A Year of Dating - April

In April us suburban folks braved the city. Both Michael and I haven't spent much time in the downtown of any city (minus the fact that Michael served pretty much his whole mission in downtown areas in Korea) - so when it comes to traveling any big city we're pretty intimidated. Mostly it's trying to find parking...and the one-way streets - they completely throw me off! And I don't know if this is the norm in big cities, but in downtown Portland there are lanes that only the public transit buses are allowed in. Not like I don't have enough to think about (Don't hit the pedestrians or the crazies. Don't go the wrong way on a one-way street. Where the heck am I going? Where can I park? I've never used a parking meter before...), but then I have to worry about which lane I'm allowed to drive in on that one-way street?! It's just a bit overload. Not to mention that I stick out like a sore thumb. Anyway, long rant cut short: we braved the city for some downtown fun. I was so proud of us.
Powell Books is a fairly well known used book store. It's huge...takes up a whole city block, with their 2nd location for all their textbook-like books across the street.

We perused the store - all the different rooms are color coded by genre. It's seriously like a maze in there, and it doesn't help if you're colorblind. ;)

After picking up a couple fun reads for myself and a Curious George book for Caden, we sauntered out onto the city streets in search of some grub. Back in Provo we loved The Pita Pit. We've really missed having one nearby (and Chilis, and Kneeders, and Zupas, and Macaroni Grill...guess we like to eat out), but low and behold there was one not two blocks from the book store! We enjoyed our pitas like the good old days as we sat in the store front and people watched (even better in Portland...you REALLY never know what you're gonna get). 

We meandered the city streets for a bit longer and ended up at this little gelato shop for dessert! 

Then we headed home to the little muchkin to deliver the beloved Curious George book. It was a low-key date, but then again, that's what you do when you're due any day!

Easter

Easter was good, low-key fun with our little family this year. Caden woke us up cheerily Easter morning with this little face!

 Then Daddy and Caden got their egg hunt on while mom snapped a few pictures. 

 

 Checking out his spoils...not really sure why we're doing all this instead of just eating breakfast like any other morning.

 Enjoying his eggs full of cheerios, raisins, Quaker Oatmeal Squares, fishy crackers...and I may have slipped in an egg or two of Lucky Charms. He was in heaven when he found those!

The Easter Bunny also left Caden a new book that plays primary songs! His favorite is now "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission" - which we play over, and over, and over, and over...while jumping on the couch of course.  Here's a video of him checking it out and enjoying his treats. 

And that about sums up our Easter celebrations as far as a 17 month old is concerned! We enjoyed church that day, watched "Jesus Returns" with Caden after church (Sadly, it's not nearly as well made as the original Living Scripture movies, in my opinion at least.), and had a nice little dinner. It was nice to have a low-key day to reflect on Jesus's resurrection and what that means for us - I'm very grateful for that knowledge!

A Year of Dating - March

Up for March on our year of dating was good old fashion bowling and drive-in burgers and shakes. I knew from previous experience that Michael would crush me at bowling so part of his gift was the sweetness of that victory; but dates are always fun when you appeal to the competitive side - so I gave it my best 8 month pregnant shot! 

By looking at this beautiful form you'd think we were pros ;)

 

 And the results...

Game 1 goes to Michael!

Game 2....drum roll please....JANELLE!
It is possible ladies and gentlemen - he can be beat.
(He swears he didn't throw the game - although I have my doubts.) 

And game 3 declares Michael the winner!
(Thank goodness he didn't loose to my 8 gutter balls - that'd be embarrassing.)

We had a great time and were both shocked by how tired our hands/arms were by the end! Pathetic. Not to mention how sore we were the next day. Bowling definitely gets to those muscles that my pregnancy routine of walking, p90x Cardio, and the elliptical don't seem to target so much :) Guess we'll have to go more often!

Next, Michael relished in his victory at none other than:

Thanks babe for accompanying me for another fun time!

As Of Late...

We can always start off a post with a good belly pic. Here's 31-32 weeks! These last 10 weeks go by the slowest. Don't tell a pregnant woman she's "almost there" when she's 30wks...it's torture for her if she starts believing it! Can't wait to meet this little spastic man. 

