Travels With Alex. . . . and Isaac

A Few of my Favorite Things

2010-12-22T03:48:00.000-08:00

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I'm feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

Merry Christmas!!

ABC's and 123's

2010-09-09T04:08:00.000-07:00

Alex, Isaac, and I have officially started our preschool homeschooling adventure. Despite calling it homeschooling, we haven't actually been home for much of it. We've already been on a few field trips and a camping trip. After the first week Alex told me it really didn't seem like we were doing enough homeschooling, so I went to work adding to our curriculum and our B and C weeks have been much more fun.

For B week we went on a field trip to the Conner museum with friends to look at birds and animals, we studied bees and bugs, copied patterns with beads, went bicycling with friends and had a story time about bears and berries. Isaac is stuck indefinately in B week. He has a new fascination with Buses. He points them out all over town. "Bus, Bus! Aaaa Bus! Mama bus! Dada bus!"

For C we're having even more fun, starting with our annual Labor day camping trip in West Richland. After an amazing weekend of fellowship, peach picking, and a dozen energetic children, we came home to study Chemistry. We had some friends over to experiment with us which made it feel more like real school to Alex. He's really missing his preschool (today he burst into tears and told me he misses the playground), but I'm still hoping that with Mops, swimming lessons, Awana, and story time at the library he'll be busy and happy with all the friends he gets to see during the week.

Summer Sun and Smiles

2010-09-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun with my boys this summer. They're both great travelers, and seem to just thrive on vacation.

We visited dad and granny in Ocean Park. The kite museum was a highlight as usual.One of my favorite little stops: Fish and chips in Ilwaco by the boats.Isaac was just the right age to really appreciate the sand. Isaac also learned about baby dolls at granny's house. I think this was his favorite toy there.Alex and I raced up all 164 steps to the top of the Astoria column. Alex exploring Fort Columbia with his granddad.Isaac and Alex enjoyed working together to keep their kite in the air (with some help from granddad).After a brief visit back home to Pullman, we were off on another adventure: THE BIG CABIN in McCall.
Here are the boys at Boulder Lake, dog-fishing. Dad made the boys fishing poles out of sticks and grass tied together for a line.Isaac and my granny out for a ride in the row boat.My little sailor with his Granny.
A budding fisherman.Isaac helping granny with some gardening.The boys organized a restaurant, complete with real food and a delivery service.Water balloons in the kiddie pool.Sun babies and water cats.
A good old fashioned bath.A highlight of Alex's week: Dad's Treasure Hunt.One of Isaac's favorite parts of the week - rolling trucks down the hill.A sweet end to the week: S'mores on the beach.

Graduations

2010-05-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Our not-so-little boy "graduated" from his first year of preschool. We enjoyed his leadership during the military chant style rendition of the ABC's at his graduation.
Off to Spokane for Aunt Cathy's graduation and mother's day in Spokane's beautiful gardens.
One of Alex's interesting perspective photos.Vacuuming up flowers with his bug-vac.Matching sweaters from Granny and Mom.Four generations of Cochrane girls.

Over the River and Through the Woods

2010-01-03T22:56:00.000-08:00

We drove home last night from our Christmas vacation in Bozeman. As we drove, I couldn't help but think of the contrasts between the homes Jeremy and I have shared. How different it is returning to Pullman than to Silverdale, where the water suddenly opens up before you and the trees crowd out the sky above. Or to Omaha, where the pace quickens as you cross the bridge into the busy city and network of overpasses. Or to Garnett, as you twist ever higher into the mountains, peering over cliffs as the car attempts to maintain its course over the rock filled road. Last night we drove over rolling hills, golden even in the darkest days of winter as the sun set, rose, and set again while the road twisted and turned, up and down, over the gentle Palouse. Pullman does not welcome us with bright city lights, battleships, or tourists. Pullman is quiet, peaceful in these days before the college students all return from home. The blue city Christmas lights brightened the streets, empty even on a Saturday night.

I’m glad to be home to Pullman, to this house we’ve already been away from more than we’ve been in since we bought it. It is already familiar, like an old t-shirt. It’s stained, torn in a few places, faded and worn, but comfortable. Relaxed.

We’ve returned from an unexpected visit to Bozeman, where we were blessed to spend some precious days with Jeremy’s maternal grandmother as well as much of his extended family.
Sara and I enjoyed a shopping trip with Alex, playing dress up with him and finding a new wardrobe to cover his poor exposed mid section as he grows ever taller. His clothes were in such bad shape the when he received new socks and underwear for Christmas he was genuinely excited.
Isaac is living up to his title of “Little Monster” these days. He is exploring and testing, and simply up to no good. Today he managed to follow me right outside as I went to unload groceries from the car. As I turned around to return to the house, there he was tumbling down our front steps in his stocking feet into the mud and pine needles. We have quite the year ahead, I'm sure!

Let Them Eat Cake

2009-10-08T23:05:00.001-07:00

What a month of special birthdays! We welcomed the newest member of the family on September 11, Arena Realm. She missed sharing her Granny's birthday by only a day. Alex and Isaac had to share their mommy's attention with their newborn cousin, but the welcome visit from Granny made it well worth it. Mom's birthday may have been overshadowed by Arena's birth, but we did take some time out of baby gazing to garage sale our way across the entire Pullman-Moscow area and attend a street fair in Moscow. The boys and I even had to resort to eating ice cream while mom checked out the town's consignment stores.

After a week or two to stash away my garage sale finds, Isaac's Grandma and Grandpa came to celebrate his first birthday. After one failed cake, my second attempt looked pretty, but Isaac was more interested in finger-painting with it than eating it. Alex didn't have a problem eating his. "Can we have cake now? Is now the time for cake? Now would be a great time for cake, mom!"

Despite a change to fall weather, we headed outside to play with Grandma's new toy, a remote control car.

Dad came and celebrated his and Isaac's shared birthday with us this week. It was a beautiful fall day, and we enjoyed an afternoon at the Moscow arboretum with Julie, Ryan, and Arena. Alex learned from Uncle Ryan how to climb trees (Ryan's lesson seemed to be: climb as high as you can when no girls are looking, and try not to get caught. Thanks Ryan!). We headed home for a buggy birthday party, complete with my one very successful cake of this birthday season: cockroach cake for Dad... he even made my day by biting right into one of the realistic plastic roaches I hid on the backside of his piece of cake.... "Yum, Yum!". Isaac decided that cake isn't so bad, if it's coated in bugs and made of carrots. He polished off his piece and went looking for more under his plate.
Five cakes later, thanks to all of you who made this such a special time, and for traveling so far and taking so much time out to come see us. I am so thankful for the love, joy, laughter, and just plain fun that you brought to us these weeks! I love you all, and can't wait for the next special occasion with each one of you, although I may wait awhile before I bake another cake!

2009-08-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

Dani is officially married, which leaves me as the youngest Kingma girl.. Haha!
We had a great week in Bozeman, with tons of family and festivities. Jeremy and I enjoyed a couple of nights out without the kids and the kids enjoyed being spoiled by grandparents and Aunt Sara. Alex enjoyed the harvest from Aunt Dani’s garden and has now informed me that he only likes carrots, peas, and beans that are not from a store. All I can get him to eat for veggies now are the cherry tomatoes I’m growing on our balcony. Here I was worried about him coming home and wanting to eat nothing but cake and instead the problem is that he’s begging for fresh veggies.Playtime
WooHoo!
Ice Cream with Aunt Sara
Isaac with Grandma Van
Alex trying to stay warm at the rehearsal dinner (August in Montana! Brrr!!!) Dressing the Ring BearerGrandpa Van, Jer, and Alex waiting for the Happy CoupleThe Father of the Bride - Just Married 30 years ago this week
Bridezilla? Nope! Those aren’t her horns - they’re antlers! Hey, that’s my date!

