Portland.8

Two conversations that took place while we were in Portland. (I actually wrote these down to share with you and didn't lose my little blue paper in the last month. Small miracle.)

Conversation One:
Stuart went through a phase where he was worried that Alison was going to eat everything. You'd think I routinely starve the child (I know he's skinny, but I do not) with how he carries on with the phrase, "Don't eat it all!" Alison and Stuart were playing at the little table in the apartment with imaginary food.

Alison: Here's some gum. (The favorite mysterious food that they have never had in real life.)
Stuart: Awison, don't eat it all! [very concerned voice]
Alison: I'm making some eggs.
Stuart: Don't eat it all. [louder concerned voice]
Alison: More gum.
Stuart: Gum? Don't eat it all. Don't eat it all. Don't eat it all. Awison, don't eat it all. [hysterical loud concerned voice]
Crazy Mama Listening: Stuart, it's not real! [thinking strongly about jumping out a window]

I don't understand his fear of running out of food in real life, but the hysteria of running out of pretend food. It makes me insane.


Conversation Two:

So I was reading http://www.dooce.com/, this post specifically, which links to this article about a baby kangaroo who was saved by a dog. Sweet. A baby kangaroo and a dog. Alison will love this.

Crazy Mama: Alison, come see this baby kangaroo. She is so cute!
Alison: [runs over and looks for half a second] Mommy. I need to see a hippopotamuses.
Crazy Mama: But did you see this baby kangaroo. Look at this dog. It saved the baby kangaroo's life!
Alison: [continuing her first request] Yes. A hippopotamus pwaying wif a ball.
Crazy Mama: Isn't that amazing. This cute sweet tiny baby kangaroo and dog.
Alison: Would that be okay? I need him pink.

Okay then. No baby kangaroos.

Crazy Mama: [image googles pink hippopotamus]

Portland.7

Nicole lives down the street from both a Ben & Jerry's and a Coldstone Creamery. We convinced Alison and Stuart that Coldstone was a jammies-only icecream place. That way we could go for late night icecream and not have to get them into jammies if they fell asleep on the way home. Perfect. They are two so they never wondered why the mommmies didn't have to wear jammies.



Ready to go.

Portland.6

I have only one plant that needs regular water. When I came home from Portland I realized quickly it hadn't been watered, in well, over a month. The leaves had lost all of their plumpness and were wrinkled and wilted. The soil was so dry that when you tipped the plant, it all came out in a shrunken hard block.

At first, I was annoyed. Ryan said something like, "You never told me it would need water." I poured the water in. Really? I'm required to tell you that this poor shriveled thing, practically shouting, "HYDRATION PEOPLE!" needs to be watered.


Then, reminding me that I don't understand plants at all, this happened.
If I hadn't been watered in over a month, I wouldn't make flowers. EVER. AGAIN. Plants are much more forgiving.

Windy Conversation

We were leaving Sam's Club and it was a bit windy outside.



Alison: Mommy. Too windy. I no like wind. Windy in my bwue eyes. Windy going to blow me.
Mommy: Alison, the wind won't blow you away. You are too big.
Alison: Yeah. Windy only blow birds and hewicoptewrs.

Portland.5

A week or so after we arrived in Portland Baby Martin had a doctor appointment with his pediatrician at OHSU. Nicole considered inviting us but then decided that taking two year olds to a doctors appointment for a baby sounded like too much fun. Alison had other ideas and complained about a mysterious rash for a few days. Well, since Alison hasn't ever really done this before I thought maybe she had some sortof of UTI and made an appointment for Alison to be seen in the same office at the same time. It was quite an adventure. First we took the bus there. Most of OHSU is at the top of a big hill. The entire way up Stuart was convinced we were going hiking.

Stuart: Mommy. Going hiking?
Me: No, we're taking Alison and Martin to the doctor.
Stuart: [incredulously] Nnnnooo. Going hiking.

Alison was in perfect health except maybe a minuscule almost-a-rash. She needed to pee in a cup though to determine this and she didn't want to. The doctor tried to trick her into drinking some apple juice but she saw right through that and refused to even taste it. Stuart drank 8 oz and thought he was mighty lucky. The doctor asked me what Alison might drink. I couldn't think of anything. I mean if she wasn't going to drink apple juice, which on most days is the sweet nectar of the gods, I was pretty sure she wasn't going to drink. I told the doctor so.

Doctor: Do you think she would like to drink a milkshake?
Me: You have milkshakes here?
Alison: Yes! Miwlkshake, wif a straw! Like dis yyyuuuoouup [slurping from a straw sound and action]

She brought two back and Stuart, Alison, and myself all thought this was the coolest doctor's office we'd ever seen. Alison peed in a cup. Stuart chose a sticker and Alison brought home a book.

OHSU also has some of their specialty offices at the bottom of the hill so they have built a gondola/tram to shuttle people back and forth. After our very successful appointment (I mean really, $120 dollars got us two apple juice, two milkshakes, a sticker, and a book) Nicole devised a route to get home using a bus, gondola, streetcar, and train. She rocks!

I didn't bring a camera. Sadly, sometimes these things happen.

I was in Portland a month and I drove my car twice. Once to pick up the new stroller and once to go to the coast. Stuart and Alison did so great with public transit. In a lot of ways it was better than having to take a car places. The time we spent together was better, we could talk and I could hold them close. We had long discussions at the stops waiting and they learned new things. One of my favorite things was the running commentary Stuart and Alison would give in their most loud and authoritative voices, to buses and trains full of very polite and quiet people.

