the Lorpi files

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T21:23:00.000-08:00

I was pretty much ready to call this the worst new year's ever after spending an hour trying to get the baby to sleep on a night I was trying to get him to bed early, and him not sleeping meant I couldn't get the overtired oldest one to bed early either. I was feeling stressed and mad at the world for it not following my plans and frankly, feeling a little sorry for myself. As I rang in the east coast new year by showering (I know glamorous ain't it) I reflected back on a blog I had read a few years ago. It was written by the mom who had a daughter dying of cancer. She talked about how we spend so much time trying to get our kids to sleep, and now that her daughter was in the end stage of her life, she only had the energy to sleep, and how all she wished for was for her daughter to be awake. Remembering that was the perspective I needed. I might be going to bed at 9:00 and the highlight of my night was a cocktail some hours earlier and the aforementioned shower, but this year added a very important small human to my life and those two amazing small humans may be horrible sleepers, but I can roll into 2012 (probably much earlier in the am than I would like) being thankful that I am so blessed with two amazing little beings.

Thomas’ birth story

2011-07-08T22:08:00.001-07:00

Read at your own risk. Since Sofia’s was in the blog, I will subject you to Thomas’ also.

In case it’s not your cup of tea, here’s a photo of me seeing him for the first time and then you can skip the rest of this post.

(I have no earthly idea what I’m wearing)

The week before his birthing day, I had kind of felt crampy off and on. But at 39 weeks, nothing too surprising. They always seemed to subside after laying down a few hours. On Saturday, feeling it again and trying to find ways to induce labor, a friend says what worked for her is letting her husband drink too many beers. Then, when she NEEDED to go to the hospital, she almost had to drive herself. Also remember another friend who went into labor with a hungover husband. Tell Big S to start drinking! Go to bed, text him a few hours later that I feel fine, go ahead and tip a few back, who knows how many more nights he’ll have that option.

Then, about 12:30 realize that this feeling is back and not going away. In fact, it’s actually more of a problem, preventing sleep. Start to read a while. About 1:30 a.m. tell Big S to get to bed, who knows how much more sleep he’s going to get tonight. Plus, sitting up in his recliner is more comfortable. After a few hours of reading through contractions, decide they are getting a little more serious and meet the guidelines for calling the midwife. About 3:30 call in, they ask if I want to go now or now. I’m fine waiting. They recommend laboring in the tub. Voila! My vision of laboring in the hot tub can be realized. Hang out in there, reading and being in labor with the contractions getting stronger until I can’t read through them anymore. Enjoy the pre-dawn view and impending sunrise. Try and hold out until 6:00 am so Big S gets a few hours of sleep, remembering the sleepless marathon of Little S’ birth. Manage until about 4:30 or 5:00 am and realize if I don’t get out of the hot tub now, I’m not going to be able to get out, and despite joking around about giving birth in there, it’s not actually my plan.

Tell Big S it’s time to go. Contractions stop me in my tracks now. Get the baby monitor to my sister and two steps before the car, my water breaks. Accuse husband of taking bumpiest road possible. And, for looking for every bump he can as he wheels me to Labor and Delivery. Give requested “specimen” and FREAK OUT that it’s green. That means meconium and that’s not good. Start to abandon hope for VBAC. Lean against wall during contraction accidentally setting off the “help me now” button. Which sends a cadre of nurses scrambling to the room. Oops. Manage to do that about 5 or 6 more times during labor. Consequently, husband gets good at recognizing it right away and hitting the cancel button.

Now we’re getting intense. And I’m yelling louder. Screaming is more apt. Possibly even shrieking in pain. It’s no silent Scientologist birth, that’s for sure. Get to the point where the pain is constant with no break between contractions. Have nearly; broken my husbands hand, fingers, strangled him, broken his ribs, practically chewed a hole in his shirt, deafened him… Probably more things to, those are just what I remember and remember feeling badly about. At the point I’m on the floor, under the bed (getting in touch with my inner cavewoman perhaps?) accidentally rip out the IV line in my arm (no memory of that, just a gnarly bruise for 2 weeks and a permanent bloodstain on DH’s pants) am now screaming for pain meds for me and for the sake of everyone around me. The get me into the bed, calmed down a little, and decide the epidural is coming. Like little S, I’ve only gone from 6 to 7 cm in 3 hours of pain, and getting me to relax is the best course of action. At this point, am told that if baby doesn’t descend more, there’s a good chance of a repeat c-section. At this point, that sounds better than continuing the way it’s going in excruciating pain. Manage to hold still for the epidural somehow, possibly knowing the outcome of NOT holding still when someone is putting needles in your spine. It’s now 8:00 or 8:30. Become sane again. Tell husband to go get himself food. Piece together that a c-section isn’t for sure the outcome yet, I get to try pushing if baby descends.

A little after 10:00, a get to start pushing. Unlike with Little S, I can’t actually feel the urge to push, but, I follow instructions and push when they tell me. It seems like even though the midwife is encouraging me and telling me how good I’m doing that there isn’t any progress. I’m nothing if not stubborn, so resolve to push even harder. At some point, get word that the baby is kind of stuck, shades of Little S. It feels like it’s been a while and I’m expecting them to call it off any minute now. They were only going to give me an hour of pushing and if baby is stuck, well… it is what it is. It’s now the last "chance”. Giving everything I've got, the midwife has me feel the head. Oh my gosh! A fuzzy little head about to emerge. I’m home free. I’m going to do this! After what still seems like forever, the baby is born! 11:04 a.m.

But, because of the meconium, and because I’m Group B strep positive, he’s tended to right away. I ask Big S what it is, and he emotionally tells me it’s a boy! Baby Thomas, named after my father, born on Father’s day. But, his breathing isn’t strong. They take him to the nursery and Big S goes too. Come to find out that his umbilical cord also broke on birth, so he didn’t quite get all the blood he should have either. (and, it made for quite the horror show. Pools of blood, splashed even over my head!)There is talk of needing to transport him to NICU, they can’t get an IV in and the veins in his extremities are collapsing. But, after hours of trying, his color is coming back on his own, and, they get the IV in through his umbilical cord! At 3:00, I’m okay to get wheeled in to go see him. Watch the doctors for a while (hours?) and finally get to hold him. Ask to nurse him, and wow! First time is a charm. Latches like a pro and nurses happily. Very good and good for his recovery too. Go back in every 3-4 hours throughout the night to nurse and cuddle him. By about 11:00 am Monday, he’s cleared to come back to the room with us. Hooray! Now family like can begin.

Welcome

2011-07-05T21:48:00.001-07:00

Thomas John Korpi

6/19/2011

8 pounds, 7 oz.

22.5 inches

11:04 a.m.

The cutting o’the tree

2010-12-05T20:17:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-24T08:16:00.001-08:00

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

2010-10-16T21:24:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:27:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-07-09T19:34:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-27T19:56:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-07T19:24:00.001-07:00

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!

As April draws to a close

2010-04-29T21:15:00.001-07:00

Much like exercising, it seems when I take a break from posting here, it’s hard to get started back up again. Not that I don’t want to, and don’t think about it frequently, but thinking and doing-not the same. I feel like things are simmering down every which way enough to say that I might be able to get back to at least a couple of posts a month, but life has a way of making me think that, and then abruptly planning something else.

Also, as Little S gets bigger, we just aren’t taking the volume of pictures we used to. Whether it’s forgetting the camera as we go out the door, or more likely, trying to contain her constant motion that doesn’t allow us a free hand for the camera, the volume has definitely subsided.

But, here we are, on the cusp of her 2nd birthday already. What an amazing and interesting age. The amount of development in the first two years is so astronomical. Where she was to where she is today is mind-blowing. So much so, that I often forget there’s so much more to go! I’ll see a kid activity that seems like it would be fun and have to stop myself to remember that she’s ONLY two, and not big enough for whatever it is yet.

A few weeks ago, this big girl looked downright SASSY all dressed for church.

She gets very excited when I cook. She asks for and attempts to drag her stepstool to her special place at the end of the counter where she can help Mommy put things in to the mixing bowl

and, I think she’s quickly going to learn that helping cook means sampling along the way (even if I am actively discouraging it)

The next few days hold several fun gatherings in store with her friends and my friends. I vow to bring the camera and try and actually use it! As spring gives way to summer, the balance of fun to work will shift to more fun and more photo-worthy moments!

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T21:02:00.001-07:00

Now that Little S is a walking, talking, comprehending machine, I thought we would try out a few Easter Egg hunts around town.

Saturday morning we biked up to the park by our friends Jim & Lisa’s house for their neighborhood egg hunt. I had no idea what to expect, and had visions of Little S being shoved out of the way by bigger kids with visions of chocolate in their sights. This was nothing like that. They had a great under age 3 area roped off. The eggs were going to be pretty hard to find:

I think it all might have been okay except the organizers mentioned that there were some multi-colored eggs that had coupons you could turn in for special prizes. So on the word “go” several parents just dragged their kids out as quick as they could to get those special eggs! (The prizes turned out to be dollar store type items. And the lessons those kids are learning from their parents? Priceless)

I wasn’t even sure Little S would quite get the concept of what to do. AND, this being our first Easter egg hunt, Mom left the house in a hurry and a little unprepared. So our Easter basket? We were winging it.

Yep. Mommy’s bike helmet buckled together to make a handle. I was pretty pleased with my improvisation. And Little S TOTALLY figured out what to do.

Her haul of four eggs was perfect. We had practiced finding an egg that morning with a plastic egg with M & M’s. I was worried she would want to open all of the eggs as she was finding them to get the M&M’s, but the spirit of competition must have been strong enough to drive her on! Like any good egg hunter she looked & looked for quite a while after they were clearly gone. And then we ate some candy and played on the crowded playground for about an hour. About the time we were biking back, the rain started up again, but had held off all morning. It also held off for a portion of the afternoon when we ventured to the Zoo for her second easter egg hunt of the day. She was so excited about her basket and the prospect of finding easter eggs that she got her basket in her hands, willingly left the house and wouldn’t let go of her basket for over an hour! That’s some kind of attention span record for her.

Here she’s checking out her haul at the zoo

She met the Easter Bunny as well. She was a little nervous, but the Bunny was great about offering a hand and getting her to not be scared. And by the time she was giving the bunny a hug-the batteries died on the camera!!!! I think we’re ready for next year though, she didn’t want to leave the bunny and kept asking about and trying to go back to the bunny.

Then the big day dawned for the egg hunt in her very own house. She quickly found the basket that the easter bunny left

And proceeded to stuff a Robin’s Egg in her mouth. And it was really too big, so she drooled blue drool all over as she looked for more eggs.

It was hard to convince her to keep looking for eggs because she kept wanting to eat all of the candy in her basket, AND open the eggs and eat whatever she could out of those.

After her fourth egg hunt of the weekend at church, Easter afternoon didn’t involve any more egg hunts. It did involve some new friends that adored Little S

Some music from a talented mandolin player (in the background of the photo)

Which she was attempting to clog to as he played. Having learned how to clog back in January at the Old Time Music Festival. One of our friends even commented “is she clogging to the music?” I guess when she hears bluegrass she knows she should be clogging! Add that to her list of dance lessons someday.

The force is strong with this one

Little S’ Easter 2010 was definitely a fun-filled one. And now everyone is ready for a good night’s candy fueled sleep.

Aunt A’s last visit

2010-04-04T20:31:00.001-07:00

Last visit? Was it so horrible she’s never allowed back? Quite the opposite. Her spring break in Portland was the last time she’ll be visiting. Next time she touches the ground here she’ll be moving here! We’re very much looking forward to that this summer!

She hosted her own birthday party, tasking advantage of what would turn out to be the end of the nice weather.

Just as well so she doesn’t harbor any illusions about what winter here is like. In fact, it turned so wintry that Big S took a day to go skiing in what is rumored to be waist deep powder. On March 30, nonetheless. So Aunt A and I took Little S to her first gymnastics class! It was so much fun. We worked on front rolls

We played with the parachute

and many more fun games, including jumping on a trampoline that weren’t captured on film. She’s got at least three more weeks of this fun class that Dad gets to take her to. Maybe there will be some more photos soon.

Aunt A also took Little S to a fire truck that was just idling around the corner. She met three nice firefighters who gave her a Junior Firefighter sticker that she is very proud of

Spending time with your cool Aunt A means things that Mom & Dad might not let you do

Like go all out on the face paints at the Children’s Museum. Guess who will also be sneaking her out to buy makeup before Mom & Dad say it’s okay???

“Hello, Aunt A? Mom won’t let me get a tattoo. Can you take me?”

Wonder where she will have learned about tattoos?

Little S definitely had a great week and can’t wait until Aunt A is not several states away, but hopefully only a few miles (or less) away!

