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...

Latent Blogger

Some Halloween highlights from the purple dragon.

A Sensible Guy

OK, just a quick post here from the latent blogger: I picked Oliver up from preschool yesterday, asked him about his morning. His reply: 'I had a really good time at preschool, but I'm just not going to go to college. I'm a sensible guy.'

Mantra for Parents of 3-Year Olds

Take nothing personally.

When you have a 3-year old and they: put their stinky cute little feet in your face (after you've asked them politely not to repeatedly), hit you, hit the dog, kick the dog, tell you they are going to run away (genetic), prefer their father (to the complete exclusion of their mother), prefer their mother (to the complete exclusion of their father), urinate in the avocado plant, again (it's fertilizing mother), throw dirt in your face, scream at you, refuse to go into the (insert any location here), refuse to leave the (insert any location here), refuse to nap, refuse to take a bath, refuse to eat, I could go on.

All completely age-appropriate behavior. When I was a child, he would have been labeled a spoiled brat and beaten into sobbing submission - thankfully humans have the ability to evolve. We'd die before we'd ever resort to any form of corporal punishment. We have a lot of family meetings. We have a lot of dialogue. We ask a lot of questions. His dad is totally amazing. I am less than, but have decided that my purpose here on earth in this lifetime is to cultivate patience within. Oliver is 'helping' with this project. I get to work on myself daily.

We love him insanely, which is really fortunate for all of us right now.

He's 3 feet high and rising, take nothing personally.

First Day of Preschool

Sheesh...his dad dropped him off, mom picked him up, he was busy in the sandbox. He was so excited. 'I went to Montessori school and I had a lovely time.' He was just squirming! We headed out to Kent's Nursery and bought an oak tree to commemorate the moment + dad's birthday. Checked out the waterfalls and ponds, the lily pads, the bargain area, the trees, the fish, the dogs, the dinosaur tree, the gunnera fountains, the frog and alligator, the incredibly cool staff.

Then, during possibly the most anticipated week of the year, he promptly begins sneezing, sniffing, and coughing, feeling 'punky' and now he'll be missing the rest of the week! Dad felt punky past week or more, so...

We stayed home. We nuggled and ate Fig Newmans and watched the camels in the Gobi desert footage. Played in the yard. A little. It was sunny. It rained. We took a drive in the country to fall asleep for a nap. Now it's a 3-year old film fest with Milo and Otis.

Movies make the punky go away. Really.

Oliver and Freda

So this is Freda, daughter of The Great Mandini and Charley and she IS as pretty as this. Last Tuesday, a lovely warm morning at Lake Padden, they met (in the flesh - he's been reading her blog and looking at her pictures at the salon for more than a year) for the first time, though it was as if they'd always known each other. They just started right in with the play. Into the water. Trading snacks. Easy splashing. Sitting in the sun. It was one of those sweet little moments in life.

Except that Oliver had a leech on his ankle which I just unthinkingly plucked off (it didn't seem to be attached) and started examining. It was about 3/8 of an inch long. So we went home and launched a leech info gathering mission. We had to google, get a library book, but he's totally into it (as am I : )

Turns out they are related to earthworms, annelids (segmented worms). They have 33 or 34 segments (sources, or perhaps it's species differ). Suckers on both ends of their bodies (how convenient), 3 jaws.

3 main classes of leeches (no pronunciation help here, though gnatbobdellida seems like a good password and makes me think of mr. bob dobalina):

Gnatbobdellida - have jaws, bite their hosts with their teeth, and secrete hirudin, an anticoagulent.

Rhyncobdellida - no jaws, but they insert a proboscis into the host, secrete an enzyme called hemetin, which dissolves blood clots (handy!).

Pharyngobdellida - no jaws or teeth - they just swallow things whole, eating mall invertebrates (supposed to be small invertebrates, but I liked the typo better).

Leeches can ingest several times their weight in blood and can survive several months without feeding (again, how handy!).

They have one or more pair of eyes. They have sensory organs on their heads and bodies that detect movement, and fluctuations in light and temperature. They also have chemical receptors on the head that allow them to smell.

