Cousins!

Last week Adam was out of town for business. All week. It was looming large in my mind when my sister-in-law graciously agreed to undertake the long drive south and spend several days with Michaela and me. This meant lots of mommy talk and lots of fun times for little cousins. After nearly 3 full days with Greyson, Michaela still insisted on calling him "Baby." But she did have a fun time showing him the ropes at the neighborhood park and feeding him cheerios when her mom and aunt weren't looking. I was impressed with her ability to sleep through his screaming fit on the way home from the zoo. It's good preparation for big-sisterhood, I guess.

 

G-man loving his first time in the swings



This is really a decent picture of the two of them. It's practically impossible to get them both smiling (or even looking in the general direction of the camera) at the same time.

 

Tandem sliding

After a long day at the zoo, it was group bath time. Lots of splashes all around.

Go Portland Timbers!!!

 Almost exactly marking the end of tax season was the beginning of another, much more exciting season: Portland's first major league soccer season. We've had season tickets in the past, and we decided to do that again this year, though we had to downgrade our seats just a little bit from what they were before, in the good ol' cheaper days. PGE Park was renovated and given a facelift, and renamed Jeld-Wen Field. Adam and I have booked my mom as a babysitter all season long, and look forward to the games as our date nights. We get to go and have a dinner with just the two of us (I don't have to cut food up into little tiny pieces and blow on them until they're cold!) and then we go and yell at the refs when they make bad calls. It's very cathartic.

The view from our seats, across at the new roof and stands.

The wildly crazy (I'm talking streamers, flags, trumpets, and smoke bombs) Timbers Army sits to our left.

Special Every Days

It's been a while since you've heard from us. Maybe that's because life has been seeming so... everyday. Every day. Many of these ordinary days I forget to document with a camera. And it doesn't help that it feels like summer may never arrive. Granted, we've been getting a few teaser days of sunshine and warmth interspersed amongst the rest. But if you want to feel good about the future, don't check the extended forecast.

So here's what we've been up to lately. Michaela is a big 22-month-old now, and words are pouring out of her left and right. She learns and says new words every day. She also gets increasingly frustrated when we don't understand what she's saying (how do 'cracker', 'towel', 'Tyler' and 'tired' all sound the same???). For some reason I also don't understand, she is insisting on calling the dog 'Tigra' which is the cat's name. She calls the cat by the correct name, as well, so things can get a little confusing. Michaela also loves to play outside. These photos were taken on a Sunday afternoon adventure at a neighborhood park. It's funny how checking out and evaluating new playgrounds has become a family hobby.

She loves to swing high!

Cresting the top of a (small) play structure

Michaela also loves to color and play with her dolls (diapering, feeding, rocking, and putting them to sleep). The picture below is from Easter when she got to sit down and color with Papi. The trouble with coloring with Michaela is that she likes to draw on your picture, which can be devastating for a perfect colorer like myself.

The week preceding Easter was spent working on building a deck in our backyard. After backbreaking labor by many people - two of Michaela's grandpas, her Daddy, her Uncle Dave, with supervision by Aunt Abbey and myself - the deck is done! We're very pleased with our results and have already had a couple of BBQ's outside on the deck. Ahhh...

Lastly, my wonderful husband put a lot of work into what was supposedly "my" project - our raised beds for our vegetable garden. They are beautiful and now they are growing little green produces, which I don't know yet when I am supposed to harvest because this is my first attempt at a garden. But I'm very excited, nonetheless.

Potato plants. I didn't know what potato plants would look like. What a city girl!

What you can't see in the center are little carrot sprouts; on the right, bell and jalapeno peppers.

Tomatoes and crazy wild snap peas. I'm so excited to eat them! (Not pictured: lettuce)