{duck fluff}

Project 366: feb.18=feb.19

2012-02-20T08:20:00.000-08:00

Project 366: feb.13 - feb.17

2012-02-18T12:46:00.000-08:00

Project 366: feb.12

2012-02-13T17:03:00.001-08:00

Project 366: feb.11

2012-02-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

Project 366: feb.10

2012-02-11T09:26:00.000-08:00

Project 366: feb.9

2012-02-10T21:25:00.000-08:00

Project 366: feb.5 - feb.8

2012-02-09T18:36:00.001-08:00

Project 366: feb.4

2012-02-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

Project 366: feb.3

2012-02-04T10:35:00.001-08:00

Project 366: feb.2

2012-02-03T17:47:00.000-08:00

Project 366: feb.1

2012-02-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.31

2012-02-01T17:42:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.30

2012-01-31T17:55:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.29

2012-01-30T19:50:00.001-08:00

Project 366: jan.28

2012-01-29T20:20:00.001-08:00

Project 366: jan.27

2012-01-28T09:59:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.26

2012-01-27T16:58:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.25

2012-01-26T16:30:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.24

2012-01-25T21:28:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.23

2012-01-23T21:36:00.001-08:00

Project 366: jan.22

2012-01-23T16:34:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.21

2012-01-22T21:32:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.20

2012-01-21T11:22:00.001-08:00

Project 366: jan.19

2012-01-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

And a bonus picture of our crazy weather. Our poor trees are very heavy with ice and snow. Their pants are sagging. I'm a little worried that one (or more) will fall on the power lines. Not really worried about them falling on our house (although that would SUCK) though, because the really big trees are far enough from our house that they probably wouldn't hit it.

And yes, parts of the country get bad weather every year, multiple times a year. And yes, Seattle does essentially shut down when we get winter weather and we're kind of wimps about it. But seriously, try living in unincorporated King county where the Public Works dept never comes out to plow your neighborhood and you just have to navigate the hills that have been snowed on, then frozen, then partially melted, then snowed on, then frozen again, and so on and so on. It isn't very fun. So here we sit, snowbound and thankful that we both have jobs that allow us to VPN in and work virtually when necessary!

Project 366: jan.18

2012-01-19T16:10:00.000-08:00

Project 366: jan.17

2012-01-18T17:34:00.000-08:00

(I realized today that my camera isn't set for daylight savings time, so my previous pictures were all noted as an hour later than they really were. Oops!)

17 days in, and I realize how repetitious this project might get...especially during the week. We may see a lot of the same picture themes repeated, well, a lot. Our weekdays are just not all that different from each other, and there are really limited daylight hours for us right now!

Oh well, we'll see where this takes us! If nothing else, I'll have a great journal of seeing Wyatt's growth throughout the year. :)

Project 366: jan.16

2012-01-17T16:25:00.000-08:00

Project 355: jan.15

2012-01-16T17:04:00.001-08:00

Project 366 catch up

2012-01-15T13:44:00.001-08:00

I was able to find iPhone pics for all the other days of the year so far except for one! So here they are, my first 2 weeks (except for one day) in Project 366. Warning: photo dump ahead. :)

hello again and Project 366

2012-01-14T21:19:00.000-08:00

Oh hello. Is this thing on?

Guess I kind of fell off the blogging wagon there right at the home stretch of 2011 and I missed my goal of beating my 2010 post count. Oh well, there were holidays to be enjoyed, babies to snuggle, family to love and visit with...the usual end of year rush.

What's in store for 2012? Who knows, honestly. It's tough for me to commit to blogging regularly. Obviously, right? So I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself, and hopefully that's okay with you out there. :)

I do have a lot to catch you up on, but in the meantime here it is January 14 and I've decided (ummm...2 weeks late!) that I would like to start a Project 366. That is, take a photo every day for all 366 days of this leap year. And guess what? There's no way I'll make 366 since I'm just starting on Jan 14 and it appears that I've only picked up my camera one other day so far this year. Oh well, no big. Not going to beat myself up about it. I may have some suitable pictures on my phone that I can use, but I'm feeling a bit lazy to plug my phone in and download those pictures so that will have to wait until another day.

Where am I getting inspiration for this project, you ask? Well from this totally awesome blog and from this one as well.

I'll probably share photos on a weekly basis. Or maybe I'll end up posting every single day without much additional commentary. Who knows! I'd like to keep doing the week in iPhone photos as well, but I've been a total slacker on pulling out my phone lately. Bad Laura!

Anyway, here are my first 2 Project 366 photos for this year (please excuse the bad nutrition on display tonight - we're trying to get better for our sake and for Wyatt's!).

Here's to a year of photos!

Pinteresting

2011-12-08T18:46:00.001-08:00

I hope to get our Christmas cheer on this weekend, and one thing I REALLY want to do is something we never got around to doing last year...a homemade ornament that memorializes how little our WyBear is at this particular time in his life. So what's a girl to do? Why, turn to Pinterest of course!

Here is my inspiration for this year's ornaments, all found on Pinterest:

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Now the real question is, will Wyatt cooperate in this endeavor??

Dec 7, 2011...

2011-12-07T18:39:00.000-08:00

...a day that will life in infamy...because my niece turns 16! Look out, drivers of Washington, we've got a new one out there!! ;)

Just kidding, I'm actually quite positive that she'll be an amazing driver.

So happy Sweet Sixteen to my sweet, funny, smart, gorgeous niece. I can still vividly remember the day you were born - I was a senior in high school and they called me down to the principal's office during class. I was like "Dude, what's the deal? I haven't done anything wrong!" and they were like "Congratulations, Aunt Laura! It's a girl!". Took me a few seconds to comprehend what they were saying, but then I was so very excited!

We love you, Maranda!

Wordless Wednesday: fun at the park

2011-12-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

YouTube Tuesday: Blind Pilot

2011-12-06T17:08:00.000-08:00

This past Friday we were lucky enough to go to a Blind Pilot concert at the Neptune Theater. It was amazeballs. The venue was fairly small and all open admission. The band's performance was phenomenal - they sounded just as good live as they do on their albums! At the very end they unplugged, came down off the stage and into the crowd and sang their very popular song 3 Rounds and a Sound accoustically. It was magical, to say the least.

The song below is the title song from their most recent album, and to quote Karl "this song just makes you happy to be alive". They positively jammed this one at the concert. It was so much fun!

My only complaints about the concert all relate to me getting older...they didn't come on until 10:30 and their were no seats in the venue so I had to stand all night. My feet were so sore by the time the concert wrapped up! I have a feeling Blind Pilot is just going to keep getting bigger though, so next time they come to town they'll probably be in bigger venues and we'll be feeling so lucky to have seen them when they were still relatively small and tickets were cheap!

family pictures

2011-12-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of our little family from this past weekend. One of these 3 is going to be our Christmas card photo. Can you guess which one?

Wyatt is 16.5 months old. I can't even believe it!

our week in iPhone pics - Nov 26

2011-12-04T20:12:00.000-08:00

This last week was quite a week, with lot of fun stuff going on! So let's get to it!

saturday: We got up early and met our friends so that we could take our kids to see Santa at a horse rescue place, and decided to support Small Business Saturday by stopping at a coffee stand on the way. :) Then we had lots of fun visiting with Santa and his horses until the WyBear wore himself completely out. Then Wy and I drove up to my brother's house to pick up my mom for part 2 of her visit while Karl stayed home to put the Christmas lights up on the outside of our house. That evening my mom and I got our craft on by starting a snowman project (final details of that project coming soon!).

sunday: Some cuteness from the pup, some cuddling with Grandma Marcia, a giant kitty (who is actually our lightest pet, he just looks huge because of all the fur), then some tooth brushing fun. No joke, this kid LOVES to brush his teeth!

monday: Kind of light on the pictures today, huh? Well let's see, what did we do? I dropped mi madre off at the airport, worked and then got to see Wyatt playing with the sand table at the end of the day.

tuesday: I just can't resist taking pictures of the little buddy when he's asleep. He just looks like an angel, I love it. I actually have to restrain myself from pinching his cheeks and smooshing him with kisses while he's sleeping. :)Then once he woke up, cuteness ensued. And that evening he got CRAZY happy during bath time. That face right there? Pure bliss.

wednesday: On Wednesday evening we had to go to the mall, and they had one of those things with the heads cut out so you can stick your face in the hole and take a funny picture. Umm, this is as good as we got. Oops. Then Wyatt got introduced to the wide world of food court food. And he was a fan.

thursday: I am slightly obsessed with these tiny yellow leaves against the dark grey pebbles outside of my office. Ob. Sessed. Then at lunchtime little WyBear was feeling very sensitive and not at all interested in sharing toys with the other kids. It's so difficult to be a toddler!

friday: Oh Friday, you were truly a TGIF this week! I left work a little early and arrived at daycare just as they were getting ready for afternoon recess. Wyatt apparently loves recess more than anything else, as evidenced by his choosing to look longingly out the window at the playground rather than at his mama who'd just arrived! Who am I to deny him his happiness, so we went outside and played for a bit before heading home (and oh my, the TEARS when I decided it was time to head home!). There were some cool clouds in the sky on the drive home, then we packed Wy up and took him to the sitter's house while we headed to the U-District for a date night. A friend from work recommended Chaco Canyon as a good and relatively fast place to eat, and man alive does my friend know my tastes because I kind of wanted to bottle up this entire place and take it home with me. I foresee some repeat visits here. Then we headed to the Neptune for a Blind Pilot concert. And. It. Was. Awesome. So awesome that I have a post scheduled for Tuesday to talk more about it. :)

So that was our week! How was yours?

Linking up with Amy!

our week in iPhone pics - Nov 19

2011-12-04T18:52:00.000-08:00

A week late is better than never, right? I got a little distracted and realized that I never put up our week in iPhone pics from 2 weeks ago. Oops! Here we go!

monday: My mom was here, and she was in the mood for some thrifting so a-thrifting we went. Wyatt was in the mood for not wanting to sit in the cart or be held, so I chased him through the first thrift store and then decided that we'd play in the car while Mom visited the 2nd one on her own. Then my brother and his family came over to pick Mom up and we had a nice visit (WyBear, as usual, loved on my brother the entire time he was here!).

tuesday: Little man had a big day on Tuesday. A play date with his BFF, Presley, and a vaccine...it's almost too much to handle! :) At the play date there was much toy stealing, chasing and screaming. You know, a typical day for a couple of 16 month old toddlers.

wednesday: Enjoying breakfast, a cute little tushie, playing with the birthday dog, resisting a nap and then putting Mr. Turkey into his pre-Thanksgiving brine.

thursday: Turkey Day! Lots of fun was had over at my brother's house, including lots of cuddling with Uncle Philip. I can't get over how fast my nieces and nephews are growing up!!

friday: We didn't intend to go out on Black Friday, but when you are out of tp and kitty litter you kind of don't have a choice. So off to Target we went, and Wy was obviously unimpressed. Then the weather was so awesome that we went on a family walk.

