Archive for the ‘family’ Category
December 1st, 2009
it’s going to be an interesting december around here. miles is really excited about christmas because he remembers some of the highlights from last year. but he doesn’t really understand everything he remembers so we’ve been trying to explain why santa didn’t come on thanksgiving and why he hasn’t come every night since. why we had to wait until today to start the advent calendar. why some places had christmas lights up but some places didn’t.
we put up the tree on sunday. the boys helped with the ornament hanging and were fully engaged the entire time. the front bottom third of the tree looks ridiculous, but they did such a good job coming to me to get an ornament and then taking it over to the tree and finding a spot for it. miles would stop and ask about different ornaments and where they came from and ozzie would stop and pluck ornaments off the tree and try to hit vixen with them.
i waited until this year to put up christmas lights outside. i wanted to wait until someone besides me would appreciate it and in past years erica’s been a little grinchy about stuff like that. miles was pretty oblivious to lights last year but i knew when i saw how excited he was when he saw the christmas lights on the starbucks in september, that this year would be the year. i finally finished the job today and had the house all lit up when i brought the boys home from daycare. miles said, “daddy, the house is so BOO-dee-ful!”
the cutest thing so far though is miles singing “jingle bells.” his best bit is the part that goes “oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh, HEY!” in miles-speak it goes “oh what fun it is to ride and what, What, WHAT YOU SAY? HEY!!”
before i get in more trouble, i have to say that erica isn’t grinching this year. she was supportive of my idea of starting a “snowy village” she says that like everyone knows what that is. she also said she wanted to start collecting snowmen which prompted our friend to say, “when did you turn so middle-aged?” which i think is what erica always wants to say to me at christmas time. i’ve been planning our future christmas traditions for the past three years and obviously that makes so much sense to erica because “planning” is her middle name. hopefully we’ll have plenty of traditions that develop organically, but the years fly by and without a little planning, before we know it the boys will be teenagers and i’ll be all, “where’s my snowy village?”
Posted in Aaron, Erica, Miles, Oz, family | 1 Comment »
July 20th, 2009
the funniest thing happened last night. we had had a pretty busy weekend with a little shopping on saturday morning followed by our usual trip to the vancouver farmers’ market for lunch. the boys like to visit pete’s paella stand. they’re so fancy. there was some kind of firemans’ chili cookoff happening so miles got to check out some big fire engines and spray a fire hose into the trees. after a late nap we went out for dinner and then played in the backyard until bedtime.
we had promised miles a trip to the zoo on sunday so after i watched the end of that day’s stage of the tour de france we went to the zoo and looked at the animals and took a train ride around washington park. from the top of the hill miles spied the playground on the other side of the park and requested some play time at the “red park”. unfortunately by the time we got loaded in the car oz was semi-conscious and miles was being agitated by everything. the air he was breathing, the sun in the sky, the color of his shoes, he just did not yike it. i finally just told him that i knew he was unhappy and uncomfortable and that i was sorry but he needed to just sit and not talk. somehow that worked.
our neighbor and her daughter were coming over sunday night to watch the boys so that erica and i could get dinner and go see a musician perform in portland. so after another late nap for all of us, we decided to take the boys to the park for an hour to get the squirrels out a little bit. we stopped and got some fried rice to take to the park for a little picnic. miles was too busy playing to eat much and without a table, the extra distance from food to mouth was too far for ozzie to get much in his mouth with a fork, which he insisted on using. when we got home i set them both up with a little plate of food they needed to finish and then gave them each a fortune cookie.
either ozzie’s was a special kid cookie with no fortune or he gobbled it almost immediately after cracking the thing open. wouldn’t put it past him. some lucky diaper changer may get an inspirational message today. miles cracked his cookie and handed me his fortune and i read, “today you will have an important discussion.” i set it down on the counter and he immediately picked it up and pretended to read, “you will go to the zoo again today.”
