Grandma No-No-No

My mom visited in late-July/early August for a few weeks, spending her time between Portland and Tillamook with the grandkids and her mom, brothers and their wives. Saul took to her immediately! She got to our house late one night after he'd gone to bed, so when he woke up in the morning she was anxious to greet him after being away for six months. She peeked around the corner to his room and as soon as he saw her he crawled quickly to my lap and greeted her with a "hi". Once she started talking to him he got brave and was running between her and me. Within just a few more minutes he was bringing her books to read, which became his constant activity with Grandma. (I couldn't resist posting all three in the series of reading pictures below.)

I tried telling Saul that Grandma was "my mamma". That just seemed to confuse the matter, so we just went with Grandma. However, he had his own ideas. I'm "momma" in a semi-high pitched voice. And Grandma is "momma" in a lower pitched voice.

Mom became Grandma "no-no-no" over a meal. One of Saul's favorite games is the deliberate "uh-oh" of food off the tray and on to the floor. He was holding out a handful of something, probably meat and preparing to uh-oh it. Mom's immediate reaction was: "Saul! No, no!"

He sort of stopped and watched her for a minute and then went back to eating. The next meal, though, he held food out over the tray, looked his grandma squarely in the eyes and shook his head saying "no, no, no". I think Mom was a little embarrassed, making sure I knew she'd only told him that once! We think it's funny, though! If only he would NOT drop the food when announcing that it's a no-no.

We've had two clear signs of his attachment to my mom. First, after her short stay here on our couch, the morning after she left he came running into the living room bright and early hollering, "Mama! Mama!" He searched all over for her. Then, just a few weeks ago Mom and I were talking on the phone during Saul's nap. When he woke up I took the phone in and put her on speaker phone. As soon as he heard her voice he sat up and exclaimed, "Momma!" Now, whenever he holds a phone he asks for her.

One of these days she'll live closer than Pennsylvania and can spend more time with her grandkids.

Saul signing "please" as a request for Grandma to read the book. Happily reading a book with one of his grandmas.

Going in for a "thank you" kiss.

July 27 was a busy (and hot) day!

Apparently, hot days made for busy days. While organizing pictures this afternoon I realized just how much Michelle and I did with Saul and Claire on a single Monday (my day off). We went to a great little park in Northeast Portland in the morning before naptime. Then, in the early afternoon when our homes were just waaaaay too hot, we took the kids to OMSI. What I remember most about our fun day is the following:

1. The morning park time was an effort to get outside before it got over 85. We had a week or so that was in the high 90s and as high as 107, so we were attempting to get the kids fresh air before it felt like a sauna outside.

2. By afternoon, our goal was to enjoy AC. Unfortunately, I somehow overlooked the lack of AC in the car, which made the leaving and returning uncomfortable. When I put Saul in the car for the ride home from OMSI he very weakly said to me, "Hoooooot," demonstrating his full understanding of the definition of the word. Originally we applied "hot" to describe "hot coffee" or "hot tea", etc. He continues to lean towards hot beverages on the coffee table at the coffee shop with his hands down at his sides and exclaims, "Hot!" We learned during the summer hot stretch that he had expanded the meaning to describe the Volvo oven I so cruelly made him spend time in!

Peaking over the wall of the play structure with Michelle ready to catch one of them if necessary.

Out of focus, but you get the idea - swinging is fun!

Heavy! Saul starting his weight lifting routine at an early age and demonstrating that you don't need a gym membership. The way the kids spent most of their time together - one going and one coming.

They explored lots and were off to the next thing lickety-split.

Who needs the "stars and stripes" when you can have "balls and stripes".

Claire watching the fishies at OMSI. They're in a perfect location for little people.

Beginning again...but catching up, too.

As I watch the blogs of friends and family remain caught up I also watch the "last updated" counter on this blog become harder and harder to phathom. Three months?! The idea of updating now becomes crazy. But, there are so many pictures and things to share and catch back up on. So, as I'm organizing pictures, I'll also post some. Maybe in order. Maybe not. And, I'll attempt to stay more current at the same time.

To start, here are a few photos from a late-July "photo-shoot" we held up at Mt. Tabor Park. Aaron was working on capturing professional high-quality pictures that we can use in place of paying someone else to take them. I followed along with my camera and took pictures, too. Notice the little matching outfit. It seemed appropriate for the settting. When we were leaving the coffee shop on our way to the park a guy commented that Saul looked ready for a round of golf. Well, that wasn't what I was aiming for but I took it as a sign that Saul looked appropriately dapper.

A very busy, active little boy makes it hard to capture pictures that aren't blurry.

Aaron checking the last few shots and Saul waiting for more. Demonstrating that he understood the kind of shots we were looking for.

Wheeeee!

One of Saul's favorite things is playing in the laundry basket. About six weeks ago I sat him on top of a few loads of clean laundry in our tall laundry basket and I rocked the basket back and forth saying "Wheeeee." He held on tight, laughed and then played with my fingers through the holes in the basket. Lots of laugher was involved. At some point, I stopped and talked with him for a moment and then he started signing "more" and saying, "eeeeee." He made himself clear and we went back to rocking the basket.

Now, these many weeks later, when he sees the basket and is interested in playing with it, he will stop, look at me and say, "eeeeee" while signing "more." Of course, "eeeee" is not to be confused with "eee-eee-eee" which is monkey. It's all about voice inflection.

Here are some pics of Saul playing in the laundry basket.

The beginning of laundry basket play time.

Definitely a full basket, considering how close to the top he's sitting.
Taking a moment for himself.

Let the fun continue.

Alright. All done. Saul's ready to get out now.

Saul in the leather chair

I realized that I've been fairly consistent about taking pictures of Saul in the dark brown leather chair. Here are a series of them with the date noted above each pic. Not only has he gotten taller ,but his hair has definiely filled in! We'll be sure to get another one next week for his 11 month birthday. Aaah!

November 27

January 19 February 1

March 25 April 24

Play group fun . . . . and consequences

Michelle and I took a baby sign language class with our kids and two other moms and their girls. It was so much fun to see each other and let our kids play regularly that we decided to keep getting together. Below are some pictures of the kiddos during our first group without our sign language teacher. We joke that Saul is the rooster keeping an eye on all of his hens.

All of this close interaction did, unfortunately, result in all four kids and many parents getting a nasty case of the flu (a few weeks ago, now). It seems that all the kids started vomiting the next evening within about an hour of each other. How weird. Such a sad 24 hours and lots of laundry. Then the parents got it starting on Friday. Fortunately, this didn't have the same impact on laundry, but did result in lots of sleeping.

Saul, Claire, and Natalie all standing while Miriam peaks around from the floor.

So kind of her to share her horse! Saul getting encouraged to have his first non-cousin girl kiss! Success! Natalie stands on her tiptoes to reach Saul.

Catch up pics

The last few weeks have been very busy. We're working on a new care setting for Saul, which feels like a full time job around all of the other things going on. But, we are now sure that he will ultimately be in a better situation, and that's all that matters.

Saul continues to grow like crazy and surprising us every day with his new sounds, words and crawling speed. We were at a toy store on Sunday and he let out a "moooo" - or his version of "mooo" - when he saw a wooden, hand painted cow. (We now own the cow.) Just 30 minutes later I was in a coffee shop and he was saying "eeee" over and over. Finally, I realized that there were monkeys hanging from the lights. No, we didn't bring home a monkey, too.

There are many more pictures that I need to organize and post. In the meantime, here are a few mostly for my mom's benefit.

Admiring our sleeping boy. Swings are fun

Very happy boy on the swing.