So that was our week, 2 weeks ago. How was yours?

nostalgia: I has it

2011-12-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

I saw this video today, and suddenly I was back in our living room on Alden in Shawnee, KS watching The Muppets with my family.

Ahhh nostalgia. :) Now I can't wait for the Muppets movie to come out on DVD so I can see it!

random updates

2011-11-30T20:39:00.000-08:00

:: Blogging every single day is hard, yo! I thought it would really spark my creativity, but it’s feeling like much more of a chore than I expected. It would probably be easier if I took pictures of things other than just Wyatt so I could mix it up a bit.

:: My BFF had an electrical fire in her house last weekend. All sorts of things aligned to where they were very fortunate that they didn’t lose a lot more than they did, but it’s still a scary and stressful thing. So glad they are all okay!

:: I have been back to work for almost exactly 1 year. I do love my job, and I also really love being able to pay our bills (duh, right?), but man alive do I miss getting to spend more time with Wyatt during the week! The grass is always greener on the other side, you know.

:: Speaking of my little WyBear, he is going through a vocabulary EXPLOSION right now! Some of the words he’s saying consistently these days (I’m probably leaving some out, but this is what I can recall off the top of my head): mama, papa, WyWy, Henry, diaper, please, hello, hi, bye-bye, milk, agua (water in Spanish), done, more, night-night, all right, ball, belly, dog, cat, woof, meow, rawr and bubble. We’ve also heard him say the following on a less consistent basis: radio, I know, un (1 in French), deux (2 in French), uno (1 in Spanish), dos (2 in Spanish), brush teeth, Max, Hannah and ‘Atou (all friends from school). He says what sounds like “bite the bow” all the flippin’ time, and we can’t figure out what he means!

:: He also comprehends SO MUCH these days! I say arriba (up in Spanish) and he puts his hands up in the air…then I say abajo (down in Spanish) and he puts his hands down toward the ground! When asked where people are, he can point to mama, papa, grandma, Henry, Cooper, Hobbes, Wyatt and several of his friends in school. He can also point out a lot of his body parts – head, nose, mouth, teeth, eye, ear, belly button. If I tell him it’s time for a diaper change he’ll go over to the diaper basket, grab one (or two, usually) then head down the hall toward his room. When we get done eating, he likes to take his dishes from the table and put them into the dishwasher then shut the dishwasher door. He has almost mastered his shape sorter toy and wooden puzzles, but still gets frustrated if he can’t make the pieces fit right away. He takes my cell phone and puts it up to his ear/face and says “Hello, hello!” He’ll take a drink out of his sippy cup, say “Ahhhh!” and then hold it up to me to do the same. It’s almost indescribable how fun it is to see all of this cognitive ability develop!

:: He likes to climb on EVERYTHING, and gets mad when we don’t let him climb on things that would be dangerous for him. We repeat “No thank you! Feet on the floor!” an awful lot these days.

:: He loves to chase Henry and the kitties around the house. The animals, they don’t so much love it (but I guess it does give them good exercise!). Most of the time they just run away and it’s harmless, but Henry did nip him on the arm last week while being chased in the kitchen as I was trying to get our meal in the oven. It drew blood. I felt absolutely horrible and guilty for not keeping them apart better since I know that Henry has food aggression tendencies in the kitchen. Luckily, Wyatt forgave me. And the wound is healing nicely. And Henry (hopefully) seems to be behaving more cautiously around the baby bear.

:: Wyatt is a dance machine. This kids loooooooves to dance! Even if he’s nursing or sitting at the table eating, if we say “Dance Party!” he’ll start to shake his groove thing. It’s so cute.

:: Somehow this random blog post morphed from a what-am-I-doing list to an update on the boy. Ahh well, such is life these days. All paths lead to Wyatt, I suppose. There are worse things in life, right? :)

(photos from this past weekend when we went to a horse rescue to get Santa pictures taken....WyBear was a BIG fan of the horses!)

YouTube Tuesday: Caspar Babypants

2011-11-29T18:32:00.000-08:00

Another fun kids song for this Tuesday's music selection. I don't really like to expose Wyatt to most songs on the radio these days, and I definitely don't need him listening to all of the commercials, so we typically listen to kid-friendly music in the car. Caspar Babypants is one of our favorites, and this song is a good one...especially considering our nickname for the WyBear. :)

Weird video. Good song.

Bye bye!

2011-11-28T19:27:00.000-08:00

My mom headed home today after a long visit. We did a lot of shopping and, most importantly, spent a lot of quality time with the little one.

Thanks for coming, Mom! Safe flight home!

I had the focus all off on this one, but it was so cute I just had to share.

Lesson Learned

2011-11-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

When you are letting your toddler have some diaper-free time to give his sore tushie a break (remember those insane diapers I mentioned a few days back?), I guess it's probably not the best idea to let him wear his expensive slippers at the same time. Good thing they clean up well!

Lesson learned, little one. Lesson learned.

Okay, gotta run!

:-)

snack-o-lantern

2011-11-25T17:19:00.000-08:00

You know how I mentioned my Pinterest addiction earlier? Yeah, well....I put my excessive pinning to use today and I made something!

I took the drippings from senor turkey (who was muy delicious, by the way)...

...and turned them into snack-o-lanterns!

I simply cut open our pumpkins, scooped out the guts then mixed them with some birdseed and a little bit of turkey drippings and voila...snack-o-lanterns!

Now it's just a matter of time to see what kind of woodland creatures (birds, squirrels, raccoons, etc) come take a snack. A certain 5-yr old pup would love to make them into his own personal Henry buffet, but I've got them in places where he can't reach. :)

Happy Friday!

Won't you lend a hand?

2011-11-24T15:18:00.000-08:00

Just a friendly PSA to please help out those less fortunate than you, if you can. You never know when you might need that hand-out yourself, you know?

We personally like to support Northwest Harvest and Meals on Wheels at this time of the year.

We hope to start doing some more active volunteering as WyBear gets older, and are excited to instill in him a sense of giving and generosity. Just makes the heart feel good, not to mention it helps put healthy food in the bellies of those who otherwise may not be able to afford it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T06:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today we'll be celebrating with my mom and my brother and his family. Can't wait to eat some great food and enjoy being with our family!

A little humor should be injected into every holiday, right??!

images from here

May you and yours be with the ones you love today and always. :)

Today

2011-11-23T18:01:00.000-08:00

Today, I am...

:: Loving our naturopathic physician for helping to keep us healthy in as natural and non-intrusive ways as possible.

:: Preparing for the Thanksgiving feast tomorrow. My contributions will be a local heritage turkey (raised by my good friend Angi...it doesn't get much more local than that!) and stuffing. Trying out the Pioneer Woman's brine this year instead of the Williams-Sonoma brine that I've always used in the past. P-Dub, don't fail me now!

:: Hoping that the teeth Wy is working on come through soon. He's still his typically happy and charming self, but he has a nasty bilateral ear infection and his diapers have been INSANE (sorry, TMI?). We are treating the ear infection with mullein-garlic ear drops and with an herbal tincture, at the guidance of our wonderful physician mentioned above.

:: Wondering if we should invest in a boat. It's been raining non-stop for days now, with no signs of stopping!

:: Trying not to feed my Pinterest addiction...too much. But man alive, there are just so many great ideas and inspiration on that site!

:: Getting excited for dinner tonight (found via Pinterest, naturally).

:: Wishing all of you a wonderful Wednesday!

Henry is 5!

2011-11-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

From this (at 8 weeks old, the day after we brought him home)...

To this (at 5 years old)...

Happy birthday to our sweet, sweet pup Henry! We love you so much!

My how time flies...

YouTube Tuesday: Bon Iver

2011-11-22T17:27:00.000-08:00

Found this one while randomly watching videos on YouTube, and it makes me wonder just how many cool bands are out there that I don't know about?

QOTD

2011-11-20T19:18:00.000-08:00

Karl: They had better serve sushi in heaven.

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Sandi on Pinterest

Laura: True that.

That's how we roll. Har dee har har...

our week in iPhone pics - Nov 12

2011-11-19T12:06:00.001-08:00

Getting this post up early today...go me! ;)

saturday: Continuing from last week, we started our day off down in Portland. I spelled out Wy's name in Lego's, then it was all about the cousins. After an AWESOME BBQ lunch (no pictures of that, too busy eating to think about snapping pics), we packed up and drove back home then we all went to bed early.

sunday: A little errand running, Jimmy John's subs (we thought it was just so-so, but Wy loved his turkey sandwich!) and an afternoon latte.

monday: A coworker made these adorable turkey cupcakes - how flippin' cute! Can you tell what all the parts are made of? This tea is one of my absolute favorites, so when it comes out at the holidays I totally stock up. And then a sleepy little kiddo in the produce section of the grocery store.

tuesday: A happy boy on the way to daycare, then when I got there his latest school pictures were ready! The first one is cute, the second one is hilarious (I wonder if the photographer asked for his "Mr. Skeptical" pose?). Some playing around at daycare, then it was time to head home so I could gather up a bunch of stuff to go see my friend Amy and her 2-day old daughter! Wy wasn't sure why I got out his old bassinet, but he sure did like playing in it for a few minutes before I packed it into the car. :) Little Fiona is a DOLL, and I love that I got to spend several hours with her and her momma that night!

wednesday: Pretty standard mid-week day - some morning coffee, some cuddling kitties and an adorable baby bear. Can't ask for much more than that!

thursday: Our kitchen and dining room are rarely this clean (especially at the same time!), so I had to snap a photo of it. That evening Wy was perfectly content playing in a sea of giant Lego's instead of packing up to head home, and then we were on our own for most of the evening since Karl had to work late so we had Wy's current favorite meal...lentil soup! He freaking loves that stuff, as evidenced by the 2nd and 3rd helping he had (note to self: probably should have put a bib on him for this meal).

friday: What a full day yesterday was! It started off with a cuddly Cooper in the morning and 2 sleepy boys, then I went to work for a bit before heading to the airport to pick up my mom for a visit! We had some noodles for lunch, then went to pick up the little one before heading home. He then proceeded to charm us both with his adorable antics for the rest of the evening.

So that's our week, how was yours? We're off to go have fun with Grandma Marcia for the rest of the weekend! :)

Linking up with Amy!

Friday Funny: Marcel the Shell

2011-11-18T18:22:00.000-08:00

I can totally picture my Dad's reaction to this. "Okaaaaay." And that makes me laugh at this even more! ;)

I'm not going to name names here, but Marcel the Shell reminds me of one of my nieces. (in a good way!)

Meet Sam!

2011-11-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went down to Portland to visit Karl's sister and her family, and we got to meet 6-week old Samantha Audrey. What a cutie pie she is!

Big brother Rocky is adjusting really well to life with a sibling, and Laura and Scott are doing great also. Such a lovely little family they are. :)

WyBear and Rocky are just 4.5 months apart, so they had a lot of fun playing together. And they both love playing outside, so their leafy yard was just perfect!

