Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I yam, what I yam

Time for Jameson's first food. I baked a yam (sweet potato) and scooped it out into my mini-blender added some milk, and voila, food. He wasn't too sure at first, but he decided he liked it, and then he was diving onto the spoon trying to get more into his mouth. He ate the whole bowl of yams. (Only about 2 tablespoons, but still!)






That bib was getting in the way, he is much happier without it!



Where's my food? Why did you stop feeding me?


Attempting to feed himself


Trying another angle, that dang spoon is hard to get into the mouth!


Ok, Momma seems to be much faster, so I will let her feed me. Yum!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Hanging out in the Moutains

This past weekend we hung out with Scott, Erika, Elia and Eden (and Erika's mom was visiting too!) One of the things we love to do is go hiking in their "backyard." This was Jameson's first hike, he loved it. At first, he was facing out to see the big world, but he was getting sleepy so I turned him around and he fell asleep. I love it when he falls asleep on me.

Here we are getting ready for the hike, see the excitement?


Lexi loves to go butterfly "hunting," this is her favorite season.


"Stalking" her prey


Leopold comes in for the kill


They love the woods, believe it or not Lulu is on the hike also, but she is too "mature" to chase butterflies.


The awesome view from Scott and Erika's "backyard."


Scott and Eden were leading the pack


...but Jameson and I weren't too far behind (I know, I look thrilled!)


"Be prepared" the boy scout motto comes in handy, I have a burp rag in my pocket ready for anything.


Taking a breather on the trail (my legs were burning by the end!)


Ahh, there is the man behind the camera.


As we always do, we had a wonderfully relaxing time. We made some yummy dinners (salmon and chili) and I learned how to make yogurt and strawberry preserves from Erika. She is such an awesome cook/baker. I love learning all of her recipes, because they are always the best. This morning, I even attempted to make my own yogurt. I have yet to try it, but I am hoping its as good as hers. Unfortunately, after I was ready to incubate the mixture, I found out our oven temperature only goes down to 170 degrees, when I needed it to be down to 100. I had to pay close attention to keep the temp steady, but hopefully I was successful. We will find out tomorrow.

We brought the Wii to their place, and Scott and Kevin played "Tiger Woods Golf" and Elia joined them for the racing game. She did really well, and only got turned around a few times, and as Scott pointed out, "this is why 4-year olds don't have driver's licenses." I couldn't have said it better myself. Jameson love his cousins so much. He and Eden sit around and make faces at each other, and Elia always manages to get a belly laugh out of him. Eden is now walking and Jameson was really studying her, seemingly wondering, why she was mobile and he was not. Eden also taught him how to go "crazy" jumping in her jumperoo, and since being home Jameson has been flailing his arms and bouncing really hard, just like Eden. It has been making me laugh all day. As it always does, the days flew by much too quickly. Since our house is on the market though, I have a feeling we will be spending more time up there.

A great weekend was had by all.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Big changes are a-comin'

Our house is on the market. We are trying to move closer to the center of Denver. We don't really like the "suburban hell" of Littleton, CO. Why, you ask, then did you move there in the first place? Just to let you know, we are asking ourselves that very same question.
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First of all, we really love our house. Its a great floor plan, has lots of room, and it was only 18 months old when we bought it. Secondly, Kevin had lived in a house that was built in 1935 in San Diego, and he really didn't want an older house. All the houses we looked at in Denver are older, and therefore require more maintenance, which made us think we wanted a new house. On the positive side of that, we will be only a mile or two from the University of Denver and we are hoping to get a student/property/dog manager in the house when we are gone. Thirdly, we didn't think it would take SO long to get to downtown Denver and assumed we would go more often. We talked about getting season tickets to the Rockies (before they went to the world series) and imagined ourselves down there all the time. To this day, I have only been to downtown Denver 7 times in the three years I have lived in CO and three of those times were to get my haircut, two times were concerts, and one time we just hung out at the Rock Bottom Brewery with friends. Sad, that's just pathetic and I am so not appreciating my new home state. Ask me if I have been to Vail...or Aspen...or Breckenridge...or Beaver Creek. Nope to all of the above.

Anyway, apparently, when we are in town we really like being home, which makes sense, so we are trying to move our home more towards the center, so that we can enjoy all the awesome things that Denver has to offer. Hopefully, our house will sell and we can find the perfect house, but we are not opposed to living out of our suitcases until we go back to Vienna. Which brings me to our next big change!

Vienna, Wien. My adopted home. I miss it desperately when I am away, but cringe at the thought of leaving in a mere 6 weeks. Last year, when I was pregnant, I kept imagining the city with a baby in tow. Every time I easily walked out of the apartment, I imagined strapping Jameson into his stroller, and waiting for the excruciatingly slow elevator, but then wait, at the bottom of the elevator are five more stairs that I have to maneuver to get out the door, do I take the baby out and carry both down? Do I turn it backwards and bump the stroller down each stair? Once onto the street, I would watch the women with babies, how difficult it was to get onto a strassenbahn (street car) and having to rely on the, sometimes reluctant, help of strangers. Will the supermarket be more or less difficult with a stroller, which, by the way, has a great shopping basket, but still, those supermarket aisles are teeny. Will I still like cruising the streets of Vienna as much when we are dodging hordes of people, barking dogs that belong to the goth kids, and crazy drivers or will I decide its too difficult? I am excited and nervous to be in Vienna with a baby and all alone after Kevin leaves to teach at DU. Although, each year I see thousands of mothers doing their thing each day in the city, so I don't imagine it will be so different for me. Maybe it will be easier in some ways than having to drive around with a baby. I hate pulling him out and putting him in his car seat time and time again. It makes me want to complete only one errand at a time (not very gas friendly), although he is a great little rider. Around this time of year, I begin to feel my blood pressure rising and my head filling with swirling thoughts of what needs to be accomplished before we leave. Luckily, we got our passports all taken care of and returned. I now have a passport in the name of Archer. Yippee!! My passport wasn't expired until 2010, but traveling with Jameson, I just felt it would be easier if we were under the same name. His passport is downright funny. It looks like a little mug shot, and what I find even funnier, is that this picture taken when he was 3-months old is good until he is 5-years old! He won't even look like the same kid!

