Along the John Day River

Here are some pictures from our week-long trek through central and eastern Oregon.  These are from the Painted Hills, part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument near Mitchell, Oregon.  As you can see from this picture, hot and dry are major themes of this trip and everyone has done surprisingly well under the circumstances.   Alisa being so far along with the baby and Olivia being, well, three. Of course, along with the sun comes swimming pools, which Olivia can not get enough of.  

Baby Preparation: T-Minus 9 Weeks

So, this is the sum total of our baby preparation at this point. A changing table and two baskets of clothes for newborn. Well, one basket has clothes and the other has a variety of hats. For some reason, we have lots of hats from when Olivia was a baby. I'm glad that we've gotten this far because now we know that we need more clothes than just three onesies for the little guy. We do have other necessities at the ready, for instance the infant car seat Chris pulled out of the garage, but other decisions we've put off: do we want a bedside-sleeper or a mini crib? A single or double breast pump? (Not coincidentally, these are the big ticket items that we're leaving to the last minute...)

Then again, I think placing the changing table in our room is a big deal for us, psychologically speaking. It says, "This shit's for real!"

(Me, at 30 weeks.)

3 Years and 5 Months

A couple days late, but here's the latest update on Olivia.  

Has there ever been a little girls so in love with dresses?  The first thing Olivia says when she gets out of bed is "I need a dress."  She toddles bleary-eyed to the closet and tugs on her favorite.  She must have her dress before the day can proceed.  

So many dresses, so much pink, so many magic wands.  Considering myself a liberal-minded father who tries to beware of  gender bias and all, I wanted to avoid placing too much emphasis on such girly things.  But what are you gonna do.  The kid likes pink.  She loves her dresses.  I'm not about to force a pair of overalls on her in the name of gender equality.  Let her be what she is and love what she loves.  

I suppose my role is to make sure she has exposure to as many things as possible, without coloring too many things as "bad" or "yucky."  I take it as a point of pride that Olivia can pick up an earthworm without getting squeamish.  That she loves to run an jump.  She's told me a few times that her favorite color is black.  I can't wait to see if that sticks.

26 Weeks Preggers

At the photo shoot for work...The balloons just seemed appropriate for my "condition"....

3 years and 4 months!

Unfortunately, we missed a month in there. In brief, Olivia had an awesome 3.3.

On to the past month: It's been super busy around here! The biggest project is getting our yard in ship shape for the summer. We hired a landscaper to help us get rid of the ivy and weeds and then had our back patio cover removed which as a big deal to Olivia because now her bike-riding space is awesome. We've also been busy working--especially me with the magazine and finishing my thesis...which is due in five days...

What's Olivia been up to? She's been enjoying playing outside in her sand box, making bird's nests out of grass and dandelions, creating strange concoctions (she calls it making cookies) in the kitchen from large amounts of baking soda, hosting tea parties, going to soccer class with Elena and Grandma, enjoying ballet on Saturdays, and overall just being a great kid.

We've also noticed more and more her specific tastes in movies which, of course are greatly influenced by how much patience we have, i.e. no to sugary-sweet animation and yes to Spirited Away, Ponyo, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. In fact, Olivia's love of Jack from Nightmare surprised both of us. She regaled Chris the other night with a very thorough summary of how Sally (from Nightmare) jumped out of the window to escape her evil dad and can sew her own arm on. I don't know how to explain to her that Sally can do that because she's not human...

Another thing Olivia's been enjoying is the iPod, where she made these drawings:

Next month we get to have some vacation time and hopefully the sun will arrive soon. XXOO

Easter and 22 weeks pregnant!

We had a lovely Easter today. Chris got to organize TWO egg hunts and Olivia got to see all of her cousins on one day. And it was beautifully sunny--a great day.



And, here's me at 22 weeks. Feeling good but I could use some sleep...zzzzzzzzzz

Through the years...

Using my laptop's camera on the same day through the last few years:

March, 2009

March, 2010

March, 2011

and today, 2012