And the days go by...

Iain hanging out inside the Chako's (pillow and duvet cover):

And Ria working on her new masterpiece on the new addition to our household!

Iain and Ria, but Ria's busy:

And....GIRRRRRRL POWER! How do you like her new shoes? She loves them, they are "mink" colored (she says).

Much DOOM!

1/2 way between the actual dates, William and I shared a party, for my (Doom, Doom Doom!) 40th and his (2 years post-Doom) 42nd birthdays. We celebrated with 2 cakes, of course ;-).

Here is W bringing my cake out with the requisite 40 candles....the "before" flames pictures and the "after" smoke photo. (The strange thing between the cake and the candles is a paper plate that William rigged up to catch most of the wax....it did a reasonable job!) Wow, you get lots of smoke with 40 candles! I must be OLD! ;-)

Here's the cakes. On the left is mine (a swedish Kladdkaka, with only very little wax!), and on the right is me holding William's cake (a coffee cake, as in, coffee flavored). I had a little snafu with his candles, thinking we had a "2" in there, but we only had a "4", so its a "4" with a Roman numeral 2 ("II"). That's why it looks rather silly!

Strangely enough, it doesn't feel much different to be over the hill, rather than just barely under it, except for the extra pounds, that is!!!

Happy days

Happy kids, happy days in late May.

Music Appreciation

(WARNING! If you are looking at this post and thinking you've read it before so you don't need to scroll below it for new posts hiding below it, please scroll down anyways.....I've been post-dating my heart out, and we've finally hit late May!)
------------------

It is interesting to watch how Iain and Ria are, at the same time, both strikingly similar and notably different.

They both love their music, and currently the greatest joy in the car for both of them is to listen to Oysterband singing "Put Out the Lights" and/or "Our Lady of the Bottles".

However....Iain prefers, and ALWAYS has, that everyone is quiet while he listens. Ria likes to sing along. Iain HATES it when I sing along to his favorite songs (which often include EVERY song on a CD), but Ria seems to prefer for me to so.

There's no pleasing both, eh?

(I will return you to your previously scheduled pre-dated posts with photos shortly ;-).

Ria Walks! (Finally!)

At Ria's 18 month pediatrician visit, the doctor said that if she hasn't bothered to try walking by 20 months, we should bring her in so we can decide what to do about it. Ria, clearly not wanting another doctor visit, decided to bring it in under the wire.

She finally took her 1st steps at 19.5 months, on 22 May 2008. Of COURSE she couldn't do it at home with us, she did it at Rachel's house, with Ryan's help. Luckily, Rachel managed a video of it!

(Note: The video is really loud, and when I view it it has a funny tinny sound ever since I edited it to add the caption.....so be sure to turn the volume down pretty low before hitting go!)

Trees and Water and Grass and Sun

In mid-May we did some "Extreme Gardening".

In our backyard we had (1) a small privet tree - but in our minds the only good privet is one that isn't there (lots of litte seeds, and little baby privets, ARGH!), and (2) a number of walnut trees (think lots of sharp walnut husk shards all over your grass, and add young children trying to actually play on the grass, OUCH!). In addition, the neighbor had a dead privet overhanging with lots of ivy.

With the goal of having our tiny little patch of lawn in the back yard be something that is actually pleasant to be on....we had the sources of the walnut husk shards removed. In the goal of no longer having a source of ongoing privet weeding in our own yard, we removed our small privet. In the goal of not having a dead privet fall on our children in the back yard, we had that one removed from the neighbors yard.

The result was....a REALLY SUNNY BACK YARD! eep! Not the ideal for a hot California summer.

Also, with the lack of trees all along the fence line, the whole back yard is kindof unbalanced....heavy near the garage, and highly open at the fence. If we'd known we were going to have kids at the time we landscaped the back garden 8 years ago, we'd have placed the patio on the other side of the garden to balance it all out, but there we are.

Finally, with the trees out, we had the nasty lawn ripped out, and resodded (with a nice little chicken wire layer down below the sod to keep those moles from ruining the lawn 2 days in, as they did last time!).

The lawn is gorgeous. the plants are loving the sun. i don't really like the feel of the backyard (hence no proper pictures at the moment to show how it looks now), and i don't know what to do with it to fix it....*sigh*....but we'll get there!

Here's the kids enjoying the chipper-shredder show:


With the back lawn newly sodded, we played in the wading pool in the front yard with our buddies Sarah and Perry.

1st: Ria enjoying the water. She clearly doesn't have Iain's early fear of water, eh?!

And, Ria in her Super-hero alter-ego visage:

And, (Iain picked these pictures ;-), Iain and Perry with inflated little donughts in their mouths:

And to finish the water fun pictures, we also have Iain and Sarah with inflated donughts in their mouths (do you note a theme?):

Finally....due to the status of the back garden....we put off the celebration of my transition to "over the hill" until the lawn could be rough-and-tumbled upon....early June. Photos of flames coming up soon!

A Day in the Life of a Duck

For Ria's pseudo-preschool for the fall (1 day a week for a couple hours....and I'll be there with her) we needed a family photo to put on the wall of the class. Here we are!

And....William and Iain determined that its not only Ernie and Bert that can be stuck on one's face, we've got a duck that's willing too!

Needless to say, Ria also wanted to give it a try.

The CRAAAAAAZY Plan!

This past weekend (adjusted for pre-dating, of course!), Mormor gave William and I the gift of time....she babysat the kids for the weekend so we could sneak off and have a weekend (technically 34 hours) alone. This was the 1st time in 4 1/2 years that William and I have had an overnight without kids.

