Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice? Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails?

Ever since Madelyn astutely reasoned the truth about my growing tummy, she has confidently stated that our baby is a little boy. She says this very matter-of-factly -- like it's not her preference to have a little brother; it simply is a little brother. We've asked her on several occasions under several different sets of circumstances just to test her, and her answer is always the same: boy. Our 20-week ultrasound was scheduled for today, and given her "boy" fixation, we figured we'd better find out our baby's sex lest our little girl end up quite disappointed with a little sister come January (we didn't learn of Maddie's sex until she was born -- which was super fun -- so this was new territory for us).

Evidently, our little girl has a sixth sense about these things, smart little rascal! We are utterly delighted to announce that HENRY FINN OLMSTED will be joining our family in January 2011. Little brother indeed :)

Little Henry was quite the ham during the hour-long ultrasound. He was twisting and kicking and punching all over the place such that the tech had to try repeatedly to get the measurements that she needed. At one point while we were looking at his darling profile, something kept sneaking into the frame toward his forehead. She pulled the frame back and we saw -- clear as day -- that he had kicked both of his little feet way up over his head and was using his fingers to play with his little toes. Just amazing. I certainly respect anyone's right to believe what they want about God, but I just don't know how you look at something like that and not believe in a Divine Creator...

Anyway, we had the tech turn our monitor off when she got to the baby's bits and print off the identifying photo in secret and put it in a sealed envelope. We then went out for dinner just the two of us at our favorite restaurant (Andina) and fervently opened the envelope after our order had been placed. I think we both yelled "It's a boy!" and our server ended up bringing us a delicious dessert as congratulations. All in all, a pretty fine day.

We can't wait to meet our Henry Finn, and we will be so excited to introduce him to all of you come January!

Sunriver 2010

We just returned from four glorious days of vacation in Sunriver, Oregon with some of our closest friends. We four families (8 adults and 7.5 children) vacation together every summer, and while historically we have ventured only to the beach, we broadened our horizons to include Sunriver this year, and I think we're all sold. We've all been to Sunriver separately many times, but this was our first time together as a group. As you can see, we had a BLAST:

Abbi yee-hawing on the see-saw at the park.

Umm, Kurt and Ian yee-hawing on the see-saw at the park.

Rachel and Madelyn riding their bikes on one of the bazillion bike paths.

Madelyn, Abbi, and Rachel playing doggies. These girls were best-buddies most of the weekend.

Eli and Sarah. Sarah was Eli's shadow pretty much the whole weekend, and although he put up an age-appropriate front of being annoyed, you can see that he's actually pretty chuffed :)

The whole gang. Clockwise from left: Nicole, Ian, Alli, Molly, Graham, Owen, Bruce, Pat, Eli, Kurt, Madelyn, Rachel, Abbi, and I'm taking the picture. I'm too big to fit in most pictures these days (ok, just kidding).

This is where we found Madelyn one night when we went back to our room to go to sleep -- under our bed. This "falling asleep outside of her bed" thing seems to be a pattern. We decided to roll with it and made her a "fort bed" inside the closet of our room. She was pretty happy with that and slept much better the last two nights we were there.

Nicole and Sarah.

Kurt dancing with Lazslo. He was pretty hurt that Lazslo seemed to have eyes only for Pat.

3 1/2 year old Owen doing a head-stand. Pretty sure there are extreme sports in his future. Good luck, Ian and Alli!

Madelyn and Graham watching the boats at the marina.

The Hintz sibs (Abbi, Eli, and Owen) testing out a kayak...maybe for next year?

Us at the marina during a pit-stop on our bike ride.

Nicole and Sarah lent us their bike for the morning so we could take a bike ride. So much fun! Maddie LOVED it and was super chatty the whole way. Even pregnant, I loved toting her along behind me. We definitely need to get a seat for Baby next summer and hopefully a tag-a-long for Maddie. I regret that we haven't done this sooner!

Impromptu dance party on Saturday morning. Shake it!

Abbi, Rachel, and Owen during the dance party with Sarah on Kurt's shoulders in the background.

Kurt and Madelyn at the pool. There are so many activities to do in Sunriver! Great place for families...

Abbi in the pool.

Owen showing off his ice-cream goatee. In Owen's world, there is really only one flavor of anything worth having: chocolate. Good boy, Owie.

Zoolander. Err, Eli.

Besties Madelyn and Rachel enjoying a staple of summery goodness.

Perfect way to end a summer day.

A wild coyote that wandered alarmingly close to our house. With dog tags on. Ok ok, that's really Kaya, the Hagerty's dog. She fits in very well in Sunriver, although we were joking that we should put an orange vest on her everytime she goes out just in case some trigger-happy local gets a bit over-zealous about protecting the neighborhood cats.

Gorgeous blue sky, white clouds, and high-deserty juniper trees. Very different climate and scenery from the Willamette Valley which is why Sunriver always feels like such an escape.

Thanks, friends, for another unforgettable adventure! We are blessed to have you in our lives and are ever grateful for these fun memories!

