Blanket for the Second Taft Great Grandson

Aaron's cousin Jim (his mom's sister's son) and Jim's wife, Jen, had a baby boy in June. Baby Elliott is the second great grandchild for Grandma Ruby Taft. We've not had a chance to meet him, as he's on the other coast, but we've seen many pictures of the beautiful little guy. Here are some pictures of him with the blanket I made him. It's a little thicker than others I've made, as I was thinking of the New England winters.

Thank you to Jen for the pictures!

Christmas Tree Farm

Funny how kids cause you to embrace traditions and extra holiday season efforts. For many years we've had a live Christamas tree. Aaron brings it in the house about a week before Christmas and then hauls it back out only a day or two after Christmas. Oh, yes! And, in the meantime, we decorate it and enjoy it for a week but then we need to avoid over taxing the tree's system. After a few years of use, we plant the tree on the family property in Tillamook.

With Saul's enthusiasm seeing Christmas lights and his overall holiday cheer, we decided to go to a u-cut place on Sauvie's Island. Saul was very excited with the prospects of the adventure going to a "tree farm". We headed out Saturday morning and were preparing to start walking towards the trees when I saw a familiar car. Yes, Michelle, Jeff and Claire were pulling into the same exact tree farm. Completely unplanned. Not discussed at all. They had no idea we were going to get a tree on Saturday. And, how could we have known they had the same idea?! But, we had an great time all the same and the kids thought it was fun to get a tree together. How crazy is that?!

Here are some pictures from our unexpected family adventure:

Claire and Saul very happy to see each other. Their visits do often start this way.

Saul playing peek-a-boo around the tree branches.

Saul and Claire having fun walking around the trees while we all tried to select the best trees for our homes.
The beginning of the end. They were building bird nests with dead grass and debris...and they started arguing. "That's my tree." "That tree's just MY size." "No, just MY size." And Aaron thought there would be nothing to fight over.

Aaron preparing to cut the tree without getting his knees all dirty.

Saul watching Aaron and expressing a lot of curiousity: "What you doing, Dadda?... Dadda, what you doing?"

Somehow I didn't get a picture of it, but at the end of the trip, the kids each got a candy cane. Saul eats like a Simmons or Taft or a Wieting. He chewed his candy cane up in less than 5 minutes. And, Claire's pace appears more like Michelle and Julie's, which involved barely sucking on it and then trying to steal some from Saul's in the meantime. :)

Pretending

Saul and Claire frequently act like siblings, "That's mine." "No, mine." "No, Claire, it's mine." "No!" followed by a hit or a push. However, when they're not together, at least Saul regularly asks to see Claire. "Go to Claire's house today?" "Maybe we see Claire and Auntie Michelle and Uncle Jeff at their house today?" Or, while we were in Stevenson for the weekend he asked at least three times each morning to go see Claire.

In the last few months, they've actually begun to play TOGETHER. Often it involves laying on Saul's bed and telling us to leave the room so they can sleep. The results range from them snickering and running out to see us or a battle over some toy or pillow/head location.

Most recently, Claire wasn't feeling great so was lounging on the couch at our place, really wanting to be left alone and ready to go home to her house. But, Michelle and I were having fun chatting. As we were talking, Saul put a blanket on Claire and then began bringing toy after toy from his room to have a turn cuddling with Claire. While she pretended to sleep, Saul would put his hand on her belly to comfort her and sing her the ABCs. Eventually, Claire decided she felt well enough to have her turn helping Saul take a nap. Pretty darn cute!

Claire pretending to sleep with one of the last toys to come out of his room.
Notice his hand and his focus on her. He is singing to her.
Claire checking out the newest toy and reserving the right to reject it. Monkey proved sufficient once Michelle pointed out it was like her bug. Saul having his turn cuddling with big bear while Claire sings...what else?
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

Soliciting opinions

My creative outlet remains crocheting - it's an activity for in the car while Aaron's driving, while watching a little tv, or while sitting next to Saul as he's settling down for the evening with a little Sesame Street. In general, it's a great hobby for me!

