our first week in the nw

the first week of our nw family vacation is over. boo. anthony had to go home today (well, it was "today" when i started this blog. currently "today" means "two days ago". stupid picture trouble.) luckily, nolan and i have two more weeks of fun. we'll be missing daddy though!

we arrived in portland last thursday at 8:00am and have been on the go pretty much ever since. nolan's nose started running by roughly 2:30 that afternoon and while i crossed my fingers that it was just all the los angeles goop dripping out after a few hours of breathing this beautiful, clean nw air, it was very clear by the end of the night that he had a nasty cold. (three days later, i got it. ugh.) we didn't slow down a bit - probably not the most ideal for healing the body, but we had things to do! i only had one week to do all i could to convince anthony that portland is where we should be. ;) not sure how well i did, but portland was on its best behavior and really did its part. :)

day one:  arrived in pdx early, early after a crazy late night of house prep for work being done while we are away and very little sleep. the weather was beautiful. we walked down to the huge park by grandma's (my mom) house and watched some kids playing baseball and then went out to dinner when grandma got home from her second to last day of work before summer break! after bedtime, anthony and i headed the backway into town along the river and through sellwood to se portland to eat some incredible dessert at papa haydn. it was awesome. sadly, bug's cold had already kicked in to high gear and he was having a rough go. sorry, bug. thanks, gma. :/

despite the fact that we left the house at 4:15am and that this picture was taken at about 5:50am, nolan did not sleep a wink during the entire flight. in fact, this was his position for a very good chunk of it. 

so sleepy, but refused to close his eyes. daddy was a little luckier than nolan and i in the sleep department. :)

get it, kid.

four little monkeys. 

all his new buddies ready to play.

my boys.

me in the papa hadyn garden. i know...even the restaurants have backyards here. haha.

smelling something tasty...

my handsome hubby and two of the most delicious desserts i've ever had. chocolate raspberry ganachey goodness and basil blueberry ice cream...what!? amazing.

smoochin' in the gardens after dessert. note: it is about 9:30pm in this picture...check out the light. no flash. no outdoor lights.

me and my love.

day two: a little rainy in the morning. while i really wanted to bundle nolan in his raincoat and wellies and run around in the rain, we decided that with a runny nose, that wasn't our best bet. so instead, we attempted to go bowling. sounds like fun, right? 9:00am, no one else in the place, nice and quiet, not too overwhelmingly. nope. nolan thought it to be terrifying. anthony bowled the first half of the game (for all three of us) while i played arcade basketball with nolan and then we switched. luckily, nolan loved arcade basketball. :) this was followed by a little grocery shopping at the local whole foods - proud owner (?) of the most amazing bulk foods section i have ever seen. the picture really doesn't do it justice. yes, i'm a total nerd. caitlin gustin, did one of your brothers design this by chance? if so, they are freaking geniuses. :) anyway...post nap, we hit up a small playground in the apartment complex and played some ball. yes, we took our kid to a playground with a snotty nose. yes, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. somehow i got past it because there were no other children in sight (nor have i seen a child there in all the times we have been there or walked past it), it was a little drizzly and supposed to rain during the night, thus washing off any snotty germs. :) then home for dinner, bath, books and bedtime before loading up in the car and heading to auburn (just south of seattle) for the weekend to celebrate my awesome cousin's beautiful wedding.

a little too small...

problem solved.

precisely.

i could live in this bulk section. alright. no. but, are you kidding me!?

we put on rain boots on and tried to find some puddles left over from the morning rain, but no luck.

the best.

day three: wedding day. breakfast out. last minute shopping to try and find a more weather appropriate wedding top for nolan (ended up with a colored polo to go under the sweater i brought) and a new brown belt for anthony as his broke the day before (doh). nap then wedding. it was beautiful. the rain stopped just in time for the ceremony and it was clear and lovely midway through the reception. so much love. so much happiness. so much family we haven't seen for while. all around great. nolan thoroughly enjoyed playing with his cousins and is still talking about them and played many a rousing game of cornhole (i know, terrible name) with his daddy and some other little boy wedding guests. a late night, but happiness the whole time (and a whole lot of snot. ew.).

nolan choreographed a special rhythmic gymnastics ribbon routine for the wedding couple. hehe. and as a side note: isn't my hubby handsome? ;)

cornhole! the game got a little rough, but he loved it, except when he got pegged...twice...once in the head...poor buggy.

nolan's high toss.

raising the roof with uncle tyler. nolan doesn't realize just how lucky he is. uncle tyler doesn't dance for just anyone.

