Portland weekend

Friday after work we drove over to Portland with mother KP to visit Wes and Joanie for the weekend. I admit, I had an ulterior motive for the trip as well. Sinwaan (my horse) had been awarded Rookie Senior Horse for 2008 with the Pacific Northwest Endurance Riders and their convention happened to be this weekend in Portland. So I had pre-registered for the awards dinner.

Friday night we got in late, about 9:30 pm, and Joanie had a wonderful meal waiting for us. A chili/noodle type soup and cornbread. It was scrumptious. Levi didn't eat much (he had a lot to snack on in the car before his only nap of the day) and then was quite awake until 11 pm when we all went to bed.

Saturday morning I woke up at 7 am and was hoping to sneak out but Levi heard me sit up and asked "what doin' dada?" I told him I had to go to the bathroom and would be back and to please be quiet. I wanted to attend a seminar at 8 am at the convention. Well, afterwards Levi was awake so I took him downstairs with me to eat breakfast. Matt got up and shaved and got his shower and then once he was done I headed out alone. Wes and Matt were thinking of going to church or Sabbath school with Levi but I guess that didn't work out.

I got back to the house at 11 and Joanie was preparing another great meal. She had invited her parents over for lunch and made cottage cheese loaf, mashed potatoes, salad, and broccoli. Her parents brought fresh made apple juice (Tom promised no rotten apples but couldn't promise there were no worms) and ice cream to go with the brownies for dessert. YUM!

We had a nice visit afterwards while Matt and Levi took a nap.

After Levi's nap we didn't have a lot of time (we had hoped to go to the zoo or OMSI) so Wes and Matt and I took him to a local park instead. They had some age-appropriate playground equipment for him to climb on and over and a tunnel and a slide and he went around and around and around and had a great time. On the way out of the park he was running and tripped on the sidewalk where a root had grown and elevated the pavement. He didn't fall very hard but his head fell forward and banged into the asphalt. He had a mark on his forehead right away. After a kiss and a hug he was ok and pointing out airplanes.

At 6:30 we attended the PNER awards banquet. Levi enjoyed eating olives, croutons, some noodles and dessert. Then during the awards he thought it would be great fun to screech as loud as possible so Matt had to take him out. The awards went on longer than I expected so Matt and Levi ended up going outside and watching airplanes (the convention was at the Airport Sheraton hotel)

Weather today was about 40 with heavy fog off and on.

Photos to come soon....

Levi-isms

Today when I got home from work, the door was opened for me by Matt and Levi. "Guess who put his shoes on all by himself?" Really? Wow! I asked Levi if he wanted to go for a walk. "Yes! Let's go!" This was the first day that I have noticed when I get off work that it isn't pitch black outside. We still had a little light to walk by. So off we went. Tonight we worked on teaching Levi that he shouldn't run in other people's yards but his own yard is fun to run in. We walked from our house down to one end of the block, and then turned around and walked to the other end, and then back home again. The side streets don't have sidewalks and there seemed to be a lot of cars out tonight.

When we got home Levi said "Mama, want juice." So I opened the freezer and asked him what kind he wanted. Orange? Apple? Cranberry? Apple Raspberry? He pointed up and said "Apple Raspberry!" So he watched me intently as I microwaved it and then he helped me mix it up.

Later I was slicing up an onion for fajitas for dinner. Levi watched me as I put the peel in the garbage. He opened up the lid and said "hello in there....hello in there..." It was so comical.

Looks like I am 25 weeks pregnant today. I am getting tired of this already. I have heartburn all the time it seems and I am tired of gaining weight! I am craving sweet things which is not helpful!

Happy Sabbath

Friday nights have become the source of a new tradition around here. Matt pulls out his container of Legos and Levi gleefully helps him dump it out in the living room floor. They then spend the next couple of hours sorting through the pieces and building all kinds of fun things with wheels. This photo is of Levi asking "What is that dada?"