I recently selected yarn for baby boy #2's blanket and decided that I wanted to make squares and assemble quilt like. All I've determined thus far are the colors and the pattern for the square. The challenge now is the overall pattern of assembly. Below are three options I'm leaning towards. Personally, at least this evening I'm most torn between 2 of the options (I won't say which two), but am including all three options.

Option #1: The most straightforward and requiring the least amount of additional work before assembling. Dark chocolate brown down the middle . On the right side, turquoise and variegated turquoise for two rows and then the burnt orange and variegated orange on the outside. On the left side, the equivalent, but with orange and turquoise colors reversed.
Option #2: No dark brown at all (though the burnt orange looks brown in this picture. The variegated orange is the X that creates the four quadrants. Top and bottom quadrant is largely made up of solid and variegated turquoise. Left and right quadrants have the burnt orange and then set of three turquoise to fill in. Unfortunatley, to finish the pattern I basically need to make the other half.

Option #3: A varieation on option 2. The X is in the deep chocolate brown. Then, right and left quadrants are turquoise and top and bottom quadrants are orange.

Stevenson weekend - Nov 2010

Why post pictures from our August vacation before posting this weekend's trip to Stevenson? Though I'm determined to catch up on about 4 months of blogging, or at least picturing, for now, I'm living in the moment. The new camera and awesome shots I got despite a constantly moving 2 year old and low light also is motivating me to post this shots from this weekend's relaxing weekend away.

We were supposed to be in Stevenson in October. Well, really we were supposed to be there in June. Aaron told me to call and make reservations for my birthday/Mother's Day. However, the only Thursday - Saturday night stay they had in one of our preferred rooms was in October. So I booked it....for Aaron's birthday. But, by the time October rolled around I'd gotten the weekend wrong and it was the weekend of the Mineral Symposium. So, we postponed to the weekend before Thanksgiving. And, despite the cold, it was a perfect pre-holiday get away.

We learned lots about Saul's tolerance for noise, which we've always known is low. Now we also know that it's sort of selective!

The night before the trip. But, I can't resist the chance to post this pic! Finally, a smile is a smile instead of a weird grimace smile when the camera comes out!

The new evening routine - a little Sesame Street and Elmo time before bed time. It slows him down enough to start thinking about bed.

With milk cup empty, it's time to cuddle with Dadda for the last bit of Elmo.
Coffee Friday morning. Notice the flannel, "like Dadda." Saul's trying really hard to be patient while waiting for Aaron to finish his coffee. For a bit, this meant posing like this staring at Aaron.Really yummy Saturday morning bacon! I felt we were cheating on Otto's, but Laurelhurst Meat Market bacon is really, really good, too! (And, yes, that's Saul's bed head.)
The Saturday morning walk to coffee. Quite windy and cold out, with the snow line visible on the Oregon side of the Columbia. Saul's trying to bat at the balloons, but the breeze keeps them moving.We stopped in a store called, "Grandma's Place" with lots of great handmade items made by local community members. Saul thought these dolls needed a friend.Saturday evening as we were leaving Walking Man Brewery, Saul was entranced by the bag pipers. Though they were loud, he didn't cover his years, distinguishing their music from the loud whistles of the very nearby trains. We spent at least 20 minutes with him enjoying the music as he danced, skipped and just listened with his big grin. The bag pipers. Playing outside of Walking Man, with a beer, or two or three, is apparently an area tradition. We've heard and seen them on many past occasions. This was the first time we stopped to enjoy for a while.

Saul's 2nd Backyard Birthday Party

Apparently, the rule for blogging is to wait a month to post about it. The advantage, I suppose, is that I'm fully living in the moment and then remembering back to post about it. On the other hand, for those far away who are using this to keep up with a certain grandkid, it's slower than snail mail!

Saul's mid-June birthday has proven great for an outdoor party two years in a row. This year was very different than last year though. Last year involved keeping a close eye on two little crawlers (Saul and Claire) as they explored everything that might be worth putting in their mouths. This year they both tried very hard to keep up with their big cousins, Kelsey and Trevor, in the pool and all over the yard.

