This week...
Mateo has been having his first preschool experience. He's going to three mornings of summer camp this week. He LOVES IT. He wants to go and move in to his preschool and live there forever. It is awesome. We're feeling really good about having chosen it for the fall. Many thanks to Sacha's parents for encouraging us to do the summer camp thing and then making it possible!
Natalia had her (much belated) one year check up yesterday, at just over thirteen months. She is doing wonderfully well and charmed everyone there, as she usually does. She weighed in at 18 pounds, 3 ounces, which is nearly exactly what Sacha guessed before the appointment. Go Mommy! She's 28.5 inches long and I don't know what her head circumference was, but suffice it to say that her head is growing. She's tracking a beautiful weight curve down there at the 4th percentile and she's somewhere around the 35th for height. She's teeny, but she's perfect.
As far as the adults in the family go, we're having some transitions as well. Specifically, my last day of work is tomorrow! That means Sacha has been on kid duty all week while I wrap things up at my office. This is quite possibly the worst week to be on kid duty full time, as we are having a heat wave that cramps our style a little. It was 105 yesterday, 107 today. In fact, the electronic billboard outside my office said 114 degrees, but the sun was beating right down on it. I walked down the street to get ice cream and I felt like I was walking through a blast furnace. Something about heat like this in the northwest just seems wrong!
Anyway, so Sacha has been a rock star and has been keeping the kids occupied in the basement and in our kiddie pool and in our one air conditioned room. And, we've all been sleeping in said one room (well, our bedroom and our front room together, closed off from the rest of the house) with the A/C blasting and just barely keeping it cool. Whew!
I'm wrapping up stuff at work and am so, so excited to go back to my stay at home mom gig. Of course, in my typical procrastinatory way, I still have a bunch of stuff to finish tomorrow, but I think I'll make it. I have really learned a lot at work this year and I have lots of new skills and experience and good recommendations to take with me. Let's hope the economy has improved by the time I go job hunting again! After tomorrow, we'll have part of August to hang out as a family and then Sacha will start training and working and such. We're all really looking forward to having a couple of weeks of staycation to just enjoy each other, and then to our new roles and routines after that.
Now if we could just get it below 90 degrees in our house, we'd be getting somewhere...
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Peachy
I admit that I have gone fruit crazy. Or, at least, fruit motivated. We all love having local fruit available throughout the winter, so Sacha and I are really into stocking up in the summer. Last summer, we hardly picked anything, due to the newborn in the house and all, and we ran out of fruit practically before summer began.
So, we went peach picking today. It was the first day of peaches on Sauvie Island and we had to be there! Peaches are the most satisfying fruit to pick, in my opinion. They are big and heavy and before you know it, you have a lot! You could spend the same amount of time on strawberries and end up with a pint.
We arrived at the payment stand of the u-pick farm and discovered that we had done very well indeed - we had 67 pounds of peaches! It sounds like a lot, but it was just five shallow boxes of fruit.
We had actually been debating picking more, but thank goodness we didn't! We've been working on canning them on and off all afternoon and now, at 10:30 pm, we are almost done. It's almost 90 degrees in our kitchen! But, thanks to our home's terrible air circulation, most of the heat has stayed in the kitchen.
We have some beautiful jars of canned peaches to show for it, though! We can't wait to enjoy them this winter. And, we have plenty of fresh ones left over to eat in the next few days. Yay for summer! It's finally here!
PS: Here's a short video of M helping wash the peaches this afternoon...
Friday, July 24, 2009
Addendum, plus photos
I forgot to mention in Natalia's letter that she is using the potty like a champ these days. We've actually started putting her in underpants sometimes, because she will keep herself dry for the most part. She waits until we put her on the potty and then she goes. It is amazing! We're pretty psyched about this. When we were in California, we used many fewer diapers than we anticipated because she would just wait for potty time and go then. Go, kiddo! It appears that she has taken our somewhat sporadic version of EC for child number two (in which we have meant well but not always been consistent potty-wise) and run with it.
Here's a photo of a common scene in the playroom:
And, some photos from our vacation with Sacha's parents. We had lots of fun at the beach and then back home in PDX. These are mostly from our rowboat adventure with Sacha's dad.
Climbing the stairs at great-Grandmommy's beach house:
Talia loved having Poppa feed her breakfast on this morning:
Cuddles on the beach:
Nice place for a nap!:
Notice the sand - previously being eaten - still all around her mouth:
He was calling this shell his "finger hat":
Sharks!