Vitamin D

2010-03-20T22:03:00.001-07:00

When the doctor put us on a multivitamin over a year ago to make sure Little S was getting enough Vitamin D, I kind of chuckled. This child gets more sunshine and fresh air than most kids her age and certainly than most adults. Prescribing sunscreen seemed like a better plan. (Don’t worry, we had her on them. And we put sunscreen on her)

Today was practically an overdose of Vitamin D. Day #2 of unseasonably warm weather and a Saturday! We packed up the backpack and the dog to meet two other friends and four other dogs. At the end of our walk, Little S was released to walk also. And pet the doggies.

“Auntie” Sunny and Little S’ favorite dog friend Abby.

All that excitement and it was nap time. We had to rest up for more adventures in the afternoon.

After nap, we loaded up to go meet our friends E’llee and her Mama Deb for a bike ride. We hopped on our bikes to Blue Lake Park. It was great! There was more diversity on the playground in an hour than Little S gets in a week. We must have heard 4 or 5 languages. Little S got some chips and crackers from a friendly Hispanic family. The girls were all eager to show her tricks they knew and she was mostly into staring at their little boy in the stroller. They taught her “Adios” and I got her to say “Gracias”.

While we played we went into the tunnel/slidey thing over and over

At one point as she was getting climbed over by some bigger kids, she decided to get comfy

She scaled mountains

She climbed a new thing completely fearlessly

E’llee and Little S did some sliding too.

The camera got put away for the ride home and the playing on the sandy beach beside the river.

Then, to cap off a perfect first day of spring day, we made burgers and fries for dinner with some Vitamin “B”(eer) for Mommy and Daddy.

It was a well balanced diet!

Pic-o-rama

2010-03-18T21:57:00.001-07:00

We actually found something that Little S was afraid of. She wouldn’t get in the boat. Very unlike her-Jim made it look so fun!

The afternoon was sunny but chilly and was spent with our friends Jim & Lisa. Tree sitting

sliding on the crazy jagged slide

(this thing HURTS if you’re a grown-up. it slams you around side to side. it’s amazing the kids don’t come out of it upside-down)

Little S shared the toys with Jim

Once she learned how to ride it from Jim, she took a spin on the “cycle”

Daddy has taught her to climb things. And when she runs out of hands, she uses her fifth point of contact

The Chin Hook.

A little peekaboo at the zoo

Buckling dollies in for a ride. Safety first.

“Push. Dollies”

“Dolly fall”

Her hair isn’t always in her eyes. She’s gotten used to us pulling it back. We tried a new style. It took some work but OH

This face is cute on the outside and pure trouble on the inside. Trust us!

She’s getting older and learning to two-fist it

The pictures are harder to capture because she is on the move, and so are we. Every day is more fun than the last.

Good Ole Dad!

2010-03-12T22:01:00.001-08:00

You know it’s been a while since you’ve blogged when the tool I use to write these is no longer in my start menu.

Since my life has been utterly consumed with all things cookie, thank goodness for Dad. He’s been the one who always makes sure that Little S has fun every day. And with Mommy busy, he’s been bringing his “A” game! Thanks Dad! Wufyou.

We were lucky to have Nana & Jim come visit for a few days. They turned the house into a dance floor

Nana teaching Little S some dance steps

On a rare non-work moment, and an even rarer (this winter) rainy day, Little S played with the boys up the street. Where she learned fun things like holding on to mud pies. The end result you’ll see all over her hands

and knees

As the 5 year old is rolling around on the ground with her, helping her fall down for the ending of Ring around the Rosie, and then happily putting gravel in her hood, and his Dad keeps apologizing for them playing so rough with her, I am trying to reassure him that we don’t want to raise a wimpy girl. She’s not crying, she can take it. And she loved it all. Fortunately her mud pie lesson hasn’t been something she’s practiced again. Yet.

Being Daddy’s little helper, she had a great time, and daresay was an integral part of the new couch getting assembled.

It passed her inspection.

The unseasonably nice weather continued, so Dad took her out a lot. She FINALLY lets us pull her hair up out of her eyes. So, she now has that stereotypical toddler Pebbles ponytail

and a cute track suit to go with it. Thanks Grammie K!

One exciting addition to our household was a new bike trailer. We’ve been wanting one for a while and finally got one. Big S took some video of Little S enjoying herself back there.

She LOVES it! She gets mad when she has to ride in the regular jogging stroller and asks for “bike” a lot. With the cover on, she can’t throw things our of it, so last weekend she was happy as a clam as Mommy went for a ride with her friend. We rode about an hour, stopped at the park for 45 minutes of playing, and rode back. She hardly made a fuss at all. Mom couldn’t be happier!

Thanks to Dad, she got to visit one of her favorite places-the SOO (zoo).

Nice Kitty

That unseasonably nice weather? Finally turned seasonable with some snow flurries on what started as a sunny morning. (those streaks are falling snow)

Since she couldn’t play outside, she did some interior redecorating for us

by pulling all the mugs off of the shelf near her highchair. Fortunately, super Dad was on it and none ended up in shards on the floor.

And finally. Mommy’s cookie season was almost over and she got to actually enjoy the company of her daughter. Who has rock star aspirations, while eating

and even at our friend A’s house

I think she was recruiting her to join the band.

Well on our way to having a two year old who keeps us guessing, and in awe of her amazing daily developments.

An April like week in February

2010-02-19T21:23:00.001-08:00

The weather has been much more April than February like. Much though I still don’t like it, we’ve made the most of the sunny & 60 degree days in a few stolen moments.

Monday was a holiday and Big S was out of town for 3 days for work. So Mom managed to tear herself away from work a little and go on a walk around the block with Little S. In case you were wondering, walking around ONE (1) city block takes her about 40 minutes sometimes. Not because her legs are that short, but just because there are SO!MANY!EXCITING!THINGS!TO!SEE!

And a public apology to all of our neighbors. She’s obsessed with all of your driveways, stairs and lawns. Thanks for not minding two strangers hanging out in your yard for an excessively long time.

One of her favorite driveways having both a hill and stairs! (and kids, so hopefully understanding parents)

Oh right. This particular walk also was a bike ride. Well, occasionally.

Hat off

Off Bike. (Not allowed to ride without it)

Hat on

On bike. And our favorite of late (except not really)

SELF!

As she’s usually SCREAMING it at us that she wants to do it herself. Even if she can’t. She’s going to try and then get mad that it’s not working. And to think we couldn’t wait for her to get more independent.

So, she gave up. And found a small hole in the sidewalk. With small pebbles. Who knew I’d been missing it all these years?

A closer look at this interesting sight

Still not close enough

And then she licked the hole/pebbles.

At least she’s really good about spitting things out when I put my hand in front of her mouth…

And this was the last happy face after I told her to stop eating them and right before I told her “no” again, so she kicked off her boots in anger and I carried the bike, her helmet. her boots and a MAD wiggling, kicking & screaming baby the rest of the way home. Where she had a nice long nap.

Which left her refreshed for an afternoon at OMSI with Auntie Sunny.

I know we see a lot of squirrels in the neighborhood, but we were still amazed when she took (was handed) some of the play acorns from another kid and knew exactly where they went and what to do with them

That would be storing them in the tree for winter.

They had a big table with Legos out too. She loves building things. Especially with Auntie Sunny’s help.

Little S clearly doesn’t mind the sand between her toes, or anywhere else

The nice weather held all week and I managed to eke out a little extra time Wednesday afternoon so she didn’t have a whole week with the poor babysitter since Dad was out of town. So, we headed for the park. Where she was all things SLIDE.

After convincing me to go down the big slide with her the first time (I tell you what. It is not meant for Mommy hips) She decided that this was the day that “I Did it. Self.” In her words.

It’s not so much the slide as the fact that there’s a pretty big step up to get into it. But the past few weeks she has become the stair MASTER taking stairs with a lot less “Mommy hand” and a lot more “self. SELF”. and she is successful. Climbing up and down all but the steepest stairs without our hands and without a handrail while remaining upright the whole time. That is something to be proud of “self”. And the results are that she can now climb up to and go down this slide

Again and again and again.

These sunny days have been fun for all of us.

Valentine’s Day in the Rain

2010-02-14T20:30:00.001-08:00

You know it’s time for a new couch when the old one starts eating your baby

Any and all suggestions of where to find tough, stain resistant, affordable, and not baby eating couches are welcome.

Saturday morning was strange. After a good night of sleep following a string of not good nights, Little S was really mellow. She happily entertained herself in the corner (I know, nobody puts baby in the corner, but what if she puts herself there?*)

reading book after book. Of course this is the one day I had to be somewhere for work and not just working on the computer. She always knows…

For work, I had a special shirt for her to wear. She was VERY excited about it too. And every time she was leaning back so you could see the shirt & I went to take the picture, she decided she was ready for her close up

And would L-E-A-N in to the camera. The little ham. So, that picture of her utter cuteness in a shirt that’s way too big (Youth small) will have to wait for another, less hammy day.

Fortunately the day afforded us a chance for a walk. But, it’s kind of far after a few blocks, so, she found a perfectly wet rock wall to sit on

where she proceeded to try and convince me to sit on the wet brush next to her. I wasn’t biting. I’m a pretty bad Mom that way.

She is such a parrot in both words and actions right now. Monkey see:

(“Doggie. back” yes. doggie scratching her back) Monkey do:

(“fia. back” Yes. You’re scratching your back too.)

as she’s rolling around on the ground and I’m wondering what the neighbors must think. “No, we don’t just put her food in a bowl on the ground and Yes. If I could potty train her to the lawn, you bet I would in a heartbeat!”

Today was a pretty good El Nino weather day. Rain in the morning, than mostly sunny all afternoon and mid-50’s. That is, until we went to go to the park because Little S was LOSING it! and needed to burn off some energy.

And within just a few minutes of getting to the park, a nice little downpour. Big S tried to get Little S to the covered area. The minute her feet hit the ground, she took off, right back for the rain. Such an Oregonian-turning her face to the rain

Drenched to the core and still having fun? Check.

Was it a Happy Valentine’s Day (Or Happy Birthday if you asked Little S to say it)? I would say so!

*A reference to the film “Dirty Dancing” in case you were wondering

Dancing Pants

2010-02-07T20:52:00.001-08:00

I was warned earlier today by my ever cautious husband not to use the blender without checking it first. Lest I miss this

Little S’ stuffed dog with a book in the middle. I don’t know what you would call it, but it always reminds me of the joke about outside a dog, a book is man’s best friend…

As we were picking out clothes this morning, I was asking Little S what she wanted to wear and she managed to find a pair that was kind of at the back and that she had mostly outgrown. She points to them and says “dance”. So, today she wore her “dancing pants”. And dance she did-even though it’s kind of hard to tell because well, it is a still picture

Ringing the bell along with the music

She also discovered my hydration system. Which she delighted in both drinking out of and taking on a walk around the house telling Mommy and Daddy both “DRINK”

“DRINK!”. I guess we looked thirsty.

Taking advantage of yet another nice afternoon (sorry mid-atlantic states residents. I’m jealous of your snow) we took a family walk before the big game. And it was such a great Sunday that we even had time to stop and smell the snow crocuses.

Saturday in the snow

2010-02-06T22:48:00.001-08:00

Thanks to my friend T for organizing a snowshoe adventure. After our first visit to the snow, I hadn’t been that enthused to get Little S back up there. It’s a long drive to play in the snow for 15 minutes and have to leave with a cranky toddler. But, with a large group of us going, I figured more people to entertain Little S, we might last for maybe 30 minutes and then we could always go back to the car or just walk around the parking lot or something.

Plus, Big S’ store rents out a sled specifically for towing kids behind you as you as you X-country ski. or snowshoe. So even though she hates being tied down, I was thinking we could do a combo walk/pull.

The day was dry-definitely a bonus. We got two cars, 7 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs up to the mountain at a reasonable hour. There hasn’t been much fresh snow and the trail was crusted over bumpy terrain. Which meant that with all the ruts, Little S tipped over fairly quickly. That made her less than enthused about the sled. So, after some complaining, I let her out to walk a little.

And get carried a little. The crusty snow that wasn’t so good for the sled at least made walking possible for Little S instead of sinking. However, we weren’t going to get very far that way. Fortunately the other girl with us, Abby hopped in the sled for a while. Because she was a MUCH bigger girl, Little S was enthralled with her. So, when the offer was made for Little S to climn in the sled next to Abby, she accepted.

So then we were able to cover some ground. With the exception of a small incident of someone getting both of their snowshoes undone by a third party prankster without noticing and having their forward momentum thwarted

The girls enjoyed a nice ride uphill back, courtesy of Mom. Eating snowballs the whole way.? Who knew they were so tasty.

While we didn’t set any land speed records, we certainly had 2 tired kids, and at least one tired Mom. And possibly a few others too.

Once we got home and took a nice well-deserved nap, it was on to dinner. My little helper is getting more helpful when I cook. We worked on putting the salt into the meatballs

Of course there are still potential pitfalls abounding in the kitchen. Like when I turned my back, the sifter full of flour.. well it’s no longer full of flour.

It’s still so great to have a kitchen assistant who is learning more and more everyday.

A day in the life of a Friday afternoon

2010-02-05T22:12:00.001-08:00

This Friday was one of the last few before work kicks back into high gear, so we made the most of it. Somehow, I even managed to get lots of photos, so here’s a photo journal of our afternoon.

