Christmas Day

We got all bundled up to take a walk on Christmas day. Ezra reached all new levels of adorableness in this little blue marshmallow suit. I will be taking this snowsuit back with us to Portland. It would have been handy for the arctic blast we've been experiencing out west.

Here's the brave walking crew. I think it was around 0 degrees for our jaunt. We passed Ezra around, sharing the load. Something I miss when family is not around for sure. It has been sooo wonderful to have so many extra hands around to play with Ezra and give him love. He is having a ball playing with his auntie, uncle, gramma and grandpa.

We also had a major milestone on Christmas day: Bunsy crawled! Batton down the hatches, rearrange the furniture, he is mobile folks! He is so so so happy to be able to crawl. He has been watching Usiah scoot around for a long time, wishing he could do it. Here's a video I shot of his first crawl session.

Here's a little bonus video of Ezra and Usiah playing at Kate's house. Usiah wears his newest bear suit. This one is modeled after Balou, the bear in the Jungle Book. The hips made Usiah's balance a little off, but at least it's very warm!

I hope you all have a happy holiday!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Winter weather alert! Holy crapola it's just like the blizzard of '04 around here. We've gotten at least 6 inches of snow in the past two days! I know dear, sweet Minnesotan readers, that's nothing, but here it is a major catastrophe. There are no snow plows. I'm sure my high school had more snow plows than the entire metropolitan area!

So we spent the weekend marooned at Kate's house. Which was a lot of fun. Ezra and Usiah played hide and seek this morning for the first time and were very giggly about it. Ezra made some progress towards crawling, he can scoot on his belly on the smooth, tile or wood floor. When he reaches carpet or a rug, however, he quickly finds himself beached. BUT last night he was up on his knees and hands, in proper crawl position! He kinda scooted, wiggling his butt side to side. It's adorable. Surprise, surprise.

We spent the whole day on Saturday making holiday treats. Kate made some Spoon Cookies (that's the first time I've ever used a link in my blog!) and I made some Grasshopper Squares (second time!). The spoon cookies are supposedly best 3 days after they're made, so although they were tasty, you'll have to wait until Tuesday to hear if they are truly 'transcendent' as advertised. My squares however are amazing. So rich. In order to procure the needed creme de menthe liquor for the mint ganache I ventured out into the snow to a neighborhood bar and ordered a shot. Once the bartendress turned the corner I poured it into a jar in my purse. Check please! She looked at me like I was insane. I think it really made the difference to my squares. That and a crap ton of chocolate.

We watched some movies, including Repo Man which I highly recommend, and A Christmas Story which I'm sure you've all seen. I had never seen it all the way through. Very enjoyable.

Today we made our way home and are glad to be with our belongings again. I have a lot of knitting to do! Not to mention my multi talented house mates made a delicious wonton soup for dinner. They've got some family in town so it was a full house. Just warming up for a full house of my own family, that's coming this Wednesday. Supposedly Bunsy and I are flying to MN. I say supposedly only because the weather has been so unpredictable here that I don't know if we'll still be snowed in. I hope not, I do want to see the mother father sister brother. Although if we can't make it what do you all say to meeting in Hawaii in February to celebrate?

I hope you are staying warm where ever you are, and I hope that you enjoyed my links!

Photos of Us in Our New House

By the lovely bay window, peaking out at the swirling snow. Glad to be inside and nudey butt.

Watching the snow out the front window, with extreme photographer Megan going outside into the elements to capture this sweet shot.

Cuddling on the couch. We didn't leave the house not once today. Both of us show signs of cabin fever setting in (already).

A Photo Tour of Our New Room

Hard Wind

We have been hearing of this depression and are just now starting to feel the effects personally. Well, potentially personally. We still have a nice house, warm bed, and the smell of Christmas so really right now doesn't feel so affected. Just yet.

Today at the toy store where I work my boss informed me that come January I will no longer be on the schedule. I have only been working one day a week so it wasn't a huge paycheck but it did mean the difference of a negative versus a positive as far as income/outcome goes. A little store up the street from mine just posted a closing sale sign. In order to keep the toy store afloat she's cutting back, and this time it means me.

I have seen cities and towns change from small, local businesses to big, uniform corporate stores and I hope this isn't happening here. I know that times are tough for everyone right now, but I just wanted to urge you all to shop from your locally owned shops, groceries, and restaurants.

