Hike of the Month :: March

The March hike-of-the-month out of the Portland Monthly magazine took us to Lacamas Creek Park in Camas, WA.  It was a gorgeous wooded trail that followed the river... at times peaceful and meandering, at others swollen and spilling over falls. 

We knew the trail was taking us to something called Round Lake, but we didn't know we'd happen upon this most beautiful, serene lake with a trail to follow all the way around. 

It was so inviting it was all we could do to keep from jumping in, especially when we found this rope swing.  You'd better believe come summer I'll be posting pictures of us swinging and splashing!

But, given the drizzly spring day, we stayed cozied up in our jackets and just spent some time gazing out at the peaceful scene.

For the most part, the 4.3 mile hike was pretty easy, but there were a few hills that we hit once Andrea strapped Elliot onto her back.  I love her getting a helping hand in this picture.  Elliot's even throwing his weight into it (pun intended!).

The four of us had so much fun.  Well... once Elliot took his nap for the first half of it, he had fun.  Oooh, those dimples... oh my!

I just love this baby so much.  He makes all of our outings so much more fun!

Shamrock Run

Today was race day.  22,000 Portlanders--including us!-- crowded downtown to be a part of Shamrock Run. This annual tradition is a fundraiser for the local children's hospital and is known for its large crowds, costumed runners, little kid's leprechaun lap, and the free tickets for beer and chowder following the race (both of which we passed on--the crowds make it so not worth it).

It was a cold, early morning--34 degrees and an 8:05am start time.  Annika and her roommate, Rebekah, made sure to do some pre-race stretches.

And runner-supreme Hilary did what she called her "drills."  She's so tough.

It was only a 5k, but we had a great time.  Hilary ran ahead and did 7 minute miles.  Rebekah crossed the finish line in 10 minute miles.  And Andrea, Annika and I brought up the rear with steady and strong 12 minute miles.

And, for some reason, a local bread maker was giving out free loaves of bread at the end.  So here we are with our loaves!

It was a super fun morning, followed by a big brunch at our house: tofu and egg scrambles with vegetables, a homefry bar, and molasses pecan sticky bun pile.  Elliot went to Max's for a pancake breakfast party, but joined back up with us for our brunch (breakfast party hopping--smart kid!).  Hilary's already talking about Bridges to Brews, an 8k this summer.  Leave it to Portland to figure out how to give out free beer after another of its races.  But... will they be handing out bread loaves there, too?  I don't know, it may be a deal breaker.

PS--does anyone else think Andrea looks just a little bit like a leprechaun in each of her pictures??!

BFF

You Know It's Spring When...

Last weekend I was posting this picture of Elliot enjoying his new sun hat from his Nan.

And today I'm posting him looking oh-so-cute in his new raincoat from Nan.

Rain or shine, Elliot's covered.  

Circle Time With Babies

I sing. I dance. I make silly sounds and silly faces.  I know that they're learning language and social skills.  But I also know that, for at least a minute or two, they're both sitting still in the same place at the same time.

Flap Happy

Hey, Elliot.

If you're going to play outside in the sun, you should be wearing your new sun hat from your Nan.

There you go.

Hey!  

You keep your hat on!

That's right.  Oh, wow!  You look so cute.

And now you can play outside (read: eat sticks and grass) without getting a sun burn.

Bring on the sun!

Clang Clang

Today was a surprisingly sunny and warm day.  Elliot and I spent some time sitting outside on the dry driveway.  He shared my lunch with me (eating polenta and beans off of my grown-up spoon, one of his favorite things) then spent a bunch of time dropping and tapping and tossing the spoon onto the pavement over and over again.  The sound was clearly different, and fun.  He seemed to really enjoy the experience. 

I can't wait for more sunny, spring (and summer!) days spent outside with him.  What fun!

We're So Lucky

Elliot has been feeling pretty crummy this last week. He has a terrible cough and a ton of congestion in his lungs. His breathing is gurgled and raspy and loud. The advice nurse said it's not that he's overly sick, it's just that babies don't know how to cough the fluid out of their lungs yet and if he doesn't have a fever then it's not too big of a concern. In the meantime, he's spent the last week being very clingy, doing a lot of nursing, and erupting into the most heartbreaking coughing fits.

