Happy Der-day to Mom-Me

Hooray! My turn for a birthday serenade. Today finds me turning twenty six years old, and also 36 weeks pregnant. Behold the bigness.

Despite my current size, and general discomfort, I had a wonderful birthday courtesy of my boys. Andy and Skyler went out this morning and found me breakfast and some lovely flowers. The flowers really prove that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Mind you that Skyler had full reign in choosing which flowers Mommy got, so this is what the ideal birthday bouquet looks like to a two year old:

Beautiful, right? I imagine that their being the loudest and most vibrant on display helped to attract his attention. I also think they are perfect.

We then spent much of the rest of the day at the zoo. Again, being in advanced state of pregnancy I had begun to doubt the practicality of my birthday choice of activity, but we just went slow and arrived early to beat the midday heat. Overall we had a great time, especially with Skyler now being able to recognize (and imitate) the animals he was seeing. Exhibit A, below we see him roaring like a bear at the Sun Bear display.

We also enjoyed a small break and some snow cones. Skyler sampled both the red and the blue, leaving the lower half of his face an interesting purple.

He made sure to share with me:

And with Daddy:

We ended the trip with the purchase of some souvenirs and a ride on the big (yellow) shuttle bus. Skyler actually enjoyed this part immensely, as he chose to narrate the entire ride by reminding me that "Skye riding bus", and "Skye sit on bus".

It was a wonderful way for me to kick off this new year of life, and truly happy der-day.

Round and round

So I am managing to post this from home because I am directly connected to my modem. Nice. Not nearly as fancy as wireless, and still not the desired outcome... but then I haven't broken down and bought a new router, so who's to blame really?

We celebrated and early Mother's Day today for my mom so that I can have tomorrow all to myself. The kiddo managed to deliver flowers to gramma with nary a petal smushed or plucked. Quite the feat really.


He also had his first ride on a carousel. Though the whole experience lasted all of ten minutes it really made the whole day. Which is saying quite a bit because the rest of our day was filled with some very two year old moments. *Sigh*. He really did love the 'horsies' though, he named his own Dan. Not sure why. He enjoyed telling it to "Gi-yup" and shouted a few yee-haws. Who knew that these things became fun again once you were a parent. Once again I am reminded how fun the little things are, of course even more so when experienced for the very first time.

Skyler also made me a lovely Mother's day present, with some assistance, at his daycare. His teacher said he was quite enthusiastic with the paintbrush during the creation process. Now just to see what grows.

Happy Mother's Day!

Signs of Spring

Not to jinx anything, especially with our grand plans for outdoor work this weekend, but I think that Spring has finally sprung around here! The birds are out, little green things are growing, and we have reached the 60's (tomorrow maybe 70's). I never truly appreciated warmer weather until having Skyler, and especially an older Skyler who wants to be outside all the time and doesn't understand why rain -and snow- prevents that. So warmer weather is definitely welcome.

We have been taking advantage of the bits of sunshine as much as we can. One of the things Skyler received for his birthday was a little lawnmower which he LOVES. Every time the door opens he tries to run outside with it. He really appreciated the opportunity to try it out while helping Daddy mow the lawn the other day. Daddy just enjoyed the chance to interact, and terrorize, his little boy. So sweet.

Skye also got a break from his usual Wednesday of daycare this week and went off with my MIL and BIL to go see some tulip fields. He apparently enjoyed this immensely with the exception of the little train they tried to get him to ride. Skyler is very enamored of all things automotive/locomotive - from a distance. He would much rather look at that tractor or train or ride on car than be placed at the helm of said vehicle. He was very polite in his rejection of the train though, remembering to shout 'No dank you' instead of just no. Glad that is sinking in :).

Sunshiney day

With the husband out of town for the weekend and a sunny, yet still cold, day outside the kiddo and I made a break for it to a local park. He's been a little funny lately when we go to open play spaces, wanting me to hold his hand or get up and go with him instead of sitting on the sidelines. He was better about this today and we both enjoyed the time out.

Oh tannebaum

It's definitely time for things to start looking, and feeling, like Christmas around here. BL has many (regretful) memories of his father procrastinating to the last minute for getting their tree. As a consequence he has always been very insistent that we go out and get ours as soon as possible, once Thanksgiving passes of course. So we went out this weekend and picked ours up. This little holiday outing went WAY better than our pumpkin picking experience. MR has come miles from where he was (or wasn't) in the hand holding department, and was very mindful when I asked him to stay near me or hold my hand when walking through the trees. He also loved the experience, the combination of which made it all much more enjoyable for me. I also didn't have to be the one cutting or carrying away the tree, so that helped.

