Pictures From September

Here are some pictures from Sept. 2012 to share with you:

A pebbly beach on Puget Sound, at Ana Cortez. Shortly after this picture, Dustin went running into the water up to his ankles before mom could catch him.

Growing up to be a big, brown bear.

Playing with rose petals in a fountain at the rose garden.  By the end of this afternoon, Dustin's entire front side was soaking wet.  Getting wet is a common and fun past-time of ours.

How do you juggle rings that are wider in girth than you are in breadth?

Did You Know?

Noses or should I say nostrils are amazing things.  Did you know that your nostrils are the exact same size as your index finger through out your life?  The bigger question is whether or not this happens naturally or because we shove our fingers up there when we are kids.  Dustin is demonstrating that it works with both hands.

Splish Splash

I (mom) love to swim.  I like the cool feeling of the water, being weightless, and splashing about.  So of course I project this onto Dustin, and claim that he really loves to swim, too.  In honesty, sometimes he likes it, and sometimes he gets a little fussy.  However, I make sure to have a ton of fun while swimming, because I feel that rubs off on him, and it would be so much fun to have a kid who loves the water as much as I do.  

Aunt Jenny, Uncle Todd, and cousins Abby and Mitchell came to visit in August, and we took a trip to the pool on one of the hottest days in Portland this year.  It was 102F outside!  Here's some fun pics from the pool.

Lopez Juggling Festival

My favorite event almost didn't happen this year.  Or, shall I say that we almost didn't make it.  Since we moved down to Portland, the trip up to Lopez island has become much more of an undertaking.  Driving 6 hours with a Toddler can be a nightmare, and that is why you pray that he will sleep in the car.  Otherwise that 6-hour trip might turn into a 12-hour trip with stops every hour or so.

But that wasn't the hardship that we had this year.  Dustin decided to get sick the week before the trip, and not the standard runny-nose that all toddlers get.  Dustin had a fever, which meant that he stayed home from day care and spent many long nights unable to get comfortable.  Jessica and I were both looking forward to this trip, but the struggles over the week had us rethinking this plan.

We planned to drive up to Seattle on Thursday night, and finish the trip on Friday.  Remember the 6 hours turning into 12.   But Dustin was just not up for it, and we decided to cancel the trip on Thursday night.  We were sad, but we hoped the weekend would still be fun in Portland.

The next morning we woke up at 7am.  This was a god send considering that we didn't wake up once all night.  Dustin wasn't even up yet.  Something was going on, and then we heard Dustin.  He was just happily playing in his crib, and Jessica and I looked at each with the same thought, "Load up the car, we're going".  Sure enough, by 9am we were out the door.  Okay it was 10, but give us credit for getting out the door that quick.

The weekend went off without a hitch.  Dustin slept most of the way on the drives both there and back.  He loved watching all the juggling and running around playing with all the other kids.  I got my juggling in, and mom got to be mom without a fussy baby.  And the food ... what more can be said?

 

Lap Child?

We took a trip to San Antonio (from Portland OR) to visit family.  Since Dustin is under 2 years old, he qualifies as a "lap" child.  We got lucky, and had a row of seats with the center seat open, so there was room to expand.  I was left wondering if "lap child" is necessarily the best description for my little ball of energy!?

Dustin's favorite part of the plane ride was
definitely watching all of the trucks on the tarmac.

Tearing up the in-flight magazine offered
a surprisingly long amount of distraction!

Is this a Lap Child?

Is this a Lap Child? (yes, he's sleeping)

Ahh!  There's a lap child! 

Bike camping with Kidical Mass

On the weekend of July 28th we went on a one-night camping trip with a fantastic local organization: Kidical Mass.  The catch is: we didn't take our car to the campground, we got there on our bicycles!  We started at Woodstock park in Portland, a mere 1.5 miles from our house.  Then we biked roughly 22 miles to get to Dodge park, that is a sleepy little city campground along the Sandy river.  Twelve families joined us on this adventure, all with young kids. There was an impressive array of cargo bikes, front carriers, back carriers, trailers, trail-a-bikes, and even one ambitious young lad on his own kid's bike!  Great pictures from the outing are found on this "Path Less Pedaled" blog.

The ride was great. We took frequent stops for breaks and bathrooms, and almost all of the kids were content almost all of the time.  Once we got to the campground, there was a nice sandy swimming hole along the river and Dustin had a lot of fun getting dipped into the water. We took a front-handle-bar carrier that Tawnya and Joe lent us (pictured below) as well as our bike trailer, so Dustin could alternate between sleeping arrangements.  Special thanks to Andy Schmidt for plotting the route and organizing this fantastic ride, and thanks to the Proctors for spearheading the Kidical Mass club!

Daddy and Dustin on course for a
collision with the camera lady

I wanna be like dad!

The Gear.  

PEPS Camping

Jessica and I have been looking forward to this trip for months.  PEPS, our baby support group in Seattle, got together for our first annual camping trip.  Just imagine camping with 6 one-year-olds.  Luckily, we had 11 adults to form a living pack'n play.

I'm not sure if Dustin remembered all the kids, but they played like old friends.  Dustin brought his counting guitar and Mickey airplane.  They were the stars of the trip, mostly because the kids entertained themselves and left the adults catch up on what the kids had been up to.  

The most interesting part of the trip was waking up Saturday morning.  Of course Dustin was up at 6 am to get his morning feeding, which meant that we were up too.  I was laying awake staring at the top of the tent, when I started hearing the faint cries of Finn as he started his morning routine.  Then Zach joined in along with Ingrid and Ayame.  This was the first time that I got to experience our PEPS acting out their morning routines.  I felt very connected.