I worked a bit in the kitchen last night, making enchiladas and green chile rice for the potluck at church tomorrow - our Cradle Roll class was hosting the food with a mexican theme. I made so much food we had extra left for dinner. So after dinner the Legos came out and Levi was overwhelmed with sheer happiness. All week he has been asking about the menos (sounds spanish when he says it) but they are too small and messy to be left out all the time.

Another thing Levi has been asking about is the "Train meeting." Any time Matt takes him out in the suburban Levi will ask "dada, go to train meeting" and it isn't very clear so the first couple of days Matt wasn't sure what he was asking about. I guess he had such a great time at the last one it will be hard for him to wait a whole month for the next one!

I also taught him how to make chocolate milk this past week, so he will ask for that now also. It is kind of fun to see what his next request will be now that he is learning about communication and how much it can get him!

For breakfast today we had granola with strawberries and blackberries. The strawberries were from a photo shoot at work this week, the blackberries were on sale at Andy's. The strawberries were actually really good for this time of year. The blackberries were plump but not much flavor yet. Levi picked out all his fruit before he ate his granola. Believe it or not, this photo is the result of me asking Levi to smile for the camera. Yikes!

The potluck today was fun. Levi did not eat much but had a blast running all around the room, chasing and playing with the other kids his age.

Home from potluck, the guys take another shot at the Legos before Levi's afternoon nap-time.

Bedtime

Last night Levi had a tough time going to bed. He was very upset and crying and he is usually pretty agreeable and I couldn't figure out what was bothering him. So I got him out of his crib and carried him around and asked him if he was hungry or if he wanted some yogurt. I pulled out a kids yogurt and he said "no, want dada yogurt" and he put his back on the shelf and picked out one of the adult yogurts.

But then he didn't want to eat and he was upset and crying so Matt took him and held him for awhile and then took him back to his room. Levi wasn't ready to go down yet - he was sniffling still - so they looked out the window, and Matt asked him what the chickens were doing, and he answered back "What are the shiskens doing?" Matt told him they were sleeping. He said "Burby sleeping," so Matt said, "Yes, Chirpy's sleeping. Can you say 'night, night Chirpy?" So, he did. Then Matt asked him if he could say night, night to Beulla, and he did, then Gladys, then Beyonce, then Harrison, and he did. Then, Matt asked him if he could say night night to Mama, then Dad, then Levi. He copied him until I got to Levi, and when Matt asked him if he could say night, night Levi, he said, "Wape up shiskens!" Matt told him they wanted to sleep because they were soo tired, so he said night, night to them again, and then gave Matt a big, long hug, and then he put him down, and he didn't cry, but snuggled up with his stuffed Bebe, put his thumb in his mouth, and said, "Night, night Dada."

Good stuff

Tonight when I got home I did some dishes and then made salsa. Warren had brought some in to work today and it was really good. I have never been successful when I tried to make salsa in the past but with Warren's tips I thought I could probably get it right this time. Well except for forgetting an ingredient at the store, it did turn out really well and it is good stuff!

I forgot to mention in my last post that yesterday was a good day because while shopping produce at Wal-Mart Levi saw a gift card just sitting there on the figs. I picked it up and figured there probably wasn't anything on it but it wouldn't hurt to try. So we did our shopping and when I was checking out I asked the clerk to check and see if there was anything on the card. Well as it turns out, there was! A whole $25.99!!! That sucks for whoever left it there but it was a blessing for us.

Then today was a co-worker's 70th birthday and we had all planned to bring in food so from 10 am - the end of the day we all snacked on all kinds of good stuff. Pesto spread on bread, artichoke dip on bread, oranges, pineapple, cookies, crackers and cheese, chocolates, mixed nut brittle, etc. Then about 1:30 pm we pigged out again on cake and ice cream. So at break I had to get out and walk some of it off. I was able to do a full mile, so I am happy about that.

Tonight Matt has class at the school so Levi and I have had fun making and eating salsa, and playing with his trains.

Updates for 2009

Well it's been awhile since I've posted all the little tidbits that happen around here and I blame it on Facebook! Time to try and catch up!

