Friday, September 30, 2005

Tonight my friend Ruth stopped by to visit with us and eat dinner. Ruth and I went to high school together back in the ‘olden’ days; hard to believe we’ve come so far.



Kennedy and I are slowly getting over our colds – she was up all night coughing last night. Tonight we’re trying a little cough syrup to help get us all through the night.

posted by Bean @ 8:28 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, September 29, 2005

It's hard to believe that Kennedy will be a year old next month! I keep thinking about what I was doing a year ago about now; my belly swollen out to there and my ankles were like sausages. We used to laugh at Kennedy's antics in my belly (especially how she would run her toes along my ribs - oh that was an odd sensation!).

Now she's her own little person and oh so much fun. She has really started exercising her independence and hates to be restrained in any way (which makes things like eating and diaper changes a bit challenging - at different times, of course!).

Kennedy continues to enjoy her school - the teachers all remark about how she loves to go outside with the other kids to play. They have these 'touch tubs' they bring out that have different things in them each day; one day it will be water with floating ducks or something - some days its filled with corn starch and plastic items. Anyhow, Kennedy apparently loves it when it's filled with water because she loves to splash herself and other kids too!

Last month a friend of CK's came to visit; this photo of Kennedy is courtesy of her:

posted by Bean @ 4:18 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

The family went on a ride around the neighborhood on Sunday. Kennedy likes a bike ride, but she doesn't like the helmet. She tries to pull it off while we're riding. Thank goodness for safety straps.



C.K. stopped by in the evening to catch up with Kennedy and he had her laughing even though she was very tired and had a cold.



New things: Kennedy has learned how to turn light switches on and off. She has also learned how to open my flip up cell phone and accidently call people. She's very close to signing "bird" (sign language).

posted by Bean @ 9:42 PM 0 Comments

Monday, September 26, 2005

More photos from the trip to the park on Saturday. There was a large mirror at the park where Kennedy’s favorite friend made an appearance – she just loves that other baby in the mirror!



After playing in the mirror Kennedy and Sheryl played a little peek-a-boo through the slats. Kennedy just laughed and laughed at this new game.



We’ve been teaching Kennedy sign language over the last few months and I took the opportunity to show Kennedy the sign for a leaf after we found a few in the corner:



In addition to cruising, crawling, and standing all on her own, Kennedy is mastering the art of climbing stairs. Always close behind in case she falls, we encourage this important developmental step. (Next stop: walking!!)



Here she is proud of herself for making her moms laugh:

posted by Bean @ 10:59 AM 0 Comments

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Yesterday we packed up the family for a short trip to Portland’s Washington Park, which is just west of downtown. There is a Children’s Playground there that has a huge play structure.



Kennedy approved of the swings, of course! She just loves to swing!



There was a large abacus there that Kennedy thought was utterly fascinating.



We joked that she was getting an early start on her math skills.



And here is Sheryl’s ‘artsy’ photo shot through the abacus:

posted by Bean @ 2:31 PM 0 Comments

Friday, September 23, 2005

Earlier this month we got Kennedy a rocking chair at a local resale shop. On Wednesday (while Sheryl was at her union meeting) Kennedy and I hung out and gave her chair a spin. She likes to lean back and kick her legs out.



Today Kennedy went to day care for half a day while I worked and Sheryl got some chores down around the house. (Can I just publicly curse the bamboo in our backyard?!?) Anyhow, we scooped her up in the afternoon and hung out at our local park. Whee!

posted by Bean @ 8:12 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Our Texas family members have landed where they are going to stay or are boarding-in for the duration of Hurricane Rita. It took my twin 14 hours to drive from Houston to my parents home today. That trip normally takes 2 hours.

When we were in Houston earlier this month our family tried ear candeling. Robin's friend Brian introduced us to it. Good stuff but very icky sticky yucky stuff comes out! Here's Robin working on Gayle's ear.



It's weird to think that we were just in Galveston playing putt putt.

posted by Bean @ 8:31 PM 0 Comments

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Just a quick addition to the blog; here is a photo of Kennedy and Jake from this last weekend. Jake is the son of our friends Kim and Adrienne. Aren't they too cute?

posted by Bean @ 9:03 AM 0 Comments

News of Hurricane Rita (which is heading towards Houston) make us anxious for our friends and family who live there. Evacuations are beginning in Galveston and the surrounding areas - it seem surreal that we were there just 2 weeks ago basking in the sun. Our thoughts and prayers turn to those residents who are preparing to leave their homes.

