Happy Summer!

I'm currently being outsmarted by my video camera and my computer.  For some reason my computer won't recognize that I've plugged the camera into the USB and then I told another program to run a process that will take 15 minutes and I don't see a cancel button anywhere.  So, here I sit, waiting for everything to finish so I can reboot -- the great panacea of computer repair.  And pretty much the extent of my technical expertise.  If that doesn't work, I have a very useful husband.

Today was the first day of summer and probably the nicest day we had all year.  The boys and I spent most of the morning playing outside.  I got lots of great video of them playing together, which was why I plugged the uncooperative video camera into the computer, which my husband just fixed.  Apparently, I have to hit some button on the video camera and now things are importing.  However, it looks like we haven't exported video off the camera since before Halloween 2010 so we have two hours worth of exporting to accomplish.  I'll have to share the videos at a later date.  But, I'll give you some pretty pictures of flowers instead.

My garden is coming along nicely.  I noticed tonight that I had several tomatoes (one was even the size of a golf ball) on one of my plants.  I only planted tomatoes and pumpkins/squash this year.  It's what I use and can fit in my space and they usually grow well. 

The upper flower bed I usually just let run riot.  I do need to get in there with the weed whacker and trim the path between the tiers.  Our garage door has been broken the past couple weeks and we've been unable to get the door open and hauling the weed eater through the house doesn't appeal to me.  The new garage door goes in tomorrow and we're having a party at our house on Saturday, so the weeds are going soon.

I don't want to jinx myself but we started sleep training with Thor last night and it is going better than expected.  Hopefully, it will continue along swimmingly.  I am still moving him into the bassinet in our room when we go to bed, but that's more for my sake than for his.  I'm not ready for my baby to sleep in his own room yet!  Yesterday was his 5-month birthday.  He's also rolling now from his back to stomach, so he can roll across the room if the mood struck him.  Soon he'll be crawling.  Where did my baby go? 

Sig is constantly thwarting any attempt we do to child-proof our house.  Last week, he removed the handle cover from the front door, undid the dead bolt and opened the front door.   I caught him on the front step.  I ordered a new lock for the front door which should be Sig-proof.  Mike installed it tonight.  Now we get to see what he figures out next.  It is a greater challenge to outsmart a toddler than I thought it would be.

Portland and the worst car ride EVER!

Yesterday, we went to Portland for the afternoon.  I had gotten up and went and got my hair cut and colored and when I got back home we loaded up the car and headed out.  Sig, for whatever reason, had woken up at 4 a.m. in the morning and Thor had uncharacteristically wanted to nurse at 1 a.m., so my sleep had been very disturbed.  But on the way down south they both slept beautifully in the car.

 

We arrived at Dumps, Portland's premier dumpling restaurant, owned and operated by my awesome brother at around 2 p.m.  Mike's friend Marshall met us there and we chowed down on dumplings.  While eating lunch, I could feel the inkling of a headache starting.  I hoped that eating and drinking would take care of it since I didn't have any pain reliever with me.  I normally carry a travel bottle of pills with me, but since Sig loves to go through the diaper bag and "child-proof" doesn't mean a thing to Sig, I'd taken my bottle out.

 Sig and Uncle Ryan

 Thor and Marshall

After lunch, we headed downtown so Mike could go to the Apple store to buy a new laptop.  We parked near Nordstrom so I went inside to use the ladies lounge to change and nurse Thor.  Sig and Mike went on to the Apple store.  After I was done with Thor, we went shoe shopping.  I always find the exact pair of shoes I've been searching for at Portland's downtown Nordstrom.  I got my favorite pair of boots there -- my Cole Haan black boots that I got in the "salon" (i.e. expensive) shoe section.  They have been worth every penny and gift card I applied to their purchase.  I've been searching for a brown slide sandal that is casual, yet refined.  All I've been able to find are clunky, heavy, cave-person type foot wear or sandals with jewels stuck all over them.  But, once again, downtown Nordstrom came to my rescue.  I swear that heavenly light and music came down from above as I picked up the sandal.  It was my size and perfect in every way.  I left Nordstrom happy, but with an even stronger headache.

After killing some time in Pioneer Courthouse Square we headed back to the eastside for dinner with Mike's extended family to celebrate his cousins' graduations from college and high school.  This would also be the first time Mike's grandparents would get to meet Thor.  During this ten minute car ride, Sig had a diaper blow out.  I did pack several extra sets of clothes for the boys, so we stripped Sig in the parking lot and got him and the car seat cleaned up as well as we could with only baby wipes.  Also, I realized that I'm now having a full blown migraine.  I'm nauseous, my pain is coming in waves, and all I really want to do is lay down.  I nibbled on the sandwich I ordered, but I'm so sick that I can barely choke down anything.  It's finally time to leave.  We loaded up the car and then the fun began.

   Us with the graduates

 Thor meeting his great-grandpa for the first time.

