It's Like Having My Name In Lights

Sara is an old high school friend who I have reconnected with thanks to the blogging world.  It has been so wonderful to get to know her family through her blog posts.  They are sweet and funny and loving.  Sara is actually the one who inspired me to start my blog, and for that I am eternally grateful.  Mixed Baby Greens has brought me endless enjoyment over the last year.  I love blogging and the connection it gives me to myself, to Elliot, and to all of you out there who stop by to peek into our life.

So you can imagine how excited I was when I opened Sara's blog this morning and saw my name shining back at me.  It felt like I was famous!  I won a giveaway that she hosted on her blog to celebrate her 500th post.  What fun!  Maybe I'll host a Mixed Baby Greens giveaway here and you all can enter to win some crafty, repurposed, home-sewn goody.  Wouldn't that be fun?!

Portland's Downtown Farmer's Market

We are working on switching Elliot from 3 naps a day to only 1-2 naps a day.  To help with the process we need to find engaging activities to keep him awake through the morning.  This weekend we ventured down to the amazing Portland farmer's market.  We got organic veggies that we put in our dinner, ate fresh cherries, saw beautiful flowers and listened to fun musicians play guitars and drums and banjos.  All three of us loved it.  A perfect Portland morning.

The Little Things

Elliot is learning so many big things right now... namely running and all things gross motor.  But he is also, quietly, learning little things, too.  Like all of a sudden he has figured out how to stab his food onto his own fork.  We don't need to steady it for him or apply the pressure or coach him with our words.  He can just sit there, eating his food with a fork.

And then, after a lifetime of watching us eat with chopsitcks, he one day picked up the clothespin that is used to hold his bib on, poked it down over a blueberry, and lifted it to his mouth.  Quietly.  All by himself.  Learning so many little things about his little world.  Simply amazing.

Cousin Annalei

I spent the most wonderful childhood summers in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont with a pack of siblings and cousins. We loooooooved each other. Our summers were the highlight of my year.  They were magical.  At least that's how I remember them. Laying in Aunt Nancy's garden eating raspberries by the handful, picking bachelor buttons to make flower leis for one another, swimming in lakes, eating lots of delicious farm fresh food, and hours upon hours spent intertwined with the girls.  Me, my sister Mira, and our cousins, Annalei and Amalia.  We helped each other learn all of the intimate details every girl needs to learn to transition from childhood to adolescence.  And now, as grown women, most of us with our own kids, we still looooove each other, even though we don't have each summer to look forward to spending with one another anymore. But we did just get an oh-so-lucky visit from Annalei, who took a trip without her kiddos to come and spend some time with us.  Elliot loved her, of course.  We spent a few lazy days together eating, talking, relaxing, catching up.  We were happy that she was here for one of the free summer evening concerts on Mt. Tabor.  We packed a picnic (one of my favorite things to do!) and headed up for a fun night of music, food, and silliness.  It was lovely.  (As a side note... I have to say, one of my favorite parts was that I took leftover homemade blueberry cupcakes and turned them into Cupcake Jars... layers upon layers of cupcake, fruit and whipped cream.  A whole jar full.  Yum yum!)  We can't wait to take Elliot to Vermont so that he can run through the fields, swim in the lakes, lay in the gardens, and get to know all of his cousins there.  There is a special place in my soul for my Vermont family, and I can't wait to share more of it with him.

4th of January, er... I Mean July

Even though the sky looked like this:

And their faces looked like this:

We still did this (!):

Yep, 4th of July in the Pacific Northwest.  You make your deviled eggs, you have your pool party, and you enjoy the holiday weekend, even if the sun chooses not to come out and play.  

Peek!

Elliot has really started to love peek-a-boo games.  Whether it's peeking out from behind a wall, up from under the table, or just from having buried his head down into the carpet, he loves to look up and hear us exclaim, "PEEK!"  He squeals and kicks and flaps his arms with delight.  And now, he's also found out how much fun it is to have someone wave a blanket up over you and let it fall down to cover you up.  You know how exciting that feels, when someone's making the bed and you dive under as they whip they sheet up into the air?  That gush of air swirling around you, then the excitement of being totally covered, in the dark, hiding under the blanket.  Everybody loves it.  Elliot included.  He freaks out flapping happy when the blanket is swooshing above him, he squeals and throws it off his face with a huge grin as soon as it covers him up, then he immediately does the sign for "help," as if to say, "help me have that experience again... i loved it!"  And so, in true toddler form, we do it over, and over, and over, and over again.

Amumas and Ponies, Oh My!

We were lucky enough to have a mid-week visit from Elliot's Amuma and Andrea's Auntie Teresa--a well seasoned Amuma herself.  As you can imagine, there was a lot of love going around.  And we were very excited to find out that Auntie Teresa, who has always lived out in the country and kept horses, has recently added a miniature horse who pulls a buggy to her collection--just for the grandkids!  Needless to say, we spent some time on You Tube seeing what ponies pulling buggies looked like, and we cannot wait until we get a chance to ride Twinkie ourselves!  Thanks for the fun visit, Debbie and Teresa.  We love you!

Rocker

Max was kind enough to model his Mixed Baby Greens hat that I made him a while back for his birthday.  True to MBG style, his hat is made out of the sleeve of a man's t-shirt that I bought at a thrift store.  Repurposed--with a few seams here and a few seams there, a knot at the top, and a star embellishment--I'd say this little one is rockin' in his new hat.