On a brighter note, Kennedy is in her third day now of her day care center and she is just loving it! The teacher noted yesterday (they send home summary sheets of the day) that Kennedy enjoyed "playing with the legos today. When my teacher built a tall tower I had so much fun knocking it over and making a big mess!" Silly girl!

When Sheryl dropped her off this morning Kennedy was so excited she began to wave her arms all around and took off as soon as Sheryl put her down. We are so happy she likes it there.

But we do miss CK too - last week, on his last day as official nanny, we took him out for sushi. Always the adventurous one, CK ordered the chef's special which consisted of all kinds of oddities like sea urchin, salmon roe and who knows what else...



We ate at a restaurant called Ichidai – which we love love love. It's completely unassuming and the food is great; they have some of the freshest sushi in town. My personal favorite is the squid salad – yum!

posted by Bean @ 8:03 AM 0 Comments

Monday, September 19, 2005

Kennedy may be petite but when she is ready to eat she has a healthy appetite. Here she is waiting for the food.

posted by Bean @ 8:21 PM 0 Comments

Today is Kennedy’s first full day at school – we’re so excited for her. My mom tells me the hardest part about leaving me at daycare when I was a little girl was that I would cry when she left. I can imagine that would be tough; we’re lucky that Kennedy is oblivious to our leaving since she’s too focused on playing with the other children. She loves it!

On Sunday we had breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson before church. Always a fun time!



On Friday we bought a new truck to replace our aging truck. One of the big limitations that the other truck had is that Kennedy couldn’t ride in it (front seat only) so the new truck has a backseat just for her. Here’s what it looks like:



This Thursday marks the first day of fall, but I must say it’s felt like fall this entire last week. It’s our favorite season and I just can’t wait until the trees begin to change and the air has that crisp coolness to it. Yay!

posted by Bean @ 10:54 AM 0 Comments

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Look at Kennedy's new shoes! Here I am with Kennedy before church this morning.



We went to the First Congregational United Church of Christ this morning to see Chuck Currie preach (see his blog on the left hand nav bar). Chuck is a prolific writer who does a tremendous job challenging the status quo. Here we are all with Chuck after the service.



After church Kennedy took a ride on Mommy's shoulders. She's having a blast!

posted by Bean @ 1:22 PM 0 Comments

Friday, September 16, 2005

Sometimes we find surprise pictures on the camera. This one must've been taken by C.K. earlier this week. The basket is from a set of sand play tools Aunt Shelly bought Kennedy at the San Luis Resort in Galveston, Texas. Kennedy likes to take all of the sand tools out of the basket. Elle must have seen this as her chance to get in it.

posted by Bean @ 10:07 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Hello Teeth!!!

CK called this afternoon to ask if we'd noticed that Kennedy had the beginnings of teeth breaking through her lower gums. Holy Cow?!?! Yes folks, it's true - those teeth that have been oh so shy are now making an appearance.

Good luck getting proof, though - Kennedy is shy about letting all her adults poke around in there. But take it from us - there are pearly little whites sprouting up! How cool is that?!?!

posted by Bean @ 7:52 PM 0 Comments

Today is an exciting and sad day all in one. Sad because it’s CK’s last day as Kennedy’s nanny (or ‘Manny’ as I like to call him). On Monday Kennedy will start daycare; she’ll be in the ‘wobbler’ room for little tykes between 11 – 18 months. This morning CK and I took Kennedy for a short visit to the facility (thus the ‘exciting’ part of the day) where she played with her new friends and teachers. CK and I left for a while and Kennedy did super.

Tomorrow Sheryl and I will take her for another test run – this one much longer. We think she will do very well – but the three of us are still having a harder time of the idea.

It’s sad to see CK go – although we have no intentions of letting him off the hook that easy. We’re so lucky to have him live close by for regular dinners and weekend outings. CK has been a wonderful influence on Kennedy – and we thank him so much for filling in for us and taking care of Kennedy these last several months.

CK has always been a friend to Kennedy – here they are when Kennedy was just a few days old:



Bouncing her during her second month...



Taking over as nanny when she was six months old...



Advocating for us to keep Elle (“Kennedy just loves her...”)



And best of all, being the goofy friend of Kennedy!

posted by Bean @ 4:03 PM 0 Comments

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Kennedy is really liking the end of the season watermelon. We have to wait until she's almost through with dinner to bring it to the table. When she sees it, it's all she wants to eat!



