Category: Uncategorized (Page 22 of 40)

Early on the morning of the 4th, Dashiell was opening drawers in the buffet. When he found a baster, he quickly identified it as a paintbrush, and the inspiration struck the Young Artist. Then inspiration struck Mom–I tore up a cereal box already in the recycling bin and fashioned a palette.

Landscape Painting Early One Morning

Mom’s Homemade Palette

Choosing Just the Right Color

Mission Accomplished

Second painting–looks just like the new calla lilies out front!

Finished “Lilies”

The Actual Lilies

In the last few weeks Dashiell has been into singing songs by himself. I will often be in the other room and hear him singing snippets of nursery rhymes (and talking to his trains and stuffed animals). He really likes to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star;” that makes sense since we often read / sing a book of the same name (with the extended lyrics, which I never knew before). But it has been a surprise to hear him sing a song he learned at school–a song that was new to us.

It’s not easy to catch him in the act when a camera is available–you may have noticed the sharp drop off in videos posted here. Where I used to have time to frame him nicely and maybe even angle him towards the best light, I’m lucky now to get a recording at all.

Here he is, singing his really big hit, “Slippery Fish” (lyrics follow, which I know thanks to him reciting pieces of the song yesterday), using the iPad camera and poor lighting, but still a winner!

If your browser isn’t HTML 5 ready, click here to see the video in a new window:

Slippery fish, slippery fish,
swimming in the water,
Slippery fish, slippery fish–Gulp! Gulp!
Oh, no! He was eaten by a…
Humongous whale, humongous whale,
swimming in the water
Humongous whale, humongous whale,–Gulp! Gulp!
Oh, no! He was eaten by a…
Great white shark, great white shark…

Here’s a quick gem.

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Beverly sent several special gifts to the house for D after she left, letting us know we could save some for his birthday. We stashed some away, but one in particular was just too large to hide for long. So, last weekend, while D napped, the best Daddy in the world got to work, prepping a big surprise…

We got D up, we told him he had a surprise outside.

Daddy got a grateful kiss.

Then we headed out to road test this cool vintage pedal car:

Trying to pedal

When we got home he recapped: “That’s Great! We went faster and faster! I love my surprise!”

He is not really getting the pedaling thing. This weekend we took it out again and decided we’ll try again when he’s older. For now it is fun to ring the bell and admire the chrome and white-walled tires.

Thank you Grandma for this awesome surprise!!

Beverly’s partner Jan sent a gift for us with Beverly that was quite a surprise.

Jan’s Artwork

Wow! It is beautiful and the colors are perfect for our living room. I photographed it outside to capture all the details.

Thank you Jan! We are so touched.

From one Grandma adventure to the next…spring break in Phoenix with Grandma Sherry!

We headed to the desert to warm up and get some sun (little did we know Grandma Sherry would fall in love with the area and have bought a condo there 2 weeks later!). All in all, a pretty productive (yet relaxing) trip.

Here’s a chronicle of the fun we had.

First, Mom let me pick from 3 professional portraits Amada had taken of her for her 70th. I managed to get mine home in perfect shape, and it’s now sitting prominently on the mantle.

Dashiell worked his charm with the pilots and managed to sit up front in the cockpit–both coming and going! I was surprised they let me take pictures up there; maybe things have changed. I’m so glad they have, because we’re going to be talking about it for months:

Schmoozing with the pilots

Ready for Take Off

The vacation had begun with a bang! D was so excited. You can’t tell from this photo, but he got to push several buttons, move levers, and pull on the stick (complete with a loud “warning” noise to remind one that it wasn’t possible to “nose up” when parked).

There were other shots but they got lost when my iPhone got a tad wet (story to follow)…

Anyway it was quite exciting for us all. D managed to snooze on the flight there but only because he was overwhelmed. I was so relieved, because I knew there was going to be a lot more newness still to come before bedtime…

At the condo, we set his pack-and-play porta crib up in a walk-in closet. which made for a nice cozy den. He is way too long for it tho and could not fully stretch out his legs. I wish I had taken a picture of this, because the days of tucking him into that thing are gone. It’s been to so many cities with us–so many memories. He’ll never be this small again!–oh wait, he’s already not.

5am South Mountain, Phoenix

Warmth!

Poolside snack service ala Mom

One morning, we headed over to The Farm At South Mountain for a delicious locally-sourced breakfast and time spent rambling around the gorgeous grounds(we’re going back there!! Amanda, good place for a wedding celebration??). These snaps don’t do it justice:

Everywhere we go, we have to take a “train” of some kind. So we hopped on the light rail line one day and headed over to Tempe, home of ASU, and stumbled upon an awesome “splash playground“. They happened to be just getting it ready for the season, so we cooled D off and explored the “lake” area.

Downtown Tempe

Continuing with the train theme, we spent a couple hours at Scottsdale’s Railway Park. We arrived too late to tour the steamer Pullman train (next time, when we go to visit Grandma!) but we did get to ride the little train that goes all around the park, and the merry-go-round too.

Scottsdale Gem

And last but not least, this blog post would be incomplete without a least a reference to this:

Golf Cart Sinking

Golf Cart Soon to Emerge

Yes, it was my fault. No, alcohol was not involved. Was I a tad too close to the lake and pointed downhill? Perhaps. Now I know that when golf carts go downhill, they go…fast, and the brakes don’t always have time to engage. Thankfully all that was damaged was my pride, as Jeff likes to say. I bailed out just in time…looking forward to the bill for the most expensive round of non-golf we’ve ever played.