WOO WOO!!!

Here's Mormor with the kids:


And here's Mommy and Daddy at the airport, absconding from their parental duties!

We took a trip to Vancouver, BC, to see William's favorite group, Oysterband, which he has never managed to see live. When we're in England, they're in Sweden, when we were in Sweden, they were touring England. ...and they hadn't been to the "new world" in YEARS. So we flew up Saturday morning, drank a bit much at a pub, walked to dinner, and walked to the concert.

The show was GREAT!

And when we got home again, Mormor got to pick a few oranges from our tree to bring home. That woman loves her fresh-picked citrus.

19 April - Our last day before coming home

On our last day before going home, we visited with Neen, Pete and Dani, a too-short visit, of course, as usual.

We had to zoom down from their house to Mormor's for Ria's nap and to let William pack while Iain and I continued to visit with our respective friends. (Pete had to go to work....poor Pete!)

Iain and Dani climbed rocks and ran around the yard:

While Neen and I did that boring adult talking thing that kids don't quite understand


...and Grandpa Henry had a final snuggle with his new girlfriend

Homeward Ho!

18 April: A Visit to the Airplane Museum on Quonset

On the 18th, we went to the Quonset Air Museum on Quonset Point. The kids had a great (and dirty!) time. I must say, however, that the childrens play area makes an unusual counterpoint to the dusty floor and the helicopters and jet planes!

Kids enjoying the cockpit:

Checking out the innards of a helicopter (i think!):

Check out the grunge level!

17 April - A Quiet Day in RI

After a number of crazy days, we had a quiet day with Mormor and Grandpa Henry in RI. The kids played together, Iain and Mormor climbed rocks, and there was playhouse action.

Ria Walks Assisted!!!! 16 April

On the 16th, we drove down to Mormor's house for the Rhode Island part of the trip.

After dinner, as I was about to start Ria's bedtime routine, she decided that maybe Grandpa Henry had a point, and she should try some of this walking stuff. And, suddenly (if 18 months and 1 week old could count as "suddenly" when it comes to walking), there she was, walking around while holding Henry's hands. Woo woo!

Promptly she walked with Iain, and then with Henry again, and then with Mormor. (She, notably, refused to walk with her mother!)

Here's my very first properly edited video, with titles, even! For some reason my cross fade from Iain's walk to Henry's title screen disappeared, I hope you all forgive me. Also, despite the fact that Henry got her to take her 1st steps, I put Iain's video first, for obvious reasons ;-).

Enjoy!

A Visit to an Old Friend - 15 April

A number of years ago, a good high school friend of mine, Ann Elise, decided to see where I had disappeared to. She found me in California, while she was by then situated in northern New Hampshire. When Eva and Andy bought the campground, we decided that we should try to get together in person.

Last year, the weather denied us access, despite our best efforts. However, this year we managed it. Ann Elise, her husband Dan, and their nifty kids Matthew and Kathryn, made us very welcome, and made us a yummy dinner. Here we all are!

And, the official reunion photo (with miss Ria attempting to upstage us):

13 April - more fun with cousins

Fun with cousins on 13 April:
Tor and Ria:
A cardboard sledding contest, possibly the silliest contestants!

Iain spells the important names

Bjorn tickles Iain
Cousins, Auntie Eva, and doggy Ginger:

And Ria and Eva do some bonding!

A busy Saturday in New Hampshire

Saturday was a busy busy day with big cousins Tor and Björn. First we went to the water to throw stones and check out some snow. We started by all making silly faces.

Then Ria checked out some snow.

Björn and Ria played with golfballs while Iain watched.

Eva and Andy looked happy

And Tor let Iain DRIVE!!!

We're in New Hampshire!!

We're here!!!!

(Ria, Auntie Eva, Björn, Tor, Iain)

18 months old!

Ria is now 18 months old!

She's 26.75 pounds, and 33.75 inches. Tall and trim.

-16 teeth - for a while there we were getting one a week. UGH!
- still crawls, fast as the dickens.
- cruises the furniture
- @~ 17.25 months, she finally started letting go while standing for a second or two at a time. But this has not progressed much.
- still not walking, but there's nothing physically holding her back. Our pediatrician thinks its all in her head, she's uncertain about letting go. The musculature is all there.
- climbs both up and down stairs safely. climbs onto the beds. climbs up the kitchen stools and will happily take one bite out of each pear on the counter...climbs, climbs, climbs.

She is starting the language spurt!
"Beep" was her 1st fully enunciated word. She's still terribly proud of her lovely "p" at the end. She likes to point at things and say "DIS", to ask what "this" is called. Repeat ad infinitum. Noone but us can really understand, but we're enjoying the better communication.

She's quite "toddler". She'll say "NO" while doing/almost doing things she's not supposed to do. "Uh oh" while she actively drops or tosses things to where she can't get it. She'll insist that she's done eating when you know she's starving (Sorry, girl, 2 bites just don't fill that belly of yours!), just so she can get down and mess with whatever she saw from the table that looked interesting. She will get ANGRY at Iain if she can't grab what she wants, and has headbutted him once. She will get ANGRY when it takes you more than 20 seconds to change her diaper. She still will blow kisses at the drop of a hat, and leans in cutely for a real kiss if she's in the mood. She will open the screen door, crawl out, say "buh bye!", and close the door in your face, only to open it again 2 seconds later.

Here's a cute video from several weeks ago, with Ria and Iain enjoying "Dance of the Blue Turtles" by Sting. Notice how she copies Iain when he bangs the floor ;-).