Da is the word

Incidentally, this trip's hotel again lacks a proper pack-n-play -- what gives? Thankfully, this is at least a newer model than the New York hotel's "death crib", and it has a mattress that actually properly and snugly fits it. Still, Zachary was not a fan and took a while to get down the last two nights, and woke up multiple times in the middle of the night as well. And the hotel room is just a single room, so there's no separate area to hang out -- when he goes to sleep, we go to sleep.

Another hectic day of visiting friends and wedding activities. In the morning, we enjoyed the hotel's cafe for breakfast; Zachary had grapes, some whole milk, and even perhaps a blackberry or two (he still isn't always sure what to make of them). Then we were off to scenic Cal State Northridge for my rehearsal with the musicians. I'd offered for Meh and Zachary to drop me off, but he was mostly mokeyfied, so they came along. The classroom we rehearsed in had lots of chairs for him to cruise around, and he was happy to listen to the music and toddle around - though the room was unfortunately not air conditioned and apparently not cleaned recently; Zachary's feet and legs were nearly black after crawling around for a bit. Ew.

After rehearsal, we met up with one of my oldest elementary school friends and his family. C & L have two super-cute kids and an adorably fluffy dog (a goldendoodle - and of course these pooches have got their own website), and it was nice to just hang out at their lovely home, have a mellow lunch and early afternoon, and just catch up. They also have a fabulous (and warm) pool, so I got to take Zachary for my very first swim with him. (He's been taking those classes with Meh, but I've been the observer on the few occasions where I've come along.) Zachary was extremely happy, smiley, and making lots of noises and splashes in the pool.

We headed back to the hotel to meet up with friend C for dinner. Zachary again fell asleep on the drive, but the rule in LA is that everything is roughly 45 minutes apart in traffic (paradoxically, it appears to be irrelevant whether it's 30 miles or 3 blocks), so it was once more a brief nap. We then had playtime in the convention center attached the hotel, which has nice large carpetted floors and of course the highly desireable air conditioning. Zachary continues to love wheels, and we developed a new game of him chasing mommy and the stroller:


I also caught this super-cute conversation between mommy and Zachary, the source of today's blog title:


In the evening, I was off to the wedding's rehearsal dinner; we have a babysitter booked for tonight, but last night Meh just wanted to get Zachary down early (and try to go to bed early herself too), so I represented the family. Got to catch up with a few former Seattle friends now living in LA, and of course congratulate the bride and groom before things get too hectic tomorrow.