Congratulations Dani and Adam!

Forgetting

2009-07-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

Alex, Isaac, and I just returned from a week of travels, first to our old home, Silverdale, then to visit Granny and Dad in Ocean Park. We left early last Monday and hadn’t driven an hour before I realized all the things I had forgotten: Alex’s favorite stuffed animal, Amber, his Bluey (blue fuzzy blanket) and his toilet seat. Oops. Alex made it to our lunch stop before he mentioned Amber, and then cried and cried missing her. “But I’ll be too lonely!” he sobbed . He was finally satisfied with the thought of her keeping daddy company while we were gone, and distracted by a new happy meal toy. He didn’t mention her again, and made it happily through the rest of the trip without Bluey, I guess I missed them more than him. Sad to think about him beginning to put his baby blanket behind him. I’m not ready for that.

One thing I did remember correctly was how great our friends are in Silverdale. We invaded Zach and Leah’s new house for the night. Alex and Jack were immediately great friends, holding hands and sharing, and laughing. Matt and Bethany came over for dinner, so we were able to see them, too. We had twice as many children as we did last time we were together, and it was interesting to see them all together. My kids managed to make the largest messes of the group, in both the baby and preschool divisions. I went to help Alex in the bathroom and came back to where I had left Isaac, safely contained in his high chair, to find all the adults scrambling to clean sweet potato puree off of every surface in sight: the back of the couch, the carpet, the tile floor, every angle of the table and chairs. Isaac has longer arms than I thought and had pulled his entire baby food container down off the table to splatter on the floor. What a mess! Poor Leah! Sweet potatoes all over her new house. Alex didn’t want Isaac to get all the glory, I guess, so just as we were getting ready to eat lunch, I looked out the sliding door to see Alex standing in a puddle on the top step of Leah’s concrete patio. He hadn’t quite made it to the bathroom. At least he was outside. The puddle wasn’t too bad, but then the toddlers noticed it, and of course kids love to play in puddles. Yuck!

I drove by our old house, the cute little white farm house with a red door and an acre of grass. I’d been really regretting selling it lately, wishing we could turn back the clock, skip these years of restlessness, and just stay there. I think it was good to see it and bring it back to reality. Good to see how big and unkempt the yard really was, and good to see the changes to the neighborhood that we didn’t have to live with since we moved. I think it made me realize that we really can’t ever go back, although I probably still would buy it again if I could.

After a great visit, we started on the road again, to Ocean Park. I love the ocean. I love the smell of the air, and the overgrowth of ferns and rhododendrons. I love how the evergreens surround the road, and make every turn an adventure. (I know, five years ago I was complaining about that, but I guess it grew on me.) I love the bridges and the cranberry bogs. But most of all, I love being at Granny’s house. I love the cookie jar that’s always full of cookies, and using a different set of dishes for every meal. I love coffee and a newspaper in the morning in the sun porch with a perfect view of the hummingbirds. In Ocean Park it’s easy to forget that the rest of the world exists.
Isaac examining the sand.

We had a great visit, including a stop at the kite museum and another museum in Ilwaco with trains. It was free admission day, but dad spent a fortune in quarters to make the model trains run for Alex, while he ran squealing with delight after them, getting into the right position to watch as they came over a bridge or through a tunnel.
We walked on the beach to the whale bones that dad had never seen, and to the clamming docks that I’d never visited. We even took the canoe out on the bay and managed to make it home without Granny calling the coast guard to rescue us.
Our week was over all too soon. We headed out yesterday morning, and came the familiar route up the coastal highway and then over to Olympia and through Tacoma. We were just getting into the busy Tacoma traffic when Alex decided he needed to use a bathroom. I pulled over at the familiar Bridgeport way exit we had been to so many times visiting Dani when she was stationed in Tacoma. We stopped at a KFC for a break and headed on our way. It wasn’t until we were half way home, over Snoqualmie pass, in Ellensburg when we stopped for lunch and I realized I didn’t have my purse. Ugh. We tracked it down, back at the KFC, and they agreed to mail it to me. So, that left me with the problem that I was still so far from home with just over three dollars in change to get me home. We skipped lunch (thank you Granny for sending so many cookies with us, they made a great lunch!) and drove back with no air conditioning despite the 90 degree temperature, doing all I could to conserve gas. We made it all the way to Colfax, 15 miles from home, before I stopped and Jeremy came to rescue us. What an adventure!

Sports Camp

2009-06-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

Alex's last day of sports camp was today. After trying t-ball, bowling, basketball, soccer, and track&field, it's official: his favorite sport is t-ball. Lucky since he starts a month of t-ball in a couple of weeks!

All week at camp, I've brought Alex's water bottle for him. When his coaches would tell the kids to go and get a drink, Alex would say "I'm not thirsty" and stay out in the field while his teammates took a water break. Today I forgot the water bottle at home. Naturally, Alex noticed his missing bottle and not five minutes into class it started: "Mommy, I'm thirsty! My coaches say to drink water.... where's my water?" Here he is standing by the water cooler. There were no cups, so he tried to drink out of it like a water fountain and ended up soaked, but happy!Isaac had a great time at Alex's sports week, too. I think his favorite was basketball since there were enough balls for him to play with one all by himself.
We had a busy week, and spent a good part of it at the library enjoying their excellent summer reading programs. Firefighters came and read to the kids, and then sent them home with their own fire hats. Alex has been putting out fires in our bathroom all week, now that he knows so much about firefighting. He is excited to talk to grandpa and learn even more about firefighting.

Pullman

2009-06-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, we did arrive here.... six months ago! Jeremy bought me a cute little red netbook for my birthday this week, so I'm back online. We're settling in here, enjoying the summer. Alex, Isaac and I have been very busy with playgroups, story time at the library, and trying out all the parks in the Pullman/Moscow area.

Isaac, who could barely hold his own head up when last I wrote, is now officially crawling, and by the looks of it will be walking in no time. He pulls himself up to stand, and is starting to torment his older brother with his sudden ability to move towards any toys he hasn't been allowed to play with before.

Alex is having a fun summer. We have a playground just outside our door, so he gets to swing and slide and dig in rocks every time we leave the house. He's also signed up for Pee Wee Sports Camp through the city. So far he's tried out T-ball, bowling, and track. T-ball was his favorite so far.
Alex, Isaac, and I spent a weekend in McCall with my family a few weeks ago. One of the highlights for me: Isaac sleeping. Here is a rare photo proving that he does, on occasion, actually sleep. Sleep is apparently very highly overrated, and he generally does just fine without it. He was only resting here to save up his energy for the middle of the night.

The highlight of the trip for Alex was catching a couple of big trout and suckers while fishing with his granddad.
While Alex was learning to fish with granddad, Isaac was learning to knit with granny. We really need a little girl in this family....

Beginnings

2009-01-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

The moving truck is here, Alex is at Grandma's house for the night, and we're loading up to follow the yellow brick road. It may not be paved in gold, but hopefully there is sunshine instead of snow.We had a wonderful Christmas - my only complaint was that there wasn't nearly enough time to spend with everyone that visited. Alex was old enough this year to sing Christmas carols himself and serenaded us all week with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells. He's been well entertained himself with all his fun new toys, and we've actually been able to sleep in and play board games, since he's so exhausted.We've been able to spend extra time with our families this week, thanks to the holidays, which has been wonderful, although it makes it that much harder to leave them. I've also finally attended board game night at Sara's shop, Rook's Comics and Games. I wish I'd been going every week, it was so much fun.
So, here's to a new year, and whatever it may bring. We miss you all - those who visited or didn't - and we're already missing those we're leaving here. We love you all and can't wait to see you in the year ahead.