Tea Time

A trip to the neighborhood coffee shop with Hilary, Elliot and Max last week turned into a very fun little tea party.  Tea for you... and you... and you?

Farmer Elliot

Strawberries and blueberries and raspberries, oh my!  We spent a glorious day out on our favorite u-pick farm.  This little cutie patootie had the most wonderful time... riding in a wagon, watching the tractors, and stuffing his face with berries!

"And just like that, he was a toddler."

Date Night

I love this one.

Soaking Up The Sun

Except for one glorious weekend a while back, it seemed like summer was never going to come to Portland.  Day after day, gray gray gray.  Ugh.  I was starting to feel pretty miserable.  And then, to top it all off, the forecasters kept predicting sun and seventy degrees for each upcoming week, but then delaying it one day at a time.  Until by last Tuesday it felt like the sun was literally never going to shine again.  I was just about to go completely mad, when suddenly the clouds parted and out it came.  Sun, glorious sun.  And... it was even warm!  A beautiful seventy degrees.  The boys and I headed for Tabor to spend some time digging our feet into the grass and soaking up the sun.  It was exactly what I needed. 

Bumper Cars

This past week the boys and I spent some time downstairs in the courtyard of our apartment complex.  Good thing we have two push carts, because these little guys are starting to get fixated on whatever it is that the other one has.  But with two of these, they can push away to their heart's content.  And that's what they did... for an entire hour!

E: Max, I said STOP crashing into me!

M: Hey, whatcha lookin' at, Elliot?

M: Ha ha, try and catch me Elliot!

And coming up from behind, Elliot takes the lead.

Date Night With Max

Our family is swapping date nights with the family that we do a childcare share with.  Max's Mama and Papa have lots to celebrate... Michelle's last day of work is only a few weeks away (yay!), it's her birthday this weekend (happy birthday, Michelle!), and it's Father's Day for David this weekend, too.  So they went out to a fancy dinner and we had Max over for our own date night. 

Of course, off to Mt. Tabor we went. With one boy in each carrier, Andrea and I walked them through the dog-park area (oh holy excitement!!!) and to the playground. As you can see, Max had a great time. Especially when he got behind the wheel of the jeep.

Next week Andrea and I are cashing in the gift certificate that we got to our favorite restaraunt from our realtor when we sold our house. I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!  And I bet Elliot is equally excited for his date night out with Max's family, too.

Chooks

I've posted pictures of these neighborhood chickens before.  They are the perfect distance from our house for us to take a relaxing evening walk to say hi before starting Elliot's bedtime routine.  Especially great on warm evenings like we had last weekend.  

As we got closer, I started saying to Elliot, "we're going to see the chooks."  The word rolled right off my tongue, even though that's not usually what I call chickens.  It took me a minute, and then I realized that that's what my Nana, who is from Australia but immigrated to the states during WWII, called her chickens when I was growing up.  And then I realized it's also what one of my favorite blogging moms, who is also an Australian, calls her chickens, too.  And, yes, the more I looked into it the more I learned that chooks is really what they call chickens in Australia.  And if you listen to the little feathered friends, it really does sound like they're saying, "chook, chook, chook, chook."

The other thing that I love about our neighborhood walk to see the chooks is that the house that owns them has turned their corner lot into a community gathering place.  This is fairly common in Portland, and I feel so lucky to have one this close to our house.  In addition to having their chicken run and garden come right out to the sidewalk (which is very inviting), they've also build this corner sitting area and have a community board for posting neighborhood events.  The bench is a cob structure and they've put in this beautiful mosaic that Elliot really loved exploring.  

Sweet Marin

What do you get when you mix a long overdue visit with a very dear friend + four little ones + a rainstorm?  Well you get a lovely trip to the neighborhood coffee shop (because it was literally POURING, so no picnic or park for us), some pictures that came out only okay (because who has time to stop and take any good photos when you're chasing four little guys and trying to catch up with each other as quickly as possible?), and a whole lotta smiles.  That's what you get!

Look at these beauties.  My lovely friend from college, Marin, stopped through town with her little guys Leif and Kai.  I haven't seen Leif since he was Elliot's age and he's now five and a half!  And I've never met little Kai.  What a treat to spend the day with them.  One of these days we'll do the same, and pop into their neck of the woods.  I've always wanted to visit Asheville, NC.  And these three give me all the reason in the world to make that happen.  Much love to you as you continue on your West Coast road trip.  May you have many more smiles, comfy coffee shops and rainstorms along your way!

Hike of the Month :: April

Hike-of-the-month update:  We did a good job exploring the suggested monthly hikes from the Portland Monthly magazine during January, February and March, but then we sold our house in April (no hiking) and were consumed with 1st birthday celebrations in May (no hiking) and now it's June.  So we're backtracking just a bit.  Come along with me.... welcome to April!

The Vegans joined us for a sweet little "hike" (Portland Monthly uses his word very loosely) to Camassia Natural Area.  It was just a short, one mile loop, but it passed through a swamp, a meadow, and beautiful forested areas and had rock outcroppings that dated back to almost 20,000 years ago.  And if we had actually gotten to this hike in April like was suggested, there would have been a ton of beautiful wildflowers.

My favorite part was that it was an interpretive loop and they had guide brochures at the entrance with descriptions of what you were passing along the route.  And, yes, I was the narrator for the day.

Minus the snakes (which Hilary and I were NOT happy about) it was a beautiful way to spend a sunny afternoon.