Posted in Aaron, Miles, family | 2 Comments »
June 22nd, 2009
it’s been quite a while since i’ve had a chance to update my blog. i’ve been working quite a bit and spending the remaining time playing with the kids or working in the yard.
i have just been enjoying the heck out of our kids. miles has kept me laughing since day one, but he continues to up his game. in addition to being accidentally funny, he uses a growly fake yell to signal “this is a joke.” the past few days instead of taking his morning milk on the couch, he joins me in my bed for ‘nuggles under the sheets in our ‘tent’.
this morning i was having a hard time waking up and had started to nod off again. suddenly miles was fake-yelling and i realized that the tent had been filled with a noxious smell. then i realized what miles had been saying, “DADDY, YOUR BUTT IS DIS! GUSS! TING!!”
oscar is growing into his personality more every day. miles’ favorite song is “another believer” from meet the robinsons. we listen to it over and over again in the car and at home. every time i put ozzie in his car seat his starts singing the song.
we’ve started instituting a binky in bed only policy. removing the plug has resulted in a constant stream of sing-songy babbling. he has a few words: more, cracker, puppy, ball. mostly he just babbles with lots of inflection.
he does sometimes manage to make his way back into the bedroom to grab the binky. he then slowly walks out of the room and makes constant eye contact while sucking vigorously on the binky. it’s somehow obvious that this is him asking if he can have his binky. we then tell him to go put the binky back to bed. he slowly turns around and ambles back to the bedroom and then reemerges after a few seconds. then he comes back out more slowly again with the binky and the asking eyes. he knows what we’re saying but he just can’t quite bring himself to put it down.
i just can’t believe i have such wonderful kids. i hadn’t planned to be a parent, in fact i had specifically planned not to be a parent. part of that is because in my unmedicated state i can only make the con side of pro/con lists. i didn’t want to have to deal with discipline and teenagers who hated me and my own inevitable failings and second-guessings.
then my sister had her son and my mother-in-law couldn’t believe how comfortable i was holding a baby and our parents and a few other people started mentioning that we would be great parents. this coincided with me beginning to take an amazing medication called effexor that allowed me to begin to imagine the positive outcomes of a particular course of action and to stop living in mortal fear of my own failure.
i’m not any kind of evangelist for parenthood, i have no energy invested in whether anyone else does or does not have kids. i will say that i have realized that there is something amazing about being a parent that you just can’t grasp if you haven’t been a parent. i’m not necessarily claiming that it’s something everyone should experience, but my own life is certainly richer for it.
it’s incredible to be one of the few people my kids feel completely unembarrassed around all the time. i get to be right there when miles says from the backseat of the car, “hey aaron, what you doing, aaron?” to open the door to a room and have miles so excited to see me that he comes running across the room and leaps into my arms. to have oz raise his arms to me and when i lift him up he stops crying and pushes his cheek into mine.
i can’t believe i get to be ‘that guy’ for, as far as i’m concerned, the two most amazing kids in the world. they’re so full of energy, humor, surprises, love and sweetness and i’m so excited to get to know them as they grow. i hope i don’t forget to help them get to know me so that in twenty years on father’s day 2029, they don’t have to call erica from the bookstore to ask her what kind of books i like, they’ll know that what i’d like a million times more is for them to read one of the books that i like, come and sit in my backyard and talk to me about it all afternoon and tell me that my butt is still disgusting.
Posted in Aaron, Miles, Oz, family | 2 Comments »
May 2nd, 2009
we had a completely weird day today. we had pretty good weather on thursday and friday but the forecast for all of this week is rain so we didn’t expect to be able to work in the yard much but also didn’t have any other plans.
i had been trying to track down some bamboo to replace the monster bamboo i had gotten during the craigslist debacle. the root balls may be sprouting something but the huge 30′ culms aren’t making it. i’m not heartbroken about that because my big dream was never to have such tall stalks, but after i’d put that much blood, sweat and time into procuring them i at least wanted to give them a chance.
in looking for not-free bamboo on craigslist i found out about a couple plant sales at the fairgrounds of two counties just outside of portland. and according to our custom we just loaded up and took off, because well, why not?
the two were on opposite sides of portland but the same time away from us so we decided to go to the canby master gardeners’ spring plant sale because i had a line on some $10 bamboo which, based on the price, i was certain would be plenty small, and it was relatively close to canby and to another nursery i wanted to visit if things worked out.