Photos

2008-12-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

Alex loves to play birthday party with his stuffed animals. It's Amber his kitty's birthday every day around here.

It's cold cold cold.... Here's Isaac ready to go out and play in the snow.

Life is Hard When You're 2...

2008-12-09T06:47:00.000-08:00

All the unfairness of the world seems to hover over Alex these days. I guess having a brother take his spot as the baby of the family has finally caught up to him. He can't get enough mommy time.

So, on Saturday I took Alex by himself to a gingerbread house making event downtown while Jeremy kept Isaac with him. Alex enjoyed it, and especially enjoyed tasting all the different kinds of candy they had for him to decorate with.

I can't say I enjoyed it as much. We're busy potty training these days. Alex is doing great with it, and tells us when he needs to go. He hardly has any accidents anymore, except when he's actually sitting on the toilet. He can't manage to aim into the toilet. We're not really safe anywhere in the bathroom with him. It's not so bad at home, where he has his fancy little potty seat that sits on the toilet, but public bathrooms are awful with him. It's funny to me that there are so many handicapped bathrooms, but never a toilet sized for a child expect in elementary schools, and the children's museum in Omaha. So, I have to hold him to keep him from falling into the giant adult sized toilet. It's really frustrating. Well, he needed to go while we were downtown, so I took him and held him up over the toilet while he sprayed most of our stall and also managed to aim under the wall and soak the stall next to us as well. His underwear was also soaked from being anywhere in the vicinity of the bathroom. I wasn't too upset about this, I knew he had a change of clothes in the car, but what I wasn't expecting was that when I stood up, my purse was soaked. While I was holding Alex, it was dangling down into the toilet. Yuck Yuck Yuck! By the time we left the stall, we were both covered from head to toe with public toilet water. And then we had to walk through the entire crowded building dripping on the way to the car. Ugh...

The other great inequality in Alex's life is that he often comes into our bedroom to find Isaac in bed with me, as well as Jeremy and our cat. Alex is the only one barred from sharing our room. It's really not fair, is it? How sad to come into a room with your entire family snuggled up together, while you've been sleeping in your own cold room by yourself. So, he's snuck in in the middle of the night a few times this week. We've been too tired from staying up with Isaac to complain. Jeremy even slept in Alex's room with him one night, so perhaps Alex isn't too left out after all.

Travels

2008-11-30T19:07:00.000-08:00

It seems that all we've done for the past few years is move. First to Washington with it's rain forests and so much water, then to cold and crisp Montana, Connecticut with its beaches, then back to Montana's dry heat. This summer to Omaha's bustle and famous zoo, then back again to Montana and Big Sky Country. Last week we visited Pullman for the first time to see where we're headed next. Rolling fields and high hills are what we found for our second Washington home. Dry and sunny Pullman will be a change from the other side of Washington we know so well.

We found a third story apartment to live in until summer when we may have more housing options as students leave town empty for the summer. Almost the entire town is dedicated to the school. I've never seen so many apartments. Mom and Dad came down to visit us at Julie's apartment (she moved to Moscow, just next to Pullman, after she married Ryan this summer, and will be in graduate school there for the next few years).

For Sale

2008-11-09T07:02:00.000-08:00

We're on the move again. Jeremy accepted an assistantship position at WSU in Pullman, WA the day Isaac was born. His return to school has been somewhat overshadowed by Isaac's birth, but we're finally starting to really get prepared to move. School starts on Alex's 3rd birthday, January 12, so we still have plenty of time, but we also have a lot to sell before then.

Jeremy has listed various items on Craig's list, and we've had a better response than we expected, although we still have a lot to sell.

We also have to sell the WRX - Jeremy's sporty little car that has been replaced by my mom-mobile. We've had very little interest in it, but we haven't tried too hard to sell it, yet, either. Anybody interested?

And then there's our big sale item: our house. We spent the last week cleaning frantically to get it ready for it's debut yesterday. It's so nice now that it's clean and we've put half our stuff in boxes, we might not want to leave it.

It's exciting to be moving again. I'm really looking forward to Pullman. Jeremy discovered that there is a museum there that I can get into with my Bozeman Museum of the Rockies membership. Also, I have been receiving more phone calls from Julie than usual, anticipating our arrival. I'm glad to have the chance to get to know Ryan better, and spend more time with Julie, since we haven't been in the same town for more than a short vacation in over 10 years. If we could just sell all this stuff, we'd be ready to go.

My Bats

2008-11-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

Here are my big bat and my baby bat. We had a great Halloween, and Alex was a great bat. He flew and flew and filled a bag with candy. We went downtown, where the shops were handing out candy in the streets. We didn't even have to go in most of the shops for him to get his candy, they were just set up outside handing it out as the kids walked by. It was a beautiful day, the best Halloween weather I can remember. Alex had never seen so much candy, and there were a lot of kinds he'd never seen before and had to inspect before we could go on to the next stop.

Alex has started to dress himself. We told him he had to put his underwear on by himself the other day, and he came out of his room with his underwear on his head. He wouldn't take it off his head, but did agree to put another pair in its proper place.

Grannies and Grandmas

2008-10-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

Isaac has been blessed with a Granny, a Grandma, Great Grandmas and even a Great Granny in his life. He hasn't met them all yet, but here are some pictures of him with the ones he's met, and pictures of the special welcome to the world gifts sent by the ones he's anxiously waiting to meet.

Isaac with his special teddy bear from Great Granny and Grandad.

A giant box of baby clothes and a handmade pair of mukluks from Granny.

Isaac and Grandma.
Isaac and Great Grandma Vander Molen.
Isaac and Great Grandma Kingma.

Isaac Clayton

2008-10-08T19:12:00.001-07:00

Isaac Clayton, born October 6th, 7:23 pm
8 lbs 6 oz, 19 inches

On Monday, October 6th, Isaac made his dramatic entrance into the world. After the last few weeks of suspense, taking his time, contractions starting and stopping, I suddenly started having contractions every few minutes right after dinner on Monday. Within 10 minutes, we realized that this was it, and called Jeremy's mom to come and pick up Alex. She raced across town in record speed, and while Jeremy turned Alex over to her care, I made my way to the car, afraid if I waited any longer I wouldn't be able to make it into the garage. While Jeremy was grabbing our bags, my water broke in the car and I started feeling the need to push. I was relatively calm until then, but at that point I started to panic and scream into the house for Jeremy to hurry - we were out of time. Within a few minutes we were at the hospital with me in a wheel chair, and Jeremy racing through the hospital halls with me. When we arrived in labor and delivery, our room quickly filled with nurses, and within 15 minutes of arriving at the hospital one of those nurses delivered Isaac. From start to finish took less than an hour.

We chose the name Isaac for our little boy just because we like it. His middle name is from my dad, Clayton, whose birthday is also October 6th. Perhaps Isaac will have my dad's calm, mellow, easy-going nature.

Isaac and I are doing great. I feel much better than I did after Alex was born, and really great compared to how I felt at the end of my pregnancy, waiting for him to come. We came home last night, and were up most of the night with our hungry little boy. He's been awake more today than yesterday, so hopefully he'll sleep a little more tonight.

We had a birthday party for Isaac at the hospital. Alex and his grandma made cupcakes for him, and Alex enjoyed opening his presents from Granny. Alex was afraid of his little brother though, and didn't want to sit to close to him or hold him. He's getting used to him now, though, and is helping bring him his blanket and make sure he's staying warm enough.

