Kenji and the Chipmunk

We haven't posted a whole lot about our new house and we promise that someday we will get some pictures up of the new place.  But for now, we wanted to share a short video of the wildlife in our back yard that seem to have zero fear of our dog, Kenji.  This video was taken a couple days after we moved in.

93 Degrees and Keeping Cool

The thermometer reads 93 degrees, but for at least one of us, it ain't no thing.  Brook headed towards Fred Meyer this afternoon and came home with this gem of a purchase...and from the looks of this video, Michaela couldn't be happier.

Beach Trip

Last weekend we took Michaela to the Oregon Coast for the first time.  Enjoy the photos.

I don't know where we are going, but I think it's going to be fun.

Michaela is plotting her sand castle building attempt.

The ground has been broken for the building of the sand castle.

What is this stuff??? It's kind of dirty!/

But then again, being dirty is so much fun.

p.s.

After re-reading my last post, I just realized I left out something very important. Michaela now sleeps 12 hours through the night!!! Maybe we were overdue in making this happen, who can say? However, I can say that Adam and I are doing much better in the sleep department. We had to sit through two nights of slowly decreasing screams at 3 am, but by night number 3, she slept like a little angel, and so did I. Not to say there wasn't a setback when she came down with a bug the following week and I fed her at midnight out of pity and motherly concern, but once she was fit as a fiddle we were back on the fasting at night, and all the happier for it.

Example of Michaela asleep. The wait at the hospital was obviously quite grueling.

Getting to taste a yummy sample of Daddy's Blizzard.

the eleventh month-a-versary

This will most likely be my last "monthaversary" post, as 12 months equals an actual birthday (I can't believe that!) This has been a busy month in the life of Michaela and the family. In addition to moving into a new home and all that entailed, we have had play dates with friends, bought and frozen pints and quarts of fresh, local strawberries to be eaten during the winter, purchased a quarter of beef from some friends in Newberg and tucked that away in the freezer, took notice of the fact that our 6th wedding anniversary happened - actual celebration to occur later in July!, tackled the backyard overgrowth with a reciprocal saw (Michaela did not partake in that activity), hosted visits from Adam's parents and Adam's sister and brother-in-law, and gone to several Timbers games. We had a great time at the most recent game, as Michaela busted out a new talent - cheering for the home team. She noticed that everyone around her was clapping, and realized that she should probably be doing the same. So she clapped loudly and yelled a bit. This made the folks behind us laugh and engage her more, and she was off. She had a great time at the game and slept very well that night.

As far as developmental updates, Michaela continues to jabber in a language unbeknownst to us. She says dada and mama and I think she is making efforts to identify the dog and cat. She can push herself up to a standing position and is able to balance herself flat-footed when assisted by one of us. Her favorite activity is wrestling with the dog, who handles it with good grace I didn't know she had. Michaela's favorite toy seems to be the vacuum cleaner. She follows me around with enthusiasm while I clean and tries to grab on to the head of the vacuum - not in the least bit helpful. With the motivation of having Michaela be able to eat her birthday cake in a month, I have been trying to introduce her to more and more foods - wheat, blueberries, beef & ham (pureed and in a can, reminiscent of SPAM), cheese cubes and more.

But by far the most exciting event occurred exactly on Michaela's 11-month milestone. We welcomed her first cousin into the world!! Just over a week early by typical measure, but exactly right in God's timing, Abbey and Dave's first son was born on July 8. Greyson Isaac is a handsome little guy (and I mean little, he makes Michaela look so grown up!) with a thatch of black hair and a winsome expression when he is awake.

Michaela has acknowledged his presence but mostly found intriguing how many of the adults were gathered around this little blanket bundle who didn't even move. We've been reassuring her that he will make a wonderful playmate in just a few months' time. Congratulations to the new parents and the thrilled-to-pieces grandparents. Adam and I are pretty pleased to be called uncle and aunt... or whatever similar words eventually come out of Greyson's little mouth.

This New House

To me, what has seemed like an eternal silence on the blog has probably gone unnoticed by most of you. In the intervening days, our little family has been all abustle. For the past many months we have had our house on the market, and when it finally sold it came as somewhat of a surprise. We jumped into house-hunting gear and looked and looked and looked until we found the perfect one. After days of signing, waiting, appraising, inspecting, waiting some more, signing some more, we were finally able to close on both houses and move in to our new home a week ago tonight. As I type, I'm watching Michaela pull old Calvin and Hobbes comic books off of the second-lowest shelf of our bookcase in the living room. I just put those books there last night. That is pretty much par for the course of how my packing and Michaela's "helping" has gone the last few weeks. To be honest, I kind of feel lucky the books had a home there for 24 hours. Many thanks to the family and friends who came to help - for long or for short times - on baby patrol 2010. We wouldn't be moved in without you!! We're very excited to be in our new home and glad for Kenji to have a bigger backyard to run around in. After she calmed down, she has spent a good amount of time chasing chipmunks and birds that used to call this backyard their home. Tigra spent the first two days on the very top shelf of our master bedroom closet, not coming down for anything. I had to carry her down to her litter box on night two to make sure her body systems weren't shutting down. On day 3 we moved our clothes into our closet and Tigra had to step out into the big world. She seems to be liking it quite a bit, and is exploring all the nooks and crannies. We look forward to many visitors, and I hope to get some pics of the new house on the blog here in the next few days.

