Is it Christmas already?!?

DS has had quite a bit of exposure to babies lately. First of all, congratulations to DH's sister and family for their newest addition to their family, born 12/18/09! Also, almost 2 months ago, we told DS that, "Mommy's having a baby." We then called our parents and allowed him to tell them the news. I wasn't sure how much he understood, but about a month later, he said, seemingly out of the blue, "Mommy's having a baby," and he seemed a little confused, so I explained to him,"Yes, mommy's having a baby. The baby is hiding in mommy's belly and the baby has to grow first." He seemed satisfied as he went on with is activities. About two weeks after that, he said, "Mommy's having a baby. Baby's hiding in mommy's belly. Baby has to grow first." I was impressed! I didn't think he would remember all of that. Last week, DS was talking about the baby again. Suddenly, he exclaimed, "Baby! Come out!!" I think he's excited to be a big brother. So the other morning he said to me, "I'm having a baby." I thought I'd test the water and see where it would go and I explained to him, "Well, only mommies have babies." Then he clarified for me, "I'm just having a little baby." Ohhhh...well, in that case... :)

It's been a while since I've written anything. We've had a busy couple months here. I have been enjoying my first semester of full time grad school. Last Friday was my last class for the semester and I am glad for a break and few weeks of rest and Christmas cheer before getting back into the grind.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last few months for you to enjoy. :)

After my last post in May, we headed back east to spend a week with family. We spent a few days with my family in Ocean City, NJ, while my sister and her family were home to the US from their Africa home for a few months. We had a nice time catching up and DS enjoyed getting to know his cousins and spending time with his aunts and uncles and grandparents.

What better place to do that than the beach?!?

And, of course, Grandpa was itching to give his two grandsons a motorcycle ride, so in the few minutes available, he whisked them away for a magical more-than-just-a-few-minutes moment.

We made a quick stop to visit Great-Grandma...

then spent a few days with DH's family. Again, the cousins had a great time getting to know each other better. Our adventures together included the Hands-on-House

and Lake Tobias Wildlife Reserve.

We did some camping this summer. During the hottest week of the summer we found ourselves tenting in the Mount Hood wilderness.

It was a beautiful spot complete with a lake perfect for cooling off.

DH and I took two days, left DS with a friend and headed with a group to Mount Saint Helens. It was the first time we had left DS with someone overnight, which always causes a mother some nervousness, but he did just fine most of the time... DH and I had a great hike. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get to the top where we spent about an hour or so resting and enjoying the views.

I had never looked down inside of a volcano before and I was determined to cherish the moment. On the way down, though, DH turned his ankle on a boulder. The rest of the way down was slow-going and it took us an extra 3 hours to reach the bottom, but with some help from our friends, we made it safely.

At 2 years old, DS has quite a bit of spunk...

and he has begun to learn to use the potty... (p.s. in case you are wondering, the black marks on his legs in this picture were from his permanent marker artwork from a few days before that resulted in some re-painting of some of our walls.)

and finally, here is a beautiful sunset from the Mount Hood Wilderness! Have I mentioned how beautiful Oregon is?!?

Washington Wondering

DH finished up his second year of teaching. It was another challenging year, but better than the first. I imagine each year will get a little easier as he continues to settle in.

We welcomed the beginning of summer break by taking off to explore the great Northwest. We headed for a week up to Manson, WA, which is located on the shore of a beautiful lake called Lake Chellan. We had beautiful weather and a nice relaxing time. DS particularly enjoyed the pool. Everyday, he would ask, "Simming?? Simming??"

Here is a video of our fun pool time. If you are recieving this as an email, you will need to go to the actual blog post at http://notesfromthenorthwest.blogspot.com/ to play the video.

We also took a short hike. DS enjoyed seeing the birds and the snake and the flowers and the rocks. He even brought back a few rocks for souvenirs.