The Perfect Baby

2008-09-26T04:16:00.000-07:00

When I was pregnant with Alex, Jeremy would laughingly tell our friends "We're going to have the perfect baby". I had the perfect pregnancy- no morning sickness, very few aches and pains, and then the perfect labor - 11 hours of steadily progressing contractions, no drugs (I eventually took a Tylenol the night after Alex was born, since I was a little sore), no shouting at Jeremy during contractions, just a simple easy birth experience. Of course it followed that our baby would be perfect, too. And he is! He came out with a perfectly round little head, not the strange scrunched up face and body of a newborn we were anticipating, and he came out sounding more like he was talking than crying. By 6 weeks he was sleeping through the night in his own crib. And from there he has progressed beautifully, and perfectly.

He has a lot of me in him. I have no doubt that his ability and enthusiasm for talking comes from my side of the family - thanks Dad! And We're often told how much he looks like me (particularly now that I'm pregnant and my face is rounder than ever). But his Perfectness must come from Jeremy's family. Alex is very precise. He already tries very hard to color between the lines. He likes things a certain way, and lets us know exactly what that way is.

Tonight he systematically cleaned up all of his trucks and placed each one in a row on his bookshelf. Considering that I've never seen anyone in my family actually able to park their car in their garage (aren't garages made for holding the overflow items from the house?), and that Jeremy's family tends to have garages you could eat off the floor in, probably even after parking the car in them, I'm sure this comes from his side.

Alex has a potty chart to put stickers on each time he uses the toilet. I just taped a piece of paper to the wall in the bathroom and wrote "Potty Chart" at the top. Nothing too complicated. Then we started letting him pick a sticker and put it wherever he wanted on the paper each time he used the toilet. Without any prompting, he has lined up all of his stickers, making a perfect animal parade across the paper. And now that he's gone through one sheet of stickers, he's started placing matching animals together. So, if he picks another monkey, he places it right next to the monkey that's already in line. He loves things that match. He loves things to have a proper place. He loves to know which street it is we're driving on, and where we're going next.

We had a busy day yesterday. At breakfast Alex wanted to know what our plans were for the day. After I told him he said "OK, Bible Study, then lunch, then the hospital [for a doctor's appointment] then cookies [to eat on the way home from the hospital], then dinner, then the fish hatchery [a boys' night out for dinner and fun]. " Just as we were leaving for the hospital, we received a call that our doctor wasn't available, and could we please come tomorrow, instead. Alex had to adjust his thinking. "OK", he said, "Bible Study, then lunch, but no hospital." He's like a walking day planner.

As we draw near to meeting baby number 2, I have a growing suspicion that he's not going to be The Perfect Baby. At least not in the same sense that Alex is. This pregnancy has gone very well, I have no complaints, but it hasn't been quite as perfect. I did have some morning sickness, and now my hips have given up, but the contractions are what really are making me feel differently about this one. For a couple of months I've been having some strong contractions. One night in Omaha I was having contractions every 5 minutes for over 7 hours. By the next morning they had stopped, and I obviously didn't have the baby that night. Since then I've had random spurts of contractions, that randomly just stop again. By my doctor's appointment last Wednesday, I was already 4 cm dilated, looking like I could have the baby at any time, but, again, here I am, definitely still pregnant. Yesterday I started having fairly regular, intense contractions around 3:30. By 9:00 at night I was wondering if we should call Jeremy's mom to come pick up Alex. By 11:30 they had almost stopped, and I went to bed.

I'm sure this baby will be perfect, in his own way. But for now it's hard to imagine that he will be the perfectionist that his big brother has been since day one.

Breakfeast Cookies

2008-09-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

Last night I couldn't sleep, and ended up on the couch in the living room when Alex woke up and came to find me. I was too tired and uncomfortable to bother getting up to make him break feast, so he had to make it himself. I lay on the couch and watched my 2 year old serve himself 2 chocolate chip cookies, some Go Diego Go Yogurt, and a sippy cup of milk I'd filled and put in the fridge the night before. He's growing up so fast.

I then fell back asleep while he ate and woke up an hour later to find him still at the table, systematically picking all the petals off a bouquet in the center of the table. He's a funny boy.

Trouble With Two

2008-09-20T12:04:00.001-07:00

We will soon have two kids. We have two cars and two car seats. With two station wagons, we shouldn't have any problem fitting all four of us in one car, right? Wrong. With a couple of weeks left before our due date, Jeremy went out to install the little infant car seat Alex had used as a baby into our WRX. It's the newer of our two Subarus, and the one we generally use around town and always on long trips. We'd used this same car seat, in this same car, when Alex was born, so we didn't think there would be any problem putting it back in. Wrong... We'd missed the important fact that with only the one car seat, we put it right in the middle of the backseat. Now, we need to put it on a side. The problem is leg room. Who would think that a station wagon wouldn't have enough leg room for a newborn infant. With the car seat behind, the front passenger seat has to be moved up so far that there is no leg room in the front of the car. Family road trips are definitely not looking enjoyable with this configuration. I'm not even looking forward to riding around town this way. So, what about moving them over to the larger, older, Subaru? This seemed like a descent option, at least for short trips around town, until yesterday, when its radiator gave out. We're definitely in the market for a new car, perhaps two new cars. Ugh.

In other news, I'm having contractions like crazy. I was sure all day yesterday that baby was going to come at any time. After a good night's rest and a slow down in contractions today, I feel like it could be another couple of weeks.

Waiting for Baby

2008-09-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

We're back in Bozeman, again, and waiting for our little one's arrival. We should have at least 3 or 4 weeks left before he comes, but I feel like he could come at any time. I've been nesting like crazy, so maybe we'll actually be ready for him soon. Here's Alex modeling one of the many knitted hats I've made over the last months.

I certainly think I'm looking ready to pop at any moment. I'm now wearing only my largest and stretchiest clothes, so he'd better come soon. Here I am as Jeremy sees me:

And here are Jeremy and I as seen by Alex. I guess I'm all stomach to Alex now.

Bridger Ridge Run

2008-08-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

He did it!! Not that any of us doubted his natural talent, but it is still impressive that Jeremy has completed his first (and last??) Bridger Ridge Run. After a grueling 15+ hour drive back to Bozeman, Jeremy completed the 20 mile race in just over 6 hours. He was shaky and sore, but came through in good spirits and without injury, which made me happy, so he could drive us home! This crazy race takes place along the ridge of the Bridger Range just outside of Bozeman. The very first peak of the race I've done previously as a day-hike, worthy of the Cochrane clan McCall days. The race ends at the parking lot below the "M". Many of you may remember the hike to the "M" from Sara's wedding - we carried giant umbrellas up it and many of us stopped only about a third of the way up. Well, that little hike that did us in was just the home stretch of this race. Jer said the race was more difficult than he anticipated, with much more of it being uphill than expected. He came through better than I expected, though. It's hard for me to imagine that anyone could go that far, in only 6 hours, and still be able to walk at the end of it. Jer never ceases to amaze me.

We're back in Omaha now, for our last few weeks here before returning to Bozeman in mid September. Our big challenge now is to come up with a baby name before he arrives. We had a difficult time with Alex and are having an even harder time this time. Alex says we should name him Alex Kingma. He thinks that's a great name.

I'm starting to slow down, feeling the strain of carrying this growing baby everywhere. It's been wonderful having the pool just out our door here to take the weight off for at least a little while.

We still haven't decided where to go from here. Life seems so much more complicated now than it did when Alex was born. Strange the difference that a few years can make. It's an exciting time, with lots of possibilities, though. Can't wait to see where the next few months lead us.

