Weirdo Beardo

Merry Christmas Everyone!  I love getting everyone's beautiful, sweet, inspiring Christmas cards, with all your picture perfect families.  I really do.  They're hanging on my front door so I can see them all season long.  And I love my picture perfect family, covered in snowy white hair, heads floating in a red miasma of Season's Greetings.  I have a large version of this on my fridge, and when Eve saw it she cracked up and thought it was hilarious.  It is.  She's got a good sense of humor.  May your holidays be bright and merry!  We love all of you.  Thank you for your love in return!

The Big One

DadadaDum!  Theron is now one year old!  He had his birthday last Thursday, and boy, was it an extreme birthday party weekend.  And filled with an oddly high amount of buffets, which we mostly never attend.  But apparently to celebrate a one year old's birthday one needs to eat--a lot.  I guess that's because when you're only one, it's snowy outside, and you don't yet walk, all you can do is eat.  It's a universal pleasure, I'm sure.

So, Thursday.  Rise and shine!  My little boy is up with a smile.  We go for a walk, run some errands, play with toys, clean the house--all the things a one year old boys loves to do.  Then we went to Golden Corral for dinner--not my choice.  We came home and sang him "Happy Birthday."  I sang that to him all day, and he loved it and would laugh and smile and clap because somehow he knew he was special when I sang to him. 

Friday Theron had his one year doctor appointment.  He is doing great!  He got four shots and a prick in the toe for blood work, but after some sad tears, he was okay.  Especially after he got his first lollipop.  My parents came up and took us all out to dinner.  Guess where?  Chuck-A-Rama!  And we opened presents afterwards and Theron got his favorite one of all: a wooden truck carrying four small cars.  Theron loved it!

And Saturday we had his birthday party.  I invited all our family, and then decided to invite a few other families as well.  Most everyone came, and for a while I was really stressed and cursing myself for making the situation much more complicated than it needed to be.  BUT.  It was fun!  It turned out wonderful and I think that Theron had a good time.  When everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him he was all smiles.  Then he ate the monkey cake and LOVED it!  It was a banana cake with chocolate frosting.  He had two huge fistfuls and noshed it down like it was candy.  I was so glad that it made him so happy. 

Theron has been sleeping very poorly lately.  Not napping well and not sleeping more than a few hours at a time at night.  And a lot of time he will wake up and want to stay up for hours.  He doesn't take a binky and he doesn't suck his thumb so he is no good at self soothing.  He is going through his separation anxiety stage and therefore doesn't want anyone but me at night.  Even the sight of Richie will make him scream his head off.  I don't feel any teeth coming in, he doesn't have an earache, and the "crying it out" thing doesn't work--I've tried it even though I hate it.  I guess I just have to accept the fact that this is just  a stage and there is nothing I can do about it. 

Theron is also mobile now.  Yea!  I've been waiting now.  He's been doing an army scoot for a while, but now he has been full on crawling now for a couple of weeks and is starting to get fast!  I'm still not  used to it.  The other day I went downstairs to change out the laundry and I heard a big crash.  I raced upstairs and just as I thought, one of our floor lamps was broken on the floor.  Theron had pulled it down.  He also ate two of Eve's markers while I was in the shower that day.  He loves to dance, clap, hear singing, pull on the cat and be tickled. He loves to play with toys, especially cars, books, kitchen gadgets and stuffed animals.  His hair is getting long, is curly in the back and growing in blond, though he is still a redhead for now.  And he is still the most darling, happy, smiley little boy who has absconded with my heart.  I cannot believe how much I love my little man.  He makes me so happy, even in the sleepless delirium I call my life.  What an incredible little soul resides in arms when I scoop him up and snuggle him.  

Oh, I love this little guy, but look at how tired both our eyes are.  No sleep is the worst!

 

Happy Birthday Theron!  I hope that this coming new year will be a marvelous one.  You are my bright light and warm fuzzy.  You are my darling and my constant joy.  I love you.

  Eating his birthday cake as fast as possible.  He didn't stop till both hands were empty!

 Theron: One Year

22 lb. 10 oz.

30"

100% Sweetness

What a Witch! (and Goldfish too!)

