Olympic Edition

We've been enjoying some Olympics around here, as I'm sure many of you are.

It's been fun introducing Daphne to them.

"Where are the 'Lip-ics," she asked, "on our lips?"

I also heard, 

"Why were those girls doing this?" (she waved her arms artfully around her head, mimicking the gymnasts, I think.)  "Are they trying to fly?"

And of course:

"Where are they going?"  The age-old question of runners who like running around a track. 

David said he did some gymnastics in high school P.E.  I've been trying for days to get him to reenact a few of his routines, but he seems shy to perform what he (says) can do on the floor and parallel bars.

I'm waiting for synchronized swimming.  I totally missed watching any of that event during the Beijing Olympics (why is the good stuff always on so late at night???) so I am making it happen this time.   David thinks synchronized swimming is dumb, but I think that's just because he's jealous that he can only do gymnastics.  If he can even do that, which I am not sure of yet. 

I really like the commercials, too.  Except for the one with the skeleton guy who's arm falls off.  That one is not my favorite.

Our own home Olympics have included doing some painting, cleaning, swimming, and enjoying the beautiful and fabulous hot summer weather.

Christian excels in all banana eating contests, which is why our fruit bowl currently looks like this:

Happy Olympic watching!

Christian: 11 Months

I feel like I have a little boy now, not so much a baby.

Christian is trying to walk, working on more words, SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT (mostly), climbing up the stairs, watching for airplanes, pulling Lola's tail, stealing Daphne's toys...growing up before my eyes.

He loves me the most, would live on bananas, starts dancing the second he hears music, and has the most kissable cheeks.

He doesn't like growing new teeth, or being left behind, or being coaxed into trying new foods.
















He is full of smiles and laughs, he gives kisses and snuggles, he is joy and love wrapped in a perfect, squishy little package.

11 months with this guy:

It's been pretty great.

And some outtakes:

Wasteland to Playground

This has been a slow year for yard work at our house.  I can do a lot of things while holding a baby but it seems weeding flower beds is not one of them.  Recently a friend mentioned that he thought our yard looked the best it's ever looked. Personally, I think it's possible that once the weeds get so big they start flowering, any novice gardener would be confused on what 'good' is supposed to look like.  

I've just had to let it go and be OK with not getting the flowerbeds perfect this year (although I mixed up a weed killer composed of a gallon of apple cider vinegar, 1/2 a cup of salt, and a teaspoon of Dawn dish soap, and wouldn't you know it actually kills weeds and stray grass just as dead as Round-Up does.  I've been spraying it everywhere, just for kicks).  

There was one outdoor project we were committed to completing this year: making the wasteland right out our back door more user friendly.  We use the area quite a bit this time of year, but since nothing grows in this spot it's been a challenging place to work with and a bit of an eyesore.

So David whipped out his power tools and we turned our wasteland into a very useful playground.

David built most of it himself with Daphne acting as a helpful contributor. 

oh Brynner

it's important to guard your cheeks from loud noises

I helped by finding free wood on Craigslist.  It's amazing the things people are giving away on there; it's a dream come true for the frugal minded.  I was also helpful by rescuing a cabinet door from our old bathroom and turning it into a chalkboard.  Chalkboard paint and I are Best Friends.  We are beyond tight. 

Anything that is a pretty color in the house was also contributed by me and some spray paint, my other BFF.

With two swings and the playhouse, we're feeling quite good about our new patio area.  Next spring I will get to plant a lot of flower containers to bring in some more color and some softer textures. 

where's Christian?

she's got boys up there already. oh dear

It Happens Sometimes

Dear Christian,

I'm sorry that I accidently made you eat moldy food.

Love,
Mama

More Berries

Last week a couple of friends and I plus all of our children went to my favorite blueberry patch.  We were basically a berry farmer's worst nightmare, what with all the children and all, and I wouldn't say it was an extremely successful trip since Christian was like "mom! hold me!" the entire time.

Practically the second we got there my camera battery died, which was disappointing because I really wanted a photo of all those children

Wednesday was round two at the blueberry patch, this time with Meeka and her boys.  I left Christian at home with David so that I could really be productive, but I completely forgot my camera which was again terrible.  The blueberry patch is important!  It must be documented with photos!

So here's where I get to cheat and give you a blog post without actually having to write a blog post, as I'll just link you over to Meeka's blog so you can see the darling photos that she took.  She is a great writer and kindly leaves out the tidbits like when Daphne bashed Derek in the side with her berry basket. 

Easiest blog post I ever wrote.

Farm Girl for a Day

Finally, at 3 and a 1/2 years old, Daphne got to experience one of my favorite things:

Somehow we've missed out every year, but this past weekend timing worked out so that we could make it happen.

(If someone could bottle up the combine smell and make it into a candle, I would totally buy it.) 

She was terrified at first, which surprises me because she loves riding on the tractor.  The combine is rather large, I suppose.

But it did not take her long to love it and try to drive it. It's hard to remain afraid when you're going 3mph, no matter how large the vehicle. 

Papa-Great on the chopper, us on the combine.

Christian didn't get to ride.  I put him in this position for a photo, and while it may look like he's enjoying watching the combine go by, he was actually fussing because instead of holding him I was making him crawl in the grass.  Terrible mother.

After combining it was time to play in the mud,

the mess!!  aahhhh!

and have a little wake for Brynner.

He is buried in a happy place, where he used to chase chickens and check out the llamas.

When we told Daphne that Brynner died, she said, "He's with God.  He's in Heaven with Jesus.  We're all done with Brynner so he went to Jesus' house.  Jesus built a house for him with wood."

Brynner is probably pretty happy up there.  I think he has a field full of mailmen to chase.

Mr. President

I gotta tell you, we are on a ROLL when it comes to our kids meeting famous people.  First, Daphne got to see the Pioneer Woman, then we met Bob from Bob's Red Mill, and today...the President:



















And it took this major event to finally figure out how to take the pictures from our phones and put them on the computer.  David and I live in Little House on the Prairie times when it comes to technology.  In fact, I am currently typing this blog post on my typewriter. 

This morning we walked to Starbucks and Fred Meyers.  This event is so very typical in our lives, and our camera was full of nearly 350 photos from the action packed weekend we had, that I decided not to take the camera with us.  As we were sitting at Starbucks we got to watch a Coast Guard helicopter fly low and slow circles over our heads.  Both kids found this to be wonderful.  David remembered that the President was coming into town today and realized the helicopter was part of security duty.

No picture of the real helicopter, but it looked pretty much just like this one.

We went into Fred's to pick up the things we needed and headed back home.  We didn't get very far when we saw all the traffic was stopped, and there were quite a few police motorcycles blocking streets.  Fortunately for us, families with small children apparently do not look threatening, so we were able to continue on our route even though cars weren't allowed through.

Then came the President's motorcade, right out of our neighborhood.  Do you think he drove by our house?   Wondered at all the weeds in the front yard?  I'm sure.

While I don't have any actual photos of the kids and him, and we didn't 'technically' meet him, we saw his profile in his car as he was just feet from us.  Close enough to qualify as yet another famous person meeting.

**Update:  I just saw on the news that the president ate lunch at a restaurant mere minutes from our house.  Our neighborhood is apparently the happening place to be for the presidential types.