The Last Laugh (of the day, that is)

This is where we found Madelyn last night just before Kurt and I went to bed. Kurt about had a panic attack because he didn't see her in her bed anywhere, but upon closer review, there she was on the floor behind the orange rocking chair, totally asleep. Kids are so weird.



But then things got even better. Kurt picked her up to take her potty, and I climbed into bed. About two minutes later, I heard him whisper-yelling my name from the bathroom. I ran in there to find him nearly choking with laughter, and he told me to give Maddie's tummy a pat. I complied and discovered that she had been sleeping with one of her tiny stuffed baby dolls under her pajama top...sound like the physique of anyone else in our family? Since learning about the baby in Mommy's tummy, Maddie has been fascinated with putting baby dolls and stuffed animals and balls up her shirt to pretend that she has a baby in her tummy, too. Totally normal, I know, but it just cracks us up. The other night, Kurt came home from work to find his two "pregnant" girls sitting on the couch watching a Veggietales video. Kind of alarming at first glance! Anyway, we both were snort-laughing so hard in the bathroom last night that we woke Maddie up (she typically stays fast asleep through this final-potty routine). She smiled and then looked pretty confused and just pointed to her bed, but first thing this morning, she wanted to get her baby and put her right back where she evidently belongs -- in her tummy :)

Two Wheelin'

This evening we picked up an early birthday present for Madelyn (can it truly be time for another birthday?!!) We are headed to Sunriver next week for our annual vacation with our friends, and we wanted her to have a bike to ride while she is there (Sunriver has fabulous bike trails, for those who have never been). I've done quite a bit of research in the last few days (you have to be thorough about these things when you live with my husband!) about ways to get toddlers started on bikes, and everything kept pointing to pedal-less "balance" bikes. I've seen more and more tots on them recently, and everyone says that if you start your kiddo on one of these, they won't even need training wheels when it comes time to transition to a full-size two-wheel bike because they will already have mastered the scariest part of two-wheeling: learning to balance. Anyway, we're pretty stoked about this new adventure, and so is Maddie! She hopped on right away and started pushing along, and I'm sure in no time, she'll be cruising. She has talked and talked about a pink bike, and lo and behold, we were actually able to comply. Fun times!

(We were super excited to find out about these bikes, and we're always super excited to share good finds with others. If you are interested in learning more about these bikes -- particularly the Striders like we got Maddie -- hit this gal's website: 

www.portlandstriderbikes.com. 

She's local and will meet you anywhere to do a demo with your kiddo at no cost. She also ships around the country, but even if you're able to find a local retailer closer to you, her website has great information (and adorable videos) of the philosophy behind the bikes. Enjoy!)

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

So somewhere along the way when I was pregnant with Madelyn we stumbled upon a "sock monkey" theme (gender neutral, retro, all good). Nana's quilt for the baby was all sock monkeys so the nursery ended up being sock monkeys which of course meant we had to purchase every stuffed monkey and monkey outfit that existed. We started calling her "our little monkey" which became more and more fitting the bigger she got as she rolled and kicked and tumbled -- constantly -- inside my belly. Those kick charts they give you at the doctors office were hilarious. You're supposed to make sure the baby kicks ten times within one hour; I would sit down to do the test and she would kick ten times in three minutes.

And then "our little monkey" was born, and to sum up, her post-birth activity level has been quite consistent with her pre-birth activity level. Not sure why this surprised us. She has two speeds: running and asleep, and truthfully, she doesn't even fully stop moving in her sleep. She is extremely busy with a seemingly insatiable curiosity about everything, and while we adore her personality (and we SO do), she is often quite exhausting to parent.

Bottom line, our family has filled it's quota of monkeys and I'm not sure we could handle one more. We are therefore being a little more...selective, shall we say, about the token animal for this next baby. A turtle, perhaps? Or a sloth or a koala? Or maybe just a lazy puppy? We're taking suggestions, so fire away :)

Wine Country

What an adventure! Some long-time family friends have been in town staying with my parents, so yesterday my mom organized a whole day of wine tasting down in the Willamette Valley...via limo -- super swank :) There were ten of us altogether and we had so much fun! Mimi was kind enough to stay and play with Madelyn the whole day. Admittedly, not being able to actually taste the wine (that smelled so, so good) put a bit of a damper on my personal wine tasting experience, but the scenery was so gorgeous and the company was so delightful that it was a fabulous day all the same. Here are some highlights (although I'm still waiting for a few group photos and will post them when I get them):

Debbie at Torii Mor

Pinot Gris grapes...that might actually make it into a glass that I can drink someday.

My parents at Torri Mor

Kelsie and Ben at Four Graces

My mom, sister, and me at Anne Amie -- I could live there...

Kurt and me

Anne Amie

Pat and Maddie in the limo on the way from our house back up to my parents. Maddie couldn't quite believe how big the car was and that she could actually stand up and walk around and no one was telling her otherwise!