Embarrassingly late birthday post

Better late than never?

A balance bike for her birthday

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

A book and bubbles

 

Skis

 

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

 

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

Birthday call with Grandma and Grandpa Bob

and Bob the Builder! Very appropriate.

Birthday cupcakes

 

Two candles already. Unbelievable.

Less messy this year.

 

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

The best part of skiing?

 

Eating snow.

Happy 2nd Birthday monkey!

Twas the week before her birthday

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

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

 

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

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

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

and the shower of wonders

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Although her favorite part of skiing was eating snow

Or other snacks

 

(She looks SO big!)

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

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

As April draws to a close

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

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

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

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!