Vienna's National Library
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Another big change: we got a new car! The lease was up on the jeep, so we turned it in. We really wanted a hybrid, but we feel that in a few years there will be so many more options available, and the prices will be better as well. We did get a car with better gas mileage, and it has so much room! Kevin can fit much better in this car than the jeep. We got a Ford Edge. We figure when the lease is up in three years we will spring for a more fuel efficient car. If we move to Denver, we won't be driving as much, and since we are gone so often, we drive less than the average family, anyway. Its so nice to have a brand new car! I love it!

Jameson had a doc appt. yesterday. He was 26 3/4 in. long (96%) and 16 lbs. 12 oz. (88%) and the doc said he was perfect. I agree, but I am biased. He has hit all of the major milestones and has begun working on the next phase. I am so enjoying this little guy of mine. He is such a happy fellow. He rarely cries, sleeps like a dream, eats well, loves people, and is flexible to our sometimes, crazy schedule. He seems like he will be sensitive and caring, and he seems to think he is the funniest kid around, because he is constantly cracking himself up. His giggle is my most favorite sound in the world. He loves when I talk and sing to him in german. He loves watching his dogs and beckons them to come closer so he can wrap his little fingers around their long fur (the dogs have started to learn to stay out of hands reach). I think he will be a major talker like his dad (and ok his mom too). Honestly, out of the hundred -plus kids that I baby-sat at one time or another he is the easiest baby I have ever known. I don't know if that is because he is mine, or because he really IS that easy. Kevin and I talk constantly about how much we are getting spoiled by him. I tell Kevin that this is not a normal baby, that he is SO easy. I worry our next one will be more difficult and we won't know what to do. I cannot believe he is already 4-months old!

Jameson and me at Balboa Park
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Its been a crazy week! I think the summer is only going to get busier! A few more pics to come soon.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Some of my favorite pics from SD

Celebrating the 4th of July


We met Dr. David Strawn for lunch down on Shelter Island, and boy, was it yummy. As you can see from the pictures Jameson thought Dr. Strawn was so fun. Apparently, he can tell who the "grandpas" are around him.






We stayed at the Scholler's house, Whit and Tannan came to hang out for the week.




Auntie Alison came down from Pasadena


We cooked some yummy dinners


Hung out and played the Wii


Later on in the week, we headed to Balboa Park for the 4th of July celebration...


and hung out with LeAnn and Zach and Jill


*Addition for my brother, Tim's sake.
When I posted the blog the other day, my photos weren't uploading and it was very frustrating so I just "published" my post before I truly finished it to get something up. However, I didn't get to mention what a lovely fourth of July weekend we had with Tim and Kat. They came down from San Clemente, and I was so happy that they made it down again (the third time for Tim in a week) because we didn't get to spend too much time together when they had come down before. Derek (Whit's bro) and Deborah even cooked dinner for us. Really yummy hamburgers, with some not-so-yummy buns. A little mold never hurt anyone though, right? We watched fireworks from the Scholler's deck because we wanted Jameson to get in bed at his regular time. The next day we cooked an awesome breakfast of omlettes, thanks to Kevin and Tim running out to the supermarket. Then we hung out in the sun by the pool. Jameson liked the pool even less this time. It was so fun to just relax and enjoy each other's company, and I was sad to see them go knowing that I won't see them for a while.

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It was a great trip, and the weather was beautiful! It makes us miss beautiful San Diego. Maybe in a few years we will find ourselves back there.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

We LOVE San Diego!

We have been in San Diego since the 27th for a wedding and it is making us really miss this beautiful city. It has been so fun to be back seeing lots of people and enjoying the great weather, awesome restaurants and the beautiful ocean!! I, for one, never realized how much I would miss the sea air. Colorado is a very dry state, and it makes SD seem downright humid. We got to see our friends, Rob and Michele tie the knot at Point Loma and party with them in the evening. They are now off on their honeymoon to Indonesia. (Jealous, much?) Congratulations to them!
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Then we went to our favorite breakfast spot(The Lumberjack grill has now turned back into "The Old Mill")with LeAnn and Zach, who also just recently got married. Yea! Congratulations to them too!

My brother came down from San Clemente on Sunday to watch the Euro Cup. Tim got to meet Jameson for the first time, and that was really fun! For dinner we went to the Fish Market. It was so good!
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Now we are hanging out with our good friends Whitney and Tannan. Just laying by the pool and relaxing. Jameson isn't too sure about the cold pool, but he likes kicking his feet in the water. We went to lunch with Dr. David Strawn yesterday, but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet. We still aren't sure what our plans are going to be for the fourth of July.
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