The cutting o’the tree

It was Sunday and it wasn’t raining. Perfect conditions to go on the hunt for the annual Lorpi Christmas Tree. Since Little S was in utero, we’ve been going to a great U-cut place in Oregon City. Trees! Sheep! Lamb pepperoni! (Boy, that’s going to be hard to explain someday)

It’s so great as she gets older and has a better idea of what Christmas is about. She gets about 60% of it. Christmas trees are exciting. Lights are exciting. Presents are exciting. Santa is exciting. He comes in a sleigh with reindeer. The fact that he brings presents while you sleep hasn’t quite been fully connected yet. And, she keeps wanting us to take her to Christmas. We haven’t listened to that much Christmas music, but this morning she was singing “down through the chimney click, click, click”. Yesterday was “cradle, cradle, cradle, I made you out of clay”. Dreidel not being a word she hears every day.

The fetching o’the tree was much anticipated and used as heavily as possible to bribe her into nap time. (“after nap, we’re going to go get our tree”) . On arrival, she got right down to business, finding us the perfect tree

 

So, we then had to tell her to find one as tall as Daddy. But, we found her one her size to hold with her as we walked

After Dad scoped out the perfect one, we wanted to get a picture of it in it’s natural environment

 

Little S was so fascinated with the machine that shook the needles off and the tube they put it through to wrap it in netting for the trip home. She really wanted her tree to go in there too. And on top of the car, but we convinced her to keep it with her instead.

The end result? Well, that’s still on top of the car, waiting for pizza night to settle before we drag it off and cut it down to size in the chilly, windy night air. Hopefully we’ll get a photo of it sometime between now and New Years.

a sleddin’ we will go

We had been planning to go sledding on Tuesday. However, the weather was throwing a curveball. Chance of snow in Portland, and getting really cold. The town shuts down with snow, so, I wasn’t optimistic we would get to go anywhere, except maybe sledding at the park. Well, the snow never arrived in much quantity, and fortunately everything mostly dried out before the cold hit so we weren’t battling a giant skating rink, so we decided to pack up and hit the mountain.

Little S was sufficiently excited. She helped make “puppy chow”. Although she asked what it was and told me she didn’t like it. Then I told her it had chocolate and peanut butter and she said “that sounds so yummy”.

Well, the roads down here were pretty good, save a few icy spots, the roads closer to the mountain were more treacherous. Big S hauled out the tire chains and got us chained up and safely on our way again. What a great guy. Once we got into areas with snow at the side of the roads, Little S kept saying “Wow. Look at all the snow!” After a really long drive, we finally get to a sledding hill. Get bundled up and ready to go play in the snow.

As Dad learned last winter when he took her skiing, one of her favorite things to do is eat snow. Convincing her NOT to eat the snow off of her boot from the parking lot took some work, but we finally got to some nice, fluffy, safe to eat snow.

 

Well, the allure of snow and sledding SOUNDED good to Little S. But the reality of it held much less appeal. It probably didn’t help that the sled was so slippery

Mommy and Sofia took a few runs on the sled, and at the bottom, she wanted to go again, but walking up the hill wasn’t much fun, and riding in the sled up the hill wasn’t fun either since she kept falling out of it, and it was at some crazy, bumpy angles that worried her. One of the problems with really deep snow and a 2.5 year old. Deep? how deep? Well, the dog got into a hole and had to get help from Big S to get out

We really didn’t bury her in the snow. It was that deep in some spots.

Little S was quickly tiring of this, and probably cold too. We knew it was bad when she was asking to go back to the car and take a nap! We did convince her to put her skis on for a few minutes though

But, she was pretty much dead weight with rubber legs and my back is paying the price today. A promise of hot chocolate and puppy chow perked her up and motivated her towards the car, where we discovered something new about her. At first we were worried it was frostbite, but as we watched, we think the color just changes from her apple-cheeked redness back to it’s normal color in a very obvious way

If you look closely, you’ll see white circles on her red cheeks. The circles grew until her cheeks were the same color they normally are.