day four: breakfast out with the fam and then into the car to head home. the plan was for nolan to fall asleep for his nap as we ventured the 2.5 hours south back to grandma's. that didn't so much happen. he fell asleep with about an hour left in the trip. not ideal, but it worked. he was a little upset when we woke him up to get out and explore mt. tabor, but he managed. ps. mt. tabor is incredible (sorry...all the pics were on my mom's camera). how did i not spend more time there when i lived in portland? we learned that it is a volcanic cinder cone! pretty cool. with a stop for gas, another to run around a little at a rest area (that anthony could barely believe was a rest area because it was so lovely) and our trip to mt. tabor, it took us about six hours to make the 2.5 hour trip south. ha. thankfully we had leftovers awaiting our arrival home.

picking daisies and running around at the rest area. i had put one in my hair. nolan wanted his in his hair too.

day five: oregon zoo! up early, 4.5 hours at the zoo, a drive down to nw portland for a delicious lunch at henry's (and a little nostalgia, as i used to work there) and a trip home with a very small amount of very non-l.a. traffic. :) nolan skipped his nap, fell asleep at 4:00pm (on the drive home) and was pretty much out for the night. it was quite a day. this is also the day that my cold really ramped up with one of the worst sore throats i've ever had. boo.

by far one of nolan's favorite parts of the zoo. they have a whole "farm" set up with stuff to play on and animals to pet. super cool.

"mooooooo" - she wanted to give me a kissy.

they even have a little veggie garden!

penguins!

the first "how do you measure up?" picture of many throughout our zoo adventure.

if you find yourself within inches of a grizzly bear,  act big. 

the kid loves popcorn. i just pretend (for my sake) that it is made with real butter. oy.

...and compared to monkeys...

family jam session in the serengeti

apparently this is how a python sees us...and decides whether or not we are going to be lunch.  i guess my mom and i have some cold noses. haha.

checking out the cheetah...that came right up to the window shortly after this pic. sadly, the camera wasn't ready. it was really cool.

baby lion!

nolan refused the mommy, daddy, toddler family picture with us all on our respective lions (boo), but he accepted a piggy back from the baby lion.

i. love. this. picture.

he loved the giraffes.

was a little unsure of the sea lions. they were BIG.

i think if nolan could describe his idea of heaven, this would be it. 

so many to choose from.

final "measure up" of the day. he looks so big to me in this pic.

on our way out after our epic zoo adventure. 

day six: rest and catch up day. lazy morning of staying in jammies and playing with trains and a trip back to the big park to slide, fly a kite and watch baseball after nap. low-key and much needed.

"choo choo"

grandma horsey.

helping water gma's flowers.

he spent a good chunk of the day like this. watching pictures go by on the screen saver. "mo baby nonan, beee" ("more baby nolan, please").

getting the kite all rigged up. and then my camera went crazy and stopped working for much of the remainder of the AWESOME kite flying. bah!

"wa mo baybow gayme, beeee" ("watch more baseball game, please") - he is rather polite these days, when he isn't chucking something at your face or flinging himself around to get out of blowing his nose or flossing/brushing his teeth. 

day seven: anthony's last day. :( not up nearly as early as planned, but enjoyed the rest. breakfast and off to jamison square park/fountain in nw portland. how it didn't dawn on us that our little boy who is currently terrified of swimming pools would be nearly equally terrified of a wading fountain, i'm not sure...but it didn't. we played AROUND the water for 45 minutes or so, kicked the ball and soaked up some sun on a beautiful day then yummy lunch at hotlips pizza (gluten free pizza crust. i love you, portland). caught the streetcar and headed downtown for a little shopping. replacement sunglasses for both anthony and i (yay! no more wrinkle-causing squinting or eye damage! ha) and then rode max AND the streetcar back to our car. we tried to re-create our zoo trip no nap luck, with no luck. he passed out on my shoulder as we were waiting for the streetcar, but woke up as we loaded him into the car and stayed up the rest of the evening...with some seriously CRAZY energy. not terribly destructive as normally happens when he is overtired, just really funny and totally delirious. leftovers once again before grandma headed off to drop daddy off at the airport. :(

keeping his distance.

pretty sure he made roughly $1 worth of wishes in pennies, nickels and dimes. 

rubbing noses with the seals by the pioneer courthouse. i have pictures of me as a babe at these same statues. memories...

coolest scooters ever. you sit on them and wiggle the steering wheel and off you go! they even hold up to 250# on flat surfaces. pretty fun!

grandma and i even got in on the fun! (me not pictured...different camera. boo.)

one final "bye bye/goodnight" kissy sent via text to daddy after he left for the airport.

well, that's the fun so far...

nolan and i are starting to feel better and i'm super excited about the upcoming weeks of playing with friends, going to the children's museum, a farm and a forth of july celebration!

may's daily two things i love

back in mid-may, nolan and i were having a rough time. we seemed to be working against one another instead of as a team. we were both losing our minds.

