omsi

i finally talked someone into going to omsi (oregon museum of science and industry) with me (yay budds!) so we went today. and i managed to forget the camera. it's a pretty cool place. i'd heard lots about their new four million dollar toddler area and it was pretty cool, but i thought i could have done it for a couple hundred thousand. :) ellen played in water falls and in sand pits and with air tubes (balancing balls and shooting them in the air) and some kind of musical instrument thing that when you put your hand in the light makes notes - i know that makes no sense. but that's what it was. as we saw a magic show that we didn't stick around for cause for some reason ellen wasn't really into it (besides the beginning wasn't very good.) and ellen pet a rat and looked at various other animals and pressed all the buttons we could find. one of the exhibits i liked the best was of a fetus' development. they had real fetus's that had died of natural causes (not aborted) for each week of development. it was amazing how small and how developed the early ones are. there's a little centimeter big baby at however many weeks. it's crazy. absolutely amazing. i've seen pictures in books and things, but they're always all blown up so you can actually see them. this blew my mind to see their actual size and how they were little people.

kevin, luann and ashley are here visiting for a couple of days and brought some gifts with them - ellen feels like a very big girl carrying her very own backpack. (thanks aunt kathy!) and ashley gave ellen a cat that i have successfully named henrietta and that ellen will not let out of her sight. so it seems our kids have already divided themselves on the cat/dog issue. isaiah loooooves his dog and ellen looooves her cat. guess that means no (real) pets at all.

i took the camera (and dave) to gymboree this week...

isaiah enjoys hanging out watching while ellen has tons of fun doing all the gymboree types of things.

..climbing in and out of things

...jumping on the trampoline

that's ellen behind the gynormous gymbo

ellen gave george and micah a bath together

fashion show

i was invited to go to a fashion show tonight (it's my night out with just isaiah!) and thought it would be fun to go. actually, to be quite honest, i didn't really want to go at all - it just didn't sound like something isaiah and i would enjoy together. but i thought it would be interesting to blog so i went (how lame is that??). or i should say i sorta went. i got down there okay - it was in an area of portland i've not been to yet, so i wasn't quite sure what to expect. this particular area felt like hollywood and downtown pasadena (maybe south pasadena, i'm not exactly sure) combined. it was amazingly crowded. there were wonderful shops and museums and restaurants all up and down the street with some old turn of the century (at least that's what they felt like) houses mixed in. the houses gave the impression that this was where portland's millionaires lived one hundred years ago. anyway, i found where the show was, mostly by seeing all the people crowded outside and recognizing my friends. i turned around looking for more parking and was able to see the show - it was sorta an outdoor parade. i never saw an open parking space though. and i hadn't thought to bring isaiah's stroller so i didn't want to walk long. so i figured, well i saw the show, might as well move on. so instead, i took isaiah to barnes and noble hoping he'd sleep so i could look at some books i've been wanting to check out. he didn't sleep, but we did read a bit of the books and i decided they'd be fine to check out from the library. at least one of them. and then i topped off the evening with a mcflurry from mcdonalds. that's much more my style of a night out anyway.

isaiah has continually been rolling over and then getting quite upset that he is left on his stomach (he's never really like it there) i've been trying to explain to him that he's doing it to himself, but so far he doesn't seem to understand. ellen prayed by herself for the first time a couple days ago. she made some food in her microwave, brought it into the living room where i was and said she was ready to pray. she grabbed my hand and said thank you for family, thank you for (something i couldn't understand), amen!

we reinflated the pool yesterday for some more good water fun.

isaiah, it turns out, likes his water warm thank you. (not such a fan of hose water. since dave is super dad, he hooked up the hose to the faucet and gave us warm water outside.)

ellen loves to play mommy with george (who was georgia for a bit, but is now georgie) and do whatever i'm doing with isaiah with george.

remember how i mentioned there are spiderwebs all over our yard - can you find all five in this picture??? (dave hacked a ton of these bushes down this weekend. now we just have to figure out a way to get rid of them)

ellen's received several new pairs of pajamas from her daddy-o (she's starting adding o to the ends of everyone's names - isai-o, daddy-o. but i'm still mama.

dave's fried, tired, very satisfied of a day well spent face after kickball

spidey was a good kickball that we bought for our first every adult kick ball game. alas, this last tournament proved to be too much.