“Driving” her knocked over shopping cart with Elmo trapped in the “trunk”. She’s very obsessed with “Mommy Car” and “Daddy Car” so I guess this is “Fia car” for now.

Stealing some of Mommy’s Raisin Bran

Minutes later, having ransacked her drawers and finding a dress that she’s outgrown after having never even worn it, she brings it to me and demands to wear it. (You should hear our sock decisions in the mornings!) It actually looks really cute, but all the photo I could get was this as she was tearing apart the bookshelf at this one spot that she is obsessed with playing with

And on to the park. After hucking her stroller dolly to the ground and I tucked it in the back of the stroller, her little eagle eyes spotted it when she was out of the stroller. So her and dolly had a great time at the park. She finally discovers that she can tuck dolly under her arm and free up both hands for her adventures at the playground

She finds a walnut on the ground. I’m trying to convince her to put it back on the ground for the squirrel. She kind of ponders it as I tell her again and the she looks up at the tree near us and you can tell she’s thinking as I keep telling her to leave it for the squirrel. So then she does this

taking the walnut over to the tree and realizing she can’t put it up in the tree where the squirrels are, she puts it at the bottom of the tree. It was really amazing to watch the thought process come together.

And, then I guess the walnut was lonely

Stay dolly

I guess dolly looked cozy so Little S wanted to read a book under the tree

And then on to the big slide

And trying to get back up the hard way

And on to another slide where she somehow manages to climb up to the platform unaided-except by her dolly

And down the slide with dolly again

Ever since she saw another girl on the little platforms like a balance beam, she’s been into walking on them too

Then. It was time to leave. I needed both hands and them some to strap her down to the stroller. I’ll leave you with the aftermath of her anger & frustration at having to leave

Because sometimes all you can do is throw your shoes! And a sock too.

But all this fun can be exhausting. And exhausted babies sometimes get frustrated when they can’t successfully crawl over their highchair legs and throw a rarely (so far) seen temper tantrum

But it made for an eager diner

The day came to a perfect close with Daddy getting home early and Little S wearing Daddy’s “mittens” and “hat”

With only a bath and an early bedtime to cap off a wonderful Friday with Little S.

Another trip to the snow is in the cards for tomorrow, so a well rested baby will be a good thing.

a few midweek tidbits

2010-02-05T21:26:00.001-08:00

Little S tried to convince us to mail her to the relatives

Sorry everyone. It didn’t work out.

Little S can pronounce “zoo” and “OMSI”, but “Children’s Museum” continues to elude her. We have a friend Molly who works there and when Big S and Little S visited last, they saw her there. So it was decided that instead of Children’s Museum, they would call it “Molly’s House”.

And they had fun at Molly’s house.

Even finding the face paint.

I hope she learns to put makeup on better in about 16 years from now. Little S-I promise Mom will step in for that part. No offense Dad.

That’s only a fraction of her weekly fun, but capturing it is hard when she’s on the go, go, go!!!

jabob (Little S for “Good Job”)

2010-01-31T21:00:00.001-08:00

Little S’ vocabulary is growing like crazy! Even if all the letters don’t quite make it to the right place. Now that she has mastery of so many words, she can use them in amazing ways.

One of her favorite books has a picture of a duck pulling a wagon, even though that’s not the main focus of the page. She targeted like a laser on that the other day and said "duck”. Then took a moment and thought about it and said “going”. “duck going”. Her word strings are more often than not 2 and sometimes 3 at a time. Enough to get her point across. Always great for Mom, Dad and kid when they can sort of tell you what they are seeing/want. It doesn’t always get there, but it sure is getting closer.

Big S and I feel like we spend a lot of the day in amazement at her developmental leaps and bounds. When we’re not too worn out by her already tireless energy. I’m glad I’ve started running again because keeping up with her will take everything I’ve got! One of the best ways to channel that energy is with new experiences, which Dad is great about getting her to. Like the aviary at the zoo. Not great for ornithophobics but the up close and personal experience is great for Little S.

On their first visit, one of the many birds actually landed on Big S’ back. It made quite an impact because on their next visit, the minute they went inside, Little S started saying “bird. back” and pointing to Daddy’s back-perhaps both remembering and hoping for a repeat performance.

Much to the chagrin of my ski store employed husband, a strong El Nino has taken hold off the coast. Many people might consider it ideal, I suppose, what with temperatures fairly consistent in the upper 40’s to low 50’s and a lot more sun than we are used to. While it’s not good for skiing, it is good for getting outside with friends and learning new tricks, like how to swing on our belly

and going back to the zoo and riding the animals. Sort of.

As she gets older, I’m also trying to find more opportunities for her to interact with kids her age, or as close as possible. Last week we went to our friend “Anka’s” house for some play time for the shorty’s and some pecan pie that was the best I have ever tasted. I mean, this stuff just melted in your mouth. Must be innate for southerners to know how to make a mean pecan pie! (and she shared the recipe if you are interested. Check out the link)

New houses mean NEW! and DIFFERENT! toys. Like rocking horses

cars and wire whisks

and peekaboo with friends

The giggles were riotous! Thanks Caroline!

That little sheepdog that is our child? We FINALLY managed to convince her that wearing a barrette in her hair was not actually torture covered by the Geneva convention. And that her, the dolly, Mommy & Daddy all looked pretty with barrettes in their hair. Lucky Dad-we didn’t get any picture of that. So maybe SOON you’ll get to see the child under that hair in some photos.

Long weekend!

2010-01-18T20:10:00.001-08:00

A three day weekend means an extra fun filled day with Little & Big S.

We started on Friday with Mommy trying to work and maybe not quite keeping as close eye on Little S as I would have liked when I discovered this scene

That was the first time this weekend. The second time involved a little too much of this footloose and diaper free lifestyle

I discovered an even longer trail of toilet paper and discovered at least she was using it this time to wipe up where she peed on her floor. Extra Credit for knowing that you don’t just leave it there! Guess we’re not quite at potty training time yet. But who doesn’t love the feeling of the wind on their cheeks, right?

Saturday we went to the Portland Old Time Music Festival. Little S loves to dance and sing so much and it was free and touted as Family Friendly. We got there for the end of a clogging lesson. Little S wasn’t quite getting the move your foot and tap it thing, but was having a ball nonetheless. Then, our instructor showed us how it’s done for real and Little S loved it AND loved watching the live band play.

I didn’t get any particularly good photos of her. She had funny faces in all of them. But here she looks surprised (?) amused (?) at everyone dancing in a slowly moving circle.

This was right before she bolted to the middle of the circle to dance and be silly with Mom right behind her. Good thing I’m not shy.

Besides the music in every free corner of the building (including the lobby of the ladies restroom. And the impromptu jam wasn’t even all women. Where else can you pee to live music?) the highlight for Little S was the stairs. Stairs up and stairs down. Repeat. The kid’s a natural stairmaster. We about had our limit of a warm, crowded room and all of the visual & aural stimulation after an hour. As I pointed out to a friend, how much fun is it when all you see is legs?

So, the next thirty minutes was unexpected fun, because that’s how Little S is. The trip to the car, which was kind of far in Little S land-four blocks, was nothing short of an urban adventure.

Why walk on the sidewalk when you can go off road?

Despite the fact that it was a fairly steady drizzle, there was no shortage of outside fun she found. Mostly around a parking garage that had small walls and other things to climb up and jump off.

“Hop!”

A little dirt never hurt

“Mommy. Sit” “No thank you honey”

So, we made our own adventure that was as much fun for her as the music was. And, will result in some additional laundry

We also discovered the fun of backpacks over the weekend. Wearing them around and asking Mommy and Daddy to put things in your “pocket”

Looks like she’s ready to hit the trails. Because when backpacking, Elmo is the oft forgotten 11th Essential on the list.

We had two days of playing with her friend Kate. Sort of. We met up at the Children’s Museum and they pretty much went their separate ways. We would see each other like two Mommy ships passing in the night. We didn’t get to play together, but Little S still had fun

Then, we met at the pool for some MLK holiday afternoon fun. We took Daddy along too, which is good, because no matter how laid back I think I am, I may be a little bit of a nervous Nellie with my baby around water and lots of slippery concrete. Having Dad there was great fun for all of us. Kate is fearless and she was going down the 2-story waterslide with her Mom. So, we tested it out, and figured we could hold Little S up as we splashed down. Dad made it happen and she loved it. Which meant “gain” (again) and “gain”. We traded off taking her down and she never got tired of it. Unfortunately, that too had to come to an end for the day. We can’t take pictures there, a good rule for creepy reasons, but a bit of a drag as a parent, so you’ll just have to use your imagination for how much fun she had.

Or, just see how much fun she had on a regular slide and mentally photoshop in some water

Maybe next year

2010-01-10T21:55:00.001-08:00

Despite an enthusiastic fan, it’s now time to retire this outfit until next September

Sawee daddee. Daddee sad. Hug

It’s hard to stay upset over a game when we get to share our lives with this cute little creature.

Gawgus. off. nekki (naked) Fia.

She spent all morning talking about the soo (zoo) and the monkeys when her and Daddy were going to go there later in the day. The little monkey had fun with other monkeys and related animals. When she got there, this guy leaned in to her to get a closer look. She kissed him through the glass and he kissed her back. But then refused to make eye contact when the camera came out.

Kitty. Meeow

Daddy looks forward to lots more Soo visits with Little S.

She’s had lots of adventures these past few days, but she is in such constant motion that I can’t often capture them as I try to keep her out of trouble. We got together with her friend Anneke (Anka) and her Mommy and baby Iyla and her mommy bravely ventured out for Happy Hour at Laurelwood. With two toddlers and an overwhelmed four month old (it was a pretty chaotic evening) the Mommies didn’t get much chance to actually talk, but it was still nice to get out.

The next night we went to the pool with our friend E’llee (Aiee) and her mom. It mostly involved getting into the pool down the stairs, getting the ball. Throwing the ball out. Getting out and getting it. Throwing it back in. Getting back in the pool. Repeat. Ad infinitum. It was fun! We then went over to Aiee’s house for a wonderful dinner and some new toys to look at. Much to Aiee’s dismay. They did end up playing “Bumpity Bump” going down the stairs on their bottoms “together” which translates to “near each other”.

We topped off the weekend the only way we know how. Or at least the way we like the best. Pizza with friends. Or blueberries for some

pizza with a side of cuddles for the lucky ones.

Ready for anything

2009-12-30T21:39:00.001-08:00

We’ve had these for over 6 months. She finally decides she’s really into her “gasses” now

Which of course won’t last until summer. Although hopefully she’ll get more used to them by then. Right now when she gets them on, she kind of walks around the house with one hand cautiously out. We’re not entirely sure her eyes are actually open when she’s wearing them. Or, she’s learning empathy for the blind.

AND, she picked the best day of the year so far to decide to wear them. It’s the most exciting day outside in quite some time, in Mom & Dad’s book. A day that caught all of the weather forecasters off guard and had five hour traffic delays in most of the city. This rare, but pleasing sight

We didn’t have to go to the mountains to find the white stuff on Tuesday. Just outside. So, we bundled up the gang and headed out to enjoy it a little

Enjoy she did!

And she got good at the word “snow” and “sled” after sledding down the driveway both with Dad and solo a few times.

We’re so happy it was a much better experience than her last snow visit. Planning another visit to the snow soon so she can keep up her happy snow momentum.

Long overdue holiday post chock-full o’photos

2009-12-30T21:31:00.001-08:00

Thanks to a Christmas gift from Nana, we were able to go to the Oregon Zoo for their Zoolights-a gorgeous light display all around the zoo. Little S was suitably pleased

She was very brave meeting a tiger and dancing with the “Kitty”

Santa brought Little S some exciting presents, including an easel to nurture her recent love of drawing on everything

Surprisingly, she’s pretty much stuck to keeping the chalk and crayons on the easel where they are supposed to be, and not being inspired to write on the walls or anything. There was a big “Uh-oh. Oh no” this morning as the crayon got dropped into the grate over the furnace intake. Once I assured her it was okay, I soon heard at least one more being dropped into there. Good thing the cover comes off easily.

Big S got some pajama pants-or so he thought. Turns out they were actually just another fun toy for Little S to be flung through the air in.

Little S was the vision of Christmas in her special Christmas dress made by Grandma Wetter

You never know what will delight a kid. One of her new favorite things is to push her new wheeled luggage/lion around the house. FAST!

She also got another gorgeous Christmas Dress from Nana that she got to show off at church on Sunday.

She just wows everyone when we’re there. Her cuteness lets her get away with being a little unruly without upsetting people too much before I whisk her away to the nursery.

It’s been such a great holiday, and we’ve been lucky to have Aunt Aimee here to share it with us. She somehow has stealthily avoided most photo opportunities. It’s a wise person who doesn’t try and share screen time with babies or pets. We know there will be lots of photos of her to come when she moves out here (!) in June!