Back home safe and sound:
Here's a photo of a common scene in the playroom:
And, some photos from our vacation with Sacha's parents. We had lots of fun at the beach and then back home in PDX. These are mostly from our rowboat adventure with Sacha's dad.
Climbing the stairs at great-Grandmommy's beach house:
Talia loved having Poppa feed her breakfast on this morning:
Cuddles on the beach:
Nice place for a nap!:
Notice the sand - previously being eaten - still all around her mouth:
He was calling this shell his "finger hat":
Sharks!
Back home safe and sound:
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Natalia's 13 month letter
Dear Natalia,
Well, kiddo, second child syndrome has finally hit your moms. Not only have we not finished the video of your first year that we meant to post on your birthday, but we forgot to make an appointment for your one year check-up at the doctor's, and they had to call us after your birthday came and went without us calling them. Then, we decided to cap it all off by forgetting to take you to said appointment! We're having a red letter month around here.
However, on the day we were supposed to take you to the doc, we went out berry-picking instead, and we all had a wonderful time out in the sun. You gorged yourself on as many berries as your little tummy could handle. Once you had hit your limit, you decided to wear the rest of the berries. You mashed them onto your skin, your clothes, into your hair, and anywhere else you could think of. It was a glorious morning and we were actually kind of glad we forgot about your appointment! So, I guess we'll post your 1 year stats in your 14 month letter! And, we promise to get on the ball and finish your video soon.
As you always have been, baby Talia, you are just a delight to be around. You seem to have been growing lately and you are eating us out of house and home. Your little hair is growing and you have curls in the back. Despite how tiny you are in terms of weight, you are chubby all over and your belly sometimes rests on your pudgy thighs when you sit down. We think you are the cutest little girl we've ever seen!
You learned a big new thing this month. You learned how to walk! You went from taking a step here and there to being able to make it across the room. You are still negotiating things with gravity, so your forays on two feet have been pretty short....but we'd say you are definitely a walker now. Pretty soon you'll be running around and chasing your brother!
Speaking of Mateo, you and he are doing a lot better these days. He's learning to be more gentle with you and you've stopped screaming if he comes anywhere near you. Both of these are good things! You sometimes play together and you think he's pretty hilarious. You have an absolutely adorable laugh and we always know when you think something is funny!
You're starting to say more words, or at least making your best approximations of them. You say "mama" for both of us, "te-te" for your brother, "ah-dah" for all done, and you repeat lots of other things that we say. You haven't been very interesting in signing yet, but you do do the signs for milk and all done, which are both quite useful!
Things are going well in the sleep department. You sleep mostly through the night these days, from about 7 pm to about 7 am. You often wake once in the night, but usually get yourself back to sleep. Sometimes it takes you quite awhile, but we know you're learning how to do it!
We've taken some trips in the last month - down to California to see one set of grandparents and out to the coast with the other set. You've enjoyed seeing new things and have mostly rolled with the changes in scenery.
Let's see, what else. You still love your mommy's milk and nurse a few times a day. Otherwise, you drink cow's milk and you're now using a sippy cup instead of a bottle. You rather abruptly outgrew the bottle and now you only want the sippy cup. It's very cute. You're a big girl these days!
We love you, little munchkin, more and more every day!
Kisses and hugs,
Mama and Mommy
PS: We'll post some photos soon!
Well, kiddo, second child syndrome has finally hit your moms. Not only have we not finished the video of your first year that we meant to post on your birthday, but we forgot to make an appointment for your one year check-up at the doctor's, and they had to call us after your birthday came and went without us calling them. Then, we decided to cap it all off by forgetting to take you to said appointment! We're having a red letter month around here.
However, on the day we were supposed to take you to the doc, we went out berry-picking instead, and we all had a wonderful time out in the sun. You gorged yourself on as many berries as your little tummy could handle. Once you had hit your limit, you decided to wear the rest of the berries. You mashed them onto your skin, your clothes, into your hair, and anywhere else you could think of. It was a glorious morning and we were actually kind of glad we forgot about your appointment! So, I guess we'll post your 1 year stats in your 14 month letter! And, we promise to get on the ball and finish your video soon.
As you always have been, baby Talia, you are just a delight to be around. You seem to have been growing lately and you are eating us out of house and home. Your little hair is growing and you have curls in the back. Despite how tiny you are in terms of weight, you are chubby all over and your belly sometimes rests on your pudgy thighs when you sit down. We think you are the cutest little girl we've ever seen!
You learned a big new thing this month. You learned how to walk! You went from taking a step here and there to being able to make it across the room. You are still negotiating things with gravity, so your forays on two feet have been pretty short....but we'd say you are definitely a walker now. Pretty soon you'll be running around and chasing your brother!
