I Scream

Nanna asked up to take Boo for ice cream. She chose blue. Good thing we also got new Dora bubble bath while we were out.

Race for the Cure

Apparently Rainy City has the largest Race on the West Coast. So, we lined up downtown with 50,000 of our new best friends. The crowd never really dispersed, so there wasn't a lot of "race" in the "Race". There were some nice views of a beautiful day in Rainy City, though.


Many people carried memorial flowers:

There were high school cheer squads all along the route, also some musical entertainment. One of a Kind Drumline was there, a group of amazing drummers, who all happen to be under the age of 13 (or thereabouts).

The finish line!

The Boot Camp team

Boo slept through the Race, but did enjoy the post-race cupcake (blue icing is always a favorite).

Teams identify themselves in a variety of ways. Shirts & signs are favorites. I liked the teams with hats. Some hats were simple baseball caps or visors. I was jealous of those who had memorabilia from many past races, so I'm going to have to get working on my collection of pins.

The pins will have to go on a stroller or shirt, because I liked the creative hats even more. Cowboy, fur, feathers, and tiaras seemed to be the most popular. Extra credit to "The Cure or Bust" and their Rainy-State themed bonnets.

Race On!

We love you, Michelle

Cousin Buttercup

We have photos of all of the cousins on our refrigerator. Boo periodically strikes up a cousin conversation that goes something like:

There's Lil! She's Boo's cousin. Cousin McJ and Cousin McM are Boo's cousins!

Since May, we've talked about Cousin McD, who just went up on the refrigerator this week when her birth announcement arrived.

The other day we were reviewing the cousins. Daddy said "Soon you will have a new Cousin, Buttercup."

Boo said "Buttercup is a bootiful name."

**Thanks to Aunt Fanny who needed to give Cousin Buttercup a blog name for me to write this post, and for coming up with a name helped the telling of the story. I had only come up with "coig" which is Irish for "five" because Buttercup's name is Irish and she will be our fifth cousin. But, it just wasn't "bootiful" enough.**

4 Months

The many faces of R2

Curious...

Happy...

Sweet....

Brotherly...

Uncle BSU??

First trip to the fair

Mama and Daddy are avid fair-fans. The animals, the turkey legs & corn, the dog agility, the lego and table setting contests, the people watching opportunities... all good summer fun.

This year was the first for both kids, and the agenda was a bit different.

The jogger came in handy:

On the way to the fair, we were playing one of Boo's favorite car games "What are you looking for." This game started out as a way to distract Boo and limit the conversation to only 100 questions a minute. It goes like this, "Boo, I'm looking for a yellow car, what are you looking for? I'm looking for a red truck, Mama". Then some attention is spent on actually looking. The game can be manipulated by choosing to look for really unlikely items, like a school bus on a Saturday in August.

When Oosje learned the game, she upped the ante. She looked for things like a bicycle on top of a car. Then we all had to get more creative. On the way to the fair, I was looking for horse trailers. I saw an unusual number going north on the opposite side of the freeway, while we were heading south. I said to Daddy, "I think all the horses are leaving the fair."

First stop was the animals. We saw two horses. They were impressive big clydesdales in the "horse shower" area. The rest of the horse barns were empty. There were some pigs and sheep and goats in pens. Boo looked at them from the safety of Daddy's arms, and watched some piglets nurse "just like little brother". Then a pig made a sudden move and a loud noise and that was that. She talked about the pig trying to eat her for days. The cows were also short-lived because they are not in cages and she wasn't so sure when Daddy promised they were chained up and couldn't get her.

I had my heart set on a barbecued turkey leg. See, for years Daddy and Tom could be gotten out of bed to the fair mostly on the promise of aforementioned drumsticks. They raved. I didn't eat meat at the time and enjoyed my corn, boiled in a giant vat and then dipped in an equally giant vat of butter. When Boo was under construction, I started eating meat. But, we went a few years without going to the fair. This year I was on a mission to experience the wonder of the turkey leg. Alas, there were none. There was still lots of food. The corn was still drippy and buttery, we had a good baked potato & some tasty hawaiian chicken. Boo also enjoyed a few treats:
Boo had been on a merry-go-round twice, once with Aunt Fanny and the Captain in May and once with Daddy and A. on the photo safari. She knew it when she saw it. She rode with Daddy, twice, and then with Mama. We finally convinced her that she could come back but maybe there were some other things to try.

