Sunday, May 31, 2009

A Gaggle of Grandparents

While in Kansas we had the opportunity to visit with 4 sets of Grandparents! Mimi and Papa Clark drove in to meet us and see family. Here are Mimi, Susan and Oliver.





We ended up with only one photo of Papa Clark so here he is with Mimi saying goodbye to all of us.





Kennedy surprised us all by taking a nap with Grandma Anderson (usually it's Grandpa Anderson that we find napping in a chair). Kennedy basically dropped her naps when she was 18 months old. The next day, though, Kennedy ended up in the Emergency Room with an ear infection so that could explain the nap.




Here's Grandpa Anderson getting ready to take the kids on a ride on a 4 wheeler.



The kids had fun with Great Grandpa Andy, especially Oliver who Grandpa let play with various electronics.



It was really fun to see Great Grandma Darlene, whose maiden name was Oliver :-), interact with the kids. She had Oliver laughing out loud.



Here's Great Grandma Darlene helping Kennedy get her shoe on.

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Friday, May 29, 2009

Walk about

Oliver and I strolled through our neighborhood a few days ago with an eye toward downtown. We met our friend, Becky, for lunch at First Avenue Bento. On the way we stopped for a bathroom break at the Multnomah Building and ran into another friend, Beckie.

Oliver wore one of our bike hats pulled into the size by twisting a rubber band around material in the back. Our neighbor Jan said it reminded her of that bad pony tail many men wore in the 80s.



It was nice to walk to and from downtown across the Hawthorne bridge. This is Kennedy's favorite bridge and she never tires of hearing facts about it.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

So Many Cousins!

Kennedy and Oliver have been lucky enough to hang out with quite a few cousins from Mommy Susan's side of the family this past weekend. Cousin Katrina (Kat holding Oliver) and friend, Kelly, came over for Friday family movie night. We all watched Pocahontas and had pizza.



In Kansas they played with cousin Melissa. Here they are on Grandma Leota's front porch.



Also in Kansas, they had fun with some of the Anderson cousins. From the left in this photo are Kennedy, Oliver, Nathan, Sidney, Sadie and Lenea.



More Kansas photos coming.

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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Home Again

We arrived home last night from our trip and as nice as it is to travel, it is equally as nice to get back home. We had a great time with relatives in Kansas and will have photos available as soon as I locate the camera in our as yet unpacked luggage! In the meantime I have a few photos from the cell phone. Here are Grandpa Anderson, Oliver and Kennedy playing in our rental vehicle.



And here's Oliver walking around outside our hotel room. He likes to be on the move.

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Holiday Travel

Landed safely in Denver. Meeting Grandparents Anderson for the drive to Kansas to spend the holiday weekend with family.
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Friday, May 22, 2009

Spring Flowers

Walks through the neighborhood are lovely right now as Portland is awash in spring blooms.

Oliver, a Boy on the Move

Oliver is definitely a boy on the move and now that the rain has slowed down we've moved activities outdoors as much as possible. Here are a few photos from Thursday afternoon. Here's Oliver trying to find a dandelion.



Here he is crawling around in a play structure.



Here he is at a play table.



And here he is on the way to the park after dinner.

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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Photo for sister Stacey

Stacey commented on FB that she missed seeing the kids and that normally she would see them during spring break time. Living in and getting settled in HI has put a slowdown on Stacey's travel. So, we quickly took and posted a picture on FB of the kids smiling for their sister Stacey.



We can't wait to see Stacey and Carl this summer.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Oliver Del tries his art on

Oliver has watched Kennedy get creative with crayons, paints, chalk, etc. and decided he wanted in on the action too. Lately he's been heading directly to the sidewalk chalk when we go outside. Inside, we put a piece of paper in front of him and he selected a few crayons and off he went...



Here's a random photo of Kennedy from a few weeks back.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Playdate Fun for All

Kennedy had 2 playdates last week. The first was with a former classmate that she has been missing, Creighton. We somehow managed not to get pictures of them together. They had a picnic lunch in the park and played a bit at home.

On Saturday evening we went to another classmate's (Jimmy's) home and had the most wonderful time including a thai meal prepared by his mother Palin (phonetic: Pie-Linn). Palin is from Northern Thailand and the meal consisted of traditional Thai soup, panang curry, jasmine rice (brown with bits of yam and white), a shrimp and broccoli dish, and fresh fruit. Dessert consisted of homemade apple pie. Palin sent some panang curry and rice home with us and Oliver, particularly, ate most of it himself. He couldn't get enough! We had wonderful conversations with Jimmy's father, Jim, and Palin, and enjoyed an outing to the local park as well. When we got back in our vehicle to go home I was shocked at how late in the evening it had become. That is surely the sign of a good time. Here's a photo of Kennedy and Jimmy in a pose.



And here they are playing music together.

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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Mobile Oliver

Oliver is starting to pull this stringed toy giraffe around the house. It's very cute. What's still not so cute is his climbing. He climbs everything, but really favors climbing the living room furniture. At least the rain has ceased a bit and we can get outside to the park more often.

