A wonderful morning on the shore of the Columbia river

Today we spent the morning down by the Columbia river. We have a favorite spot we go to, a little bay where the water is very shallow and doesn't have a current, and where there is a huge fallen log the boys love playing "pirates" on.

Today I learned that I need to do some more intense training with the boys about not talking to strangers.

After playing for a while, we sat down on the log to have a picnic lunch. While we were having a picnic we kind of got into an awkward situation. A little ways from the big log, a homeless man had set up his camp in the bushes. At first when I saw him I considered leaving, but since there were some other families on the beach near us, I decided to stay. When I made this decision, I unfortunately did not take the boys' reaction into account.
When the boys saw the man sleeping, they of course had to make sure I knew too (with much pointing and loud voices)... which in turn woke the man up. I was about to shoo the boys down off the log and back up the path to the car, when Mark loudly said to the man: "Hi! Good morning! Do you live here?" (the man answered "Good morning" and "yes") and Holden chipped in with "I'm Holden! I'm three! We have a cat named Lola! My Mom and Dad make pizza!" Mark then asked the man what he was going to eat for breakfast, and after hearing his answer (a can of tuna), before I could do anything, Holden pointed out that we had food, and invited the man over. The man smiled, stretched, and (to my horror) accepted Holden's the invitation. The boys were (unfortunately) friendly as always, and told the man all about what they wanted to be some day, etc. - I tried to do damage control by telling the boys not to talk with their mouth full. The boys offered the man one of their sandwiches, and since it was too late to just get up and leave (we were perched up on top of the TALL log, and the man was, presumably by accident, leaning on the part of the roots we needed to climb down on), I gave the man the sandwich. I was kind of hoping he would walk back to his camp to eat, but instead he stood next to the log while he ate. I have to admit that I felt very uncomfortable, mainly because I neither had Ben nor Lincoln with me, and because there was no good way I could tell the boys that this is a stranger and therefore they should NOT be talking to him at all (at least not without angering or offending the man). The guy looked harmless and sad, and he didn't smell like alcohol, but I couldn't help noticing the formerly broken nose and missing tooth... so I didn't want to make him angry. I did speak up very adamently when he offered to help the boys down off the log when they finished eating. I told him I was really not comfortable with that, and helped the boys down myself (even though they could have climbed without help). I then said it was really time for us to go... I wished the man a good day, and then I could finally usher the boys up the path and away, followed by many exclamations of blessings from the man.

In the car I had a VERY good talk with the boys about talking to strangers. This included first asking them if they knew the guys name or even anything about him, and what that makes him ("a stranger")... it then began to dawn on them that they had gotten us into a bit of a pickle. I explained to them that it is good to help hungry people, but that we never never invite a person we don't know to have a picknick with us, especially not if our Dads aren't with us to help protect us. The boys pointed out that they "liked" the man, but I told them that even though he seemed nice, we don't know for sure that he wouldn't try to hurt us.
I am proud of the boys for being generous with their food, but at the same time, at this point in their lives it is MORE important for them to be safe. It is one thing if they talk to strangers in the store (although I have told them MANY times not to), but a whole different story if they chat up a homeless guy down by the beach and invite him to have lunch with us!

Anyway, all is well that ends well. Here are some pictures I took before the picnic:

Last year the boys both still needed someone to hold their hand to balance the length of the log...

They could do it all by themselves now!


...all ashore that are going ashore... (note the dinosaur sidekick each of the boys has tucked into the front of their jackets)

...climbing up into the "sails"...

...all aboard!!!

Cap'n Holden and Cap'n Mark sailing the boat out of the harbor...

Cap'n Mark up in the crow's nest

Holden decided he was done climbing "up high" and had fun throwing rocks into the water

Mark spent most of the morning sailing the ship from the very tippy top of the roots.

"Look Katie! I did it!"

...sailing "to invade the Ottomans"...

...the view from our log ~ you can see Mt Hood off in the distance, and the Portland airport is across the river on the right.


The boys, err, I mean, pirates had lots of fun throwing rocks into the water. We have the rule that when I take them to the river they have to be 10 steps from the water. They were very good about keeping the rule. (When more adults are there with them I don't mind them getting closer...)

I have to admit, the boys might actually be able to throw the rocks further than I can...

"We should come here more often, Momma!"

What a beautiful world we live in!

Zoo!

Yesterday my Momma and Erin took Holden and me to the Portland Zoo. Unfortunately, I was a horrible grump, so it wasn't very fun for my Momma... and then a bird pooped on her head! Anyway, my Momma did get a few good pictures, so sharing those with you will be the one good part of that Zoo trip!
...and next time I will be much better behaved, and my Momma will have fun too!

"Driving" the John Deere tractor is always one of the highlights of going to the Zoo.

