December so far

We’ve kept pretty busy but not that crazy busy that, well, drives me crazy. We’ve been careful not to over do it. I hate to say no to activities that come up but I think leaving some open time leaves us all a little happier. We started off the month with our annual family pictures. We usually have our photos done around the end of October but the photographer was back East visiting her new baby granddaughter. We tried in November but Zaeda was really sick and with her staying up most of the night, three out of four of us looked really bad the day we were scheduled to shoot. So we rescheduled. We finally made it in to see the photographer when we were all feeling better. Here are a few pictures from our session. Sorry, grandparents, you’ll have to wait to see your photos; they are not shown here.

We went to Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo with Karri and Michael on one of the coldest evenings that we’ve had in Portland. It was 24 degrees but you wouldn’t have known it by watching Oliver. He was so excited. Both kiddies were bundled up and so cozy that Zaeda fell asleep.

Oliver’s new quips:

“No way, Jose!”
“Fantastic”

He continues to be very sweet with Zaeda. He recently asked me to put her on the floor but have her standing so that he could dance with her. If my hands hadn’t been so full I would have taken a picture.

We were getting ready for work and Zaeda was on the bed just hanging out. Oliver climbed up and grabbed a pacifier to give to her. Zaeda hasn’t really taken to a pacifier so I was interested to see what was going to happen. Instead I heard Oliver saying, “Here comes the train, Zaeda. Time to open the tunnel.” I suspect he heard this from his Nana. It was so cute!

Zaeda still continues to surprise us with how much and how often she can eat. She can put away a 2.5 oz container of baby food and then want to nurse minutes later. She's a solid little girl. So far we haven’t found a food she doesn’t like. So far she's had bananas, squash, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, peaches, pears and applesauce. Next on the menu will be prunes.

At the beginning of the month I picked Oliver up from daycare and he handed me this picture. He drew it all with the exception of the Christmas tree. I’ve had it at my desk for the last couple of weeks but decided I should share.

The picture is of me decorating our tree. The little things that look like they are leaping off the tree are the lights and he said the marks on the tree were seeds. He pointed out that he drew my curly hair. The long lines to the left of the picture are our stockings. I think he captured our tree trimming moment perfectly.

Oliver attended his first friend’s birthday party this month. It was held at a gymnastics and dance studio in Tigard. We all had a great time. Here are the kids in the foam block pit. Oliver is the one in the orange and navy shirt (right in the center at the start of the video).

Zaeda met up with the birthday girl’s little brother. They are all in the same classes. As you can see, he is really smitten with her.

We also made the customary visit to Santa. Oliver could barely keep his pants on he was so excited. But as soon as he got to Santa he clammed up. Zaeda wanted nothing to do with the big guy.

Zaeda at 6 months, solid food and Oliver’s antics

Zaeda turned 6 months old on Thanksgiving. We celebrated by giving her mashed bananas. She wasn’t too sure about it and after a few bites it all came back up. We tried again the next day but no luck. We finally resorted to rice cereal and all is well. She gets very excited when we hold the spoon in front of her; sometimes she gets so worked up that her whole body shakes.

We went to the pediatrician and her stats are-

Height- 2’3” (89%)
Weight- 16 lb 3.5 oz (54%)
Head Circumference- 16.73” (51%)
She loves to talk, growl and squeal. Her range is varied and fun to listen too. She's sitting up completely unassisted. Being pulled to standing is still her favorite activity but we just located Oliver’s old baby toys and she has been playing with a variety of them. If she sees something she wants, she just reaches for it. The other day she almost toppled over face first in an effort to grab some keys. Great-Grandma Zaeda gave her her first baby doll and Zaeda spends a lot of time with the baby’s foot, shirt or hand in her mouth.

Oliver continues to amuse us as well. His toilet training is going pretty well—some days are better than others. Tonight I found him in his usual corner doing his “business.” When I asked him what he was doing, he admitted the obvious and then added, “and talking to myself.”
He has also learned that items put on higher shelves are not necessarily out of reach if you use a chair or toy crates stacked upon each other.

He is stubborn at times and recently told both me and Keith on separate occassions that he didn’t want us telling him what to do. I had hoped that we wouldn’t reach that stage for about 10 more years.

He's very curious about reading and sounds out the letters on signs and in books. He often tells Keith during storytime, “No, I want to do it (read) myself.”

Recent Oliver quips:

• "Yes sir!"


• "Poopy!" ( repeated, sung aloud, or as the primary topic of any conversation -- all we had to say was that it was sometimes not a good word to use, and it shot to the front of his vocabulary)


• "Vacaroom" -- the noisy thing we use to clean the carpet.


• Tofu ="toe-food"


• "Why?" and "what?" -- Why is it dark? Why is the moon coming up? What is a prince? What is a king? Which led to a discussion about Robin Hood where Oliver said it was bad to take money from people. This doesn’t seem to apply to Oliver as he is always taking coinsoff of Keith’s nightstand.
  