With the addition of the train table in Levi's room, we've had to rearrange his furniture somewhat and ended up moving his crib over to the other corner, next to an old padded hinged-lid 'thing' (I hear it was marketed as a container for a vacuum). Levi realized quickly that he could climb up on the thing, and dive into his crib, doing a summersalt and that was fun. So now he can get into his crib whenever he wants, but still hasn't figured out that he can climb out. (We are not complaining). Funny thing is, he will climb in and settle down in there and be content until we come to check on him to see why he is so quiet. Then he pops up and shouts "want out!"

One of his new phrases, thanks to Matt, is "sock it to me....HUH!"

I recently got a small curio cabinet for my little model horses and was concerned that Levi would be into it all the time and I would have to figure out a way to lock it. Well Matt explained to him that when he touches the glass it leaves fingerprints and we don't want fingerprints on the glass so now he just looks and doesn't bother it. Go figure!

He is continuing to count all the time, whatever he happens to see. He is also more vocal about shapes he sees, and is coloring more with his crayons. He is very curious about the paints I have been using but other than letting him help me on a very limited basis, he hasn't done much with those. They aren't finger paints :)

Chicken Tamale Casserole

Tonight I tried another new recipe. I love tamales (vegetarian ones when I can find them) so naturally this one caught my eye. It was a reader-submitted recipe to Cooking Light entitled Chicken Tamale Casserole. I will post it here as it was submitted, with italics for changes that I made when I cooked it up.

Chicken Tamale Casserole

1 cup (4 oz) preshredded 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided (I used sharp cheddar since I had it on hand)
1/3 cup fat-free milk (I used 2%)
1/4 cup egg substitute (I used 1 whole egg, slightly beaten)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1 (14 3/4 oz) can cream-style corn
1 (8.5 oz) box corn muffin mix
1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies, drained
cooking spray
1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (I used 1 can Fry Chick, diced)
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream (I used regular)

1) Preheat oven to 400.
2) Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients (through chilies) in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9" baking dish coated with cooking spray.
3) Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, or until set. (I don't think mine was set after 15 min but I pulled it out anyway) Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until cheese melts (I baked mine for 20 min). Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces; top each serving with 1 tbsp sour cream.

This was our 'one dish meal' for the evening, I intended to make rice and a vegetable as side dishes but somehow forgot about that, so it ended up being a 3 serving dish for our family. It was a little spicy for Levi but he ate the chicken and sour cream off the top, with a side of milk :)

We enjoyed it well enough to add it to my permanent book of recipes but it wasn't a dish that blew us away. I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars. I expected it to be a little stiffer than it was, and that could have been from my substitutions or lack of cooking it long enough the first time through the oven.

Thursday evening

This evening Matt took Levi with him to the model train meeting in town, so I am finally catching up on uploading some photos from Susan's visit. Last month when Levi went he had a good time, and all the other members seemed to really enjoy his company as well.

Levi's 1/2 Birthday

Today at work I realized that today is the 12th and that means it is Levi's 1/2 birthday! My family never really recognized such a thing but the weather was so gorgeous today it put us all in a good mood and anxious to celebrate.

Matt made vegeburgers for lunch and devil's food chocolate pudding. He put a curly candle in Levi's bowl and Levi happily blew it out. I also picked up some ginger ale for the occasion. Levi loved that too.


He was so happy after lunch that we decided to take him down to Wal-Mart for some photos. The last time we took him in for portraits at the age of 2 we were lucky to get the one smiling photo that we agreed on. This time every photo they took was a winner! I can hardly wait the 3 weeks to see the prints. We tried out three backgrounds and settings, one of which was a library. Matt put his glasses on Levi and he posed just long enough to get the photo. It was so cute! What a good kid.

After that I had to get back to work but Matt took Levi with him to run some errands and reported back that he had a great time running all over the place.

For dinner we had stroganoff and Levi enjoyed picking out the chunks of dinner cuts and the green beans from his mixed vegetables. Oddly enough he didn't eat his peas tonight. Then Matt took him out for a walk before bedtime. (I wish I could have gone but since getting home I have been having a lot of trouble with pain in my left hip). When they got back I read him his new book, "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" and he enjoyed making the sounds with Mr. Brown.

