Halloween Fun

Jake and I carved this pumpkin together in the afternoon. We covered all the basics - eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
Then Jake got dressed in his costume. Isn't he a cute train engineer?
He was so excited about going down to the Village to trick or treat at the shops! Here he's running down the street, Daddy by his side.
Going into the Village with Aunt Melissa and Uncle Mike!! They are staying a night on their way to a family reunion.

The Village was amazingly crowded!! There were lines to get candy by every shop.
Everyone went down one side of the street and up the other.

Jake bumped into his buddy, Skylar! She makes for a very cute flapper girl!
Jake is very serious when being photographed.
Yup, I'm wearing a pumpkin shirt.
We spotted this hot dog.
Hey, I'm married to a train engineer! (Yup, we ate Thai food on Halloween.)
Yay for having them visit for Halloween fun!
Heading back home... He'd had 1 green lollipop and ran around for a good 20-30 minutes. Sugar crash starting in 3-2-1...
We got home and got to work carving the other 2 pumpkins.


We handed out fair-trade dark chocolates and organic lollipops. I hope we have some leftover!
Happy Halloween!

Yum, with carrots

Jake and I love to eat this dip that tastes best when eaten with carrots. It is one of the very healthy things I can get him to eat easily. After I found that it was well-liked by my family, a friend, and a gathering of friends, I decided I would post it here although I cannot take credit for it. It was first posted by nakedjen on her blog (but I can't find the link to that post). I don't think she'd mind me reposting this recipe because as she herself says, she wants us all to eat healthy, organic food!

In a blender or food processor, combine the following:

2 cups raw cashews
4 whole garlic cloves
1/2 cup chopped basil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup spring water
1 Tbs sea salt
1 Tbs or more tumeric

Sleeping Fort

Today marked the start of Jake's fort-making years. I remember how much I loved to make forts when I was a kid, and made them quite frequently with my sister. Daddy built the fort for Jake and he was thrilled.


We call it the Sleeping Fort because Jake keeps insisting that he is going to go inside and sleep there.

Airplanes!

Mike got these airplanes for his birthday and I put them up, 15 months later finally. They are hanging in Jake's room.

Jake is thrilled with them! Now he prefers to have his diaper changed right underneath them so he can look up and study them.
The green one is a float plane, which Jake refers to as the "water plane".
Just cute.
Today was a good day. After a great time getting our eggs, fruits, and vegetables at the farmer's market, Jake and I sat down and enjoyed the band that was playing this week. The sun was shining, and we got to say hi to several friends of ours, including Jake's buddy, Skylar.

Then the 3 of us worked in the backyard this afternoon, preparing the garden for winter, transplanting a tree that was in an awkward place, and re-filling the birdseed holder. Really glad we got that taken care of, especially on a warm, sunny, late-October day.

***

Oh and the whole time-change thing? Bizarre. My blackberry showed 1 hour behind today, and I got totally confused this morning. After reading the calendar which shows the change happens on November 2nd this year, I finally remembered that I never had the programming change uploaded into my blackberry -- I had been switching between time zones to show the appropriate time, but this was the first time that it showed the time change on a different day. If we could be like Arizona or Hawaii and not have time changes, I'm all for it.

Yahoo!

I love Oregon's vote-by-mail system!

Boy Shoes!

Jake's feet grew. His toes come up to the '7' on the foot measurement scale, but he needed size 8 shoes. (Ignore the water spot on his shirt... he'd just had breakfast and I had to clean up his shirt!)
These shoes just scream BOY! This mama is having a hard time wrapping her head around the BOY shoes.
But they are good shoes for this little runner, jumper, and all-around active guy. I made sure that they wouldn't easily get wet for those damp days at the playground.

Cochlear Implant Names

The other day I was at the farmer's market -- I was in a hurry to get out of the house and get to the market right when it opened so I could be sure to get a carton of eggs from the guy who has the most delicious eggs but only has a few cartons available every week. My parents were at the market, so I said hello and informed them that I had run out of the house so fast, I had forgotten my cochlear implant.

Only I said I had forgotten my "implant".

On the way home, I got to thinking. "Implant" is such a silly word to use, since the implant really refers to the internal piece which was ... well, implanted. Stating that I had forgotten my implant makes no sense -- like having your camera with you and forgetting the lens? Okay maybe a bad analogy. "Cochlear implant" is such a mouthful. I guess I could say "processor", since that is what the external piece really is, but that is such a generic word.

"I forgot my processor."

Sounds like I forgot to bring my computer or something. At least, I think that is what would first come to mind for most people.

I could say I forgot my Esprit 3G, which is the name of that specific processor, but again that is a mouthful and most people would have no idea what I was talking about.

Soon I am hoping to upgrade to the newer processor, which is called the Freedom.

"I forgot my Freedom."

Bizarre and silly.

Any suggestions??