There's the big big water. Now we're stopping. That lady. She get off. People get on. The doors are closing. [said just like the recorded voice over the speaker] Now we go.

This is the day we went to the main library downtown.

This is the stop outside of Nicole's apartment.

This is on the train.
Walking downtown, back from the library, there are a series of fountains with statues of creatures.

Portland.4

WAFFLE WINDOW.

One of my favorite parts about Portland is the waffle window. A local restaurant sells waffles out of the kitchen (off the back side of the building) on weekends. I recommend a strawberry waffle to eat there and a chocolate dipped waffle to go--but both every time. Perfect.

Portland.3

On the way to Portland I knit a hat with some leftover scrap yarn from a custom project in a nice purple. I was so pleased thinking it would be nice to have a gender neutral wool hat around. Stuart loved it. Alison loved it. Portland is a great town for wearing lots of hats. The only problem was they BOTH loved it too much. We still can't bring the beloved out without having a complete meltdown and argument about who gets to wear the purple hat.


I thought (mistakenly) that if I made Stuart his own special hat he would forget about the purple one. We set out to find a Thomas hat (yes, first mistake admitted, we're using a train for inspiration).

We walked to a new yarn shop called Yarnia that is based on the premise that you pick out different threads and they combine these threads to create a custom yarn. It sounded really great only it totally stunk. They don't have multiples of threads so to get an aran or worsted weight you have to combine a bunch of different threads of different color and texture variations. Then, your odd colored threads aren't twisted together or anything as they are wound so you get this really splitty yarn that has essentially no stretch to it. And when you are knitting your yarn develops loops from it not being stretched equally during winding. The length isn't the same between the threads as it winds onto the cone. Over the course of your knitted project, this difference adds up until you have a messy loopy problem. Essentially, I could create the same effect knitting with embroidery floss. The owner was nice and naive, really full of commitment to her idea. I hope she survives but I'm pretty sure her shop is bound to fail, miserably.

Anyhow, the experience was worth the price. Nicole and I officially created the ugliest yarn in the universe, based on Thomas. I was too stubborn to abandon the project and by the end I'd become strangely attached to the ugly little monster. Stuart likes it fine (but still would prefer his purple hat).

While Nicole and I were picking out the Thomas yarn, Alison realized immediately what we were doing. She wanted a Percy (Thomas' friend, another engine) hat.

Alison: Gwween. Purrssy is gween. Theres a gween mommy. I NEED a gween hat.

She was distracted though and ultimately chose a pink and purple combination. Not really surprising.

Her hat turned out worse than the hat based on a train. Not even Alison can love that lump.


Alison, with her pink and purple selections, waiting her turn while the owner winds the Thomas colors.

Both very pleased with their final purchases in their little blue bags. Check out our new stroller.

In response...

I'm already breaking my chronological rules.

To my Grandma's comment: What is the green stuff in your May 1st post? It looks like grass to me. Hope to see you soon.

That was my lawn. Now it looks like this and it is located on the side of the house.

The lawn looked decievingly lush and beautiful in the May 1st post. We didn't murder a perfectly good lawn. It only looked decent because it is the Spring (yeah, Winter, hear that!?!), the weeds haven't grown--yet, and we hadn't mown it since last fall so the ditches from the sprinklers we are installing are covered. In truth, the lawn is made from many different varieties of grass... and weed. Some thrive better in the summer than others so it looks patchy and uneven most of the year. Also, I estimate that we spent 80% of our last summer dragging the hose around to water the thing, which is why there are now sprinkler ditches throughout. I edited out the gaping brown spot in the middle, the result of replacing the main water line to the house. Here is a more accurate reflection of our May 1st lawn.This Spring I had a love/hate relationship with the snow. On one hand, I found it obnoxious to be snowing in May. On the other, I missed the carefree days when my yard was covered in snow and I could blissfully convince myself it was beautiful and finished underneath. When the snow finally melted this spring it was a letdown. Bummer, it didn't miraculously heal itself over the winter.

So I'm happy to day, "Goodbye lawn!"

Portland.2

I've never consciously talked about ballerinas with Alison--I'd even say I've avoided the B word. Yet somehow she has engraved into her little brain that ballerinas are the most beautiful creatures in the universe. She aspires to be one. (I wonder who introduced her to the concept. I thought most little girls her age want to grow up to be princesses.)

Aunt Nicole had real live ballerina things at her house! GASP!

Portland.1

Stuart's and Alison's room in Portland. Okay, okay. Closet.

Overwhelmed. Perfect adjective for my little life this month and current blog situation. In an effort to update, I've come up with a game plan for small but hopefully consistent steps forward. Small blog post, chronologically, each day.

Here's is what we've been up to, just so you know what to look foward to.

1. Spent a month in Portland.

2. Computer crisis, near crash

3. Stuart surgery (I'll update that more later--this was recent, so it has a bit until its moment in the timeline. No frantic emails, it was a planned & hopefully successful surgery to help with obstructive sleep apnea.)

4. New Spring/Summer wardrobes

5. Washer broken, again

6. Landscaping project coming along nicely--water in the garden now, but no grass in either the front or the back

7. Some hiking and spring activities (yah!)

Dear Winter,

Really? Don't you think you are being a tad bit selfish. I mean, it is MAY!
Sincerely,
Aurelie

I woke up to this and a thermometer that read 33 degrees, pulled up the weather report, and yes, scattered snow expected throughout the day.