The weather has been nice lately (with the exception of the thunderstorms the last few days) and we have been outside a ton! Often our neighbor, Lyla, comes by with her dad to play in the yard with "Baby Sam." They are just so sweet to watch. Sam used to just be oblivious to her and Lyla would try to "mother" him. Now Sam actually plays with her and share his things, like his piles of dirt. On this particular day, Sam was putting handfuls of mud on the porch, in his hair, up his nose, in his mouth, on Lyla's shirt and every once in a while he would turn and hand her a mud pile. They were a mess! After a while I guess Sam got tired because he crawled up on the porch and laid down for a little rest. Lyla came up and laid down next to him. They laid face to face for about 5 minutes just watching each other...young love!
Last weekend, we went on a car camping adventure. Scott and Jenn were going to come with us, but their cat Indy got attacked by a large animal, so they were at the vet (and Indy is recovering). We definitely had a fun time, but it would have been more fun if they were there too. Nothing too exciting to report about camping, so I'll leave you with some pictures. Oh wait, I did wake up in the morning when camping thinking that I had pink eye (a friend had it the week before). A day later, it wasn't really itching, just swollen and hurting. Brian reminded me that Sam walloped me in the eye in the tent before we went to sleep. Ohhhhh yeah...turns out it was just an eye injury inflicted by my child. All better now.
And in other news...our good friends Joe and Louisa are moving back to town!!! Yee haw!
Now the pictures...
Wow, it has been some time since I posted. Kara asked me the other day if this was her blog b/c I am no where to be found. Well, I'm back!
Big spring - Lacrosse has finally come to an end and the end of the school year is in sight. For those of you following this is my third year South Eugene HS and this year we made some noise. We went 8-8 overall and 6-6 league, and we made it into playoffs!. This team so so much fun, they worked really hard and we psyched to play the whole year.
When I got some down time from the team I believe Kara has done an amazing job of keeping you all up to date. I finished the fence my dad started with a trellis for hops. It will be awesome - I have 3 varieties growing that will climb to be 12 feet tall! In the garden our fava beans are flowering, planted strawberries this year that are all ready fruiting, and were waiting our our greens and onions to take off. The cold frame is coming in handy this year with letting us get a jump start on basil and tomatoes.
Tonight Kara went out to book group leaving Sam and I for some dad & son time. We brewed a beer, ate some pizza, played in the sand box and had a great time. By the end of night Sam was bathed and in bed and the third clone of Magic Hat #9 was made. Here are some backyard picts of the evening.
Last little thing to catch you al up to is at school my science class has joined forces with the class that I got camping with to develop a courtyard at school to an edible landscape and outdoor classroom. Here are some shots of that.
ps - Sam is learning to climb into the window! Ya HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The picture stinks but you get the idea- couch under the window = great fun!
Last weekend Brian and I participated in the Story Corps project. For those of you who have not heard of it, let me explain. I first heard of Story Corps because they play clips every Friday on Morning Edition on NPR. (Side note: We are such avid NRP listeners that when Sam was reading books in his room after he got up this morning, he kept pointing to his radio until I turned Morning Edition on for him...then he went about his business). But anyway, Story Corps is a huge oral history project that started with a "booth" in grand central station in NYC. What you do is go into this booth with someone you care about and "interview" him or her. The purpose is to honor and learn from each other by listening, as well as create an oral history of who we really are as Americans. The interviews are recorded and archived in the Library of Congress...awesome!
There are now more booths around the country and some mobile booths that travel around. That brings the story back to Bri and I. I heard that the mobile booth was coming to town and was SO excited. I have loved this project since I heard the first interview on NPR. I made my reservation the second that it opened up...which was a good thing because I have friends who didn't get a spot.
Last Saturday, we asked Silvia to come over and watch Sam for a bit. I gathered up all of my questions and we headed downtown to the airstream trailer. We were met by our facilitator, Karl. He showed us to the back of the airstream and got us all set up. We sat in booth seats across the table from each other, as Karl adjusted the big microphones in front of us. He gave us the low down, did a sound check, and we were on our own for 40 minutes. Karl stayed in the booth in case anything (sound, microphones, etc.) needed adjusting.
Basically, Brian just talked and I listened, responded, and asked a bunch of questions. We talked about how we met, our relationship, parenting, family, everything. It was so COOL...we laughed, we cried and remembered where we came from, what's important to us and why we love each other so much. I can't even describe what an amazing experience it was. We both wished that we had signed for another session, so that Brian could have interviewed me too. We received a CD recording of the interview that we can share with Sam and future generations, which I think is a really special thing to have.
