Friday, February 24, 2012

Once Upon A Time...

...two wonderful under ONE year old baby friends with their two tired mama's, friends from a past world, met in the wonderful land of Treehouses. Those baby friends were cute, cuddly, smiley, mobile, notalwaysthebestsleeping, babies, but oh they had so much fun in this new treehouse land. They only had 48 magical hours in the treehouses which their mamas used wisely...eating, conferencing about ultra-important things like babies NOT sleeping, wonderful husbands, and the like...and of course more eating, and super duper playing babies...
This treehouse land was filled with swings, wonderful bridges between treehouses, ropes courses, horses, poles to slide down, ropes to climb up, and load of other fun things to explore...
the babies had high hopes of seeing it ALL...and they did indeed see it all, though  explore, despite their best efforts, might have to wait a year due to their mama's fears of falling babies...those mama's always worrying...
The weekend story follows...
The wonderful Treehouse baby suite....(even scented with the occasional poopy diaper just for comfort sake)

Adorable babies have to keep looking clean after all.....

Awesome swinging bridge morning walks amongst the treehouses

Lovely Mom friend Sheelagh and Baby David

Bonus trip to hike around Oregon Caves National Monument...no caves open this time of year but plenty of great trails!

Mid-day baby puff snack break in the parking lot....

Babies on the loose!

Next up was Taylor's sausage...the MOST DELECTABLE sausage you'd ever laid eyes on...the babies agreed it was the BEST...and the mama's were loving it too.....I wonder why????Something to do with the wonderful hubbies being missing? Hmmmmmm. Needless to say several packages of sausages made it home from Taylor's to the super duper husbands meat loving delight....that and bacon, can't forget the bacon after all....

More fun swinging under a bridge....

Just one example of a super duper treehouse...there were 17 of these things all over the place!!! Truly amazing.

Baby T and his Mama taking a morning bridge walk...nice view from 70 feet up!

Baby David means business when he crawls...

the two cute treehouse babies soaking up the last minutes of their wonderful treehouse vacation....

and the whole gang ending their mama gettaway in style with a picnic lunch with two happy playing babies...lovely!


Needless to say the time was filled with good walks, good talks, and wonderful food as the Wonderful Land of Treehouses delivered to whisk those mamas, even if briefly, from the daily strenuous though wonderful life of child-rearing...to a slower pace....

Blissful I'll say....

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I've got my three love monkeys here...very low key holiday for us.
Forrest did enjoy decorating his very first Valentines for his preschool/daycare buddies...was pretty cute to see!
Lots of love to spread in this household :-)
Forrest's very first 'tines.....

Monday, February 13, 2012

Just shy of the big THREE and 3/4 of the big ONE year old....these are busy boys!

 Look at these two Fulton boys...enjoying our mellow winter puddles, enjoying each other, turning their trusty Radio Flyer wagon into the Ranch Puddle boat, and growing up before our very eyes! As I write this, Forrest is just one short month away from the big THREE! We are very excited for this number, as moving away from our stereotypical Terrible Two's has been a vision of ours for a bit of time here as we travel through the trials and tribulations of Forrest. But in all reality, more people than not remind me the three can really be the Tortuous Threes....or, rather, the TERRIFIC Threes as I would like to think of them. Regardless, Forrest is a spirit to be reckoned with to say the least. I am writing this on a particularly challenging day with him....one where you would rather send him to live with the wolves, or to play on the freeway, or to hang by the ceiling fan by his toenails, (all memorable little tidbits from my own childhood!)
 At just shy of three, he LOVES to be outdoors, though doesn't necessarily remember that in the morning as he protests loudly to our efforts at getting him to his beloved outside place. Once there, though, he is usually a happy camper. We had a great walk today as he tromped in puddles, enjoyed playing with his boat, and tested out his new Bogs which we had splurged on, (much easier to splurge when you know two little boys will be using them eventually!) He is a overall good eater still, and porks down on steelhead, broccoli, cauliflower, any berry, apples, string cheese, yogurt, milk, and of course the beloved juice. Night time has been a struggle for the last several weeks as Forrest has been climbing out of his crib, (yes, he is still in it!) and we have met that challenge with some firm discipline that seems to be working. His new night schedule is to bed at 9, awake by 630-7, with a good 2 hour nap, sometimes 3. He really still needs his nap, or this kiddo is hard to deal with. So we try to make it happen. Still no serious potty training yet, though several peeing incidents in the potty make me hopeful! Looking forward to summer or at least warmer weather for that goal.
 Forrest overall is a happy, super cute, energentic kid who just wants to have attention and be played with. We've had some great days with him recently that make us see the light at the end of the tunnel...here's looking forward to the big THREE for him!

