Thursday Thirteen #6

13 things that always make it into my shopping cart at the grocery store:

1. Avocados. Without question.
2. Bananas.
3. Seasonsal Fruits. Right now grapefruits and kiwis.
4. Kale.
5. Carrots.
6. Smoked Salmon.
7. Butter -- Earth Balance brand.
8. Active yeast for making bread.
9. Coconut Bliss ice cream.
10. Goat's milk cheese, oh yeah!
11. Brown rice from the bulk section.
12. Cereal.
13. Jake (yeah, he usually comes to the grocery store with me and rides in the shopping cart, ha ha!)

Camels and Eagles, Oh My!

So you may or may not have noticed that there haven't been any pictures of the Portland grandparents on the blog lately. That is because they were off on an exotic adventure! This is SUCH a cool picture.
Yesterday Jake and I met friends at OMSI. Before our friends arrived, Jake was running around and decided to turn this wheel for a bit.
Then he played with the water with his friend Ruby (birthday twin).
Ruby, Greyson, and Jake all hanging out in the eagle's nest. Greyson looks wicked holding that egg (ha, ha! I'm going to make a HUGE scrambled egg!) and Jake is being very nonchalant (probably for Ruby's benefit).

Train Table

I've been searching for a decent train table for Jake for months now. The ones I've found on craigslist.com have been not what I wanted, priced too high (typically sell for around $100) or came with toys I didn't want. Finally I found exactly what I wanted for only $30. I LOVE it when I make finds like that. So I contacted the owners and was the first inquiry, so it was mine. I went to go see it, but the problem was getting it home. It is too big to fit into our Subaru outback! Luckily it was Mike's last week of work and he was able to swing by and put it into the company truck on his way home. Nice timing, universe, and thanks! Jake loves it -- perfect for using to play with the cars. Hopefully later we can set up a train set in there.
The last 2 mornings Jake has done two new things: 1) he's been walking up at 6:45am (*groan* I liked the 8am wake-up calls better) and 2) he's been waking up and signing "hungry". So one of us has to get up and take him to the kitchen and make breakfast. Which we don't mind doing. It's just early :)

Animal, vegetable, MIRACLE!

If you know me well, I hope you are sitting down for this post. I did something unusual today, but something I have been mulling over for some time. I've been eating a mostly vegan diet for 6 years (the first 3-4 years were strictly vegan, then I began eating a little goat cheese during my pregnancy). About 90% of my meals are vegan, and we like to have some wild Alaskan salmon or halibut on occasion, and sometimes some fancy goat's milk cheese as an appetizer before dinner. A few months ago I finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and the book highlighted eating locally -- food grown or raised close to home, in the way that food has always been meant to be grown and raised, by small farms who take personal pride in their products. This book, along with the growth of local farmer's markets and other sources of information, has given me new insights about what I eat, and why.

So in case you are still sitting here in suspense, here is what I brought today at my local farmer's market:

See these beautiful eggs? They are eggs from pasture-fed, free-range chickens raised locally. Chickens raised without antibiotics or hormones. Raised a short distance from my home so the shipping costs/time from chicken to me was minimal. Eggs that have way more nutrition than the standard white sterile eggs at the grocery store that were raised by chickens in disgusting factory farms that stress out the chickens so much that the nutritional value of their eggs are low and the cholesterol is high. You can see the difference in these eggs by the different colors and shapes/sizes of these eggs.
I haven't cracked an egg in 6 years. Six years!! So it was a little weird, and this was more out of curiosity because I have not been craving eggs or anything like that. So I cracked open a few eggs, scrambled them, cooked them, and ate them! They tasted just fine. Not like "wow, I have been totally missing out on this for 6 years!" but more like "humm this is not bad. An easy meal once in a while..." Mike enjoyed it and Jake didn't think it was anything special. He was way more interested in the avocado.
After dinner he wanted to play with the lunch tins.
Mr. Serious Face.

Zoo!

Our zoo membership cards arrived in the mail yesterday, so today Jake and I took advantage of the sun and headed to the Oregon zoo. (Thanks for the zoo membership, Shelley and Joe!)

The first thing we saw were the sea lions. Jake was in awe. I was, too, they are so beautiful and graceful.
Jake is THAT tall compared to these bears!! From left to right, grizzly, sunbear, polar, and black bears.
I brought some veggie booty for a snack while at the zoo. Once Jake discovered the treasure that I had in my ultra-cool snack sack, he didn't stop eating until they were gone. (In praise of the snack sack: The snack sack is made of cloth and has a stainless steel bowl inside. Holds snacks and is washable. Clipped it to my yamo carrier via the carabiner. It was easily accessable to Jake and I didn't have to worry about him spilling a whole container of the veggie booty.)
Running around on the big grass lawn.
With mama.
Still eating.
And eating. Yum!
Look at me run!
Cool blue butterfly and Jake having fun.