Afterward, we talked with Karl a little bit and he described what an amazing experience his job of traveling with the Story Corps booth has been to him. He said that he left home to take this job for selfish reasons and spent the last year not thinking of himself at all. He has gained so much perspective on his own life from hearing other people's stories all day long. He told us that he related to our story because he is at a crossroad in his life deciding between a job and going home to his girlfriend that he met when he was 13 (just like us).
I don't feel that I am describing this experience adequately, but I highly recommend signing up if the booth comes to a town near you. Brian and I both left just saying, "wow!"
What a fantastic Mother's Day weekend I had! Yesterday, Brian got up and took Sam to Scott and Jenn's house to watch lacrosse games. Now I know this sounds incredibly uninteresting, but I got to vacuum and clean the bathrooms while they were gone. Then I rode my bike to a little farmer's market by our house, moved firewood while Brian gardened, then we played with Sam when he woke up from his nap, and finally Steve and Sarah came over for a little dinner. It's been ages since we've seen them (or anyone for that matter) and it was so nice to catch up.
Today I stayed in bed and read a book while Brian got up with Sam. It figures that the day that I actually don't feel guilty sleeping in, I woke up at 6. Sam on the other hand slept until almost 8. No matter though...it was still lovely to lounge. Brian and Sam took a walk while I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, there was a latte, muffin and flowers on the table. Omelettes, potatoes, sausage (fake), and fruit were all being prepared. After a delicious breakfast, we all went on a bike ride to the park. The rest of the day was filled with, reading the paper, playing, gardening...such a nice way to spend the day. Wanted to let you know about this radio essay, by Scott Simon, that I heard on NPR. Take a listen...it's sweet.
I have been meaning to catch up for quite a while, but life gets in the way sometimes. One thing I wanted to mention was we had a lovely visit with Brian's parents a couple of weekends ago. As always, they work hard when they are here and Brian and his dad built us a new fence in the back yard!! I have such a crush my new fence. :-) It makes such difference back there. They also moved the woodshed and took out this old rabbit pen, so that helps too. Look!
That's all for now!
I just want to wish all the mom's out there a Happy Mother's Day, especially my mom, Brian's mom, my step-mom, my sister, my sister-in-law, my step sisters-in-law, our grandmothers and all of my mama friends who provide me support and reassure me that everything is normal (except for the extreme climbing behavior of my child...he he). I love all of you and have such a respect and appreciation for what you have all done and what you do each day. Since becoming a mom I have realized that we are all seriously awesome!! There is no other way to say it. Enjoy your day!
This was written on Wednesday. 4/29/09 (I could not post because YouTube wasn't working):
So, today I am having lunch with my friends and I ask, "do you think that Sam will ever talk and walk?" They, of course, say all the right, reassuring things. I come home today and Sam and I play in the front yard. At one point, Sam is walking towards the house and lets go of my hand. He walks half way up the front walk until he gets to the porch. I'm pretty excited because he doesn't really take steps or even stand on his own. Well, I guess he decides this is pretty cool because he proceeds to walk all over the front yard for the next hour!! He even turns around by himself and walks the other way. What a nut...he's totally been hiding this from us. The only bummer is that Brian wasn't home. I called him because I was starting to look like an idiot clapping and screaming in the front yard by myself. Passers by gave me funny looks. Anyway, here's a VERY brief video that I took. It's all I could get:
On Wednesday night, Jessica and I went to the itty bitty consignment sale. We were able to get passes to shop before the general public...me because I am a "new" parent (with a kid under 18 months) and Jessica because she is expecting (we didn't tell them it wasn't her first). It was a good thing that we got to go early because I don't think there was much left after that night. I went looking for an umbrella stroller. which I found for 2 dollars. I came home with so much more though. Two of my favorite finds were this bead maze box and this telephone that I had when I was little. On the tag it was labeled as an "antique"...ha!!
We also found some cute stuff for Sam's new cousin, Dylan...so fun shopping for babies. This car arrived in the mail this week from the Easter Bunny...I didn't know that the Easter bunny sent things in the mail, but it's true...
The car has a handle so that we can push Sam around it it. It has been a HUGE it with the neighborhood kids, who all want to ride in "baby Sam's" car. It's so cute.
OK...trying to blog and play with Sam isn't going to well, so I'm off!