And just for fun, a little photo bomb. Thanks, Henry.

Wordless Wednesday: cousins in footie jammies

2011-11-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

YouTube Tuesday: The National

2011-11-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

Another peek into our music tastes. The National is our current obsession. We love this band so much! It's kind of like Johnny Cash, The Decemberists and David Grey all rolled into one.

Enjoy!

Holiday Wish List: Wyatt edition

2011-11-14T20:27:00.000-08:00

Let me preface this post by saying it’s really just for family. It’s just easier to put up a blog post on the topic that everyone can refer to instead of telling everyone individually. If anyone else is so inclined to read through to what we think our son would like for Christmas, feel free to keep on reading! If not, I won’t be offended if you just skip on over this post. :)

It’s getting to be that time of the year again...the time when the urge to SPEND, SPEND, SPEND takes over. While we would prefer to focus on experiences and family togetherness during the holidays, we do realize that people just can’t restrain themselves when it comes to buying gifts for the little ones. We just ask that you don’t go overboard (MOM!) – our house is small, and it’s already getting filled up to capacity with stuff.

Anyway, without further ado...here are some ideas for WyBear just in case you are wondering what to get him.

Activities

Family memberships to the zoo (either one), the aquarium, local museums, the science center, etc, are all great things to have…and they help support the local economy, too! Music, dance or swimming lessons would be super fun as well.

Learning Toys

Wyatt is learning constantly at this point in his life, so things that help foster continued learning are great. Wooden alphabet blocks, numbers, music, art, letters, sign language…all good things. He might be a little young for it yet, but a Learning Tower will be great for letting him participate in the kitchen so he learns a love of cooking early on.

Wy is also getting into the idea of helping clean up lately – so a kid-sized broom and dust pan would be fun, too!

We’re totally up for getting these toys second-hand also, and think a make-over would make it a super cool and personalized toy! Here are a few examples of stellar makeovers:

Clothes

This kiddo just keeps on growing (crazy how that happens, isn’t it?!), and he could always use new clothes. He’s currently wearing size 2T shirts, 18-24 mo pants and size 6 shoes (these are his November 2011 sizes). We hope to stay away from logos and licensed characters for as long as possible, so please avoid the urge to buy that Cars or Batman shirt or even the clothes with the brand name logo (like GAP or OLD NAVY) splashed across it.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Whether Wyatt likes it or not, he’s going to get a college education (we suspect he will like it…but really, he doesn’t have a say in the matter). We’ve opened up a GET (Guaranteed Education Tuition) account for him to fund a portion of his college expense. If you are so inclined, feel free to gift him some money toward his GET account. He’s so young, he won’t remember if you got him a super cool toy or just donated money toward his college fund. His parents sure would remember it fondly though! ;) Seriously, if you are interested in going this route please let us know and we’ll set you up as an authorized gift giver with his online GET account.

So there you have it! More ideas for little WyBear than you can shake a stick at! As to the question of how to avoid duplicate gifts, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Things can always be returned or exchanged, but if you are really concerned about it we can set up a little email correspondence between family members so that no one steals anyone else’s thunder.

our week in iPhone pics - Nov 5

2011-11-13T19:23:00.001-08:00

What a week! We started it out with an awesomely fun weekend (for WyBear and I, anyway), then had a few days of work and then capped it off with a birthday boy and a road trip to Portland. Here we go!

saturday: Karl is still super busy at work lately, and he needed to go in to the office both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Boo for him, but it does mean that I tried extra hard to keep Wyatt entertained. On Saturday we ran a bunch of errands. I continued my habit of taking car seat pictures of my little man, and he was very suspicious of this practice that morning. Then we got to Michaels and I tried to get him to wear a snowman hat (Guess what? He was not amused). Then it was off to Costco where Wyatt was being so adorable that I nearly forgot what I was even there for. When I got home and saw my 2nd car seat picture I very nearly died from the cuteness. And when Karl came home from work he stopped at Starbucks...they gave him an extra cup for some reason, and Wy loved walking around drinking his "coffee" while he pulled every single one of his toys off of his bookshelf.

sunday: Another Mama + Baby Bear day. Once we got up and dressed and saw Papa Bear off to work, it was time for a lunch of cherry tomatoes (the last from our garden) and a black bean and cheese wrap. Then it was off for a drive down a pretty fall highway to meet our friends at the library for a Charlie Hope concert. We got there a little early, so we had fun playing with the giant stuffed animals and board books. Who knew the library was so cool? I think we'll have to start going there more often! Then the concert started, and Wyatt happily sat on my lap for the entire set and he got so cute and bashful going up to her for a hug afterward. Since the weather was so beautiful once the concert was done, we went to a nearby park (a park of AWESOMENESS) with our friends for some outdoor playtime. This park was amazeballs. Wy and Miss P were sooooooo cute holding hands, and then they had fun running all around the park until their noses were bright red and their hands were freezing cold. What a fun day!

monday: Mondays are tough for me, picture-wise, because I have recurring meetings that fill up my calendar so I rarely get to go visit my little man during lunch so then I'm so busy getting my fill of Wy-love that I forget to snap any pictures. The Henster sure was being cute laying on Karl's lap after Wy went to bed though. Love that pup, even when he drives me bonkers. :)

tuesday: I didn't realize Wy was in the middle of a diaper change when I got to daycare during my lunch, so I didn't hide out until he was done...and once he saw me he was OVER that darn diaper change. Luckily Miss Maimuna was almost done with it so he got to come get Mama snuggles and then he showed me their "messy room" where they paint with water colors and play with the water table and all sorts of other messy fun that toddlers eat up.

wednesday: Some early morning snuggles after jammies come off but before daytime clothes get on. Love my little snuggler. When we picked him up in the evening he was crazy crabby and he fell asleep about 0.2 seconds after getting into the car and then took a long nap.

thursday: I was feeling the need, the need for caffeine, on my way to work on Thursday, so we stopped at Starbucks. The drive-thru line was ridiculous though, so we went ahead and went inside and I think Wy was totally confused about why he was out of his car seat so soon (plus that hand in the mouth is a pretty clear indicator that another tooth/teeth is/are working their way out). When I came to pick the little man up at the end of the day, he was in the middle of 5:00 snack and he just couldn't decide if he should get up and hug me or hurry up and shove all the rest of his snack in his mouth...so he decided to try and do both, that silly boy. Then he helped Karl give super stinky Henry a bath, and then we held hands while he drifted off to dreamland.

friday: 11.11.11! Happy Veteran's Day! And Happy Happy Birthday to Karl! Luckily Veteran's Day is a holiday for me so I always get the hubs' birthday off. And Karl decided to take the day off, too, so we decided to head down to Portland to see his sister and her little family. Before we could do that though, K got his car serviced and I chased Wy around as he tried to demolish our kitchen. Then it was time to hit the road! A little mid-trip snack break, then we finally arrived at Laura & Scott's house. The boys are just 4.5 months apart, and during this visit they were a lot more interactive with each other so that was pretty awesome to see. We also got to meet 6-week-old Samantha, our adorably tiny little niece. Oh my heavens, she is cute and has that deliciously distinctive newborn smell. Love. And my sister-in-law made the birthday boy a crazy delicious carrot cake, so once the little ones fell asleep we all thoroughly enjoyed a slice.

So that was our week! How was yours?

Linking up with Amy!

HBD, Karl!

2011-11-12T19:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Karl,

Yesterday was your birthday! I'm sorry I didn't get this posted before we headed out for our quick road trip to Portland, but I think you'll understand...we were just a *little* busy trying to get ready and get on the road.

Wyatt and I just wanted to wish you the best birthday ever. 11.11.11. - the coolest date until your 137th birthday!

We love you. You are the best husband and the best papa that we could ever hope for. Mwah!

~Mama Bear and Baby Bear. :)

sneak peak...

2011-11-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

It's a certain somebody's birthday tomorrow. Can you guess who??

Source: theberry.com via Laura on Pinterest

Word.

2011-11-09T17:35:00.000-08:00

Untitled #4459 by i-do-that-too on polyvore.com

cuadro blanco
lasdosalas.blogspot.com

YouTube Tuesday: If It's the Beaches

2011-11-08T17:33:00.000-08:00

Love, love the Avett Brothers! This song gets me every time. Enjoy!

Just because

2011-11-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

A photo dump, for your Monday viewing pleasure. Presenting, our dapper boy and his dapper papa. Pictures from about a month ago.

Love, love. Happy Monday!

our week in iPhone pics - Oct 29

2011-11-06T16:52:00.001-08:00

Happy end to another week! Is it just me, or do the days just fly by? Hope you aren't getting bored of multi-daily pics of our little WyBear, because he's pretty much what I'm obsessed with. :)

Here we go!

saturday: Umm, I cannot remember what we did last Saturday! Apparently Karl and Wy held hands during breakfast, but that's all I've got. Sorry. Laura fail.

sunday: Pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. Yum! Then we ran some errands and decided to wear nearly matching ball caps. Karl pulled out his Jack Skelington mask and we thought it would make for a funny picture if Wyatt was wearing it with his skeleton PJs. WyBear was not amused though. Then it was off to some friends house for dinner, playing and fro-yo!

monday: Happy Halloween! I only had 2 little trick or treaters come by my desk, so sadly this entire container of suckers is still taunting me with it's sugary ways. Karl captured this awesome rainbow by the Space Needle on his way home. I started my near daily obsession with taking car seat pictures of Wyatt while I'm stopped at red lights. I just want to know what his face looks like back there, since he's still rear facing! Time for trick or treating (i.e., walking around the block before it got too dark), then we let Wy try his first piece of candy. It was organic and artificial dye-free and HFCS-free, and he LOVED it.

tuesday: Another car seat/stop light pic - this one is so pensive. I love seeing cars powered by alternative fuels! We had an afternoon doctor's appointment for a 15-mo well baby exam, and WyBear had fun watching the fish and playing with his lion in the waiting area. Then a little bath time fun before bed (Notice the bruise in the middle of his forehead? He fought the door and the door won.)

wednesday: Wy was struggling in the morning, and he wanted to cuddle with his lion during the drive to daycare. Then he was pretty happy once we got there. Whew! When I showed up at 5:00 they were just wrapping up PM snack and Wy was demonstrating his fine motor skills by carefully putting his cheerios through the sippy cup hole one-by-one. A little water fountain fun, then the super rainy drive to my weekly knitting group.

thursday: Sleepy boys in the morning, then a sleepy boy at lunch time. I showed these waking up pictures to a friend of mine at work, and he said "That is the face of pain right there." Ha! He cheered up pretty quickly though, and then he enjoyed a little smoothie snack in the evening before heading home for the day.

friday: TGIF! The hills were so foggy on my drive in to work, Old Man Winter is definitely making his way to town. And then some daycare adorableness to wrap up this weekly recap.

So that was our week, how was yours?!