it was about a 45 minute drive and oz was asleep before we even got on the highway. that kid loves to sneak in a late morning nap any time we happen to be in the car between 10 and 12. when we got to the fairgrounds we immediately realized two things: first, this was going to be seriously awesome, the place was packed and we had to park in the third lot and second, we were woefully unprepared. everyone who wasn’t a plant sale rookie had a wagon, and they didn’t even have kids.
oh, and we didn’t have a stroller in the van because i had emptied it to clean it after the bamboo ridiculosity. we resigned ourselves to the workout we were about to receive and went to check out the plants.
the sun came out and the plants were beautiful. we didn’t buy much because we didn’t have enough arms and because we’re just getting started this year but if you do the gardening thing i highly recommend getting yourself a wagon and finding your local super-duper plant sale on the first weekend in may.
we took off a little before lunch time and oz had tossed his binky at some point plus he was hungry so he was just a deep well of unhappiness until we found a little place in oregon city called pioneer pizza where they had pizza by the slice.
we refueled and headed to the nursery i had wanted to visit. the guy was selling everything for half-price. i guess he’s a landscaper and since no one is building houses now he had to find a way to reduce his inventory. erica tracked down a couple of large blueberry bushes that should bear fruit this year. we found another cool bush and i found some tiny bamboo.
we loaded up and started on the way over to craigslist bamboo guy’s house and it started raining pretty heavily. i hopped out of the car and got my sufficiently small $10 bamboo and we headed toward home. oz again descended into the realm of dissatisfaction and miles decided to join him.
it was a sad drive home. oz was suffering an acute case of binky separation anxiety and miles knew it was almost nap time and he likes to start his protest campaign early, usually succeeding only in convincing us just how badly he needs a nap.
we got home and amazingly the boys both went to sleep right away so we all got a nap. i woke up at four because there was some crazy wind happening outside. i looked out the living room window to find a serious amount of sideways rain coming down. it lasted about twenty minutes and then cleared up really quickly and the sun was out again. then at four thirty there was a severe weather warning on tv. nice.
erica and the boys woke up just before 5:30. she wanted to know what had happened to her pansies. the wind had blown the heads right off a bunch of them.
since the boys napped so late and long, we weren’t quite sure what to do with them for the evening. we ran a few more errands related to yard projects and then finally go the boys to bed a little before nine.
and that is a ridiculous rundown of the day that never seemed like it would end. i can’t imagine that this is particularly entertaining to read, so sorry about that, but i did take the time to write it all out so here it is.
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April 24th, 2009
we’ve been having busy times now that the weather seems to have caught up with the calendar. last weekend we went to the zoo early on saturday. we were out of there before lunch time which was great because on our way out the line to get in was up the block. crazy.
we rode the zoo train for the first time and both boys really enjoyed that. the train boarding area is near the tiger exhibit and when we got off the train there was a zookeeper standing near the fence with a tiger skin for the kids to feel. miles went over and was feeling one of the paws and said something in his weird little whiny voice. erica asked him to repeat himself and he said, “i want to wear that!” the zookeeper said, “i thought that’s what i heard.”
sunday we had no plans but ended up having a ridiculous craigslist day. i spent the afternoon with miles hacking away at an enormous bamboo root ball at someone’s house. i managed to get about 12 stalks out of the ground. they were all about 20-25 feet tall and i had to figure out how to get them home in the van. i got home without getting a ticket but that’s about as much as i want to remember about that debacle.
i pulled out a few bushes along the side of our house to plant the bamboo so i’ve been working on that and constantly readjusting all the strings i have holding the bamboo up until it takes root. i had one fall over the first day but no casualties since then. pretty good considering most of them are taller than the house.
we still had 2 enormous lilac bushes on the side of the house that we’ve been trying to get rid of for a billion years. they’re beautiful but seriously huge. erica spent sunday fielding calls from people who were interested in them but then erica would say, “no, you don’t want these. they’re really big. like really big.” so we didn’t get rid of those.
erica decided she wanted to plant a vegetable garden with miles this year. we ordered a raised bed to attempt to keep vixen from digging up all the goodies. we found a guy on craigslist who would deliver the beds and fill them at our house so he brought us a 2′x5′x18″ garden bed and a 3′x3′x3′ compost box.
he came and started working and then erica got home and started doing her thing which, “oh, you like that? you can have it. no really, you should take it.” so before he knew it he was pulling two 700lb. lilac bushes out of the ground and trying to load them on his truck plus hauling off everything i’d pulled out of that bed the previous week. he seemed excited about it but the guy he had working for him was making serious hate eyes at erica.
so that brings you up to speed. tomorrow is miles’ third birthday and we’ve got some seriously fun weekend plans planned. there’ll be pictures coming tomorrow night hopefully.