FOR MATURE READERS ONLY: Leeches are hermaphrodites, with both male and female sex organs. This perhaps will be interesting when Oliver brings it up in preschool. They also have something called a clitellum (we skipped this part), an area of thickened skin that is only visible during mating (hmmmm...). They reproduce by intertwining their bodies and depositing sperm into each other’s clitellar area (speed-breeding?) - good thing we don't have that capacity. After fertilization, the eggs are in a cocoon, which the leech deposits under a log, on a leaf, or maybe in your daughter's ponytail. They hatch several weeks or months later (oh come ON, is it weeks, or is it months???), mini-leeches. They die after reproducing once or twice (I can relate).

Yes, there was widespread 'medicinal' bloodletting, which was eventually abandoned, though medical researchers have recently rediscovered (or discovered?) some benefits. Leeches produce substances - anti-coagulants, anesthetics. Maybe one day we'll carry leech packs in our first aid kits.

We also learned this week that urine will anesthetize the wound from an urchin spine sting while you get to the medic.

I just never saw parenting quite like this...

The Process of Elimination

This post is now a week+ old, but what's time, eh?

Oh my. Can't keep up with the laundry with this potty-training reality. If you are at all squeamish, please read no further. It is funny. However, yesterday I found myself with my son accidentally knocking the once out of reach most disgusting cat food can from its perch - all over the porch, rocks, etc. Yellow jackets everywhere, the dog pawing the rocks to get more of that glop, batting the yellow jackets with her paw or snapping her teeth. So I hose everything down and attempt to clean the mess.

Then, dog poops in the front yard. Off to get something with which to get rid of that poo, into the Herald bag and to the garbage. Meanwhile, OLIVER has pooped on the grass, so more Herald bags.

And then it was Ro and Oliver both failing to either get the message or make any move to align the pee with a potty in our house, both in the space of 10 minutes. It's comical!

Went to buy more tidy whities for O. and everything seemed to need to have some sort of sport ball motif around the waistband (cac!) or the wrong size. Back to the laundry room...

Dad shows up later in the day with about 18 pair of new plain vanilla undies. Who says chivalry is dead?

Taters

Okay, this is starting to look like a food blog...first harvest. Beautiful, shiny, smooth, new red fingerling potatoes dug from the sweet soil in the evening sun yesterday. Smallest was the size of a grape, largest about the size of a small russet. Oliver was sooooooo excited. And did you see that moon last night?

PIE!

No utensils needed. Mmmmmmmmmmm. This was the first pie of the berry season, a collaboration between the 3 of us and the 3 berries that were ripe in the yard - blueberries, raspberries, currants. The pie looked like a performance art piece, but ooooohhhhhh, did it ever taste great!

95 degrees in the shade.

Wphew! This qualifies as a major heat wave. So what's a guy to do? FIND WATER! These are photos from Oliver's second foray into lake swimming in a week. Last week found him jumping off the dock with his buddy Rowan at Crescent Lake (Lake Crescent?) on the Olympic peninsula. Today, Lake Padden, tonight we were free climbing the sandstone boulders and cooling off in the cool water on the submerged sandstone islands at Larrabee State Park - living in the northwest has its sweet rewards. We're navigating the yard for the coolest places to picnic (for breakfast too!).

Polly Spenner

This artwork was created for Oliver's 2nd birthday by Emma's wonderful sister Polly Spenner. Here is her bio: Born in Sydney, Australia. Her art work is inspired by the organic shapes and structures found in nature and the repetition of those forms that create man made objects are often balanced within her work.

 She strives to portray the dynamic between airplanes, skyscrapers, and scaffolding with their counterparts; gnarled tree trunks, wild animals, open sky, waters and the forest undergrowth. Formally trained at Interlochen Arts Academy and Rhode Island School of Design, Polly makes Rhode Island her home. Original prints and cards made to order. 401 440 7133

Cack-o-whacky

So when Oliver gets upset, he says things such as 'stop that now, it is making me all cack-o-whacky!' No idea where this came from - perhaps his own language. And he'll let anyone know when/if 'that's jamming me out!' (making him VERY angry), just now it was my doing yoga. It was making him very cack-o-whacky. So no yoga this afternoon I guess. 

Skipping the nap today, he had a great playdate at Zuanich Park (Riley was there!) and met some new friends, shared some snacks (we're into organic, they brought chocolate covered things and oreos, here we go...), met some new friends at the touch ponds in the Marine Life Center, and he LOVED (much 'WHEE!!!') biking (despite his initial Extreme Protest). It was a continuous stream of 'hey look, we're right by Georgia Pacific', 'hey look, there's a moving train next to us!', 'your backpack is hitting my head and it's making me very cack-o-whacky! Mom!, it's jamming me out!' while he's macking me on the back. Ah, yes.