Promise of a Pie

It all began this last winter when I was a new mother, housebound much of the time, and reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I was struck by the ideas of eating only foods that were grown or produced locally, and learning how to do so even in the middle of winter. Unfortunately, I wanted to begin by putting a garden in my backyard immediately, but it was January. Eating local produce in January apparently required getting ready for winter the summer before, so I had to put off my plan of implementation. This spring, however, we are taking some baby steps toward eating locally. We are taking our Saturday mornings to check out the local farmer's markets and compare for price, variety, and general fun-ness. Adam has graciously agreed to accompany me on these excursions, and on the first one to the Lake Oswego Farmer's Market, I told him that most likely the only things in season yet would be rhubarb, lettuce, and if we were lucky - strawberries.

If the above items were available, I promised him a strawberry-rhubarb pie, which I have never made before. This also required a little sacrifice on my part, too, because I try to get out of making a double-crust pie whenever I can by making meringue pies, or suggesting the pie was meant to be eaten with a crumb topping. Adam has begun to see through my ruse.

See for yourself the beautiful berries we found, which made for a tasty spring pie. It just may be a new family favorite. If I can make it with a crumb topping.

#1 Dominance

Kalina...This picture is especially for you. Although, it looks like we still need to work on the #1 Dominace sign so that it isn't confused with "loser." Then again, maybe Michaela knows exactly what she is doing.

Crawling Update

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

Since I happen to have a free minute while Michaela finishes her morning nap, I thought I would finally share a little about our trip to visit my Grandpa and Uncle Dan in Kansas. We (our little family and my mom) went for just a couple of days at the beginning of May, and found the weather there to be a good 20 degrees warmer and sunnier, and just generally nicer, than home. It was a good weekend to be in Kansas. I mentioned earlier that Michaela did pretty well on the flights. She loved having her Daddy at her beck and call to play with her, though even she, little as she is, wished she had more leg room. She just might be a world-traveler-in-training.

Left- Michaela still peppy (and trying to take her sock off) as we wait at Portland Airport). Below- Adam and I also still peppy - and caffeinating for the day ahead.

We landed in the Tulsa airport on a Saturday night and just drove to Bartlesville, OK, where our hotel was, got some dinner and went right to our hotel. Adam and I tested out the pool and hot tub, but Michaela wanted nothing to do with the pool when Nana tried to get her to dip her toes in. I blame that more on the day of travel than on predicting a dislike of swimming - especially when considering the amount of splashing that occurs during Michaela's baths these days. Though none of us got any amount of good sleep that night because Michaela was awake, crying, and inconsolable between 1:45 am and 4:30 am, we awoke nonetheless the next morning and crossed the border into Kansas to meet Grandpa at his home and head from there over to church. Uncle Dan is a pastor to three small congregations in the area, and preaches at each of them consecutively on a Sunday morning. We hit the middle service, and really enjoyed hearing Grandpa play the piano for congregational singing and listening to Uncle Dan preach. Michaela enjoyed the service because there were chairs rather than pews, and she got put down to scoot around on the floor. Also, the hymnals had little colored strings in them (to be used for marking pages of different hymns) but Michaela thought they were just for her entertainment.

That afternoon we enjoyed lunch/brunch at a local diner and an afternoon of conversation and catching up. Grandpa made dinner for us that night - we felt like honored guests! On Monday we went on a driving tour of Caney (doesn't take long!) and then went out to see the Little House on the Prairie. Considering that several years of my childhood were given to dressing like Laura Ingalls and playing pioneer, the cabin is always a big hit. But the big event of the day was yet to come. Did you know there is a brand new Super Wal-Mart in that corner of Kansas?! Yes, it's true! So we went there to get some photos developed and just soak in the ambiance. But really, the big event was eating at Braum's, a wonderful burgers and fries kind of restaurant with AMAZING ice cream delights. Adam and I have long joked that our relationship is built on ice cream, so this was a special moment for us to share with family.

We learned more about the Carr family tree from Uncle Dan, the family's resident historian, and ate one more meal together before saying our goodbyes. It was a short visit, but great for Grandpa to get to meet his grandson-in-law and his new great-granddaughter.