Zoo Lights

Tonight we went to Zoo Lights at the Zoo.
It was cool to see all the animal lights.
Of course Jake immediately wanted to go on the train.
The line was super long. I think we waited for an hour. Ugh. But I think if we had tried to leave Jake would have thrown a fit about not being on the train. Luckily there were some fun lights to entertain us while waiting, like this Wizard of Oz scene.

Yay, on the train!
After the train ride Jake saw and fell madly in love with this tiger. Right before we took this picture he was hugging the tiger, and he was totally talking to him and waving at him. It was hilarious -- we had no idea that he would take such a liking to this kind of thing.
And then he saw the polar bear!! He had to hug the bear not just once, but twice. He didn't want to leave the bear, but was just staring in awe at him.
It was a fun family activity. I think we might go back again another night, since we didn't get to see all the lights, but avoid the train.

One of the cool things about this was that the vast majority of the lights were LEDs. So even though there were millions of lights, the energy impact was very low and we still got to enjoy the light displays!

Orange You Sweet?

They're here, there here!
Jake was so excited to eat them. They are yummmmmy!
He has one left...
Uh, oh, Daddy's coming to steal it...
He's taking it...
He got it!

An Unoffical Holiday

Today is Black Friday, also known as Buy Nothing Day. Since we are more in the mindset of the latter camp, we stayed home, determined not to buy anything. But really, it was more of an excuse just to be lazy and stay in sweatpants all day. It was nice! I played with Jake, and played a couple games of Suduko and one computer game. Drank lots of tea, read a magazine, and showered. However, it wasn't a completely lazy day. We finally caught up on hand-washing all the dishes from yesterday (we're going to go buy a new dishwasher tomorrow). I cleaned the fish tank, did a couple loads of laundry, did general pick-up (found some floss on the bookshelves), and finally repaired/patched a pair of jeans.

Tomorrow will be busy, though, with the oh-so-exciting task of picking out a dishwasher, getting a few groceries, returning movies, and picking up some earrings that were repaired. We're also hoping to go to Zoo Lights in the evening, we will see how the day turns out!

Hope you had a great day, whether you were participating in Black Friday or Buy Nothing. :)

Happy Tofurky Day

Happy Thanksgiving! It was just the three of us having a very relaxing Thanksgiving at home together. I had a nice time preparing our big dinner...
The menu:
Corn Chowder (vegan)
Green Salad
Tofurky with gravy
Honey Millet Cornbread, pictured here...
We set the dining room table. Jake asked if Sara and Corky were coming to join us, since it seems the only time we use the dining room table is when they come for dinner once every 2 months!! We should change that.
We were all excited to sit down and eat.
Our meal.
We finished with this yummy pumpkin pie. It wasn't vegan as we used eggs from our farmer's market, but instead of condensed milk I used half coconut milk and half hemp milk. It was great.
Oh and the tofurky? This was our very first time, ever trying it. It was... disappointing. I'm not a big fan of "fake" meat anyway, and neither are Mike or Jake (especially Jake). Suffice to say, we will not be making this again. We'll stick with corn chowder and other delicious real food.

Then Mike and I took little index cards and each wrote a note to Jake and then a note to each other saying why we are grateful to have each other in our lives. Without reading them, we put them away and will (hopefully) pull them out to read at Thanksgiving next year.

We have so much to be grateful for. We are so thankful for all of our loving family and friends. Thank you for being in our lives.

You know you need a haircut when...

Bandaid

When you have a headache, surely a bandaid is what you need to make your head feel better...


Poor Jake had a fever that gave him a headache. He spent all day either clinging to mama or watching movies. Today he seems to be better -- more interested in playing with his toys and his appetite is back.

Kitty Love

The relationship between Jake and the cats, Theo and Kami, has waxed and waned. When Jake was a just-born infant and we would return home from an outing, the cats would look at me with an expression as if to say "you brought that thing back?" which is funny considering he was born at home.
Then the cats got used to his presence and tolerated this infant who was around but at least stayed out of their way.
But then Jake learned to crawl... and then walk. The cats learned the fine art of quickly getting out of a toddler's reach, and the best way to stop the chase (simply going around the kitchen island only invites chase, but jumping over the gate and up the stairs is a sure way to end the chase).
Now Jake is older still, and all of our patient efforts to show him the best way to touch the cats (pet gently! no, don't pull their fur/ear/tail!) are finally coming to fruition. Yay!

This is the first time Kami has sat on Jake's lap. Granted, I put her there, but she actually stayed once she realized that Jake was petting her gently, and not about to do a karate chop on her body.
Jake loved it!
The relationship between these two? ... they're still working on it.

Ahhhh!!!

After a good drink of water, you open your mouth and 'ahhhhh!' loudly.
And then you show everyone how cute you are. Which is good, because after hearing the "gulp... ahhhhhh" thing 20 times in a row, you had better be cute.

This is all you're getting from me today

NaBloPoMo + a dishwasher that has been broken for going on 3 weeks? Not the best combination.

Tonight I set aside time to do other things :)

Snack Tray

Recently some other moms that I know have been talking about using snack trays for their children, so I decided to make one today.

