NSJ

Grandma P and Grandpa J are in town, which explains why the photos are much better (and much more numerous).

I’m on a one man crusade to get the east coast to combine into a single state called “Eastafornia.” Out here on the west coast we were nice enough to keep it simple. One state, one state capital, for most of the coast. The least you could do out there on the east coast is return the favor. Think of the fifth graders, all having to memorize states and their capitals. I mean, who the heck can remember a state like Delaware? I had to use spell check just to spell it right. I just bought the domain “eastafornia.com” to launch my campaign. I think the tagline will be “do it for the fifth graders.” Genius.

Jul and the boy spent the last week in the Connecticut region of Eastafornia with the family. Molly and Niko continue to bond. Based on the friendship developing, I suspect they will be a trouble making team when they get older. I nominate Luke to bail them out of jail when the time comes.

In an odd “nurture over nature” twist, of everybody in our huge extended family, Niko actually looks the most like Megan. Never more than in this picture.

Niko also got some quality time with his uncle Luke. It is going to take me months to undo his pro-Yankees/anti-Barry Bonds Niko brainwashing.

I joined Jul, Grandma Mart, and Niko for the weekend to do a quick tour of other regions in Eastafornia. We started in the New Hampshire region, visiting Mary (Niko’s birth mother). It was one billion degrees when I arrived, but luckily it was a “wet heat” which made it feel more like two billion degrees. Mary works in a dentist office in a beautiful old mansion on a tree-lined street. It is walking distance from her apartment and seems like a great gig. We had dinner with Mary and her family at the park, and spent the night in Concord.

After visiting Mary, we headed a bit south and had lunch with Jonathan’s extended family (Jonathan is Niko’s birth father). Niko got to feed the ducks see his first water lilies.

After lunch we headed to the Massachusetts province of Eastifornia to celebrate JJ and Jess’ engagement. I didn’t do a good job with pictures, but did catch Bunky with the boy.

After MA we headed back to CT for a lazy Sunday. We celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary with an evening of beer and Pepe’s pizza (the best pizza on earth), thanks to babysitting grandparents.

More photos…

Niko’s newest trick is clapping. He is very proud.

[flv]http://happyinwater.com/nicholas/videos/clapping.flv[/flv]

We did some splashing around in a baby pool today. This was very exciting.

(More photos on Flickr.)

Niko also made a very important discovery.

Jul is in Vegas this weekend, so it is just us boys. Well, us boys and Grandma Mart who flew in Saturday. Jul and I used to live up by Crissy Field in San Francisco and I hadn’t seen it since they did major work on it. Not to mention Niko had never been to Crissy field at all, so we headed north to see the boats, windsurfers, and kite surfers. We hung out with Drew and Vivian, and also ran into Greg and Libba in a Mexican food restaurant in the Mission. In the evening we headed over to Chloe’s house (Dog Patch!) and got to see Michael while he was in town. I did a horrible job taking pictures. I blame Sumo and Drew.

Huge thanks to Suzanne and Lynn, who were generous enough to supply us with breast milk during Niko’s formative months. Suzanne is an amazing writer, and Lynn is fluent in Mandarin, so I expect Niko will be a best selling writer in China in the very near future.

Jul caught some photos today of the boy in his natural habitat.

If a kid ever makes fun of Nicholas for being adopted, I’ll have him ask if he has a certificate of family membership. I bet he doesn’t. I’ll have Niko tell him that means the government can come and take him away from his parents at any time.

Oh, and I’ll also key his parent’s car.

Niko has gone from a tentative body drag to an all out crawl sprint. The mean time between perilous situations is about two minutes. Here you see him heading right for the dog bowls. Boy is it fun to dump the water all over the floor.

[flv]http://happyinwater.com/nicholas/videos/turbo-crawl.flv[/flv]

I got the Journey to Elsie travel map all hooked up with our route, stops, and photos. I also updated Niko’s travel page.