Was it Really a Year Ago?!

(Picture by Uncle Marlin)

Sniff. My little baby boy turned 1 today! It's so hard to believe that a whole year has slipped by. Just yesterday - it seemed- we were eagerly looking forward to taking him home from the hospital.

I had/have two other posts that I was planning on putting up this past week, but I was so busy getting ready for PC's First Birthday Party that they got put on hold. Don't worry, I'm still hoping to get them up.

Anyway, the birthday party was a success. I didn't get that many pictures, but you can browse through Marlin's album of the pictures he put up by clicking on the link below the top picture. I only started seriously thinking about PC's party about a month ago, and didn't get started on any of it until about two weeks ago. Even then, all I was doing was thinking and coming up with ideas. Nothing actually happened until we got back from Walla Walla this past week.

The cake was actually easier to make than I had thought it would be, and for once I didn't feel like I was still completely not ready to put a party together in the three hours before it was to commence! Instead I was just still icing the cake but at least that was the only thing left to do... that and load the car... and pick up Sir's grandma from the bus stop. We ran out of time to get Granny, but Grandma C. saved the day and made the pick up for us. Here are a few pictures of the cake in the making:

Planning, Building and Icing

And here's the finished product:

After most of the guests left, the kids got changed into their bathing suits, and I took them down to the water. We had held the party at a beach/park about 20 minutes away from our house so the kids could play in the sand. Only, there wasn't very much sand. Just a lot of mud, but the kids enjoyed getting wet in the warm shallow water anyway. After about 15-20 minutes of beach fun, we came back and I got them changed again. It was an hour and and half past nap time, and they were exhausted. Needless to say we were less than five minutes into the drive home and they were fast asleep!

Happy 1st Birthday PC!

And we're home again.

I just realized that there was a good chance people might think we were still in the southeast corner of Washington. Just to be clear, we got home at 10:30 Monday night after a fairly easy drive home.

The conference in Walla Walla was really nice. We arrived at M&M's house at 3am Friday morning. Unfortunately we did wake our hosts up as we made our way to the room we were to stay in. They were very gracious about it, and after making sure there was nothing else we needed they went back to bed. We set up our playpen and crawled into bed as quickly as we could in order to make the best of the four hours we had left of the night.

Friday was the easiest day for the kids. It was also the hottest day of the conference. We made it to the prayer meeting about 20 minutes after it started and spent another 5 or 10 trying to find a place to sit. There were almost no isle seats left and to use the stroller, we were going to need an isle row. The subject of the readings was the One Body of Christ mainly going through 1 Corinthians 12. I actually was able to listen during all the morning readings since the kids were pretty good that early in the day.

After lunch each day, I took the kids back to M&M's and we all crashed for naps. I'm glad we were able to do that, because it really helped keep me sane and the kids from completely falling apart.

The drawback was we missed all the addresses and the first half of the afternoon readings. Sir got recordings of the whole conference and uploaded them to the Recorded Ministry website as well, so when I get a chance I've been listening to the meetings that I missed. The three addresses were on Young Men of Scripture, Falling, and Authority in the Assembly. So far I've only made it through most of one of them.

I did managed to take a few pictures, but it's getting late and I wanted to say a bit about them and finish my thoughts on our weekend at conference so I'll close for now and try to fit in another post in the next day or two. Good night!

Late Night Travels

(Written at 11:30 pm Thursday evening)

In the chaos of packing for our latest trip, I didn't get a chance to post. I didn't expect to get to anything until a week or two after we got back either, but Sir took his laptop and I can at least write a bit.

After a series of late nights leading up to our trip, Thursday morning started way too early. Sir had gotten to bed even later than I had, so I let him sleep in a little and drove him to work. The original plan was for him to take the bus, but that means he has to leave almost half an hour earlier than when he drives himself.

The kids and I got home just before PC's morning nap was to start, and I managed to get a little of the packing started before he got fussy and needed to be put to bed. While he slept, Dolly and I finished cleaning the van windows, and really got started on our packing and chores. Everything had to be ready to go by the time Sir got off work since we were going to pick him up and head south from there.