luckily, the universe seems to speak to me through facebook. haha. one of the many, many pages that i "like" posted this article from the blog "finding joy" and it resonated with me. in the article, the author suggests looking for the good in your child first, before finding their faults. and to become better at doing this, she challenges the reader to each day pick out two things that you love about your child and write them down. here is my list for the rest of may. i'm going to try doing this everyday, so stay tuned for june's list in a month! :)


5.18
1) watching him shovel dirt and plant seeds with me
2) when we walk by someone and he says, "hi" in his sweet little toddler voice without any prompting to do so. :) 

5.19
1) hearing him talk about our extended family all the time. asking if each one of them is eating, peeing, coming to the beach, sliding...everything. :)
2)  when he eats like a champ and then when he is done, he hands me everything that is within reach on the table and says, "all done _____" for each item. (i like this less when it is a glass plate that falls on the ground and breaks but it is still cute).

doh

5.20 - today was a really hard day. nearly lost my mind in the end. am questioning my mothering skills and patience level.  working on meditating more.
1) his love of flowers
2) watching him eat an apple that isn't cut up.

5.21
1) his love of music
2) his sweet dance moves 

so much dancin', it's all a blur. :)

5.22
1) when he recites words and partial sentences as i read to him (like filling in the blanks style).
2) when he eats cabbage, onions, lettuce, homemade dressing, garlic, food with LOTS of flavor (gorgonzola, anyone?), peas, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, snacks of celery, pumpkin seeds and almonds, nearly anything that i make for dinner...oh...and gnaws on chicken bones. not the typical toddler. :)

5.23
1) when he shares his toys without a fuss at moms' group..whew.
2) hearing him counting to himself as he plays with his toys.

5.24
1) when he lays down all on his own on his ducky pillow to have his diaper changed...no fuss.
2) when he drinks his entire water bottle full of water in a day! (it's the little things...haha)

5.25
1) when his hat blows off in the wind and he says, "uh oh, hat," picks it up and puts it back on.
2) watching him interact with littles his own age...running around the park, going down slides together, offering toys, holding hands. so freaking cute.

5.26
1) when he starts repeatedly saying something that completely cracks him up and i have no idea what he is saying. he just keeps saying it, laughing, saying it, laughing...saying it...laughing...
2) when he sits and flips through a book all on his own and "reads" the pages aloud.


5.27 - today was a good day. there are so many things, it is hard to pick just two. lovely.
1) when he is a quiet, attentive little boy in church. i was actually able to listen and remember what was being read, sang and said today (for the most part)! amazing. especially amazing after us boycotting going for a month because one sunday morning way back in april, he produced one of his infamous screams, resulting in a pissed off mama and us leaving before the homily.
2) how he has this ability to "interrupt" our fellow diner-outers with his smiles, dancing and generally funny antics...and how much joy they (well, at least most of them) seem to get out of it as well. always making friends. :)


5.28
1) how observant he is.
2) his love of ladies...from babies to grandmas. loves. them.

5.29
1) how hard he tries to mimic what we say. this morning, it was, "happy birthday, grandma!"
2) when he stops playing to come and give me an unsolicited kissy. the. best. 

5.30 
1) when he says things that i say (that i don't realize i say frequently) and uses the same tone/tempo/whatever that i do. example: he was climbing into his car seat the other day and said, "watch head" in this sing songy little voice. :)
2) when he says, "lello uuuu" (clearly, yellow car) and i say, "sorry, buddy. remember we lost your yellow car." and he follows it with "bye bye, lello uuuu". (uuu...isn't really the best description of the noise for the word car. sometimes (rarely) he'll say car, but mostly it is just the sound he makes when he is playing with cars...)


5.31 - rough day. biggest meltdown ever, induced by skipped nap and face intentionally slammed into floor. ugh. somehow i kept it together.

so very tired...right before the beginning of the end. he was saying, "night night. eyes (as in, close eyes). night night".

1) seeing how proud of himself he gets when he creates something with play dough or draws something on his easel. :)
2) when he puts a "phone" (anthony's vw car key) up to his ear and has a conversation. it starts with a very clear, "hello?" and then "uh...uh huh...daddy" and then a general listing of everything he can see or think of. ball, apple, banana, beans, etc. and it often includes pacing. hysterical.


this has really helped me in the last couple of weeks. sure, i've still lost my patience and felt like throwing things against the floor or screaming. :) whoops. i'm working on it. i'm working on it. but sitting at the computer each night, thinking back over the day and no matter how rough of a day it had been, finding two things about him in the day that made me smile...things that i love, it brings me back to balance. here's hoping that with a little more practice, i'll be able to eliminate the lost patience and always focus on the good.