Looking forward to a great 2010 with the best Little and Big S’ ever!

The shepherd that wasn’t

2009-12-20T20:50:00.001-08:00

This was supposed to be pictures of Little S’ first church Christmas pageant. However, she missed her entrance because it was moving MUCH faster that we anticipated for a kids Christmas pageant, and by the time we got into something vaguely “Shepherdess-y” got our stuffed sheep ready to take and herd, and played “gotcha” as I tried to corral her into her coat and out the door, we missed it. Eh. It wouldn’t have been that great this year anyway. We’ll save our premiere for next year when her attention span is closer to 8 minutes long.

The weather has been kind of splashy and Little S has loved it from a surprisingly cold and windy hike on Saturday

to a rainy walk to the park on Sunday

She never ceases to entertain us and it’s great to watch her imagination grow by the day. She sees things we never would, and that makes every day so amazing. Today, she taught us that our wood stove is perfect for American Idol auditions

We are eagerly awaiting Aunt Aimee’s arrival for 10 days of holiday fun and festivities. Three adults + one kid + Christmas should mean lots of memories created and photos to share.

Bucket head

2009-12-13T20:06:00.001-08:00

Sometimes, I like to wear my special hat to help sweep.

A windy, sheepy day

2009-12-13T20:00:00.001-08:00

Christmas trees being what they are, generally require a trek during the cold, dark months to retrieve the PERFECT tree. There have been years we’ve trekked through the snow in the woods on snowshoes to get a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. There have been rainy years and last year a surprisingly dry trip. This year, hands down, was the COLDEST and windiest we have ever had.

The start of what would be a very cold (for us) week kicked off with gusty winds, kicking the wind chill down to about 15 degrees throughout the day. Undeterred, because we had to get the tree and get it up, we set off for Beck’s Tree & Sheep farm.

Little S started by finding one just her size

And, that was about the end of her searching for the tree, because then she heard “Baaaaa. Baaaa” And she started her search for the sheep.

She was quite delighted about this. So much, that she then kept trying to kiss them

(It’s hard to tell where sheep ends and Little S begins in that coat)

Did I mention it was windy? This was right before a gust blew her completely over

Fortunately Dad soldiered on and found us the TREE

which you’ll note that Little S was none too happy about being removed from the sheep to help with the tree. She kept signing “more” and pointing at the sheep. Occasionally throwing in a “Baaa” to help clarify for us because clearly we couldn’t understand her since we weren’t taking her right back over there!

We survived that and got some delicious lamb pepperoni for our pizza that night. That will be a fun conversation to have with her someday…

We get home, get her in bed and bring the tree in. Only to discover that it’s too big for the tree stand. So, that amazing guy I married took the tree and a recip. saw out in 20-25 MPH wind gusts and 15-20 degree night air to saw away and MAKE the damn thing fit!

And, come to find out that because it’s so much bigger than any previous tree, the lights I have only cover 2/3 of it. So, the picture of the finished product will have to wait.

A Tannenbaum for the ages.

Kiddie Christmas

2009-12-11T19:25:00.001-08:00

Being of a certain age, more and more friends from many different circles of my life have kids. And, since we’re now all busy with kids, we rarely see each other. So, I figured I would throw a kid friendly Christmas party since so many of them are not open to the wee ones.

A great and sugary time was had by all. The photos aren’t the best because it’s hard to get many fast moving targets at once, let alone worry about optimum shutter speed and lighting!

There was hardly any shyness, despite the fact most of them hadn’t met before. And the kids got along great too!

Clare on Anneke’s Mommy’s lap

Kids know a Mommy & Daddy lap when they see one, even if it’s not their own. And a lap with a book is enough to make it look like I birthed triplets or more

(Emi, Clare, Sofia & Anneke all enjoying Bob the Builder)

Despite the fact there were five girls between 1.5 and 2.5 years, there were very few battles over things. Who knows if next year when everyone’s closer to three if it will be as peaceable.

Clare and Anneke sharing important grocery cart items.

Imagine this crowd in 14 years

And of course, you have to dress up for Christmas parties, so Little S insisted on her finest footwear

Hello Elmo slippers.

I can’t speak for any of the under two set, but for the sake of their Moms, I hope the rest of them are as zonked out as Little S is. And I may be soon too!

Definitely the best Christmas party of the season because I shared it with Little S and her friends! And of course my wonderful friends who made they day so much fun!

A cold Saturday

2009-12-05T17:44:00.001-08:00

It’s been chilly here-for Portland; low of 28, high only in the 30’s today. And, Little S also has a cold. Never fun, but goes with the territory.

Trying to placate her frequent fussiness today, she became Mom’s little kitchen helper

She stirred her pot as I made dinner.

As she was finishing dinner, she melted me. She kept saying a word I wasn’t recognizing. So she finally grabbed my hand and put it on the back of her BIB and I realized she had been telling me bib the whole time. I just can’t believe how advanced her thought processes have become. That and her parroting ability. Not a day goes by without at least 5 or more new words being repeated to us.

Simply amazing. But, I know I’m biased.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-04T19:30:00.001-08:00

After a 13 hour drive spread over two days, we arrived in Santa Rosa, tired, but ready for our Thanksgiving dinner!

Little S had a great time seeing cousin S and playing with all his toys and his bike

Which fits cousin S a little better.

The food was delicious and the table picture perfect

Little S tried some of the delicious meal, to no avail. Fortunately Grampie got her to eat a few bites

For after dinner fun, Little S showed off her monkey side in the tree

The next morning, we had a family trip to the park.

Awwwwww….

Little S was in a belly mood

Then, we went on a hike later in the day.

Dads and the Little S’

The hiking party

The Korpi clan

Happy hiker

We capped it off by letting Little S hike on her own for the first. time. She LOVED it!

Especially with her cousin

Near the parking lot there was a field of straw that big cousin S delighted in piling on Little S’ head

She was surprisingly tolerant

They had tea parties together

We read a book with our new friend Theo

Conserved water by sharing the bathtub

And, had time for some piano with a side of PBR & sugar

Thanks for the wonderful visit and super fun cousin time. Can’t wait until the cousins can see each other again. Bye-bye!

Leftovers

2009-12-01T20:50:00.001-08:00

Just a few pictures that have been kicking around a week or two

A day without rain at the park with Dad

Showing her stacking skills with dinner. It makes it taste better when it’s artfully arranged

Taking her new friend Dolly for a bike ride

New & Improved swinging!

It’s amazing how much she grows and absorbs in a day. Every day is something to be thankful for with her.

Snow fun = No Fun

2009-11-20T22:05:00.001-08:00

Well, it turns out she’s not yet the snow bunny we dreamed of.

We’re lucky to have some early season snow and a Mommy who worked too much the last few weeks and made up for it by taking a weekday off to spend with her beloved family. So, to the snow we went. Preparations were made the days before with new snowpants, gloves and after much searching, some pretty decent snowboots from Target, of all places. She didn’t even mind most of her new clothing, even though the gloves might not fit her for four more years, the boots maybe some time next year, and even the back up gloves were quickly ditched.

However, she learned two very unfortunate things.

1. Packed snow & ice in the parking lot is slippery and nearly impossible to walk on.

2. Not packed snow makes you sink when you step in it and therefore lose your balance and fall over, generally face first, into the snow. Where, you can’t push down to stand back up again and are pretty much stuck face down in the snow.

So, it wasn’t her favorite experience, and a good deal of the time was spent with protests and almost crying. Very out of character for normally happy and cheerful Little S. It wasn’t all bad though. For a little while getting pulled in the sled was kind of fun.

Even that was touch and go since she couldn’t stay sitting up while being pulled uphill. She always kept her arms up in that position though. It was the funniest sight.

Sledding down the hill was fun for a few times too. First with Dad:

And then back up

(arms still pointed up)

And back down with Mom and Furry S this time

And, assume the position again

(arms still pointed up. You think they would be tired by now)

Here’s hoping a little more experience walking and keeping upright and everything else going right (she got sick the next day, so she might have been on her way to getting sick already?) along with maybe a sled to sit up and stay up in, the next snow adventure will be the start to loving winter outdoors as much as Mommy and Daddy.

18 months and a few days

2009-11-15T22:14:00.001-08:00

After too much work, and not near enough fun, I’m trying to tip the balance back the other way.

After Halloween, we went to OMSI, our local Hands on Science Museum for their $2.00 day. At $2.00/person, we figured something would entertain Little S. Boy, did it ever! They have an entire room devoted to hands on play/exploration/discovery for the little ones. She migrated right to the water play exhibits. And the puddles on the floor. “Splash” being one of her words she likes to use. She took a break from splashing to have Mommy sit down on the wet bench with her

After making sure Mommy was wet, she found a book and Daddy’s dry lap to enjoy for a while

Despite there being more days with rain than sun, we manage to still get to the playground, where she continues to be a brave little monkey

WHEEEEEE! She loves hanging on to things and swinging. Dad’s the lucky guy who most often gets to go play with Little S

Did I mention she likes to hang from things and swing?

And that she’s a little climbing monkey

The abacus is about 4 feet off the ground to start with.

Little S has a new furry friend. He’s red and he is appearing on her feet lately

“Elmo” is up there on her favorite words list. When she awoke to those slippers in her room, she spotted them right away, pointing and yelling “Elmo”. After some exploration, she let me put them on to fend off the morning chill. Not that they stayed on long, and there was the incident with the dog thinking they were her toy, but I think that’s resolved now. But watching Furry S follow Little S around the room for the slippers was pretty funny. Of course, the camera was out of reach and the memory card was full for those escapades.

Tomorrow should be a big, exciting day. Here’s a sneak preview

Hopefully it won’t take another two weeks to keep current on her coming adventures.

Hoppy Ween!

2009-11-03T20:13:00.001-08:00

We couldn’t get Little S to say Trick or Treat, but by the end of the night, I heard her say something and it took me a second to figure out she had heard us say Happy Halloween all night and she was trying to be festive too! Hoppy Ween!

Little S got right into the spirit of the night with her present from Dad-a glow stick!

The little monkey got this whole trick or treat thing figured out pretty quick. We had a test run to the neighbor’s house (and, we loaned her a pumpkin. What else are neighbors for?)

We learned about doorbells

and properly stashing our haul in a bag for (mommy & daddy to eat) later

Hoppy Ween Trick or treating was a lot of fun!

But, the fun didn’t end there. We got home and took off her costume. As we were attempting to corral her into her bath, we had to stop and answer the door for a trick or treater. And that’s when she modeled her third costume of the night

Nearly Naked Baby. It’s also when she went CRAZY! and discovered the door had no screen or window.

and she could lean out of it. And then she discovered the bounty of chocolate we had ready to distribute

(yep, the good stuff. No tootsie rolls or lollipops there)

And, once the candy was out of it, she could wear yet another Halloween costume.

Buckethead

HOPPY WEEN!!

Fridays are for fun!

2009-10-30T22:31:00.001-07:00

Finally, a Friday where I could take a few hours off in the afternoon after a long week. We made the most of it by going to the Children’s Museum where Daddy usually takes her.

She had a blast playing in the splash room-and splash she did!

Mommy also took her to the digging pit-where she dug

played with the dump truck

Then, we went over and played in the “Clifford, the Big Red Dog” exhibit. She loved it! Clifford is BIG

Or Little S is small.

She was getting pretty tired as we try and transition to one nap a day. Sometimes. So, we didn’t spend a bunch more time in there and I didn’t get a lot more pics. We’ll send Big S with that mission for next week,

And, in a final fun Friday moment, it didn’t really get captured on film very well, but the very tolerant dog was standing by as Little S tried to dress up furry S for Halloween

With cat ears. Oh the indignity!

A much more enjoyable day than the normal Friday stress of working and chasing Little S. Every moment shared with her is a great day.

Little Stinker

2009-10-25T22:32:00.001-07:00

Someone has taught herself to climb out of her crib. Well before we were prepared to put her in a big girl bed. This started at nap time last week. Giving me a good opportunity to practice my poker face the first time it happened. I heard some clamoring around and about the time I figured out what it was and went to her room, there she was coming out the door saying “HI”! Biting my lip, I put her back to bed-where she thankfully stayed and then I could go out to the other room and finally laugh.

It’s appropriate then, that this was her costume for her second annual Moreland Monster March parade

Costumed kids (and some Mommies & Daddies in costume too) for many, many blocks

She even acted as the kind of skunk most of us are used to seeing

Thanks to sis Dawn for getting the costume to us in time for the parade. And to Grandma W. for making it many years ago and remembering to ask Dawn about it. Little S was a hit.

Pumpkin Patch with Little S & Big S

2009-10-25T21:39:00.001-07:00

The S’ seized on a dry day to make their second annual pumpkin patch extravaganza. Due to some technical difficulties, they got to visit three different pumpkin patches in search of the Great Pumpkin. The best part is that the new and improved pumpkin patch also had animals!

And then on to the pumpkins. As far as the eye could see

Where Little S found her perfect pumpkin

The wagon ride was more exciting than picking the pumpkins.

or maybe it was relaxing

It will still be a few years until she’s carving it, but Dad looks forward to this new yearly tradition.