And Talin at 9 months! Wow has time been flying for this one. He is a mover all the sudden, scooting, starting to crawl, and finding his baby voice more so now than ever. He's a good eater, feasting on everything from steelhead/carrot/avocado to egg yolk/sweet peas/avocado/corn mixes mom makes as well as the jarred stuff. He is on a bit of a breast feeding strike currently, but still loves the pumped stuff and formula just fine.  Sleeping has been a bit of a struggle for little T man, as he seems to like to wake up at the 530 hour, no matter what day it is. Yesterday was 5 a.m. with no chance of renegotiation. This makes for parents who feel they have a newborn back. Today was a bit better with the 6am wake up call...6 we can do, but 5? really Baby T? Along with your usual 2am wake up feed? He also is a bit of a light napper, which in the same house as Forrest just doesn't jive. I'm a firm believer that whatever is true this week won't be next week, or at least next month, so lets just hope it all passes!



 Finger foods are also a new thing for this kiddo! He's a fan of putting everything into his mouth, especially those delicious puffs!
 I predict a 10-11 month walker here....though his balancing has gotten exponentially longer just in the last 2 days, so he could prove me wrong! But we are "helping" him out by putting him on his little baby butt as much as possible...;-)
These two brothers are such fun to watch. Tonight Forrest was decorating his brothers bald head with race car stickers as Talin scooted on the floor to chase him....cracking up the whole time. Pretty hilarious!!! They are a hoot, a hollar ( or a dozen....), and sure are cute along the way :-)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Friday, February 3, 2012

Feeling Thankful...in a nutshell

Felling VERY thankful for...

1) Friday.....and I'm not on call this weekend...need I say more :-)

2) A recent wonderful email from my lovely Grandparents, 80 years young and going strong. My Grandma Sheila has gotten wonderful news from Stanford that the carcinoid, (a form of cancer) she has been fighting is under control! Still a daily battle for her, but such great news for the best Grandma you could ask for!
3)These two lovely boys. Forrest with his smiles, growing vocabulary which is primarily positive and loving, and crazy spirit, (takes some getting used to, but still wonderful!)  Having a conversation with Forrest is wonderful. Sure there are still aggression issues, obedience issues, etc, but he is becoming a person. A person full of ideas, mostly good, nice, and thoughtful ones. When he will converse with you, he is a small amazing human being. We read books together every night and he LOVES this. He snuggles in your lap and we read and read until bedtime sneaks past us. Very thankful for these moments!


And Talin, my wonderful blue-eyed baby. I NEED him to stay a baby just for a while longer! I love his little baby feet and toes, his joyous expressions at the simplest things, (a spoon sends him over the moon!) Life is wonderful when so simple. I have had several of my wiser patients tell me I should hug him extra hard, as their babies are all grown up and have babies and grand babies of their own and there is "truly nothing like a baby to make you smile". I agree. He is really amazing. To hear this from an 80 year old who has fought breast cancer, an invasive belly surgery, and a broken hip all in the same year....well....you tend to listen. Savoring these moments as much as I can as he is now a mobile baby, scooting around, and full of smiles, laughs, baby language, and "mamamamamamamamamamamamaaaaaaa"   :-) :-) :-) 



4) My hubby, hard working, fish catching, wonderful partner. He is also a happy camper as his steelehead have shown face and he has been catching dozens of the fishies down at our beach and up river, (as witnessed by the last post...) A break in the grueling firewood routine by a few hours of fishing can really lift the spirits!!! He has been amazing in picking up the loose ends, be it dishes, laundry, or kiddie detail, he is there!!! I love him SO much!

5) For my body. I'm working on it....trying to mold it back into decent shape after two babies and lots of physical inactivity have left it pretty weak. I truly believe if I had never been a rower in college, and therefore not known what good shape our human body could be in, I wouldn't be so motivated to try and make it STRONG again. Maybe not college rower strong, but strong enough for this mama to chase after her boys, for her to keep up with a good garden, to kayak the river, to run or ride a race if she felt so inclined, and, most importantly, for her to feel truly happy. I do now completely realize that my happiness and therefore my thankfulness, really does stem from a strong body...
So therefore, it's in the works, a few workouts at a time, (the goal is 4 a week), and a LOT of sore muscles, ( and I mean a lot....I kind of doubt my abs will ever get back to the way they were! Sculling crunches...what is that? I would be happy to do 10) I hope we will get there one day. I'm just happy for the opportunity at the moment. Opportunity means goals get achieved. It will happen....

                                                                                    -unknown