Linking up with Amy

Steppin' Out Saturday

2011-11-06T11:53:00.000-08:00

There are a whole host of fashionable bloggers who do a weekly "Steppin' Out Saturday" feature on their blog. The intent is to take at least one day a week where you really put some thoughtful effort into what you and your little one are wearing, and to give inspiration to others out there who may stumble across your blog.

This is not one of those posts.

As much as I'd love to be a stylish fashionista, I'm just not. I'm a sweatshirt and jeans kind of gal in reality. :) But a few weeks ago we did go out on a date night, and before heading out to drop Wyatt at his sitter's house we took a couple pictures. And it was a Saturday. So this is a Steppin' Out Saturday post.

Mostly it's just a "Dude, I think my kid is awesome and I want our friends and family who read this little blog to see how cute he is" post. :)

And yes, we did make sure to put shoes on the little guy before we left home. :)

Link Love: Costume Inspiration for Next Year

2011-11-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

Things could change in the next 12 months, but right now I'm thinking we are going to be a viking family for Halloween next year. With Wyatt's red hair, a viking costume will be tres fitting for him, no?

This is my inspiration for Wy's costume. Ingenius! I absolutely love her blog, by the way. Lots of crafty inspiration!

The movie How to Train Your Dragon also provides tons of inspiration for costumes. This movie is so cute and funny, I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already!It's so fun to get into the holiday spirit now that we've got a little one. I can't wait for next Halloween!!Okay, those are my 2 links for today. TGIF!

pumpkin patch

2011-11-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

Our visit to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago, in pictures:

I think it's safe to say that WyBear had a great time at the pumpkin patch!

Side note: I think every sweater should have elbow patches! :)

a serious 4th quarter push

2011-11-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

The hubs recently pointed out to me that I was in danger of having fewer posts this year than I ever have before (2006 doesn’t count, since I started this blog in October of that year). I’m usually not overly competitive – I gave that up after high school, for the most part – but something about him pointing that out kick started my Type A gene.

via

To exceed my 2010 post count I’ll have to do a post a day from now until the end of the year. I’m going to go for it, so expect to see a whole lot more from me in the next 2 months. It won’t be easy, seeing as how I don’t really have much spare time and I value my sleep over most everything else once the little man finally goes to sleep in the evenings...but I’m going to give it a go! I do think it will be a good creative outlet for me though, so I'm really looking forward to getting back into the blogging swing of things!

Feel free to send me post ideas in the comments!

YouTube Tuesday

2011-11-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Some tunes for this fine Tuesday. A local "kindie" artist that we have on near constant rotation in the car these days. Big locomotive, right on time...

I couldn't find a YouTube of it, but Johnny Bregar's Pancakes song is one of Wy's favorites. He jams out to it when that one comes on!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! Our little WyBear is...what else? A bear! I made him this super simple costume using a kit that I bought on...where else? Etsy! It was so easy, and super cute!

Mama, I told you I'm not interested in posing for pictures right now!

Oh okay, if you insist.

This isn't so bad after all!

And a little flashback to Halloween 2010. Man what a difference a year makes.

Le sigh.

our week in iPhone pics - Oct 22

2011-10-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

Another week has come and gone, and guess what? This one wasn't nearly as busy for me, work-wise. Woo to the hoo! :)

Here we go...

saturday: Reading is fundamental, no? Nap time is fundamental, too. Fundamental to keeping all of us sane, that is, and giving the kitties a chance at some human interaction that doesn't involve being chased or getting their fur pulled. After nap time was over, we ran some errands and saw an awesome rainbow. Then we visited some friends, and their boys were VERY interested in Wyatt. :) And finally, a little night cap to end the day.

sunday: Sunday was "pose by the office window" day, apparently. Wy tried out his baby Uggs that were given to him as a baby shower gift, and he is officially an Ugg-aholic. He loves those things! Papa Bear had to go into the office for a few hours of work again, so we stayed home and played with the new-to-us Legos that we'd gotten from our friends the night before. Then it was time for our weekly grocery trip where Wyatt was sporting his adorable green hat and making funny faces at me as he pointed out birds and other various things in the parking lot. The fall colors are sooooo pretty right now, and then once Karl got home from work he played with the little man while I went out and dug up our potatoes from the garden. Potato Crop 2011 was a success!

monday: Short on pictures today, apparently. Hello, handsome. This tree outside of daycare is tres gorgeous, don't you think?

tuesday: Hangin' out in the morning, waiting for breakfast. When I got there at lunch time, he was still napping. I do so love a sweet sleeping baby. :) Once we woke up, it was time to play "let's throw every toy possible". Daycare created a new picture wall, and I love this smirky photo of WyBear that they used. And then a little pre-bedtime fun with yelling "BYE BYE!" and slamming doors. Isn't that how everyone winds down after a long day??

wednesday: The spookified coffee stand. Their coffee is frighteningly good! (har de har, har) Some puppet play at lunch, then some acrobatics with Papa at the end of the work day. Eating some Chipotle for dinner (little man ate an entire cheese quesadilla and an entire side of black beans...it was insane) then a little unsuccessful shoe shopping before we headed our separate ways as the boys went home while the mama went to her weekly knitting group at Starbucks.

thursday: Did a little work on Wy's semi-homemade Halloween costume, finally finished up our Halloween wreath (this was my inspiration)...please ignore the fact that I got hot glue where it wasn't supposed to be on the yarn and the bat), then a little pre-Halloween fashion show.

friday: Some daycare adorableness - this was right after a dance party, my little man LOVES to dance! Heading home we hit some crazy traffic thanks to this accident (don't worry, we were completely stopped so I felt like it was safe enough to snap a pic). Luckily the traffic didn't delay us so much that we couldn't make it to the coffee stand before they closed! Or to Oil Can Henry's for an overdue oil change while Wy snoozed in the backseat and I enjoyed my coffee.

So there you have it. Another 7 days in the can. How was your week?

Linking up with Amy!

our week in iPhone pics - Oct 15

2011-10-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

Another week has come and gone, and DAY-UM...it was our busiest yet! Tons and tons of budget work for me, and Karl got a bunch of new responsibilities given to him at work which meant he worked late nearly every night. So the story of our week went a little like this: get up, get ready, go to work/daycare, work until the latest possible time before daycare closes, go home, wait for Papa to get home (later than usual), go out to eat (because we didn't have the energy to cook), get Baby Bear to bed, log on and work for an hour or so more, go to bed and get ready to rinse and repeat the next day. Go ahead and admit it...you are jealous of our glamorous and carefree life! ;)

It wasn't all work and work though, we started the week out by having Karl's parents here for a quick visit! That's the right way to start any week, if you want to know the truth.

Anyway, without further ado...our week (in iPhone pics):

saturday: Some morning fun before getting out of bed - reading WyBear's favorite (and only) pop-up book and pointing out his nose (and my nose, and Papa's nose, and Henry's nose...). Cuddling with Grandma and Grandpa...now that's not something you get to do every day! He loved having them here, and we did too! We're so glad they carved a little time out of their visit to see Karl's sister and her new little girl (Rocky's a big brother now!) to come up and see us. After we got ready with everyone (but me, I'm such a party pooper) decked out in their Mizzou gear in honor of homecoming that day back in CoMo, we headed out to the pumpkin patch. It was a super cute one, and I think we'll be going back there again next year! Then, Susan and Rocky gave us the gift of time...much to Henry's chagrin. They entertained the little man while we gave the little pup a much needed haircut. FINALLY! He hates getting groomed, but he looks so darn handsome afterward that it's worth all the pain and suffering. Right, Henry? Right??

sunday: Grandma and Grandpa headed back to Portland after eating breakfast, but not before I convinced them to pose for some pictures (it wasn't hard to convince them, in case you were wondering). Oh. Em. Gee. The pictures turned out so cute! Wyatt wasn't wanting to smile pretty, but then Papa swooped in to the rescue and knew just the thing to get WyBear happy again...and the results were awesome. Such a cute little family picture. After the grandparents left, Karl also left to head into the office for a few hours of work. Wyatt wasn't very happy about that, no siree bob. Hobbes decided to brave the toddler by napping in the office with us, and Wy decided to go back to being adorables. Then we made a quick trip to the grocery story before Papa got back home. After dinner, it was time for our nightly (unless it's raining) "put-Wyatt-to-sleep" walk (and that's what our headlight situation looks like, since it gets dark earlier and earlier in the Pac NW these days).

monday: Oh my boys, they were too cute sleeping like that before I got them up for the day that I just had to snap a picture of them. Then when I got to daycare, somebody was still asleep and looking so sweet. I just love sleeping babies! Once he finally woke up he was very groggy. Nothing that a little ball play with Miss Francesca couldn't fix though! Our little pumpkin family in front of the house, then a blurry (but too cute not to include) pic of Wy saying hello to the Henster, and our sleeping baby all snugged up like a bug in a rug after our walk.

tuesday: Wyatt was anti-book for so long, and we are so excited that he's finally liking books again! These bald baby dolls have always creeped me out, but kids sure do seem to like them. What's the appeal?? Some adorableness at daycare, then my stylish little cowboy (who saw his cowboy hat in the morning and would not leave the house without it) has recently discovered how AWESOMELY AWESOME the water fountains in the hallway outside daycare are, so we now have to stop there for a little fountain action in the evenings. And then Mt. Ranier...always so beautiful when it's out.

wednesday: I worked. A lot. Lame. (lame = the pictures I have to show for my day...I do actually love my job, even when it's crazy busy!)

thursday: WyBear saying "Okay, let's go home now Mom...and oh by the way, I'm taking this bear puppet with me." (side note: meltdowns over having to leave daycare toys at daycare are not so fun) What is fun? Playing with the water fountain! Car seat cuteness, a few pages out of the most fun mail I've gotten in a while (a Snapfish album that I made for Wy's first camping trip) and a much-appreciated glass of wine while out for dinner at Red Robin (not exactly gourmet fare, but it is VERY kid-friendly and we absolutely appreciate that these days!).

friday: Free Flavor Friday! I needed it, too, as Oct 21 is a day I've been looking forward to slash dreading for months now. It's the day I helped my VP present our division budget to the upper management. It actually didn't go too bad though, and I decided to head home shortly after we were done with it. :) For some reason I decided to give Wyatt a 5:00 snack on the floor in the office. Henry thought that was a brilliant idea. So did my son, who happens to be in a food throwing phase right now. Me? I didn't think it was such a great idea, in hindsight. But little man is so flippin' cute that I quickly forgot about the wasted food. A little Dr. Seuss with Papa is the perfect way to wrap up the week, don't you think?

So that's our week! How was yours?

Linking up with Amy!

our week in iPhone pics - Oct 8

2011-10-16T14:34:00.001-07:00

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, let me just say that I'm STILL crazy busy at work! But I know how much our family is liking these week in the life posts, so I'm sticking with them. Consider yourselves forewarned though...you are about to see "The Wyatt Show". Apparently when I'm really busy I just remember to take pictures of the adorable boy and not much else. :)

Not sure why I created these photo grids to be 4 pictures wide...that sure does make for a small picture to display. Sorry about that, but I'm far too lazy right now to re-do all of them! So if you want to see them bigger, just click on each picture to enlarge it.

