Kids and Bread

On Saturday, we babysat. I really should say DS babysat. He loved having a little buddy and teaching him how to play ball and how, "we don't eat balls" (DS's words). He is looking forward to being a big brother.

Today DS asked me if he could sit on Beau's lap. Yes, Beau, as in, one of our 22 lb. Boston Terriers. Not only does Beau not have a lap, but DS also has a good 15 lbs. on him. As amusing as it could have been...

Today I made bread, which I do often.

This time, however, the dough looked awfully gooey and I forgot to set the timer to let it rise. An hour later, I remembered to put it in the oven to bake. This is how it came out:

Milk

This morning we were having breakfast and I took a drink of milk. DS looked at me curiously and asked, "Are you putting milk on the baby's head?"

Spring Break

So, it's been a while again...
This week is spring break and we had some nice weather to go with it. So nice, in fact, that I decided it was time to show DS the sand box. We had opened it once or twice two summers ago, but he was too young to enjoy it and would just eat the sand. He was so excited when I opened the cover and he spend several hours digging in the sand!

Freud

I was particularly amused by this statement by Dr. Sigmund Freud, 1941, in Psychology of Everyday Life, pg. 184...I just had to share:

"I am not particularly dexterous, but by virtue of the anatomic integrity of my nervous and muscular apparatus there are apparently no grounds in me for such awkward movements with undesirable results."

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.