Friends

Lo begs me every day to have friends come over and play. "____play at my home?" he asks sweetly a thousand times. Fill in the blank with any number of friends' names. He says them with such funny pronounciation. Here he is with Leigha. He actually doesn't say Leigha's name that I am aware, but he asks if her sister Emma can come over and I know he means Leigha too. =) Here is how it sounds: "Emma bay my home?" He has to focus and furrow his brow to get out the "h" sound in "home." Oh, I LOVE all the talking these days! Seriously, people say they get tired of how much their kids talk, but I cannot imagine getting to that point. Give me time, I know... It cracks me up how kids this age undress themselves. Here we have Leigha in her diaper, and last Sunday there were 6 kids in nursery with their shoes off by the time class ended. Again, a fun age. :)

Warm Winter Walks

This past week has warmed up some.  There is still some snow of course (it probably won't fully disappear until April or so), and that Lo still gets plenty bundled before we head out, but it is not so cold anymore that we get frozen eyelashes and nose tips within minutes of being outdoors, so that's a plus.  That Lo likes to play with the neighbors' yard ornaments.  Hope they don't mind. 

 I like how the snowbanks on either side of the sidewalk make a bumper/wall of sorts, so that Lo cannot run anywhere but on the sidewalk.  Helps me keep an eye on him.  And once when we went walking, we brought a ball to kick along the sidewalk.  The "snow bumpers" kept the ball from getting kicked too far out of range. 

Christmas decorations up in mid-February?  Sure!  Our neighbors across the street still have a lighted Christmas tree up on their porch too.  I noticed this phenomenon in Canada as well; in climates where snow persists for months after Christmas, people tend to keep their lights and holiday decor up longer--I suppose because we all need something to cheer us up amid all the whiteness.

Headlands Beach

Okay; last catchup post from our anniversary week celebrations. We had other fun activities, but not all of them had photos/videos to document, so I'll just share this final one. We visited Headlands Beach, Ohio's longest sandy beach coastline (I think?). When we first arrived, the seagulls swarmed over our heads in a scene reminiscent of Hitchcock's film The Birds.

That Lo seemed excited by the water. And even though we did bring a bathing suit for him this time, he didn't end up wearing it...

Yes, I am yet again posting nudie pics of our child on the internet. But who can blame me wanting to broadcast that cutest of baby bottoms?

I did not plan ahead too well with my outfit either--hence the makeshift clam diggers. Long shadows since it was late evening. We hoped to catch a sunset, but didn't end up staying quite that long.

Showing us (proudly) the sand he kept trying to stuff in his mouth. I didn't worry too much about it until later when we discovered a few dead fish washed up on the beach.

Sparkly waters. I'm always so glad Jerry is the camera man of the family, because I would never have thought to capture these types of shots.

That diaper got so water-logged. I think in this photo I am trying to keep Lo from running out into the deep. He seemed to think the further into the lake he got, the more fun to be had. Only problem, there isn't much oxygen down where the lake gets deeper than his head. It felt like the whole time I had to keep dragging him back on shore, and he immediately tried to crawl back out to where the waves were deeper than his head, etc.


Here are some fun videos. When we first drove up, we noticed a doe munching grass. She was a nursing mother, apparently, as her udder looked as big as a cow's! Crazy.

Lots of splashing.And more splashing...as well as Lo's attempts to drown himself. He smelled like a dead fish afterward. I was actually pretty grossed out by it, and loved scrubbing him down in a bubble bath once we drove home.

Beach Boy

We went to a little private beach near our home. It was our first time to see Lake Eerie up close. (yeah, we are slow at seeing local attractions). At first I tried holding him above the water so he could just look at it without getting wet (we hadn't brought swim suits).

Doesn't it look just like the ocean.

Lo was so mesmerized by the water, we had a hard time getting him to look at the camera. He kept whipping his head around to keep his eyes glued to the waves.

And like I said earlier, we did not intend to get wet beyond our toes. It may not be evident from these videos, but when Lo went into the water, it was because he slid himself in.