Posted in Aaron, Erica, Miles, family | 2 Comments »
April 6th, 2009
this weekend’s beautiful weather presented us with the challenge of finding something fun to do with the boys’ that wouldn’t be too crowded. when we woke up saturday morning it was 29 degrees so we played at home for a while waiting for it to warm up. once it was in the 40s we loaded up and headed downtown to check out the newly reopened farmers’ market. i remembered to bring miles’ nock-a-weirs (binoculars) so he could check out the planes and trains and squirrels.
sunday was even nicer and we had a fantastic morning. erica and i sat on the back porch with coffee and the boys played in the backyard finding worms and playing on the slide.
we weren’t sure what to do with the day but i ended up digging up some information on the woodburn tulip fest. the flower fields aren’t in bloom yet but the website said they had lots of kid stuff and oz could take his nap in the car on the way.
miles had fun looking at the huge steam tractors and hunting bees in the flowers. he also enjoyed the tire swings, climbing the hay pyramid and pumping water into a channel to float a rubber ducky.
there was a booth setup with six or seven rescued parrots. when we walked up miles said, “daddy, look! there’s macaws!” oh, diego, you make my kid so smart.
Posted in family | 2 Comments »
November 10th, 2008
You ever have one of those days when you just wish you could get a witness? That’s what we had yesterday afternoon at the Camas High School gymnasium. Granted, there were four of us so you’d think we could vouch for each other but Aaron and I kind of cancel each other out since we share crazy, Miles is just as likely to say “yes” as he is to say “no” and you can change the likelihood based on the order and frequency of questions you ask and Oz, well, seriously.
So you’re just gonna have to take my word for it when I tell you – COMPETITIVE INDOOR KITE FLYING IS THE BOMB. Yup. Who had any idea in the world that you could fly kites in a windless environment? Like the gym of a high school with a sign posted saying – No Livestock On Campus. But, really, how much would you have bet on a big fat no if someone told you that they could round up a handful of TEENAGE BOYS to COMPETE in CHOREOGRAPHED indoor kite flying??!?!?? To MUSIC?!
Overheard:
14 year old boy from Bend, Ore. to 15 year old boy boy from Lincoln City – both in jeans and black T-shirts:
“What music are you flying today?” “I don’t know, man, it’s a slow one.”
AND IT WAS! IT WAS SLOW and pretty and very dramatic and that kid made his kite freakin’ dance to the music. Which is good because 60% of their score is the ability to interpret the music with the kite flying. Lowlight on that front – the 10 year old chubster from a long line of kite-fliers who made his flying debut with a butterfly kite on a stick and waved it around to “Imagine” – but not after an iPod malfunctiony false start during which he dropped his kite on the floor, twice, and wandered over to check out the action in the “sound booth” (table in the corner of the gym). Nonplussed (like Sarah Silverman I’m pretty sure I’m using that world incorrectly).
Ok, but, see, this is why I NEED A WITNESS! Because here’s the wackadoodliest part – there was some incredibly awesome indoor kite-flying. And we couldn’t even stay for the “exhibition fliers” (there were two) so who knows what the cream of the kites looks like. Or what kind of music they were flying. My favorite was this 14 year old kid from British Columbia who was totally hip and adorable and flew a dual-kite routine to that OneRepublic song “Apologize” which I fell in love with via SYTYCD…and I CRIED. At the kite-flying. It was incredibly beautiful and inspired. He and another kid had these big kits with four lines that they could swoop up over their heads or make them go totally flat and SNAP them back really loud and it was so amazing.
Oz was enthralled. There was this, um, seasoned man (pretty creaky) in brightly colored plaid pants, striped shirt and big clowny hat who I guess is a kite-building pioneer and he flew this super shiny mylar kite he made to this sort of whimsical circus music and it was truly beautiful. It was a little dance…and reminded me of my great-grandpa glibert who was a great, graceful dancer. Oz was so taken by the shiny kite gliding around and then snapping up – he didn’t make a peep and just bounced his head in time to the music.