20 Months

It is the 20th of the month and Jake is 20 months old. It was a beautiful, sunny day (a glimpse of spring!) and we spent time playing outside.
He loves his boots -- he asks to wear them instead of his shoes, but the boots are only for outside play.
Playing inside the bucket.
Dirt, anyone?
Tonight was a total lunar eclipse. This is the shot I took from our upstairs window. The moon was a coppery color. Very beautiful.
At 20 months Jake is certainly becoming more of his own person. He insists on doing many things himself, or while helping us help him. He loves to put the dishes with the cat's food on the floor and also pick up the dishes when the cats have cleaned their plates. His communication and understanding grow on a daily basis. He is much more sure-footed on both smooth and rough terrian, can run, and is starting to figure out jumping. He can go down a step or two just holding onto one of our hands, rather than 2. One of the best things has been how snuggly he's become, giving us lots of hugs, and choosing to spend time being held, with his head on Daddy's or my shoulder. He hasn't been entirely tantrum-free, but they are usually short lived and infrequent and mostly caused when he can't have something he wants. He eats well most days, and some of his favorite foods right now are kiwi, crackers, grapefruit, smoked salmon, V8, brown rice, and avocados. At Jake's request, music is pretty much constantly playing at our house. He has a broad and growing CD collection, but is now able to tell us which ones are his favorites and when to play them (repeatedly). Sometimes we put in a CD, he listens, and then tells us to 'stop' the CD because he doesn't like it. We're really enjoying being with him as he grows...

This is Jake 1 year ago, February 2007.

Tiny Tots 2

Jake's in his second session of the Tiny Tots class that he started last fall. He loves going and I love seeing him do new things.
In this picture, he's simply watching another kid play with the exact same toy he has. He loves to observe, and then do what other kids do. Only natural, right?
On the parachute which we use to 'open' and 'close' the class.
A continuing favorite -- the ride-on cars.
Ahoy, Matey!
Static electricity from the slides!

Mellow

So, back to Valentine's Day. It was very mellow. Mike and I exchanged nice cards for each other.

Mike came home with these (the puppy card is for Jake from his Portland grandparents):

I went to the Nomad body piercing studio and Tribal Art Museum and got a new fire opal for my upper ear piercing. For Valentine's Day Mike wanted fish and chips from his favorite place, which happens to be located near Nomad, so that was his present. Other than that, we just spent time taking care of Jake.

Jake has been doing a lot of this. He has also been wanting to be held a lot, too. I let him watch children's TV for the very first time, and he was mildly interested. I believe in TV when one is ill :)

Jake's communication skills are growing by leaps and bounds. He is now starting to consistently put 2 words together using sign language. I am also noticing him saying words at the same time he is signing them, sometimes. Yesterday I was amazed at this conversation (all in ASL):
Jake: milk
Mama: you want some milk?
Jake: *laugh* (means yes) (points to the couch) sit.
Mama: you want to sit and have milk?
Jake: *laugh* baby read
Mama: you want to read the book about babies and milk and sit and have milk?
Jake *laugh!!*

We have a sweet book that is all about breastfeeding babies, called Near Mama's Heart. It is his favorite book right now, and he wants to read it over and over. He also likes to nurse at the same time we read this book, just like the children in the pictures of the book. Definitely a nice thing to do when he is not feeling well!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you had a love-filled day. I will post more about ours tomorrow, as we have been dealing with a toddler who caught mama's flu :( Poor Jake. Luckily, he is better off than mama -- is ready to play after throwing up, whereas mama would be crashed out on the bed. Where do kids get the energy for that? Anyway, we are taking good care of him.
I tried to take a picture of him standing, but he kept kneeling down to imitate me! Ha ha!

P.S. For those of you who are wondering, that's a toothbrush Jake has in his mouth. After one of us brushes all his teeth, he brushes his own teeth for awhile. (Chewing on the toothbrush counts, right?) :)

Ugh

No posts from me... mama has been sick with the flu since Monday morning. Ugh! Thankfully, Mike and Jake are fine, and have been playing together a lot. Mike has been really great about stepping up and helping with the housework and taking care of Jake. I'm finally starting to feel better. Here's a picture of Jake to tide you over :)

Bowling Party

Today was Jake's friend Lola's 2nd birthday. We went bowling for her party.

Mike and Jake with the birthday girl.
Jake hanging out with Tom (Lola's father).
Jake got to bowl. Mike put bowling shoes on (they didn't have Jake's size -- the smallest they carry is a 9 and Jake is a size 5) and bowled with Jake. Jake was thrilled, he loves anything with balls!
They pushed the ball down the lane! (The gutter guards were up, too.)
Another ball for the second set...
Watching it roll towards the pins.
Good time!
Mama was there, too.

Flour

We had a fun day today, meeting some MDC mamas and kids at a coffeehouse. Later, when we were home, this is what Jake did!
After I took the first picture, he posed for me and put on this funny smile. This was his first time "posing and smiling" for a picture. I laughed so hard.
Flour is fun (and thankfully easy to clean off a tile floor).
I'm sure it feels good on bare feet, too!