The Davolts

Business or Pleasure? Well, both. As part of a program I teach, I get an annual summer trip to California for training. We've gone to San Diego and Sacramento in previous years and this year was back to Sacramento. Our district sends close to one hundred teachers and administrators to this training which means there are lots of friendly faces among the conference of 2,800 people.  While I knew I'd miss my boys, I also looked forward to having a bed to myself (which I didn't use nearly enough), to socializing past 7PM and living the single life for three days.  A room with a Cathedral view. We were spoiled almost immediately upon arrival with accommodations at the Hyatt Regency Hotel which is directly across the street from the state Capital building and a great park, being offered a glass of champagne as we checked in. Evidently, the Hyatt was Arnold's hotel of choice while serving as Governor. My own bed! Packing a laptop in one's suitc...

 Andrew is now nine months old and busy as ever. When people ask about the differences between Nathan and Andrew, I usually joke that Andrew will be the one to give me gray hairs! He is on the go every waking minute. No joke! But I know that he will also bring a sense of adventure to our family.  After a month spent pulling himself across the floor on his belly, he mastered the art of efficient crawling just days before turning nine months. We now have make-shift barricades in the house to prevent him from entering or exiting specific areas. Likewise, Andrew loves to pull himself up on his feet using any drawer, table, or body that he can. He will let go for just a moment, raising his arms triumphantly at standing independently before falling back to the ground on his diaper covered bottom.  We visited Dr. Chrissie for his nine month check up at which we discovered he had not fully recovered from a recent ear infection and he had lost a pound of weight i...