Settling In

2008-07-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

After much anticipation, Alex and I have arrived in Omaha, and are settling in. We've already had quite an adventure. Alex has joined the Polar Bear Club at the Omaha Zoo, and has weekly meetings to learn all about different creatures, last week was bats. He was excited to learn that bats sleep while hanging from their toes. His favorite part of the zoo, however, may be the metal sculptures of animals that he's able to touch and sit on.

We have an arboretum a few blocks away from our apartment, which Alex often insists on visiting. He likes to hear me read all the names of the different trees. We're getting more exercise here that we have since living on the beach last fall.

Today we all visited the waterfront downtown, and had a nice walk next to fountains and swans.

So far, Omaha seems like a great place to live, except for the wind, humidity, and car accidents. Yes, I had my first accident the first time driving here myself. Ugh. I basically drove off the road at 50 mph, and did a 180, stopping inches from a concrete wall (we're all fine except for the car). Alex thought the whole thing was great fun, and enjoyed the police cars and riding in a tow truck. I'm getting to relive it over and over as he reenacts it with his toy trucks and asks me every time we get in the car if we are going to have an accident this time. This will probably turn out to be his first memory, and I'll never live it down.

I'm at the library and time is short, but hopefully I'll be able to update this again soon.

Hugs from Nebraska!

Alex Imagines Omaha

2008-07-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

In a great fit of artistic energy, Alex created the following drawings of what he imagines Omaha to be like. The swirly blue line going up the left side of the page is an escalator "going up to all the toys". The light pink swirl at the top is one of the toys, a choo-choo-train. In the middle of the blue page is the swimming pool, with Alex wrapped in a towel, and his blue rubber ducky, complete with a head, eyes, a tail, and feet. I'm sure this is quite visible to you.
The yellow and green drawing features another escalator also "going up to all the toys". Omaha also has green trees and bushes. As you can see, he has a very detailed idea of what Nebraska will be like. Just a few more days, and we'll see it for ourselves. Note:inspiration for this art came from "The Third Anti-Coloring Book" by Susan Striker, provided by my personal librarian, Mom. Thanks Mom! This is a really neat book!

Golf - a Contact Sport?

2008-07-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

Alex and I had the good fortune of a visit from dad yesterday as he passed through town on his way to Colorado. With the crazy hours dad keeps, he arrived here with plenty of time to go to the Museum of the Rockies in the afternoon. Alex kept him safe through the dinosaur exhibit, and dad kept Alex safe through the costume exhibit, featuring original costumes from Star Trek and Star Wars. Then they battled against each other through the Lewis and Clark Challenge outside. I've never seen mini golf played quite like this before.

After an unusual treat of pizza hut delivery for dinner, we headed to our backyard for dad's fireworks show. He brought hand selected fireworks for Alex , including snakes and the little pops that you through at the ground or step on to make them go bang. Alex even stayed up until dark for a show of fountains and assorted other ground blasters. Dani was home and did us the favor of lighting the scarier ones. Alex has been begging for more snakes all day today. Luckily dad left a box for him to set off on the 4th when Jeremy is home.

Thanks Dad for such a fun visit! It was a perfect summer afternoon.

Grandma's Helper

2008-06-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

Alex had a weekend of helping Grandpa install an irrigation system for their new lilacs and helping Grandma water by hand.

He also decided that he likes to climb. Here's a picture of one of his first attempts to climb a "tree". He wasn't very successful, but was very cute to watch attempting to scale the nice smooth pole holding the live trees up. Perhaps he'll try to find a tree with branches next time.

Julie's Big Day

2008-06-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

Alex and I are back in Bozeman, and enjoying looking back over the pictures from a wonderful weekend in Portland. After a few days in transit, Julie and Ryan are finally off on their honeymoon to Mexico. These pictures highlight some of the many special moments of the wedding weekend, from Julie and I getting our nails done for the first time to Jeremy escorting Mom down the aisle at the start of Julie's ceremony. And of course two of my favorite moments: Eric catching the bouquet and Julie sweeping up after the reception.

Julie is Gartered.

Jeremy coaches Alex before his walk down the aisle.

Eric catches the bouquet.

Julie cleans up after the reception.

Stuffing Julie in the car.

Off to Mexico!

Weekend Festivities

2008-06-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

We've just concluded one of my favorite time in the year - two days that are Father's Day, my birthday, and Jeremy and my anniversary. Cathy came for the weekend, which made it even more festive. Strange spending Father's day and my anniversary away from Jeremy. I'm sorry he had to spend them alone this year. At least we'll finally be together again on Thursday.

Summer is really here and we were able to picnic on the beach, complete with sunburns and seagull feedings.

Dad celebrated father's day by making himself a feast. He's certainly the King Crab!

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday by heading for Spokane for a girl's day at the mall.

Julie had a glamorous makeover, and we were given instructions on applying her wedding makeup.

After two hours of cosmetic fun, we headed to a cute little neighborhood straight out of the 50's to visit The Ruby Slipper - a little tiny upscale shoe boutique, a little artsy shop, and a used clothing store, all right in a row. We were too late in the day for milkshakes, but the cute little restaurant was fun just to visit the outside of.

The Milk Bottle

We headed home, leaving Cathy in Spokane, and came home for another feast by dad, presents and a tiny little chocolate brownie cake (perfect!!). Cathy gave me an art set that included items of interest for both Alex and I (toddler safe scissors, water colors, crayons, and oil pastels, to name a few). Mom and dad gave me a wonderful knitting bag filled with supplies to make a couple of really cute little baby hats. I've been wanting something I can accomplish in a room with Alex, and he seems to be letting me knit in peace, so maybe I'll actually be able to finish them!

Alex has decided that he's a puppy dog since Jeremy's uncle Fred put a leash on him a few weeks ago, and now we have to feed him dog food, give him bowls of water, and take him on walks. Here he is with him mommy puppy dog.

Alex feeds his new friend, Mr. Squirrel.

Wedding Preparation Extravaganza

2008-06-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

Alex and I are officially on vacation. We're spending a couple of weeks in Sandpoint, Idaho with my parents and Julie preparing for her wedding on the 21st.

From pouring little lavender candles for favors to creating head covering for the bridesmaids, this has been a really crafty week. It's been so fun to have this time to work on all the little details for Julie's wedding that I felt like I ran out of time for with mine.

Julie is the exact opposite of Bridezilla - letting us do whatever we want for decorations etc. We keep coming up with more and more to do, as I'm sure we will until she's off on her honeymoon.

Here's a photo of what we've done to mom and dad's house, showing how my parenting has degenerated. This is Julie feeding Alex a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the living room at 9:00 last night:

Alex has been perfecting his photography skills, and created

this lovely modern art piece titled Garbage on White.

Our Boys

2008-05-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

22 Aug 05
Alex has Jenni's nose

29 May 08

Whose nose is this?

Snips n' Snails...

2008-05-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

and puppy dog tails...
That's what little boys are made of!

After a momentous ultrasound today, we're expecting a little boy on or around October 5.

Alex is already excited to teach him all about trucks and dinosaurs, and of course worms. He's also hoping to share a room with him when the baby gets big enough to not cry at night, and Alex is planning on sleeping with his eyes open, I assume to keep watch over the baby sleeping in his room.

Everything looked good on the ultrasound, we were able to count lots of little fingers and toes, and watch as he sucked his thumb and waved at the camera. With the due date moved up a week, I'm really feeling like this baby will be here in no time at all.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around having another boy in the house (I'm really going to be outnumbered now!). It's hard to imagine that this won't be a little copy of Alex, since he's my main idea of what a little boy should be. I can't wait to meet this new little one. Less than 20 weeks to go!

Pink or Blue???

