Father’s Day

I’ll blog about our Father’s Day because I have more time than Keith does these days. A couple days before Father’s Day, I gave Oliver a card and envelope and asked him if he wanted to sign it. He grabbed his crayons and started to work on the envelope. I guess he prefered a blank canvas. I peeked at the envelope and asked him what he was drawing and he answered, “this is my daddy”. Naturally I’m proud of anything my son makes but even this one surprised me. Later that day we had some guests and Oliver came across a card for them. He announced to the room that he had made a card for his daddy. Note to self—don’t share any surprises or secrets with Oliver. Not that the card was a huge surprise but in addition to his drawing skills his memory is getting better too.


We let Keith sleep in a little and when we got to our room, it didn’t take too much prompting for Oliver to wish his daddy a Happy Father’s Day. It was pretty cute. I’m still amazed sometimes how far his language skills have come.

We headed to McMinnville for breakfast on the farm. Oliver’s Uncle Joe had mentioned that there were strawberries to be picked. Here are a few shots of Oliver picking and eating strawberries. He had a great time and we came home with strawberries, basil, sweet peas and broccoli. Yum! -Jenny

A bit more from last week

Our neighbors, the Lapour Family, generously brought dinner by last Thursday evening. It was a wonderful turkey chili with homemade biscuits and cookies for dessert. Keith happened to be working late that night so a meal delivered (it was still warm) was a welcome gesture. Even better was that there was plenty for lunches the next day! Thank you! Oliver couldn’t wait to try the biscuits. He kept asking for one until I finally gave in. When I asked him who made the biscuits he replied, “Rhett’s mommy made them”.

In addition to the great meal, Autumn made the kids name banners. For months I’ve wanted to decorate one of the walls in their room with their names. I had actually spent that morning at Jo-Ann’s Fabrics looking at paper-mache letters, wood letters and stencils. I couldn’t decide what to do so I ended up leaving empty-handed. The banners are wonderful and perfect for their room. Autumn has a store on Etsy. It was through Autumn’s blog that I first learned about Etsy. I can spend hours looking at all the goodies.

I’m terrible at taking pictures and do not do the banners justice. I plan to put pictures between the names.

Oliver continues to dote on his little sister. Kissing her all over and singing to her. These are some of the things I overheard him saying to her.

“Hi bootaful (beautiful) little fella.”
“Hi buddy.”
“Hi Zaeda Patayta (potato).” Keith taught him this one and it is by far his favorite.

While he adores his sister, it is hard for him that I can’t jump up and take care of his requests. A couple of things he has asked me.

“Is Zaeda eating, again?!”
“Can you make me a snack with one hand?”

He is learning patience and is doing pretty well with sharing his parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, etc with his little sister. -Jenny

Zada meets Zaeda

Zada, my grandmother, met her great-granddaughter Zaeda for the first time this past weekend. It was nice to visit with her and she brought with her a special gift for Zaeda—her first teddy bear. My grandfather (we called him Poppy) gave each of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren their first teddy bear. I may not get all the details of the story behind this tradition right and I apologize in advance. When Poppy was a little boy he almost died. His family had forgotten to bring his teddy bear with them to the hospital so a nurse who had taken to him, purchased a teddy bear for him. Poppy passed away this past December and it was a little heart-breaking to know that Zaeda would never meet her great-grandfather and that he would not be here to present her with this gift that has been a tradition in my family. He did know that I was expecting when he passed away. When I talked to my grandmother a few days after Zaeda was born, she mentioned that there had been some cash in my grandfather’s wallet when he passed away. She had wrestled with what to do with it and finally decided that it should be used for Zaeda’s first bear. Here she is with her first teddy bear. They are about the same size. -Jenny

“Hi Cutie!”

