away from home

Isaac spent three nights away from home last week, for the first time ever. I think it was harder for me than him. The first day it didn't really hit me - I think it was just nice to have a good night's sleep - but by the second day I kept thinking "I miss my Isaac!" Man, just two more weeks and this summer session is over. I'm really glad. Work is good but being with Isaac is better. 

A purple/blue sow bug. Weird.The others were mostly grey. I don't know what's in the water to make a few of them have this color mutation.

 Sweet face!

 The UGS again (last Monday). I swear this thing has hit an underground aquifer and is completely self-reliant at this point. It better be producing something worth eating, because it is producing it in unnecessarily large quantities. It also has gotten bigger since this picture. Soon it will be demanding segregation from the rest of my garden and the establishment of its own autonomous state.

 Here is Isaac getting ready to go last Tuesday evening. He got to watch a lot of movies so that helped ease the transition. He is going to go again this week for a few days, and I'm sure I am going to miss him just as much again. It's weird to be without Isaac. I actually sprained my ankle last Tuesday so it was for the best that he was gone Wednesday. I ended up staying home all day and that was a good choice, because it was very functional the following day and I was able to walk on it slowly. By Friday it was completely better. 

Other random thoughts: 

A couple weeks ago, when Isaac and London were together, they were playing in another room. I clearly was not supervising them closely enough, because Isaac ran in with glee on his face and announced: "We playing in the toilet!!!!!" OH NO. Luckily it had been flushed, but still... gross....

Isaac is getting close on his /r/ sounds in /ar/ and /or/. "Car" sounds pretty close. This is exciting for me and probably nobody else. And he is still pretty good with the /tr/s and /dr/s (which are more like /chr/ and /jr/ anyway). 

He can also recognize his name out of four names I wrote down and has memorized that the sequence is "I-S-A-A-C", although I'm not sure he really knows the letters "I" and "A" reliably. 

He learned "B" after 1 exposure to it. I am not even kidding. We went to visit daycare the week before I had to go back to work, and he sat to listen to a story with his little friends. Lana, who has been taking care of him since he was a baby, pointed out on the cover that there was a "B", "Like Benny" she said. Now every time Isaac sees a "B" he recognizes it, and usually says "like Benny". I was astonished. Of course this only applies to uppercase "B" but I think we'll have learned the alphabet by the time he is 4 with no problem. Upper and lower case. He is just really interested in it. I think we are at the rate of about 1 letter per week or so. He knows: B, C (and c), D, G, K (and k), O (and o), S (and s), T, U (and u) at this point. Okay, maybe not 1 per week, because that was definitely a few weeks ago that I put up that video of the "Go Ducks" sign. But, since then we have added "B" and "T". I keep trying to teach him "I" and "A" since those are in his name, but I think as long as I go at his pace, he will learn them all in plenty of time. There is no rush but I am excited about his enthusiasm - and of course we both think he is just so smart because he is our first child and we have nothing to compare to. ;)

the best love ever

Isaac came to me the other day with this beautiful flower and said "Here Mama! I love you." 

Favorite flower ever. Except it was picked from the neighbors. I checked though and they have lots of lilies so hopefully they won't miss it. 

rocket launching

We also got to go to a birthday party for our big cousin Lucia, who has her own blog. We had food, and then we launched rockets! It was fun! 

 Oh, and I do have some pictures of cousins. I know they are lacking that magical quality of people who usually take these photos, and if you are the parent and want me to remove them, please just let me know and I will be happy to do so. :) Isaac was happy to sit by his cousin Malachai.

 "Stand in line, kids!"

 "Does that mean I get to go first?" thinks Isaac.

 "No, you have to wait."

This party was very fun. Isaac left the Science Factory throwing a big fit. Kind of embarrassing... but I think he was tired too, and well, I don't get embarrassed too easily. Except for that one time when Isaac looked at a guy not wearing a shirt and said, "Mama, that man is growing fat!" in his very projected voice. That was pretty embarrassing and awkward. That was a few months ago though and Isaac now knows: "Mama, you don't say fat. You say bigger." 

cherry picking

Okay, I didn't actually know what "cherry picking" meant exactly, but thought I would look it up to make sure. We are talking about cherry picking in the most literal sense of the phrase. As in picking cherries off a tree.

 We went to a u-pick farm called Me & Moore which is just to the east of I-5. This was last Friday. It was fun enough - we had ladders and found a short tree. I thought of inviting cousins, but as I told them, it was better that I didn't because it turned out to be not at all a kid-friendly activity. Now I know why we never went cherry picking as kids. Isaac had to climb the ladder to reach any cherries at all, and he couldn't usually safely reach that many. Plus it was more ambiguous than blueberries - it's hard to describe what color they should be to taste their best. We picked Royal Anne cherries, which are red and yellow. Isaac did help, but I of course did 95% of the picking. Again, probably not the first choice of thing to bring your kids to do, unless your kids are ages 10 and up and can be safe on ladders. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and even blackberries are all more accessible. 

 You see only 2 pictures of Isaac picking because after that he was not too interested. He wanted to climb the tree though. Unfortunately it wasn't too big, but he sat on it for a little. Then he just ran around in the trees. 