And we've had The Deep segment of the Blue Planet Seas of Life on more or less continuous play since dad left for Oregon. It is absolutely wonderful and amazing. Right now he's watching it with his hand over one eye. 

Tool Talk

The Cheese Grater

In most kitchens, this is a cheese grater. In our kitchen it is an amazing shape-shifting mystery machine, an auger, a conveyor belt, a digger, an excavator, a tower crane, a feller buncher, a tub grinder... 

Creative cropping and cupcakes.

Lots of them. We initially took the high road and tried a recipe which we later rejected. 'Too funky.' Then we did an organic box mix heavily enhanced with real vanilla I scraped from this totally luscious bean. 'Not bad, not bad at all,' says the little taster. So we forge ahead. An adult dozen with a lemon mascarpone cream, a last-minute edit to a recipe for lemon cream I had tried earlier in the week (I know, I know, it's not easy being a mom : ) topped with a couple of organic raspberries. Dad made whipped cream (he insisted) to which were added colored sprinkles (Oliver insisted) for the kiddo cupcakes.

It should be noted: about a week prior to his 3rd Birthday, he began calling me Momzilla.

Birthdayfest '09

Krikey! Can't believe only 2 weeks have passed since my last post. Per usual, things get kicked into uber-high-gear when the mercury moves ever upward in the Northwest and we squeeze every warm sunny moment out of every day to the point of exhaustion. 

We've had our first 'Getting to Know You' playdate with Oliver's really fun future Bayside Montessori buddies. Great group of kids and parents. I am buoyed.

He somewhat reluctantly started 'soccer' last week. There were a lot of kids, a new venue, I think he was overwhelmed. Definitely the smallest guy out there. Didn't really get into it until the second evening when dad was there. We'll see...

He seriously seems to have a thing for blondes...Araya, Gabbi, Elora, Riley...I'm blaming his sitter Laura.

We kicked off  Oliver's Third Birthday Fest on Father's Day, took (surprise!) Amtrak to Vancouver followed by a water taxi ride ride to Granville Island for lunch (I'll post video when I've completed my Videophobics Anonymous meetings). Oliver loved it. The pace is soooo nice. Customs was a bit of a drag, as we were the last car to be allowed (yes) to leave the train and get through to the station. It was just a short walk to Science World, where we waited for a water taxi. Unbeknownst to us, we ventured right into the middle of the Dragon Boat races on False Creek, very, very, cool. Rowing to drumbeats and we were right alongside. He ate sushi, naan bread, tempura shrimp, mango lassi. No King crab in the tank, only boring lobster. No chocolate fountain (that was so Easter). But we discovered a great kinetic sculpture at the Ocean Cement factory. Learned that 'cement is the flour, concrete is the bread'. Noted. 

On the return trip, he opened a present from grandma and grandpa that had mysteriously made its' way into my backpack - a couple of great books that helped make the waiting time before departure pass unnoticed. And he went to the lounge car. Twice.  

He opened a remote-controlled submarine with/from his Aunt Jessica and Uncle Alex live on a 3-way video chat between Kona and Waimea and Bellingham.

We walked the Taylor Dock on Monday, his Birthday proper, a wonderful sunset stroll. He insisted that I carry him, and that he be wrapped in the 'aunt wicki' blanket, as we had last year. Guess he's not ready to relinquish all of those little guy moments.

And his birthday we celebrated with his buddies the following Saturday in the front yard. Picture sunshine, rosemary-lemonade, grilled halibut tacos, balloons (he hand-picked), beach balls (I inflated seven). Picture a slip-and-slide going downhill (strictly against the manufacturers warning) with 5 shivering, shrieking, almost-three-ish (and one 30-something) kids + one very can-do little Sawyer. Picture cupcakes. Picture Oliver beaming. Nude. The entire party. It's his birthday...  

3 words we love...

No, other than 'I love you.' Every summer we eagerly await the invasion of sandwich boards and makeshift signs out and about Bellingham that read 'LIVE SPOT PRAWNS.' errrrrrrrrcccccccchhhhhhh goes the car as we drop anything we're doing and go traipsing down to the marina to procure what are arguably some of the best spot prawns we've ever tasted. Oliver obviously is totally into them. And yes, Grandma Patty, that's a LIVE prawn in his mouth!

Track Night!

