Well, as it is 6,000 degrees here and the sun (or the sunblock, not sure which) seems to be exacerbating the rash Fraser has on his back, I thought I'd take this time of being locked inside to post a little Fraser update to the blog. On Saturday June 30th Fraser went to his first Ashburnham Downtown days which is a sort of street fair where we live. I wanted to take him last year, but as he was only 2 weeks old and it was pouring rain, that plan didn't work out so well. This year, however, Fraser had a great time checking out the firetruck, meeting his first pony up close and personal, eating pizza and visiting the petting zoo. My parents were up for the weekend, so you can thank them for the Fraser and goat picture above. We saved the petting zoo until last, and Fraser was a little tired at that point, which may account for his partial meltdown. He was doing really well meeting and greeting all the animals (he loved the bunnies) until we bought a little cup of feed. First Fraser wanted to eat the feed himself, and when I said he couldn't he was somewhat disappointed but accepted the situation with little protest. When I then proceeded to give the feed to the animals, however, Fraser's very clear reaction was "What the Hell?!? I wanted that!!" We headed home shortly thereafter.

Aside from meeting various farm animals, the 30th was also a big day for Fraser as he took his very first steps! Granted there was much encouragement involved and he hasn't spontaneously chosen to take any more steps, but I think he may finally be catching on to the idea that there is a whole world of movement out there that he hasn't fully explored yet.


On the fourth of July we headed up to Maine for a little vacation time and went to the local parade. Fraser was pretty tired and cranky at that point, but the louder the passing parade item the better. The firetrucks were by far the biggest hit. Fraser had a great time in Maine. He went swimming a couple times, despite some unseasonably chilly temperatures (check out his very stylish crab flotation device below) and even Dharma got in on the swimming action. Fraser also enjoyed playing in his water table and baby pool. We even managed to go for a hike with both dogs which Fraser seemed to really have fun on, aside from when Andy accidentally let a very wet branch hit Fraser in the face (he was in a backpack). Fraser was fine of course, just a little damp and momentarily stunned.