When I have Levi turn off the light in his room before bed he points out all the items on the lightswitch cover - the frog, bubbles, duck and boat and then he turns out the light.

Some of his common phrases now are "Momma/dadda, what's that?" "Want help you" (when he needs help from us), "Green, green, go go go!" (at a stoplight when it changes), "Go pick grandpa up, eat at Taco Bell" when we head towards Dalles Military Road and many others.

Girl clothes

My collection of baby girl clothing has been growing so I decided to take photos of all the little outfits I have collected so far. Here's the link to the shutterfly album.

Shutterfly Album

Today I also watched the movie Miracle On 34th Street. It is the first time I have seen that movie all the way through. It was wonderful and I cried. I am crying at more things now with these pregnancy hormones.

I also got laundry done today and dishes and worked on a special project. I feel like I got a fair amount accomplished while also relaxing. I made a pitcher of sweet tea and it is wonderful (it is supposed to be decaf but we'll see).

January 10

What a busy day! The alarm did not go off as I expected in order to get the barn chores done in time to get Levi to Sabbath School. But we went for church and a couple came and sat down next to us. I introduced myself afterwards and discovered their names were Laura and Levi! They were visitors.

We came home and had a quiet lunch afterwards and rested, napped, read, etc until 4:30 pm and then I realized I better get the dogs pottied and Levi ready so we could go to Jenee's for her game night. It was a big turnout with everyone I know and some people I didn't know. There were lots of goodies but we had eaten lunch so late I was not hungry. We played a rousing game of Pit and learned about the spoons and crops, that was really fun. Then everyone took a break to eat and we left about six pm.

Matt needed to do homework, so we dropped him off and went out to feed horses. Then we went to my mom's house for her game night. Two of her friends had their grandson there and he went up to Levi and gave him a hug. Levi kind of stood there and looked at him, and looked around at everyone else and wasn't sure what to do. The boys parallel played most of the evening, with cars and blocks. We played Loaded Questions and had a lot of good laughs.

It was a full and very fun day.

Levi - choices and measurements

Levi was weighed and measured today; 34" tall and 27 lbs 2 oz. He is in the 10th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight, with his BMI exactly where we want it, right in the middle!

Matt treated us to lunch out today at Merchants, we split a hoagie (their prices have gone up again since I was there last) but this time it did come with chips and potato salad. We didn't know it would come with anything so we both got a bag of chips - mine were salt & vinegar and Matt's were sour cream & onion. Matt got a black cherry soda and I got chocolate milk.

Levi learned about choices today. We learned that he likes chocolate milk better than cherry soda, and he likes sour cream & onion chips better than salt & vinegar. We got him his own muffin. We let him choose between pumpkin or blueberry. I thought for sure he would go for blueberry (and maybe should have ordered that anyway) but he wanted pumpkin. It had some raisins and walnuts in it and Levi enjoyed about half of it and then he had enough and put it on my plate.

After that we walked a couple stores down and got ice cream in Brights. I had never been in there. Looks like they have some great confections! I got chocolate fudge brownie flavor and Matt ordered Mocha Almond but he didn't like his very well. Mine was great and I shared with Levi.

It was a fun hour out on the town.

My dad is back in the US now from Kiribati so I am looking forward to catching up with him, perhaps this evening.

Checking in on the baby girl

Had my monthly pregnancy checkup today with Dr Karmy. Apparently I have gained another 5 lbs, but half of that has to be muscle, or so I tell myself! Dr. Karmy said the weight gain was good. Well I don't think so but so long as she's happy I guess I am too. We got to hear the heartbeat and it was going about 153 bpm. Levi sat in Matt's lap with big eyes and said "What is that?" about four times. It was really cute.

Afterwards we had dinner at mom's. It was really good. She tried out a new soup recipe on us - a roasted tomato and blue cheese. I got my portion before she added the blue cheese and it was savory! Served with dill muffins that were also very delicious. We also had a dark green salad and baked macaroni and cheese. Levi loved the soup and then ate a couple bites of mac n cheese and a bunch of olives from the salad and then he was done. He spent the evening playing with cars and blocks.