Side-note: If you ever hear a pregnant lady say her belly 'clicks' or 'snaps' or makes a sound like a static electricity ball snapping (yes, like in science class) - I can verify that this is TRUE (and so can Michael, Susan, and Aubri)! And I PROMISE it's not coming from me. It's the baby. It's not hiccups, he's not 'sucking his thumb' - it's a completely different sound. I'm NEVER moving when I hear it - but the baby is (but let's be honest, when is this child NOT moving?). My best guess is it's the baby's joints - like a knee, hip, or shoulder. Whatever it is, it completely freaks me out and is starting to give me the creeps - and it's started happening more and more! Thank goodness for bogus google forums or I'd think I was the only person this has ever happened to. Unfortunately, no one's ever been able to pin down what it is. 

 In other news, Oregon has been kind this winter. Oh so very kind. We've been able to spend many a day out at the park or jungle gym or just going on walks. Sure we gotta bundle up, but at least it's dry (for the most part) and I don't think a week has gone by that we haven't seen blue skies and sun. MUCH better than last winter - hands down. However, at least a couple times a week we've been forced to stay inside all day due to the weather and this is where forts come in! We have fun seeing what concoctions this little man's momma can come up with before he wreaks havoc on them. Simple in design, but perfectly suited for their purpose. :)

 Also, recently we were lucky enough to have Grandma Root and Aunt Aubri come to visit! We were lame and didn't take any pictures except for this one as they left for the airport; but we had a great time with them.  Caden was in heaven that people came to HIS house to play with HIM and readily taught them all the rules of jumping off the coffee table, reading books, and giving cuddles to anything and everything cuddly! Normally Caden needs an adjustment period to anyone new, but he's never been shy around these two - he's loved them from the get-go!

 We loved having them here and enjoyed lots of yummy food and relaxation. Saturday we took them downtown to ride the OHSU tram to give them a bird's eye view of downtown. The deal is they built this beautiful, fancy hospital up on this hill, but there's not really any parking up there. So they built a fancy tram for people to park down below and commute up to the hospital. Not really the most cost effective way - but something unique for sure! Since we didn't take any pics, I stole some off google to give you an idea (obviously these were in the fall - so just imagine sticks and blossoms :D):

 

 It was something short and sweet and cool to do...and Michael said it was completely worth the money just to see his mom freak out about heights. :) I'm not gonna lie - the angle they have you going back down at freaked me out pretty good! And forget about looking over the edge at the top. Caden, Susan, and I stayed far, far away!

So glad they came for a visit - love having family nearby. :)

A Year of Dating - February

Second date on our "Year of Dating" was great! We already had a trip planned to San Diego to visit my family, so we took advantage of the free babysitting and headed out to the coast for an early dinner at none other than:

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day at the beach in early February. Seriously - it was absolutely perfect in every way. :)

Waiting to be seated - not too bad when your wait consists of watching the waves from the end of the pier
and  messing with seagulls!

They ended up seating us on the second floor balcony - beautiful view, sunny and warm. It was so nice, in fact, we didn't realize until it'd been over an hour that our food still hadn't arrived...they'd given our order to another table and then kind of forgotten about us. Normally I'd be a little irked, but it was seriously that nice to just sit and talk and watch the waves that we didn't mind a bit. :)

 After we ate, we went for a stroll along the beach - and took some quick shots by the pier just to relish and glory in the sunshine (at least, I was relishing and glorying...Michael, I'm sure, was just playing along like a dutiful husband).

There was also some really cool looking sand art off the south side of the pier - a big mural drawn in the sand about half the size of a football field, maybe bigger. I took some pictures of it, until I realized what exactly the art was depicting...let's just say it was quite well done and 'artistic'!
Good food, good weather, good place, good company - February's date is deemed a success! :)

The Swan Song

"'Swan song' is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful song in the moment just before death, having been silent (or alternatively, not so musical) during most of their lifetime." - Thanks Wikipedia. 

View from our deck - what everyone should get to wake up to each morning

Well, the first part of February we took a "get away from dreary, gray Oregon" trip - which also doubled as our last trip before baby brother comes in May. Not that we're never going to travel to Grandma and Grandpa Butler's house ever again, but flying alone with two kiddos just isn't going to be as feasible as it has been with just the Caden kiddo this past year (we took 6 trips in the last year or so just to San Diego alone - not counting 3 trips Utah or our 1 trip to Arizona!...I'd say we've been putting some pretty good miles on this kid in his first year of life). Not to mention that I'm going to have to buy Caden a ticket and that doubles that cost of us flying if Michael doesn't come with us at the same time. So, a here's a little photo journal of our Swan Song trip of traveling back in the 'easy days' :)

A little Birch Aquarium:

Caden and Daddy in front of the HUGE fish tank!

