April 21,2010

Baby Sage left the warm and swimmy reality of her mamas womb and entered into her next big adventure around 10pm April 21. Joe and I joked about Carter scheming to have his little girl enter into this new world on earth day. I was out running and thinking about Rebecca's water breaking, the waves, and returned home to an email telling me the same. Baby is healthy, sleepy, and hungry, has dark hair, looks like Ro did, 8# 11oz.

So many many beautiful things to celebrate.

A week ago....

Tunneling through the sand and playing crabs (holding hands). 4 entrances joined in the center. Mass giggles.

Aunt J. celebrated her 30th birthday with her usual style and flair this past week.

Life marches on...

Postcard from Paradise

How many different ways can you depict joy? Gratitude?

We are on the Big Island of Hawaii spending Oliver's first official spring break visiting some very dear friends, friends who would take over our role as Oliver's parents if anything ever were to happen to Joe and myself. Meet Oliver's Aunt Jessica and Uncle Alex. Beyond wonderful, they are the real deal. Caring, hilarious, hyper-intelligent, super creative. Not a day has passed since they moved from across the street from us in Bellingham to their current reality on this big, beautiful volcanic paradise that I haven't missed them and I sleep better at night just knowing they are out there.

We have spent the week swimming, exploring, relaxing, cooking, laughing.

Oliver has seen rainbows, waterfalls, fed Jessica's goats Buckley and Mabel, picked avocados from a tree, 'excavated' on a real digger. His little footprints have traversed white and black sand beaches, he's trekked through a lava tube, explored the steam vents of Kilaua. This morning he experienced his first earthquake. Wow!

Time to take all of these wonderful memories and head home...

In absentia...

Cannot believe it has been almost 3 months since I last posted to Oliver's blog. I fall into a big, dark, hole during the winter months and it requires every ounce of energy I have to try to do much of anything at all.

We've been thru one heckofa flu season this year. I was always under the impression that once a person had a particular flu virus that the immune system developed antibodies that prevented a recurrence, but am now convinced that is all wrong as we three have had the same flu repeatedly. O. has it again.

I have some rules about being sick: he can eat anything he wants whenever he wants and he can watch as many videos as he likes (don't worry, I'm not talking Disney here - they're all educational) - it's all about comfort and distraction. So imagine my shock when he declined strawberry ice cream post nap today. He's NEVER done that. I toyed with calling the pediatrician with the following '...well he has a 101 degree temperature and is declining strawberry ice cream, should I bring him in?'

He is GROWING. I began noticing a few weeks ago that all of his overalls were giving him wedgies and I've used up all of the slack in the suspenders so we're moving into a new size. Poor guy has gone from highwaters to wedgies. Tall, skinny, incredibly strong, and fast. His buddy Rowan gave him some running shoes and it was as though they were magical - he transformed into this little lightening bolt ricocheting from one end of the yard to the next.

He's also regressed to a former clingy (is that a word?) phase and goes insane if Joe and I try to leave the house for anything. I am certain this must be addressed in some great child psychology tome I'm too tired to read.

All for now...

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright...

Joe captured the spirit of the season on Oliver's first visit to the holiday carousel in Seattle. We went south for a day in the city the Monday before Jesus' Big Day.

First stop, Mighty-O Donuts where O. exercised a considerable amount of patience (more so than I) waiting for the bakers to load the batter into the donut robot - could be it was the chocolate donut with sprinkles he was somehow slowly eating while waiting. Nose pressed to the glass, he was transfixed as the machine plopped two rings of dough at a time into the hot oil, a paddle flipped them over, and a conveyer belt eased them up to the shoot and down a slide where they were then dipped with some serious panache into the glazing bowl and out onto a rack.

Then it was on to his first trip from the Seattle Center to downtown on the monorail (a hit!) and down, down, down the escalators (another fave) and off to the carousel for a ride with mom and then with dad.

It's been a delightfully mellow holiday season for us. We've indulged ourselves with a lot of warm fires, staying up late, sleeping in, and wearing our jammies more than normal (me).

We were delighted to finally have a play date with dear friends Emma and Parker, whom we see less frequently as the kiddos have now moved into their varying preschool routines, and we had a great time at a gingerbread cookie-making (made with fresh ginger - yum!) party hosted by the Berdinkas.

As food is always a part of any holiday ritual and Oliver is into anything in the kitchen that requires a handle, buttons, cranks, wheels, presses, we made corn tortillas last night for tacos with prawns and Joe's fresh salsa. We are brining a chicken to butterfly (with my new poultry shears - woo hoo!) and roast for dinner tonite and are planning on making currant jam filled bombolonis (Italian donuts) for our paper-ripping gift finale for breakfast. Tomorrow night it's homemade ravioli. O.'s an experienced pasta chef - I once left him with his (dearly missed) sitter Laura, a recipe, ingredients, and the pasta machine and they turned out some very respectable sheets of pasta.

Wishing a truly peaceful holiday season and best wishes for the new year to all of you we love and hold in our hearts.

Cheers!

Terry, Joe, and Oliver

strange things we see on our nap drive:

1) small sign at edge of road that leads back into the trees - 'Family Way - Private Drive' (ewww...)

2) a massive gravel excavation project

3) spray painted onto something (?) the words 'No Jail'

4) the rock man - a stone assemblage of very large flagstones that vaguely resembles a large man standing

5) a cul-de-sac in the middle of nowhere (there seem to be a lot of these in the county) with a (few) mini-mansion with a massive thatched roof and (if that weren't odd enough) a sign pointing to said cul-de-sac reading 'airbrush tanning'.

Santa Fe Smiles from September

Our dear friends Hal and Vicki in the back of Big Blue. 'Fire up the engine, Uncle How-oh!'

More photos to follow...