Saturday, August 31, 2013

Daddy’s little helper.

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Brian is building a shed, half of which will double for an office.  He is loving it and wishes he could do it all day long every day.  The end goal is to be working from home, either with his current job, or even better for his own company.  I married a dreamer!

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A really handsome dreamer!

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The picture above is my new favorite picture of Elna—she didn’t know the picture was being taken and was intently trying to pencil the wood and measure at the same time—just like her daddy.  Such a funny girl!

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And a few things about Elna because I realize I update Hattie every month, but don’t do updates on Elna as often anymore:

At 2 + years, Elna is still as determined as they come!  She will go places…I just hope it’s in a good direction, because she won’t let anyone tell her otherwise.  She is so kind to Hattie—she absolutely loves her sister and thinks it is fun to play with her and make Harriet smile.  She is still doing so well with potty training, with just the occasional accident.  She is back to being a pretty good sleeper—she took a definite break that lasted several months, where she came out of her room and/or kicked the door and screamed until we thought the house would fall down, but she’s back to her normal sweet sleeping self—thank goodness!  She loves going to nursery (she also took a break from loving that for a while)!  We are learning that she will do most anything for a treat—going to bed, staying in bed, and going to nursery included.  She also loves to dance, sing, play at the park, be outside, do anything with Daddy, go through the car wash, eat goldfish, oatmeal, bread, beans, dough (which can even just be flour or flour and water) and anything with “chapa”. 

Some of the funny things Elna says are:

--“chapa” for ketchup—funny dyslexic version.

--“mooze” for move.

--“milo” for smile.  In context: “Hattie milo” in a very excited voice.  She says “Hattie milo” every time Hattie smiles, which is kind of a lot.

--“tiny bit” and “bit” while she holds her thumb and index finger together to show a small amount.  I will give her almost anything if she says this to me, because how could you resist?  “Lotion? Tiny bit?”  “Dough?  Bit?”  

--the other day after our walk she was about to head into the house from the garage and I was still at the other end of the garage coming in, and she kept repeating “kissel”, with a very serious little face, holding up her pointing finger and using her most intense little voice.  I kept trying to figure out what she was saying and couldn’t.  The next day in a different conversation she used the word again, but I was able to figure out because of context that she was saying “careful”.  Now I realize that the day before she was warning me to be “careful” because of the mouse that we once saw by the doorway of the garage.  “Kissel!”  (careful!)

--speaking of not being able to say the “f” sound, when she says her whole name it sounds like, Elna “Sae” Harris (and sometimes Harris sounds like Sarah)—it’s pretty dang cute.

--“um…I don’t know” if I ask her a question.  

--“I did it” when she blows bubbles in the bathtub or does other clever things.

--after our incident a few months ago with her getting into my mascara, she will now point to my makeup while I am doing it and say, “touch it? no, no, no!”  Apparently I have made it clear! 

I wish I could think of all of the funny things she says and does, but here is the gist: she is a darling, determined, kind, and funny little girl who we are lucky to know and raise!

Thursday, August 29, 2013

California: happenings in Fairfield

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Sleeping in the middle of my parents bed, surrounded by pillows.  We love watching our children sleep.

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Benjamin loved holding Hattie.  The older cousins asked to hold her all of the time.  My girls have great cousins!

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Jelly Belly factory tour.

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Little readers—Elna & Bob

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Elna had such a great time getting to know her boy cousins better and playing with them.  Among many other (great) things she learned from them, she learned how to urinate outside because that’s just what boys do I guess.  I once caught her and Bob urinating at the same time over the gravel box—she was pushing her pelvis forward and making a great effort.  We have since been trying to unlearn this behavior of course!

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Monday, August 26, 2013

California: Grandpa Clark & Tilden Park

On one of the days we were home in California, my small family went to visit my Grandpa Clark who lives in Kensington (near Berkeley).

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Harriet meeting her Great Grandpa Clark.

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Afterwards we met my brother, Matthias, and his family, and my sister Annie at Tilden Park, which is very near to where my Grandpa lives. 

Each of the kids had a whole stalk of celery that they fed to the cows and goats.  Elna was very brave and she loved it!

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Elna and her cousin, Benjamin, who she calls “Benj”

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Then we went on the merry-go-round.  Elna was in heaven!:

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Benjamin, Elna, John, & Robert

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Robert, Elna, & Benjamin

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John & Elna

Finally, Brian took Elna on the little train while I fed Harriet in the car:

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Rebecca, Bob, John, Annie, Elna, Benjamin, & Matthias

Such a fun day!

Sunday, August 25, 2013

California: road trip.

We drove to Fairfield on a Thursday morning after the girls woke up.  We were thinking we would leave right after Harriet’s feeding around 4 or 4:30, but of course that day she didn’t wake up until after 5:00.  It took us about 9 hours and the girls did pretty well.  We took a few Disney movies and were really hoping Elna would love them, but I guess because she doesn’t watch much t.v./movies that backfired on us.  Maybe next year. 

Elna took this picture of me when she had my phone…not bad except for the whole finger thing.

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Eating all of the m&m’s out of her trail mix.

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A stop at Great Harvest for some bread-- Medford, OR.

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Crossing the boarder into CA!  It’s funny to think that I was born and raised in CA, lived there for 18 years, and will most likely live the rest of my life in OR.  I loved being raised in CA, but I definitely love living in Oregon, and it has really become home to me.  But we still love visiting California!