Beep! Beep!
Sheep in a jeep on a hill that’s steep.
Uh-oh! The jeep won’t go.
Sheep leap to push the jeep.
Sheep shove. Sheep grunt.
Sheep don’t think to look up front.
Jeep goes splash!
Jeep goes thud!
Jeep goes deep in gooey mud.

Sometimes things just click into place and you get a perfect day.

Or even 2 perfect days.

Now this is not easy with a toddler. You cannot force it to happen–the more you try the worse things get. So I have concluded that magic must have been in the air when Grandma Beverly came to town, because we had 2 toddler-fantasy fulfillment days!

On Saturday, on a whim, we went over to Alberta Park to play and see the firetrucks, if they happened to be out. Our timing could not have been any better–the firefighters were outside washing the big engine. We wandered over and made friends with the firefighters, who were delighted to show D around the truck, even letting him sit in the driver’s seat. He got to sound the old-fashioned bell on the front of the truck, the one we have so often discussed it has practically become another sibling in this family (“twice, Mommy!” he would add). And of course they manages to find a firefighting hat at a souvenir (thanks, guys!).

Thankfully Grandma Beverly had her camera (I lugged “the good camera” with us only to find out too late I’d left the memory card at home).

To make things even more exciting, the station got called out to an emergency (“Oh dear!”) as we were saying goodbye, so we got to watch the firefighters don all their gear and drive away, waving goodbye. Here is the lead firefighter making haste.

Next we strolled over to the park, to marvel at the ancient Ponderosa Pines and have some fun on the slides (3 slides perfect for his size).

On the way home, G’Ma Beverly took this excellent photo through her new hair do:

So you know you live in Portland when you ask your hairdresser if she can fit you mother in law in for cut and color–a red mohawk– and she says, “Sure, what day?” Ok, it did cross her mind that I was playing a trick on her. But nonetheless she was prepared. The red wasn’t taking so Beverly had to settle for pink, which I think is great. She fit right in in town!

On the next day, we went to what D still calls the “play place” for some indoor fun and games. Despite one slide mishap (note to Mom: remember not to hold D’s hand when going down the slide next to him–it just pulls him down onto his face. Woops!) we had a grand time. Then it was off to a favorite brunch spot for a warm lunch and streetcar watching (and riding!).

There was much deep sleeping after those action packed days. Thanks for coming to see us Grandma! It was a weekend we’ll always remember. We love you!

Our sweet little bunny really got into Easter. In preparing for the holiday we revisited The Golden Egg Book and have talked a lot about the mysterious contents of those eggs:

Once there was a little bunny.
He was all alone.
One day he found an egg.
He could hear something moving inside the egg.
What was it?
Maybe a little boy.
Maybe another bunny.
Maybe an elephant. (Dashiell always votes for that one)
Maybe a mouse.
Who could tell what he would find?
And how would a little bunny know?

Yes, how would a little bunny know? Well this little bunny now knows about “candy” which he discovered at a local park, who organized the event. They laid out 4,000 eggs for the little ones to “find.” Then they got to run off the chocolate in the gorgeous hilly park, on a perfect warm Spring day.

Afterwards we headed up the street for a nice lunch at The Kennedy School, where I couldn’t resist taking some stills of glorious light in the beautiful old building.

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The next day, on Easter Sunday, I got up before the boys and hid more eggs at our house, to continue the fun. Only 1 of mine had a candy surprise–the rest, fluffy baby chicks and bunnies. Then we went out to Easter brunch to see the Real Easter Bunny himself (D wary at first, then excited)!

(Included here are also pictures from getting ready for school on Good Friday–D twigged that dressing up was in order, so we picked out a formal outfit with shiny black “dress up” shoes. He loved wearing those special shoes. At pickup, his favorite teacher told me that when it was nap time, he resisted. She told him that, in that case, she’d have to take his special shoes away. He immediately went to sleep!).

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We’re having a gorgeous Spring–cold and wet, yes, and D has a cold to go with the season, but we are enjoying our brief forays outside when the sun peeks through and other quiet times inside snuggled up with a good book. Juicing a case of fresh oranges makes you feel like you’re in a sunny spot, so why not don your sunglasses?

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As D gets more aware of his surroundings, and savvier about the ways of the world, he’s starting to get the “worries.” He still talks about the time back in November when Amanda and Grandma Sherry were here and the smoke alarms went off while he was napping, safe in his crib (thanks to a weakening blaze in the fireplace). It doesn’t help that at school they practice a fire drill every month. Couple that with his new love/fascination for Fireman Sam and it’s easy to see how he’s gotten a bit pre-occupied by the entire subject.

He’s had 2 nightmares in the last month or so as well, so now at bedtime, I give him ideas of good things to dream about. The one I use the most is imagery from a recent park we visited that was new to him: towering Ponderosa Pines, 3 slides perfectly sized for him but still very exciting, and an adjacent firehouse with an old-fashioned firetruck complete with real bell on the front (that they rang just for him!). I tell him that the firemen are close by and that they know him so he doesn’t have to worry…and the tall tall trees will keep him safe.

Taking a cue from The Sleep Lady, I’m also sure to tell him that we are close by and that we check on him at night and I tell him how peaceful and happy he looks when he’s sleeping.

He loves being in his crib, so I am working hard making sure it feels like a safe place. So far, so good: despite the two bad dreams, it’s still a struggle every morning to get him going. “I want back in my cwwwwiiiiib,” he moans when we lift him out…