Just his size
Looking for the perfect fir

Making sure it's baby proof

Helping Daddy do boy stuff

Never wanting to be left out of the fun

Pumpkin patch, the marathon

We went to the pumpkin patch with some friends on Saturday and had a lot of fun, and a lot of exercise. This was our first true experience with a highly mobile toddler in a busy public space. It was exhausting. There was so much to see and do, the MR was just buzzing with energy as he moved from the goats to the haystacks to the pumpkins- and back to the goats. He loves goats apparently. It was definitely a fun trip and we really enjoyed getting together with our friends and our kiddos, but we are really coming to recognize the full force that is The Toddler. BL and I had to tag team who would follow/chase the kiddo as he bounced around the wide open spaces. We are starting to work on having him hold our hands in public, but with the combination of fresh air and livestock- it hasn't exactly stuck yet. By the end of it I was really dragging because it had been far too long between snacks, I forgot just how quickly I become unpleasant if not regularly dosed with food when pregnant. We finally wrangled MR and our oversized pumpkin into the car and no sooner were we out of the parking lot the little guy zonked. He had a full day, and I couldn't blame him. Here's the pictures from the day.

Relay for life

We took part in our local Relay for Life today, something that I have done before but of course this was the first time since BL's dad's diagnosis. It actually has been roughly a full year since his initial diagnosis. There have been some pretty rough points since then, some very rough points, it seems impossible that it has been such a short period of time since that first day when we found out.

It was important for us that the mister be involved in this. During so much of this, our own encounter with cancer, he has been too small and uninvolved to understand what has gone on. He is still too little to really understand it all, but one day I hope to be able to show him these pictures and tell him about how great a help he was to all of us during this frequently dark time.

He was his usual charming self, saying hi to all the people going bye and even mistakenly greeting an older gentleman as 'Pa'. He has started calling my dad this. He also really enjoyed becoming acquainted with our friend Kristen's dog Vito. MR loves dogs, and he especially loves dog kisses. He kept kneeling down to hug Vito and putting his face in front of the dog's, hoping for some licks.

I think we managed to kind of distract ourselves from the full weight of the event until the survivor's lap. As we watched this group come past our part of the track I scanned through the group, landing on the face of one young woman wearing a headscarf and obviously still deep in the throes of her own battle. Then we saw the little girl, not more than four, on her dad's shoulders wearing her survivor's shirt. Quite often in my father-in-law's journey he has reminded us of how fortunate he actually is, in comparison to some of his other companions in the chemo room. He sees mothers in there, and children. People who have not lived to see their own children grow, or perhaps even finished their own childhood. I had to take a deep breath and regain my composure before rejoining the rest of our group, silently thankful for my own healthy boy. And thankful too that though it has been only a year my father-in-law is cancer free, done with his last round of chemo, and only weeks away from his last surgery. It's an ongoing process, but atleast we are over this hill.

Zoo boo

We made it back to the zoo today, and by we I mean the MR, my mom and me. Poor BL has contracted the cold that mister just finished having, so he was in no shape for trotting around the Portland Zoo. This was doubly sad because they have a dinosaur exhibit running currently, our main reason for going, and BL had to miss out on the male bonding that apparently comes with large, scaly carnivores.

The fun thing about the zoo this time around was that MR definitely took in the animals, he was very aware that they were there and really enjoyed seeing things like the the sea lions and big, slow-moving fishies in their tanks.

The not so fun thing was the same concept but seen in different light, the kind if light that shines on big, scary animatronic dinosaurs that roar. MR was terrified of the dinos. This was both sad and humorous at the same time. Sad because the poor little bug had his legs clenched around me like a vise, and he kept looking around in fright even after we had walked out of the exhibit but could still hear the T-rex roar. The funny part, well perhaps not ha-ha, but it was really just cute and interesting to see my child express fear. We are so used to seeing him be fearless that it was strange to see this new emotion play out.

Fortunately there were plenty of non-roaring attractions around to ensure that MR had a generally good time. He was a very good boy and even got a couple of stuffed dinos out of the deal, so I guess they couldn't have been all that bad.

*P.S. Possible news on the homefront in the next two days, think good thoughts for us!

Another good weekend

Not much to say beyond what the pictures can show. Another sunny weekend filled with sweet outdoor adventures. Summer + baby = fun.

In the blink of an eye

It's funny how our children have those sudden bursts of accomplishment, periods where they seem to learn and grow by leaps and bounds. The growing process in general entails a lot of generation and maturing that goes on unnoticed, even though it's continuous. MR is going through one of these strides right now, he's putting together skills and thoughts that just a week or so before seemed unlikely. Aside from the fact that he is currently growing four (yes four!) new teeth simultaneously, he is throwing new mental and motor skills into the mix. As mentioned before, he is definitely saying dog now. Anytime he see or hears a dog he yells out 'Dah!'. Now today he starting waving, saying what sounds like hi, and while using his 'more' sign he has now started to say the word more (though sporadically).

We recently met up with a friend who hadn't seen MR for several months. She was so in awe of how much boy he was and how little baby. He really is a little boy now, he just has to keep on reminding me.