The big name stores may be a little bit cheaper, but it's worth that to keep the livelihood of a community.

I'll still be on call, and have already heard of one gal that's going on vacation so I'll fill in for her and things will work out. I'm sure they will, it's just a little spooky in the distance.

But little sleeping Ezra sure has been so cuddly today. And he took a bath with Usiah and was splashing wildly the whole time. Yesterday he played peek a boo for the first time. He was sitting under the table and when he sat straight up he couldn't see me and when he bent over he could so he would sit up and then down, smiling at me and giggling. He did it at least 20 times. It was adorable.

I am SO thankful for the time I get to spend with my son! Now's a great time for the glad game.

Old Saint Nick!

Ezra met Santa! Isn't this the cutest picture? This Santa was sooo beautiful. He came to the toystore where I work. The owner, my boss, is an awesome gal and brought Santa in for a toy drive for Toys for Tots. It was packed! I am so glad I didn't have to go to the mall and wait in line and buy some crap photo package. Although there was a line at my toystore. We waited in it for about 10 minutes and then I got a wave up from my co-worker and just plopped Ezra down on Santa. The perks are nice. I got an adorable sailor shirt for Tumpky too. And a little red piano!


This was the second picture I took, Ezra was deciding he wasn't so sure about this big, bearded fellow. Look at that real beard!


Here's a shot of Ezra and Usiah in the bath tub. They like taking baths together. If you look closely you can see Ezra's little teeth on the bottom! He has since gotten teeth on top too, they're about a quarter way down and there's totally an adorable little gap! He's got the unibrow of Frida and the gap of Madonna. Such a doll face.

There's an African American Santa who calls himself "Chocolate" Santa that we will be visiting soon! Maybe I'll put him in the sailor shirt...

Feliz Dia del Turkey

That's what the lady who takes care of Ezra some mornings told me. She is from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and speaks very limited English. Turkey is one of her words, as well as baby and sorry. Very important. She's wonderful with Ezra, he loves her and she loves him. She calls him Papi and is constantly telling him how handsome he is. It's good for me to keep my Spanish alive, even if it's only asking if he's made a poo poo (hizo caca?).

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went over to a friend's house where 11 odd folks convened, and ate from a bountiful spread. It was a potluck style dinner and fortunately all invited turned out to be excellent cooks. I made a wild rice stuffing and Kristine made a cauliflower bake. Although her dish smelled awful while steaming, the taste turned out well.
Here's some shots from our first Turkey Day as a little family.

To take our dishes over to the festivities we borrowed Ezra's stroller.
Kristine pushed the "Meals On Wheels"

Ezra wore his Chinese vest and was possibly the best dressed. Here he reclines with Kristine and Jason pre-dinner. P.S. Jason is our friend who invited us over, it's his house.

Another one of the men of the house (there are 3) this is Brye, the tallest of the household members. He cooked up some mean dinner rolls and still had time for Tumpky Wumpky.

I wore a necklace and Ezra was obsessed with it. I had plenty of reading material to distract myself from the hunger pains (they said we'd eat at 2, we didn't sit down til 4!).

My favorite shot! Ezra got his hands on this Uke and was thrashing! Doing the splits too, he is a true rock star. One shoe as he favors.



Look at the curve of that cheek!

Gets some attention from Brye.

Does a quick 180 to get some lovin' from Sarah.

Monty the Moose oven mit is an old favorite. Look at those rosy cheeks!

After the feast. So delicious. Ezra ate a lot of mashed potatoes and stuffing. He took a nap promptly after dinner. A complete success.

One More

I'm on a roll, so here's one more of the swinging buffalo.

Saucy Duck

Ezra's First Experience Eating Spaghetti
no shirt

We threw them both in the bathtub for dessert

Short Photo Journey

First stop: the park! Here Ezra sports his new hat. I knit it for him the night before in response to losing too many hats due to him taking them off while we're out and about and me not noticing until it's too late. Notice the chin strap complete with red button. Good luck getting this one off Bucko.

Ok, he took it off. Luckily I had a back up, the buffalo hood. He's doing the lip vibrate blow. (Do you know what I mean?)

After all the out and about time for a bath! He's kind of smiling...

This little guy stopped by this morning for coffee and doughnuts. Three eared bear hears everything.

Hanging Our Hats from Different Hooks (soon)

It's official, Ezra likes my place of employment. I brought him in and surrounded him! With toys. He really likes the jingle bells.