2008-05-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the day for our much anticipated ultrasound. I hope we actually get to learn the sex of this baby. I'm really excited to go through Alex's old clothes again, or start garage sailing like crazy if it's a girl. Perhaps we'll buy a bunk bed it it's a boy.

I guess I feel like it's a girl, like most people have indicated on the poll. I can't quite imagine us with another boy, just since Jeremy and I each just had one boy in our families growing up. I don't know anything about having brothers around, and think that would be quite the adventure. I'm sure it would be good for Alex to have a little brother to roughhouse with, since Jeremy and I quickly tire of his tricks.

But I do like the idea of pigtails and pink bows, and frilly dresses. It would be fun to have a little girl to teach to sew and to read girly books to, or at least something besides dinosaurs and trucks.

Whichever this child is, I suppose it could be a calming presence in our house, helping to mellow out our little hooligan. Or a co-conspirator to brighten up Alex's days currently filled with boring old adults. I just hope they are able to enjoy each other's company as much as I have enjoyed my siblings. As long as I have been here, first my brother, and then my little sisters have enriched my world.

Alex is so funny about "his" baby. His imaginary baby (he doesn't have a doll, he just picks up this imaginary baby out of thin air) is going everywhere with us these days. This is causing a major problem in the car, where I only have one car seat installed. He jumps in and pretends to strap his baby into the car. Then when I force him to sit in the car seat he shrieks and jumps back out and tells me he's squishing the baby. So then he has to take the baby back out of the seat before he'll sit in it himself. He then puts the baby in his lap, covered in his blanket, for the ride. This needy little baby also frequently needs food, diaper changes, and naps. I'm not allowed to go in his room when the baby is sleeping in his bed, since I might wake it up. After the baby's nap it cries (Alex may be preparing for a career as a ventriloquist) and he has to go in and ask it why it's crying. This is all getting to be a more complicated process all the time. I'm not sure how we're going to last through another 20 weeks before the real baby comes. Alex is going to be exhausted long before then from taking care of such a demanding newborn.

20 Weeks

2008-05-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

20 weeks - this baby is half grown! Only a few more days until I get my first glimpse of our little banana (yes, s/he is approximately the size of a banana this week).

This pregnancy has been so different from my first, I'm curious to see what we have in there (perhaps a kangaroo??). The morning sickness, which I never really had with Alex, is gone now, but now our little joey is bouncing around in there like crazy. I don't remember feeling Alex move nearly this early or so much. His placenta was in the front, which is less common, and probably buffered me from feeling all his little jabs and pokes until he was bigger and stronger (his placenta is long gone, and I'm still feeling his big jabs and pokes, but that's a different story, ornery little sucker...).

We've had an eventful little weekend, starting with a birthday party/garage sale preparation day at grandma (Alex's great-grandma) Kingma's house. It was fun to see all the family before Alex and I take off for Sandpoint/Portland/Omaha, but I was so sorry Jeremy wasn't here for it.

Our diets have been suffering with Jer gone, as well. Tonight we had our third night of lasagna leftovers, with jello salad and leftover chocolate cake to round the meal out. Here's our little cutie after the cake.....

Watershed Festival

2008-05-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

Alex and I spent this sunny morning at the Watershed Festival at the Fish Hatchery.

Sara and Lincoln went with us, so Alex had a great time. Sara and Lincoln were able to tell him all about fish, and Sara found us a tour of the facilities where he was able to see the actual live fish. What fun!

Alex is amazed by the hands-on water filter display.

Down the Cornhusker Road

2008-05-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

Jeremy left today for Nebraska. This is such a strange time, with so much uncertainty. I guess it is a time of new beginnings. It feels like summer began today. There was a garage sale down the street, the sun was shining, Alex and I even filled up his baby swimming pool and lounged in the backyard on towels for awhile. Within a few hours of Jeremy leaving town, Alex has already scraped up both knees and a leg and had the biggest splinter he's ever seen. Summer is in full swing.

We had a fun family time last night getting the cars cleaned out and getting Jeremy ready to go. I'm now really motivated to find myself a new car since I'm driving the one that doesn't lock (although the doors randomly lock themselves while I'm trying to open them), doesn't have a reliable air conditioning or heating system, and has a broken gas gauge.

Last night we finally set up Alex's Tee Ball set we found for him at a garage sale last summer, and he thought that was great. I put the bases down and told him to run around them after he hit the ball. He decided to steal all three bases, picking them up as he ran, giggling all the way. That turned out to be more fun than trying to hit the ball.

I'm not sure what to do with myself now that Jeremy is actually gone. I'm not sure how much packing I should be doing, or what I should be packing, since I don't yet know when I'm leaving or where I'm going after Julie's wedding. I guess for now I'll just enjoy this summer sun and get some work done in the yard.

Delicious Dandelions

2008-05-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

Short version

Long Version

Mom

2008-05-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you!!

Ready, Get Set, Go!

2008-05-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

And off we went, to Spokane for Jeremy's first Bloomsday Run.

While Jeremy and Mom participated, Dad and I really got a work out, controlling Alex in the crowds of people.

We had a pretty good time, entertaining Alex with his first taste of cotton candy, ducks and a garbage goat to feed (a vacuum pulls garbage into the goat's mouth to dispose of it).

Jeremy and mom successfully completed the run, and received their prized Bloomsday t-shirts. They both looked more refreshed at the end of the race than Dad and I did.

Discarded clothing covers a tree in downtown Spokane as the Bloomsday Run begins.

Alex presented Dad with his Top Secret craft project results - dinosaur "fossils" - imprints of dinosaurs in cement. Dad then dug out his rock collection and taught our budding scientist all about the wonderful world of geology.

Jeremy and I spent the remainder of the weekend attempting to make a decision about purchasing a new car. We test drove a 2007 Honda CRV (with the new body style) and were quite impressed. This was a car designed for moms. The back end comes with a removable shelf so I could have 2 layers of junk back there. It looked like there would be room for a stroller underneath with groceries up above. This is how I currently use the back end of my Subaru, but the groceries are all piled up directly on top of the stroller, tipping over and rolling around. The other thing that impressed me is that the back seat divides in three parts, so I could have a car seat on each side, and still fold the middle seat down to allow long items (such as a cello) to fit. This car was designed for me. There is even an extra curved mirror in the front for easy viewing of naughty children in the back seat. The only downside I've found is the price. I would really like an older car, but these just came out in 2007. So, now we just need to find a deal and make a decision. At least I know my dream car exists.

You may wonder about my sudden interest in buying a car. This is not just due to the upcoming birth of baby number 2. Jeremy accepted a job in Omaha, Nebraska, and will start work on the 19th. Suddenly, it sounds good to have a second car that can drive across country.

We have all sorts of other decisions to make, too. We'd like a new laptop, so we could have a computer there without dragging along our desktop. We're considering a Mac, but again can't seem to make the decision to fork out the dough for it, despite our interest. Also, we'd like a second cell phone, so we can actually keep in touch with each other over the next few crazy months.

Right now, it looks like Jeremy will be heading to Nebraska by himself. I have an ultrasound scheduled at the end of the month I'd like to attend(see the poll on the sidebar to vote on what you think the results of this ultrasound might be). I'm also enjoying finally watching the fruit of my labor last fall, as more and more of these bulbs begin to bloom, and it's hard to think about leaving just as our yard becomes such a great place for Alex and I to spend our days (He's been hanging string on the trees for the robins to build nests with, just like he read about in one of his library books, Robin's Home). Julie is getting married June 21st, and I'm not sure I want to go to Nebraska for a few weeks and then drive or fly with Alex all the way to Portland from there. So, I think I'll stay here and start packing, hopefully find a car, and then head up to mom and dad's house for a little while before Julie's wedding. Maybe I'll find a car in Portland and could drive out there to Julie's graduation at the beginning of the month to pick it up.

