Picture of Daddy (with arms and teeth)

Apparently my son sees me as a giant black bug. He drew himself as the happy brown fellow in the upper right corner.

Anniversary (and conversations about peeing)

In the summer of 1999 I proposed to Jenny in the Portland Rose Garden. Since then, we’ve tried to make it up there for a picnic each August in celebration of our anniversary. We used to just grab some food and a blanket and make our way to the grassy concert area, and if we were lucky, there would be a band playing. If there was no band, at least we had the view. And we always set the timer on the camera and took a picture of ourselves to commemorate the moment.

This yearly picnic is now a family event. Of course, with the kids, it takes us 10 minutes to get everything out of the car. Yesterday we piled stuff into the stroller and realized how far away the ramps down to the garden really are. So instead, we carried kids and supplies down the stairs. Lots of work, but it was worth it! There was a band playing yesterday – and they handed out plastic kazoos! Before we made our little mess with crackers, cheese and meats from the Italian grocery store downtown, we snapped a photo where 75% of us were smiling. It was a great night!

Man, Oliver has a lot of songs. He picks them up from school and TV and anywhere else. He is always singing and playing his instruments, both real (kazoo, guitar, harmonica, flute, xylophone) and imagined (drums, Lego saxophone and Lego trombone).

The potty training remains a work in progress, but things are moving along. We’re working on terms for bodily functions so he’s all the more ready to let us know what’s happening.

A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW BOYS CAN PEE

Oliver is sitting in the bathtub with his hand between his legs.

DAD: Oliver, what are you doing? Are you holding your penis?

OLIVER: Yes, I am peeing with it.

Oliver sits up and directs a stream back and forth across his bathtub.

DAD: Oh! Is that fun?

OLIVER: Yes!

DAD: I know that’s fun, but you have to get out of the bath now.

Protest ensues as Oliver is taken out of the tub and dried with a towel.

OLIVER: But I want to…! No-o-o-o!!!

DAD: It’s fun to hold your penis and pee, Oliver. But you have to do that in the toilet. Or outside. Sometimes boys can pee outside.

OLIVER: Outside?

DAD: Yes, in the grass.

OLIVER: Like Abbie?

(Abbie is our dog)

DAD: Well….

OLIVER: I can pee and poop in people’s grass and you will pick it up with a bag. I will hold my penis and pee in their yard!

DAD: Um… no.

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BABY ZAEDA HANGING OUT

Zaeda is full of smiles and giggles. But she also needs lots of holding and feeding. She’s gotten delightfully chubby, as you can see.

At the zoo last weekend with Joseph. He and I took both kids.

Oliver watched us clean Zaeda's nails with a file and said that he had to do the same for his mommy.

New House Color!

We just had the house painted this last week. What a relief to be done with it.

Here's Oliver just now, making noise:

Zaeda's Two Month Check-Up

Today was Zaeda's two month check-up. Here are her stats:
Weight: 10 lbs 13.5 oz (51 percentile)
Height: 23" (75 percentile)
Head Circumference: 15" (33 percentile)

She is doing great and the doctor commented on how well she could hold up her head and look around. We get lots of smiles and coos these days. She just realized that if she kicks her legs against the bottom of her bouncy chair that it will move. That entertained her for a few minutes today.

I didn't mean to cut off the top of her head but she lifted herself up a big higher than I expected.

Here are a couple of photos from the weekend-

Filing down her fingernails or first manicure.

Taking a nap with her dad.

Today marked the beginning of a heat wave here in Oregon. I've been making sure Oliver is drinking plenty of water and one thing he likes is ice cubes so I always put one or two in his cup. He had finished his cup of water and asked for another cup. I agreed but told him that I was only going to give him one ice cube. I ended up going ahead and giving him two. He noticed and commented on the fact that he had two ice cubes in his water. He then thanked me for putting two ice cubes in his water. I thought that was pretty sweet as he said it without being prompted but then he said, "I'm so proud of you for putting two ice cubes in my water". It was all I could do not to bust out laughing. -Jenny

Visit from Mimi and Grandpa and Baby Smiles

Oliver and Zaeda's Grandpa and Mimi came up to see them last weekend. Here are a couple of pictures from their visit. Oliver went back to California with them to spend a week enjoying the rodeo.

