Pints and Painting!

Things are clicking along as always over here.

Last Thursday, Lisa's coworker got us a private tour of the Gordon Biersch industrial size brewery. To help you understand the size of this operation, let me tell you this: They produce the beer for all the west coast Costcos, many Trader Joe's six packs, as well as their own. Overall, they produce 8,000 cases of beer EVERY DAY. And any tour that begins in a control room equipped with a fridge of free beer is a good one in my book. Besides that aspect, it was amazing to see how they churn out so much product 24/7 with a staff of 50 people. My personal highlight was getting a chilled pint glass full of unfiltered Pilsner right from the tank. E loved seeing the bottles being boxed, the bubbles in various monitoring apparatuses, and feeling the temperature gradient of the heat exchangers. The forklifts fascinated him, as long as they stayed a good distance away. It being summer, he was the only one who brought a sweatshirt...which was why he was the only one running around the cold storage warehouse between the huge stacks of beer (note: while the rest of us may not have been dressed for the occasion, many of us possessed enough beer in the bloodstream to keep us from getting too cold). They sent us home with a six-pack each...including one for E...so as we walked down Taylor street in downtown San Jose, balancing a 17-month-old, diaper bag, and three six-packs, I couldn't help but think: Parents of the year. 

After a nice dinner at the Fish Market with the immediate family, plus Uncle Ron and Erik, the rest of the weekend was spent painting our family room. Opa, Uncle Brian, and I did the paint work while Oma/Mommy had the equally hard job of keeping E from helping. In the end, we're happy with the results. Which is good, because I truly don't want to repeat the three-different-shades-of-green we experienced in the nursery last year.

It used to be so easy to capture all of E's little developments on the blog. Now, it's becoming nearly impossible (and I get the hint that it only grows), but I'll do my best to continue the highlights for those that care...and for my own archival purposes. 

• One of the funniest words E's picked up is 'Uh-huh'. The other night I was holding him and about to put him in bed and asked, "Are you ready to get in your crib?" His response of "Uh-huh," almost made me cry or bust up or some of both. 

• He's definitely Lisa/my child...as he's developed a mild obsession with iPhones. Though I'd like to think neither of us are quite so narcissistic, because all he wants to do is sift through the pictures and videos of himself in the memory. Actually, to be fair, he might be happy with any picture/video, 99% of ours happen to involve him.
• It took him a little bit to master the word 'Opa,' but now that he's got it he often walks around the house saying it. He also adopted it as his word for 'open.' Not sure if there's a deeper meaning there. And if there is, what would it be?

• The sign language has also really picked up. He's a master of please, thank you, more, milk, water, and cereal. Though his high-five could use a little more umph.