Catapulted into summer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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