Birthday Girl

Our little Lauren turned 1 today...amazing! We had a fun birthday dinner with family friends on Friday, and then had a small party this evening with cupcakes, strawberries and peach-raspberry cobbler. She had a great day and we're so proud of her. She crawls fast, stands for a few moments without support, cruises all around, waves, claps, kisses, and says mama, dada, ge ge (older brother in Mandarin), kitty, thank you, uh oh, and hi. She has more energy than we can even explain. We are so lucky to get to be her parents and watch her grow up! Lots of love to Lauren's birthmom today, as this must have been such a difficult day for her.

Checking out the frosting...

Post-cupcake face. Standing in her highchair is one of Lauren's favorite things to do. We actually just switched her to Aidan's old booster so she can sit at the table with us and be strapped in.

Our adorable neighbor Grace with the birthday girl.

Lauren giving me one of her famous open-mouth smooches.

Another favorite pasttime--handing things to people. Here she is giving Ryan her binky. If you are holding her, she will often just pop her drooly binky right in your mouth.

Go Beavers!

We walked the kids over to the University this afternoon to celebrate the return of the Oregon State Beavers baseball team from the college world series in Omaha. They are the national champions for the second year in a row! It was a beautiful day and there was a great turnout to welcome them back, complete with marching band and lots of chanting and general yelling. Perhaps you need a "Beaver Fever" T-shirt in your life? Let me know and I will hook you up! Also available: "Beaver Believer."

And Happy Birthday to Mom, aka Bethie!

Raspberry Picking

We drove out to a nearby farm last Sunday (Father's Day) and picked 5 1/2 pounds of raspberries. We think Lauren ate about a pound by herself. She is a fruit girl!




They also had a duck pond at the farm, and Aidan enjoyed herding the ducks back into their pond.




Bethie (Grandma) suggested that I see if Aidan wanted to feed Lauren--and he did! He gave her the whole bottle and grinned the whole time. Lauren seemed a bit skeptical but still drank her bottle.



Happy Summer to all!

Peaches, Strawberries & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Coming back from a week of having a super hurt back...I seem to be on the mend now. I was basically worthless in terms of child and house care for the last week and am trying to be more careful now about the way I pick up the kids, etc. We are so lucky to have my mom's help--she spent a lot of time watching both kids while I was down for the count. I signed Aidan up for his first swimming lessons today and also signed Lauren up for WaterBabies. She loves the water and I can't wait to see what she thinks of the pool. Both classes start next week. Looks like we will be spending a lot of time at the pool this summer!

Sorry about the orientation of the photos--I've spent a while trying to fix them and can't seem to figure it out. They show up the right way on my computer but when I put them on Blogger they are turned!


Ling Ling enjoys her first whole peach.



Aidan at the Strawberry festival at our Community-Supported Agriculture farm. We get a box of produce from them every week for 22 weeks! We are picking up our third box tomorrow. It is very fun so far! Anyway, the festival was last weekend and very fun.



Lauren's behind-the-binky smile (my favorite!)



Lauren attempts the goofiest face ever while we listened to the steel drum/marimba music at the farmer's market this past weekend.

Aidan eats a chocolate chip cookie at American Dream. If you haven't tried one of their chocolate chip cookies, you must! YUM!

Happy Birthdays

Aidan and I enjoyed our birthday weekend! On Friday (Aidan's birthday), we went to lunch after school and spent the afternoon opening gifts and playing with his new toys. Saturday (my birthday and Lauren's 11-month birthday), I went to Jazzercise and a few yard sales (yay!) and then Bethie watched the kids while Ryan and I went to, wait for it, a MOVIE! (The last movie we saw together was almost three years ago.) Yesterday we had a little party out at Bethie's house. Hard to believe Aidan is 4 now and Lauren will be 1 in less than a month! Enjoy the pictures.

Little List

Numbered lists are the easiest way to update a blog, right?

1) Lauren has a tooth (bottom center on the right, same first tooth Aidan got)!
2) She learned how to crawl over the weekend (we thought she might skip it, so this is exciting; see pictures below)
3) After feeling like I had been doing nothing with Aidan except scolding him for this or that, I took him on a little adventure last Friday to visit some friends (see picture below). Thanks to Jessica for talking to me on the drive home to keep me awake while Aidan snoozed!
4) Lots of birthdays coming up in our family: Aidan turns 4 on 6/1, me on 6/2, my Aunt Karen on 6/15, my grandpa on 6/16, Bethie (my mom) on 6/25, and Lauren turns 1 on 7/2.
5) Aidan is obsessed with the human body ever since reading "The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body." He is particularly interested in the esophagus and intestines, as well as the bloodstream--red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, etc.

Aidan & Mama's excellent adventure
Little crawler
Thanks Wendy & family for the cutie sweater!

May Faire & Dad

We all enjoyed our first May Faire at our friend Jonah's school yesterday. Aidan saw a puppet show, got a yellow star and a blue sun painted on his face, participated in his first cake walk, and enjoyed popcorn and ginger cake with whipped cream. My friend Wendy (Jonah's mom) held Lauren while I made a flower wreath, which was very fun for me!

Face painting.

Today is the one-year anniversary of my dad's death. We have all been thinking of him and wishing he could be here to meet his amazing granddaughter. We think he would have just loved her spunky personality and busy nature. He was a very special, fun and always funny dad and I miss him all the time.

Cute April Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the last week that I like. We're all doing pretty well. Aidan is in a major Bethie phase--he spent the night at her house both Monday and Wednesday nights this week, which is a huge treat for Ryan and me. Having only one child to focus on now feels like a vacation! I have started going to aerobics classes with my friend Wendy...only two classes so far, but it feels great to be getting back into a routine. Ryan is sweet enough to take care of the kids by himself while I do that, and it's nice for me to have a little bit of time to myself. Hope everyone is doing great!

Just a Couple More Pictures from Today

I am just loving this little girl! It is amazing how much calmer and more relaxed you are as a parent the second time around. Besides the sleep issues, she makes everything really easy on us. The funniest thing about her is that she is just unbelievably busy and is always reaching for things, grabbing things, trying to put paper in her mouth, knocking things over, etc. We joke that she just has a lot to get done each day! Aidan was a very mellow baby and would sometimes just sit in our laps and hang out...Lauren is much more active! We can't tell if she's going to crawl or not, since she doesn't spend a whole lot of time out of our arms. We've been trying to give her a little more floor time each day.

Happy Easter!

We had a fun day today with an egg hunt and Easter baskets at home in the morning, and then an Easter party with a yummy lunch and another egg hunt at Margaret and Dan's house. Lauren wore one of the outfits we got for her in Taiwan. We missed seeing our family in the Midwest for Easter (we've gone out there a few times for the holiday) and hope we can make the trip next year!

2007 Easter bunny delivery:

Finally a family picture!

Cute Aidan, 3 years and 10 months old:

Cute Lauren, 9 months and 6 days old:

I love this picture of Lily and Lauren!