She wasn't so sure, so we suggested the canoes. She rode twice. By now she was getting this thing figured out. "I want to ride on the motorcycles like those other kids," she announced:
The jeep and the helicopter came next.
That exhausted the rides that she was eligible for. Most rides required kids to be 36 inches and she is about 34. We had enough tickets for one more ride, so she got to choose what to repeat. She went back to the canoes.

R2 watched and took notes, sometimes from the stroller and sometimes from his new Moby wrap.

It was a great day, a great way to end the summer, and to end Mama's leave. No dog agility, no table setting contest. Daddy did sneak off to see a few photographs. I'm sure we'll get back to those some other year.

Our Artist

About a month ago I noticed a sudden shift in Boo's coloring. One day she was coloring and she was clearly focusing on the areas of the picture as individual elements. The shoes, the face, the wings, the wand were each given attention in turn. It seemed to happen overnight. It probably didn't.

Tuesday, 3:28 pm

It took just over a week, but I am finally current on my work email. Which is to say, I've opened everything, responded to all the quick things, deleted the useless stuff, and have about 50 messages that I need to go do something about now.

The dark end of a long week

Week 1 is almost over

Accomplishments:

• I made it to the office every day
• I got back into my office this morning. It had been used by someone else during my absence and the desk they ordered for her finally arrived yesterday afternoon
• I've responded to emails through June 4
• I ate lunch every day
• I made 10 yummy freezer dinners at Thyme Management
• I took Boo and R2 to the park after work yesterday
• I didn't wash a single dish!

Fred is coming over tonight & making her famous "Crispy & Roasted" Potatoes, known to Oosje & Bampa as French Chicken. There will be vampires, chocolate and beer.

For the record, Fred, also sometimes known as Mrs. Mama, IS the BEST.

Day 1:

Accomplishments:

1642 emails deleted.
10 oz of milk produced for R2 (more than I ever got for Boo).

Tomorrow:
170 real emails to read/file/learn and/or respond to...

Back to work

Mama is back at work today. Boo and R2 are tucked in with the daytime family.

I promise updates soon, including photos from the fair and thoughts about Harry Potter. But, for now, I need to work through some of the 2000 emails in my inbox and figure out what it is I do for a living!

Welcome to Strider's Garage

Mama's new car. Looking for a name. All of Mama's cars have been named after Japanese food (Rice Burner, White Rice, Sake, and Wasabi), so this one will probably be named after Swedish food. Suggestions accepted.

Best Intentions

I thought that we would have some summer vacation fun, I would diligently document it with my camera for those not able to join us. It turns out that having summer vacation fun for 15 days with four grands, one great, and a couple of friends leaves no time for blogging and then requires a week-long nap. Here's the abridged version:

First Oosje came. We celebrated her birthday by having ice cream for second breakfast (Boo's first cone). We went to Coldstone and Boo had watermelon sorbet with M&M's. We also rode the train to the waterfront to see the boats.

Then Bampa came and we had a great day swimming. Boo took awhile to get comfortable in the water, but then played very hard for several hours. R2 just chilled out.

Then Nanna, Papa & Gigi came bearing gifts. We spent a lot of time at the "water" park, and some quality time hanging out at home. Check out the Dora chair and new scooter. And, be grateful that there isn't a sound file of the bilingual doll that talked in long nonstop paragraphs in two languages until Mama performed surgery. The now-mute doll is a favorite, and has been named Hilary, which marks the first time Boo has had a doll not named some version of "Baby". To answer the next question, there is a Boot Camp instructor named Hilary, which is the only source of the name that I can guess at.

Daddy and Boo went on a special photo safari day

Of course, the day started with the traditional Daddy-Daughter Hot Chocoloate and Donuts.

Then Daddy bought Boo a new outfit including very sassy boots:
They went and picked up Amanda
Daddy took pictures
And Boo inspected his work
To keep things interesting, they saw a cow, rode a merry-go-round, learned line dancing from an actual professional line dance instructor, and rode a boat that carried cars.

And, went to a park where Boo climbed across the swinging poles all by herself:

In the Snowy State, Oosje and Bampa's town caught on fire. They are weary of the impact, but otherwise fine:

Oh, and I finished Harry Potter.