isaiah's two front bottom teeth have broken through, which explains why he's been irritable for the last month or so. (which is practically his whole life, actually). he's also rolling over completely by himself. a couple of days ago while ellen was taking a nap i heard a suspicious noise, so i poked my head into her room and was greeted with the overwhelming smell of baby lotion. i had told her she could play in her bed until she fell asleep (meaning read the books i'd given her or play with her stuffed animals). she had reached to the top of her dresser and gotten all the diapers and lotion down to play with instead. but she did stay in bed. (i was rather impressed by that). anyway, lotion was everywhere...on the walls, on the animals, the sheets, under the bed. everywhere. she's resourceful i'll give her that.

tonight ellen was reading a book to herself. (pediatrician's guide to your baby's first year or something like that ) anyway, i thought a transcript of the story she was making up might be a good window into our life lately. it went something like this. look at baby. hit the baby. baby crying cause ellen hit the baby. baby crying. baby crying. hit the baby. kick the baby. baby crying. i know this sounds like she hates isaiah, but she really doesn't. she loves to kiss and hug and snuggle him and she even tells him she loves him. but i cannot figure out how to get it into her brain that hitting and kicking and bonking him (like a head butt) is not as enjoyable for him as for her. i thought maybe she needed more attention and snuggling from me, but today she was doing it while isaiah was on the floor and i was holding and snuggling her. so that doesn't make any sense. we started going to gymboree this week (birthday present from mom - thanks!) and ellen absolutely and completely loved every minute of it. she was a bit shy for the first ten seconds until "teacher laurie" introduced herself to ellen. and then she was in love, following her everywhere and doing all kinds of exploring that was much more adventerous than she's ever done before. she actually walked up a big inflated thing that looked kinda like a log that was set up at an angle so the kids could walk up it and then jump off into some inner tubes. and ellen actually did it and enjoyed it and did it again! and she didn't even ask me to do it first. (that's been the latest trend...anything that she's a little nervous about - like giving someone new a high five- she asks me to do it first.) isaiah is making many valient efforts to get some real food into his mouth. today ellen and i were sharing an apple and he made three attempts to score some. first he tried pulling my hand toward his mouth. then he tried falling toward the apple. then he tried pulling my hand again. i'm feeling a bit sorry for the guy, so i'm going to start giving him some cereal tomorrow. or maybe vegetables. i haven't decided yet. i wasn't sure if he was old enough for food so i left a message with the nurse asking if he was old enough. i think they are a bit irritated with me since they always have the receptionist call back (which, if you know me you know that irritates me to no end since i want to ask questions and clarify what exactly they mean and the receptionist never knows). anyway, while i was waiting for the call back i remembered i could actually look up this information myself in that handy little pediatricians guide book that ellen was reading. they recommended four months but said some babies would be ready at three - it all just depended on if they were still reflexively spitting out whatever you put in their mouth. a couple minutes later the receptionist called back and said definitely wait till four months. i was a bit perturbed because they never asked anything - like is he spitting everything out. is he interested in food etc...so anyway, i've decided to go for it anyway. anybody know of any other reasons they would tell me to wait until four months? (that's only a week away anyway.) we went to a home community meeting (like a small group) that was linked up with imago dei last night. i'm really really liking that place. (imago) i don't think i've every enjoyed church that much. usually i feel a bit irritated cause i don't agree with something or think that someone is missing a vital point or something or i'm spending all my energy trying to get past whatever i think isn't right and actually participate in the service. some might say i'm overly critical, and i'd probably agree. but i haven't found much at all to be irritated about here. not that it's perfect by any means, but i like it a lot. and this home community deal was cool, because we were a bit curious if it would all break down there. like the leadership is cool, but the individuals are still lamer than lame. but nope, everyone seems to be on the same page.

ellen and isaiah both slept for a little more than three hours today. at the same time. this is amazing. i used this valuable precious time to read harry potter, so i feel i can take some time tonight to write a bit. ellen seems to have an uncanny ability to know when isaiah has woken up. we'll be sitting in her room or the living room or whereever doing whatever it is we're doing while he sleeps and she'll say "baby awake!". for a while i was telling her no he's still sleeping because i didn't hear anything. but she's been right just about everytime. so now i listen to her. its been really hot the last few days so tonight i took ellen over to the city pool to go swimming. it took her a couple of minutes to loosen her grip on my neck, but she had a wonderful time and even encouraged me to leave her on the side of the pool and go try out the rope swing. i graciously declined. poor dave stayed home with isaiah and witnessed his first tears. he's having a hard time sleeping because it's so hot i don't want to swaddle him, but for some reason he just will not stay asleep if he's not wrapped up tight.