Oliver's first track and field experience last Monday night was a hit. Despite being leveled by a bigger kid and getting pinned under a hurdle screaming before the meet even began, he was totally into the Ages 6 and Under hurdles and the running long jump (the sand in general was also a hit). Dad says he looks as though he is about to take flight in the hurdle photo. Next week: soccer!

Ahhhhhhh....summer!

Fresh laundry! And who wouldn't want to climb under the clothesline and look up at the star quilt on a warm, summer day? This quilt was made many, many, years ago by Oliver's great grandmother. Though they never met, I think that it would have made her very happy to know that it gets daily snuggles with this sweet little sleepy Oliver kid. 

Oliver's dear friend

Experienced Laura dance. 

Magnificently expressing so many spaces of emotion through movement, and then through light, sound. And wonderfully with/mixed music in her choreographed piece. A joy to watch.

Did someone film? Hopefully, hopefully. 

And family. So nice to see and hear. 

I feel complete gratitude. 

She is our, Oliver's, forever friend.

We will so miss you and your Laura smile walking through the front door in the morning.

May you please always be in touch.

With us.

Cheers to your beginnings and endings (and beginnings...)

The Bobcat Submarine

One of my favorite things (I know, I always say that) is hearing the first words out of Oliver's mouth in the morning. It gives us some insight into his sleeping world. This morning, rolled over:

O: Can we eat breakfast in our submarine?

Mom: Well sure....we have a submarine?

O: A Bobcat submarine.

M: So we can dig underwater?

O: Yep. We can dig for crabs and the grabber hand will pick up the crabs and we can have them for dinner.

M: Right on.

Not Easy Being Your Knees

oh dear, those knees

connect the raspberries

one, two, three

cement and asphalt, foes

ouchy, couchy, mouchy, wowchy

who has known manicure

and pedicure

and the difference

from his earliest words

and I will always clean

these little fingers and toes

endless fascination with static electricity

Silly little things about this kiddo...

Oliver Today: 

Played: in the yard. Slept: in the car. Pee'd: in his potty, in the yard. Ate: in the bathtub. 

Not too obvoious that the prevailing parenting m.o. is Whatever Works. 

I have learned (and am learning) to go with the flow...

Tonite, he handed me a piece of bread that (honestly) had been on his table since lunch, said to me 'Here, take this. This is ancient.' Right. 

He watched at least a dozen aircraft of one form or another (one containing his father) from helicoptor to jet take off/land at the airport today.

Everything issuing from the O. seems to by rhyming and in rapid succession and has an -inski or -ooski ending (chinski, penski, henski, whenski, dadooski, shoeski, mamooski, etc.)...some kind of latent Dr. Seuss influence? My personal favorite is nope-ski dope-ski.

When asked what he wanted to do for his birthday, he thought, then responded 'Take photos of Araya Berdinka and eat cupcakes.' Check. 

This morning, successfully executed a couple of #1's, followed by a #2, in his potty, on his own, then again later (the former thankfully) in the yard. Almost has almost mastered the art of missing his feet.

Imagination is wild. He has a toy drill that is a 'donut gun' and he shoots donuts into your mouth. Somehow has tapped into my secret fantasies...

When 'sharing' a Mallard strawberry cone with him this afternoon, I was instructed, firmly, to 'lick, but don't bite, lick, but don't bite'. Yep. My kid.

The 246 Run (formerly the Alger Run)

Not another great carbon footprint story.

The latest nap time ritual: In-car picnic at construction site on the waterfront, endless commentary about the auger 'augging,' anything that moves, while trying out all of the seats and 'adjusting' most of the controls in the car (this happens after breakfast on Saturday morning as well). Yesterday we shared sardines (yes, there are those 'dines again - loaded with iron and omega-3's and he loves them) and a local fresh squeezed strawberry, lemon, and apple juice. Today he was too full of strawberries and strawberry ice cream, was only feigning interest in the chicken sandwich, kiwi, banana bread, or other snacks I was proffering. We watch the noon jet fly over the bay, disappear into the clouds. After considerable cajoling (understatement) on my behalf, back to the car seat to do a train check and head by the airport to The 5, where we turn on his (most recent) favorite car song, the Beta Band (cd 3, trk 1), we call it the 'Rain Song' (maybe that's even the title) which we have played possibly 1,000 times (formerly Lime in the Coconut Song~doc-tor~), and head down the freeway. By the time we reach the south end of town, the car vibrations (13-year old Volvo...lots of vibration) and the landscape start to work their magic, things get panoramic to bucolic the further south you go, really beautiful, lush green, hazy foothills, occasional waterfalls, and few major construction toddler distractions. If I am lucky, the eyes close before the last exit and we can head back home for a short drive along the bay. Some days, we drive about 12 miles south, exit 246, and head back north. All this from his absolute refusal to lay down to nap about a month ago. He's a busy guy, he needs a little nap. Today he even asked me if we could just 'go home and take a nap'. Next!(phase). 