At Zaeda’s 6 day Mother and Baby appointment, we were pleased to learn that she was back to her birth weight and a smidgen more. We went to her two week appointment yesterday and she is up to 6 lbs 12 oz. The pediatrician reported that she was doing great. During our relatively short visit, Zaeda proceeded to show the pediatrician that what goes in must come out from either end. The doctor cleaned her up no less than two times. Miss Zaeda has a strong neck and during tummy time can move her head from side to side. I did notice that she always seemed fussy during her waking hours but this morning marked a welcome change. She had 30 minutes of just looking around or looking at me without much of a fuss. She is starting to focus on faces and as Keith mentioned in the last post, we are eager to see some social smiling.

Oliver continues to adore his sister. He gives her lots of kisses and strokes her head. He is very gentle with her. Last night as I was burping Zaeda, Oliver came up and in a high pitch voice said, “Hi Cutie!” over and over. It was very sweet. He can be considerate when playing his instruments around Zaeda. The other day I asked him to be a bit quieter when playing his harmonica so he told me he would play a quiet song from Zaeda. I really didn’t believe that he would but he very lightly blew into his harmonica and played a little song. Zaeda isn’t a fan of her car seat or car rides and she howls most of the time. Oliver takes her wailing in stride and either just sits there silently or starts singing. It certainly helps my nerves while I’m trying to navigate downtown Portland traffic at rush hour that my little guy is so patient with his little sister.

Hungry Little Sister, Noisy Big Brother

We’ve just finished a full week as a 4-person family. Everyone is healthy and happy, which is all we could ask for. At least 80% of the time at home, Jenny and I are each engaged with a kid – she most often with Zaeda, me with Oliver. Just keeping them both fed and out of trouble has required us to reconfigure our time management routine and downgrade our expectations of what we can get done on an evening or a weekend (right now, not much!). We’ve taken a few small trips around town with both kids and things are settling somewhat. We’d like to make a trip to the beach later this summer, but we’ll be primarily home-based this year.


Zaeda is bright-eyed, curious, wiggly and hungry. She’s looking around and giving us gas-related smiles every now and then. Can’t wait for the real thing! I don’t want to jinx us, but so far, she’s slept much better than Oliver did at this stage. I’ve actually been able to get a full night’s rest most nights. I know that won’t last and that we’ll have rough nights ahead, but I appreciate how Jenny has managed the baby in the wee hours.


Oliver adores his baby sister. He wants to hold her, kiss her, play with her, and know where she is at all times. He puts blankets on her (too many) and stacks toys around her (too many) and is really attentive. That said, we’re suddenly aware of what a noisy kid he is. When he was a newborn, we tip-toed through the house, whispered to each other, and sent the pets outside at the first woof and meow. Zaeda gets no such peace. As she is sleeping, her big brother is nearby playing his ever-present recorder (a combination whistle, drumstick, puzzle, and club that he brings out several times a day), shouting, stomping, singing, and yes, even clashing his cymbals (why cymbals, Mom and Dad, er.. I mean, Santa???).

Amazingly, she sleeps through most of it.


Oliver highlights:

1. We bought some alphabet magnets for the fridge. He asked that I write his name so he could find the magnet letters and place them in order. Then he took all the magnets and aligned them with the same letters on the foam floor mat in his room.

2. Oliver generally manages the VCR. He can load a tape and get it playing by himself. His choices dominate the living room entertainment much more than they should.

3. Oliver started at a new daycare downtown last week. They have a sandbox which we learned when we loaded him into the car and discovered buckets of sand hiding in his clothes and shoes. This is his car seat at the end of the week:

4. Oliver standing at the sink and filling his water glass again and again. Ostensibly he just wants to “get a drink of water”. In fact, he wants to play. Much water is wasted before we can pull him away. Sorry, planet earth (we’ll discuss the diapers later).

Oliver quotes:

“Aye, me hearties!”
“I’m sorry. It was an accident.”
“That’s delicious. It’s my favorite!”
“Good idea!”
“I don’t want everything.”
“I put the flute in my mouth and I play it!”