Home again, Home again, jiggity jig

2009-10-19T22:11:00.001-07:00

A few final photos from the Dairy state.

We had to get a Wisconsin worthy winter coat while we were there. There won’t be many days when we need this out here.

Yes, it’s white. It was cheap and it’s washable. And really big still. Mostly, it’s just cute.

Little S also got some banjo lessons from one of my old High School pals-Steak.

All good things must come to an end and this was no exception. We boarded a plane and even managed to convince Little S to sleep for about an hour on the way home. One out of 12 ain’t bad.

After a few days of reacclimating, we jumped right back in to some Northwest activities with a hike. We went to Wahclella falls and saw…some waterfalls.

Some nice fall Gorge scenery

AND, we got WET! Some thunder, lightning and POURING rain. We made amazing time on the way back as we avoided rocks falling from the first really big rain of the fall freeing everything. The wet dogs and wet gear

The wet baby, bundled up post-hike. She never complained despite being pretty thoroughly soaked.

Then, we went up to a little community apple festival in Odell, OR on the slopes of Mt. Hood. It’s apple and pear harvest time and we got probably 50 pounds of apples-many of which I’ll make into Little S’ favorite breakfast food of applesauce. Even though it was a rainy day, we couldn’t resist the fresh made waffle cones and had to get an ice cream home. I knew Little S liked ice cream, but next time I’ll need two cones. She took my cone and wouldn’t give it back. She’d let me eat some, but there was no prying it out of her hands!

A rather messy venture and another sign of just how big and independent she’s getting.

Before I know it she’ll be ~~asking~~ demanding ice cream instead of just wrestling it out of my hands.

When in Wisconsin

2009-10-11T21:12:00.001-07:00

Why not run a 5K? (No Little S content here. Just me)

Figuring it might be fun to do a little out of state race, I found one that fit the schedule. There was a University of Wisconsin Homecoming Week 5K Charity run. $20 to run and included a t-shirt AND a tailgate style ending with brats. Heck, why not?

For starters, it was COLD! Probably 34 degrees, and by the water, probably a lower wind chill than that. I don’t know the area at all, but come Sunday morning, I found my way down there. It was a little nerve wracking to have so many college kids running too. But, it was also geared towards alumni, so I saw a few walkers and I knew I wouldn’t be DFLast.

Somehow, they managed to find the ONLY hill in Wisconsin to start the race by having us run up. I quickly discovered that college student does not = fit. Feeling good and able to feel 7 out of 10 of my fingers, I enjoyed a great run. Got a tour of part of the campus, including silos and the stock barn, followed by the poultry research barn (it IS the midwest). Then, the course ran along Lake Mendota. I was worried the course was going to end with having to run back up the big hill. but, there was only a slight downhill to the finish line that kept it from being flat. And with a college student that I had been trading places back and forth with inspiring me, I was able to find another gear and finish strong. And, then stand in line for the race T-shirt

Only to find out they didn’t have enough for everyone, so I’ll have to figure out how to get one when they tell me they’re in. Oh well, it gave me a chance to stand in another line

to await my delicious Johnsonville brat, hot off the grill. It was surprisingly tasty on a cold day after a race.

Race scenery (the lake in the background. I didn’t take the camera on the run with me)

Bucky Badger, the UW mascot. Inflatable edition.

A fun little vacation adventure and probably the coldest 5K I’ve ever run! It’s probably more of the UW campus than I would have ever seen otherwise. Definitely worth it, even without the shirt.

Meeting Great Grandma & Poppy

2009-10-11T20:49:00.001-07:00

Visiting my parents gets us within a 1/2 day’s drive of my grandparents and my Aunt and her family. This was a long enough trip to include a couple of days for travelling to central/Southern Illinois so Little S could meet her great grandparents.

If you haven’t travelled south through Illinois before, I have one word for you, Corn. The view around my grandparents house is pretty much what you see EVERYWHERE as you drive through the central part of the state. This is the view out their front yard

The side yard

And, the other side and the backyard

What’s a girl who’s mom has midwestern roots to do when surrounded by corn? Make herself right at home!

She was drawn again and again to the fields of corn.

And boy, did she love it!

She would have stayed there all day if we had let her.

We were finally able to drag her out of there and teach her the skills she would need to have her own plot of corn someday

That was only part of the adventure. She also got to meet lots of relatives. She fell in love with my cousin and really wanted to play with his because he was a bigger kid-she idolizes bigger kids. He was great with her. Lots of kids would have been annoyed with this little toddler following him around, but he was great.

She discovered how to ride in style with Poppy-her great grandfather.

It was really hard to tell who was more delighted about this discovery

She took right to my Aunt Jane and Grandma J.

We were so fortunate to have four generations of women able to be together for a day filled with love.

Family adventure to Sconnie*

2009-10-11T20:06:00.001-07:00

Little S, Big S and I all set out on a big jet plane again to visit the Grandparents in the vast open spaces of the Midwest.

Despite the 6+ hours of travelling, Little S was GREAT. Thanks to a DVD player and flight attendants willing to indulge her with tickles and “HI” over and over. Once we arrived and she had a chance to check out the joint the next morning, she quickly made a new friend

with a giant stuffed bear. And my parents’ dog

Yes, she is wearing her grandmother’s shoes and yes, she is going after a toy that was given to her stolen by said dog.

Madison has a great FREE zoo that we went to. Little S saw lions

tigers

(yes, bears too. But only one)

She met an alligator turtle

and pinguinos (penguins in Spanish)

She met a whole host of other animals too, but perhaps the ones that had the biggest impact on her that we didn’t get a picture of were the goats. They were waiting to be fed, so they were loud. After hearing them for a while, we kept walking and then she burst out with the loudest, gruffest “BAAAAAAA”. It’s definitely one of her most fun sounds of all of the animals she makes.

She’s learning tons of new words on this trip and getting to play on different playgrounds. She seems completely impervious to the fact that it’s COLD here and she’s started drinking milk. I guess she’s a Wisconsin girl at heart!

*Shorthand/nickname for Wisconsin as said by the locals.

What really matters

2009-10-02T21:01:00.001-07:00

Nothing about me. Just the good stuff and bodily functions.

Sofia took the new van for a drive this week. She also is using the potty. Just for fun, we put her on her potty seat before her bath and much to our surprise, she used it! Since then, she uses it almost every time we put her on it, even taking a poop this morning. (One less diaper to wash-hooray!) I’m not even close to thinking it’s time to retire the diapers yet, but at least she’s familiar with what’s supposed to happen when she’s there.

Our walking, dancing girl found a new favorite trick/dance move this week

With her around, there is always much to celebrate.

Sunday run part II

2009-09-27T21:04:00.001-07:00

It was a year ago that I was finally getting my running mojo back and taking a long run to celebrate my birthday and a gorgeous Sunday. And, it came to a quick end with a birthday fail. Not being able to run with a big splint, and then the rainy season, well it sort of put an end to my running until this summer. So, today was momentous. Not only did I successfully run that Sunday course that I haven’t run in a LONG time without breaking any bones, I also ran it without needing to stop every block to catch my breath. It’s good to have some semblance of pre-baby fitness back!.

Little S now walks about 95% of the time when she needs to get somewhere. As part of her independence, the other morning she decided she wasn’t going to wear what I had picked out for her. Instead, she picked out her own outfit

Pajama pants and a fleece sweatshirt-no shirt underneath.

We’ve also been wrestling with a couple of new teeth coming in on the bottom. Poor baby. They are so swollen it’s about half as tall as the tooth will be, but all swollen gums. Once we finally figure out that’s why she wasn’t sleeping and started loading her up with tylenol before bed, that’s helped immensely. However, some days she’s still a bit of a witch

I mean, she is riding her broomstick around, she must be a witch.

enjoying the last days of summer

2009-09-22T21:33:00.001-07:00

September is one of the best kept secrets about the Northwest. The weather is usually beautiful. Sunny days, cool night, little to no precipitation. While it’s been a little warmer then I would like, knowing the end of the sunshine is just around the corner, I’m keeping my comments to myself.

Grammie and Grampie are still visiting, so Little S has gotten outside a LOT for some exciting adventures. Starting with a visit to the playground at Washington Park

It’s a dragon… no, maybe it’s a seahorse, or …?

She figured this little playground trick out too. Maybe it’s time for gymnastics lessons.

We also pushed our luck by keeping an already tired and overstimulated baby up to go to Chapman School to watch the Vaux’s Swifts nesting. For the month of September, these birds take up residence in the chimney of a school. They number in the tens of thousands, and it’s the largest known roost of migrating swifts in the world. Once they started nesting there, years ago, the school kids took up a donation so the school could use alternate forms of heat so that nothing would happen to the birds.

This has become quite an event with hundreds and hundreds of people gathering on the lawn of the school on any given evening in September to watch the phenomenon. The closer it gets to sunset, more and more of these small birds start filling the sky

(all of those little specks are birds). There’s high drama when a bird of prey swoops in to catch it’s dinner and the crowd collectively gasps in horror. Sometimes the swift wins, and the crowd cheers. Nature being what it is, sometimes the predator wins and the crowd is clearly crestfallen at the outcome.

As the thousands of birds start congregating, and it inches closer to sunset, the birds start forming this great, swirling vortex, sort of a bird tornado. At the bottom, swifts are diving into the chimney to nest for the evening. We weren’t in the best location for photos, nor can any photo truly do this wondrous site justice. But, here are a couple of shots of the birds and if you look at the chimney, all of those black specks are birds flying into it.

Well, sunset is at about 7:15, and this all culminates around sunset and 10-20 minutes after. So, the fact that Little S wasn’t in complete meltdown was amazing. We paid at bedtime though, but this too shall pass.

Capping off her days of fun with Grammie and Grampie was a visit to yet another new playground-one at a shuttered elementary school nearby that is BIG and seemed like it had lots of features she would like. It didn’t disappoint. She showed off her climbing skills, scaling the grid as if it were nothing

Sliding down the big slides, and showing off her walking, which is slowly starting to become her primary method of transportation. Which allows her to discover other new tricks like this-which went on for quite some time as I fumbled for the camera

She’s really having a great time making new discoveries now that she can get herself from one point to another and remain upright. I’m sure flat out running is just a few days away.

We capped off this late summer day with a great dinner with Grammie and Grampie on their last night in town. Or what I’m sure was a great dinner, but Little S wanted NO part of being a civilized child in a restaurant. So, we went to the toy store and got some ice cream instead. That’s what to-go boxes are for, right?

She sure had a great time with her grandparents. It will be hard to top this outdoor fun when summer finally bids us adieu.

Racin’ for the Cure and other Sunday stories

2009-09-20T20:51:00.001-07:00

I was very excited for Little S to be participating in her first 5K. Of course, I was the only one doing the running, but being a part of this event with 45,000 other participants all joining together for the same cause, it was an extra special first race.

The pictures aren’t that great, because after getting on the wrong train with about 3 million other people and arriving with only a few minutes to feed her and start, there just wasn’t the picture time I had hoped for. And afterwards? Well, keeping her in her stroller for almost two hours without a complete and utter meltdown was no small feat. I just didn’t have what it took to try for a photo op too.

Yes, that’s her very own race bib she’s wearing as she plans her race strategy.

As if that weren’t enough excitement, when we got home, Grammy and Grampy were here! The afternoon included a trip to the park for some walking

and balance drills on the teeter-totter.

With a beautiful, sunny, even HOT week ahead, we’ll be enjoying the best that September has to offer.

One Week

2009-09-18T22:25:00.001-07:00

When you’re staring down the face of a Monday, and knowing the week is going to suck, it really sets the tone for the rest of the week.

I figured it was just having to work a couple of 12 hour days and all day Saturday. But that was okay because Sunday is going to be an exciting day and Little S’ Grampy and Grampy come to town for a few days visit, so I’ll take some time off next week to recover.

However, working a lot of hours was nothing compared to how the end of the week unfolded.

Thursday starts with a bang. Big S has to be to work early and I have to leave early to get to my office by bike. Make that all happen, and get into work to hear the awful news that my friend and co-worker had been hit on her bike on the ride home from work the night before and is in ICU. She’s talking, but pretty banged up. Feeling horribly responsible as the captain of our team for bike to work month at the office, and having gotten her to bike in a few times. Another friend/co-worker and I did go and see her, and despite everything, it definitely could have been worse. Her husband had passed her on the way home, and offered her a ride. When she didn’t get home and he heard the sirens, he immediately loaded their daughter into the car and came upon the scene to see his wife’s mangled bike being loaded into the cop car. I can’t imagine how horrific the drive to the hospital must have been for him, in addition to waiting to see if she was going to be okay. And now, how hard it must be for her to not really get to see her daughter (who is about to turn 2). Her family’s in town to help with everything, so all we can do is hope for a speedy recovery for her. Once she’s home, there are so many people lined up to do anything we can for her that she will be able to focus on her recovery.