A little kid lost in the sea...

A little too much fun in the shark...

 Grandma and Caden playing on the water bikes:

 And Daddy and Caden putting their brains together to come up with some great engineering so the boats can travel down the current:

No matter what he says - I know he wishes this was where he lived, regardless of the politics and prices :)

Trying to escape to play with the starfish

 One thing we did many mornings was head down to the duck pond at Kit Carson Park - Caden just couldn't get enough of the duckies and loved feeding them (and tried every possible maneuver to join them in the pond):

 And in the evenings and weekends when he was home from work, Caden enjoyed every possible moment with his grandpa. Mommys and Grandmas are great and all - but there's always a special place in a little boy's heart for his Daddy and his Grandpa. They played together, changed the car tires together, cuddled, and climbed the stairs. From the second he walked in the door Caden just followed Grandpa around!

 Oh and a special treat - Curious George! We love, love, love Curious George, but we don't have cable so we're often stuck to watching the same 3 episodes on pbskids.org for our 15 minutes of calm time/Mommy wants a break. However, Grandma has TV with DVR which = new Curious George episodes to discover!

  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Butler (and Jared - whom I'm sorry to say was sick a lot of the time we were down there so didn't get to play with us as much as we wanted, bummer) for a great trip! We miss you bunches already!

Trust the Results?

I'm so stinkin confused...but to explain what I'm confused about, let's start at the beginning. So when Caden was born he cried. A lot. Now a lot of newborns cry a lot, but his was often the "something is bothering me" cry. He also had a skill. A great skill. The kid could projectile vomit within a 5-6 ft radius without any effort. So, we determined he had reflux and got him the meds for that and they worked like a charm. We also determined he was sensitive to milk.   I assumed it was a lactose issue, common for little munchkins such as himself, and tried soy formula (by this time I was having to supplement nursing with formula because everything I ate upset the dang kid and he threw up everything I fed him anyway, so I never had enough). He broke out in a horrid rash all over his face and torso and had, let us say, diapers that labeled him allergic to soy. So we went through the whole Alimentum/Nutramigen journey and frankly that stuff it just putrid. I couldn't handle the smell and Caden started just flat out refusing to eat. Long last we settled on Target's brand of Similac Sensitive and everyone was happy.
Fast forward to him eating solids. Everything was great, no issues - until we got to graham crackers. Same diaper issues return - blisters, tubes and tubes of Desitin and a very unhappy baby. Then the same thing with Ritz. And Cheese-its. And some commercially make breads. And granola bars. And McDonald's french fries. And the list of processed foods goes on and on. Common ingredient between all of these? Soy. At least some form of it. So finally after a long two week stint of reactions to something I couldn't quite pin down, I asked his doctor if we could get him tested to figure out how severe this allergy really was and what the chances were of him growing out of it. So, after getting two shots, we drug the little man down to the lab and had four adults hold him down while they took a vile of blood from his arm. (So sad - and yet still better than changing those owie diapers...) Then Caden enjoyed his first sucker. He held on to that thing like a lifeline and licked it to the stick - he wasn't terribly messy either!
A couple days later the nurse calls me with the lab results. Verdict? No soy allergy. At all. However he is apparently highly allergic to cows milk. And mildly allergic to peanuts. WHAT??! So I do some research and discover that all the things he's reacted to do indeed have some form of milk protein in them (minus the french fries...and he eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches frequently without issue). Okay, that could make sense. Except for one little detail. He has NO problem with milk, yogurt, cheese, butter, ice cream, etc... In fact, milk, yogurt, and cheese are a HUGE part of his diet - sometimes all he'll eat. So I guess we're no closer to figuring out what the heck this kid's issue is than we were before. If anyone has any experience with a milk allergy - especially if it involved them being allergic to milk proteins in any form BESIDES dairy (pretty sure that's not possible...), I'd love to get your perspective. Otherwise, I'm deeming these blood results incorrect - they just don't make sense - and we'll just stay away from the triggers with no idea why they're triggers.