Baby Sophia

We got over to see the bebe today!

Chaquita standing guard! OK, she is really hoping for spit up LOL. And can you believe that red hair? Jess says she has Irish on her side, and she thinks that is where is comes from. So funny since Olivia still has almost no hair still. Speaking of the beast (that is actually her parents nickname for her)....
Orion gets a turn to kindof hold the baby.
Sophia has a cross eyed moment. :)

The Classic Flower Experiment

I finally bought some white flowers so we could get back into the science experiment book we bought. Why I have a compulsion to go in order, I don't know. Guess I just figure it will be easier to keep track of what we have done. Looking at the whole bunch in water before we started, I asked Orion to notice how only the bottom of the stem was in water, but the whole flower seemed fresh. I asked if he thought the water was getting up to the top somehow, and he said no.... So I said we should find out by putting them in colored water. He had fun cutting the stems and putting the food coloring drops in. He really wanted to put them all in color, and I got to explain the concept of a control and why we needed to leave some in plain water. The book suggested roses and carnations, but all Trader Joe's had were gerberas, so now we wait and see....

Better Living Expo

It was a pretty quiet weekend. I went to yoga and a little bit of the scrapbooking day at church on Saturday. Then Sunday we decided to take a peek at the Better Living Expo. It was pretty cool, except Orion didn't really have enough attention span to be at any one booth for more than a few seconds. He just kept asking where the playroom was! Burgerville had a great area set up with clay, crayons, etc., so we could have taken turns walking around, but I was feeling kindof achy anyways, and Ron hates crowds, so we just did a pretty quick tour.

Orion enjoyed planting seeds at the Burgerville booth.
And here he is on an electric scooter.

Thirty Weeks Today!

Wow, does that sound scary! Mainly because I still have so much I want to get done before the Little Miss gets here.

So... for the sake of posterity, the belly series. Well, there are only two so far, but I figured I would post the first one too so they could be seen next to each other.

25 Weeks
30 Weeks

Lordy, I look full term! Feel it too. I am so achy and waddly already! But at my last appointment, Lennon said I was right on track. I'm guessing this will be another big baby.... I didn't think there would be so much difference in the pictures! Makes me feel like I should have been doing them weekly. Maybe I will start, although it scares me to think how much bigger I can get!

Random This and That

Orion said something so funny today. He called me a monkey, and then I said something like I must be because I am always calling him a monkey. So he starts saying I am the mama monkey, and Daddy is the daddy monkey, and Kona can be the baby monkey, and the new baby when she comes can be... a lighting bug! He even made the pause. Hahaha, what the heck?!

Then later in the evening, he did something that shocked me - cleaned up his Legos on his own! Orion has never been much into cleaning up, although sometimes he will pitch in if I get it started. Lately I have been saying I don't want to be stepping on toys. My balance is um, not so great these days. And that is just what my sweet little man said - "I want to get these all picked up so nobody steps on them!" Modeling and patience, patience and modeling....

And one more funny. This happened a few days ago, and I wish I could remember the details. I know I was making something in the kitchen and made some comment that must have sounded frustrated. I can't think why I would have said I'm not sure what to do, but it must have been something like that, because Orion heard me and said, "Just check the recipe, mom!" Ah, the boy is my son for sure LOL.

Pool Day

OK, so this is the picture from their website, but I just like the way a post looks with a picture better. :)This is the pool at Firstenburg Center in Vancouver. It was a bit of a drive, but we were meeting a couple friends, and I hoped Orion would enjoy the lazy river feature. Nope.... They had inner tubes with handles to float on and it didn't go fast at all, but he just didn't care for it. At least he liked the spray features you can see in the background. And they had reeeeally nice family dressing rooms, something for mom to appreciate! I probably wouldn't trek all the way back there unless we were meeting people again, but it made for a nice afternoon.

Extra CA Pictures!

Sarah finally added the rest of the Farmer's Market pictures to her Photobucket. I was going to add them to the old post, but decided they needed a post of their own. :)


First the Orion cuteness. He must have played at this statue/fountain area for at least an hour. I don't think he was supposed to take the hose out of the girl's hand, but it does come out if you pull on it, and some other kids had it out when we got there, so it was a water free for all! The idea is really cute. The overall grouping is a lemonade stand, but the little girl is on the side, squirting water into a dog's mouth.


"Gimme that hose!" And now it looks like she is saying, "Hey, give it back!"
Sorry pal, it's not real money.
Orion apparently wants all the lemonade to himself.
Awww, he loves the lemonade seller...
...or maybe he wants to eat him! (???)
And the rest are shots of Sarah's I thought were really good.




This last one was taken back on their rooftop when they were trying to take advantage of the last of the sun that day.

Amazing Talk by Jill Bolte Taylor

Watch it, believe it, live it!

Commonwealth Park

A nutria!