Despite her tears, frustration and spending lots of time in the snow, not on it, when you ask her if she had fun sledding and skiing, the answer is a definitive “yes” and she can’t wait to go again. Hopefully next time will be even more fun!

Traditions

Little S is old enough that we now have some established traditions. Ones that I imagine we’ll keep for many years to come, all the while adding new ones.

This is Little S’ second year of picking huckleberries. While the weather was drier, the forest was still pretty wet, which put a damper on the fun for her. So, we traded off running around with Little S and Furry S. Unfortunately, that means the only two photos we have are of blurry S’

and of our haul at the end.

Not as many as last year, but with a fully mobile toddler, this was as good as it got. Because she is getting so big, this was her first really big trip diaper free. And, when you’re in the woods, well, sometimes you have to do what a bear does. Ever since then, she’s pretty into the idea of going potty outside.

A tradition now in it’s third year is a visit to the pumpkin patch. With Big S.

Including a ride in the wagon with the pumpkins. Although she takes up much more wagon than she did last year

This year she can even find her own and add them to the wagon

“Heck, riding in the wagon is for babies, watch this”

In a long standing tradition for Mom and her friends, Little S has been present for two years now in our hike & apple festival day. This year was a complete 180 from last year, dry and sunny, but just as much fun. Her first real hike on her own two feet (well, at least for about 30 minutes total of the whole hike, some of it still involved a ride in the backpack, both for safety reasons and for some whining)

She looks like a hiking pro!

Beautiful views at the top

 

And, the requisite ice cream at the apple festival. A teeny bit less messy than last year

 

And we only took home about 20 pounds of apples this year, but a wider variety of them. Spitzenberg, winesaps, galas, golden delicious, and some stark crimson pears. Life is good in the Northwest.

And in case you were wondering how big she’s getting?

Looks like about 3 feet. I think we have a new tradition in the making.

Pizza Night

Anyone who knows the Lorpi’s knows that Sunday night is pizza night-almost without fail. We make our own dough and put on our own toppings. For a while, Little S didn’t like pizza. We thought we were going to have to disown her. She came around though. Tonight-she made her own pizza!

She rolled out the dough

 

She grated the cheese

 

(Stopping to eat a bite or two)

 

sprinkling the cheese on

and eating it!

 

Yeah. That’s totally her MGD back there too. What’s pizza night without beer night?

Camping!

The time was right for an adventure! It was hot here-so I booked the last acceptable camp spot on the Oregon coast. The forecast there was for 61 and foggy. A welcome relief from 97 and sunny.

It wasn’t without a little bit of intrepidation. Little S isn’t the greatest sleeper, and putting her in a tent at a campground definitely made me nervous. But, I finally let go and adopted a whatever will be, will be attitude. She’d been going to sleep later and later the whole week and one night going to bed late wasn’t going to hurt.  So we loaded up and headed out with Aunt Aimee, Little S, me and Aunt Aimee’s little blind dog who can’t really be home alone. We leave a little later than planned and there are traffic accidents all over, and it’s HOT. Even with A/C. Add that to a small miscalculation about how far away the campground actually is and it takes up until what would be Little S’ bedtime. She was a great sport in the car-I hadn’t packed much entertainment-so it was a mom & Aunt Aimee jukebox of camp songs. So, we got to the campground and got set up as quickly as possible. Little S was pretty enthralled with the tent.

 

And then, we went to the ocean. We’d been using the draw of the ocean for the last hour of the drive, so it had some big billing to live up to. And there it was!

The sand!

Once she started playing in the water, it was hard to get any pictures-trying to keep an eye on her. And once my camera went for a swim without a lifejacket, I was extra careful about the camera. She was very nervous about it at first, but seeing two older girls having fun in the water quickly inspired her to want to get in and play “run away” from the waves like they were.

After a 2 hour wrestling match to get her to bed-she finally gave in around 10:00.  There was a lot of middle of the night drama with dog needing to pee, Little S wanting to eat, dog wanting to eat Little S’ food, and more. So after some more slumber, interrupted, Little S decided her day was starting with the light of day. While she was waiting for us to get ready, she had some hard decisions to make, like which pacifier best complemented her outfit.