There are just too many "Ifs" right now for a pregnant lady like me. My impulse right now is to nest, not to move. But, hopefully the job will be a great experience for Jeremy (he'll be working for a German company designing combine parts, perfect for a farm boy with a German degree!), and I'm sure all the details will work out. I have to just remind myself that God is in control. One thing at a time. For now, I'm enjoying having our little family here together, and watching Jeremy and Alex interact.

Top Secret Fun

2008-04-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

Alex works on a top secret craft project to take to his Grandad next week when we visit for Bloomsday.

We took Alex with us for my 15 week doctor's appointment today. We were able to listen to baby's heartbeat, which Alex has been waiting for for weeks, since we didn't take him to our first appointment. We have an ultrasound scheduled for the very end of May, so hopefully we'll soon be able to start talking about a little brother or sister, not just a new baby.

The doctor was surprised that Alex is just 2 based on his size and speech. He told her all about how there's a baby in mommy's tummy. The doctor said it would be more normal for him to be using two word phrases now, not complete sentences. What a little smarty he is! This morning I was drinking a glass of water and he said that the baby in mommy's tummy needs lots of water to grow up... he really seems to have things figured out!

Nap Time Trauma

2008-04-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

For the past 20 minutes, Alex and I have been battling, with me trying to find a way to encourage (read: force) him to stay in bed, and he's been trying to get away with being out of it. I went in there a few minutes ago when I heard him playing with his plastic zoo. . This is one of his very favorite toys. I told him I had to take it away since he was playing with it while he should be napping. So, I took it out of his room, complete with a tour bus and all kinds of little animals, and he went back to his bed. Since then, though, he has been "helping" by periodically opening the door and tossing out additional pieces of his zoo set that I forgot in his room. Nice to have his help...

Fattening up at the Gym

2008-04-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

My new plan to get into shape is shaping up to be Alex's plan to be a couch potato and get fat fast. I went to a pilates class there today and brought Alex with me. The class was okay, but not one I'll go to again while I'm pregnant. It took place with us flat on our backs on the floor for almost the entire class. Not a great position right now. So, I'm crossing that off the list of classes I'll attend.

Alex, however, had a great time the gym's version of Pleasure Island. Bins of snacks were available, as well as various movies and TV shows. When I went to pick him up, the floor was covered in crackers and pretzels in various states of consumption and he was sitting in a chair with other zombie children watching Scooby Doo. As we walked out to the car he complained to me "Mommy, I'm all covered in animal crackers." He ate about 5 bites of yogurt for lunch.

I guess now that I've joined the gym I can save money on hot water for my showers and food for Alex at the same time. Now I understand why they offer exercise classes for 3 year olds there. They'll need it after their first few years hanging out in the Kid's Club room.

Putting Down Roots

2008-04-19T15:12:00.001-07:00

Despite continued forecasts of snow, and at least another month before I expect we'll be frost free, it's feeling like spring here. Alex and I have cleaned out the perennial beds and green is shooting up everywhere.

The combination of all this springtime and pregnancy is encouraging me to put down more roots of my own. I feel my toes digging in a little. From thoughts of "I wonder where we'll be living by summer" I'm now thinking more along the lines of "should I repaint that old dresser to match my bedspread?" and "I wonder where the best garage sales will be."

I joined Gold's Gym today. It's only a three month membership, but it still feels more permanent that most things I've done here. I went to a prenatal pilates class this morning, and feel better about the world in general. I'm extremely sore, since the name of the class should have been Variations on the Squat. The deal I found includes childcare in a nice clean room that has all sorts of Alex's favorite sorts of toys, so hopefully I'll be able to go during the week while Jeremy is at work.

Spring Has Sprung

2008-04-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

Crocus and Early Snow Glories are blooming. Yipee!!!

Mouse Proficiency

2008-04-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

Yikes!! Alex has learned to use the mouse on our computer. He recently learned how to log on to our computer by pressing random keys, so I added a password. I guess that gave him encouragement to see if he could log on using the mouse, and apparently he can now point and click quite well. Last night Jeremy sat down at the computer with him to help him play his favorite Go Diego Go Games online, and Alex told him "No, I'm going to do it!" and took the mouse away from Jeremy. He then amazed us by immediately maneuvering the mouse to do exactly what he needed to to win the game. Wow! I wonder how long it will be before he learns my password and starts navigating to Diego himself?

Museum Adventures

2008-04-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

After visiting the Museum of the Rockies a few weeks ago on a free visit day, I went ahead and purchased an individual membership this morning.

Alex loves dinosaurs, but the dinosaur exhibit with the huge creatures and low grumbling dino sounds was really scary this morning. We were the first ones there when the museum opened, so we were all alone in the hall with the giant beasts. I can't blame Alex for running back out of the room, I felt like doing the same thing. Instead, I picked him up and we quickly walked on to the less scary hall of horns and teeth (yes, actually less scary!). There is a baby protoceratops that looks and sounds like it's asleep, breathing softly. It's little and cute, and one of Alex's favorite parts.

From there we went on to a hall filled with beautiful fancy rocks. Alex wasn't particularly interested in them today, but we stopped long enough to take a picture in front of some giant quarts crystals for geologist grandad.

Alex insisted then on returning to the original scary dinosaur hall, but upstairs where you can look down on them instead of having them towing above. There were some other little kids in the room by then, too, so it was much less terrifying than earlier.

With membership comes admission to the planetarium, so we went to a special Saturday morning children's program I thought Alex would enjoy. It was a cute narrative about all the neat things like ladybugs you can find in your backyard and the story of two bear constellations and Leo trying to eat their tails. Alex sat very still on my lap through the entire thing. When it ended he burst out crying. I think he had been scared stiff through the show, and let all that tension out when the show ended. I'm not sure I'll take him to one of those again soon.

One Small Step

2008-04-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

Alex has learned to put on his own shoes! He has had very little interest in getting dressed (or undressed, for that matter). So far, he can unzip his pajamas, although he has never bothered to actually take them off, and take his socks off. It's nice to see him really helping to get out the door in the morning.

Blanket of Snow

2008-04-08T15:02:00.000-07:00

Today we had the perfect snow. If I have to have snow in April, this is the way to do it. It was warm and wet and deep.

After a winter of cold dry fine snow, today Alex built his first snowman. Balls of snow rolled easily, picking up all the snow down to the greening grass below. With the ease of rolling, we started by building a caterpillar, with a body of multiple giant snowballs. Then Alex noticed the snowmen the kids down the street had built, and wanted one of those too. So, he helped me roll up the snow, and then he selected brown leaves for the eyes and nose, and picked out the perfect place on the head for them. We finished by rounding up some sticks from our neighbor's yard and Alex pushed them in to create his very first snowman.

Back In Bozeman

2008-04-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

We've actually been back since November, and it's been a long cold Montana winter. From life on the beach it was hard to return to snow, especially 6 months of it. It's still snowing regularly here, although the bulbs are making a valiant effort to appear and most of the grass is now visible in the front yard. The backyard, on the north side of the house, still has a foot or two of snow in most places. Unfortunately, that's where I planted my earliest spring bulbs, so there is still no sign of them. I treated myself to a wireless outdoor thermometer so that I can figure out when my greenhouse will be usable, and have discovered that the temperature ranges from 13 degrees at night to a sizzling 111 degrees during the day when the sun is beating down on it with the vents closed. So, I'm not sure I'll be using that anytime soon.

Alex and I are staying very busy despite these cold days. We've joined a Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) group, which is usually the highlight of our week. It's so fun to hear Alex explaining what he did there like quite time, and singing "silly" songs.

