Summer days

It's mid-July and summer is definitely underway. Larson comes home from school nearly every day with his clothes soaked after playing in the hose outside in the afternoon to keep cool. Like any toddler, he doesn't seem to mind :)

We've enrolled in swim lessons, round two, but this time our guy has been a little less cooperative. Comfort level in the water = improved; willingness to participate in what the rest of the class is doing = needs improvement. Oh, well, it's still a fun time for Larson & Brett.

For the second summer, our CSA has been providing us with a weekly box full of fresh, organic and tasty produce which we really enjoy. Larson loves to look and see what's in the box each week, although his interest stops at actually eating any of said food (we're still working on that...). Our cool spring helped produce the most delicious strawberries I can remember eating in a while and we've also enjoyed snap peas, beets, carrots & last night I made pasta with carmelized fennel. (I think it smelled and tasted wonderful, but I'm a little impaired right now with a stuffy nose, unfortunately). It's fun to take the list of what's in the box and create a week's worth of healthy, fresh food -- our grocery store needs definitely go down a lot during the 20 weeks of our CSA! I love that we're supporting a local farm and getting great food all at the same time. I used to be a farmer's market junkie, but parenthood has put a damper on the amount of time I have free to browse and pick every week, so the CSA has been a great solution. If you want to find one near where you live, try googling CSA and your state or region...that's how I found ours!

Other fun tidbits:

* Thanks to Miss Alexis & Miss Lindsey, Larson now asks to be excused when he is finished eating and wants to leave the table.

* Larson can now sing the entire ABCs by himself (and SOOOO into letters -- "Look! There's an S on that sign!")

* Favorite color is still green, but he admits that he likes red lollipops the best (he took 3 days to finish a Tootsie Pop last week...we just asked him if he was done and wrapped it up in foil until the next day like it was no big deal)

* LJ loves to help mom make pancakes on Saturday morning -- knows almost all the ingredients!

We still have a few preparations for the new baby, but feel like we're getting as ready as we'll ever be. I passed 37 weeks this week, so hopefully it won't be too much longer before we have some exciting news and photos to share. I hope everyone living in hotter climates than we do is staying cool!

Summer is finally here!

It's been a while since I posted anything on the blog, so I thought I'd recap a few highlights of spring, then add some more recent photos. Spring in the NW this year was long and cold, but as of last weekend, it looks like we are finally getting some consistent sunshine and temps above 65 - hooray! Larson continues to change and surprise us, not to mention provide some pretty choice entertainment. In March, we went to the zoo with friends Stephen, Karyn & Malia to hunt for eggs on Easter weekend. April brought a surprise snowfall and Larson got to help put together his first real bed. The transition went pretty well and he now proudly proclaims that his crib is "in the garage!" May was a pretty exciting month: visits from Grandma & Grandpa Buchholz, then not one but two birthday parties, and a visit from Nana, Bompa, Aunt Kate, Uncle Mark & Cousin Wyatt which included a weekend at the beach. I'll try to recap with some choice photos below:

Hunting eggs at the zoo (preferentially going for the green ones, of course!)

Malia showing Larson how the ring toss is done

Spring brunch w/friends (from L: Larson, Alex, Malia, Kaleo, Dalton, Alden)

Practicing using the scissors on playdough (I just love watching him concentrating on getting those little fingers to do just want he wants them to - and celebrating the "I did it!" at the end)

I may be a bad mama for posting bathtub photos of my child, but this one was too cute to pass up! To think that Larson almost fit in that pink tub for his first bath...

April showers? no, snow!...yes, that is a cherry tree with BLOSSOMS in the background :)

Taking a cracker break while helping dad put together the new bed

Walking with Grandma & Grandpa at the Ballard Locks

Boy + stick = many cherry blossoms on ground

Wyatt & Larson at the beach

Wyatt & Larson

Larson & Aunt Kate

Does this even need a caption? Trying really, really hard to get the lawnmower to go...

That about catches up to June. Those photos are still stuck in our camera. This month we have been outside more and more, going to the park, beach, and hanging out in our little yard/garden. Since we redid all our landscaping last fall, Brett and I have felt a little more invested in keeping our little project looking nice. Larson loves to help with the weeding, etc, though I had to draw the line this weekend when he was trying to grab the pruners. I wonder how long "that's a grown up tool" will satisfy as an explanation for various and sundry things I don't want him to play with? I'll try to not let such a long interval pass before putting more pictures up. We have FINALLY rid ourselves of our old behemouth desktop computer and fully made the transition to sleek, small, space-saving laptop. Now we just need to get a new camera before #2 arrives sometime in the next 6 weeks!

