Sunday, July 25, 2010

2006 laurene

we haven't done much this weekend. on friday, j climbed with his friend c in the morning, before they came home to work on installing trim around the windows in the studio. j got to go climbing several times this week. no more vacation - he goes back to work tomorrow. this past week was the oregon brewers festival. z is too old to go to the festival now, and we are too cheap to hire a babysitter (it was going to be really hot anyway), so we chose to enjoy this bottle yesterday that we picked up a while ago. we had a nice little picnic lunch inside. the goat cheese made the wine taste phenomenal - it made it taste so much sweeter. this is one of the best wines i've had in a long long time. definitely a treat, a splurge, not to happen again soon.
we pick my parents up from the airport today. they've been in scandinavia for the past 2 weeks.


dada?


i'm sorry, z, but john travolta is not your daddy....

uncle e visits


my brother was in town for a convention, so he came over one night for dinner. unfortunately z was already in bed, but we woke him up briefly to get a hug from his uncle. he went right back to sleep.

mo's

z attacks cheese

he is victorious


happy to have cheese in belly.
a trip to the coast = a visit to mo's for lunch. it was sort of cold the whole day, which wasn't surprising, since it was on the cooler side in portland.

coast


last weekend we cleaned the house friday, and went to the coast on saturday before our cousins s & d arrived. s was doing the seattle to portland bike ride. d took this year off & drove the car down, so she came for dinner on saturday before going to meet s at the finish line. poor z thought she was a babysitter & kept crying when we would get up & leave the room. it was fun to see them again. they brought us lots of truffle salt & some blueberry jam - thanks so much!

Friday, July 16, 2010


grammy sent z a card, which he received today. this isn't a movie of him seeing the card for the very first time, but i had him do it again because he kissed the polar bear when he saw it. it was so cute! thank you grammy!!!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

z's speech.

z is 21 months old, and 4 days. over a month ago, we had z evaluated by a speech pathologist at ohsu. i really just wanted advice from a speech professional on how to encourage and develop his speech, but had to get him evaluated first. i'm assuming that when his speech improves and expands, his behavior will improve, and he'll stop the biting & pinching behavior. (his hearing was also checked, which was perfect.) we never received a report on this appointment, but it was recommended that we contact washington county's early intervention/early childhood special education to see if he qualifies for free help from them (speech therapy, etc).
we just had that appointment today (they were booked out over a month), and received a copy of the report from the meeting at ohsu in june. he falls in the 12th lowest percentile for receptive language (13 month age equivalent), and the 3rd lowest percentile for expressive language (10 month age equivalent). sigh. so he DOES qualify for free help from the county. free help is basically one home visit a month, for 45 min, where they suggest ways to play with him to build vocabulary. i've already done a lot of reading, thanks to friends who've gone through this, and we're already doing a lot of what we're supposed to be doing - labeling things he eats, plays with, sees... giving him a choice of things and waiting for him to answer, asking him questions, having him model our speech, playing in ways that requires him to speak. it doesn't seem to be doing much, so i guess we just have to wait. wait for his mouth to develop. wait for him to figure out how to control his muscles. it's a bit maddening, though, not to mention exhausting, to repeat oneself over & over again, only to get "da" or "ba." i sometimes wonder if he's really just lazy. and i wonder if these evaluations were a good idea. it's a bit of a downer to find out your kid is in the lowest 3rd percent of anything. j & i both didn't talk until we were 2 (supposedly), so perhaps z will just wake up & start talking one day. that would be fabulous, instead of envisioning a future of prying every single word out of him little by little.

i know things could be a lot worse. i learned tonight that one of my adult students' children has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and it's shown up in the eye, which could lead to permanent blindness. z has 2 arms, 2 legs, 10 fingers & 10 toes. that's a lot right there. z is a sweet kid. he can be quite delightful, especially when he attacks me with kisses. i'm just ranting a bit because i'm tired, and it's been a long day.

an early evening of teaching and j home on vacation means several nice family dinners outside on the deck. z had clearly finished eating at this point.


z always looks at us with a sly grin before turning around & standing up, because he knows he's not supposed to do it.

i have no idea HOW exactly this got started, but i thought it was really cute, so i grabbed the camera.

tricycle

this is z's way of riding a tricycle before his legs grow long enough to reach the pedals...

violining


when z does this, he's demonstrating what his mommy does - he's playing the violin. he has the arms a bit backwards. it's cute, but we have a long way to go...

canby 4th of july

we picked up z from his crib, sleeping, halfway through his nap, and put him in the car seat & drove to canby. he woke up just as we got into town for the parade at 2. it was a bit of a wait for it to start. he was a little grumpy. i think one parade was enough for the day. we'll know better next year.

somehow we acquired this lollypop. it was z's first one ever. he didn't really understand how to lick it - he kept trying to bite it.


fun in abuela's chair, drawing on his belly. we had a great early dinner -thanks so much for the meal, abuelo & abuela!

july 4th

we caught the july 4th parade in cedar hills in the morning, and then went & played at the playground until lunch time. it was sad to see our old house. we miss it.

there were these fun motorcycle cops that weren't there last year.

uncle sam...


babies in little hummers.
z really enjoyed the parade. there was tons of candy thrown out. luckily z doesn't know what it is yet.
he also enjoyed swinging in a swing the big boy way for the very first time. he still prefers the baby swings at the play ground...

pre july 4th party


j's soccer friends invited us over for a pre-4th of july party. there was one of those puffy air filled contraptions - z's first time jumping around. at first he just sat there & smiled, and didn't quite know what to do. and then he loosened up a bit. (on a side note - i think z caught his recent bout of croup from the kids.)

bike stuff.


this was parked on our kitchen table for a long time two weeks ago, while j was home for vacation (to babysit z). i was observing at the oregon suzuki institute in the mornings, before teaching in the afternoon. z had a baby sitter (who unfortunately had to deal with his stomach bug) for 2 days, and daddy for the other 3. busy week for mama, who wasn't used to getting up & out the door by 7am.

futbal.


my two boys, watching the world cup (now that we have the antenna...)

ma ma

sun glasses


z was having fun playing with sun glasses, and taking pictures of him is always entertaining for him...

camping

more fun with the tent outside.
j & z slept outside three weekends ago. it went pretty well. z managed to fall asleep with j in the tent along side him, which is a feat considering z WILL NOT sleep with us in our bed!
he woke up around 5:30am when the sun came up, so that has to be worked on a bit. it took him awhile to fall asleep, too.
he came down with a fever & stomach virus later that weekend. :(

camping

fun with the tent outside...

camping


my cute boys!

kiss


kissing brown puppy...

camping


fun with tents.
i surprised z one time after his nap by setting up our tent in the living room. it had to be quickly taken down so the cats wouldn't rip a hole in it.

messy


z eats blueberry pancakes, and gets them in his ear. we were watching a world cup game...