Miles had a different fun time that had more to do with climbing bleachers and eating stray candy he found (it was still in the wrapper – but I’ll probably still make somebody’s bad mother list for that one).
We ended up leaving because Miles was getting more and more squirrelly and the kite flying was getting more and more impressive so I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s chances of a big win with my loony toddler. Oh, because (I forgot to mention) you can’t open the doors during flying ’cause it creates draft and makes the kites all wonky. And we were the only non-fliers in the audience of about 25 people as far as I could tell so we wanted to escape before we created too much of a distraction.
Anyway, I’m serious. If you see a flier on a Burgerville door when you just went for Sweet Potato Fries and it says there’s an indoor kite flying contest in a high school gymnasium with $2 admission on that very day – GO! You won’t be disappointed.
Posted in Aaron, Erica, Miles, Oz, family | 4 Comments »
October 27th, 2008
this afternoon britta came over and got the boys to look at the camera and pushed the button for our holiday card picture. this is our eighth christmas together and every year we have big plans for sending out a holiday card. this is the first time we’ve gotten as far as taking a picture. actually this is our second attempt at taking pictures, so double points for persistence.
miles was working on his second meltdown in as many hours. after refusing to smile unless he was giving me fish lips by squeezing my cheeks together, we finally resorted to bribing him with a drink of diet coke. ozzie seems pretty interested in that action. i’m sure he picked up some great pointers on playing hard-to-get.
miles wanted to take some pictures too. he’s responsible for the three cute pictures of erica and oz. he’s also responsible for a few pictures of a plastic dinosaur and one of the ceiling. i didn’t put those on flickr.
i already ordered the cards so we’re off to a promising start. but if you don’t get a card from us don’t be offended. it probably just means that they’re sitting in their box on top of the stack of thank you cards for miles’ adoption party. yes, we’re embarrassed. at least there’s that.
Posted in family | 5 Comments »
September 17th, 2008
as miles would say, “aye, yi, yi!!” did i tell you i’m going to india? did i tell you i’m going to india next tuesday? did i tell you that erica is leaving for utah on friday and won’t be back until monday?
did i tell you that ozzie got his first two teeth? did i tell you he’s still a little doughboy? did i tell you that even his tongue is fat? did i tell you that every time he smiles he sticks it out between his perfect little lips? did i tell you about his deep chortly laugh? did i tell you that i’m going to miss seeing him learn to crawl? did i tell you how much that breaks my heart?
did i tell you that miles is the most loving big brother ever? did i tell you how he fed ozzie his bottle yesterday? did i tell you that he learned fifty different ways to say no by watching go, diego, go? did i tell you that his favorite is, “no way!!”? did i tell you that i can’t get enough hugs and kisses from that boy while he’s still giving them out?
also, did i tell you i’m losing my mind?
Posted in India, Miles, Oz, family | 5 Comments »
September 8th, 2008
my mom and sister and i followed up our big hike with a round of golf on wednesday. we had a good time and it was great to be outside on a beautiful day. i haven’t played golf all year but i played probably the best 9 holes of golf of my life. i didn’t count strokes but i finished the round with the same ball i started with. if brandon is reading this he can attest to what a miracle that is.
on friday we all loaded into the van and drove to cannon beach. miles was really looking forward to going to the beach again. before we got on the highway, we stopped at the boys’ daycare to pick up a bottle i had left in their refrigerator the night before. as soon as we took a turn off the route to the highway he got a panicked look on his face and said, “no, i go to beach, too!” so sad.
miles had lots of fun making up little games at the beach. he did really well for not getting a nap but he did have an archy backed fit as we left. i can’t wait until we can spend an entire day there so that he can get his fill.
oz finally got his first tooth on thursday and his second on saturday. he’s totally on the AP teething plan. we’ve got his molars scheduled for next month. at some point last week he developed total food jealousy. when he sees us eating he turns into a howler monkey unless we give him something to mash around with his gums.
also, he’s been talking alot but his accent is a little too wookie-ish for me to understand.
Posted in Miles, Oz, family | 1 Comment »