And of course, riding on the life-sized bronze statues of the lions!


We did actually spend plenty of time looking at real live animals, but either Holden and I moved around too much or lighting was too bad to get any good pictures. So here we are, riding on a bronze lion...


This was the first time the hippos weren't in the water, or both turning their back ends towards us. So my Momma took a picture of them for Ba-poo, my great-grandpa.

The crocodile/ aligator/ caiman house was the highlight of our zoo trip. The entire time we were looking at other animals, all I wanted was to see the aligators. This is the case almost every time we come to the Zoo. Unfortunately, no matter which way you walk the loop, the aligator house is about as far from the entrance as you can get... it was worth it though: the "big Da" aligator (caiman?) was resting in the water right next to the glass, and we got to count his sharp sharp teeth (he had 28 on one side!).

Mark quotes from this week

Yesterday at the midwife's appointment, Mark was talking to the midwife about something, and she commented: "Oh, you sure already know a lot, don't you!" Mark answered with a BIG HEAVY sigh, "Yeah, but there is still a LOT that I don't know." The midwife chuckled, and asked Mark what something is that he doesn't know about. Mark answered "Well, I really don't know very much about race cars...." (and he said it in a tone indicating this is a huge shortcomming).

The morning before, I was in the bathroom blowing my nose loudly. Mark came in with his hands akimbo, and said: "Momma, you REALLY should have thought harder before catching yourself this cold!"

Gardening gloves!

A few weeks ago my Momma got a call from one of our neighbors. She is a grafic designer, and was putting together a catalogue for a client... she was working with a deadline, and the little boy she had booked for the pictures had H1N1. She asked if I would mind having my picture taken with some cool gardening gloves. I was very dubious, but it ended up being kind of fun.
Now my Momma got the two catalogues in the mail, along with some cool cool gardening gloves that are JUST MY SIZE! (and some nice ones for my Momma, too)... so here are the pages:
Once in the index...
...and again next to the gloves I wore.

I really like my new gloves! Obviously I still love playing in the mud with my bare hands... but I sure had fun playing in the POKY parts of the yard, without getting poked! (our bigleaf maple sheds lots of tiny poky spikes...) I also caught/dug a prime batch of night crawlers... I even helped my Momma bag some of the leaves she raked.

I'm so glad that it is warm outside, and look forward to spending LOTS of time in our yard this year!

How do you like my cool cool gloves?

Gonna be a big brudder!

My Momma has a baby in her tummy!

A few days ago, my Momma and Dad told me they have a surprise to tell me. A bit later we all piled into the big bed, and my Momma and Dad asked me what I think about becoming a big brother. I fairly resolutely said that I think I'd like to wait until I was 10 years old.

After a brief chuckle, my Momma told me that she has a baby in her tummy right now!
I thought about it for a little bit, and for a bit more, then promptly learned how to zip my sweat shirt up all by myself for the first time. Then I asked my Momma why her tummy was still small (I had seen my friend Ezra's Mommy's tummy get big). She explained that the baby was still very small, but her belly would get bigger.
I thought about it for a little while. Then I said: "I'm REALLY going to miss you guys!" ...and Dad asked what I mean. I explained that I was going to miss them when I had to leave because of the new baby. This made my Momma cry a little bit, and Momma and Dad quickly explained that they would NEVER give me away for any reason, and that they will ALWAYS love me. Then they explained that they have enough love for TWO kids (or maybe more some day). I thought about this for a while. Then I said: "If the baby wants, I'll share my toy train with it."

And that was that. I happily gave my Momma's belly a friendly little pat, and then announced that I wanted to play a game together. Several times that day I whispered a little prayer thanking God for the baby - without being prompted.

I am starting to get used to the idea of becoming a big brother. I still have lots of questions, but overall, I'm pretty excited. The due date is Sept. 1, 2010.


So here is the first picture of Bradley baby v2.0 - I think it looks like a gummy bear, because the arms and legs are still so stubby!


Here is the view from the side, at 9 weeks.

Yesterday I was snuggling with my Momma, and her tummy started gurgling and growling. I commented: "Momma, the baby sure is noisy in there!"

Snow and H1N1 shots

This morning my Momma and I went to the clinic, and they finally finally had enough H1N1 vaccine to give us a shot. I was not super happy about the idea, and I told the nurse: "You know, it's ok if you give my shot to another person." and then when I was sitting on my Momma's lap with my sleeve rolled up I calmly but firmly told the nurse: "I really don't want to have this shot." Then she poked me, and I didn't even jump, squeak, or cry! My eyes got wide for a moment, and then I said: "Oh good. It will heal now." My Momma gave me a frozen-juice popsicle at home for being so brave.

