Mmm mmm good

Doesn't this look like a something chocolaty and yummy that Blake is biting into?

I had to do a double take when I saw him rip into this sucker. That's no brownie. It's a giant chunk of raisins. Ewww.

I feel like such a quitter

Before we get to why I feel like a quitter, let's have some happy memories:


My brother's house has a small putting green out back. Blake managed to get a golf ball in the hole and immediately went Happy Gilmore all over the green. "Gee-up! Gee-up!"


You see how Carolyn is so talented in pulling the flag out to empty the hole? These skills were put to good use when she told Jeremy she had killed a "beetle." She pulled up a flag, saw a bug, and proceeded to bash the living daylights out of it with the flag. Good thing. It was a scorpion. Jeremy really wants us to live close to grandparents, which sounds lovely and all, but if it involves living somewhere with scorpions, I'll pass.


Kelly and Mike came to visit for the weekend. They couldn't come without the newest member of their family, Simon-the-Siamese-Slanket. I must say it's cozier than I thought.


Carolyn loved it.



Do you see this cute boy? The one in the underwear?
He has been begging for at least a month to go on the potty. He wants underwear so badly. We've been trapped in the house since last Tuesday due to sickness. Once I thought Blake was better, Carolyn came down with it too. I figured if I was glued to the house, I would start potty training Blake. He was so excited. This picture is him ta-daing for Carolyn.

This is why I am a quitter. I don't think I can do this right now. Carolyn was so easy. Unbelievably so. I knew Blake would be harder, but I don't think I thought through everything going on right now. We started on Day 9 of not leaving the house, so my sanity was already at its breaking point. Blake has probably had one success in the last 24 hours, which doesn't sound that bad, except it's a lot of laundry, and I started to feel extraordinarily claustrophobic in my home. Every time I thought of an errand, I realized I couldn't take Blake. I couldn't count on him to recognize what his body was telling him. He can sit on the toilet forever, not do anything, then let loose everywhere two minutes later. Carolyn has gotten sicker and needs to go to the doctor this afternoon. The thought of taking Blake to the doctor was daunting. If we continue potty training, he needs all new shirts because he really owns a plethora of onesies and not so many regular shirts. When would I dare to go to the store to buy clothes? And what of groceries? We've been on the low end since the sickness started because I hate taking sick kids to the store. It's awful.
Normally I would rely on Jeremy for some relief, but he is right in the middle of a really busy time at work. So I can't even wait until Saturday to go to Costco alone. Jeremy won't be home before Costco closes. This sounds awfully whiny, and it isn't supposed to. It's just why I am taking Carolyn and Blake to Costco with me and buying more diapers.

Let's face it. Blake is really young. He is just a month over two and if he hadn't shown so much interest, I wouldn't have wanted to potty train. He's ready, but I don't think his body is. I usually ascribe to the idea that once you start, you just keep going until it sticks. But for my own already fragile sanity, we will be waiting a few more months.

Merry Christmas (a bit late)

Oh Christmas in Arizona, how I love thee.

This is how Carolyn spent her Christmas day.

Our last night there, she told me, "I don't want to go back to Portland. It's boring."

You've had a birthday, shout hurray!

Look at my teeny, tiny Blake. This was way before we knew he had red hair. That has been my favorite surprise from this little guy. I never would have thought I would have a kid with red hair, but I love it.
























I also love Skype. I know I am about 5 years late to the party. It seems like Oprah's been loving Skype forever, but we've joined the club in the last six months. It's wonderful when Grandma is across the country and can still watch Blake open his presents from her. You can also see from all the fingerprints on my computer screen how much my kids love Skype.


















Here's my cute little Elmo boy with his Elmo cake. If Blake wears his Elmo jammies, in the morning, when I tell him it's time to get dressed, he responds with, "no, ELMO!" Now, he can wear Elmo without me feeling embarrassed to take him in public.























Now, Blake is two. He has a wide vocabulary that grows with each day. Carolyn finds great joy in getting him to repeat words and phrases, luckily she's not a bad influence yet. She still finds "watermelon!" to be the best joke.

His favorite food is chicken nuggets. He loves bubble baths.

Phrases we hear most often: Awwww, man! Ma, you silly! Is that funny, Mama?

Happy Birthday, little man. We love your smile and snuggles.

Blakers

This little boy makes me smile most of the day. The times I am not smiling are when he is trying to empty my knife block, or running around with chunks of turkey in his hands that he stole out of the fridge.