At the end of the week, we traveled to Port Townsend, north of Seattle, to visit DH's Aunt Jane. We spent a few days visiting and exploring the town. We even went out to run in a 5 3/4 mile race on a beautiful nearby island. This was the first time I ran in an official race. I came in 27th overall, which was pretty good

considering I was pushing DS in a little bumpy umbrella stroller for half the run...the half that happened to bemostly uphill. I am still quite sore, to say the least, but it was a great workout!

And they had food and visiting time after the race is over. I will have to check out races around the Portland area.

I'm sure they have them periodically and it would be added incentive for my training. DS enjoyed sitting in the fire truck and hummer and playing with the officials who were there accompanying the race. And the horses were quite a hit.

Sunday morning, we went for a walk on the beach during low tide. What a great time it was to see all of the beautiful sea creatures that God has made. Most of the stuff we saw were things I had never seen before. If they taught biology class out in the ocean in that particular setting,

I think maybe I would have done better in that class in school. Who wants to learn about these things by reading boring text books,anyway?!?

This is the bald eagle we saw on our walk. The picture is compliments of DH. Talk about a graceful bird...especially compared to the annoying whiny sea gulls that kept trying to chase him away for fear he would take all of their food.



Family photo of feet in the Pacific Ocean. In a few days, we will get one of all of our feet in the Atlantic Ocean. The traveling in between will not be quite as much fun.

We were reluctant to realize that our vacation was coming to a close yesterday morning as we packed up and headed home. All good things must come to an end. Besides, we have another trip to look forward to. We will be traveling again soon. More details to follow... :)

PS. These are only a few of the pictures from our trip. If you would like to see the rest of them, we have posted them on a web album. Click here to see the album.

A little bit bored.

Here's a post I wrote but never got around to adding pictures to post.  We just got home from vacation, so you will soon get another post with pics from that...enjoy!! :)

I took a graduate class this semester.  It was a Statistics class, and surprisingly, it was really fun.  I started the class in January thinking that the material wouldn't be all that exciting, but the class is in preperation to later read and understand research articles and write my own dissertation.  As the term was ending last week, I found myself wishing it wasn't over yet.  I had really enjoyed it.  Five years from now, I will probably laugh at that as I finish my doctorate and will most likely be ready to be finished with school again.  One day at a time...one chapter at a time...carpe diem...seize the day...

In the meantime, DS keeps me entertained.  He repeats most of what I say and I have to watch what I say.  He follows directions pretty well and loves to help out whenever possible.  I find that if I let him help me, I often finish my task much quicker than if I try to distract him and do the task myself.  And, he's so proud of himself when he can help.  I'm looking forward to the day I can give him chores that I don't need to supervise.  Perhaps he will continue to help with the same excitement...but I won't keep my hopes up.

On a more serious note, DS has no fear.  While visiting a friend of ours who lives in a second floor appartment, I turned around just as DS was beginning to tumble down the steps...the whole flight of steps.  "Oww, oww, oww..." he said every time he bounced before hitting his head on the door at the bottom.  He cried for a couple minutes, but then was ready to go play again.  That was several weeks ago.  Now he is displaying a healthy fear of steps.  So, I suppose I should be thankful it wasn't worse and he has learned from the experience; although, I still cringe at the thought of him bouncing down the steps and I can still hear his painful cry as I was running down the steps after him, but he was just out of reach..."oww, oww, oww..."

He has started climbing up on his changing table.  I've walked in his room a couple times and found him sitting on top playing with whatever is sitting on the top of the dressor next to him.  For fear that the whole table will topple over, it has been moved out of his room.  I've not yet seen any signs of him trying to climb out of his crib...I imagine that won't be too far off yet.  He has, however, started climbing onto the couch and taking a flying leap off unto the floor.  He thinks its hysterical.  When I tell him to stop, he laughs even harder and climbs back up as though it's a game with mommy now.  Is there any such thing as a toddler strait jacket?

Yup, he's an active, healthy, normal toddler that you can't leave out of your sight for more than a couple seconds.  He's exploring and learning as he should.  What more could I ask for?  It's a beautiful thing.