Tide Pool Fever

Thoughts of sand and sunshine and salty coffee and camp fire smoke. Rebecca took this photo on Oliver's first camping trip last fall.

Sleeping Around

Some of you will empathize and find the humor in this while others will find it quite pathetic, but the other morning we awakened to greet the new day - Joe asleep in Oliver's bed, mom on the couch, and Oliver was asleep in the mamoo and daddoo bed. Ah yes, more things they never tell you about parenting...

Best Buddies

Rebecca's photo of the 3 amigos. Ro, Otter, Parks.

Agua Boy

Rebecca's photo of Oliver at Parker's birthday bash last summer (glasses courtesy Park's grandma).

popsicles vs. icicles

Oliver says icicles. So, icicles they are. We made them today out of fruit and yogurt. Were a hit. Wphew. One more thing he'll eat...

Suddenly very opinionated, demanding, moody. Where DOES he get it?

Rock Tasting

This photo was taken last year. Was thinking of this little Lummi island beach as it is really trying to be 70 degrees today. DIONAEA MUSCIPULA - We caught two flies this morning and fed them to the venus fly trap only to google and learn that we are supposed to feed a single bug at a feeding and only every other week. Noted.

plastic + high fructose corn syrup + syrup on my 'dines

In the bathtub a sea of plastic fish, buckets, boats, monkeys, everything plastic. Should my son be floating in all of this plastic? I think not. It all slowly drifts into two separate, but distinct areas of the tub, am thinking of the place in the ocean where all of the post-butyrate injection molded plastic detritus of consumerism ends up and then on to the stomachs of seabirds. uck.

And the potty beans? The gmo-corn high fructose corn syrup, artificial color, artificial flavor, Jelly Belly nastiness that were supposed to facilitate potty training? I will find a better carrot. My bad.

On the culinary front: Oliver asked me tonite if we could 'please put some syrup on his 'dines' (maple syrup + sardines, yes. Anthony Bourdain would be oh so proud). How could I refuse? 

And he is most often lately, in the early evening, seen dining in the buff. The food must just taste better...

  

Mallard Strawberry Ice Cream, The #1 Cure for Spicy Throat.

Pardon the plug. We have eaten a lot of Mallard ice cream. We really like it. Especially when our throats are spicy, and Oliver likes to go there with Laura, and with mom after music, and with dad, and you get the picture...

O. tasted peppermint yesterday, but he always gets strawberry.

Swinging in the swing next to him at the park today, he looked, suddenly, like this little adult.

'Spicy on the back of my throat.' + Robin Hill

Just as I thought we had escaped cold and flu season unscathed, along comes the bug. Berto has had the ubiquitous runny nose and mild, raspy, cough for a few days. This morning he told me that he had  'a spicy on the back of his throat.' The wind chill has been outrageous and temperatures in the high 20's, low 30's, but the sun is stunning and the skies a piercing bright blue. At times like these, I am grateful for his imagination as we can still manage to spend hours inside where it is a balmy 76 degrees with a big fire and puzzles, endless art projects, online video footage of any type of farm implement (today the cotton harvester was a hit), clay creations, books, and he has his (construction) Project Zone, a huge clay pot filled with soil and all of his small digging toys, plus and assortment of improvised 'attachments'.

Robin Hill

There are so many robins on Sehome hill at the moment. Oliver and I watched three of them canvassing the side yard for whatever they were scavenging and yesterday it seemed as though every time I looked, a bird was perched on a post in the yard...where we are planning on putting in grapes and berries and where fruit trees are already located. 

On a midday jaunt around the neighborhood yesterday, we chased robins up the street/hill, and saw (not kidding) more than 8 - 10 robins in a parking strip darting this way and that. 

Stellar jay(s) are putting a nest in one of the trio of pines closest to the parking area. An ADU (accessory dwelling unit)! 

Also of note the decapitated one-winged thing Poor Wendy (the cat) left me on the back porch in protest of my having allowed the canned cat food supply to cease to exist.