In the mean time, we got word earlier this week that our pastor’s wife had taken a turn for the worse. She’s battled ovarian cancer, and had great results with some experimental treatment about a year ago. But several months back, they discovered it had come back aggressively and with not a good prognosis. Her turn for the worse coincided with her husband (the Pastor) being in Turkey for a long planned trip. He was able to fly back early to be at her side on Thursday evening, and she passed away Friday afternoon.

And, because it has to come in three’s, our friends’ dog who ALSO has cancer seems to have taken a turn for the worse too. They’re taking what may be a last trip to the beach with her this weekend.

So, if you see me drinking a lot, or crying uncontrollably at the Race for the Cure on Sunday, you’ll understand.

The one thing that always manages to bring a smile to my face, even if it’s through tears is this, some of the bright spots of the week.

The start of regular season football and the Patriots playing a Monday night football game. Little S wanted to go to the game and wouldn’t take no for an answer

“Fine. I’ll just drive myself. I’ll need a little help with the pedals though. How far is Massachusetts?”

Instead of driving to the game, there was a compromise of going to the park instead.

Her cheerleading eventually led them to victory. So big and little S celebrated at the Children’s Museum with career choices:

Ambulance dispatcher

Fishmonger

Building inspector

And, lately, the only way to get her to eat is if she feeds herself. Which means sometimes almost an entire chicken nugget gets stuffed in her mouth

At least it wasn’t thrown across the room or fed to the dog.

The week ahead is full of exciting things. Little S’ first 5K, grandparents, apples and who knows what else? Because nothing makes you appreciate what you’ve been blessed with so much as a reason to take stock of how lucky you really are.

a pickin’ we will go

2009-09-07T21:50:00.001-07:00

Pretty much since the start of blueberry season, we’ve talked about going and picking huckleberries with Little S. We finally set a date of Labor Day weekend, thinking we would go camping in the vicinity of the prime pickin’ spot, wake up rested, pick and eat to our hearts content and make a wonderful forever memory.

And, after a gorgeous, frequently HOT summer, how are we repaid? With rain and cold weather for Labor Day weekend. Natch. We’re talking a HIGH of 39 degrees in the tallest mountains. Snow above that. Yep! I said SNOW. (Don’t remind me of the time we backpacked in snow in September. Or the 4th of July weekend. The glories of the Northwest)

ANYWAY… so, camping was scrapped. Which is fine. With the weather outside being all fall-like, it was a great time to bake and clean and stuff. But, the weather forecasters gleefully told us that Monday would be different. And like fools, we believed them.

The morning started gloriously. The sun was out, I was too warm in my long running clothes, the birds were singing (I mean, they probably were singing, but I have no actual proof or anything), Little S ate well, the dog was smiling (probably, why wouldn’t she be?) a perfect morning.

The first sign should have been when I felt a compulsion to get everyone into something not made out of cotton “in case it’s still wet up there”. And, my need to make a thermos of hot chocolate-which went by the wayside because that seemed crazy.

Well, a few miles out of town, the view changed dramatically

and by changed, I mean you could no longer see ANY views because of the downpour.

I convinced us that the weather forecasters were right this time, and it would all clear up any minute now. Surely by the time we got where we were going.

AND…. Nope. So, out came the rain cover for the backpack. Someone was showing us how much she liked it

I didn’t even know babies COULD roll their eyes!

Fortunately, the very prepared Big S has an extra pair of rainpants for me, so I’m not wandering the 50 degree woods in the rain in shorts. And, little S insisted on seeing what was going on outside of the pack

She quickly realized we were in for 6 more weeks of winter and pulled her head back in to stay mostly dry as it rained. And then poured. And then rained some more. And then sprinkled. And then stopped. Not that we noticed because we were soaked and wandering through waist high wet bushes to pick as many huckleberries as our frozen fingers would let us.

We lasted a couple of hours and managed to get maybe three quarts of huckleberries.

And as we got in the car for our lunch and to dry off and warm up, the sun came out. So we decided Little S could drive us home to celebrate.

hmmm…can’t quite reach the pedals yet.

And within 30 minutes of leaving and dropping back down in elevation, the temperature climbed 15 degrees, the clouds parted, and little S slept peacefully, dreaming of huckleberries.

Now that I have three quarts of huckleberries to cook with, what’s the weather forecast? 90 degrees later this week. Ah..Mother Nature, you have a diabolical streak.

A day at the fair

2009-08-31T21:36:00.001-07:00

The state fair is on through Labor Day. A friend of mine who is also a transplanted Midwesterner and I usually make it there to get in touch with our farm roots (even though neither of lived on a farm). She was unavailable for Little S’ inaugural trip to the fair. And what an adventure she missed!

We met Annabelle the cow

Got to sit on a sheep

And develop an obsession with sheep the rest of the day.

She dreamt of bacon

And got to meet a horse that was her size, which will make my grandparents happy!

She got an up close look at a chicken

And was fairly overwhelmed in the poultry barn by her favorite animals “bee-bee’s” (birdies). All a squawking loudly. The bunny rabbits that were there didn’t seem to mind it all, and she was delighted to see them as well.

The fair has a relatively new sports pavilion where Little S showed off her rock climbing skills

Before you start calling potential sponsors, here’s the scale of that boulder she was summiting

A girl’s gotta start somewhere, right?

She still has a ways to go until she learns all of the rules of soccer

No hands, unless she’s trying to tell us she wants to be a goalie.

After her sports break, we got back to more typical fair activities. She was enthralled with team calf roping at the Junior Rodeo.

Momma couldn’t be more proud of her little cowgirl! We wanted to see how much Little S had learned by watching, so we gave her a saddle and some rope:

Turns out she’s not quite ready to turn pro yet.

That’s okay, she knows there’s more to farming than riding and roping. Like plowing the fields

I can’t imagine a cuter farm girl on her pink tractor.

Even though I didn’t grow up on a farm, we were surrounded by farmland, had classmates in FFA (yes, it’s still around) and my grandparents lived on a farm, so we were regularly exposed to animals, hay and manure shovels to use as sleds. I want Little S to know what farms are all about, so we will definitely make it a point to see that she gets to spend time with any kind of farm experience she can. If only I could talk Big S into a backyard sheep….

So, where were we….

2009-08-24T22:49:00.001-07:00

In addition to the non-stop fun and cavalcade of relatives, the computer hard drive crashed, again. Computer tech on the side Mommy diagnosed it and replaced it. Dad is almost officially banned from touching the computer. He’s got some bad laptop juju. He’s going to have to get his own if he keeps breaking this one.

That notwithstanding…

We’ve had an exciting couple of weeks. We went down to Sun River for a cousin reunion of sorts. It was my uncle’s 75th birthday. I’m very fortunate that a few years ago they settled on Sun River as a great place to spend a week in the summer, and their children, my cousins head out there too. Otherwise, I would never see them, and certainly not keep in touch with them, except maybe the occasional Facebook status update or wall posting.

For this momentous birthday, my cousin who is an editor on a very successful reality show or two, spent the last year travelling around and contacting her father’s family, friends and co-workers, shooting footage of them sharing memories about her father. She spent nearly 1000 hours, over the past 3-4 months to whittle it all down into a 45 minute amazing video of his life story; the world premiere of which was in Sun River! To top it off, my sister was the chef for the weekend, cooking fabulous meals for everyone every night, including salmon that was better than restaurant quality.

The house the family was staying at was near a great park. Little S and I wandered down there a couple of days. The first day, she crawls up the landings to the arch and proceeds to climb the darn thing without any fear!

Climbing over my head, until she got to the point where she had to crawl down the other side, and that didn’t quite compute.

She crawled all the way up to the big slide and went down it like a 4 year old. It was tall and fast, but that didn’t bother her.

She also started something new over the weekend down there. Perhaps inspired by 6 year old cousin once-removed (or something like that), she chose that weekend to start standing by herself.

As if that weren’t enough, since she was summarily dismissed from the premier of the movie for not turning off her cell phone, or something like that, she decided she would prove she didn’t need us anyway and took her first unaided steps for Dad!

Of course none of this was captured on the camera, other than the cell phone camera, so, you’ll just have to take our word for it for now.

We got back from our getaway and the next morning Nana and Bim (Grandma and Grandpa) were here for a few days visit. She showed off how big she’s getting with the assisted walking down stairs maneuver

And, she’s developed a complete OBSESSION with her bike! Once we discovered how fearless she was, she now has to wear her helmet when she rides it, which means much of the day is spent pointing to the closet door where her helmet is and signing the word for “hat”. And signing and saying bike. (which sounds like Bee)

She will ride that thing down small hills and pick up her feet to go faster. She will cross the street (with us as crossing guards) and ride down a whole block and back. Unfortunately, she discovered that it’s really fun to push it up a hill and then pick up her feet to roll back fast. At least she likes her helmet!

The neighbors have a little bit older kids and told us we could borrow their bike, which just sits there most of the time. Turns out, that wasn’t such a great idea.

Because she is in LOVE with it. She doesn’t have to do anything but steer while Mom or Dad pushes on the (broken) handle on the back (that makes us have to bend over the whole time). But, she can go much faster! So today, she ditched her bike, crawled up the driveway and told dad she wanted to ride that bike. He obliged, and now she wants nothing to do with her bike outside. She’ll still use it inside to do zooming laps around the living room, but she has MOVED ON outside. She can’t touch the pedals, so she doesn’t get any exercise with it, but it’s still her preferred mode of transport now.

There’s some great video of all of this. I’ll work on getting that up for the next installment of the Lorpi files!

(maybe this will work…)

We now pause summer for a brief blog break

2009-08-11T21:18:00.001-07:00

It’s just been a non-stop ferris wheel o’fun here in Lorpi land. No time to stop for blogging.

So, eventually it stopped being so darn hot. And has done a complete 360 to being rainy and low 70’s here. A welcome respite from all the watering I’ve had to do this summer.

Aunt Aimee came to town for a nice long visit.

She watched Little S while Mom went away for three days/two nights of camping and music at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. (no really, that’s the name of the town).

Mommy was very happy to get to go and see her all time favorite band, Phish. Thanks to a great co-worker, I went with a group of about 25 people for a great weekend.

We had a great camp for everyone to get some shade during the day, eat communal meals together, meet new friends, and have a little home away from home.

This was among 10,000 or so of our closest friends ALSO camped there

But none of that mattered once the music started at arguably one of the most beautiful places in the world to see a concert

So, after that exhausting weekend, Mommy’s got a little cold, but Aunt Aimee is still here to baby entertain. Next stop, more relatives, then more relatives. First, we have to survive what seems to be some horrendous teething pains. Teething baby + sick Mommy= Thankgoodnessforauntaimeehowsooncanyoumovehere.

*photo credits of venue to K8 A. & Girl Jamie

Portland, Arizona

2009-08-01T22:48:00.001-07:00

Yep. It’s been hot.

And hot some more.

Most of the week over 100 degrees, 105 and 106 paid us a visit. So, it’s been a good week to stay in the A/C.

Little S entertained herself like a regular teenager

When Big S told her to hang up the phone and clean her room, I think he got the eyeroll

She’s not walking yet, but she’s climbing anything and everything.

I guess that’s her way of telling us it’s dinner time.

We’re not only supposed to get back to some real weather, but there’s a lot of exciting family events coming up in the next three weeks. It should be more inspiring photography and blog-worthy.

Sunday Ride

2009-07-26T22:14:00.001-07:00

Summer! Great time for a bike ride.

I know. I told him to wear a helmet.

Big S was at an industry show last week and was able to finally get a bike seat for Little S. We took it’s out on it’s inaugural ride today.

Big S did the work of pedaling our little Cleopatra. Which is great because he has a bell on his bike that entertained Little S. Necessary to distract her from trying to tear off her helmet, which happened a few times. By the end of our jaunt, she decided it wasn’t bad.

Of course what’s a bike ride without a fun destination, like a park. Little S is all about climbing up anything she can find, so we went to a playground with a few kiddie climbing structures. Mostly, they were too hot, so she went to climb things in the shade

Where we rested up before our bike ride home.

The next three days are forecast to be 100+, so I envision lots of staying inside for a while. Probably not much blogging so you aren’t subjected to “Hot, blah, blah, blah, hot, blah, awful, miserable, hot, blah, blah, blah.”

Hopefully this will hold you for the next few days.

Life’s a beach

2009-07-24T21:38:00.001-07:00

In anticipation of what was supposed to be a hot day, a couple of friends, the dogs, Little S and myself planned an outing to the beach at Sauvie Island.

As luck would have it, the heat wave they are calling for got pushed back to a few days from now (oh joy of joys), and the morning started cloudy and cool. The clouds burned off about the time Little S got up from her nap, and away we went!

Last week at Sunday Parkways, Little S discovered sand. She seemed to think it was pretty neat stuff. However, hours later upon removing her diaper, there was half a sandbox in there with her. (I know, experienced Moms know this. It was a new one for me). So this week, I figured the best way to avoid sand in the diaper was

no diaper.