Without further ado...our week:

saturday: This is one of the awesome shirts we found at the Just Between Friends sale last weekend, and we lurve it. From the color to the price ($3!) to the pearl snap buttons...it's pretty darn perfect. A quick family pic before dropping WyBear off at our sitter for a quick date night. Sushi, fro-yo and a movie...oh yeah! Wyatt had a blast with his sitter and her son, as usual. He played so hard with them that he fell fast asleep by 7:45!

sunday: We attended a baby shower downtown on Sunday morning and got some coffee at an overpriced (and SLOW) coffee stand afterward. Then I worked for a few hours before running some errands with the little man. The mountains and trees were so beautiful while we were driving home - a constant reminder of why I love living here so much! It doesn't take much arm twisting for me to hold WyBear during his naps, especially when I've been so busy lately. I love his warm sleepy self!

monday: Happy Columbus Day! Our daycare was closed so Karl stayed home with the boy and they came to meet me for lunch. I was snapping pics of both of them and it was only afterward that I realized they'd made the exact same face. When people ask which parent Wyatt looks like, I'll just need to show them these 2 pictures! Some tickle time tickled all of us, and then a little cuddle time is the perfect way to end our day.

tuesday: Traffic was bananas on Tuesday morning, so it was a good thing I decided to stop by the coffee stand on my way out. ;) A little dress up play and art work showing off at lunch time. Being absolutely adorable as we packed up to head home for the day, LOVING bath time and then showing off his belly button rounded out the day.

wednesday: The moon was still up nice and high as I drove in to work on Wednesday, and that just feels wrong! Papa and baby came to meet me for dinner on Wednesday evening and we had fun looking at all the plants outside while we waited for our table. Then once we got seated the cup of crayons served as a great distraction before dinner arrived.

thursday: The morning fog was so pretty behind the trees. This time of year is my favorite (You know, if we had just a few more hours of daylight in the evenings...)! Then a whole bunch of adorable WyBear pictures because I just couldn't whittle it down. :)

friday: Free Flavor Friday at the coffee stand...holla! Puppet play at lunch time. Then what you don't see is our super fun evening - our daycare (LOVE them) offered a "Parent's Night Out" where they provided dinner and babysitting...for free! So we came and visited with the little man for about an hour after work then left him there while we met some good friends out for a quick dinner at Pizzeria Pulcinella (seriously YUM). A few hours later and we picked our happy little boy up and headed home (he had such a blast with his friends at daycare that he fell asleep almost immediately once we got in the car). Then shortly after we got home, Karl's parents showed up for a quick visit! Those pictures, however, will have to wait until next week's recap. :)

So that's our week! How was yours?

Linking up with Amy!

our week in iPhone pics - Oct 1

2011-10-09T21:21:00.001-07:00

Hola, amigos. Another week has come and gone, and work is seriously kicking my booty. 2012 budgets are due soon enough though, so the end is in sight!

Enough complaining about bringing home the bacon, let's get to the recap! Without further ado...

saturday: I got a early morning call from my hair stylist saying she'd had a no-show, so I high tailed it out to get a much-needed haircut. There is a Starbucks in the same parking lot as my salon, and magically I found myself in it afterward. :) Pumpkin Spice Latte time, y'all! On the way home from the hair salon there is a cute little farmhouse that always has a seasonally decorated wagon by the road, and the witchy ghosts were cracking me up. Then Wyatt practiced for drama class while we ate lunch at Red Robin. We hit up a Just Between Friends consignment sale and scored big time with this entire stack of clothes for something like $63, so Wyatt has plenty of good clothes for cooler weather now. Then a certain somebody was very happy to show us his new skill - pointing out his belly button (and saying the word at the same time)! :)

sunday: I was meeting my adorably pregnant friend Amy out for lunch that day, and giving her a whole ton of our baby gear. As I was getting all of the gear out of the various and sundry places that it's been stashed around the house, Wyatt saw and became obsessed with the Bumbo seat. So it stayed with us - Amy's baby won't be able to use it for a while anyway! We've had lots of playing and sitting and snack eating in the Bumbo since then. :) And then who needs to be groomed? This pup, that's who.

monday: The Amanda Knox conviction being overturned was big news around the office. I have no idea if she's innocent or guilty, but I do know that there certainly seemed to be enough reasonable doubt that I'm happy the verdict was overturned and she was able to come home. There's a whole family of these bunnies that live on our daycare grounds, and they have no fear! Some lunchtime playing, a sleepy boy, my new library card arrived in the mail, and then guess who STILL needs to be groomed? This pup.

tuesday: Good morning, bright eyes! Somebody was having a tough time sharing toys with other kids at daycare, so our lunchtime visit was filled with lots of tears and redirection (it's tough being a 15-mo old!). Then little man was having lots of fun brushing his teeth before bed.

wednesday: It was very rainy as I drove in to work this morning. I wore my shiny red shoes, but clicking my heels together didn't take me anywhere other than to the office for lots and lots of meetings. Fun with hats, toys and the indoor sandbox at daycare, then reading his daily recap sheet and seeing that he finally started using his spoon at daycare!

thursday: I was sooooo busy at work on Thursday! When I got to daycare in the evening, it was snack time...holla! WyBear's latest adorable "trick" is to blow kisses at us all the time. A. Dor. A. Ble.

friday: I was at an off-site planning session all afternoon, at a beautiful resort that you'd never know was tucked away right near the airport! Because I wasn't going to be able to make it out of there before daycare closed, Karl took over pick-up responsibilities that evening and sent me this picture that nearly caused spontaneous lactation when I saw it (sorry...TMI, but it's true! Look at that face!). Then I stopped at the store for a rotisserie chicken on my way home and earned some good karma points when I helped out a total stranger who had a dead battery. Wyatt's turtle night light was on, and oh by the way...who needs a grooming so very bad that he has perpetual bed head? This pup. So sorry, Henry!

So that was our week! How was yours?

Linking up with Amy!

our week in iPhone pics - Sept 24

2011-10-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

Not sure why, but our computer at home is still not recognizing my phone! Grrr. Here's hoping AT&T lets us upgrade to the iPhone 5 when it gets announced, even though we're still 9 months away from the upgrade period on our contract.

Okay, back to the week! I'm crazy crazy busy at work and I'm not feeling all that witty at the moment. So without further ado...

saturday: We hit up a farmers market that we'd never been to before that is much closer to our house than our favorite Ballard market. As you can tell by Wyatt's snoozing, we were less than impressed. Guess when you start with the best, nothing else compares! So we left the market empty handed and headed to Chipotle for some lunch. WyBear sure does love a cheese and black bean quesadilla! Then we went to PCC, our absolute favorite grocery store, to stock up on the produce and dairy products that we'd been hoping to get at the farmers market. Wyatt was a big help getting the groceries in the cart, and then he loved running around in front of the check out lines.

sunday: Tomato time! I turned most of our tomato harvest into 4 quarts of tomato sauce - 2 quarts for the freezer, 2 quarts for chili that night. Wyatt spent some time trying to break out of prison while Cooper Cat was cute and sleepy, then when WyBear got sleepy himself I bagged up some of the blackberries that we harvested from our back fence line and we gave Henry a much-needed bath. For dinner that night, Wyatt enjoyed the aforementioned chili.

monday: Monday was a notable day, because it was the first day that Wyatt had something other than breast milk or water at daycare (sniff, sniff...he's growing up so fast!). We're giving him goat's milk, as it's more easily digestible than cow's milk and we have some lactose issues throughout the family. At our lunchtime visit, Wyatt gave me adorable looks then had the smoking gun at the lunch table. When I came to pick him up in the evening he was in a new shirt and he really wanted to show me the pictures of the animals on the window. Dinner that night was grilled trout and tomato sandwiches, roasted potatoes (home grown!) and corn with lima beans. Yum!

tuesday: Wyatt practicing for his future in Shakespearean theater, playing with a few of his favorite toys at daycare, going for a walk after work while we still can (it's quickly approaching the time when it starts to get dark at 4:00 here in the PNW), post-bath time silliness and then our little man out like a light from our after-dinner stroller walk.

wednesday: Cold morning + sleepy Laura = necessary pre-work stop at the coffee stand, adorableness at daycare in his Hawaiian shirt (that's the last time he'll be wearing this shirt...it's getting a little short on him!), MEGA happy to be walking out of daycare with Papa, then I stopped at DSW on my way to knitting night and finally (FINALLY!) ended my search for brown heels! Henry chewed up my favorite brown heels months ago, and I just haven't been able to find suitable replacements...until now. Whew! Glad that search is over. :)

thursday: An early morning echinacea flower, my day at work was so packed with meetings it was ridonkulous (so busy that it necessitated the use of the word ridonkulous), Wyatt was asleep when I got there for my lunchtime visit but then we practiced our drama poses for a bit. Mt. Ranier was large and in charge after work, and then when we got home we worked on learning animals from one of Wyatt's favorite books.

friday: As I was driving in to work on Friday, I was thinking "please let someone bring in donuts today." Lo and behold, my prayers were answered! :) More adorableness at lunch (Sensing a trend here? My baby's adorable, and I can't get over it.), then the obligatory sleeping in the stroller after our walk picture (in his "Ugly" hat).

So that's our week! How was yours?

Linking up with Amy:

our week in iPhone pics - Sept 17

2011-09-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

I decided to add in the weekends to these week in iPhone pics posts, since really, we live for the weekends. When you both work full time, your mid-week routine (and thus, pictures) doesn't vary too much. But the weekends, oh the weekends. That, my friends, is when we can actually mix it up!

So without further ado..

saturday: People have been complaining about how cold this summer's been, but for my money I have to vote for last summer being colder than this one. That's certainly true where my tomato crop is concerned, anyway! Wyatt was looking very dapper in his fancy clothes for our birth center reunion picnic. It was our 6th wedding anniversary, and we decided to celebrate by going out on a date - our first solo date since Wyatt was born! Dinner was awesome, albeit a bit rainy, and Wy had an AWESOME time with his babysitter and her son (could that smile BE any bigger?).

sunday: Picture fail! We did a family tradition - Sunday farmers market and burgers at Dick's afterward. Henry knows this routine well, and anxiously waits in the car for Karl to come back with the bag of deliciousness so that he can beg off the scraps from us. It's one of my favorite traditions ever!

monday: Boiling up our daily eggs for breakfast while the boys sleep, Wy was loving on his smoothie as we headed out to daycare, my arsenal of supplies to fight my cold (newsflash: the cold won that fight), 5:00 snack was on like Donkey Kong and then my boys being silly while manning the grill.

tuesday: Waiting at the dentist for a cavity filling, afternoon snack was pita with tuna salad (Wy loved the pita, wasn't such a big fan of the tuna), obsessed with the fish tank at our doctor's office after a vaccine, being a total goof at the grocery store, and killing me softly with his dimples.

wednesday: Being adorables in the car before heading off to school, continuing the adorableness at lunch, helping me unload the dishwasher after work, and then a big iPhone fail on my part. iTunes isn't recognizing my phone for some reason, so on Thursday I told it to restore from a back-up...not realizing that I would lose all of the photos I'd taken over the last few days. Even though that happened on Thursday, I'm putting this pic on Wed because I lost Wed and Thurs pics and thus we've got the Wyatt show for pictures these 2 days because all I have are what I texted to Karl throughout the day.

thursday: More Wyatt show at daycare. Water play is one of his favorite activities.

friday: Starting the day off with some cuddles in bed (my favorite way to start out the day), playing on "the Loft" at school, packing up in the car seat to head home, stopping at Mocha Madness for our Friday treat (a short "Everyone's Favorite" for me, a tall white chocolate mocha with soy for Karl), then being way too cute having a pre-dinner snack while waiting for Papa to get home. That last picture is my favorite pic of the week!