Those Rocky Canadians

We had some winter wonderland here two days ago. The day after I noticed the first helleborous orientalis Lenten Rose poking a tight, determined-looking bud out of the muck the snow started falling in the morning and didn't stop until when? The bamboo in the backyard bent over in a deep arc connecting to the ground almost at the house and I was instantly reminded why I so loved it in the first place. It made great tunnels, but we proceeded to knock avalanches of snow out of the long canes and leaves, filling the back of our jackets, so it would stand again. People in shock. Snow? The light was so intense, the sky so clear you could see all of the foothills in all directions. Everything from the Canadian rockies to the foothills in front of our Baker view was in full panorama and splendor.

We are all eagerly awaiting the arrival of the newest member of the Sehome tribe, the new Norman baby. Our thoughts are with Emma, Chad, and Parker on this journey.

Rebecca's 35th Birthday yesterday, Friday, same day as my parents anniversary, never again to forget that one. And the quote of the day was from Rowan at Deception Pass, 'I LOVE the sun!'

O. and I visited The Great Mandini on Wednesday morning to see if she could find our lost ears. That Mandy! Always a great cut, a cool vibe, a good food tip. And then there is the music, fake fur, Balloon Suckers, a deer tattoo. How could you go wrong? And the resemblance of O. to Mandy's daughter Freda is, well...I showed Oliver Freda's picture from her blog and asked him who it was and he looked at me, smiled, and said 'Berti!'

Beyond that, we are thinking about preschool this fall. Exciting. Excited. 

Oliver is apparantly training for Cirque du Soleil, jumping off of almost anything onto (hopefully) pillows, sofa cushions, occasionally heads. Very physical. Very 'Whee!' 

And he sings. Mostly when he is quiet, working on something by himself. Picture the Grinch with his heart growing 3 sizes that day and there am I. Though he seems to have given up on the music class, maybe just a little hiatus?

Very social. With me, with dadoo on the road in Oregon, with his buddies, the waitress, the 'Beader' (beaver hand puppet), 'hamingo the flamingo, Grandma Patty and Grandpa Gar, and long monologues with Rebecca on the phone from in his 'kitchen'.

All for now...

Mt   

Little Milestones

One of the great things about hanging out with a toddler are the humorous and creative word pronunciations that change as language develops. Grateful for his progress, it is still bittersweet when the fun word is suddenly replaced by the accurate pronunciation. This past week we mourned the passing of 'acarium' and 'Keg' (Joe's boss Craig). The very hardest one to say goodbye to thus far though has been 'yowie' (yellow)... : (

Our thanks to craigslist. We sold a crib to a Seattle couple expecting twins. Oliver is celebrating his new bed today.

Quick trip to Monterey last week with Joe who was attending the EcoFarm Conference. Barefoot in the sand and wading in the tide pools, one sunset, weather not great. Squeezed in two trips to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a truly wonderful place. An entire new wing called the Splash Zone was added since our visit last year. Tons of interactive exhibits, more touch pools, and penguins!

Found some more fun at the new Monterey County Youth Museum. Grinning kiddos running around exploring a treehouse, a farmers market with a John Deere tractor and garden, a place for the kids to stomp in a barrel of faux grapes (not as gross as it sounds), an ambulance and hospital, a theatre with stage, costumes, camera, and screen, a miniature golf course with cart, a 2-story playhouse, a 'construction' site, an ocean area with a boat and soft piers for climbing, and this great contraption they could stand in and use a pulley system to lift a hoop and surround themselves with a gigantic soap bubble. Whoa! 

Despite all of this fun kidstuff, I still think the biggest travel highlights for Oliver are the airports. He's totally into airport security. The conveyer belts, the x-ray machines, escalators, moving sidewalks, the baggage claim, and the jets. We had to pull up the Bombardier website so he could learn more about the Q400 we took to and from Bellingham and he hasn't stopped talking about it, tells everyone. 

Joe took some great pics, so we'll just have to wait patiently until he gets a chance to do his magic and give them to me to post.

A GREAT DAY...

Wow...Barack Hussein Obama. How intelligent. How poised. How right. Courageous to assume this role of leading us forward. What a great day to be an American...

We don't do the cable tv thing and I was unsuccessful accessing any of the live feeds online. As luck would have it, the Mount Baker Theatre opened its doors at 8am this morning to view the inauguration on the big screen. O's awesome caregiver Laura, Oliver, myself shared this amazing moment with a packed house of rapt Bellingham folk. He clapped and cheered and somehow managed to watch the entire presentation. I hope he will always remember it.