We've also been attending a class on the Five senses put on by the City Rec Department . Alex loves the circle time, when he's often the only child actually copying the teacher in hopping like a bunny, popping like popcorn, or flying like a bird. He doesn't appreciate the craft time, and usually completes a project by simpling smearing one brushstroke of paint or glue on it and declaring it finished. The one craft he really enjoyed was making a little drum out of a used cottage cheese container and decorating it with foam dinosaurs. He loves dinosaurs, and he loves drumming even more. I've signed him up for a Music and Movement class put on by the same group this summer, which I think he'll really enjoy.

We've been swimming on Friday mornings, and he's quickly overcome his fear of the water, especially since this is a nicely heated pool, used mostly for small children. He does have some lessons to learn about locker room etiquette, since he mortified me one day by pointing out the colors of the little girls' underwear "Pink underwear! Look, mommy, she has pink underwear!"

I've started preparing to organize our church's VBS program for this summer. Alex already has many of the songs memorized, months ahead of time. He just loves to sing.

With a morning of snow, and no activities scheduled this Monday, I decided today was an excellent day for crafts. So, we spent the morning using scrapbooking supplies to create alphabet letters to hang in Alex's room. Since he's learned to sing the entire alphabet song and can spell his name, I decided it's time he learn to recognize the rest of the letters. He thought that was great fun. After cutting out each letter I let him put a sticker on it for something starting with that letter (alligator for the A, etc.). We finished A-D today and hung them in his room to start learning. Amazingly he wasn't done with craft time yet, and begged to put together a mini indoor kite mom had sent him for Easter. So, we put that together, and I dug out another little kite I'd bought for him, and we raced around the house flying kites, just like the naughty Things in The Cat and The Hat.

He's sleeping now, giving me a chance to recover before another round.

The Walking City - A Boston Weekend

2007-10-08T11:20:00.001-07:00

Our lucky little boy finally rode a train. We drove to the outskirts of Boston on Saturday to Jeremy's cousin Mike's house. From there we were able to hop on "The T" for a short trip straight to the center of town. Boston was a great town to walk our boy through, following the red brick road called the Freedom Trail. The town is filled with history. Plaques throughout the town describe the historical significance of countless sites. It was refreshing to be able to walk through a town and soak in the history without spending the day in museums. The Irish Potatoe Famine memorial was one of the sites that impressed me the most. The statues were beautiful but haunting. The Old North Church was also impressive. The pews were very different. Each family would actually pay rent on their pew box. These boxes look like a great idea for anyone with small children. In order to stay warm and avoid drafts, each family would sit in one boxed in area, similar to an old train car box.

As I expected, my favourite part of town was Faneuil Hall Marketplace. We arrived just as hunger was overtaking us, and after watching a short juggling show we wandered through the busy Quincy Market. I found one of my favorite food combinations, a basil, mozerella, tomato panini. Yum. Jeremy surprized me by ordering lamb kabobs. The shopping itself in the market was a bit of a disappointment to me. I was expecting something similar to the diverse handcrafted offerings of Pike Place Market in Seattle, but found more modern standard stores, like Crate and Barrel. The open square itself was more than I imagined, though, reminding me of the crazy streets of Paris. Around every corner we were surprized and impressed by street performers. There were two living statues, one of which was a golden pirate, who would remove baseball hats from unsuspecting tourists with her hook hand. The musicians were also entertaining, especially a one-man band. One crazy street performer was juggling knives high on a pole held up by audience members.

We finally broke away from the entertainment and made our way to a beautiful nearby fountain where Alex and I joined others walking through the cool cascade. The three of us then wandered on to our final stop of the day, Paul Revere's House, before heading back to "The T" and Mike's house.

On our way back from Boston on Sunday, we stopped at Dianosaur State Park near Hartford for a short walk. We were there late in the day and didn't go in the dome with the actual tracks, but enjoyed watching fearless chipmunks along the trail.

Sleeping Giant

2007-09-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

This was a morning of frustration. I'm beginning to realize that I can't read maps while the car is moving, even if I'm not the one driving.

We decided to visit Sleeping Giant State Park this morning, taking the scenic route. After multiple wrong turns and my complete inability to read a map and watch for signs, we finally arrived at the fortunately still sleeping giant. A 1 1/2 mile hike up a well maintained trail brought us to the tower. We're not sure why the tower is there, (is it military, or whimsy, or ancient castle from a long forgotten society?) but it provides a 360 degree view of the New Haven area. We were a week or two early for the prime fall foliage, but the slightly turned leaves were unreal in the bright sunlight. We'll have to return.

After a little pb&j picnic we headed back down, while competing to find the largest acorn, which Jeremy did despite not even looking.

Our next stop of the day was relatively disappointing. The Eli Whitney museum had very little information about Eli Whitney. It did have a fun marble wall where you could push buttons to move marbles up a screw and then let them drom through bells and ramps, which I'm sure Alex enjoyed more than reading information about cotton gins, anyway.

After another confused map reading session, we arrived at the Savin Rock Museum just down the beach from our apartement. The museum gives the history of the Savin Rock amusement park that has dissapered without a trace from the beach we spend our days on. It's hard to imagine Fun Houses, a carousel, restauraunts, and rollercoasters on our peaceful beach.

To round out our day, we spent the evening building sand castles on our favourite spot of sand as the sun set.

Yale = Alex's College Fund

2007-09-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

Vacationing today, we decided to keep close to our Beach House in West Haven, CT, and visit nearby Yale.

We began our education at the Peabody Museum. Just in time for the opening of a new exibit, we were disappointed to find Flyfishing as the topic. We didn't come all the way from Montana to learn about flytying. The great hall of dinasours was worth the trip, though. It may be the inspiration for a mural in Alex's room when we return home. What a relief to find that the museum was well designed for toddlers. Glass walls keep little hands from the artifacts. Alex enjoyed thd dinasour bones, and recognized some skeletons, such as a giant leatherback sea turtle. There were also small tables set up for little ones with fun activites. He won a little hamerhead shark toy by catching three paper rainbow trout with a magnet and then was able to construct his own little fishing pole to tap on the glass throughout the rest of the museum.

After a morning at the Peabody we raced to the Yale visitor's center for a free guided tour of campus. At first, the tour reminded me of the various college tours I attended during High School. As we left the visitor's center and neared the center of campus, it became apparent that we were entering a very special place. Walking through the gates into the original old campus quad, the similarities and differences between the Ivy league and my state college experience became apparent. The beautiful gothic architecture and green open space surrounded by high brick walls was stunning. It was an oasis in the midst of a busy city. This area was, without a doubt, the inspiration for the small brick quads I lived in my freshman year. It is as if I attended school in a doll house, and now here is the emperor's palace it was modeled after. This was the real deal. Yale students generally live on campus throughout their undergraduate studies. I would guess that upon their graduation they must be literally booted out the door and their keys pried out of their grasping hands as they beg to stay.

The rare book library left us equally in awe. 1 1/4 inch marble walls pruduce a glow to the building, and the impression of windows while maintaining a dignified darkened library setting.

While I enjoyed my college years, I didn't have the Ivy League experience. This was the first time that I began to really appreciate how different that experience was. One little fact that made a large impression on me was that professors actully live in the dorms with the students. The atmosphere is simply academic. It's lucky I didn't visit Yale before I graduated from college. Even now, a few years down the road, it almost left me in tears with envy.

Alex and I brought home a little acorn, and scratched a "Y" in it for Yale. Perhaps in Alex's little head that little seed will someday grow into something as monumental as the campus walls. Perhaps we should consider a college fund.

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