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.