 

Once we got through that, we went back down to the ocean.

We played more “run away” from the waves, and did lots of wading with Mom & Aunt Aimee.

 

We learned how to make sand castles

(Or more accurately, lumps of sand)

and generally had a great time. Little S definitely wants to sleep in a tent with Mom & bear again and we will make many more trips to the ocean & beach in the future. Even if it is 60 degrees and overcast!

Embarrassingly late birthday post

Better late than never?

A balance bike for her birthday

It’s still a little big for her, but she likes to ride it with us holding her. She does get a little confused and ask "pedals?” and try and put her feet where the pedals should be. This bike doesn’t have pedals, but instead she pushes it along with her feet and learns to balance on two wheels. When she has mastered that, we’ll add in pedals and maybe skip the whole training wheel thing. Although it does seem like such a rite of passage, maybe we’ll get some anyway.

A book and bubbles

 

Skis

 

Golf clubs (she always loves to watch the golfers when we run by the golf course)

 

She uses the clubs a little like pool cues, but she makes contact with the club heads to the ball. Then she hides everything under the couch.

Birthday call with Grandma and Grandpa Bob

and Bob the Builder! Very appropriate.

Birthday cupcakes

 

Two candles already. Unbelievable.

Less messy this year.

 

The Sunday after her birthday, Dad let her try out her new skis.

The best part of skiing?

 

Eating snow.

Happy 2nd Birthday monkey!

Twas the week before her birthday

Her last week of being one has been a pretty good by most accounts. She’s exhibiting compassion when she wants to make sure the dog is covered with blankets to go to sleep.

This was followed by commanding the dog to lay down. Thank goodness Seasha is a good sport! The cat-she would rather have a blanket over her then Little S’ newest trick. Little S has taken to picking Poster the cat up and carrying her around until she gets caught doing it and we make her stop.

 

Not photographed; the time she tried to pick Poster up by the tail. For being a 15 year old cat, she’s being very tolerant. If this is the end of being one, two ought to be interesting.

During her pre-birthday week, we got to spend an afternoon with few friends of mine and their kids. The bittersweet part is that one of the friends is moving back to Tasmania, and little S adored her daughter. Since the house was being packed, there wasn’t much worry about breaking stuff. The kids quickly discovered if they pulled the cushions off the couch, it made for an impressive bounce, jump & play room.

As we enjoyed some adult beverages and grown-up conversation, we suddenly noticed it was quiet. And how were they entertaining themselves? In the bathroom. brushing their teeth. Of course!

and the shower of wonders

 

(yes, the bathroom is gorgeous. They took the entire house from condemned to amazing in a few years.)

As if the bathroom weren’t enough fun, they also had a trampoline!

We will miss them very much! It’s good to know I have friends to visit if I ever get to Tasmania though.

Even though the weather has been very un-May like, the outdoor activities are springing up like flowers. We had occasion to travel to the far away and very glamorous hamlet of Cornelius to our friend Tom’s house. She climbed the trees like a big kid (with some help from our friend Jacki)

 

And we took a walk down the alley behind his house. Cornelius is a more diverse town than our neighborhood and before long, she encountered a couple of brothers. The youngest was three and his older (6?) brother was chasing him around yelling “besito” and trying to get his brother to kiss Little S. Mostly, the little brother was afraid of Little S. Little S just watched the scene, casually drinking out of her sippy cup and being amused at the way the boys were running around.  I convinced her boys are silly and we wandered back to the party, just in time for delicious buffalo steaks off the grill. Yum!

To cap off three days of non-stop fun, on Sunday, Big S set out for Mt. Hood with Little S and her ski’s in tow. She sure looked good out there!

Although her favorite part of skiing was eating snow

Or other snacks

 

(She looks SO big!)

Her favorite part of skiing was going in the tunnel that’s over they conveyor belt termed “magic carpet” that the kids use to get to the top of the small incline. At least she was standing up on her ski’s doing it. I’m sure next winter will include a lot more snow time.

A great way to end her last weekend of being one and preparing for two!