Technically the “clothing optional” beach is about a mile up the road, but I felt pretty safe we weren’t going to get a ticket for this little naturist. (they aren’t called nudists anymore, they’re called naturists)

A good time was spent by Little S watching the doggies play in the water

and getting some cross training in with her push-ups

and lots of climbing onto driftwood logs. Driftwood is pretty smooth, so don’t worry about splinters, people.

After a few hours, the girls were all tired, but declared it a great day at the beach!

General awesomeness

2009-07-19T15:36:00.001-07:00

It’s been a heck of a weekend, and it’s not even over yet.

Friday had us visiting our friend Sunny at her friends pool, attempting to donate blood (me, not Little S) and some delicious food and child entertainment at Laurelwood. Delicious cold microbrews and cheap food along with a children’s play area was a great way to spend a HOT Happy Hour in A/C.

Saturday morning started with a long run along the waterfront with my friend Jacki and cuteness in the form of Little S entertaining us the entire way. After a dip in the pool that afternoon and some errands, it was a great night to go to bed early!

Sunday started with our normal trek to the park, this time without Furry S who was with Big S at training. So we had time to play at the playground. After naptime, we met up with our friend Deb and her daughter E for a trek through Sunday Parkways. Another awesome Portland event. They close down the roads for 7 miles and loop everyone through three different parks. You can ride (almost everyone did) walk, run, skateboard, rollerblade, scooter, you name it, as long as it’s human powered. It started off with a few obstacles; Little S having her morning all out of whack so we started later than we had wanted, my friend Deb left her bike at work, got all the way there and forgot her keys, the camera didn’t end up taking any pictures… All was not lost. We met up at Wilshire park with our jogging strollers, the girls played in the sand and then we headed out.

It was so great to see hundreds of people out, enjoying the perfect summer Sunday. Mostly biking and it seemed like at least 33% of them had kid/kids in tow. Trailer, bike seat, trail-a-bike, clever cycle, their own pedal power, you name it!! It felt like everyone in Portland who has a kid was out! Vendors and activities at all of the parks. In the end, we only went to two of the three because I’m a wuss and it was too hot to keep running. And, my legs were done! The whole time, I kept thinking that I can’t wait for Little S to be old enough to REALLY enjoy the absolute fun and joy that everyone was experiencing on their bikes today.

She’s getting ready though. She knows the sign for and can almost say “bike” and she’s mastered climbing on and off of her bike.

We want her to be exposed to a variety of things in her life. Here, she shows off her mad climbing skills

(too early for sponsorship?)

She also is honing her bird watching skills

And, she helped Dad build furniture this week

While I’m not looking forward to what will be a long and hot week, I know it’s just a matter of days until I get to spend some more fun time with this girl

Never a dull week

2009-07-12T20:50:00.001-07:00

The big fourth of July holiday may be over, but we don’t let the fun end in the Lorpi house. Here’s our week in review.

I thought I was a pretty good cook, but evidently it’s not to Little S’ liking. She’s having to look elsewhere for sustenance.

Dad takes her to the Children’s Museum nearly every week. Endless adventures await them each week. Sometimes it’s peek-a-boo

sometimes it’s just lounging with a different book

Mom had a night out at the Night Ride. It’s a fun ride with thousands of Portlanders. All decked out in costumes, lights and glowsticks with several fun stops on the course with entertainment, snacks and doughnuts at the end! There were some fun costumes. Mine… well, at least it wasn’t spandex. (my garden in the background. Hooray for sunflowers)

Proper hydration is important on a long ride.

Hey, like mother, like daughter. Love of peebers runs in the family.

And, the most important development of the week. We finally got Little S to eat pizza! We had started to worry about her genetics and discussing the possibility of trading her in for a different baby that liked pizza. She's finally come around and saved us all the hassle of finding a new model.

This week, plain cheese. Next week supreme!

4th of July # 2

2009-07-05T09:56:00.001-07:00

The last one-well, Mom held Little S up to the TV to watch the fireworks, and then back to eating & bed.

This one, Little S and the Lorpi family went to our friend Emma’s. She had a BBQ, a big lawn to crawl around in with ample shade, a swimming pool with a hole in it so we didn’t have to get too wet, lots of Lorpi family friends and most importantly STAIRS.

Dad got to show off his manly Daddy skills by lighting fireworks for Little S’ amusement.

She’s amused. I promise. So is the rest of the crowd.

At least those that weren’t too busy eating delicious food, including my red, white and blue poke cake. Even if it was sort of pink, purple, blue and greenish.

We played a little ball

We learned you really got to keep an eye on her. or as Daddy calls this:

Drink

Drank

Drunk

The kid’s got good taste AND is patriotic with her red, white and blue PBR.

Thanks to our hostest with mostest Emma for a great 4th of July!

A Long (Hot) holiday weekend

2009-07-03T23:25:00.001-07:00

Our babysitter’s son has hand, foot and mouth disease (poor kid) and couldn’t be around Little S, so Mom took an extra day off on Thursday to have a four day weekend with her bestest daughter.

We are in the midst of the great Stand-athon. And Hold-my-hands-while-I-walk-up-and-down-and-up-and-down-stairs-athon. Here, we wistfully dream of life beyond the gate where there are practically hundreds of stairs just waiting!

In protest of her mean parents who won’t let her get to the stairs, I think she tried to call the grandparents to see if they could get us to change our mind

No luck yet.

To try and beat the heat, we’ve been heading to the pool at lunch for parent-preschool swim. A time so the younger kids don’t get too sodden by the bigger kids and their bigger splashes. After swimming, we have a little picnic in the park and then head home VERY ready for our nap. Today, we felt rather flexible

Or maybe she was just showing off her cool shoes that Daddy got her

After afternoon nap, we went over to Jim and Lisa’s for a change of scenery for everyone (and some fruity adult beverages too!)

Lisa is great with Little S and plays with her the whole time. It’s a nice time for Mom to get to relax a little and enjoy Little S having fun with other grown-ups.

The warm weather has given some curl to Little S’ hair. I tried to get a picture of it, but that child does not consider holding still on her list of priorities

Still two more days left in the long weekend. These will be even better because DADDY has them off too! Hooray!

Summer just got more fun

2009-06-28T23:04:00.001-07:00

Like most everyone else, summer as a kid was the best three months of the year. Recently, summer had become just a hotter version of every other day with fall/early winter taking my top spot.

Enter Little S. I’m sure years from now, I’ll go back to dreading summer because the kids will be home and bored and fighting and in my way, but for now, she’s made summer much more fun!

Little S wants reading to be important. She’s trying to get the cat in on the action.

It wouldn’t be summer without some pool time. The local pool has parent-preschool swim every day for an hour. I’m hoping to get over there on Fridays to really make it a worthwhile summer. Little S was dressed and ready for our first visit

We had lots of fun splashing and going down the slide. I look forward to a fun summer of splashing with Little S.

Sunday we got to visit again with Little E, my friend Deb’s daughter. She’s a year older than Little S, which means she’s wise to the ways of the world. And, she’s got GREAT, fun toys to play with! They gave us the great outfit Little S is wearing in these pictures.

Going down the slide at E’s house

Little S wanted to help make dinner

and, she went for a Sunday drive

She took Little E for a ride too

A GREAT summer weekend, made better with the addition of Little S.

the summer plague besets us

2009-06-22T21:47:00.001-07:00

Dear Little S-
In case the whole wrestling with you for an HOUR to get you to sleep tonight after a day of almost no naps wasn't enough, I wanted to tell you how much I really appreciate that your cute little runny nose is quickly turning into a Class 7 cold for your mommy. She LOVES having her eyeballs sear, her throat coated in wool, and every muscle and limb ache too.
You're right, compared to childbirth, I shouldn't complain.
And hey, if you could wake up EXTRA early tomorrow too, that would be extra special.
Love-
Mommy

p.s. Daddy would be really sad if you didn’t share your cold with him too.

Before I go…

2009-06-15T00:28:00.001-07:00

Squeezing in a quick post before I leave for Reno for work for a week. I know Big and Little S will just have a blast without me-as usual!

I got some unexpected extra time with Little S this week as the poor babysitter had strep. Or possibly worse, but we aren’t thinking about that yet. It was a very long week tying up loose ends at the office so that everything could function without me physically being there. Even my Thursday at home ended up being a 10 hour work day, thanks to big S coming home early so I could go in to the office. He saved me from having a 15 hour day!

However, working like a dog all week allowed me to get caught up enough to actually take a few hours off on Friday and have some fun with Little S, all weekend long. Gotta pack it in before I leave her sweet face for a week!

The babysitter’s son must have left one of his trucks here, which Little S discovered

No negative gender stereotypes being reinforced in this house. Playing with the truck was cheered on. She pushed it all around. Which means the photos are all blurry because a truck drivin’ gal on the move is hard to get a good photo of

In addition to pursuing a career as a truck driver, Little S has been working on her backup career as a musician. Some of her playing styles are unique shall we say. But hey-maybe it’s her ticket to stardom!

I’ll have that memory with me all week long.

Melancholy. Baby.

2009-06-09T21:05:00.001-07:00

As summer sets in, and Little S’ home for her first nine months is still there in all it’s glory, I’ve gotten more bummed about missing workouts.

Thanks to Big S, I’ve been able to bike to work about once a week for the last month-today included. On the way home, I pass the track that I used to run at every Tuesday night with my running club. Being as how it was a Tuesday, I glanced over and saw several of the regulars there and started reflecting back onto my pre-baby life. All the workouts, two a day. Years of never missing a track practice-even trying to schedule work around that and other workouts. (Not that it made me any faster, but at least I could pretend). Thinking wistfully about that nice, repetitive schedule.

But then I realized, ten or fifteen years from now-what if that were still my life? Every Monday, running at Niketown. Tuesdays and Thursday mornings at the pool and so on. If I looked back on that in many years, it would seem downright boring. Sure, a schedule is nice, but, it can become repetitive-a grind even*. I thought about it and while I probably still won’t be fast or skinny in ten or fifteen years, at least I can say that life since May 7, 2008 was NEVER boring.

Thanks Little S! I look forward to many, MANY interesting and fun days ahead.

*not to say that only people with kids lead interesting lives.

Catapulted into summer

2009-05-29T23:13:00.001-07:00

I know I’ve been a little repetitive in the fact that we are having unseasonably nice weather. It just cements in my mind that when Little S was born, the earth shifted on it’s axis.

Case in point-a week after her birth, the rainy and cool spring weather gave way to crazy 95 degree heat! Then, her whole first summer, it barely got up to 90 most days, and stayed cooler and rainier than normal (which I loved). We had more thunderstorms than normal the summer she was born, her first winter was marked with lots of snow that stuck around; again, not typical for Portland. Now, to mark her first year on this earth, spring completely got lost in the mix and we’ve plunged headlong into summer with 80 degree days and endless sunshine. Normal for this time of year? Cloudy, rainy and maybe 70 degrees on a good day. That’s pretty much the weather until the 4th of July. THEN, it gets like this.

Which, is a very long explanation of why I haven’t been sitting at a computer. The garden has been calling, and I’m actually having to water the delicate little plant starts every night. I don’t normally haul out the hose until late July. I’m dreading our next water bill already! The upside is that I actually have a lot of things planted in a timely manner. Don’t quite have all the tomatoes and peppers in the ground yet, but, the weather is giving me a sense of urgency to get on it!

Here’s what we’ve been up to in these parts when we aren’t gardening:

Little S and I paired up with friend Deb and her daughter, Little E for a 30 mile bike ride! Fortunately, Deb has a bike trailer and is a strong cyclist, so we put both girls in the trailer and away we rode. My first real ride in almost two years. The bumping of the trailer provided a good rhythm for a nap. Little S slumped to the side with her head on Little E’s lap, Little E folded over top of Little S. You’ll have to take my word for how cute it was; neither Deb or I had a camera.

However, we’re starting Little S off learning about bike safety, and she got her very first bike helmet for our ride. Here she is getting used to her helmet and practicing tricycle safety

And-learning to leave her helmet on

We followed that fun adventure with a visit from Grammie and Grampie K. While they were here for Memorial Day, we went to the Multnomah County Fair. Little S met some real live animals.

The music pavilion featured a Mexican band, and from the first strains of the music, Little S started dancing! We stopped and listened to a few songs, and she just wiggled with glee. We’ve started listening to a Spanish radio station at home so she can find more fun music to bop to. After all that dancing and exploring on a warm day, we topped it off with a shared ice cream cone from the Oregon Dairy Women.

Little S loves ice cream as much as her mom does!

The fun just kept on coming with a visit to the Children’s Museum. It was much more fun than her first visit a few months ago. She’s just growing and developing so fast that a few months made a huge difference in her ability to interact with the exhibits.

She loved the little tidepool and splashing in it

Her and a new friend were being quite the percussionists

She spent lots of time climbing up and sliding down with her new playmates

She spent an hour and a half just playing and interacting with other kids her size. She had such a great time, we know that we will definitely be going back there again. Somebody slept REALLY well that night!