We'd like to go back again soon, and next time bring our water gear!

Dog Days

We made another visit to the local farmpark for the working dog weekend. I'm determined that Lo shall learn to love animals, but for now he seems fairly ambivalent about them. Observe his boredom in the poodle video. That poodle has now become my dream dog, btw. Breed an apricot with a chocolate and you get...chocolate cherry! Such a gorgeous auburn color. The dog "works" at a preschool. Other working dogs we got to meet included the lab that is "ears" for her owner; seeing eye guide dogs, Newfoundland water rescue dogs, a police dog, sheep dogs in all their variety, and too many others to count. There were lots of demonstrations, but this terrier one ended up being my favorite: 1. Start with an unassuming largish white rat.

2. Put it at the end of a tunnel.

3. Let dogs loose in the tunnel, and cheer while they "work" the rat.

I couldn't believe how intense these dogs got. They get points for speed and how much they attack the rat at the end. PETA calm down, the rat stays safely inside his wire cage during the "attack." =)And he didn't even seem anxious about the whole thing. Watching these dogs reminded me of my childhood doggy Chrisha. The neighbors called her "rat dog," because I suppose she was a little ratty looking with wirey-coat and scrawny legs. But she also had some literal "rat dog" terrier blood in her, and more than once murdered my pet rabbits when I left them in her reach. Can't blame instinct. I blame myself for being careless.

This notion of instinct was evident when we watched all the different breeds doing what they were bred to do. For instance, the labs trembled with joyous anticipation waiting to be allowed to do their water acrobatics, but the terriers were totally oblivious to the pond beside them. On the other hand, the terriers/dachsunds/etc. went crazy when they caught sight of this rat, but when the red poodle (in video below) came to visit the terrier/rat crowd, she looked more interested in the people around her than any ol' critter.

We are really enjoying our membership to the farmpark. Coming up next month: a woolfest and an ice cream celebration! Any locals care to join us?




(The reason the terrier wasn't filmed at the end is that he ran through the tunnel so quickly, our camera man didn't realize the dog had already passed the glass viewing point). But just imagine the dog biting that wire rat cage so viciously it would give ya nightmares...)

Memorial Day Weekend

I just realized another weekend is already looming before us, and I haven't even begun to talk about last weekend. There are a lot of pictures to catch up, since we had an eventful few days (as most holidays are, I suppose). I am grateful Jerry was free from work Memorial Day. We always love to have him around more. Here he is reading to that Lo. He is covering the baby's eyes because the story being read is about Jesus healing a blind man: "Imagine what it would be like to have no sight, and then suddenly be able to see again." Also note in this picture our sleeper sofa is pulled out, and we prepared our extra queen-sized bed in Lo's room (which he isn't using right now). We had some Young Single Adults (YSA) stay with us for a couple nights this past weekend as part of a church conference in the area. We feel pretty "grown up" to be able to host guests like that and it was fun getting ready for their stay. The YSA's were really sweet and we look forward to helping again in the future. On Friday night, we went to a great bowling party with more than a dozen friends. Our friend Jacob won a free bowling party for himself and 20 friends, so we felt special to be included in his "top 20." =) Thanks, Jacob.

We took that Lo swimming for the first time in a real pool! Too bad we forgot the camera for the actual pool time, but here he is in the living room right before we went as I slathered sunscreen all over his squishy baby body. His swim "trunks" are the cutest thing ever. I'll have to post a better pic of them soon. He seems to like being in the pool. Lots of looking all around in awe, and a bit of tentative splashing. He splashes more in the bathtub than in the pool. I also dunked him under the water a few times, blowing in his face first to help him take a breath. He didn't mind.
On Saturday we visited another Church historical site in the area, the Isaac Morley Farm. The little pathway they have through the trees is one of the more gorgeous places on earth. I saw flaming red cardinal bird, and a smoky black squirrel. This site is where Joseph Smith prophesied that the LDS church, just a small band of followers at that time, would one day grow to fill the nations of the earth. I am excited to see that prophecy unfolding, as nearly every country on earth now has opened to the spreading of Jesus Christ's restored gospel.