I have been fairly good at controlling myself, not buying him too much. Last week I went nuts on bath toys and he got some new crank up swimmers. I wanted to see if they actually swam. And they do. There's a fish, a whale, and a lady who does the butterfly. I'll have to get a video of all this action soon. I would like to stage a race!

We have a rather exciting announcement: we are moving! No, not back to MN, sorry Mom and Dad. Y'all should come here, leave the suffering behind you. We in fact are moving only about 8 blocks from our current house. It's a great house in a great location with great ladies and a great two year old girl! Ezra will have another little person around, ie double the toys. Although when we went over to see the place he was most taken with a potato.

We love Kristine and Britney (our current roomies) but the hustle and bustle of Killingsworth (we're between a police station and a fire station) is getting old. Also, our room is pretty tiny currently and I am beginning to feel nauseous looking at it. The stuff is closing in.

Our new house is across the street from a park, on a rarely used side street. The room? Two windows, big bed, closet that's almost like a little bonus room. Oh and rocking chair. Booya.

We'll wait until the second week of December to move, since I've got some projects to complete for my two classes on the 5th. Speaking of which, I don't want to talk about it but I might as well say it: I got a 72% on my test on Tuesday : (

The whole time I was taking it I was thinking, "Woo hoo! I know this one and that one and, Oh Man, I am sooooooo glad I studied the right parts of the chapters, I am soooo smart" etc. and then I got my score. What the freaky frack.

Tomorrow I have my second test. In Oceanography. The harder of the two. What will happen. Dun dun DAH! J'ai peur. Ich bin Angst. Ho paura. 怖いよ

And I'm having fun with google translate. (That's I'm scared in: French, German, Italien and Japonese.) Я боюсь. And Russian.

I will go brush my teeth and snuggle in with Bunny. He warms up the bed so nicely. Except where my feet go. Did I mention that his two top teeth are almost through? Holy crap, I know, a month ago he had NO teeth and now he almost has FOUR teeth. Bunny is almost a bunny. Watch out.

Cheese Aisle

He's done it! He saw the camera, he looked right at it, and he SMILED! It is so exciting. For so long it was that deer in the headlights look. He does like riding around in the grocery cart. He likes the colors and the people and especially the balloons. Sometimes we take one around with us while we shop and then drop it off before we leave. Notice the booties, very colorful from Guatemala.

He's currently sleeping. Ahhhhh. I will be soon. Friday night, pish posh. I worked today at the toy store, which was fine. I like it. It's pretty low key. My co-worker Joy and I have started a tradition of Friday Pie Day. There's a coffee shop on the corner three doors down that serves a delicious variety of home made pies. They usually have at least a dozen types to choose from. Today I had pear, ginger and dark chocolate pie (that's all in one slice). It was fantastic. Joy had banana cream, the same as last week. She likes the cream pies. I'm not so into it. I like the crust. Last week I had a traditional apple, with caramel. Very tasty.

Working at the toy store is a nice break from mommyhood. I get dressed up, high necks and dangly earrings. I've even made some new mom friends! There's some normal moms out there amidst all the crazy ones. I swear, so many crazy moms. Freaky deeky obsessives. And spoilers at that, they bring in their kids and they're fighting and throwing fits. Behavior I think warrents an immediate withdrawel from toy land. These moms? Oh no, they still buy them crap!

A quote from today, "Stop fighting you two! Now, which one do you want, the dinosaur or the killer whale?" Kid: "Both!" Crazy Mom: "Ok."

What the who ha. Bunsy will not be such a terror.

He hung out with my roommate while I worked. Then we went out and had delicious dinner with Lovely Lisa at Rumpspankers. I know, it sounds dirty, but it's just a really tasty neighborhood restaurant. I will bring you when you visit. Just try and say it without smiling. Rumpspankers. Ha.

I've got some tests coming up for my classes again this week so I have been hitting the books. I'm in the home stretch and soon I will be able to watch a movie. I want to see Vicky Christina Barcelona.

Today I went to the mall in the morning and sat in the vibrating chairs at Brookstone for a bit. Sooo nice. If anyone has an extra one of those I will take it. It massaged the feet, the calves, the butt. Ezra fell asleep. So nice. There's an ice skating rink in the mall and he really likes watching the skaters.