A week in paradise

We're back from our family vacation to Kauai - it was wonderful! We didn't see a drop of rain the entire time and really enjoyed just relaxing together for a week. Larson was a great traveler for the most part, just a few nap-less days. On the way home he entertained himself for an entire 20 minutes with his seat belt - "Look! I did it MYSELF!" We were at the beach most mornings with a few other outings mixed in. This is a picture of a rooster which is actually a common site in Kauai - and sound at 5am! Chickens and roosters are everywhere for reasons that I couldn't quite uncover and I guess they stick around and multiply because people don't have the heart to eradicate them. Odd. Brett and I wondered if the chicken we were about to eat in our lunch was just caught down the road :) Anyway, here are some more photos from our trip!

Larson digging at Lydgate State Park, a protected swimming area on E Kauai

'Anini Beach - lovely for both swimming and snorkeling

Brett and Larson on 'Anini Beach

Larson enjoying the playground at our resort

Ke'e Beach - also great for swimming & snorkeling (just stick your head underwater and - voila! - colorful fish!)

Larson trying on flippers

Taro field near Hanalei

Parked surfer trucks at Hanalei Bay - we concluded that everyone here starts work at 10am or later :)

The family overlooking the Hanalei Valley

Look! I made a snake from my PB&J crust!

The family at Kilauea lighthouse - on a bird sanctuary, so lots of albatross & red-footed boobies flying around!

View of the lighthouse

Larson toting his "treasure bag" at the Na'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens

Sitting in the warm water throwing rocks at SeaLodge Beach (we had it all to ourselves, but required a bit of a hike to reach it)

Swimming lessons

Brett has been waiting ever since Larson was born to get into the pool with him for lessons and we finally signed him up! It's at a community pool and the kids range in age from about 12 months to almost 3 years. The idea of the class is to just have fun in the water with your parent and get comfortable doing things like getting your face wet and jumping off the side. There's a lot of singing, too (Larson really likes the Hokey Pokey one). Per typical fashion for our child, he spends the first 20 minutes of the 30 minute class getting warmed up for the activity...but

afterward he gets to spend extra time in the wading/kiddie area adjacent to the swim lanes which he totally digs -- especially when the toy du jour is inflatable jet planes that he can tote around, what more could a toddler want? Here are some pictures from last week:

Thinking about getting in

Collecting all the green toys from the basket

Not entirely sure what to do with the watering can...

"Swimming" to the green toys!

Got 'em!

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year! I've got some photos to share from our December trip to Florida. It was a family gathering for Larson's birthday, baptism & pre-Christmas celebration. We got off to a wee bit of a rocky start with our connection in Chicago (you would think that after living there for 7 years we would have realized that flying through O'Hare was a bad idea...). Unfortunately, due to freezing rain, we sat on the plane bound for Florida for almost 4 hours before they decided that the flight would, in fact, be cancelled. So we got some extra bonding time on the floor of O'Hare for 5 hours until the next morning flight (complete with q15 min cycling security messages on the overhead -- didn't notice how incredibly loud those were until I was trying to sleep :) Larson weathered all of this remarkably well and the next morning was just as excited to get on another "big airplane" yet again. Every time anyone made an announcement on the plane, Larson would excitedly shout "It's the PILOT!!!".

We had a DQ ice cream cake for Larson's birthday, which I think the grown ups liked more than he did (not enough frosting for a 2 year old!). Unfortunately, the day after his birthday, he got sick for the second time in three months with the pukes. Gastro is even less fun when you are not at your own house! It was a bummer for the rest of the trip, but we still had a good time, all things considered. Fortunately, he seemed to recover right about the time that we had to get back on the plane for the long trip home (thank God!) And despite all this, he has been constantly talking about airplanes ever since we got home, which I guess makes him a pretty devoted traveler, just like his mom & dad! It was great to spend time with my family, and Larson loved playing with his cousin, riding in Bompa's golfcart & practicing on the putting green.