Linking up with Amy (who I don't actually know, but she seems super cool)!

Hi Fall

2011-09-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of fall, and I couldn't be more excited! I just love this season - the sweaters and boots, changing leaves, visits to pumpkin patches, pumpkin spice lattes (holla!), Fall and Halloween decor, cooler weather cooking (soup!), etc, etc.

Know what else I love about Fall? We almost always get a little Indian Summer action! It got to nearly 80 degrees today, and it's supposed to get to 80 again tomorrow (which is about as nice as any Summer day here in the PNW). That'll give our blackberries, tomatoes and zucchini a nice extra boost. So welcome to Fall, but thanks to Summer for sticking around a little bit longer also! :)

new tunes Tuesday: Blind Pilot

2011-09-20T05:21:00.000-07:00

Blind Pilot = love. :)

This is one of our FAVORITE bands! They released their new album last week, and we're a little obsessed with it.

our week in iPhone pics - Sept 12

2011-09-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

Starting a new feature here, hopefully regularly...our week in iPhone pics! Linking up with Amy. I figure, I take TONS of pics with my phone every day so I may as well share them here! Part of the reason I haven't been blogging more frequently is that I don't have time to edit the photos I take with my fancy camera...but iPhone pics by default don't really have to be edited. You'll find that 99% of my phone pics are of the boy, because he's my favorite subject. :)

So without further ado...

monday: WyBear ran a 102 fever most of the weekend, so I stayed home with him on Monday. It was all teething-related, and that pesky tooth broke through on Sunday evening so he was feeling pretty good for the most part on Monday. Showed off his guns at breakfast, Henry kept guard...lazily, and Wyatt enjoyed his afternoon smoothie.

tuesday: Back to school you go, Wyatt! I go and visit him during lunch almost every day. Today we enjoyed some books and people watching. When I came back to pick him up in the evening, he'd been changed in to his spare clothes and the kids were all enjoying their 5:00 snack. After daycare we stopped at the grocery store, but Wyatt wasn't amused, then the little man fell fast asleep during our after-dinner walk.

wednesday: More playing at daycare during lunch, walking around looking like a very big kid, then enjoying some streaming Netflix after Wyatt finally goes down for the night.

thursday: Started the day off with some meetings, then in the early afternoon daycare had a power outage that lasted for more than an hour so they had to call the parents to come pick their kids up (fine by me!). Before leaving we played ball and had a little peekaboo on the playground, then we headed downtown to pick up Karl from work so he wouldn't have to take the bus home (and we drove by this cool motorcycle). Didn't feel like cooking that night, so we went out to one of our favorite restaurants for some soup.

friday: The day started out with an 8am meeting, so a big cup of coffee was in order! Today's 5:00 snack was strawberries, and Wyatt was obsessed with them (hence the very serious look on his face). A few snuggles in front of the house after driving home, then some "playing" with Henry and big smiles for Papa pulling up to the house.

So there you have it, our week in iPhone pics! How was your week?

I love this hat

2011-09-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure where we got this hat - either from our friends Dan and Leslie or from my mom, most likely. But I sure do love it in all it's plaid adorableness.

The day is quickly coming when this hat will be too small, and that will be a sad day indeed.

catching up - San Fran

2011-09-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, now for part II of our trip to Cali!

After spending a few days with my parents, we packed up my dad's Rav4 and headed down to San Fran for a 1-night adventure. SF is where Karl was living when we first started dating oh so many years ago, so that city holds a special place in our hearts and we were excited to introduce some of our favorite spots to WyBear!

We stayed right in tourist central, Fisherman's Wharf.

It was pretty windy in SF (shocking, I know), and the wind freaked poor Wyatt out. See the look on his face in this picture? Priceless.

The wind, coupled with a new tooth working it's way out, made for one cranky face baby. That's okay, we are masters at getting up and quickly removing him from the situation when he starts to get embarrassing (like at a restaurant).

Speaking of restaurants, we ate some awesome food while we were there. And Wyatt realized how much fun it is to feed other people instead of himself.

We visited the aquarium, which had lots of big sharks and cool jellyfish. WyBear chose to sleep through the entire thing though. His loss.

Then we proceeded to walk, and walk, and walk, and walk some more. That's what San Francisco is for, right?

We walked from the Wharf up to Lombard street, then back down to the Wharf, then to our hotel for a brief rest and then all the way up to Coit Tower after dinner. My legs get sore all over again just thinking about it. :)

At Lombard St, we attempted a self portrait. Fail.

Luckily a very nice lady took pity on us and captured a great shot for us!

The next morning, before heading back up to Sacramento, we enjoyed yet another wonderful meal (this time, at Eagle Cafe...it was Uh-Mazing) and Wyatt practiced his coloring skills.

All in all, a great weekend! And, it was Wyatt's last hurrah with the binkie...he decided he was done with it after this trip!

2011-09-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

Oh hi...remember me? Thanks to a teething baby who has been running a fever, I'm taking the day off work today and decided I might just start updating the ol' blog. You know, since I've gotten notes from my mom and my brother about how it's been over 2 months since I last posted. Sorry!

Some catch up is in order, obvs. And I still have to write up Wy's 12-mo letter (and...gasp!...admit that I didn't take pictures for his 13 or 14 month birthdays). But first, some heavy-on-the-photos-light-on-words updates. You know, for simplicity (and because I'm lazy).

Our daycare had to close for some construction in mid-August, so we took a short family trip down to Sacramento to see my dad and stepmom. We were THAT family - running through the airport with our bags, our dog (yep, the Henster came with us), our baby and our giant car seat. It was pretty awesome. Turns out I had my camera settings off for most of that trip, so 99% of the pictures are over exposed and/or completely blurry. That's also pretty awesome (in that not-so-awesome way). So anyway, less words more pictures!

Wyatt loved exploring this big new house he'd never been to before (except in utero).

Sometimes it's the simple things in life that keep you entertained for a good long while.

He sat in a chair like a big boy to eat meals with us, and it worked out great!

The wild turkeys are always fun to watch, except when you let your dog out without realizing that ohmyfreakinghecktheturkeysareRIGHTthere. Luckily, the turks realized what was going on before Henry did, so disaster was averted.

After spending a few days in Sac-town, our family of 3 packed up and headed down to San Francisco for a bit while Henry chilled with his grandparents. Those pictures are up next!

bed head...

2011-07-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

...I haz it.

:-)

Wyatt, month 11

2011-07-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Wyatt,

You are eleven months old!

Eleven months! That’s one month away from one year old, right?! No, it can’t be...can it? I’m an accountant by day (superhero mama by night...ha!), so I’m pretty sure my math is legit and all, but it just doesn’t seem possible. I recently read that one of the hardest parts about being a parent is that your baby starts to grow up as soon as he is born, and that is so true! My heart breaks a little every time I look at you and realize how fast you are growing up. I feel like I’m going to blink my eyes and you’ll be driving off to college, so forgive me if I get a little sappy and try to soak up every single second of our time together.

Okay, enough jibber jabber. Let’s get on with your eleventh month highlights!

This month you became a big time cuddle bug! You’ve got some serious mommy attachment going on right now, so you are extra cuddly with me. I just love it when you’ve been playing on your own for a few minutes and you suddenly stop everything and crawl up to my lap for a hug and some reassurance. A few months ago you were all about Papa, but right now it’s The Mama Show and I’ll tell you a secret...I love it. :) Everything is a cycle with babies, and I know the pendulum will swing back to Papa soon enough so I’m soaking this up while it lasts.

Speaking of your attachment “issues”, you earned yourself a new nickname this month: Velcro Baby! In the evenings after a full day spent at school, especially, you really love being close to us. That makes it a challenge for me to get dinner started before your papa gets home from work, so it’s a good thing we don’t mind eating a late dinner! There are worse things in life than your baby wanting extra cuddle time, that’s for sure. And after being away from you all day long while we bring home the bacon, your papa and I miss you so much that we can’t think of anything we’d rather be doing than playing with and loving on your adorable self.

One of your favorite activities this month was blowing raspberries with your tongue out! It started with you doing it in the car on our way home in the evenings (I think you learned this trick from your friend Dora at school), and then I *may* have encouraged it a bit because I think it’s so darn cute. Cute, cute, cute!

In motor skills development news, you actually had a pretty busy eleventh month! You learned to clap (cutest thing ever), you learned to drink out of a straw, you started giving kisses (more like a big open mouth, slobbery, please-don’t-bite-me, “kiss” on the chin or jaw), you will blow kisses on occasion, you put rings on a peg and you’ve started to climb up and down small obstacles (your favorite “obstacles” being your parents).

You’ve also started to display an understanding of word association! We’ll say “Where’s Cooper?” and you’ll immediately look over to the cats’ scratching post. “Where’s Sophie?” will set you crawling to pick up Sophie the Giraffe and when we sing the Spanish song that Miss Francesca sings to you all the time you will pat your head when we say “cabeza” and pat your ear when we say “oreja”. Another Spanish song that Miss Francesca sings to you has a line that says “Si, si, si, no, no, no” and she nods her head yes for the “si, si, si” part and shakes her head no for the “no, no, no” part...and you love to shake your head to the “no, no, no”. It’s way cute, lovey dovie. This age is so fun, and we clap and cheer and celebrate all of these achievements with you!

In addition to all of this good word association, we are also starting to make sense of some of your babble! You’ve been saying mama for a while now, but other new words this month are papa, kitty cat (kee ka) and bad (a-baa).

You are also getting closer and closer to standing on your own (without holding on to anything) and to walking! There were a few times during your eleventh month, when you were totally distracted, that you let go and stood on your own for a few seconds and you even took a few unassisted steps! Most of the time you are more interested in crawling than standing or walking, since you are such an expert crawler, and that’s just fine with us. We’re in no rush for you to grow up too fast. Everything in time, my love.