Yes, he's doing quite well. With the exception that he has completely lost his interest in food. Remember when he used to lunge for anything that anyone was eating? Over it. He hasn't wanted to eat anything for 3 days. He sucks on crackers and today was sort of eating some sticky rice off his sweatshirt. He's got his bottom two teeth and the top two are coming soon so I wonder if that's it. I'm glad he's a chunk of change or else I'd be more worried. He can live off those cheeks for a week or so. But he doesn't sleep as well and he's in general crankier. This is why my job eating pie at the toy store was a bit of a relief today.

I'm putting off studying. Oceanography is turning out to be a lot less interesting than I thought. It's like when you take the Astrology class thinking you're going to learn all the constelations and then it's just a bunch of calculations. I don't want to know the salinity of the sea! I want to know about the crazy huge waves!

I had thought perhaps being an Oceanographer was for me. Nah. Chelsea Cousteau. Nah.
My other class is extreemly interesting however. Evolution of life. We're at dinosaurs. Dino fun fact: Stegasaurus used all those plates on its back to get rid of heat, as a way to cool themselves.
Now you got something to talk about around the water cooler.

Other exciting news, I have switched my part! It was from right to left for years and years but now my hair has taken a drastic move.

Ok this is getting super mundane. Isn't there some other random news to scratch up...
the moon is full, the rug needs vaccuuming, the next door neighbors ALWAYS have their blinds closed and I imagine what they're doing in there (meth lab, naked parties), ok you're excused.

Still Soakin

I wish we were still in the big tub, instead we're back in the city. I've got a big project to be working on so I won't be long, but my friend Jason sent me this shot of us at the hot springs and I thought it was so cute that y'all might want to see it too.

Hi-yo Hotsprings

Today we took a trip to Bagby Hot Springs, a lovely natural spring about 2 hours outside of Portland. The grey skies and light drizzle made it a perfect day for soaking. Bunny and I sat in the large tub while our gentlemen escorts reclined in the hollowed out logs. The partially open roof lets the cool rain moderate the hot tubs, while the closed side keeps clothes, towels and lunch dry. Today lunch included jam filled corn bread muffins. So delicious that an aggresive squirrel tried to snatch one!
These structures were built in the 1960's by some crafty hippies. It is a favorite spot and often gets very crowded on weekends. Today we had it to ourselves for most of the afternoon. On the hike out we found some delicious chantrelle mushrooms! I do love the Pacific Northwest.
This was Ezra's second hot spring experience. He does love the water. The first springs we visited were Cougar Hot Springs, a set of naturally formed pools near Eugene. I like the natural pools, but these big tubs are nice too. The hollowed out logs aren't to be missed either. So when y'all come to visit us, remember to request some Bagby.

Battle for the Ball

Today is the first day of rain here in the Northwest. I didn't want it to stop me from taking Ezra and Usiah to the park so I suited them up in rain gear and took this short video before heading out.

All Hallow Holla Holla

At the last minute we secured this suit, which however adorable was slightly too small. Ezra couldn't wiggle much in it so he lasted maybe 6 minutes. What do you think, a pea pod or edamame?

The joker I'm sure was a popular costume this year, but I be not many were able to pull it off as well as Jason. It's those blond, curly locks! Not to mention he was fully in character, very creepy.

Here's Grandma and Cheetera.

The battered, pregnant, alcohalic lady.

Kate the Snow queen of Death.

Me: Google.

Classy lady on phone.

Classy lady shows stunning eye make up. This guy told us he'd borrowed his whole outfit from his mother (including red, lacy thong underwear). Apple don't fall far.

Road kill from back.

Road kill from front. (That's a jock strap with a skunk head on front, raccoon tail out back.)

Travis, comfortable and confident in curlers.

Little Buffalo

Tis the season to carve the pumpkin. This guy is our new security, he sits on the deck and deters evil doers with his crooked grin. Here we see he is equally pleasing from the behind:

I am pretty sure Ezra Diego will be a lion for Halloween. I don't think we'll be doing any trick or treating (I don't want all that crappy candy) but something festive will occur. Here's a shot of the lion suit, although I think he looks more like a buffalo. Do you agree?

As I said, requests are welcome, and Howard put in a word that he'd like to see more of Nate's short films. I don't know how I missed this one on the camera before, it is quite essential to the plot of the other three. For those faithful readers, here's your pay off:

Here's the Buffalo, in action:

P.S. The first tooth has broken through! Bottom right folks.