Two Eventflul Weeks

We've had two very eventful weeks. It all started when I took DS to the doctor for his 18 month check-up on Monday, March 16.

Growth Chart measures are as follows:
Length: 35 in, 95th percentile
Weight: 29 lbs 7 oz., 85th percentile
Head Circumference: 18 1/2 in, 40th percentile

He got a few shots, then threw up that night. Naturally, I assumed the shots were what did it and we went about our merry business. Two nights later, I changed my mind when all three of us were up sick most of the night. It wasn't pretty. A few days later, we started getting our appetites back and were looking forward to our Spring Break trip to Vancouver, BC.

Last Saturday, we took a break and headed over to DH's work where fans were rallying in support of the women's basketball team who was playing in the National Championship. The game was about 2000 miles away, but it was just as exciting to watch it on TV with a room full of fans. It was a good game and they won!! They flew home the next day and we went out to the main street as they rode in limousines and were escorted by the fire department and police department into town. Now DS claps every time he sees a police car or fire truck with lights flashing and sirens on.

On Monday, March 23, we headed up to Vancouver with some friends who have a son about 1 month older than DS. It was about a 6 hour drive, not counting stops to eat, get gas, and wait in line to cross the border into Canada. DS didn't sleep much, so he was pretty restless when we got there. Hoping to not spend too much on our little trip, we had made reservations to stay at a hostel. Hostels are different from hotels. They are much less expensive and they encourage interaction amongst the guests. This, in itself, would have been fine. However, there was a pub downstairs and we called them when we made reservations to see if the noise would be a problem for our children trying to sleep. They instructed us to email them and request a top floor room so we would be the furthest away from the noise and it wouldn't be a problem. When we got there, our assigned room, despite the no smoking policy, stank of smoke. DH seems to be extra sensitive to that as he has been known to end up sick in such circumstances. So, after requesting another room and being informed that the hostel was completely booked for that night but they could get us a different room for the second night, our dear friends suggested that we switch rooms. We also came to find that this room also shared the same wall as the pub downstairs, so despite being on the fourth floor, our friends could hear the music from the pub loud and clear until 3:00 am. They had barely slept. So, Tuesday morning we headed out to the park for some fresh air. It was cold and wet, though, and it didn't last long. After some lunch and some really great naps, we were all feeling a little better and ready for an adventure. We met up with a friend of our friends, who lives in Vancouver and he showed us around a little. We went for a ride on a small ferry boat, which DS and his buddy enjoyed. Then, we explored some of the local markets and finished the evening with dinner at a really good Indian Restaurant. Our second night was a little better as our friends had been able to move into a room that was further from the music and we all got a decent night of sleep. Wednesday morning was sunny so we went back to the park for some photo ops before heading south. On the way home, our friends' son decided to get sick and he emptied his stomach a few times, which meant we had to make a few "clean-up" stops. It was a bit of an exhausting trip and we were glad to be home, but I have to say that I would do it all over again. I suppose what makes adventures real adventures is both the good and the bad.

We spent a couple days to recover and awoke this morning, Sunday morning, ready to head to church. Today, DS is 19 months old! And to celebrate, DS decided to stick a soy nut up his nose during breakfast. I turned around and he had his finger up his nose. Shining a flashlight where I shouldn't have to shine it revealed that he indeed had been exploring with small objects in small places. Off to Urgent Care we went where the doctor did wonders with a pair of forceps. Naturally, DS was not amused. I held his head and his arms while DH held his feet. Note to self: Don't take my eyes off of my son while he is eating soy nuts.... Then the doctor was nice and gave him a pop-sickle, which made things all better.

PS. Most of these pics are from our Vancouver Trip. I figured you didn't want to see pictures of our doctor visit this morning....