And speaking of religion, we visited our friends of another faith on Memorial Day with a trip to Amish Country. That Lo got to pet more horses and other cute farm animals, and we delighted in eating fresh Amish foods. My favorite was a lemon pie, though we had some tasty fried chicken and sweet potato fries as well. To get this photo of Lo driving the mini buggy, we had a whole team effort. (check out the video). Thanks to our wonderful friends for all the love they show that Lo. It always warms my heart to see people giving attention to our precious baby boy.

One of the Amish co-ops was having some special events where they let us get pictures taken in a real buggy. Also, note the videos of our time in the petting zoo and with the buggy horse (unhitched). I'm so amazed how quick those Amish horses trot along with a buggy full of people behind them. The horses are Standardbreds (I asked).

In which we explore another side of "White Ohio" (and this time we aren't talking about race)

One-armed snow angel: Both yesterday and today have had tons of sunshine. I decided to (finally) put Little in his snowsuit to go outside in the sunny winterwonderland but was dismayed to see his cozy suit was too small already! It is size 3-6 M. Yesterday I sorted through the rest of his 3-6M clothes and had to take out at least half of them that are too small. Crazy crazy.

So this is why we got a one-armed snow angel for our efforts. Only one of Little's arms would fit in the suit at a time. He didn't mind, because he always likes to have one fist available for sucking on it. =)

And he wasn't as uncomfortable as his face seems in this photo. Actually he was quite interested in looking around, but the sun was so bright that his eyes kept going squinty when I tried to take a picture. The only time he seemed to notice the cold was when later we walked to the mailbox and a gust of wind caught him in the face; he gasped. Really cute.

Oh Hi, Ohio

This past week we moved to Ohio. Thirteen hours of driving, punctuated by plenty of stops to nurse and change diapers. The apartment is still full of mountains of boxes, but yesterday an angel from our new congregation came over to help me unpack and it feels like an end is in sight.

Little Tam is getting more fun every day. As we are pretty behind on posting photos, I'll just toss out a quick "Top 10" from some of our favorite moments over the past weeks. Here they are!








#10: We try to soak up any little bits of sunshine that sneak through the winter gray.
#9: This is what Little did while Mommy & Daddy were packing and cleaning the old apartment (hired movers did most of the packing of course).
#8:Bored on our drive to the new place, Little slept all day in the car. Then, both nights by the time we arrived at our hotel room for the evening he was conveniently starting to feel awake and ready to play/eat all night long. We arrived at our destination feeling pretty exhausted.
#7: As he grows, his body is less prone to be curled in the fetal position all the time. He has started stretching his arms, legs, and fingers a lot, and sometimes sleeps in this position with his arms over his head. I could sit there and watch him sleep all day.

#6: He is starting to get too long for his 0-3 month clothes; any footed onesies no longer allow him to straighten his legs all the way.

#5: "So glad when Daddy comes home." After Jerry's last day of work in Massachusetts, Little greeted Daddy at the door with a full five minutes of grinning and cooing. This baby is getting so chubby and fat. We think it's hilarious.

#4: Little gets daily Chinese storytime. He seems to like it.

#3: His first day of church, I wore him in a Moby wrap to discourage any would-be-touchers. I asked Jerry during the sacrament service, "Can the baby breathe?" In answer, he snapped a quick pic with his phone. Maybe not so reverent, but it reassured me.

#2: This hat looks so elfish. It comprises almost the entirety of my attempts to be festive this season when I put him in this attire. Seriously, between birthing this baby and moving out of state, I have all but given up on the idea of Christmas. I even forgot a couple family members' birthdays this month! Sorry everybody.

#1: Ear grabbing is supposed to be an indicator of ear infection, but he didn't seem to be in pain with this pose. He just fell asleep like this, clutching his little ear.

Ever wonder what happens if email goes unchecked for, say, a mere week? I have 101 new messages. Too overwhelmed to begin weeding through them, I diverted my attention to the neglected family blog. Aren't you all glad.