Breakfast and Bedhead

Mothers Day 2011

Perfectly warmed poptart, peanut-butter for dipping, chocolate and nuts for topping and a broken up Stinger bar for...protein!

Me at 33

BLOG SPRING CLEANING.

I am determined to finish all previously hatched posts and do a general clean up of computer files. So please excuse the mess that ensues. Eventually it will be sorted out.

(August 2010, photo by S. Westbrook)

Note to dad.

(From Avery: 10-12-2010)

(4-30-10)

(3-30-2010)

Caged.

(1-03-2011)

February/March/April Recap

We've been keeping ourselves busy so as not to be disappointed by the lack of sunshine that is de rigueur for a proper Seattle springtime. We have learned this much by now. So let's see what everyone has been up to.

Ben - Was awarded the Presidential Airway/Esophageal Foreign Body Award (that's a real thing??) for the poster presentation he did with two colleagues entitled "Novel use of a suction irrigation device for removal of impacted clot from the airway". Fascinating as well as novel, I'm sure.

Avery - Lost one tooth on a Saturday in February, then lost another a few days later while at school. The second one never made it home, so the tooth fairy only had to make one visit that week. Rude, I know.
She also learned how to ride a bike without training wheels.
Miles - Can play Old McDonald Had a Farm on the piano with his eyes closed (literally with his eyes closed).

Cruz - Turned one! And since he is the third child, he got neither a birthday party nor blog entry dedicated to the big day*. Plus I'm too busy trying to think of 33 things about myself for my special day coming up. But we do love our little guy. Even if he doesn't walk (despite standing like a champ and taking multiple steps three months ago). I guess he has to put all his energy towards growing that hair. He also learned to ride a bike this month, and he started wearing shoes on occasion.


Me - I've just been doing the usual: tilling the earth, making butter from cream, successfully curing a kidney infection with a regime of yoga and apple cider vinegar, unsuccessfully representing myself in court**, attending my first ever Chamber of Commerce meeting, making homemade deodorant, selling houses, showing even more houses, testing recipes for a Seattle restaurant's cookbook, fitting 2 years worth of continuing education into one month. Nothing as prestigious as what Ben does, but fulfilling just the same.


*I will get around to it!
**I got a speeding ticket, and I refuse to believe that I was going 40 in a 30. I was just returning a library book for goodness sake. It was overdue, yes, but I had already accrued my fine that day. No rush. There are more details to why I disagree with this but I as I had no evidence what could I do? He agreed to keep it off of my record if I could go without 6 months without getting a ticket. No problem. I haven't been pulled over in 13 YEARS. I didn't even go 4 days. This time 28 in a 20. A full on speedtrap (where the speedlimit changes unexpectedly), which the officer admitted while chuckling. He didn't even ask to see my insurance. He wanted to hurry and get to his next victim ("one after another" he said). So my experience, plus the recent experience of three other gals I know leads me to believe that they are targeting pre-middleaged white women who drive stationwagons or minivans, (my experience in court would lead me to believe that they are targeting uninsured hispanic men in their 20's) all in the name of revenue generation.

Headboard

As is usual it takes me forever to decorate and our guest room/office needed a headboard as a focal point so that I can put some pictures...although it will probably take me another two years to do that. I love our wood floors and we had these planks left over so we made them into a headboard. Easy! And this flooring I can just enjoy without having to sweep thrice a day.

One.

Birthday Menu:

Ribeye
Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Pizooki a La Mode

(all of Cruz's favorites)

SleepCrawling.

This morning before 6, house completely dark, Cruz woke up, started crying, forcefully wiggled out of his mothers loving embrace, got out of bed (our bed (which is usually his bed between the hours of 2am-9am), not his pack 'n play obviously) and continued crying and searching around the house for me, while I sat in bed trying to figure out what was going on and calling out to him. He went down the stairs, through the kitchen and into the office which is often where I am especially when he wakes up in the morning. When I wasn't there he started his journey back and stopped in the kitchen, sat and cried until I came and picked him up. Then he put his head on my shoulder and went back to sleep. Since I had him to begin with, was calling his name the whole time and it was dark, I can only guess that he was sleepcrawling. Very interesting.

(And if you are going to make me get out of bed before 7, it had better be interesting.)

*The pics abov are not from today, but I thought it was appropriate to display his pretty sweet bedhead.

Oregon Coast

Over President's weekend, we headed south to see what the Oregon coast had to offer. I had always wanted to go, but Ben is a beach snob and has never given in to my request to explore this part of the country and my mom is up for anything, even close quarters with my three children. Our first stop (well actually our second, after breakfast at the Original Original Pancake House) was the Tillamook Cheese Factory & Creamery. Look at all those loafs of pepperjack!

Then basically we beach hopped for the next two days. You can only do so much lounging when it's 41 F. There was sun though, which gave us permission to wear shorts and flip flops, until we were reminded that it is still very much winter.

You can't see it so well, but in these pics at Cape Meares there were waterfalls and other beutiful scenery that reminded me of places in Hawaii.

We spent the night in Garabaldi, and hit up Rockaway, Seaside and Cannon beaches.

Our last stop was Astoria, OR (of Goonies fame). We checked out Bowpicker Fish n' Chips per recommendations on Trip Advisor. I'm not a huge fried food lover but I had never had fried albacore before and it was good. The kids insisted that they didn't like fish but it turns out when battered and dipped in ketchup, they do.

The Astoria column, which you can climb up and throw gliders off of. We stayed at the bottom and tried to catch some.

View from the column overlooks the Columbia River. This is Lewis and Clark territory.