I thought traveling without a child was supposed to be easier!

I can thank my sister for actually amassing enough credits to graduate for my first solo trip. That means without Jeremy and without Carolyn. I love having Carolyn with me, but not the plane rides it takes to get places. The child does not sleep in public. She stopped sleeping at church at 4 months. She rarely falls asleep in cars. And planes, forget about it.

I was looking forward to a nice, leisurely flight down to SLC. I even packed a book in my carry-on to read on the plane.

We left with a little more than two hours until flight time. For those not in the area, that would have put me at the airport with an hour before my flight if we hit rush hour traffic. We didn't hit rush hour traffic. We hit a freaking accident that stopped all eastbound traffic on the freeway. Once we saw ambulances heading toward the site, we realized this was not going to clear up anytime soon. We were close to a light rail station, so Jeremy pulled off the freeway to put me on the MAX. No big deal. I should still get to the airport with 30-40 minutes to spare.

I don't want to bore all you outside Portland with the details, but apparently there is construction on the steel bridge going over the river that has thrown all the light rail lines out of whack. This means instead of getting directly on the Airport line, I would need to board one rail to go to the edge of downtown, hustle my pregnant booty off that rail to a shuttle to take me to the Rose Quarter where I then wait for the line that will take me to the airport. All of this changing meant I watched my buffer zone whittle away. At the Rose Quarter I had to wait 12 minutes before the airport line showed. I know 12 minutes doesn't seem like much, but when it looks like you might miss a flight, it is a long stinking time.

My flight was scheduled to leave at 5:50. The airport line showed up at 5:10. I was told it takes 30 minutes to get to PDX. Argh! We actually arrived at 5:37. Have you ever seen a 5-month pregnant woman booking it through the airport carrying her suitcase?! Well, it isn't very graceful. I managed to be at my gate at 5:47. Out of breath, with my calves cramping (I think the last time I ran was 5 weeks pregnant before the puking took over my body), I called Jeremy to tell him I actually made my flight. Last person on the flight. Was seated for two minutes max before the flight departed.

I will admit that I did pull my book out once I caught my breath twenty minutes into the flight.

Hallelujah for not trying to carry a two-year old through this ordeal! I optimistically believe the rest of this trip will go smoother.

Solo Prayer

Carolyn insisted on saying our family prayer without any assistance. This isn't verbatim, but it's pretty close:

Dear Father,

Thank you for dolly, water, blanket, pillow, Chan Chan, Papa, Baby, Aidan, Ethan, water, dolly. Jesus, Amen.

Saddle Mountain

Jeremy had the great idea to go camping last weekend. He also worked it out so I could plan and pack the whole thing while he just showed up to go after work on Friday. How convenient! We invited my brother's family and had a great time.


The kids were impatient for dinner and the trail mix ended up spilled on the ground. That didn't stop them from snacking. I believe the m&ms were eaten in about 5 seconds flat.


Once dinner was ready, it was delicious. This was my very first dutch oven cooking experience, unless you count girls camp when I was 11. It turned out great!


Ethan, after enjoying some s'mores.


This is Carolyn pretending to sleep in her sleeping bag. Trust me, it was not this easy to get her to bed. She thought the tent was the coolest thing ever and couldn't stop exploring. Jeremy ended up sleeping on the ground in Carolyn's assigned spot, while she joined me on the air mattress. And I ended up on the very edge of the mattress by the time the night was over. She definitely needs a crib to keep her confined while she sleeps!

Daddy-Daughter Bonding Time

Announcing...

Success!

Photographic evidence that Carolyn sleeps without her pacifier now. It was much easier than expected, but Jeremy and I were too traumatized to try again after the disaster in December.

Oregon Zoo

Beginning of the trip:

End of the trip:

Today's high was supposed to be 77. Well, we left the zoo when it hit 90. Carolyn is still recovering, but she at least she LOVED the elephants.

We are trying again...

Back in December we posted about Carolyn's ability to scream for almost 6 straight hours when we tried to put her down without her pacifier. Jeremy was the one who gave in that time and I admit to being so tired I didn't put up much of a fight. So for the last seven months, one of us has gotten up to give Carolyn dropped binkies at least once a night. Jeremy carried the bulk of this responsibility when I became pregnant and getting out of bed to move was enough to make me run for the bathroom. We're passed that stage, but I still let him get up. Saturday night he was up 3 times (I only heard one. I must have been tired). He finally decided he would withstand her crying and we would start to wean her from her pacifier at sleep times.