Speaking of Mateo, you and he are doing a lot better these days. He's learning to be more gentle with you and you've stopped screaming if he comes anywhere near you. Both of these are good things! You sometimes play together and you think he's pretty hilarious. You have an absolutely adorable laugh and we always know when you think something is funny!
You're starting to say more words, or at least making your best approximations of them. You say "mama" for both of us, "te-te" for your brother, "ah-dah" for all done, and you repeat lots of other things that we say. You haven't been very interesting in signing yet, but you do do the signs for milk and all done, which are both quite useful!
Things are going well in the sleep department. You sleep mostly through the night these days, from about 7 pm to about 7 am. You often wake once in the night, but usually get yourself back to sleep. Sometimes it takes you quite awhile, but we know you're learning how to do it!
We've taken some trips in the last month - down to California to see one set of grandparents and out to the coast with the other set. You've enjoyed seeing new things and have mostly rolled with the changes in scenery.
Let's see, what else. You still love your mommy's milk and nurse a few times a day. Otherwise, you drink cow's milk and you're now using a sippy cup instead of a bottle. You rather abruptly outgrew the bottle and now you only want the sippy cup. It's very cute. You're a big girl these days!
We love you, little munchkin, more and more every day!
Kisses and hugs,
Mama and Mommy
PS: We'll post some photos soon!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
California trip
We returned on Monday from a trip to the Bay Area to visit my parents. We hadn't been down there since last fall, so it was time for a visit. We all had a great time. Although we had the best intentions of calling friends who live in the area, we used our four days mostly to spend time with Grammy and Grandpa. The gravitational pull of my childhood home overpowered our will to socialize! We played a local park, ate some gourmet pizza, and then ate more and more and more, as my mom had stocked up on lots of favorite foods.
We went to a Giants game with my dad and visited Tilden Park and rode on the steam trains there. We even went to the big carousel in another part of Tilden, which was a big hit with the little guy. The kids could not get enough of their grandparents, which was really sweet. My sainted mother got up every morning at the crack of dawn to play with Mateo so we could sleep. Thanks, Mom! The kids had a rough time sleeping while we were down there and both of them were up several times every night. But, that was a small price to pay for a great vacation! We're looking forward to next time already.
********************************************
Now that we're back in PDX, we've launched into an extravaganza of berry picking. In the past two days, we've picked and frozen 20 pounds of marionberries! They are incredibly delicious, which is why we also saved some to eat fresh. The first day we went out, the berries were practically jumping into our hands, they were so ripe and plentiful. Today was less bountiful, but still fun. Of course, some days are all about trade-offs and today was one of them. We had parked the car right next to the row of berry bushes and were letting Mateo pretend to drive while we were just a few feet away. When we were getting organized at the car before driving away, M announced that he had put "money!" into the CD player. Who knows what he really put in there, but it doesn't really matter - it appears to be broken. Or, at least wounded. We were dismayed to realize that for whatever money we saved by picking massive amounts of fruit and freezing them for the winter, we are now about to spend (likely) far more to get the car stereo fixed. Argh.
******************************************
So, I am quitting my job. After Sacha got the news of her new position, we started looking into childcare. Wow, it is pricey. If we went that route, I'd be paying nearly my entire salary to have the kids in some kind of childcare while I worked. Add that to the fact that I would love nothing more to stay home with our munchkins, and we found our decision was made. In fact, as our health care will now be free (well, except for the taxes we'll pay on the cost of my health insurance, thanks to the government's lovely domestic partner policy), and Sacha will be getting a raise, we'll actually be doing better financially than we are now. I gave notice earlier this month and am going to work until the end of the month. As my job hinges on serving families in crisis, and summertime seems to be a prime time for that, things have been craaaazy at work this month and I'm not sure how I'm going to wrap it all up by July 30th. But, I'm sure it will work out. And I'm really looking forward to being a full-time mom again.
That's about all for now. We'll be hanging out with Sacha's parents for the next week, so blogging will continue to be light for a little while here. Here are some photos from our trip!
We went to a Giants game with my dad and visited Tilden Park and rode on the steam trains there. We even went to the big carousel in another part of Tilden, which was a big hit with the little guy. The kids could not get enough of their grandparents, which was really sweet. My sainted mother got up every morning at the crack of dawn to play with Mateo so we could sleep. Thanks, Mom! The kids had a rough time sleeping while we were down there and both of them were up several times every night. But, that was a small price to pay for a great vacation! We're looking forward to next time already.