We unofficially think you weigh about 22.5 pounds at eleven months old. You are long and lean and wearing 18 month clothes for the length. Baby clothes are so inconsistent – you can wear 12 month, 18-24 month or 2T shirts and they all look pretty good on you (although the 12 month ones are starting to get a little snug).

As always, here is a link to your continuing Flickr album. 396 pictures in eleven months, and that doesn’t even count the hundreds and hundreds (over a thousand, actually) that I’ve taken with my iPhone!

Kisses, kisses, KISSES!! (that’s something I love to say to you while we’re playing)

Love,

Mama

oh hello there

2011-07-04T11:44:00.001-07:00

Yikes, my last post was on June 4?? A whole month ago? Well what can I say, balancing life + work + baby + exciting home projects + 1st birthday party planning = difficult. Life is good, great really, but finding time to blog has proven to be pretty challenging. Here we are one week from Wy's 1st birthday and I haven't even posted his 11 month letter yet!

11 month post, coming right up. Regular posting may resume soon...maybe.

a nice day for some plane watching

2011-06-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

On nice days we like to head down to the small local airport at the bottom of our hill and eat lunch while watching planes take off and land. As a bonus, the Boeing plant is connected to it as well so we often get to see them working on the big jets.

Today the weather is about as perfect as it gets in the Pac NW, so it's a great day for watching some little planes fly around!!

Flickr Faves Friday: puppy love

2011-06-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

Obviously I have an affinity toward schnauzers... :)

1. Tommy Two Tone, 2. Ball Boy Strikes Again, 3. Throw it . . . throw it . . . throw it . . ., 4. Fritzu Schultz, 5. Scamp, 6. Clean-up crew, 7. Rosey, 8. too cute for you, 9. mini bebé., 10. I'm not a dog, I'm a pirate., 11. Camillo 4, 12. Passion, 13. Jetta the Boston Terrier, 14. Lounging, 15. Mac + Pink Panther, 16. Sammie

digging in

2011-06-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

Last year’s garden was not a success. We just had a super cold summer, so nothing ever really took off. Even though we’ve had a very cold spring so far this year, I still have high hopes for the 2011 garden!! To help make those high hopes a reality, we've recently invested some time and money into getting everything ready. Step 1 was pretty easy: start seeds. I've always had better luck with plants (tomatoes, in particular) that I start myself versus buying starters. So at the end of February, we set up our grow lights in the guest bedroom and I got my seed on. 50 little starts of tomatoes, tomatillos, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.

Step 2 was a little more difficult: prep the garden for planting. Over the last year or so the garden had gotten completely out of control in the weeds and grass department, so we decided it would be worth it to hire someone to come in and whip it back into shape. We could have saved quite a bit of money and done it ourselves, but in this instance we chose to take the more expensive route so that we could have more time to play with WyBear.

I searched around the Coalition of Organic Landscape Professionals, sent off a bunch of emails to various organic landscapers, and found that hardly any of them service the part of town that we live in! I guess our organic hippy dippy ways are better suited to North Seattle than the Eastside. :) But I did finally find one guy, Michael Hunter of Natural Gardens who was willing to come out to our house. It took several weeks of trying to coordinate schedules with availability of product, but it’s finally done and I absolutely LOVE the results!!

Through discussing what we’d previously done to the garden, we realized that by putting down the mulch that we did in the pathways we actually encouraged re-growth instead of discouraged it! Amateur mistake!! But that certainly explains why the pathways didn’t even look like we’d used a sod cutter on them. So Michael and his crew excavated out the pathways, weeded the beds, dug in some organic compost, cut down the sad little weeping cherry tree in the back corner and then brought in about 4-6 inches of cedar bark chips for the pathways. They also pruned our fruit trees in the back yard, so those are looking much better now (although there are still some questions on if our little plum trees will survive much longer given their traumatic recent history). Once they were done with the prep work, I went out (with a little help from my inlaws) and got in the planting groove. Now our garden is ready to rock and roll!

Karl and Rocky built that cool little oblong planter for blueberries and strawberries using some landscaping stones that we repurposed from the front yard (and I had Jack Johnson's Reduce, Reuse, Recycle song playing in my head the whole time they were building it).

We’re going to use the back corner where the weeping cherry used to be for a compost bin area (sorry Henry, but we're going to block you off from your favorite ca-razy barking spot).

I've got 16 tomatoes, 5 tomatillos, 5 broccoli, 5 cauliflower, 5 cabbage and bunches of peas, potatoes, onions, carrots, beets and lettuce planted (not to mention strawberries and blueberries). Still to go in the ground are more tomatoes, zucchini, green beans and round 2 of lettuce, potatoes, carrots and beets.

And one bonus shot of the garden, from the upper part of our yard:

Here’s hoping that Garden 2011 is a success!!

Wyatt, month 10

2011-06-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

Dear Wyatt,

You are 10 months old! Just 2 months away from the big ONE YEAR! Yikes. It makes my heart skip a beat just to think about it.

If we were going to put a label on your tenth month, it would be the Month of Moving! You started to army crawl right before you turned nine months old, and then within a week and a half you were “regular” crawling like a champ. You explore your daycare room all day long, and then when we get home you love to crawl up and down the hallway (usually in hot pursuit of the kitties or Henry). You don’t seem to notice obstacles, so you’ve got lots of bruises on your shins and knees. Nothing will get in your way, by golly! :)

You’ve also gotten really good at pulling yourself up and using objects to help you walk around. You cruise around the coffee table and all along the couch and ottoman, then you’ll crawl over to your walker and push it up and down the hall while you walk alongside it. Basically, you just love to explore. We’ll play in your room a bit after we get home from work (for me) and school (for you), and you love to grab a toy in each hand and then take off down the hall while pushing the toys on the floor. It’s so fun to see what captivates you, WyBear!

This month you continued the jabber-fest. You are definitely working on saying Papa, although we don’t hear you clearly articulate it very often like you do with Mama. No other really easy-to-distinguish words have happened yet, but you do babble all the time. And we can tell that you are listening and understanding us quite often as well.

You got your 4th, 5th AND 6th teeth this month! And each time it was accompanied by an ear infection, but you are handling those so well. We put mullein garlic drops in your ears each night after you’ve gone to sleep, and those seem to be working to keep the infection at bay. I’ve even gotten used to having you smell a little garlicky, too. ;)

You are continuing to get really good at independent play, and right now your favorite toys at home are your sorting board and books (Do the pets count as toys? Because they are your favorites, too.)When I visit you at lunch, we have a lot of fun playing with nesting cups and you consistently put the smaller cups into the bigger ones. I think I only had to show that to you once before you got it. Your little baby brain is so darn smart!

You’ve finally doubled your birth weight this month, by our unofficial stats. It took 10 months to double his birth weight? (some might ask) Well yes, but you have to remember that you were nearly 11 pounds when you were born!! By our scale at home you are now 21.5 pounds, which is just a hair above the doubling mark of your 10 pounds 10.5 ounces at birth.

I would wave at you to close out this monthly letter, but you’d refuse to wave back at me! You do, however, wave at Papa and at a whole slew of other people. I don’t take it personally though, and in fact I take it as a sign that you know if you wave to me it means you are saying goodbye and you never want to be parted from me. ;)

Here is a link to your continuing Flickr album of cuteness. I already love looking through all of these pictures, and I imagine that I’ll feel more and more nostalgic about them as time moves on.

XOXO, to the moon and back.

Love,

Mama

And one bonus picture, to show how hard it was to get you to sit still for your monthly photo this time. Our little squirmy worm just wanted to be on the move!

Wordless Wednesday: Instagram love

2011-06-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

family, part deux

2011-05-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

The very next weekend after Grandpa Doug came to visit, Grandma Susan and Grandpa Rocky came out to see us! They also started their journey down in Portland before coming up here, and then we had a very fast but EXTREMELY productive 2+ days with them!

(quite a bit different than this picture, no?)

I tell ya, these two have seemingly boundless energy and they are so very HANDY! They know that we have lots of projects that we’ve either started (and not quite finished) or dreamed about starting, so they told us to make up a list of all of these projects and they’d see what they could help us get done. You don’t have to ask me twice...I went right to work making up a list, and Karl checked it twice. ;)

Lots of tasks were checked off our list, both inside the house and out in the yard. From some babyproofing to a leaky pipe being replaced to a lot of work in the garden, those inlaws of mine really knocked it out of the park. We felt guilty putting them to work for their entire visit, but we sure do appreciate it nonetheless. And my sweet mother-in-law was feeling seriously under the weather the whole time too, yet she was still such a help. I felt terrible letting her do anything, but we couldn't convince her to take it easy!

Susan and Rocky, you are the bee’s knees! The salt of the Earth! The shizzle! :)

Oh, and in case you were wondering...Wyatt absolutely LOVED having more grandpa time! (He also loved grandma time, but let's be real here...we all know that grandpa time is Wyatt's favorite thing EVER. It even trumps mom and dad time!)

family

2011-05-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

6 grandparents down, just 1 more to go! Wyatt is lucky enough to have 7 grandparents...unfortunately though, none of them live anywhere near us. But in his 10 short months, he’s met all but 1 grandparent now that Grandpa Doug came out for a visit. All that’s left now is to meet Grandpa Art, so hopefully we’ll get to see him before long , too!

Newsflash: Wyatt has a thing for grandpas. That thing is extreme love. If a grandpa is around, we’re all chopped liver. :)

Karl’s dad came out for a conference and spent the first half of his trip down in Portland visiting with Laura, Scott and little Rocky, then he came up to Seattle to spend some time with us!

It was really great seeing him, and Wyatt just loved all the Grandpa Doug time he got. We didn’t do a whole lot other than playing around the house and just hanging out, but those are our favorite ways to spend time with family most of the time anyway.

Thanks for coming to visit us, Doug!

Ottumwa, part 3

2011-05-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

My dad and stepmom have been married for almost 25 years, yet this was the first time that I'd met most of her family. And what a great family she has! Such a fun, fun group of people.

I sure hope I don't have to wait another 25 years to see them again!

We ate one final meal in Ottumwa before heading back to Des Moines, at the iconic Canteen. Loose meat sandwiches at their best!

This place is so cute, and has such a strong history with the town and with Barb's family. It was the perfect way to wrap up our Iowa trip!

So while it was a sad occasion, I'm so glad that we were able to go and support my parents and meet Barb's family, and as an added bonus we even got to see Karl's family too!

Ottumwa, part 2

2011-05-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

By far, Wyatt's favorite part about our trip to Iowa in March was all of the Grandpa time he got!

Little man looooooves his Grandpa Phil. If he was anywhere nearby, Wyatt only had eyes for him. It was pretty darn cute.

One last Iowa post left!

Ottumwa, part 1

2011-05-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

Our Iowa journey continues! The funeral was in Ottumwa, so after we flew in to Des Moines and stayed the night there, we drove in to Ottumwa to meet my dad and stepmom at The Hotel Ottumwa. It's a charming old hotel located right in the heart of town, and since it's in the middle of Iowa the rates are really affordable!