Sunday morning, she colored a box and we put all the binkies away so she could give them to the new baby. And she was fine. Until nap time. Then she was the saddest little girl I have ever seen. We didn't have a tantrum, just quiet crying while she asked for a binky. I didn't think she'd actually fall asleep. She never has before without a pacifier in her mouth. But she did. We got 20 glorious minutes. She also did a great job for her first night. It was not easy and I imagined trying to get through the day without any sleep at all. But I was able to sleep from 11-4:45. Not ideal, but it will get better. We are very proud of her. And Jeremy has promised not to give in.

Who doesn't want to look like a Disney boy?

Carolyn has what I call "Disney boy hair." It is the oh-so-flattering hairstyle where you comb your hair from the back of your head forward. I'm sure you've seen it. It's quite common these days, but usually not on little girls.

Exhibit 1: Some dude from a Disney show. He was also in Adam Sandler's Big Daddy, but his hair didn't look like this then.



Exhibit 2: Some dude from Hannah Montana. You can ignore the girl. Her hair looks fine.
As you can see, Carolyn rocked this hairstyle. There wasn't much we can do about it. Her hair just tended to grow this way. A comb was pretty useless, gel didn't have much hold. Pigtails worked great, but she tried to pull them out all day.


But last week it finally became time to give those bangs a trim. It's amazing it took two years of hair growth for her bangs to finally get in her eyes, but this was really past due.


Here's her hair before:


and after:


It surprised me how making her bangs a little shorter helped the rest of her hair part in a style I appreciate a lot more. We'll be trimming them again shortly because they grow fast and seem to be longer than this picture shows. But I am willing to give her a trim every few weeks just to keep the hair out of her face and make her look a little less like Zac Efron.

Family Photos

I am pretty sure I am done with picture studios. Carolyn's 18-month photos turned out so well without all the hassle of the mall, so we used my friend again for her 2-year photos. I just think Megan's better than the studios. Plus, Carolyn knows her and is willing (periodically) to let me step back and cheese for the camera by herself. How nice!





We even let Megan take some family pictures. It is not as easy to get cute pictures of the parents as it is to get cute pictures of just Carolyn.




And here, this does not look like I am only 17 weeks along, but, man, my daughter sure looks cute!

Popcorn Popping

For those who requested it (Uncle Joseph) and any one else too, here is a video of Carolyn singing to Popcorn Popping. It's not the best quality or her most enthusiastic performance, but it's so hard to get anything on tape anymore because she just cheeses at the camera or runs willy nilly through the house.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

June is our month for celebrations. Unfortunately for Jeremy, his birthday comes just barely after Father's Day and our anniversary, so usually I am all out of ideas for doing nice things for him. But this year, due to pregnancy sickness, Jeremy did everything for our anniversary/Carolyn's birthday/Father's Day weekend. So today, he gets a home-cooked meal. One that doesn't come from the freezer. One I won't ask him to cook while I go upstairs and lie down. Heck, I'll even throw in his favorite dessert. If he's really lucky, I won't even ask him to do the dishes afterward. Jeremy's willingness to accept this as something out of the ordinary attests to the wonderful man I married. So today, I salute you, Jeremy Horner. You're the best!

Helvetia Half-Marathon

I've had my eye on this half-marathon for awhile now. I saw it last year and wanted to try it once I started running. So starting in February, I began training for it. But I didn't run.

My brother Gordon ran it.


My brother Joseph and his wife, Laura, ran it. They even flew in from Phoenix to do it.

The marathon took place Saturday, on Jeremy's and my sixth wedding anniversary. Jeremy was flying out the next day for work (also Carolyn's second birthday and Father's Day). So we packed in quite a bit of celebration on one day. But those aren't the reasons I didn't run. Nope. Something bigger: we're expecting our second baby to join us sometime in December. We're totally excited about it. I'm excited that I haven't been as sick as I was with Carolyn. It's still been rough (hence the no blogging, no cleaning, and no cooking), but it looks like the puking is mostly over.

Back to the marathon, I think it is out of reach to run it next year because I won't be able to take the newborn to the gym for my workouts. But there is a 10K and I really want to at least do that. So check back in 2009.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

I'm not quite sure how this

turned into this


but it happened.

Our little baby is two years old. I should probably stop calling her a baby now. For a little snapshot of Carolyn: her favorite color is blue, she loves pizza, she loves to give hugs and kisses to anyone, she wrestles her cousins and then comes home and piles on her bracelets and necklaces, and she can watch Cars twice a day and still love it. She is such a joy to have in our family.

Last of the vacation pictures

Tillamook cheese factory.

On our way to the Cape Meares lighthouse. Supposedly there were birds somewhere on the other end of that telescope.

The birds were Carolyn's favorite part of the trip. We walked a mile two mornings in a row so she could see them swoop off a giant rock. I don't think I have ever seen her so gleeful over anything. And she asked about them whenever we weren't at the beach. She loves to talk about them. "Birds fly. Birds eat. Birds bath."