It was a very warm day, as seen by the lack of pants and/or anything but underwear on the kids. Playing in the pool got everything wet and it was warm enough no one worried about it. Oddly, there are pictures of the kids and a few adults, but no pictures of the three grandparents who were in attendance.

Two of Saul's three aunties.

Eating cupcakes. Claire eating hers on the run, as she eats many things.

Saul sitting in his birthday throne.

Todd, Trevor and Kelsey enjoying their cupcakes in the sun.
Weighing the options before devouring.

Licking off the frosting. The warm sun made the frosting extra soft.

Opening one of his very nice gifts. Though he's enjoying all of his gifts, two favorites at the moment are the Elmo from Julie and family and the hot rod tricycle from Papa Tom. Elmo has joined many conversations and the tricycle is the envy of both kids and adults on the block.

We all want one....in our size!

2nd birthday and 1st international trip

Saul got to celebrate his 2nd birthday in Vancouver, BC. We were there for dragonboat competition for Aaron and had a great time visiting the city. It turned out the weather was much better in BC than it was here in Portland!

Saul loves to cheer for Aaron's team. "Go Wasabi Burn!" he yells. Then, as we were watching Aaron's team getting ready at the start line for one race, Saul started getting more creative. "Go Wasabi Burn. Dadda's boat, please. Go dadda!" Not only is Saul enthusiastic, but he definitely gets others into the spirit.

Vancouver has so many parks along the waterfront of False Creek. Alot was rejuvenated for the Olympic Winter Games and then generally the city's just really park and outdoor friendly. Saul and I did a lot of walking between races, covering at least 4 miles on Saturday, including a short ferry ride. Every time he'd see a park, he'd say, "Another slide, Momma." After a few more trips to the area, we may need to write a book on the slides of Vancouver.

Trying out his new Elmo backpack. "It's my birthday. If I can't go out in just a diaper I'll 'take a little rest' for a while longer."

2-year-olds don't need their moms to go down the slide with them!

Saul's, "No, Mom!" this trip confirmed that he can tackle nearly any slide alone.

A "smile" while riding a horsey on his birthday.

Carefully scooping sand to place at the base of the yellow slide.

We later learned that this is one of the fastest slides ever! He loved it!
Hard at work. Notice his tongue. He spent a lot of time at this.

Getting lined up for a race. I think you can click in and get a closer view.

Aaron and his team are on boat 6 and Aaron's in the second to the last row.

"I don't need a back seat driver, Mom!" Playing at a park right in the midst of the race venue.

Yes, that's a Canadian military vehicle in the background.

They help with the event and then showcase some of their vehicles.

The kid slept this trip!

Three hours in the car both ways, even after not waking up until nearly 8:30!

Saul is two!

Yes, Saul turned two. We were in Vancouver, BC, on his birthday and will be having a small little family party this weekend. For now, here are his two-year stats. Recent pictures to come:

Weight: 28 lbs.
Height: 34.5 inches

This means he's only gained 2 pounds since December but has grown 2 inches. And, he's in the 65th percentile for both height and weight. He's a healthy little guy!

Day 8 to 10: Moab to home

Yes, we did ultimately make our way out of Ouray, on to Moab and eventually home. Moab and Arches National Park were fabulous! The scenery is so unique and beautiful and made me want to return to Bryce Canyon. Another trip.

Aaron was feeling better. So, on the last day and a half we actually got out and did some light hiking, which was just about the right pace for Saul. On Saturday morning, the last day of the trip, we woke up on Saul schedule, finished packing quickly, picked up breakfast at a great organic coffee shop/breakfast place and hit the road at 9 a.m. mountain time.

We stopped just north of Salt Lake City for a lunch/bathroom/run around break. And, we stopped again someplace in Oregon. Then, we had an unplanned stop to accommodate a very over-tired boy who should have been sleeping but wanted nothing more to do with car seats.