First long walk

After work we went to Safeway to refill Levi's fluoride tablet prescription. He loves to take "Levi pills." We also got some goodies at Starbucks as a treat since there is a Starbucks inside of Safeway. As we waited our turn in line, Levi pointed up at the sign and started reading off letters in the Starbucks logo. I got a Ginger Snap Latte and Matt got a Mocha Cappuccino (both decaf). We also got a slice of lemon cake and a cheese artisan. Yum! Levi enjoyed all of them but liked the lemon cake the best.

I went back in his bedroom with him when we got home and he noticed a damp spot on his train table. He said "Momma, what's that?" and I told him it was a secretion from his lemon cake and we should clean it up. So I got a baby wipe and took care of it. He held out his hand for the baby wipe and then proceeded to clean it for the next two minutes. I guess he wanted to be sure it was really clean!

After dinner I glanced at our thermometer reading (about 7:30 pm) and was shocked to see that it said 52 degrees! So I went out to the barn and took off Sinwaan's blanket.

When I got back I was in the mood for a walk so Matt and Levi and I all took a 2 mile stroll. This is the first time I have been able to walk that far. I am having some hip/rump pain off and on from the pregnancy so was hoping that a walk would help with that. It didn't - but didn't make it worse either.

It was so nice to get out and get some exercise and the wind wasn't too bad either. Levi rode on Matt's shoulders most of the way, but did want to get down and walk the last 1/2 mi or so. First thing he wanted to do was run. "Running, running up-hill!" and then "walk backwards" and he also found some patches of ice to slide around on.

Even after all that exercise he still was not tired at bedtime. He went down about 9:30-10 pm and when I checked on him at midnight he was still awake, but had drug his laundry basket into the crib with him, along with everything else that was within reach (numerous blankets and stuffed animals). "Momma, want out..." No Levi it is time to go to sleep, it's late! Finally he did fall asleep sometime before 1 am when I finally got to bed.

After-Christmas present

This morning I heard Levi stirring but I was so tired I did not want to get out of bed. I dozed off and then woke up again to the sing-song sound of Levi saying "Wake up momma! Wake up momma!" So cute, how could I ignore that?

He is really talking a lot today. Counting and colors and describing his cars. Yesterday we took Susan to the airport in Pasco and stopped off at Target to use some gift cards. We happened upon a train table that looked like it would work perfect for Levi. So thank you to aunt Julie and also my dad and his parents for contributing for this gift. He was so excited about it that when I put the big box in the cart he turned around in his seat and wrapped his arm around it and hung on saying "want big one, want big one" and I said 'yes, it's yours we have to pay for it and take it home.' So this morning we put it together for him and he just loved it, he was talking up a storm about it and so eager to play on it with his trains and also his Hot Wheels cars.

January 2

This morning we were shocked to see snow falling down once again. We already had 3 inches of wet, heavy snow by 9:30 am and it was still coming down fast! Matt got Levi ready to go out for a ride to pick up Susan and here he is posing in his bathrobe.


We decided that this second snowfall would be a good opportunity to finally take our family Christmas photo for the year. On the way to Thai City for lunch we stopped at Fort Walla Walla where Susan snapped this portrait for us.

There are also some 3-generation photos that I took, I hope to post one or two soon.

New Years Day

This morning we got up and had breakfast about 9:30 am. I made crepes with the normal breakfast filling for the first time. Matt loved them. I also made some thickened fruit for the top - a choice of blueberries that we picked last summer, or apricots which may have been off our tree.

We (Susan, Matt, Levi and I) spent the day leisurely talking, on the computer, and playing games. For lunch I tried another new recipe, a broccoli casserole for the vegetable. I thought it was good but Matt didn't think it was anything to write home about. We also had small shell pasta with sun-dried tomato sauce and swiss stakes. Susan had never seen the movie Cars, and Levi loves it, so we watched that this afternoon as well.

In the evening we played Family Feud and ate an artichoke dip that Susan made with wheat thins - so good! Susan also spent some quality time reading to Levi. It was a nice day.