 Thor and great-grandma

 Thor with Aunt Liz and graduate Brittany

First, it's 7 p.m.  You'd think that rush would be over, but we had to sit in extremely slow moving traffic all they way to the Oregon border.  Thor decided that he did not want to be in his car seat and screams and cries.  Not wanting to be shouted out by his younger brother, Sig joined in the cacophony with ear splitting shrieks.  Thor's cries, though painful, aren't bothering me as much as Sig's shrieking.  We stop at the first rest stop since the restaurant had no place to nurse Thor except the unisex bathroom.  I'm physically drained, I still have a splitting headache, nausea, and the whole migrainey works.  Mike got me a bottle of water while I nursed Thor in an attempt to calm him down and get him to go to sleep.  We loaded everyone back up and got back on the freeway.

Thor's cries are now worse.  Sig shrieks even more.  All the toys I've brought end up out of reach somewhere on the backseat floor.  What does it matter, they weren't working anyway.  I'm trying to pinpoint the causes of my migraine.  I've come up with broken sleep patterns, travel, warmer than normal day, and that I'm probably dehydrated.  We decided to stop at the Castle Rock exit to try to calm down Thor.  As we neared the exit, I rub my eyes and a contact falls out.  The other contact was filthy so I decided to take it out too.  I don't have any contact solution with me.  Now I'm sick and blind.  We pulled into a parking lot and Mike changes Thor's sweaty clothes.  Thor stopped crying as soon as he is out of his car seat.  I called my mom in Chehalis.  We're thirty minutes away.  I let her know that I'm sick and we'll be there soon.

We load up again.  Again Thor begins screaming as soon as we're underway.  I've given Sig my iPhone and that keeps him entertained enough to stop shrieking.  About ten minutes from home, I begin to laugh.  Mike looks at me liked I'd lost my mind.  Maybe I had, but then he began to laugh too.  We were are car full of shrieking, crying, and laughing people.  We get to Chehalis and I ran into the house.  My mom had a glass of water and ibuprofen waiting for me.  I'm immediately sick.  I laid down on the sofa with an ice pack on my head and a blanket over the rest of me.  I started feeling better.  I take the ibuprofen because I'm pretty sure it will stay down now.  The kids are happy to be out of the car.  My mom reconstituted my shriveled up contact lenses.

A while later, Mike asked when I'll feel like going the next thirty miles to our house.   Never crossed my mind.  Getting back in the car is way down on my list of things I want to do.  We decided that Thor and I will stay the night in Chehalis and Mike will come back in the morning and get us.  I climbed upstairs with Thor to see what my old room has to offer me.   I found that I left enough behind that I could easily move back in.  I discovered that the only thing I didn't have was a hair brush.  I put Thor in the bassinet and I crawl into bed.  I watched Mike and Sig's progress home on my iPhone.  I couldn't fall asleep until I knew they were home safe.

Even though I woke up a couple times in the night with Katy Perry songs stuck in my head, I could tell the headache was letting up.  I felt pretty darn good when I got up in the morning.  Moral of this story is that I will now always make sure to repack my travel pain relievers and a bottle of contact solution when I have plans to leave the house for more than four hours.  And maybe some ear plugs too.

Adventures in Cake Baking

Tomorrow's my mother's birthday. I decided to get her cake made today. Sig had plowed through his "pea-boo" and jelly sandwich and I thought he might like to help me get the cake mixed up before his nap. I put Thor in the Johnny-jump-up and we got baking.

My mom requested coconut but I couldn't find a recipe to suit my fancy. I finally selected a Martha Stewart recipe, but it called for 6 inch or 8 inch cake pans. Unlike Martha, I don't have infinite space or wealth to have a wide variety of cake pans. So, out of the cabinets came my 9 inch cake pans.

I set up the step stool so Sig could see the countertop and started sifting together the dry ingredients. Now, about Thor. Thor only poops every two or three days and when he does, it's a doozy. Today was one of his pooping days. He'd already pooped this morning, but as I was mixing up the ingredients I heard a low, loud rumble coming from the Johnny-jump-up. I quickly finished the dry ingredients and went to get the butter creaming before I changed Thor. While I was cutting the butter, I heard a splash and "uh oh." I turned and found that Sig had taken a bottle of bubble solution and spilled it all over the floor. Again a loud rumbling echoed from the Johnny-jump-up.

I grabbed Sig and hauled him back to his room because I needed my little chaos maker out of the way. I came back to the kitchen and sopped up the bubble solution. I then got Thor changed. Only a little poo had escaped the diaper confines. Fortunately, he'd been wearing a goldenrod colored onesie so I don't think a stain will show. I brought Sig back to the kitchen and gave him a bowl with some "ingredients" for him to mix up. By the time I finished with the cake batter Sig had scattered sugar all over the floor and Charlie was busy licking it up.

My cakes turned out very nice. Now to get them frosted.