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Friday, May 15, 2009

Special Mommies Day Gift

Kennedy made this mommies day present for us at school. It's a picture of her two moms. That's Susan on the left and Sheryl on the right. Pretty darned special.

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

New Art Supplies

Grandpa Joe brought Kennedy an art set from Aunt Tami. As you can see, Kennedy is pretty pleased with this gift.

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Old Friends Visit Portland

Susan's high school bud, Dana, and her husband Grant came to Portland for a visit this past weekend. It was great watching Susan and Dana reconnect and to meet Grant. They were awesome with the kids. Oliver and Kennedy just loved hanging out with them. Here's Oliver feeding Grant.



Dana, an artist herself, spent some working art time with Kennedy.



Dana and Grant went to our city's great bookstore, Powell's, and had so much fun. They brought home books for Kennedy. Here's Dana reading Josephine Wants to Dance to Kennedy.

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Dance Dance Dance

We took Kennedy to her first ever dance party a few weeks back. She was anxious about the event all day long and kept saying "I'm shy." When we got there she was a bit overwhelmed and buried her head into Mommy Susan's shoulder.



Quickly, however, she lost her shyness and danced around the room. Here she is twirling her scarf in her traditional outfit from India, a gift from our friend Anjali.



We really enjoyed watching her dance, float around the room and work her way through the crowd. Good fun.

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Monday, May 11, 2009

Oliver's Messy Face

We've had friends staying at the house for the past days so the posting has been slow. So much to do! More about our guests in upcoming posts. Kennedy took this photo of Oliver last week. Her photos of him are just so sweet.







Oliver is in great spirits now that he is not in such pain with teething. Susan took some pictures of his messy peanut butter and jelly sandwich face. This photo has a good shot of Oliver's newest two top teeth.







And this one is just a good happy messy face photo.



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1st Quarter Marathon

I managed to get my first quarter marathon behind me this past Saturday! It was fun and the weather was spectacular. Slow and steady finishes the race worked well for me. Susan took this photo when I arrived home.



Now that I've got my first organized run behind me, I want to focus on improving my mile times.

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Friday, May 08, 2009

Climber Oliver Del

Oliver is climbing on everything these days much to our dismay. He has shown a lot of interest in sitting in chairs and playing at the table too. I think he sees Kennedy doing this quite a bit and a few other children that hang out waiting for their sibling at karate sessions, as Oliver is doing here.



Just today, his fourth tooth came through. What a relief! He now has the top and bottom two and will give a snaggle tooth smile pretty easily.

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Thursday, May 07, 2009

Creative Kennedy

Kennedy and her classmates each planted sugar peas. We brought Kennedy's plant home this past week and so far, she has managed to keep it alive and well.



A few weeks back, Susan scored a puppet case at a local resale shop. We found some puppets at IKEA and then brought the case out this week for Kennedy. Here she is watching us perform a little show for her.



She quickly made up her own performances and entertained her mommies for a good while. It's super fun watching her imagination at work!

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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Hiking Visitor

One of Susan's good friends, Cheryl, came to stay with us this past weekend. It was great seeing and visiting with her. Here she is with Oliver.



Cheryl hiked Dog Mountain on Saturday morning. The weather wasn't clear enough to see the mountains (Hood, Adams, St. Helens) when she got to the top, but she said the views of the gorge were nice and the wildflowers were in their getting ready to bloom stage.

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Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Oliver Del found the mirror!

Oliver now equates hats with leaving the house. He thinks that if he puts one on, we will go outside.



After he realized we weren't leaving the house when he put this hat on, he stumbled upon the mirror and had quite a good time putting the hat on and taking it off and generally inspecting the toddler in the mirror.

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Monday, May 04, 2009

Books and Teething

We started a grocery list last week and Kennedy decided to add an item. In big letters she wrote "Book" across the top. Seems that the girl knows how to encourage her moms to buy her another book!



Oliver Del is still working on his teeth and the process is bothersome for him. Through it all he still manages to keep a happy spirit about him.

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Sunday, May 03, 2009

Fortune, No Fortune

On Kennedy's class field trip to the Chinese Garden earlier this week, Kennedy shook the stick box until one of the sticks fell out on the ground. She picked up the number and then opened the drawer that had that number (29) to get her fortune. It was a piece of paper with words written on it and since I was chasing Oliver down I quickly put the paper in my pocket.



When we got home, I searched for the fortune and alas, it was not there anymore. Oh well...

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Saturday, May 02, 2009

Oliver Del Update

Oliver had his hearing and ears checked by a specialist on Thursday. We were hurrying around to deliver Kennedy to school and make it to the appointment on time. I dressed Oliver and when he went in search of Susan (he loves to find where she is in the house) I heard her say "Grandpa Andy would be proud, you look like a farm boy!"







As far as the appointment, all is okay. He does have fluid in his ears but not enough to be worrisome for the rest of spring and summer. We'll revisit the specialist if needed in the Fall if ear infections increase again.

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Friday, May 01, 2009

Oliver and his stuffed cat

Oliver's favorite toy of the moment is this stuffed cat. Here he is cleverly pumping the cat on his tricycle.

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