I caught Susan using one of Kennedy's bibs at dinner tonight. I had to take a pic.

posted by Bean @ 9:30 PM 0 Comments

Monday, September 12, 2005

Profuse apologies for the disappearing act around here... Sheryl and I just got back from a long weekend in Seattle - so we'll have pictures of that soon.

Here are the last round of pictures from our Houston vacation…

Kennedy hanging out with her Mema and Papa. We were so happy that Kennedy got to see them while we were in Texas.



Sheryl with her oldest sister, Debbie.



Debbie and her husband, Stacy, came down from the San Antonio area to visit while we were in town. Their son, Jason, was also there with his fiancée Darlys. They are set to marry in January.

We stayed at Sheryl’s sister Gayle’s house for some of the time – here is Gayle with Kennedy as they learned how to use the telephone together.



Kennedy with her cousin Ryan.



Ryan is Gayle and David’s son. Ryan is really into tennis and Kennedy discovered a new favorite toy – the tennis ball.



Not to be outdone, Ryan’s sister, Heather, got into the act.



While at Gayle’s house, Stacey showed Kennedy the ropes on the piano. We have a piano at home too – and Kennedy is just now learning to play.



Kennedy with Mema.



Finally, Kennedy hanging out with Sheryl on the trampoline. Kennedy just loves to bounce, bounce, bounce!

posted by Bean @ 10:36 PM 0 Comments

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Today is our Anniversary! It's funny, the date snuck up on Sheryl and I this year; we both realized the date last week and wondered out loud what we would do to celebrate. All I know is I have the best wife there is out there - and our family wouldn't be complete without her.

Kennedy has a cold - it seems like whenever we travel that always happens. We had a long weekend trip to Seattle planned this weekend - now I think that may get cut short depending on how she fares. Poor little tyke!

posted by Bean @ 2:17 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

More images from our vacation:

On Thursday night in Galveston we went to the Rainforest Café. Stacey and Robin posing (they’re so good at that!):



Robin and her boyfriend Brian in the café’s water adventure ride:



Sheryl and I sporting our new hats while at the restaurant:



The entire family outside of the restaurant:



After dinner we headed over to play a little mini-golf. The ‘kids’ got there before us so they hit a round of baseballs at the batting cages. Stacey and Robin are too cute:

posted by Bean @ 10:08 PM 0 Comments

Monday, September 05, 2005

On Thursday night after the football game we headed south to Galveston, TX to spend some time on the beach. Unlike Oregon’s beaches, these are warm and shallow. We got up early on Friday and headed down for Kennedy’s first foray into the water.



Cousin Robin took Kennedy down and taught her how to splash the water and feel the sand.



Here’s Kennedy just before she got into her swimming suit; she’s wearing the Hawaiian outfit that Grandpa and Grandma Anderson got her last year.



When it started to rain and we realized that we didn’t have anywhere to relax except on the sand, we opted to return to the resort where we were staying to pamper ourselves in a cabana. We spent the afternoon in the swimming pool and hot tub. A steel band set up and started playing in the afternoon and Kennedy absolutely loved the music – here she is slapping the pavement along with the beat. Ahhhh, vacation!

posted by Bean @ 11:29 AM 0 Comments

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Howdy from South Texas! Sheryl, Kennedy and I are on vacation this week visiting family in the Houston area. We have a ton to share as we’ve been busy as little beavers! We left town on Wednesday and headed into Houston to see Sheryl’s twin, Shelly and our niece, Robin.



On Thursday we picked up our daughter, Stacey, from the airport and went straight to Reliant Stadium to watch the University of Oregon Ducks walk all over the Houston Cougars (GO DUCKS!!)

Good fans that we are we decked out in our Ducky finest.





Before the game began we went to the U of O’s Alumni Association pre-game party where we cheered on the Ducks and had a great time.



We couldn’t resist having the cheer squad pose with Kennedy.



This was Kennedy’s first football game and she had a blast! Here she is with Stacey.





On a more serious note, we were saddened by the devastation in New Orleans this last week from Hurricane Katrina. Our hearts go out to those families and individuals who have lost their homes. Many of those from New Orleans were arriving at Houston’s Astrodome as we arrived for the game. We were pleased to see the Red Cross on site gathering donations – please give to the Red Cross if you can. Every little bit helps those in need.

posted by Bean @ 1:41 PM 0 Comments