 

This morning, when Andrea dropped him off at our childcare-share family, she told Max's mom that she could call us if he got worse or had a bad day. But this morning, instead of getting a call that he's sick and we need to come get him, we get an email with these pictures of him eating his breakfast with her this morning.

Her note said, "Just wanted to touch base and let you both know that, so far, Elliot is having the best day EVER! He fought a little bit going down for his morning nap, but he's is now sleeping soundly and the rest of the morning has been GREAT!"

 

How lucky are we to have such a great family to care for Elliot? Thank you so much, Michelle! Clearly, Elliot loves you all as much as we do.

Spring

This weekend was busy and productive.  We checked two very springy things off our list... Andrea did our taxes (yay!!!!) and I did hours and hours of yard work (finally!!!).  

In true new-parent fashion, our days started early.  I was out in the yard by 8:00am.  And to give Andrea the quiet time she needed to crunch the numbers, I had Elliot out with me for a bit.  While it did warm up and get really nice by Sunday afternoon, Saturday morning was still a bit chilly.

There's nothing I love more than a productive weekend, especially when I'm the one getting to do the yard work and someone else is doing the taxes!

I Like List

I like Elliot.
I like Andrea.
I like San Francisco.
I like fancy hotels.
I like flowers.
I like the ocean.
I like the color turquoise.
I like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I like when Annika texts me, "I didn't make your 'I like list'? Come on now!"


Andrea has worked a lot with people with disabilities.  She's worked in a couple of group homes spending days at a time living with adults with a variety of needs, some frustrating, some hilarious.  One of her favorite people would request to write an "I like list" whenever she got upset.  She and Andrea would sit down and she would list of all of the people she liked (Andrea was always at the top of the list) and Andrea would write what she said.  It's a great coping mechanism.  One that we've laughed about and turned to many times over the years.


I've decided to condense the I Like Lists in the sidebar of my blog to just a few of Elliot's current favorite foods and a few of my favorite blogs.  There are so many great blogs that I follow that I plan to change out my I Like List weekly to give you a couple of new, inspiring, creative sites to visit.  


So, if you sat down today and wrote it out, what would be on your I Like List?

Love Cakes

One of my favorite blogs posted this song and wrote about making blueberry muffins for her and her cakies yesterday.  Well.... anyone who knows me knows how much I love cake!  Big ones, small ones, layered, sheet, or cup.  I love them all!  And now I have the most perfect song in all the world to sing as I make (and eat!) my favorite food.  Thanks for sharing this song, MamaCakie.  I absolutely adore it.


And... it just so happens that I was baking up my own batch of love cakes yesterday, too. 

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting.  Yummy.  (Debbie: my first cupcakes from my book!)  Now, if you haven't clicked on the link to listen to the song yet, do it now!  You won't be disappointed, I promise.  


I'm off to lick chocolate frosting from Elliot's fingers.  No, we didn't feed it to him, but he does keep lunging for Andrea's as she's eating it.  The baby knows a good thing when he sees it! 

Baby Squared

I borrowed this great toy from work for a while.  It will get a lot more use at our house over the next month or two than it would ever get sitting in the corner of the lobby at the office.  So far the boys have shown only a bit of interest-- fingering the beads or watching them slide along as I push and flick them.  But today... oh wow!  They were pulling themselves up, standing, pushing the beads.  It was fun, fun, fun!

Morning Run

It was a beautiful, sunny, spring weekend in Portland.  So energizing! On Sunday morning we met Hilary down at the waterfront for a run.  It's a 2.5 mile loop if you go between the Hawthorne and Steele bridges.  It's not a lot, but we're working our way up to our next 5K--the Shamrock Run on March 14th!  We've got our running schedule mapped out between now and then and the breakfast-following-the-race menu planned (now all we need is for Annika to register to run with us!).  

A gigantic, huge, enormous THANK YOU to Hilary for making all of this happen.  What a fun thing for all of us to be doing together!

The three of us thought we were hot stuff -- good lookin' tough early morning runners.  Elliot, however, was not so into it.  A bit too cold, a bit too loud, a bit too long to wait for nursing. 

Hopefully he can play at Max's house on race day!