I asked Karl to watch Wyatt while I took a little break, and this is what I got.

Haha, not really! Karl was taking a nap and I set this photo up unbeknownst to him. :)

The next day was Mimmie's funeral, and after the service we all ate good food and reminisced about what a wonderful 100.5 years Mimmie lived.

Wyatt liked walking around that day, quite a bit.

My stepmom's confirmation photo!

I love seeing all of these bits of her history!

This picture is grainy due to the low light, but I just love it.

Up next, Wyatt's obsession with my dad!

Kiss me, I'm Iowish

2011-05-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of our March trip to Iowa!

We flew in to Iowa for a sad occassion - the passing of my step-grandmother. But the upside to the sadness was that we got to see a lot of family. Karl's family drove ~4 hours up to Des Moines so they could see us, and we had such a lovely visit with them!

They hadn't seen Wyatt since he was about 6 weeks old, so they had a lot to catch up on. Here are the pictures. :)

no smiles for you!

2011-05-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

Back in the beginning of March we took a trip to Iowa, and I'm realizing that I never posted the pictures! I'll do it in installments, to stretch it out a bit longer. :) First up, trying to get a family photo with Karl's side of the family. The problem? A certain baby was tired and cranky and not in the mood to smile...

Grandpa Rocky tried to elicit a smile....no luck.

Great Grandma Jean tried...no luck.

Oh well, no smiles for you!

Still a cute family photo, though. :)

paper cranes

2011-05-03T17:20:00.000-07:00

A woman in my knitting group organized a few community events recently to fold paper cranes for the people who lost their lives in the devastating Japanese tsunami. We went to one of them and learned how to fold the cranes. See a lot more photos here. (photos taken by the awesome Shawna)

Then I got hooked, and I folded a bunch more! Karl even got in on the action!

Including one with winglets!

And a super tiny one!

In the end, we folded about 25 more cranes and I dropped them off to Emiko that next week. I hope she reaches her goal of one crane for every life lost!

scenes from a perfect birthday weekend

2011-05-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

Karl and I both took a few days off work to celebrate my birthday a few weeks ago. We originally intended to take a little vacation up north, but then Wyatt and I came down with colds and ear infections so we thought it would be best to not fly and instead we had a mini staycation in our own city. It was so much fun! You already saw how we spent our Saturday that weekend (goodbye tree!), so here are the photo-heavy highlights of the rest of our weekend.

Breakfast at Geraldine's Counter. Love their breakfast casserole! Wyatt was a perfect little angel at breakfast. As long as we kept giving him food to eat, he was happy!

The weather was sunny and GORGEOUS that Sunday. For me, there really is nothing better than a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest. It’s just perfect, and so fun to walk around down by the water acting like tourists in the city we call home. So we headed to the Aquarium to introduce Wyatt to the wonderful world of aquatic life.

He loved it! Usually I would wear Wyatt around in our Ergo, but my back was hurting a little bit this day so Karl gladly wore our little WyBear around for the day. I just love a babywearing papa. :)

My lovely little family. Wyatt was way past his naptime (so many cool fish to see, no time for naps!), and was getting a little silly so he kept reaching up to giggle and poke my face while we were attempting a self portrait. I’m so glad I caught this moment!

A late lunch at Pizzeria Pulcinella. Oh my, we love this place. Late lunch on Sunday was the perfect time to come, too, as the restaurant was not at all crowded. Wyatt was a little angel, again. As a side note, these stick-on placemats are genius!

Monday was my actual birthday, and Karl got up with Wyatt so I could get a little extra sleep (heaven!). Then we headed back downtown and used a gift card we had to eat breakfast at Lola. It was good, but I’m not sure it’s worth the hype it gets. I’ll take the food and atmosphere at Geraldine’s Counter over Lola’s any day! But still fun to try something new, especially when it’s on a gift card! :) Stopped across the street to use a bit more of the gift card buying up some sweet treats at Dahlia Bakery. Umm...this Tom Douglas establishment is TOTALLY worth the hype! So delicious, and such a quaint little bakery. I wish I would’ve taken some pictures in there, but I was too busy drooling over all of the (expensive) deliciously tempting offerings!

After breakfast/brunch we wandered around downtown for a few hours, stopping and shopping or grabbing a coffee when we felt like it. Then we headed home and Karl sent me out for a pedicure while he stayed home and played with Wyatt. I blissfully sat in a massage chair and got my feet pampered while I read the new book that the hubs gave me. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend! If 33 is as good to me as 32 was, then this is going to be a year for the record books. :)

Wyatt, month 9

2011-04-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Wyatt,

You are 9 months old! You’ve now been out longer than you were in, and in some regards that doesn’t even seem possible. At other times though, I do have to begrudgingly admit that you are becoming more and more of a toddler and less of a little baby, so I guess the calendar is right. I look back at pictures from your first few months of life and it’s almost hard to believe that that sleepy little baby who didn’t interact with us too terribly much is the same active funny little boy who entertains us so very much every day now!

During your ninth month, you got your 3rd tooth. Just like the first two, we wouldn’t have even known that you were teething if we wouldn’t have seen the tooth sticking out of your adorable little gums. It seems that the only adverse side effect of teething for you is getting ear infections each time a new tooth comes out. You are so very good natured though, that even an ear infection doesn’t really bother you that much. We hope you stay that way!

Speaking of ear infections, you are such a champ at taking herbal tinctures now. When Dr. Beth gave you your first tincture, you acted like we were trying to poison you. Now, however, you love it! It has licorice root in it, so it tastes a bit like black licorice and you seem to like that...which should make your Grandma Susan happy. We’ve also started you on a liquid multivitamin formulated especially for little ones in order to further boost your immune system, and you willingly take that every night as well. We sure did get lucky in the good natured child department, my love!

Lots of food progress this month. In fact, I would say that you underwent a food revolution during your ninth month! There really hasn’t been anything that we’ve given you that you didn’t like. When you get a little bigger and are on food full-time, I have a feeling that it will be hard to keep up with your appetite! :)

You are getting really good at independent play, and will happily pull books off the shelf or play with your favorite toys as long as we are nearby. You also continue to love motoring around in your little walker, and you sometimes get upset if we walk by it without stopping for some walker time. You also absolutely love to talk! On your daily sheet from daycare, it almost always says that one of your favorite activities for the day was talking. My little chatterbox, I just love to hear your excited “ba, ba, ba!” and of course my absolute favorite is when you say mama over and over.

Near the end of this month, you had your biggest gross motor skills development yet when you started crawling! You’d been bouncing and wanting to crawl for quite some time, and you finally decided the time was right about a week before you turned 9 months old. Your preferred mode of transportation in the beginning of this little crawling journey was an army crawl, and it is so darn cute to see you pulling yourself around to get where you want!

Oh Wyatt, I know I say this every month but we love you so much. I never want to forget all of these details about your early months. The major milestones are important, but it’s the little things especially that I keep near and dear to my heart. The way you pinch the back of our arms when we hold you, the way your little body curls up against mine when we go to bed, your breathless giggle when I tickle the bottom of your feet, your intense focus and use of both hands when you pick up small pieces of food and bring them to your mouth, the way you shiver and shrug your shoulders whenever I run my fingers up the back of your head, the way you kick your feet when you see something you like, and so so much more. I could spend all my time just loving on you, and it still wouldn’t be enough. And I know your Papa feels exactly the same way.

Your official 9-mo stats are as follows: 21.3 lbs (60th percentile, you've dropped a bit in your weight gain but you are still as healthy as can be); 30.75 inches long (95th percentile) and your head is 18.5 inches around. Grow baby grow!

As always, here is the link to your continuing Flickr album. Love it.

XOXO.

Love,

Mama

going....going....gone!

2011-04-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

Karl and our neighbor took down a big tree today! It was a lovely fir that provided us with ample shade and privacy, but unfortunately it was planted much too close to the neighbor's driveway and the root system was starting to lift up their driveway. So down it came! The exciting thing is that this is actually kick-starting an entire front yard makeover. Stay tuned for more details! People hear the sound of a chainsaw, and they all come outside to see what's going on. We were the neighborhood entertainment, especially for all the boys! You should have heard the cheers that went up when the tree came down! It was pretty cute. :)

Wyatt, month 8

2011-04-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Wyatt,

Baby Bear, you are 8 months old! We look back at the pictures we’ve taken of you through the months and it’s just amazing to see how much you’ve changed! They say that humans develop more in their first year of life than ever again, and that certainly seems to be proving itself true to us every single day!

This month, you mastered the High 5! It’s funny, because that’s our favorite trick to perform with Henry so he gets pretty excited when we start high fiving with you. Our little Type A dog just wants to be involved!

Speaking of Henry, you really started to like your furry brother this month. Henry loves to drop his bones off the edge of the ottoman, and if you are around when he does it you just crack up so much and think it’s the funniest thing ever. So cute. Hmmm, maybe that’s where you picked up the super fun game of dropping your toys over and over (and over, and over, and over) again while sitting in your high chair?!

In fine motor skills development news, you started grasping things with both hands this month rather than with just one hand or the other. Your pincer grip is improving every day, as well. In the gross motor skills side of things, you still haven’t crawled but you have become a pro at maneuvering around in your little walker. You just love to walk your way over to the kitchen drawers and start exploring around in them to see what you can pull out! You also love, love, love to stand up and to walk around (with assistance). You haven’t quite realized that you can’t stand up on your own though, and you love to let go of our hands once you’ve gotten upright...so you’ve gotten pretty good at falling down, too. :)

You took your first airplane ride during month 8 so that you could attend your first funeral, in Iowa. Your Grandma Barb’s mom, Mimmie, was a wonderful lady who lived to be nearly 100.5 years old! You did phenomenal on every flight we took (WHEW!), and you also developed a HUGE crush on your Grandpa Phil during that trip (I think the feeling is mutual).

Food-wise, we are fully in to the Baby Led Weaning approach to solids now and it is going great! You’ve tried apples, bell peppers, MumMum crackers, mango, saag and prathas, dhal with brown rice and so much more that we aren’t even keeping track anymore! We hope that you continue to be so open-minded about food and that you develop a really inventive palate. You are also still breastfeeding, and we intend to keep that up as long as you are willing.

The real biggie (for me, anyway) this month is that you said your first official word! Drum roll please...it was MAMA! I am completely unbiased when I say this, but I think you chose the absolute perfect first word. Totally. ;)

You consistently go to sleep between 7:30 and 8:00 at night and we usually have to wake you up in the morning between 6:30 and 7:00 so we can get you ready and out the door to daycare. We are still co-sleeping and loving it. You nurse 2 or 3 times during the night usually, without even really waking up. You love to sleep with your arms sprawled out above your head, and your hair is crazy messy when you wake up in the morning. We unofficially think you weigh 20 pounds now, and you are wearing 12-18 mo clothes.

As always, here is the link to your continuing Flickr album. Love it.

Oh my little WyBear. I love every little thing about you. Stay my little sweetie forever and ever, okay?

Love,

Mama