This is what we didn't see today... haha. Seriously though, these guys do live at Commonwealth Park, and this picture was even taken in Beaverton. I had heard about them being around here, but had never talked to folks who had seen them. Today we met up with some friends who live near there and have seen them lots of times. Samuel even tried taking us to the places they have spotted them in the past, but no luck today.

It was a fun day, though. We fed the ducks a little first, and then played a bit on the equipment, but by far the kids spent most of their time exploring around the water, which was great by me! The neatest part of the day was how much time Orion spent with Eva. In the past, he has followed Samuel around like a lost puppy - that whole big boy idolization thing. Plus, Eva had not talked to him much before today. She seemed to really connect with him today, though, and they were so cute together, going around and examining colors in rocks and such. They had their heads bent down to the ground together for quite a bit of time. It is so cool to see because Orion is just starting to really play *with* other kids. Mostly he will do his own thing, even if there are friends around. He still has a hard time sharing, so it is easier if kids are playing with different things. But here and there he has seemed more genuinely interactive with other kids, and is such a neat development to watch!

Hoppy Easter

It was a pretty quiet and boring day around here to be honest. Ron is not feeling well, so we laid around most of it.

At least the Easter Bunny managed to do his thing. :) Orion has loved the Elefun game ever since playing with it at a friend's house, so he was thrilled about that. And indeed Mr. Rabbit got a half eaten cookie. But he was OK with that - see the empty plate. Are those some eggs I see about the house?
Nice outfit kid. This is what happens when your night diaper has a leak and daddy gets up to dress you.
Wow, there was a dollar in the gold egg!
And gumdrops in all the colored ones. Mmm.

In the late afternoon, we decided to go see the new Horton movie. It was Orion's first time in a regular theater. He did pretty well, but did have to climb into dad's lap several times during parts he didn't like. My sweet, sensitive, boy. It wasn't bad, considering the text has to be so expanded. There were a couple kindof annoying characters, but the heart of the book was still there. I wonder if they will ever make the Lorax...?

Spring Cookies

Making cookies was the big order of the day. These are the same ones we made at the Winter Holidays, and Orion loved them. I tried them with xylitol this time and thought they were just as good. The funny thing is, I started thinking about doing this a few days ago, and right after, Orion started asking about making them. I swear the kid is psychic sometimes. I said maybe we should set some out for the Easter Bunny like we did for Santa. Orion's answer: "Well, he can have the crumbs." Hahahaha, my generous boy.

Pressing the shapes Frosting
All done!

Recipe is in the cooking blog if you are interested. :)

More Egging...

... as Orion calls it! I almost skipped this hunt as I felt like we needed a down day, and Orion has had enough sugar this week for sure! But it was looking like such a great turn out that I couldn't resist. The gathering was at a great park called Rood Bridge. Orion loved the play area.

Little mountain goat
He was flapping his wings like a bird in this picture. :) Notice his shoes are already off and his socks are covered with barkdust. Both of them had holes in the heels by the end of the day. They were too small anyway.

"Follow me!" Orion says to Addy. They were like shadows of each other all day.
I didn't get any pictures of the beginning of the hunt - the kid moves too fast! But here he is at half capacity.
And full! Geez pal, got enough eggs there? Niamh is there in the corner, checking it out. She is such a curious baby!
I wonder what Addy will have in this one.
Orion examining a jelly bean with Xeowyn.
More, more, more!
And the favorite friend shots again.... Look at Miss Tati! She is hanging on all by herself!
Inde the daredevil. Orion adores this kid.
Baby Jon after pulling his hat down - all time favorite for sure!
And the photogenic Miss Naia. This girl should get into modeling. Several of my favorite photos are of her.
Tiff and Niamh, saying, "What's up?!"
The whole crew! What a turn out!

Happy Spring Equinox!

I got some cute ideas online for celebrating the Equinox with children, and expanded them into a little ritual. It was the closest thing to a "real" ritual we have done with Orion, and it went pretty well... thanks to the jellybeans probably haha. I decided to use colored plastic in the correct corresponding colors (well, pink for red anyway) for the quarters. Orion helped me welcome the elements, and we talked for a minute about Spring and the changes we are seeing in the weather and growing things. Then I passed around a little bowl of seeds and everybody put some in a pot of dirt while saying things they want to bring into their life. I had said a complication free birth and healthy baby, among other things, and then Orion actually said a new baby first! Awww. Then I had a bowl of jelly beans - one of each color for each of us - and we talked about all the things the colors could represent that were connected to Spring... and ate them of course! We closed by picking eggs and opening them to find Spring fortunes inside!


Then it was time for egg dying fun.
Ron doing a half and half egg.
Even Andy hung out for the family festivities.

When we were done, I was looking around to see if there was anything else we could dye. I didn't find anything, so Ron suggested Orion dye a finger. Yeah, that quickly turned into both his hands LOL.






Then the little Virgo wanted to try and wash it off.... Not so easy!

So bedtime was a little rough after the sugar, but it was a fun night overall.