Here I am right after we got home. My friend Holden got to be in the newspaper for being so brave when he got his shot, so I asked my Momma to take a picture of me so people can see that I was brave too. (My Momma was surprised, because normally these days she has to beg to be allowed to take a picture of me)

Holden and Momma and I made these juice popsicles together a while ago. They tast yummy!

After going to Holden's house for a visit, and having lunch with Erin and Holden, we went back home. I was unusually tired from getting a shot, and asked my Momma if I could go to bed now. I slept for nearly 4 hours, and when I woke up, IT HAD SNOWED! My Momma and I bundled up, and went into the yard with Lincoln. This was Lincoln's first time in the snow: he bounded out, then noticed the weird cold white stuff touching his paws and did a funny little dance trying to get all 4 feet off the ground at once. Then he noticed that it was ok, and got really excited. He shoved his nose into the snow, and started plowing all over the yard. Lincoln invented the game 'fetch a snowball and eat it' and my Momma and I had a snowball fight. My Momma has HORRIBLE aim. She was about 3ft away from me, and still missed about as often as not.
There was just enough snow to make a snowman - although we had to put him up on this boulder to prevent Lincoln from eating him.

We played in the snow until Dad came home from work and joined us.

I LOVE SNOW!!! (so much so that when I looked outside on Christmas morning and didn't see any, I said: "Hey! Where's my snow?!" in a very accusatory tone).

Merry Christmas!

I hope you guys had as wonderful a Christmas as we did.
On the 24th we celebrated Jesus' birthday together, with a little at-home devotional, candles, and a YUMMY steak dinner. I got to open one gift (a game!) that we played together before it was bed-time. On the 25th my Momma and I made cranberry-orange muffins, eggs, sausage, and grapefruit for breakfast. Then we emptied our stockings, and then my Momma and Dad (who are big meanies) insisted on doing the dishes, taking a shower, and cleaning up a little before opening presents. Then it was FINALLY time:

First my Momma made me pose for a few pictures...


I'm a T-rex, just like the cool one my Aunt Kirsti made me on my stocking last year!



My Momma made Dad a stocking with snowflakes and a penguin... the one with the doll and teddy was made by my Great Grandma Connie when my Momma was a little girl!

Opening some gifts...


...and here is the highlight of my day: my Momma and Dad built me a HUGE castle (the sides are 5 1/2 ft long, and 4 1/2 ft tall!) for my play corner!!! It is SO cool! Now this knight has a home!

WHO GOES THERE?!

Dad and I built my Momma a drafting/art table for her to paint and draw on. It is really cool, with back-lighting and a lamp, and an adjustable table top. Dad and I spent lots of time making it just right, and we painted it red to match the rest of the room.

Momma and I built Dad a work bench for his man-room. It is tall enough that he doesn't have to bend over when working, and we spent lots of time sanding it to be silky smoothe.

It fits just right into Dad's man-room, and it can double as a tiger cage!

T-Rex

Just before nap time Dad was going to read me a story from this cool book my Grandma Nana gave me a while back. While Dad was getting comfy, I was examining the cover (see above). My comment: "T-Rex could EAT all of these."
Yep, I'm 100% boy.

Life is good!

Life is good, and life is BUSY! Just to hold grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles and friends over... here a few pictures:


ME


Our house freshly decked in icicle lights.


The randomly December-blooming Japanese-something-plant outside our front door.


Our new (used) dining set. We have friends over a lot, and the little table we had often couldn't fit everyone,so we decided to start looking around for a bigger one. We got a great deal, and are very happy with this one!

Too busy...

This morning I came into my Momma's and Dad's room to wake them up at 7am. After all, it was Saturday, which meant lots of time to play, and I wouldn't want anybody else to miss out by sleeping too long! I crawled into bed to jump on Dad (that is fairly effective at waking him), and my Momma reached over to try one of her tricky "cuddle the boy back to sleep" maneuvers. My response: "Momma- *exhasperated sigh* - I REALLY don't have time for this now."

In further news, we now have a pet Russian tortoise that I named Timmy. Timmy lives in a big tank, and likes to eat leaves and re-arrange his furniture/logs/rocks. We rescued/adopted Timmy from someone who was getting rid of him, and we think he will be a fun pet. :o)

This Friday my Momma had a Timmytortoise, and a Marktortoise and a Holdentortoise. Timmy is a bit too fat (bulges coming out of his shell) because the old owners didn't know how to feed him properly, so Timmy has to exercise every day. We are happy to "help"...

Timmy LOVES his basking spot - the old owners had let their basking bulb burn out a few months ago, and so he's been kind of chilly!



And finally, a few (goofy) pictures of me in the new hat my Momma chrochetted for me. It was going to be a simple round hat, but I specifically requested ear flaps and a pom pom... so I am very pleased that my Momma made it just like I wanted it to be.