Rather than helping him fall asleep we apparently helped him find his third wind, which resuled in some of the funniest songs of the trip. The kid loves to sing. And, make up songs. Aaron and I love to be entertained. We sat up front trying so hard to not laugh too hard, but it was difficult. Let's see, we heard, "Cows...cows...hi, cows. Cows, cows, cows. Hi, cows....hi, cows.....Josie have a birthday. Josie have birthday. Hi, cows. Josie have a birthday and cows.....Josie have a birthday. And cows. Josie have cows. Josie have cows. Josie have a cow...." and we were in tears laughing so hard about here.

The next round of funny singing was about the shocking kiss I gave Aaron, literally. At the time, I nearly jumped back and definitely hollered, "Ow!" Aaron was driving and I'd simply leaned over for a kiss on his neck. The song was something like this, "Momma kiss Dadda. Ow. Ow. Ow." Good times!

First real hike of vacation. Resting on some red rocks.
The hike back to the car. I love watching these two walking together. "Momma, look. Saul funny! Pacifier on your head."
We heard this quite a bit beginning in Moab.
He could crack himself up and got some good laughs from me -
the first 20 or so were probably real. Tired, hungry boy looking at the camera. Because his mouth is closed I am fairly certain he wasn't screaming at this point. Unfortunately, the option of, "Saul, you need to stop screaming or we'll need to go outside," doesn't work when outside is more interesting. Motorcycles. Babies. Cars. After a "punishing"trip outside, Saul screamed again, quickly adding, "Outside?!" Wearing my bandana and playing while we were all getting ready.
He was pretending to paddle.
A hike! Yeah.
Playing at Sand Arch. A perfect place for kids, the arch area is eroding away and creating a sand hil that kids love. Lots of families obviously make it a destination. The good news is that Saul got to walk the big kids and figured out how much fun it is to run down a sand hill at full speed. And, sand is crunchy when you get it in your mouth.
More playing.
Taking a little break on the hike back to the car. He really didn't want to leave.
And neither did we.

Days 5 to 7: Ouray

We love Ouray! We want to spend more time in Ouray!

Unfortunately, we experience a few not too pleasant things in Salida. I mention them here, as they followed us to Ouray. We think Saul was impacted by a combination of elevation and change in foods. The result was a long night of vomiting and a very sleepy day recovering in Salida while Aaron went out mineral collecting. There was further vomiting in the car on the drive to Ouray and we ended up taking the whole car seat apart at our Ouray hotel in order to get as much smell out as possible.

Then, whatever Aaron had for breakfast in Salida caused a couple of days of food poisoning (the entire time in Ouray). The first 24-hours were awful and he compares it to Montezuma's Revenge in Mexico. All I know is that in a small hotel room, the sounds coming from the bathroom made me feel awful for him. By the next morning, Saul and I ventured out and got some activity and fresh air while Aaron took a warm bath and slept. They took their afternoon nap together while I escaped, er, I mean, went for a walk around the beautiful little town and sat in a great coffee shop and read my book. Saul clearly wasn't 100% yet. Aaron called when I was only 2 minutes away and all I could hear was, "Mama. Cuddle you!!" It was one of the only times he didn't wake up happy during the trip.

Aaron was determined to get some good pictures of the gorgeous terrain and scenery in the Ouray area, so he drove a portion of the infamous "million dollar highway" and called that good for exploration. We ventured out to get dinner and then both boys were asleep by 8ish. Unfortunately, Aaron's system was only partially improved and his sleep remained very broken. The next morning we drove on to Moab. I insisted on doing the driving! Aaron was still quite weak and very tired. It was the only driving I did the entire trip!

Saul exploring.

"Hello?!" I'm seriously thinking about sending this to Smartwool!
They pay extra in City taxes to have a view like this! (child not included)

Enjoying the day.

I finally bought new sunglasses and Saul immediately claimed them, even though I got him his own pair! There was a 30 minute crying/whining fit in the car on the drive out of Ouray because I wouldn't let him wear these sunglasses. Yes, he's almost two!

Saul was so sweet while Aaron was feeling awful. At random time Saul would say, "Feel better, Dada, soon!" Here he is checking in on Aaron who clearly is not yet better.