Gazing at ballon animals in the middle distance

Nana and Uncle Ted were only with us a week. But in that time they managed to:

Snuggle with short people,

watch short people gaze into the middle distance,

enjoy Sylvia's first balloon animal and

Rose Festival Parade,

and settle in for a big smile.

Much love!

Cupcakes for all!

For those unable to attend Sylvia's 3rd Birthday party

here are a few snippets of the action.

Testing the party games.

Success!

Setting the table. Thanks Mom!

Enjoying the fruits of her labor.
(Three years of growing that is).

Rocking some Knuffle Bunny.

Some artistic help from Aunt Vic.

Summer 2010 Highlights - Part 2

The end of the break continues....

What summer would be complete without a visit to the zoo where you can even ride the hippos (bet you can't do that at your zoo),

and comparisons to bears are inevitable.

One of the major highlights of the summer was a week long visit with Nan and Uncle Ted in Newport, OR. Now the sun may have refused to shine on the beach for more than five minutes at a stretch but we persevered through the rocky shoals (sandy beaches) in search of quarry.

When reality grew stale we headed
to the Newport Aquarium to tussle with star fish.

Is that the sun,
why yes...quick everybody outside and get on your whale.

Much tasty food was had by all.

Dessert please.
(Please ignore hand of papa that is making a move to "clean" the cone which looks in danger of dripping. Thanks mom for the tip).

Followed by a walk home in the arms of your uncle.

Summer number three draws to a close.

Tree Hugging

A few small pictures showing from a recent visit from Nana and Uncle Ted.

Sylvia, a Portland native,
explained Tree Hugging to to her Nana.

Then she took Uncle ted for a tour of the local pet store.
Can you say, "Buy me a Chinchilla".

New dress and a phone call to Lele.

Birthday - The Deuce

April 2010 was one of the rainiest in recent history but the sun decided to shine for Sylvia's second birthday.





We awaited our guests with a big pile of balloons at the ready and practiced our mini-horn skills. (movie)

Akio and his 'rents were early arrivals and was rewarded with fresh scribble paper and crayons.

The sun beckoned and the group moved outside to crawl on the play structure,

slide down,

dig for slugs,

and hunt for cake.

After the crowd blew out the candles, Aurelia cut the coconut treat on a chair handily offered by her hubby. She made due and we all enjoyed the flaky
confection.

Sylvia was again the receiver of wonderful generosity, including a super wiggly rubber snake. Thanks to everyone who joined us for such a fun day in the sun.

A Right Leg Gone Wrong

As many of you may have heard, Sylvia has a little accident on a slide last week and broke her right leg. According to the orthopedic specialist who set the bone the fracture was minor and should heal with no long term effects. She has already adapting to her cast (temporary pink seen below) and is teetering around the living room, eating messy meals and hugging Rex.

Our goal over the next four weeks is to keep the cast from getting too funky and stinky. That goes for the kid too, as baths are out for a while. With marathon training out for a bit we've moved to more resrtained activities, including coloring. Sylvia finds the crayons intriguing both as means to an artistic end and as snacks.

The zoo is also in bounds.

See lions are big.

 

Why Lobsters Don't Wear Sunscreen

When not swimming or playing (eating) sand, Sylvia made good use of her time with walking practice. Her skills are definitely on the upswing.





It may come as no shock to our gentle readers that Australia is the world's finest source for high quality sunscreens. Makes sense: lots of sun and fair skin. As sensible, modern parents we dutifully slathers our child so that approximately .0001% of sunlight was able to penetrate the thick film that coated her from head to toe. That with a hat and her snappy purple sun suit meant that she was quite safe thank you very much.

Actually, all this precaution was good as the sun was very intense and we all managed to get some color. Though not as much as our lobster buddies below.








We bid farewell to the Cape and soon after to our east coast family and wended our way home to Oregon, where a 107 degree heatwave was just around the corner. (No pictures of that. It was too hot to move, let alone come up with cute pictures with witty captions).

Summmer Trip: NHM-CPD

The dinnertable has been having technical difficulties recently (a certain operating system that shall remain nameless was having stability problems) and this has delayed the posts. Things seem stable for the moment so let the baby pictures commence:


Straight from Northampton we three (Aurelia, Sylvia and myself) motored down to Cape Cod (Eastham - how do you pronounce that? With an "H" or no. Not sure there is a right answer) to be with my mom and Ted. Upon arrival Sylvia got her first dip in the Ocean.

She was clearly intrigued with the waves and all that granular stuff that seemed so edible...

(Note to National Weather Service:
wind direction can be gauged using my hair)

Since it was getting late we decided a little swim in the kiddie pool and a snack would be a good warm up for tomorrow's beach adventure.

Next episode: Tomorrow's big beach adventure.