Lunch was late, and the kids finally got to take their afternoon naps nearly an hour later than usual. I used the kid free time to finish a few un-kid-friendly chores like cleaning the birdcages and hauling water down the stairs to the water crock. Being able to leave the stair gate open sometimes is very helpful, but there can't be any squirming kids around.

I barely finished the packing by the time the kids got up. Well, at least the major packing. I still had two things to iron, the snack bag to pack and the playpen to fold up. Throughout the day I had been making little trips out to the van with loads of stuff, so at least I didn't have everything to haul out there at the last minute.

Dolly knew that she could take the last button out of the jar when she got up from her nap, and she knew that as soon as that button was gone, we could get in the car and 'go to Walla Walla'. She got to take the button out and then was just buzzing with excitement. I've never seen her find her shoes and socks so fast or had her put them on with so little fuss.

A few last minute msn messages to Sir to let him know we were about to come get him, and we made the last few trips out to the van. We were just five minutes late picking Sir up, which was a lot better than it could have been. We had to make a few last minute stops for some forgotten (or not gotten to) errands and then we were on our way. The borders near White Rock were a half hour minimum, so we opted to cross at Aldergrove since it would put us a bit farther south anyway.

Once we crossed the border, it was nearly 7pm. We picked up some dinner on the go, and once we got gas and re-checked the fluid levels and air pressure we were finally feeling like we were making progress. I snapped a couple shots of the kids settling down for bed and we started our nocturnal drive.

11 Months Already!

It's hard to believe my little boy is almost a year old. This picture was taken right about the end of last month so he would have been just barely 11 months.

As you can see, his newest achievement was climbing up onto things. At that point though, he had no idea how to get down... without getting hurt. He would climb up on the little chairs, be happy for a few minutes and then start crying because he wanted to get down and knew that if he tried, he'd fall and it would hurt. No sooner than I would rescue him, he would turn around and start climbing up again. He's since figured out how to get down and that opened a whole new world. If he can get down... then he can keep climbing! Like from the chair to the piano bench... from the bench to the piano keyboard... from the keyboard to the top of the piano. Or from the chairs to the fishtank table... and from there he can splash away to his heart's content.

He cut his seventh tooth just after he hit 11 months, and with the tooth came another nasty bout of diaper rash, lost appetite, and sleeplessness. You feel like such an inadequate mom when your baby is so miserable. At least it passes and soon they're back to their happy selves.

Another of PC's new talents is his vocabulary. Suddenly he's gone from baby babblings, to actually trying to talk to us. He has his own language, and he uses it! It's so much fun to see him interact with Dolly or Sir and it's a lot easier to find out what is bothering him when he can communicate to a certain extent.

I should go. It's time to start supper, and we might be going out for a bit after supper so I probably won't get back to this if I don't post it now.

Life Goes On

In the days and weeks following our California Trip, life happened to go on. There were lots of little things I could have blogged about like hot summer days, mowing the lawn, a birthday party and swimming to name a few. But I didn't want to get sidetracked from my 'trip' posts and just let the other ideas pile up. Now if I try to go back and blog about each of them, more stuff will pile up and I'll never be up to date.

Next week we're going to Walla Walla for conference if everything goes according to plan and I'm sure we're going to be busy between now and then. Sir wants to check out the oil, tires, brakes and spare tire attachment on the van before we go, he also has a Dr. appointment to attend that I scheduled for him. I have the packing to do, and there's preparations for PC's 1st birthday party that need to be done. We'll get home on Monday, Tuesday I have a prenatal appointment scheduled, Wednesday is laundry day and meeting night and that leaves Thursday and Friday to finish up all the last minute stuff and make the cake. Oh, and there's Father's Day somewhere in the mix.

Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to get a bunch of stuff done, but it won't be blogging I'm pretty certain. Sir likes to remind me what my month's post total will be, at the blogging rate I'm going at. I don't mind... too much.

I should go. The timer will be going off soon reminding me that it's time to switch the laundry and PC will be waking up any minute which means it's about time to start thinking about lunch. I could go on and on, but it's just life.

