Stop to Smell the Roses

Portland is known as the "City of Roses," and today we showed Madelyn why it's a very appropriate name. Just outside of downtown Portland on a hillside overlooking the city and Mt. Hood is a rose garden to beat all rose gardens. It's so sprawling and so spectacular that even though there are probably at least one hundred other commendable rose gardens in the Portland area, you can say "I visited the rose garden today" and everyone knows exactly which one you're talking about. I don't know exactly how many individual roses are planted in this garden but it must be in the thousands. On a warm summer evening such as today, the air is heavy with their sweet fragrance, and the myriad colors are dazzling. We packed a picnic dinner and sat with Maddie out on the lawn in the midst of these gorgeous flowers and felt like pinching ourselves. Some moments in life are just blissful, you know?

(This plate says "Queen Jan," and that is how Nana Jan got her name. Queen Jan was Queen of the Rose Parade the year before my mom was born, and my grandparents liked the name so much they named their first child after her!)

9 months in, 9 months out

At nine months old, Madelyn has now officially been with us as long outside of the womb as she was inside the womb. Wild! Her latest tricks include:

1. Singing. We've been playing a lot of music lately, and every now and then she'll just stop what she's doing, open her mouth very wide, and belt out an enthusiastic "ahhhhh" right along with the song. Typically, this is accompanied with some voracious drumming on whatever flat surface happens to be in front of her.


2. Dancing. Maddie's dance of choice is the twist. She does this torso-hip twist thing with her forearms and hands straight out from her sides that is just too cute.

3. Roaring. Nana taught Madelyn how to roar like a lion when asked "what does a lion say?" We have yet to catch this on video, but when we do, we'll post it. It is HILARIOUS. Sometimes, it's more of a newborn cub than a lion on the hunt, but she does it almost every time you ask.


4. Eating. Madelyn is very interested in food these days...but only if it's on Mommy or Daddy's plate. She'll eat her pureed stuff, but give her some blueberry pancake or a bite of peach or a taste of Rice Krispies in the morning and she literally "mmm's" her delight.

geography IQ test

Hey all~

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I figured I'd step out of retirement with this one. This doesn't have anything to do with Maddie (I realize I just lost 75% of my audience now), but it's still pretty cool.

This is a geography quiz game that's pretty fun and ever so slightly addictive... alright, I'm hooked. This one is only for the US as it's the only one I had any chance at success on (next to Latin America... who knew?).

United States IQ Challenge
(click here)

You can do all sorts of different types of these quizes including North America, Africa, Europe, photos, Amazing Race, and even the entire world.

Enjoy!

Mommy Maddie

Already acting like a little mama... now if she would just SAY "mama!"

The World is Our Oyster...

...now that we know we have THE BEST traveling 8-month-old EVER! We took Madelyn to southern California this past week for her first major trip away from home and she did AWESOME. Auntie Kelsie graduated from Loma Linda Medical School (what an accomplishment!), so we flew down to celebrate with her and the rest of the fam for a few days. She was happy and flexible and easy to please and slept well the entire trip. We were so proud of her! Here are some fun photos for you all:

Just Another Day...

Here are a few recent photos for you all. Nothing extraordinary going on right now, but lucky for us, the ordinary is pretty darn fun :)

Our friend Max came over to play the other day, and as you can see, the kiddos could hardly contain their excitement:

Actually, they had a blast together and were literally chasing each other around the room, but every time I got out my camera, they clouded up. I was having flashbacks to that cartoon with the dancing and singing frog that only ribbits and sits there when other people are around.

Madelyn wants to go hang gliding for her first birthday. We're giving it due consideration and thought we'd give her a practice run with Daddy.

She also loves to check email with Daddy. Don't be surprised if she starts writing these posts one day very soon...


Maddie loves looking out our front window. She gets a kick out of the fact that she can pull herself up and stand there all on her own. She bang bang bangs her hands on the glass and squeals in pure delight.

And look what we found in Maddie's toy basket one day?

Uncle Freddy Would Be Proud!

Well, we hope he would be proud! For those of you who don't know, Kurt is a descendant of the world renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (he's a great-great-great uncle, I believe). "Uncle Freddy" is the creative mastermind behind New York City's Central Park and Boston's Boston Public Gardens just to name two. This past weekend, Kurt and I channeled Uncle Freddy and did a bit of a landscape overhaul on our front yard. For those of you who haven't yet been to our house, we live on a fairly busy street--busy enough that we won't ever let Madelyn play outside in our front yard. We had grass, but the grass was sparse and half moss and was just ultimately not that pretty. So we decided to get rid of it altogether, and with the help of many of our dear friends and Grandma O. (who was on Maddie duty all day) this past Saturday, we did just that. What a day! We started at 9:00 a.m. and didn't finish until 9:00 p.m. And then on Sunday, we started up again around 2:00 p.m. and finally finished the whole project at 9:00 p.m. For weeks, we dreaded getting started because we are such novices and we knew we had bitten off more than we could chew (or a mouthful at the very least). But we actually had fun! TONS as a matter of fact! And thank God for the input of all of our friends (Pat Rank, we said an audible prayer of thanks specifically for you and your gentle suggestion to rent a sod cutter rather than tear up all that grass with our shovels and our bare hands). All in all, we are thrilled with the outcome. Our little yard is modest and we look forward to continuing to add to it in the coming months, but it has definite personality now and will grow and flourish alongside our little family.


Highlights?

1. THE ROTOTILLER! What a wild ride! We decided that next time, the guys need cowboy hats and an 8 second count in order to really complete the experience!

2. All the neighbors. Nothing like a yard project to bring out all the neighbors...and some of them even pitched in!

3. The weather. Sandwiched by cold, gray, rainy days, the weekend was gorgeous. The temperature was just warm enough and the sun shone brightly. Beautiful!

4. Our friends. We have the BEST group of friends. It was Alli's idea to begin doing these group work days at each other's houses, but I think we set the bar pretty high! They were enthusiastic and encouraging and strong and energetic and didn't complain once. We had a blast!

5. The Bells of Ireland in the half wine barrels. They're the coolest plant...like little green Martian suction cups. And the wine barrels are totally authentic. They made our garage smell like wine every time we opened the door.

6. Saturday night's sleep :)