Mimi holding Zaeda.
Oliver sitting on Grandpa's lap while he looks at slides of Handy Manny on his new View-Master.

A week or so ago, Zaeda started smiling at us. I've had some trouble capturing her little smiles but Keith was able to get a couple of good pictures. -Jenny

Family Pictures

We had new family pictures taken about two weeks ago. We felt it was necessary given that our family had changed. I also wanted to make sure that we had professional pictures taken of Zaeda as we did with Oliver. We've been going to Kellie for about six years and we are always happy with her work. I'm very honored that we are in her slide show on her website. I also like that she blogs about her sessions which gives us a sneak peak into the pictures before we see all of them. Although she writes that both kids were good, Zaeda was a bit fussy. Oliver had a blast. -Jenny

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!”

Introducing Zaeda Marie Evers!

Born 1:40 am on May 26, 2009

6 lbs, 8 oz

20 inches

Our hearts are bursting with love for this kid!

Delivery went smoothly and both Jenny and Zaeda are doing great. Without going into too much detail, everything went much more smoothly than with Oliver two and a half years ago (he was c-section). Zaeda came naturally and arrived just 3 or 4 hours after we checked in.

The first name comes from Jenny’s grandmother, the middle name from Keith’s grandmother. Other than that she’s as healthy and as cute as newborn babies get, there’s only so much more we can tell at this point. She was pretty quiet the first day, barely crying when she was hungry. However by day two she found her voice and is now wailing away when she needs to. We can’t wait to see how her hair and eye color come in.

Oliver was fascinated with his little sister and reacted with love and curiosity. He kept saying “I like her!” and pretty soon was telling everyone “My baby sister’s name is Zaeda!” (We hadn’t told him the name before she was born).

Oliver even decorated the nurse’s whiteboard with pictures.
He also took control of the camera for some of those 3 foot point of view shots he does so well. Here is his photo of me:
Now we’re home and getting adjusted. Watch for updates on life with our beautiful girl!

Countdown

This weekend marks the "due date" for baby sister, and it could be tomorrow, or as we learned with Oliver, a week from now. Patience.... Jenny worked through today and is now officially on leave, finally ready to take it easy and gather her strength.

Today we had a nice time in the sun in the front yard. Oliver picked flowers for his mom (and just to throw them in the air) and was very affectionate with Abbie. It was a nice playful spell before an extended tantrum in the evening. He's clearly out of sorts with schedule changes in the family, and the biggest change is just ahead. It's tough for him and he lets us know it. We love our son, but we're really getting to practice our skills at patience, negotiation, and general communication with a fuming, stomping, screaming monster. Maybe I should capture those moments with the camera more often?

Well not today. Here I give you the sunny Oliver, posing for the last time as the solitary star of this blog:

"Say cheese, Abbie" (because Daddy is pointing the camera at us right now)

One Sunny Day

It's so nice to be getting some regular sunshine! Here's a day in the life of the Evers family:

We went for a walk to Alberta street. Oliver rode most of the way in the wagon and experienced life through his sunglasses. We stopped for ice cream.
Back home, we took out baby sister practice doll again. Oliver played with her a bit then decided she should come on our tricycle ride around the block.

The doll went in the trunk of his tricycle and…

…immediately fell out.
Once she was stashed in the trunk again, we were off down the block, where we ran into our friends and neighbors, Dan, Autumn, Rhett and Mezmur out for a ride of their own.

We traveled half a block with them and said “See you later.” They were leaving the block, but we were just making the usual circle.


After that we tossed the football around.


Relaxing in the evening, Oliver checked on his real baby sister. She's kicking!
Then he took his practice baby sister into the bath, where he showed us that we should NEVER trust him alone in the bath with the real baby. She took on so much liquid that days later I’m still trying to dry her out. At first, it was instructive, as she has a hole to mirror the natural act of urination. But it’s impossible to get it all out!