 We have been bewitched the past few weeks.  An orange pointy hat with black polka dots followed me everywhere.  The scratchy sound of grass broom bristles echoed through my hallways.  The swish of a cape haunted my days, and the insane cackle of a deranged witch floated through my dreams at night. Finally, I managed to capture that devil's mistress in a photograph.  This is the terrifying image:

And this guy is just plain cute!  Okay, so this is a GOLDFISH costume.  But it does look an awful lot like a mermaid.  Eve wore this a couple of years ago.  Richie absolutely forbade me from putting it on Theron.  So I decided he was going to be a bat, a ghost, a "boo"....and then finally, when I was really stressed about it and couldn't find what I needed without spending more than a few bucks (I'm trying to be extra thrify) I decided that he was going to be the goldfish.  The next day we went trick or treating at the zoo, and he was called a girl and a mermaid several times over.  Richie screamed "See!  I told you that costume was too girly!"  But I didn't care, Theron didn't care, and he looked cute.

October is probably the best month to live in Logan.  The weather is fabulous, the whole valley, city, canyon lights up in spectacular fashion with Autumn colors.  And there are tons of fun Halloween and Fall events to attended and activities to do.  I learned that one needs to have their Halloween costume ready by the beginning of the month so that one can wear it all month to these fun events.  So, good job, mediocre city that I tolerate!

On that note of costumes, here how Eve decided to be a witch.  I started asking her what she wanted to be for Halloween (then explained what Halloween was).  The very first thing she said was "Green."  

"Green like a frog, or green like the color green?"  I asked.

"Green like the color green." 

From which point she then began listing a bazillion different things, every few seconds.  Over the course of a week I heard, oh probably, 200 different things she wanted to be, including car keys, a trampoline, a triangle, rattlesnake, mud, pencil, and Curious George.  That one almost stuck, with Richie to be the Man in the Yellow Hat, but, at the dollar store she saw the witch hats and really wanted one.  "Nope," I said, "not unless you want to be a witch for Halloween."  After wich, every time I asked her what she wanted to be, she said "A witch!"  

I asked her, "What is a witch?"

"A witch is just a witch."

"Well, what do witches do?"

 

"They're just witches, Renee" (she rarely calls me mama anymore.  Despite what my dad thinks, this not me trying to be a liberated parent or whatever.  She just found out that my name is Renee and that's what she calls me.)

Oregon at Last

 So I know that it has been a while since we actually went to Oregon, but I have not blogged about it yet, and since I don't want it to get washed away in the upcoming holiday tides, here it is now.  Yay!  Because I love Oregon, and the Oregon Coast, and I am sad to see summer go.  Usually I am done with the hot weather by now, but this summer was so pleasant, and so short, and I wish it would last just a little bit longer.  It hasn't snowed in Logan yet, but set the snow line a couple hundred feet and it will soon.

The "Niagra of the West" Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho.  Definitely a cool place to check out!

But enough about cold, boring Logan.  Let's profile Pacific City, Oregon and our adventures there and back.  Traveling with two little ones is hard and long.  They are both great travelers, but let's face it: it's a long time in the car.  We split the drive into two days both ways, but I think we made the drive out too long.  We took long breaks thinking that it would be better, but really just made for a really long day.  But Theron was still nursing, and so we had to have stops anyway.  We stayed at my friend Gaylene's beautiful house in Pasco, Washington.  It was great!  She has twin boys the exact same age as Theron.  They are cute, tenacious little guys.  They were both smaller than Theron and already moving around.  Theron is such a gentle giant compared to most babies his age.  But it was lovely to see my friend that I hadn't seen in years, and to meet her kids.  

 

Multnomah Falls in the Columbia Gorge.  One of my favorite places ever.

 

We got Portland the next day and had a little family reunion with my dad's family.  We spent the night with my cousin Kate, which was so nice of her.  She and her partner Jason hosted us last summer too, and I'm surprised they were up for it again, seeing as how Eve terrorized their cat, Monster.  Monday we took a little detour to Corvallis before heading to the coast and visited my old work and ate at our favorite restaurant there.  Then, finally, we made it to the beach.  The Beach!

 

 

 Classic Eve.  Just enjoying the sun and the sand.

Now, I'm not complaining, because we had a wonderful time.  Our house fantastic and the weather great.  BUT.  I was not anticipating the amount of Work I had to do on my "vacation."  There was lots to do and see, but my kids ended up being so tired and thrown out of their schedule that by Wednesday, they both lost it.  I mean, complete and utter melt downs by both of them.  And of course it would be when Richie was golfing.  My mom and cousin were there, but you know, it's just different when one parent it missing.  It literally was the worst day I've had with both of them.  So many many tears.  My poor cousin just sort of looked at me and was like, "I don't think I'm ready for kids yet...(nervous laugh.)"  I can't blame her. 

