasts I listen to, it was a bit like being admitted to a special club . I was lucky that I already had most of my knitting and crochet things from the last couple of years in Flickr, so it was just a matter of importing the photos and starting to sort out the pattern and yarn details - a lot of the hard work seems to have already been done. Even so, the crochet side of the house seems to be a little under-represented, so I'm doing my bit by volunteering as an editor - I've 'adopted' a lot of the crochet pattern books I've used for the afghans I've made in the last couple of years, and I'm slowly creating the pattern meta-data and filing it all away in the right part of the site's databases. There are so many wonderfully inspiring pieces listed already, and it's so nice to receive positive comments about my own work too!!

Isobel seems so much closer to walking this week - she's really taken to zipping around on the walker we got a few weeks ago. When she's fed up with the walker, she then crawls into the kitchen and starts pushing the kitchen chairs around on the floorboards!! She's even learned to duck her head from under the table ... so funny to watch, she has such a determined little look on her face. The little Fisher-Price dinosaur has also suddenly become interesting, after being ignored for most of the year - Isobel has finally realised her roll-a-rounds will fit in the holes and make a noise! We've also seen her stand independently for longer periods - several seconds at a time, before slowly sinking to her knees on the floor. She still seems to think she's faster crawling than walking, but she can zip from one side of the couch to the other if there's any snacks to be had . Mum and Dad are hoping they'll see a couple of steps before leaving on their first trip next week ... we'll see!!

The weather has been unseasonably warm here this week - up in the 90s and 100s in some parts of Seattle! I've been doing all I can to keep the house cool, which is difficult when we don't have airconditioning - and the house builds up a lot of heat with consecutive warm days. At least the trees in our backyard provide some shade in the afternoon.

Isobel has managed pretty well so far, and has adapted to having a fan in her room - I think the noise has actually helped her sleep.We've also given her a little drink bottle with a straw, after seeing her response to our frappucinos recently ... she loves it! I've been putting a bit of cold water in there to start with, and she sucks down a few mouthfuls before dribbling the rest over her shirt and pants - but isn't that what kids do in the summer?!

Mum & Dad have arrived for another visit, and we picked them up from the airport on Thursday. A bit of hassle with their bags through Los Angeles - one suitcase made the flight, the other didn't. Dad filled out the paperwork and resigned himself to the loss, but luckily it turned up on our doorstep later in the evening.

Our big outing for the week was a night at the baseball - the Mariners were up against the Tigers, currently the top-ranked team in A.L. West. We weren't able to get seats in our regular spot from last year, so we got some other seats a little closer to third base - they turned out to be undercover, so my fears about Isobel getting too much sun were put to rest. It was a fantastic game, with the Mariners getting up in the end after a grand slam by Kenji Johjima. My game record is still intact - I've now been to six games here, and the Mariners have won every time!!

Isobel was incredibly well behaved for such a late night - she started off a bit grouchy once the game started and the crowd started cheering. Eventually she got used to the noise, and towards the end she was bouncing up and down in time to the music with a huge smile on her face - the other people around us were just amazed that she was still going after 10pm! She started fussing again when we were back in the car heading home, but settled to sleep pretty quickly once we made it home.

This weekend was also the annual Mustangs Northwest Roundup in Bellevue - which we missed last year due to our childbirth classes! We drove down on Sunday to have a look at all the Mustangs out on display - there were some incredibly well maintained cars on show, and seeing so many similar cars all lined up looked pretty special. The Roundup is billed as the "Worlds largest Annual gathering of Mustangs", and at a guess there must have been at least several hundred cars in the various car parks around the College. Quite an opportunity to walk around and see the different interpretations, and Andy got a few ideas for our Mustang (which is finally home again!) and the remaining things on his to-do list in the garage.

With the warmer weather this week, we've had some wonderful evenings outside. The BBQ is getting some use again, but we seem to have missed the window for getting the kiddie pool set up - the temperatures have dropped back to 70s and 80s again, so the water will be a bit cold for Isobel's footsies. The forecasters are predicting rain again next week - back to normal for Seattle!

A busy week for us this week - summer finally feels like it has arrived, and Andy took a couple of days off work to get us a long weekend.

Isobel is ten months old already, and has really amped up the volume in the last couple of weeks! There's a lot of "baa-baa-baa-BAA-BAA-BAA!", with different tonal inflections and volume levels. She has taken to peering out the window in the dining area near our kitchen, where she can see out into the back yard - we have a robin that appears regularly to dig for worms, and a little rabbit that is making the most of the long grass towards the back of the yard. The bottom part of the glass is now covered in teeny tiny handprints and nose grease from pressing her face to the glass - I also caught her doing a blowfish against the window during the week, where on earth did she learn that from?! .

The 'Latte' roster has switched to summer mode, so we now meet up in a different park every couple of weeks. This week was at the Newcastle beach, which we've driven past so many times but never actually visited. We had a nice bit of shade under a large tree, and I was able to catch up with everyone and talk about our travel adventures from the trip back to Australia. I made sure to lather Isobel up in sunscreen, but headed home when the older kiddies started dropping hints to respective parents about going for a swim. Isobel crashed in the car on the way home, and I even managed to get her to have a bit more of a sleep once we made it home ... excellent!!