28 Months

Today Jake is 28 months old. He weighs about 27.5 pounds and measures in at 35 inches tall (gained a little over half an inch in 2 months!). His language development continues to astound me. He is regularly talking in 3-word sentences, both in ASL and English. I have even seen a few 4-word sentences. He refers to himself as "Jake-me" and loves to tell me and others about things he did or things that happened recently. Every night when we are in bed and getting ready to sleep, I recount the day and he now will chime in to add to what I am recalling about the day. He is saying more things in English (today he started saying "whoopsie-daisy", something his playmate, Skylar says. Hilarious). He is also using more signs and changing some of the signs that he uses to make them correctly (he signs "help" by using 2 fists with the thumbs pointed up and moving the fists upward together, but just yesterday he corrected that to 1 fist with the thumb pointed up and the other hand flat underneath the fist).
He loves to pour his own milk into his cup or the cereal bowl, eats an apple a day when they are available, and loves stuffing popcorn into his mouth. He watches Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, or Thomas the Train DVDs after dinner.
And he loves to give us lots of kisses and cuddles.
He is a very active boy who LOVES to be outside as much as possible. The other day he discovered the joy that is sliding down a grassy hill that was slightly muddy from rain. Mama discovered the joy of cleaning mud off jacket, clothes, and shoes. When not outside at the playground or running around, he is inside, also running around and jumping off furniture (oy) and doing exercises.
Bicep curls.
Triceps.
He still loves to read. However, right now he doesn't have a favorite book but rather loves to read the product inserts for things like Brio, Lego, and Thomas the Train. We think he is ready for the Richard Scarry books. Before we know it, he'll be reading War and Peace!

Costume Birthday Party

Today we went to a birthday party for one of Jake's friends. It was a costume party so Jake wore his Halloween costume. You get glimpses of it here, but you'll have to wait 2 weeks for full shots ;)

Jake had a blast driving different toy cars around the gym.
So cute with his hat! He was dressed as a train engineer.
This was the scene...
There were caramel apples to eat. I asked Jake if he wanted an apple and he did. So I handed him the caramel apple and he protested -- what is that icky brown stuff on it?? He refused to try it until I had taken a bite (yum!) and then took another bite and gave him the piece. He put it into his mouth and then started to spit it out right away but then once his tongue registered the sweetness that is caramel, he inhaled it back in and ate it! LOL.

Water Bottle

Yesterday was my first time traveling for work in a long, long time 2 years. Since that time I have become more and more eco-conscious, so before I started traveling this time I thought about all the water bottles one purchases and uses during a business trip. On a trip with one overnight, that is about 5 bottles of water, and there usually are no recycling facilities for the bottles (although that is slowly improving) and I don't have enough room in my luggage for that many bottles especially now that some airlines are charging you for how many bags you check.

Not to mention... there are more reports about how most bottled water is just tap water anyway, and sometimes worse than that. I got this in my email today:

It's just what we've all suspected - pure, "straight from the mountains" bottled water is not so pure after all. Yesterday, EWG released an industry-rattling report that reveals the dirty truth about bottled water.

We tested 10 brands and found an alarming array of contaminants, including cancer-causing byproducts of chlorination, fertilizer residue, industrial solvents and even caffeine.

In light of these disturbing findings, here's what you can do:

• Drink filtered tap water instead of bottled or unfiltered tap water.
• Mix infant formula with filtered, non-fluoridated water.
• Carry water in safe, reusable containers.

For more information, click here http://www.ewg.org/bottledwater

So prior to my trip yesterday, I had purchased this bottle:


When you take it apart, it looks like this. You unscrew the cap, and the filter is attached. You fill the bottle with water and then squeeze some out the top and you are good to go.
You can find this bottle and others at this website http://www.purewater2go.com/
I just might order the smaller size, the one that looks like a regular disposable water bottle with just the filter because the one I have was just a little bigger than I wanted it to be for air travel.

Nevertheless, I'm glad I brought it with me. I had it empty when I went through airport security, then simply went to a drinking fountain inside the terminal and filled it up. Voila, clean, filtered drinking water that was free!

Nap Monkey

Jake has one nap every afternoon, and he will wake up anywhere between 40-90 minutes after he goes to sleep and come to me for milk. Then after he has a little bit, he will sometimes go back to sleep on me. Yesterday he was in this funny position.

Business Cards

What do you do with old business cards that you no longer use?

I am preparing for my first work travel trip in two years. Yup, TWO YEARS!! Where did the time go? So I was going through and cleaning out my work travel briefcase on wheels (which is awesome). I found an old, wrapped fruit bar (still good), a roll of tamper-evident tape used for returning study drug, lots of pads of sticky notes, paperwork from a study I worked on 2 years ago, and business cards with my maiden name on them!

I was just about to toss those business cards in the recycling bin when I realized that I could reuse them. Yeah, go, super green me! So I turned them over and they are sitting on my desk waiting to be used for jotting quick notes of whatever I need. Only then will they end up in the recycle bin.

As a side note, I was at a study site here in Portland yesterday, and I suddenly had to introduce myself to a site worker, and I began to introduce myself using my maiden name! Duh! You would think I was a newlywed rather instead of having been married almost 3 years. Ha ha!

Recycle Caps

Everytime I throw something in the trash, I cringe at the thought that it is just going to go and sit in a landfill. I do the reduce, reuse, recycle option as often as I can, but there are times when that is not an option.

I've been reducing the number of plastic bottles I use, but everytime I do use one, I recycle the bottle but have to throw away the cap.

No more! Now Aveda has a bottle cap recycling program, check it out!

http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp

Handyman

New toolbox!
Hard at work... thinking about his project.
Lefty loosey, righty tighty...