harry potter

well, i am the proud owner of the latest harry potter. so i may not post for a while as i'll be completely busy finishing the book. although i must say as i've started it that i'm a bit put off by all the violence and the nonchalance (is that even close to the correct spelling?). i suppose that is due in large part to the fact that i just finished watching anne of green gables and that is such wholesome good entertainment.

dave had the time of his life playing in a kickball tournament this weekend. he's got a play-by-play on his blog.

ellen sorta made friends with this little boy. or maybe i should say she decided they would be friends. she seems to have a bit of a bossy streak. she was leading him around by the wrist for a while. luckily he didn't seem to mind too much.

we had a good time watching. ellen got her first sunburn (i remembered that i forgot the sunscreen once we were about half an hour from the house), but she doesn't seem to mind at all.

ellen enjoys her peanut butter almost as much as kronk

drama queen

ellen is becoming a bit of what feels like to me a drama queen. she'll be incredibly upset about something - an injury or not being allowed to do something or just something - screaming crying wailing, being incredibly upset. today it was about getting trouble i think. anyway she's so upset she can barely stand herself when she notices the picture of dad on the wall. everything stops - "pa's coming today" in a perfectly calm normal rational voice. where in the world did this come from? i know there was no way possible that i was like this as a child and i just can't imagine dave as a drama king.

documentaries

i completely love documentaries. almost all that i've seen. i don't really like the ones that are dramatic and tense. but movies like spellbound rank up there at the top of my list. i've decided that i'd really like to make one myself someday soon, but first i have to work on my editing and nice camera owning skills.

dad introduced isaiah to tools.

dad and dave pose while fixing the refrigerator. or not really fixing so much as hooking up the water line so now we can have water and ice whenever we want it for free!!! yippee!

ellen loves to help read and point out all the interesting pictures.

dad (and all of us) wasn't completely sure he loved the scary stalker storyline, but its ellen's favorite right now.

isaiah's first swinging experience i think. he loved it - started laughing

the family that swings together....

checking out some other kids playing

we took dad and sandy to the state park because that's where we take everybody. and we always fight with the machine for the parking ticket cause it never wants our dollars. (by the way, we managed to avoid all biting blackberry bushes this trip)

the guys reading about something historic (notice dave's slippers...he goes everywhere in those)

ellen loooooves to play with rocks and dirt

we took pictures of cool bugs and insects

the cool snail. once we found one, they were everywhere we looked

pickles and splinters

anybody know the effect of pickles on one's digestive tract? ellen's been eating an awful lot of them lately and i wonder if i should curtail the massive pickle consumption. she also got several splinters/thorns in her arm yesterday. well i think there are several. i got one out and think there three more. but i'm not sure. they'll work themselves out on their own won't they? (she's not really excited about the idea of me poking around in her arm i don't think) i'm just a bit worried they could get infected or something. she doesn't seem to care that they're there until someone wants to take a look.

napolean

ellen's latest movie of choice is napolean dynomite. which dave loves and i think is a bit worrisome. sesame street movies i don't mind at all cause i figure she's learning something while watching them. but watching this sort of movie makes me feel like i'm wasting her life.

ellen's ekg

after much prodding, i finally got our doctor's office to find out the results of ellen's ekg...they said it's normal. but they'll call me on monday with the statistics whatever that means.

here are literally a gazillion pictures. we've gotten a bit camera happy this weekend. ellen absolutely loves to jump as high as dave can throw her

dave's turn

some kind of green wasp bug collecting pollen (you can just make it out on his legs)

the blackberries are coming....

these spiders and their webs are all over our yard. you can barely walk without running into one.

dad and ellen find lots of bugs

ellen tells sandy all about the followers and bugs and bushes

my boys

dad makes slug eyes

the hugest slugs i've ever seen

dad brought ellen a table and chair set from ikea (have i mentioned i love ikea and miss it terribly). i set it up this morning while dave took a little nap.

ellen helped

yesterday ellen was unusually unhappy after waking up from her nap. she just kept crying and crying. so after about ten minutes, i attempted to cheer her up with the camera. we took close ups of our faces. it worked (i'm not showing close ups of me)