In this tray we have pears, nuts, carrots, and popcorn.
Jake liked it!
The pears disappeared first.
Then the popcorn.
It took awhile, but then all the carrots were gone. Leaving the nuts and a yellow car.
I'll do this a lot more, as neither of us realized how hungry he was when he immediately gobbled it up.

You Do the Hard Part, I'll Stand at the Top of the Stairs

At Black Butte Ranch Jake had so much fun rolling this exercise ball down the stairs and having one of us (mainly Papa) throw it back up. Really good exercise for the person at the bottom of the stairs!

Jake was all smiles while doing this.

2.5 Year Old Helps Rescue Cat

Yesterday Theo had been outside playing for awhile. Later that afternoon, Mike had already left for his evening class and Jake and I were headed out the door to Gramma's. Kami was already inside, but I kept yelling for Theo to come inside, and kept shaking his bag of favorite treats. I was starting to get completely annoyed that Theo was refusing to come inside.

Once more, right before we had to leave, I went outside to yell for Theo again. I was holding Jake while I went outside and even checked on the other side of the gate to see if he was having a standoff with another cat, as he sometimes does.

Finally I decided "screw him!" and headed back inside. But then Jake tugged on me and said "up!"

Again, "up!"

So I decided to see what he was talking about, and went to the edge of the porch and looked up. Theo was peering down at us from on top of the porch roof, meowing. He was clearly upset. He'd gotten himself stuck up there!

Poor Theo. I went and got a ladder and managed to get him down. I am so happy that Jake heard him and let me know as I would have never heard him nor thought to look up there. I don't think Theo will do that again!

Metolius River Hike

Saturday the 5 of us decided to go for a hike. Jake had refused to nap so we went ahead and drove there and this is what he looked like when we arrived.
We started down the trail...
We put Jake on my back, and he kept his eyes tightly shut for 3/4 of the hike!!
This is a beautiful springs that comes directly out of the hillside into the river.
The water was crystal clear, so beautiful. I was looking for fish, but didn't see any.
There were rapids here and there along the river. During the hike my Dad was mentally navigating the river in a kayak, planning the route he would take through the various rapids.
It was so fun to go hiking with both my parents.
Jake finally woke up and hiked the last 1/4 of the trail back to the car.
Stopping to admire the snowberries. (They are "for the birds" as we have to tell Jake.)
Gramma and Jake looking at the water.
Papa helped Jake put his hand in the water to feel how cold it was.
Jake liked that!
Family shot.
Cool husband.

Call Me Mike

You know how they say it only takes a second to develop a habit but a long time to break it?

When we get together for family functions, one of us is often saying "Mike... Mike!" to get his attention. It can sometimes take several tries, through no fault of his own. And in our house? Mike often has his cochlear implant on, so I can call to him "Mike!" to get his attention. However, he has no such luck with me so "Lee!" is almost never heard.

The consequence of all this? Jake seems to think "Mike!" is code for "hey you!". So when he wants Mama's attention? "Mike!" Gramma? "Mike!" Even Papa? "Mike!"

Even Mike gets a little annoyed -- "call me Daddy!!"

We have been working for quite a while to get Jake to stop calling everyone Mike, as funny as it is. This past weekend after calling to me (Mike!), Gramma, got him to call "Mama!" instead. That was good.

So if Jake yells "Mike!" at you, please don't be offended.

kaBLAM!

Friday afternoon the 3 of us left town to drive to Black Butte Ranch for a weekend away with my parents. We were less than 3/4 mile away from the entrance to the ranch when... kaBLAM! The car was suddenly driving on the rubble strip and refused to let me pull it back onto the road. We quickly figured out that we had a flat, and carefully pulled over to the shoulder and onto the dirt.

The tire hadn't only gone flat... it had blown up. Because we were going out of town for the weekend, the car was packed full, and we had to fully unload the back in order to get to the spare tire and the tools. So on the side of the road we had Jake's bicycle, stroller, a cooler, and a bunch of bags containing groceries and various other things. It was quite the pile. I wish I had gotten a picture of that but I was too busy making sure Jake stayed with me on the side of the road away from the cars passing on the highway. Thankfully, Mike had been able to leave work at lunchtime and we had gotten on our way in the early afternoon, so it was still light out when this happened and Mike was able to change the tire in no time and we arrived at Black Butte.

The next day we drove the car into the town of Sisters.
We definitely need to replace this sad-looking tire. And unfortunately, on Subaru cars you can't just replace one tire, you have to replace all four of them so they balance out completely. Ouch.
So while the tires were getting replaced, we went for a walk and admired the beautiful mountains -- South, Middle, and North Sister. Jake stayed with my parents, so we had an unexpected and rather expensive sort of date combined with an errand.
We went to our most favorite coffeehouse.
We sat under this poor, dead head-corpse magnificent wall-mounted head.
And drank our hot drinks to celebrate our $557 new tires. (Ignore the fact that we completely forgot to bring our reusable coffee cups.)
Then we went and picked up the car and admired our new tires.