Our weekends in December are already looking busy (How can that be!) so we decided to get our tree this past weekend. I usually consider it a bit sacriligious to put up a tree before December but we just didn’t know when we could get it done. Oliver LOVED decorating the tree this year. When Keith was putting on the lights, Oliver remarked how handsome the tree looked. He did a good job decorating the tree—most of the ornaments were in one section about 2 ½ feet off the floor in about a space 3 feet wide. When we were finished, he looked up at the tree and told me that our tree was beautiful. After so many years of tree decorating, you forgot how beautiful a Christmas tree can look. Just another reason to slow down and enjoy these few evenings before Christmas.

Halloween, Zaeda’s giggle, and a little affection from KGW’s Drew Carney

Our Halloween festivities started on Friday with a parade and party at Oliver and Zaeda’s daycare. Zaeda was a pumpkin and Oliver was an astronaut. Yes, he was an astronaut again this year--the outfit still fit! The day before the party he announced he wanted to be a tuba but settled for being an astronaut. Whew!

We practiced the door-to-door routine with Oliver before he left to go trick-or-treating. He soon got the hang of it and received a lot of candy. At one point in the evening, I saw Keith, Zaeda and Oliver walking across the street. Oliver was quickly hopping about—clearly on a sugar high.

Keith loves to make Zaeda laugh and Zaeda loves to play with her dad. Here they are in action.

In honor of the World Series, KGW’s Drew Carney paid a visit to my sister and brother-in-law’s restaurant Philly Bilmos. It may be a little hard to hear the actual footage—our household wasn’t exactly quiet. We were too excited for Karri and Michael. -Jenny

October traditions

Here is what we do each October:


We celebrate a birthday!



Our boy is three! Oh, what a day for Oliver --tons of attention from his greatest admirers, those loving grandparents and aunts and uncles, a healthy dose of sugar, and a bunch of noisy new toys to drag around the house. Jenny turned out a very impressive and delicious robot cake. Look at all those buttons!

Oliver imitating Dick Van Dyke again in Mary Poppins (one man band)

His new word is "actually" and he uses it to start any sentence, apropos of nothing. "Actually daddy, I need you to get my puzzle down." or "actually, I used my blocks to build a straw house" (in reference to his 3 Little Pigs obsession).





Zaeda watched her brother's birthday party in delight. Like her brother, she does just fine in a crowd, making the rounds and getting kissed and played with. She's sleeping a bit better, though she still wakes up hungry a couple times a night. She is sitting up pretty well by herself. She loves to be pulled to a standing position. The drooling is pretty heavy now, but so far, we haven't seen any teeth come through, though she's clearly working in it, chewing on toys and clothes and hands. If you're not careful with her, she'll gum up an arm and give you a hickey.

Zaeda had her 4 month check-up at the beginning of the month. Here are her stats:

Height- 2' 1.75" (90%)

Weight- 14 lb 8 oz (62%)

Head Circumference- 16.26" (53%)

We decorate the house

Jenny and I cut out paper ghosts and monsters so that Oliver could decorate them. Hilariously, he decorated the front of a monster, then turned it over and said "he needs a bottom" and that's what he drew.



We journey to the pumpkin farm
We try a new pumpkin farm each year and I'm starting to think we should settle on just one so we know what to expect and where to go. Each is a complicated and somewhat disorganized melee as some family homestead is flooded with thousands of strangers for a few select weekends of the year. We approach each one ready to play the part of livestock, not knowing where we'll be driven, when we'll find food, or a place to rest.

Where will the hordes of city-dwellers just like us park their cars? In the muddy field? In a gravel lot? Along the street? I guess we'll ask that teenager over there with the boots and the orange flag.

How do we get to the pumpkin field? Walk? Tractor? Miniature train? Boat? Will we get a wheelbarrow? A wagon? Are tickets up front or or do we pay the smiling kid at the head of the line? Hang on to something. Thanks for the ride!

What'll everything cost? This lumpy 12-pound pumpkin is ten bucks, you say? OK, here you go! May we pay you $2 to pose in front of this hay bale and scarecrow? Thanks! Mmmm, Kettle corn! A muddy corn maze! Let's pet those goats and bunnies! Yeah, the porta potties! A line of people just like me!

We do have fun at these places, but I can't help but feel hustled. I grew up on a sprawling farm in the country, and now I pay through the nose for the idea that we're introducing our little city kids to a farm-like experience. Really, it's a circus -- a carnival of kitchy and overpriced manufactured farm-like cliches. Where is the quiet? The piles of fresh manure?

What I really feel is envy. What fun it would be to run this show! Too bad our family place is so far from the city...