He's learning songs. It took me about two weeks of him yelling "Bee-bo! Bee-bo!" at me in the car before I realized he wanted to listen to Bingo. I curse that song now. Anyway, he's added a new one to his repertoire lately. The ABCs. You can hear it, but hardly see it because of the crappy video our camera takes.

It's snacktime!

That was Carolyn's pronouncement as we headed outside to play with the dusting of snow that constitutes Oregon's impending "blizzard" I've been hearing about for the last 5 days.



















Schools closed and we can now stay home with nothing to do. Just what every mother needs with a a toddler and a preschooler.

I have the Christmas music playing because who knows if we'll get anymore snow before then, and we will settle in for cookie baking.

Happy Halloween!! (just a little early)

Can you tell Blake isn't so sure about this?

Nothing could get him excited. Not even hugs from the very excited mom. Have I told you how long I've waited for him to wear this. I've wanted a little Max for a long time now.

He started to get into it when he found out people would just hand him candy.

She's worn this costume three times in the last week and she still loves it.

Here's the happy face I was looking for.

The cutest part, of which there is no picture, of course, is when we took the kids to Aunt Bean and Uncle Wayne's house for a quick hello. Blake stood at the front door, and when Bean opened the door, Blake held up his pumpkin bag and danced his way in with glee. All we've heard since we left the trunk-or-treat is "can-ee? can-ee? mo can-ee?"

Field trip

I took my children to a pumpkin patch today. The weather has been gorgeous. It's been clear and sunny for 10 days straight. The crisp air makes me miss Utah. I don't usually miss Utah because I really like Portland, but they do have really nice blue skies. I treasure those out here in the midst of gray, drizzly northwest Fall. This weather has been wonderful. The forecast says rain is coming, so we trekked outdoors on Carolyn's day off from preschool this week.

This little man is just the cutest. He had a great time on the slide going up and down all by himself.

We looked at roosters...

and picked pumpkins...

Carolyn is all ready to carve. I told her to wait until Jeremy can join us on Saturday. She thinks that is very far away. It might be, but after trying to feed the children solo all week, there is no way I am going to try to gut a pumpkin with just four little hands assisting. An extra set of adult hands will be much appreciated.

It's finally finished

This quilt has been in the making for 18 months. I've started and stopped a hundred different times. My original, and best, excuse was that Blake was only 4 months old and I was too crazy busy just trying to survive. But he got older and I never returned to it. The baby it was for is no longer a baby. I decided to buckle down anyway because I have a new project I want to get going, and I need to have a clear conscience. So here it is. Next step is figuring out what to do with it.

Blessed memory lapse

Carolyn: "Hey, wait a second. I wasn't naughty today! I forgot."

Carolyn, dear, please forget more often. Today was a wonderful day.

True Scots

We figured since Blake came to us with red hair, we should start dressing him like the Scotman he is.

Please, no pictures!

I'm ready for my closeup!

Is this how you pose for GQ?

We decided to let Carolyn in on it too although she is definitely not a ginger.

Thanks Grandma for all the fun souveniers!

MIA

I posted and posted while I was in Alaska and then disappeared. Not that many of you were wondering what happened, but I got back to town and hit the ground running getting all the tiny details looked after for my sister's wedding. That is very time consuming! But I only have one sister. When she walked into the reception, looked around, and I heard her say "I love it," that made it all worth it.


This picture was taken Friday. I waited this long because I didn't have even a second to take pictures and had to wait for my sister-in-law to forward me this one. We are back to regularly scheduled life and I had no idea my real life was so relaxing!

Blake

Against my better judgment, I let Blake have a sucker in the car while we ran errands. Of course, he made a mess with it. Sticky face, sticky hands. But when you combine the two you have lots and lots of self entertainment!

Cutie Austin

This is my newest nephew, Austin. He's adorable. He and his mom are visiting this week to spend some time together before my sister's wedding.

There are other people who have come to town with babies in tow for this event, and Carolyn is in heaven. She holds and rocks them all. She's also told me that it's time for her to get another sibling. Her preference changes weekly, but right now she's requesting a girl because "we don't have one of those babies around yet."

Portland to Coast

Jeremy participated in the Portland to Coast walk relay with some of his coworkers. We weren't going to head out to the beach to meet him at the end, so I took the children to his first leg in Scappoose. Carolyn was so excited for her daddy.



This picture is right after the hand off. That hot pink slap bracelet is his relay baton.
And his orange and white number is now hanging from Carolyn's wall. She is so proud of her dad.