California Trip - Day 7

Monday - May 21st, 2007

I woke up around 6am and I'm sure the cold car had a lot to do with it. I got Sir to switch places with me so he could continue sleeping and I started driving. The kids were just starting to wake up. Dolly said she needed to go potty so I stopped at the first place that looked like it might have a washroom. It turned out to be a little gas station in the middle of nowhere. Once everyone had had a turn in the washroom, I continued driving.

I stopped at a rest area just south of Portland since the kids were getting a bit restless, and it was too early for breakfast. I got them dressed and let them run around a bit in the crisp morning air before we discovered the blackbirds and sparrows. I had been about to put the kids back in the car and was tossing out the snack pieces that had collected in the bottom of PC's carseat when a couple brave blackbirds took the risk and snatched up the crumbs. Dolly was delighted to see the birds so close to her, so instead of loading the kids up, we sat down on the curb, crushed up crackers and cookies and tossed the crumbs to the birds. The kids loved it and after about half an hour we had to get on our way. Sir slept through the whole stop and woke up a bit as we were getting back on the road. He told me where to stop for gas and then started gradually waking up.

We got gas somewhere in Portland and then after switching off again, Sir drove across that area of town to a Denny's where we stopped for breakfast. After eating, loading the kids back into the car and dumping the melted ice from the coolers, we got started homeward again. As we reached the northern limits of Portland, we saw the TA that we had stopped at on our way down in search for pillows. We decided to stop again, this time so Sir could shower. The kids were already dozing off to sleep again, so I stayed in the car with them and we all fell asleep to some Sousa marches (yes, we were a little tired). When Sir got back and I had repacked the shower stuff, we started off again. At 10:30 we were slowly making progress. The kids were still sleeping so we set up the audio book again and listened to it all the way to Kelso where we stopped at a Sizzler restaurant for lunch. After all the driving, a salad bar sounded like just the thing. It was a great choice too, because the kids were able to enjoy stuff they loved like jello, olives and ice cream.

Not long after lunch we decided to give the kids a break one last time and pulled into a rest area somewhere between Portland and Seattle. Dolly was so excited about all the big trucks parked on the other side of the rest area that she was ecstatic when I told her I'd take a picture of her with the trucks. While Sir checked his e-mail, the kids had a blast kicking their ball around until Sir joined them. Then they had a real game of toddler soccer going. It was so much fun to watch and I actually remembered to grab the camera!

PC found his very own big stick that evidently tasted perfect and Dolly had a blast getting away from PC since she could run faster. She did let him catch her once and I got a cute sequence of PC 'getting' her and receiving a hug in return. Once the kids were just about worn out, we packed them up again and they settled down for naps while we listened to the audio book whenever the stations on the transmitter were free.

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We made it just in time for Seattle traffic around 5:30ish and once we got through that, we decided that we'd rather have a late dinner at home than stop again less than two and a half hours away. We did have to stop in Marysville for gas and while we were there I took the kids for a mini walk and blew some bubbles for them to pop. Sir grabbed some jerky and ended up getting a quarter of it probably since the kids love 'meat' and we were on our way again. I gave the kids some Cheetos and set up the audio book again while they were happily stuffing themselves.

When we got to Blaine the radio was calling for a two hour border lineup at Peace Arch. Pac Hwy, was supposed to only be 20 min, but looking at it gave us the impression that it was closer to an hour or more. None of the other crossings sounded promising especially since getting to them and back to the 99, would be an extra hour of driving not including the lineup itself, so we got in line at Pac Hwy. To our surprise, the line up was really close to 20 min. It had looked worse because due to construction, the trucks were mixed in with the cars. Once we got past the construction area, things really didn't take long at all. From the border we had just 15 min more before we'd be home and even after grabbing some nuggets at a McDonald's drive through just down the street we made it home at 8:30.

After unloading the car, Sir took it out to a carwash where he vacuumed and washed it. I stayed home with the kids to feed, bathe and get them to bed as soon as possible. Sir picked up his mom on his way back from cleaning out the car and she went with him to drop the rental off. We thought it would be easier to do it that night than have to get up extra early to return the car before Sir had to get to work the next morning. Finally our trip was over. It was long, profitable and a great adventure for our little people!

THE END