A few more pics for Gramma!

...just to hold her over until she comes here for my baby brother to be born!











We can't wait to see you, Gramma!

Painting my Momma's Baby-Belly!

My Momma and I had fun today! I really LOVE painting with finger paints, and today Momma let me paint her BELLY! How did that go? Well...

You take one of these...

...and one of these...

...and you just start painting!

Hmmm. Such a LARGE, ROUND canvas feels a bit daunting...

...best to fill it with LOTS of paint. Hey. My Baby Brother just kicked my hand!

...that's better.

...making hand prints is always fun!

Haha! Green belly button!

...now it's my turn to get some warrior paint on my manly, muscly chest.

Yup, we both like the results.

Posing for Dad with the camera...

Haha! That was fun!

...can I paint on my baby brother like that when he comes out?

4th of July pics

I know that I promised pictures from our 4th of July, but there actually aren't many... at least not ones that are worth posting. Here are a few though, just for fun:

A picture of Dad, taken by Mark.

A picture of Mark, taken by Sophia while we waited for it to get dark enough to light the fireworks.

A picture of Dad and Momma, taken by Sophia while we waited for dark. Dad could hardly wait to light fireworks...

This is Mr. Buns, the pet bunny my Momma caught in our garden. He was eating Momma's flowers, and Momma tried to shoo him away, but instead he came TOWARDS her. Figuring that he is someone's pet, she caught him, and we put him in a box. We hung up "found" signs all over the neighborhood, and called the pet shelter. They told us we could bring him in to be treated for the fleas he had. We did, but took him back home (along with a cage the shelter let us borrow), because the shelter would have euthanized Mr. Buns if the owners weren't found after 3 days. The old owners haven't contacted us, but we've found a nice lady who wants to adopt him.

This is me down by the Columbia. Dad and I went here on Monday during our "men's night" - we fished, and drew in the sand with my cool cool sword. I love my Dada!

Excursion to Beacon Rock

I hope you had a great 4th-of-July-weekend! We sure did... pictures of our 4th will follow in a few days. :o)

It was so warm lately that my Dad decided it was time to set up my wading pool on our back deck. The water was still pretty cold, but that sure didn't stop me from having fun! My original plan was to stay standing, and only get my legs wet... as it turned out it didn't take long until I accidently got ALL of me wet.

Hmmm, the pool got smaller since last year... but it is still plenty of fun to play in!

(check out my sixpack abs...)

I did my "strong man" pose just for my Momma.

Dad had Monday off, so we decided to go on a little outing together with Grandpa Bradley. Orinigally we wanted to go see Mt St Helens, but the cloud cover was too low, and the drive is fairly long (2hrs) so we decided to go somewhere closer. We ended up driving along the US14 to Beacon Rock, which is about 45mins from our house.

There is one particularly beautiful view that my Momma asked Dad to pull over for so she could take some pictures. She also attempted to take pictures of Dad and me, but we were more interested in making goofy faces.

Hey! No fair! You accidently cut me out of the picture!

Hmmm... we're all making a weird face, but at least we are all IN this pic...

This is my Momma's new screen background on her laptop. It really was very pretty - and Momma even let me take a few pictures.

This is Beacon Rock. If Momma's belly wasn't so big we would have hiked up the many many stairs to the top. Maybe next year we can climb up. We did have a very nice picnic though!

Look at how long those giant basalt pillars are!

I got to fish for a little while from the dock. It was fun, but there were too many mosquitos for us to stay very long.

...checking to see if I caught anything...

Holden and I are the two 4-year-olds my Momma knows who can actually cast 30-50ft out... with good form! (Grampa G, you would be proud of me!)

...checking my tackle...

Ok, looks like it's time to go!

Bye, bye Beacon Rock, we had fun!

4-year-check-up!

In the last blog post I mentioned that I got a bike for my 4th birthday. Here are some pictures from the very beginning of learning to ride it. At first Dad had to hold onto the handlebars while I got used to using the pedals. He also had to remind me to look in front, rather than down at my feet. By the end of practising he just had to lightly hold onto the back of the seat, and I could go pretty fast!

Pedaling is very different from pushing myself on my Laufrad ('walking bike')... it's hard work, and harder to get started!

...taking a short break.

Getting ready...

...taking a short break to make sure the area is safe! (This is my soldier-prone-position). Then back to practising! My Momma got cold and annoyed at the mosquitos, so she headed home... more pictures of me riding my bike FASTER and with less support to follow soon!

On Monday I had my 4-year-old check-up at the doctor's office.

I am growing to be a big, big boy: I'm 43 inches (109cm) tall and I weigh 45lbs (20.5kg)... which is in the 95%ile for a 4-year-old... this means that I am the same size as 50% of 6-year-olds!

The doc said that everything else looks great, and that my Momma and Dad can be very proud of how well my mind and my motor skills are developing.

After the check-up I had to get my 4-year-old immunizations. Those were NOT fun: 5 different shots with a combination of a total of 9 different vaccines. I was VERY brave though: I didn't cry at all, I just said "Ow! OW! Hey! That really hurt!" The nurse said she had never seen such a brave 4-year-old. My arm was pretty sore for a few days afterwards, especially where I got the tetanus shot.

I have discovered a new fun pass-time: writing stuff! I've been able to recognize letters for a long time now, and can sound out words up to 5 letters long, and know how to spell a few words. For Fathers' Day I decided that I wanted to WRITE Dad a card... so I did! I wrote these words without anyone guiding my hand - all by myself.