Today, I was working and I heard a rustle and looked up to see this

(look closely-not at the cat)

Followed in short order by this

After I finished laughing, I realized how tall she is getting to be in order to see over the dining room table when she stands up. She also spent most of the day on her feet, and is really enjoying when we help her walk by holding her hands. Her little doe-legs are still too wobbly to support her weight unaided, but, I’m afraid the end is near. I better go buy a new pair of running shoes to keep up with her.

Cousins in Seattle

2009-05-23T23:13:00.001-07:00

We went for a quick trip to Seattle to see Little S’s cousin and his family who were there for a couple of days. Little S and her cousin were on opposite nap schedules, so we started with an aquarium visit while he slept.

Little S tried on a few extra arms

And then, the cousins saw each other for the first time in 6 months

We all went out to dinner together. With two small children, it’s an interesting time. The restaurant was very slow though, so we weren’t menacing anyone.

They got along so fabulously. We wish there weren’t so many miles separating them so we could have more scenes like this:

12 months

2009-05-23T22:31:00.001-07:00

It’s been such great weather around here, we’ve been too busy enjoying the sun to sit down for long. Here’s the 12 month photo and a look back at the previous twelve months.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

one year old

2009-05-11T20:36:00.001-07:00

It’s been a whirlwind in these parts the last few weeks. Ending with Mommy getting a nasty cold for Mother’s Day. Here’s the photo recollection of the vaunted birthday girl.

(it’s 40+ pictures. May take some time to download. After the first slide, a forward, back and pause button appear so you can look through them quickly)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY! It’s been an amazing first year.

And so it began

2009-05-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

One year ago this afternoon, I was mighty pissed.
We went to the Doctor on a Monday afternoon. I knew I had been bad all weekend and not done good job of keeping on bedrest. Well, it caught up with me-or maybe it was just time. My blood pressure had gone high enough and I was at 39 weeks, so the doctor told me she was inducing me this week. THAT was not in my plans. Then, to make matters worse, she couldn't get me a bed in the hospital any other day than that same night! WTF?! The labor room takes a one year reservation now to get in to have a baby? Baby Boom anyone? I was so mad. I still had things to wrap up at work. I wasn't planning to have a baby until NEXT week. I had no reason to think that timeline would be sped up. I was so livid. The poor doctor. I hope she knows I wasn't mad at her.
I guess I didn't really feel like I had a choice. I didn't figure Steve would let me chain myself to the bed and not go to the hospital until I was in labor. And, I wasn't that irrational. I knew high blood pressure could lead to some really bad stuff. So, after crying to my mother about how mad I was, and her being the voice of reason, as always, I realized I needed to begrudgingly accept my fate.
So, I packed my bags and got the teensiest bit excited to have a few days off, lying around watching TV and eating food someone else cooked. Oh, and to figure out what this baby would be.
Had I known how amazing this little being was going to turn out to be, I would have rushed to the hospital, eager to meet her even sooner!
So, at 8:00 that evening, they started the drugs as I laid in bed watching House. I sent Steve home to walk the dog and so we could both enjoy the last good night of sleep we would get for many years.

Pre-Birthday weekend

2009-05-03T22:57:00.001-07:00

As always, we pack a lot into the two short days that Mom has with her almost one year old.

We had a few hours off Friday afternoon, and it was another stellar spring day. So we put on her short-shorts (just Little S, I didn’t want to punish the neighbors by the sight of me in short-shorts) and headed to the park. Where we picked the flowers

and in a remarkable testament to her getting ever more mature, she didn’t try and eat them-but rather offered them to any passer-by’s

Saturday didn’t start off as expected thanks to a tired baby, awakened after too-short of a nap by the barking of a certain <ahem> dog. But, we still made it down to the opening of the Farmers Market

Turns out, balloons and the strings they’re attached to are REALLY FUN!

The afternoon got appreciably more exciting with a sudden thunderstorm that no one saw coming. High winds, a blinding downpour, thunder, lightning, hail. BAM! Not even 15 minutes and it blew through. It was pretty spectacular for someone who so misses thunderstorms. We caught all that excitement on the way to a Kentucky Derby party at our friends Brad and Sara's.

Little S charmed the boys, who helped entertain her with ice cubes while Mommy drank Mint Juleps!

She tried on her first Derby hat.

I know that because the hat said “Derby” on it.

She also learned yet another new trick. Unlike the war whooping that Dad taught her, or the high-five that Mommy taught her, this one was self-taught and inevitable. The ability to climb DOWN stairs.

Previously, her only direction was up and she had no desire to even try to go down them. Now, it’s a whole new game.

It does make it easier when she curls up in her favorite chair with a book on a Sunday afternoon.

She doesn’t get stuck anymore.

A final photo. She was maneuvering herself around the ladder and I thought for sure she would get stuck. In the time it took to grab the camera off the counter to photograph her determination to get around the ladder at any cost, this is what I turned around to see

“What, me worry?”

I only cheated a little

2009-04-26T21:55:00.001-07:00

So, I watched The Office on Thursday night. Whatever. That was pretty much my only transgression all week. And, the week off did the trick of resetting my nightly routine so it doesn’t include laying around for 3 hours doing nothing. Nope. Now, it includes sitting at the kitchen table for three hours making my husband feed me. How awesome am I to pull that one off?

Here’s what I could have been blogging about the last week.

Monday had fantastic weather, so Big S and Little S went to the park

Where Big S let her fend for her self and eat bark chips. At least that’s what I’m assuming from the picture he took. I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure.

(she’s the tiny thing in between the trees)

Monday was also Patriots' Day, so she was dressed accordingly

She’s such a cutie!

Friday afternoon we went over to see her friend Miss A for a little visit. Miss A is two months older and they are so cute together!

Miss A shared her wagon with Little S

Little S wasn’t too sure about this wagon thing

But they could both agree that it’s REALLY FUN to stand at the door

Little S also got some time with our friend Aunt Sunny babysitting on Saturday morning. And, her weekend was rounded out with a 3rd birthday party for a longtime friend’s son Grayson and a backyard BBQ at Mom’s co-workers house. Where-despite being tired from no afternoon nap, she charmed everyone. Even the anti-baby people. A few extra glasses of wine probably helped too. For the anti-baby people. Not the baby.

So, we’re back to the wired world. Which is good, because House looks really good tomorrow night!

This post will have to hold you for a week

2009-04-19T20:34:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow starts National Turnoff Week. Contrary to what it sounds like, it’s not a week to grow out your armpit hair, gain 25 pounds and walk around in curlers and a muu-muu, although that would be a big turnoff, trust me. It used to be TV turnoff week, but all the screen time kids (and adults) log is getting to be worse than TV alone. I know I’ve gotten really bad about logging lots of hours, basically doing nothing at night. So, I’m going cold turkey for a week. Wish me luck!

Here are a ton of pictures to hold you over until next week.

Last week, she exuberantly swung her head around to chew on the merry-go-round bar and Big S heard a noise and when she stopped chewing, saw white on the bar. Sure enough, she had chipped a front tooth. Not badly and it didn’t hurt her, but now she’s damaged goods. I’m not sure if that negates the money-back guarantee she came with..

All the stress of breaking a tooth evidently made her need a chaser for her Jim Beam.

She’s getting better and better at climbing. She can now climb up stairs, and back out of the dishwasher when she climbs in. She climbed into her little chair the other day. When I handed her a book, you could see a glimpse of the big girl she’ll soon be

It’s been absolutely gorgeous. 80 degrees today! We’ve packed a lot into the weekend including a hike yesterday, a food cart festival/tasting last night and lots of gardening. I realized gardening means a garden hat

She drew the line at sunglasses though

This afternoon, we were slated to go on a bike ride with my friend Deb and her daughter E. Deb was going to tow both girls since we don’t have a trailer yet and because she’s a very strong cyclist, whereas I haven’t been on a bike in almost two years. She called me this morning because Little E got lice somehow, and was smart enough to know that if they missed even one and her head was in a trailer with Little S, Big S and I would be getting our first run at delousing and nitpicking. That’s a first I’m willing to wait a LONG time for!

Instead, we met up and went to a park by her house. Little E loves the swings too! She’ll be two in June, and has the greatest red hair!

Red headed almost two year olds don’t like to share their Mom with babies

But otherwise they had a great time. Little S is already an expert gardener. As she crawled through the field, every little flower(weed) she saw, she plucked and threw down. She had no desire to eat them, but knew that they MUST. DIE! It’s hard to believe this sweet little face would be capable of such rampant and intentional destruction

We’re also getting closer to the end of life as we know it. She not only loves to push things around with her when she’s crawling, today, she kept getting up on her toes and hands. Maybe she was motivated by being barefoot, but she’s learning that knees don’t always have to be on the ground.

Here, she demonstrates some baby yoga “tripod” pose. Or possibly she’s spending too much time at the dog park. Hey, if that’s how she gets potty-trained, so be it!

When Big S watched her with two hands and two feet on the ground, he got a VERY concerned look on his face and said something to the effect of “this isn’t good”. While lots of parents can’t wait for their kid to walk, I was kind of holding out hope she’d wait a few years to start that. We’ll see how imminent it really is.

All that excitement and such a long weekend, leaves a girl tired. Here’s a rare moment captured on film to hold you over until next week.

Now go read a book!

First Easter

2009-04-16T20:49:00.001-07:00

Easter started with Breakfast at the church, where Little S gobbled up some kind of potato/cheese/other deliciously rich and probably fattening dish that someone had brought. I’m pretty sure she only ate it because she loves all things cheese.

Before the service started, we hung out in the nursery with Carter, her friend from church who’s Mom watches Little S on Thursdays now. Little S is really interested in everything he does, because he’s TWO! And knows a lot about the way the world works.

After church, it was nap time, and THEN we could see what the Easter Bunny brought. Which was mostly chocolate that only adults could eat… Thank You Easter Bunny! Little S also opened her Easter card from her cousin, that he signed all by himself

And then she chewed on it.

Our traditional Easter party at our friends Jim and Lisa’s followed. The weather was decidedly Portland spring, so very wet and cool, so instead of enjoying this lovely garden

Everyone was indoors around the wood stove enjoying traditional Easter Pizza

Tanya, aforementioned wood stove, Don, Caroline

Little S, Big S and Laurie

Little S discovered the window ledge and was happy as a clam up there, gnawing on pizza crust

A great Easter with lots of friends, a warm fire and delicious homemade pizzas.

One last Easter moment.

Little S is starting to figure out that her actions can make things happen. At church she found a toy that has wheels and moves when she pushes it. And of course, makes noise. A lot of noise. She rolled it back and forth for a while. Of course I was so gobsmacked by this development that it took a while to get the camera out. And by then she was pretty over it. But, here’s a glimpse of what I saw, and what we’ll only be seeing more of

How do you say Good-bye?

2009-04-14T21:02:00.001-07:00

Obviously, I’ve been overwhelmingly moved by the death last week of sweet little Madeline Spohr. Her funeral was today, and it is still unfathomable to me how it must feel to have to say Good-bye to the love of your life and your only child. They both did a phenomenal job of capturing the love of a parent for their child and celebrating her life.

Only click here if you have a box of tissues ready.

Mike's eulogy Heather's Eulogy and video tribute.

And again, I will continue to appreciate the little life that’s laying next to me, more and more every day. Even when she doesn’t want to go to bed.

May God keep her safe and with us for a long, long, long time.

11 months

2009-04-13T20:05:00.001-07:00

Give or take a week. She’s getting so big!

The bigger she gets, the harder to get her to hold still. We don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep this up. Mostly, we need someone to stand behind the camera to get her to look in that direction. Otherwise she looks at the dog, the cat, the fireplace, her toys. anywhere but at the camera.

One of those glances gave us a great baby-daddy moment:

Every day, we tell ourselves how lucky we are. And she never disappoints.

The glamorous life

2009-04-11T19:38:00.001-07:00

Ah yes, that’s how we live around here. Defining glamour. When you see this look-food on your clothes and in your hair-on the runways in Paris next year, you'll know where it began!

Just a great end to a day that also involved swimming in the dog water bowl. At least she then helped mop by crawling around in her sponge-like velour outfit. And really, I think it was all her way of getting me to clean UNDER the carpet that got soaked.

That happened not more than 5 minutes after it got quiet, I came in to find her and when she saw me, she spit out the two quarters in her mouth. I told her that’s not the kind of change we wanted in her (ba dump bump)

To keep her from any additional harm, we went on a nice dog walk with our friends Jim and Jamie and their dogs.

No, that’s not a bear on the right, just Jamie’s BIG but gentle (and slobbery) dog. The rain held off and it was a pretty good Easter Eve!

The Little S Show

2009-04-09T20:57:00.001-07:00

It’s on 24/7. Here are some episodes you may have missed.

Cheerios-not just for breakfast any more

Snow much fun with Dad

The Pint-sized pastry chef

When’s Dinner? Guest starring Furry S

The show isn’t in syndication and there are never any reruns. It’s the most unscripted reality show ever. And the ratings are through the roof in this house.