It could be fun though to go picking again! It has potential. Probably not next year with baby sister though. Probably not for a few years unless... maybe we should go in a large group so we can alternately monitor kids and pick. Hm.... We won't probably be going peach picking though, although that does sound delicious. Same problem with accessibility. One thing that would be fun is to try the different types of cherries in jams. I made jam with all my cherries. Last year I made jam with red cherries too, but not sure which variety. I tasted a really dark cherry off another tree and realized it would taste completely different in a jam. So that might be fun. Someday! Someday we will have our own house and we can plant cherry and plum and pear trees in the yard. And mangoes in the greenhouse. Just kidding - those trees are huge.

easy living

Mama had to go back to work for 4 weeks as of this Monday. But, we have three more weeks of vacation after that, which I am looking forward to. Actually, so far all the kids I've worked with have been doing really well. No one has regressed or anything. It's wonderful to work with kids this age - their brains are so flexible and amazing.

But, let's review some fun we had when we had no other commitments. 

We made sugar cookies. If you haven't made these before, at least for the recipe I have, you have to chill the dough before you work with it. Then you have to use massive amounts of flour. The chilling part is confusing to Isaac. We made these cookies for the second time, and I told him multiple times we would have to chill the dough. Then when we chilled it, I asked if he wanted to make anything else while we waited. "Yeah, this time let's make the bunny cookies," he replied. This meant the sugar cookies, which he wanted to cut out in the shape of bunnies. Waiting is tough! But worth it. Papa and Isaac both really enjoy the sugar cookies (well of course Mama does too, but that is pretty obvious).

 We went to a birthday party for one of Isaac's daycare friends. It was at Bounce. Isaac had a blast. In fact, I am mad at myself for being late, because he could have run and jumped for an entire 2 hours. 

 We also got to spend time with cousins, especially Malachai.

 For some reason, when the cousins get together, all the boys like to run around naked. There was a week where I was having to explain to Isaac why he had to wear pants when he went outside. Then of course we go to Great-Aunt Christy's and the rules are different. It's good though - it's important to learn when you can run around naked and when you need to wear pants. 

Really great aunt Christy got a sucker stuck on her back from Peter :)

 We also went downtown by bus...

 to go to story time at the public library! Zany Zoo was there that day and they showed different animals to the preschoolers. Isaac really enjoyed the tortoise. He did not enjoy the parrot. 

I'm trying to remember more stories but it is hard. This being pregnant thing really does mess with my ability to hold a coherent train of thought. Magically though, I did remember a list of 4 items from last month that I hadn't written down anywhere; but I couldn't tell you which story I though of sharing ten minutes ago.Oh well! It will probably come back soon.

felicitations Papa!

Making faces with Papa. Isaac's favorite. Happy birthday Papa! We love you! And moh ibi ngwa!

The UGS - Unidentified Gigantic Squash - and other garden variety adventures

We have a very large volunteer squash in our community garden plot. It doesn't bother me though. A lot of things I planted just didn't come up, and our potatoes died, so I let it grow. The only problem is we (well, I guess Mama is really the only person that cares, so "I") have no idea what kind of squash it is, or if it is some weird cross between two squashes. A lot of them can cross with each other. The Cucurbita maximas with the maximas, the pepos with the pepos, and I think there might be another one called angiosperma. Unfortunately both zucchini and pumpkins are C. pepo, I believe. So hopefully it is not a weird squash and it is actually edible. Whatever it is, it sure is prolific. 

 One problem with the squash is I have this double purple orach planted and I really like it. The squash leaves kind of shade it. This picture was from a week ago. It turns out that orach doesn't appear to mind some shade though. I've heard it can be referred to as "mountain spinach" too so maybe it can tolerate some shade. It has been hot this past week, in the 80s.

 Isaac likes to help out when we are in the garden. Please don't mind that weedy patch right behind him. It is part of our plot, but our plot is just so big that it is hard to keep on top of it. Especially because it is so hot out now. By the time we are ready in the morning, it is too hot to go do any meaningful amount of work in the garden.

 Now the following pictures are from today: The UGS grew over the hose where I left it last time. By about a foot. Yes, a nice prolific squash.

 Okay, in case anyone is a little obsessed with squash like myself (i.e., really would like a copy of The Compleat Squash), but more knowledgeable, I took some pictures of the fertilized female flowers in hopes someone could identify it for me. Uncle Chris? 

 We also have these delicious golden raspberries in our garden. They are just so yummy to eat. Not really tart at all. Just good. I made a pint of jam from them last weekend. We also made blueberry jam with my friend Brittaini but I forgot to bring my camera. 

 The UGS today. It really is taking over, big time. Lots and lots of squash growing on it - let's seriously hope they are edible. 

Independence day

Our first Independence Day all being American citizens. :) 

FYI

I finally have made the first post for our little girl: petitecompaore.blogspot.com complete with some ultrasound pictures! Take a look if you are interested. From now on I'll just post to her blog directly (about things that pertain just to her) but thought I should let everyone know! 

spiaggia

From Monday. An exceptionally beautiful day at the Oregon Coast. 

 With the occasional silly intense face, which are a favorite of 3-year-old boys, I have found.