********************************************
Now that we're back in PDX, we've launched into an extravaganza of berry picking. In the past two days, we've picked and frozen 20 pounds of marionberries! They are incredibly delicious, which is why we also saved some to eat fresh. The first day we went out, the berries were practically jumping into our hands, they were so ripe and plentiful. Today was less bountiful, but still fun. Of course, some days are all about trade-offs and today was one of them. We had parked the car right next to the row of berry bushes and were letting Mateo pretend to drive while we were just a few feet away. When we were getting organized at the car before driving away, M announced that he had put "money!" into the CD player. Who knows what he really put in there, but it doesn't really matter - it appears to be broken. Or, at least wounded. We were dismayed to realize that for whatever money we saved by picking massive amounts of fruit and freezing them for the winter, we are now about to spend (likely) far more to get the car stereo fixed. Argh.
******************************************
So, I am quitting my job. After Sacha got the news of her new position, we started looking into childcare. Wow, it is pricey. If we went that route, I'd be paying nearly my entire salary to have the kids in some kind of childcare while I worked. Add that to the fact that I would love nothing more to stay home with our munchkins, and we found our decision was made. In fact, as our health care will now be free (well, except for the taxes we'll pay on the cost of my health insurance, thanks to the government's lovely domestic partner policy), and Sacha will be getting a raise, we'll actually be doing better financially than we are now. I gave notice earlier this month and am going to work until the end of the month. As my job hinges on serving families in crisis, and summertime seems to be a prime time for that, things have been craaaazy at work this month and I'm not sure how I'm going to wrap it all up by July 30th. But, I'm sure it will work out. And I'm really looking forward to being a full-time mom again.
That's about all for now. We'll be hanging out with Sacha's parents for the next week, so blogging will continue to be light for a little while here. Here are some photos from our trip!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Signs and words
Natalia is starting to say a few things and sign some things as well. Two days ago, she started to sign milk while I was nursing her! She also now says "all done," mama, mommy and kitty cat. She also can let us know yes (which like everyone else in the family she says yah for) and no, which she lets us know by cocking her head to the side and shaking her head on the side. It is so amazing to see her communicate and want to communicate with us.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
5K
We went and ran in the local 4th of July 5K this morning and had tons of fun. We loaded the kids up into their double stroller and a lady shouted "3,2,1, go!" and off we went. The race was actually at the campus of the company where my uncle works, in a semi-rural area outside of Portland. It started at the campus and then went out in a big loop before coming back to finish at the start. The kids did amazingly well and seemed happy to watch the scenery go by. Mateo kept saying, intermittently, "this is a nice road!" and we finally figured out that he was saying that when we hit a shady part and the sun wasn't in his eyes.
Sacha and I ran together the whole way, which was fun. She finished her first-ever 5K!! I was the main stroller pusher, which evened out our paces so that we were both working hard! Pushing over 40 pounds of kids (plus however much the stroller weighs) for three miles turned out to be quite a workout. We were both quite proud of ourselves.
It wasn't too long ago that I had given up on ever being able to run again, so it feels great to have worked up to running two days a week with no major issues and then to be able to finish a 5K and feel good afterward. And, just because I'm too competitive for my own good, I must note that we were the first stroller to finish the race, beating out a pack of fancy jogging strollers. And, we were the only ones with a double stroller, to boot! We really just wanted to finish, but it was fun to win something, too :)
As an added bonus, there were popsicles at the finish and a kids' run about half an hour later.
Here are some photos of the morning:
The fam with our popsicles at the 5K finish line:
Mateo at the start of the kids' run:
Powering to the finish of the kids' run!:
Happy 4th of July to everybody!
Sacha and I ran together the whole way, which was fun. She finished her first-ever 5K!! I was the main stroller pusher, which evened out our paces so that we were both working hard! Pushing over 40 pounds of kids (plus however much the stroller weighs) for three miles turned out to be quite a workout. We were both quite proud of ourselves.
It wasn't too long ago that I had given up on ever being able to run again, so it feels great to have worked up to running two days a week with no major issues and then to be able to finish a 5K and feel good afterward. And, just because I'm too competitive for my own good, I must note that we were the first stroller to finish the race, beating out a pack of fancy jogging strollers. And, we were the only ones with a double stroller, to boot! We really just wanted to finish, but it was fun to win something, too :)
As an added bonus, there were popsicles at the finish and a kids' run about half an hour later.
Here are some photos of the morning:
The fam with our popsicles at the 5K finish line:
Mateo at the start of the kids' run:
Powering to the finish of the kids' run!:
Happy 4th of July to everybody!
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