Cheers to hope!    

It's not the cake, it's the candles...

So here is an image from the last of Oliver's three birthday celebrations taken by Joe in late July at a cabin on San Juan Island we shared with Oliver's Aunt Jekka and Uncle Alex.

Lummi Island Summer '08

Potty Beans

On a recent trip to my hairdresser Mandy, known around our house as The Great Mandini (a reference to both her skills with the shears as well as a little toddler marketing-ese to get him into the chair), I inquired as to how her daughter was acclimating to her new preschool. She informed me that it was going quite well, in fact, that the preschool was potty training Freda for them. Really. Of course (as we had yet to begin this little milestone despite our recent visits to open houses at the various recommended preschool options and their age and potty-trained-only requirements) I asked how they were accomplishing this feat. 'Potty beans', she beamed. Potty beans? Pink Jelly Belly's (Freda's fave) to be specific. So off I trot to Traders to obtain some of these 'magic' beans. To say that this has caught on like YouTube would be an understatement. In fact, Oliver is so enthusiastic about using his little potty for one of those brightly colored sweet rewards that Joe and I are concerned that he is going to damage his bladder trying to produce! So I started telling him the flavors to make things ever more interesting, adding another layer to the drama, thinking he could care less. Well...this morning, after a particularly earnest session in the loo, I handed him his jelly bean. He looked at it quite seriously, said 'mmmm...toasted marshmallow' and popped it into his mouth, huge grin. He doesn't even know what a toasted marshmallow (let alone a marshmallow) is! Last night I asked him which flavor he most liked. Reply? 'All of them.' Needless to say, no photo to accompany this entry... 

Post Holiday Post

So here is a mug of 'Decorating Man' as in solstice tree decorating man, as in everything right now ends in -man. Baker Man, Worker Man, Wood Man (when he is helping dad haul in wood for the fire). His own naming convention. I'll attempt to post some video of the tree decorating soon. Should add that one of the biggest challenges I have as a parent is letting go of The Control Thing. When I occasionally succeed, the results are almost always surprising (to me) and wonderful (to everyone else). The tree decorating a case in point. There is mom, trying to evenly space the colors and ornaments, make sure no bare spots exist, similar items separated (there are careers for sick people like me)...but Oliver had ideas of his own. Dad employed some tape and festive holiday ribbon and tied me kicking and screaming to a nearby chair (kidding) to get me out of Oliver's way and the magic began...the carrot and strawberry ornaments were all hung side by side, logically, with the sun ornament, 'so they could be together in the garden and ripen in the sun,' all of the cactus ornaments were grouped together with the coyote, and after years of painful segregation, the snowmen were finally allowed to commingle... 

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow!

We were thrilled to have an epic amount of snow in December. It was sunny and beautiful, reminded me of Colorado or Montana, definitely not Bellingham. The region was paralyzed. We ordered sleds from Bean. As Oliver has been obsessed with the BBC Planet Earth series, he spent an inordinate amount of time pretending he was a polar bear (or maybe he was the camel from the Gobi Desert) crawling around the massive drifts in the yard eating snow. I have never seen anyone eat so much snow...

No Chronology Whatsoever

I am just going to post on the fly, no chronology for a bit. Still feeling my way around this medium. Here is O. on his 2nd Birthday in June '08 taking a tour of a giguminous (our word) cedar log in Stanley Park, Vancouver B.C. Purpose of the trip was a visit to see the new baby beluga whale at the Vancouver Aquarium, which we found to be insanely overcrowded and disgustingly dirty. The pre-aquarium picnic in the park was a major hit though. 

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year All! 

This blog was built for us by Oliver's wonderful 'Aunt' Jessica and we are forever grateful to her for it. All posts prior to 2009 were taken from email correspondence between Jessica and myself and cleverly edited (thank you Jess) by her. 

Admittedly, I have approached the baby blogosphere with some trepidation as there is something a little terrifying about putting my sweet little person out in the digital world, but maybe I am just being an overprotective dinosaur as I so frequently read the blogs of others.

Oh, and Otter is Oliver's first attempt at pronouncing his name as well as one of his favorite animals at the various aquariums we've frequented, hence the title of the blog. If you ask him now, he will tell you he is Ollider Bennett.