Can't wait until next year!!

Twelve months of Dustin

We've made it an entire year!  Dustin has turned one year old!  (And yes, this post has taken me an extra month to get out the door!)  From his first week of life, we took a picture of baby Dustin alongside a large(ish) white teddy bear, with a black sheet as a background.  Below you can see some snapshots of Dustin from each month of the year. Click on the photos to enlarge.

July 30, 2011.  Dustin is 2 weeks old.
A very tiny baby!

August 28th, 2011. Dustin is 1 month and 2 weeks old.
He is getting thicker.  This was a challenging week.

Sept 26th, 2011.  Dustin is 2 months, 1 week old.
The bear is shrinking! 

Oct 31, 2011.  Dustin is 3 months and 2 weeks old.
Toes are good toys that you cannot drop.

Nov 12, 2011. Dustin is almost 4 months old.
He starts to interact with the bear.

Dec 4, 2011. Dustin is 4 months, 3 weeks old.
What a cutie!

Jan 27, 2012.  Dustin is 6 months, 1 week old.
 He is pulling up to standing, but not crawling yet.

Feb 8, 2012. Dustin is 6 months, 3 weeks.
He is starting to crawl away from the scene!

Mar 19, 2012. Dustin is 8 months old.
The table helps him stay put for the photo shoot.

Apr 6, 2012. Dustin is 8 months, 3 weeks old.
Dustin was in constant pursuit of the camera.

May 19, 2012. Dustin is 10 months old.
He stole my bratwurst while I wasn't looking!
(we missed the photo shoot in May.)

June 29, 2012. Dustin is 11 months, 2 weeks old.
Keeping him stationary is nigh impossible. 

Jul 9, 2012. Dustin is 11 months, 3 weeks old. 

July 16, 2012. Dustin is 1 year old!
Daddy is demonstrating proper candle-blowing technique.

Transportation Child

We have a typical little boy. He loves to watch cars drive down the street.  Monday mornings are a treat because the garbage truck, recycling truck, and compost truck provide free entertainment. Dustin makes a bee-line to bicycles parked nearby, attracted to the moving parts and grease. Dad revs the engine for our little guy, acclimating him to high-throttle, break-neck speeds around the living room, swerving around obstacles (see video below).  You might notice that his shoes in the photo below even have little race cars on them.

I'd like to think that we're just following his interest in wheels and things that move.  But the evidence is piling up to indicate that we might be steering him in this direction! 

Getting dirty

Did you ever realize just how fascinating sand and water are?  You can hold it, but you can't hold it.  You can grab it, and pick it up, but then it disappears.  A mouthful of water goes down much more smoothly than a mouthful of sand.  But both are tasty. 

Getting out

Dustin is now a pretty easy-going baby, although I wonder at what point I shall stop calling him a "baby."  At day care he's out of the baby room, and into the "wobbler" room.  It's a staging ground for kids who aren't babies, but aren't toddlers.  I suppose this is akin to a "tween" later on in life.  Who knew there are so many subtly different stages we pass through!
There are times that he is fussy, and if we're lucky, we can quickly remedy the fussiness with the typical mama-combatants: food, milk, nap, or diaper change.  More often, the fussiness stems from boredom with our house, and getting out the door is the obvious, necessary, and immediate remedy!

Last weekend Jeff went up to Seattle to spend some time working on coding with his best friend Hasan. Dustin and I, left to our own devices, got out the door a fantastic amount, and had a very fun weekend, as a couple photos below can attest:

A jubilant Dustin at the petting zoo at the Multnomah County Fair. (May 27th, 2012) While pigs and sheep in confined spaces was a real treat to behold, Dustin prefers chasing the neighborhood cat.  Given Dustin's wobbly speed, the cat has very little concern about ever being caught.  But it's guaranteed entertainment, until the cat gets bored.

Dustin pushing a tricycle at Cafe Au Play here in Portland, OR. (April 29th, 2012)  While it looks like he's pushing the tricycle in the regular fashion, he was generally pushing it sideways around the patio. His joy for pushing things is immense: he will certainly be a terror on a trike once he gets going!

Why do they call it Mother's Day?

I was hearing about this really important day called Mother's Day.  It seemed like everyone was talking about it, and they said it was really special for Mom, because it was her first.  But when it finally came, I thought the day was more about me then Mom, so why do they call it Mother's Day?

Let me go into a little detail about how the day went.  I woke up in the morning and Mom quickly arrived to feed me breakfast in bed.  Then Dad got up shortly after that to fry some eggs.  He knows that I love eating eggs, so he made enough for both him and Mom to feed me.  They took me outside to enjoy my bagel while they both looked at me lovingly.  Then we moved on to the morning play, where I got to try out the new hat and toys that Grandma Jean sent.

The morning was quickly fading, and I was getting sleepy, as Mom and Dad were getting all my stuff ready for the day's hike.  They said that we were going to start a new tradition of hiking to a waterfall on Mother's Day.  Just as I was about to fall asleep they loaded me into the car.  There is something special about the car's rumble that just soothes me to sleep.

When I woke up, we were at the hiking spot, and Mom and Dad suited up, which took way too long.  I got to ride in my favorite position on Mom's tummy in the Ergo, or is my favorite position on Dad's shoulder?  Either way, I got to ride in my favorite place.  Dad also taught me a new game of spinning circles.  This dizzy feeling is going to have to be explored thoroughly.

All in all it was a really good day.  I can't wait for next year's Mother's Day, or should we call it Dustin's Day?