God Answers Prayer

I had an important interview a couple weeks ago. It was for graduate school--for a Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD) program to start this fall. The interview lasted all day and I had the opportunity to meet other PsyD candidates. We toured the campus and the health clinic, sat in on some classes, had breakfast and lunch, had a coffee hour with current students, and had individual interviews--not in that order. I was pretty nervous and when I get nervous, I talk fast and don't feel like I think straight. So, there were definitely questions in my individual interview that I didn't think I answered very well. The rest of the day was fun, though. At the end of the day, one of the professors led a short devotional and his ultimate message was this, "Pray for the admissions committee. We are praying for you and trusting that God will bring together the right group of students for next year's group. You are all qualified to come. If it is God's will that you are here, you will be here." At that moment, all of my worries of not performing well enough in my interview faded.

The next day, I left to go to the coast for a weekend retreat with a friend's church. It was well-timed for me, not that they had specifically planned it that way. It was the perfect time to get away from my busy life. On Sunday morning, I walked out to the beach since I had only seen it in the dark up to that point in the weekend...we had some sessions scheduled at different times, but we had been able to take walks on the beach after dark--the beach is quite mysterious after dark! Anyway, on Sunday morning, it was raining a little, but it wasn't far and I love the ocean. When I got there, God gave me a rainbow. It was the brightest rainbow I had ever seen and I do believe it is only the second time I have ever seen a complete one--where both ends stretch to the ground. I had my camera so I took pictures, but they just don't do it justice.

DS stayed home with DH for the weekend. It was the longest I have been away since he was born. It was a little hard. But, when I called home on Saturday morning, DH put me on speakerphone and this is what I heard:

"Noah, who's on the phone?"
"Daddy!"
"No, I'm Daddy. Who's on the phone?"
"Daddy!"
"No, I'm Daddy! Who's on the phone?
"Mommy! Hi!"
"That's right. That's Mommy."
"Bye!"

Apparently, they were doing just fine without me. :)

The next couple weeks I waited...for the ultimate phone call, the one that would offer me a spot in the program for the fall. I prayed a lot. And, I would be lying if I didn't say that with each day that passed and I didn't receive the call I got a little more discouraged. "Maybe it isn't God's will for me this year after all," I began to wonder. About three days ago, I had a heart-to-heart chat with God, once again, asking for an answer and I heard, "YES!" then silence. "Um, God, was that you?" I questioned. Thankfully, he is so patient and puts up with my incessant ridiculousness. First I ask for an answer, then I get an answer, then I question the answer....

Well, today I got the call!! Mike had come home for lunch and was sitting at the table when my phone rang. Not a minute before, I had been thinking, "Will today be the day?" And when the phone rang, I thought, "Well, it can't be Mike calling me this time because he is sitting at the table eating lunch." Sure enough, it was the admissions office. First, she asked me about my phone number that she had in the system. Apparently, my Pennsylvania number that I haven't had for over a year was still listed as my preferred number. She did a great job at making me think that was the only reason she was calling. I think she was enjoying keeping me in suspense. Then, she said, "Well, I also was calling to let you know that the admissions committee has reviewed your application and they would like to offer you a position in the program to begin this fall..." And the sun is shining brightly today...what a beautiful day this is!!!

Now, all I have to do is send them a letter to accept the offer and pay a $500 deposit to confirm my acceptance. I suppose that will be one of my easier assignments that I will have in the next five years... :)

How kids learn

Noah was helping me to unload the dishwasher today. This is an activity he likes to help with OFTEN, and he does very well with the silverware. Today, as we were finishing up, he started getting a little rough with the racks, so I scolded him by saying, "Noah, be gentle!"...to which he responded by giving the dishwasher lots of kisses. He usually has lots of kisses to give, but they are most often offered to pets, stuffed animals, dolls, babies, and mom and dad.

I am attaching a bunch of pics...especially since it has been WAY TOO LONG since I last posted!! Please accept my apologies for my neglect! The first is an example of Noah's kisses--he loves his pet puppy from his great grandma from Christmas! The rest are all from our family vacation to Canada over New Years. We have taken more recent pictures, but they are all still in the camera!