Yesterday & Tomorrow

This is last weekend’s trip to Multnomah Falls. We flew a super cheap kite on the beach of the Columbia and had a great time.

Little Zaeda’s eyes seem to have settled into a bright blue and she is extremely attentive to her surroundings, especially the people around her. We’ll have her on a shoulder as we do something in public and turn around to find she’s been grinning at some stranger, and if that stranger is someone’s grandma, we’ll certainly have a conversation about babies. It’s kinda funny.

Big brother seems to be one of her favorites, as he’s always putting on a show and coming over to talk and sing and tug at her arms. I don’t think he’s ever made her cry – and that’s saying something considering how rambunctious he is. I'm sure we won't be able to say that for long.

Zaeda is sitting up and balancing now. She loves to be pulled up to a standing position. Vocally, we’re getting lots of growling, cooing, and giggling. Kiss her neck just right and she chuckles out loud.

Jenny went back to work this month and we made it through the schedule adjustment in good shape. We run our household like clockwork on weekdays. Continued thanks to all the family members helping us out with babysitting!

Oliver’s two favorite words seem to be “yesterday” and “tomorrow” – all-purpose terms for the past and future, as in “Yesterday I [insert something that happened days, weeks, or months ago].” He’s readily identifying the letters in words he sees and we’re working on letters that words start with. He can recognize words like “Stop” and “Oliver” on sight but he’s not yet spelling out words from sounds. We’ll work on that in the year ahead (as well as toilet management :-) As for writing, he’s had “O” for a while. Below is a recent example of “E” and “P.”
In general, he’s goofing off and playing and grumbling like any almost-three-year-old. For the most part it’s entertaining. We recently watched “Mary Poppins.” Remember the part where Dick Van Dyke pulls down his pants to dance like a penguin? Jenny showed him how to do it himself and now he announces "I’m going to do the Mary Poppins penguin dance!” and pulls his pants to his ankles and bounces around. We agree that we should try not to let him do that outside of the house.
This was earlier today at Champoeg Park, where we watched people in old timey clothes make old timey apple cider and listened to old timey music.

Here’s what we did on a recent Sunday morning.

Back to the Beach

This weekend marked our yearly stay in Neskowin, where the forecast all week had been storm showers leading us to pack for the worst, which we got, but in short spurts, with plenty of nice sunshine between. It was a pleasant surprise. This is our first real trip out of the house since Zaeda was born and we needed it!

We HAVE to take the dog when we go there. It seems the trip is mostly for her, our poor city pooch who must walk around the same Portland blocks day after day. It’s her time to really tear out on the sand and plunge into Hawk Creek for a swim. This year, Jenny and I had to learn to manage three at a time, which wasn’t too hard. Zaeda is quite portable, and she was a good sport when, as she was facing forward in the sling, we got caught in a rainstorm. Her little round face was soaking, but her expression was wide-eyed and interested.

The other part of getting out of the house is feeling no shame about sitting around a rented room, living like a slob and watching TV. We don’t have full cable, and we really don’t want it. We spend most of our time flipping channels to find the good stuff. Oliver knows all the characters on the kid’s shows on Nickelodeon from when he stays at his grandparents’ houses. It’s scary how much he knows them. No cable!

The wonderful moments were walking on the beach. We collected shells and dug holes, made sand castles and chased seagulls. One strange thing: Oliver found a Frisbee in the sand and after watching me throw it, he gave it a toss and it quickly turned on its side and rolled. Then the wind caught it in such a way that it kept right on rolling, on and on, far down the beach for hundreds of yards until it was out of sight! I was amazed. Oliver just assumed that that’s what Frisbees do, and could he throw it again? (No luck. That sucker was gone.)

That Mysterious Place (Zaeda version)

When Oliver was about the age that Zaeda is now, we propped him in front of a mirror for a picture and then diagramed the back of his head. This weekend we took advantage of the large mirror in the room to do the same shot for Zaeda.

Oliver Feb 2007

Zaeda Sept 2009

Zaeda at three months

We just got back from having Zaeda’s pictures taken at JCPenney. She was very photogenic and the photographer got some great shots. I had trouble just picking a couple for prints. Here are three that I think are pretty cute.

I feel like Zaeda might be getting a bit short-changed when it comes to the blog. It seems like we documented Oliver’s every sneeze and we haven’t really done the same for Zaeda.

For the record, Zaeda can coo and gurgle. She also has a very loud and gleeful shriek that comes out when she is excited. She stands up pretty well and can sit up for short periods with little assistance. She can roll over from her back to her tummy. I’m hoping to catch her rolling over on video soon.

She can put her hands together and grab things. She loves to grab the monkey (the purple, black and white thing on the left) on her bouncy chair and chew on it. She is a very happy baby. I love it when I look at her (without smiling) and she flashes me her big gummy smile. -Jenny