 At the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport

Our beach house was not directly on the beach, so to get to it you had to walk about 15 minutes on a little path, then walk another ten minutes through sand to get to the water.  With a baby, a giant bag of blankets and towels, a diaper bag, various toys and snacks, and a toddler who thought it too hard to walk in sand (in her defense, it was really hard to shuffle through it, especially uphill), it made going to the beach quite the outing.  Not to mention that the previous 6 weeks had been filled with Eve's constant listing of every ocean creature she could think of and expecting to see them all at the beach.  Where are the whales, Eve?  They're in the deep water.  Where are the walruses?  Where are the fat,scary octopuses?  Sigh.  Good thing we went to the aquarium! 

 Cookie break at the beach

 Fish faces

But there were good things.  Shopping at the outlet malls.  Yummy crab dinners and Pie Soup.  Golfing, fishing, the beach, tide pools, game nights, waterfalls, desserts, family, book stores, and THE OCEAN.  It was grand.  I love going to the beach.  And I'm so glad that despite our distance from it, Eve loves it too.

 The famous 'Pie Soup."  If anyone has talked to Richie about the Oregon Coast, he will talk about pie soup.  He loves it.  We drove two hours for it.  We all dug in and devoured it.

 

On our last day I woke up Eve early to go to the tide pools and collect sand dollars in the low tide.  It was a lot of fun, and Eve loved the tide pools.  We found a lot of cool little creatures. And then we got a hot chocolate to share.  It was such a quiet, nice time to have with just Eve.  I will keep that for me for a long time.  Thank you Oregon.  I love you and miss you. 

When A Month Feels Like A Year Feels Like A Headache

Does life ever make you feel like this?

The title of this post is more negative than how I really feel, but I am so tired.  So very, very tired.  Between several deaths, intense teething, neighborhood parties, overnight guests, a sick husband and all the other surprises a two year old brings into one's life, the last two weeks have packed quite the punch for me.  

All self-pity aside, most of my adventures have been Fantastic!  I know I promised a special spotlight on our Oregon trip from August, but I think I'll just post some pics from my trip to San Francisco instead.  To my delight, my sweet, thoughtful husband bought me tickets to visit my sister in SF.  So Eve spent some time with my parents in Cedar, and Theron and I went to SF!  He was Amazing!  He slept both ways on the plane--nary a cry!  He really was a star on this entire trip.  For some reason I though SF was full of families and kids, but I was totally wrong!  There were hardly any children around.  Everyone loved Theron.  I had people ask to hold him, play with him, kiss him!  Waiters sat at our tables and played with him while we ate, gay men couldn't avoid talking to him, even people who obviously never had anything to do with children were sucked into his vortex of cuteness.  It was so much fun, and Theron ate up all the attention.  Oh man, you should have seen him at church.  He sat there and "sang" and talked the whole time and all the baby-starved women ate him up!  I must give a big thank you to Nikki's former roommates Sierra and Kate.  They were so nice and accommodating, and really wonderful to Theron and I.  Thank you for letting us stay.  We had a great time!

 All dolled up and ready for church :)

 First time on a carousel and he LOVED it!  He could stop smiling and kicking his legs in pure joy.

Seeing my sister was wonderful.  I'm really glad that I went out there because it allowed me to see things from her perspective and appreciate the sort of things that she deals with in her life.  So I'm glad that I understand where she's coming from a little bit better.  And I know that she feels that same way.  Even though Theron was a complete peach, she still attained a much greater respect for how busy I am as a mom. Just imagine what it would've been like if Eve had been there.  But Nikki is such a wonderful person, and I'm so glad that she is my sister.  I love you Nikki!

 View of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Love that Bay Fog!

 Nik and I at the Palace of Fine Arts.  It's Nik's favorite place in SF, and it is LOVELY

 Coit Tower by night

 Here's my little sis.  Isn't she darling?

 We checked out the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park and I think it was my favorite part of the trip.  The meticulous attention to detail was mind boggling.

 

 Nine months old and already driving the ladies wild!

Despite my hilarious and somewhat disturbing opening photo, my trip to SF left me happy, centered and ready to go back to Logan a better person.  I think this photo reflects that feeling.  It was my favorite one from the tea garden.  What do you think?