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Forget about Charlie! Marshall loved touring the Theo chocolate factory with us during Grandma’s visit. Theo Chocolate produces organic, fair-trade chocolate and we got to see how they turn raw cocoa beans into delectable chocolate bars and confections.

After checking in at the front desk we were all given hair nets because it is a real factory with production areas. We were taken around to different areas where the beans are sorted, roasted, crushed, and eventually turned into molten chocolate.

Marc and Marshall are shown perusing the chocolate samples at the front desk. Curry chocolate flavor is one of the choices. Very innovative!

Although the production line was closed on the day we went (a Saturday) we still got to see the machines that do the work. Marshall kept saying, “Chocolate machine” waaaay after the tour was over. I guess some of the machinery made an impression on him.

Here is a closeup of him asking Marc, “Chocolate please”. The wooden bowls in the foreground had cocoa beans and edible cocoa nib chocolate bar samples in it.

We got to sample one of their confections (different than pure chocolate) in the candy area. By this time all hope of Marshall eating a decent lunch went out the window.

Here we are outside the front door of Theo. Happy and full of chocolate!

Afterwards we walked around the Republic of Fremont and had a great Thai lunch. Perfection!

Marshall was thrilled to have Grandma come out and stay with us for a week. He had a blast with her and Grandpa Jim. Grandma and him spent countless hours (literally) building things with wooden blocks. On the day before they left to go back to Arizona Grandma bought him a magnetic building set from Top Ten Toys (Faye thought it was cool too).

The three of them went to the zoo earlier in the week. Two days before the trip I told Marshall that he was going to the zoo and that he might get to see the goats in the petting zoo. The night before his trip Marc found him awake at 10:00 PM (2.5 hours past his bedtime) sitting in his rocking chair, reading a book. When asked why he wasn’t asleep he took both hands, put them on either side of Marc’s face and said, “See goat!”. I guess he as too worked up about the zoo to fall asleep.

During his visit to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa, Marshall was fortunate to have the experience of feeding a giraffe.

He also came home with a zoo animal pop-up book complete with night time animal noises courtesy of Grandma. I could tell that he had a blast that day!

Here he is having some fun with Grandma.  This is something I can’t do because of my wrists.  It’s a “Grandma only” maneuver.  I’ll call it Toddler Bungee with Grandma.

Marshall’s going to cringe some day knowing I posted these photos. It almost looks like I have two different kids, doesn’t it?!

The photo on the left was taken by Cheryl on a weekend afternoon. Marshall’s hair is pretty straight without some kind of product intervention. Don’t ask about the tattoos on his arms. I just thank myself for having the wisdom to choose washable markers.

The photo on the right was taken on the Thursday morning of Cheryl and Jim’s visit, before they took Marshall to the zoo. I did his hair that morning with some gel. Isn’t it amazing what some gel and some scrubbing/water will do?

Grandma Menninger – if you’re reading this – Marshall really enjoys playing with the wooden blocks. As you can see he gets pretty creative with his concoctions.

Unless you’ve been looking for a boy’s apron for the last three months you will not appreciate how difficult it is to find a toddler-sized boy’s apron. Note to any entrepreneurial person with sewing skills: There is a real void in this market! Most toddler aprons are 99% pink, girly and frilly. What about the boys who need an apron? I can imagine some cute unisex or boy aprons with cars, or a cowboy theme – anything but frills and pink.

So I happened to be at the Ballard Farmer’s Market on Sunday and went into Clover for the hundredth time. I’ve been in that store so many times but this time I was determined to unearth a real boy apron from the depths of the store. 10 minutes and 20 feet into the store later I found one – a real cute one with sock monkeys all over it. It had nice details such as an adjustable neck tie with metal ring (surprisingly hard to find), easy to clean soft oilcloth material that was cute, and a pocket for holding STUFF. Details are important!  Made by a Portland based company called MonkeyDoodle. I was so elated that I didn’t care that it was $23 for a small piece of oil cloth with monkeys on it – I was buying it because it wasn’t pink and frilly.

And here’s my little man with his new sock monkey apron. Now I’m ready to sign him up for some cooking classes at PCC!

The following day Shivani and Ashish brought Shyla over for a visit.  We enjoyed seeing what a big girl Shyla was now that she is a few days shy of a year old.  Marshall immediately took a liking to her musical toy.

We had a great time catching up with everyone.  Looking forward to our next visit and trying Indian Pizza!

We had some friends over for dinner over the 4th of July weekend. The weather was co-operative and very mild. We all enjoyed grass-fed beef burgers, coleslaw, pea salad, mojitos, and ice cream/giant cookies for dessert from Macarina Bakery. Marshall was really chummy with Kip and later with Dana. He was actually asking about both Kip and Dana several days before we had them over for dinner. Perhaps he’s getting Dana ESP from Bella. Bella actually started crying at the door as soon as Dana’s truck pulled up near our house (way before any of us knew she was here). Pathetique!

We met several other moms and kids from my Moms Group at Ballard Commons park on June 29th. It was hot and sunny that day which was the perfect setting for the kids to run around the water features of the concrete park. It was a fun and wet morning for all of the tots.

Marshall is standing beside Alex and Dino in the photos above.

This was the first time that Marshall was wearing his swim pants without having to wear diapers.  Marc took an entire week off work to focus on potty training skills.   They had a great time, even taking the city bus downtown two days in a row – one day to see me at work, and the other day to have lunch at Ipanema Grill in Belltown to have lunch with Marc’s co-workers.  By week’s end Marshall was using the potty by himself during waking hours. Staying dry when asleep will come later but this has definitely been a big milestone in itself.

Mangoes were in season a few weeks ago so I stocked up in anticipation of our resident mango muncher.  My prior observations of his predilection to mangoes were confirmed when he was handed an entire mango and it disappeared (save for the pit) after a few minutes.  And after that he asked for another one. 

To my surprise I now have a new garden helper!  Marshall loves watering the plants on the deck with my watering cans.  As long as the cans are filled I am guaranteed that most of my plants are somewhat watered.  We are shown watering my Meyer Lemon tree. 

My Dad returned to Seattle for another few days after his first visit.  He had a fun time with Marshall before returning to Edmonton and the eastern provinces.  Marshall loved having his gung gung here – so much so that he’d wake up in the morning and the first thing he’d ask for was “Gung Gung!”.  My dad came bearing gifts of books, a radio controlled monster truck (!) that terrified the chihuahuas, and of course, lots of hugs.

Taking a walk around the ‘hood with Gung Gung.

Sharing a story before Marshall’s 7:30PM bedtime.