This week was also the July 4th holiday, and like last year we had an invitation to Mark and Nichole's house by the lake for a BBQ and fireworks. Andy stopped off at a fireworks vendor on the way there to stock up on supplies, after a poor showing last year - he was determined to make a bigger impact this time!! Mark and Nichole have a beautiful house by a lake in the Maple Valley area, and Mark had built his own water bomb slingshot for the jetty to compete with the neighbours' efforts this year. We had a wonderful afternoon - Andy took a couple of the older kiddies for a ride in his kayak, right out into the middle of the lake which they thought was great fun. We dressed Isobel in her little rashie set from home, and she got to paddle in the water with Daddy for the first time - the initial shock of cold water set off a few tears, but after that she seemed pretty comfortable and had a bit of a splash around while sitting on Daddy's lap. She didn't seem to like floating, but was OK if her feet were on the pebbles or something else solid.

Once again, the soundtrack for the afternoon was provided by Mark's neighbours - who seemed intent on setting off fireworks throughout the whole day, even during daylight!! I was surprised that Isobel didn't seem fazed by the noise, and hoped it would bode well for the evening. She wasn't interested in taking a nap with so many people to look at, and she didn't sleep in the car on the trip to Mark's house from our place like we'd hoped ... so I wasn't really surprised when she started crying after the first few fireworks were set off after dark. I tried reassuring her and wrapping her in a blanket on my shoulder, but I think the percussive 'boom' from the explosions was the final straw - as well as being tired, everyone was cheering and in the end things just got a bit much for her. I retreated inside for the duration, and we were able to watch most of the display from a downstairs window - she seemed much happier indoors away from the noise.

Andy finished off his collection of explosives , and was much happier with the results than last year's efforts. We headed home, and Isobel dropped off to sleep in the back pretty quickly. We were able to transfer her into her PJs and her bed without too many problems.

Andy took Thursday and Friday off from work to give us a long weekend, so we headed into Seattle on Thursday to take Isobel to the Woodland Park Zoo. We'd visited there a couple of years ago, and thought Isobel was now old enough to get something out of a visit herself. The budgie aviary was a big hit - Andy was one of the few people inside that were tall enough to reach the branches where the budgies were sitting. He managed to entice one onto a seed stick, and carefully brought it down for Isobel to have a look ... she sure can wriggle when she wants something!! It was all Andy could do to hold her far enough away so she couldn't grab the poor bird - a few more inches of reach and the budgie might have got a shock . We also spent some time at the petting zoo section, which had a few goats and a bunny - Andy had to hang on pretty tight to keep Isobel from launching herself at the goats in her excitement! She still hasn't quite got the hang of 'gentle' patting yet, but luckily the animals seemed pretty placid and didn't mind being grabbed too much.

On Saturday we headed back into Seattle to visit the Aquarium - we hadn't actually been here ourselves yet. They've recently opened a big 'Window on Washington Waters' display, a huge 120,000 gallon tank with a large glass window to look through. Most people were nice enough to give us a bit of room to let Isobel look at the fishies - she was much more animated than last time we looked at a fishtank! She seemed to have a great time, and also provided a lot of entertainment for some of the other visitors ("Aww, look at her, isn't she cute?!"). We won't bother getting a fish tank here, but we might have to get one when he head home again!!

A pretty quiet week this week - Isobel had her nine-month well child checkup with the pediatrician, and all is well. She's now 19lbs 6.5oz, and around 28in tall ... I suspect even a little taller, as she wriggled and writhed on the table when the nurse tried to measure her top-to-toe length! Thankfully no needles this time, although we did have to get some blood taken to check her iron levels - a standard test for babies who have started on solids, to ensure they're getting enough iron in their diet. The phlebotomist (who came up with that name for the profession?!!) took some blood from her finger into three little glass tubes, then wrapped a couple of bandaids around. I was instructed to wait back in the waiting room for a few minutes for the bleeding to stop and then remove the bandaids, as they were choking hazards for babies in carseats. Isobel managed to chew the bandaids off before the lance point had clotted over, so I had to go back in for a second set of bandaids!! She then sat and watch the Nemo fishies swim round and round in the fish tank, and soon everything had healed enough for me to take her home again.

On Saturday we were invited by Ash and Denise to their house for a BBQ - they've moved from their old apartment in town to a new house, and the boys looked very much at home running around in the backyard and playing in the dirt!! They were a bit uncertain about Isobel invading their space - Dylan is a bit older, and stayed pretty much away, but Tyler was very sweet and kept offering toys for Isobel to play with on her picnic mat! Isobel had a great time roaring around on the grass and nearly made it to the garden beds a couple of times ... yoinked away in the nick of time, much to her disappointment . Michael and Ken started kicking a soccer ball around, and Isobel was entranced ... so I thought she should join in!! I held her under her arms, and then swung her feet like a pendulum to 'kick' the ball - she laughed and laughed and laughed, which set everyone else laughing as well. I thought she might find the hold a bit awkward, but she didn't want to stop for dinner in the end! We did have a wonderful dinner, and it was great to catch up with everyone again after being away for a few weeks.

After Isobel's response to the soccer ball, we thought we'd better get her one of her own - so she's now got an 'inside' ball and an 'outside' ball. The inside one is just a beach volleyball, with nice soft fabric that isn't going to mark the walls if things get boisterous . She hasn't done much with it yet apart from trying to chew it, but it's still a fair bit bigger than she is!!