Underarm Alarm!

Editor's Note: In order not to offend the sensitive nature of our gentle reader, there will be no photo accompanying this story.

Early this morning I was still half asleep, cozy, warm, and thoroughly enjoying my morning snuggle with Jack in our bed. Since the boys are such early risers, this extra few minutes of relaxation once they come downstairs is my favorite way to get things going. However, the day was quickly encroaching; hungry kids and cat would soon need attention, and the aroma of coffee was begining to stir me into motion. Still lying down, I reached up my arms for a good long stretch. Jack quietly gasped, then lightly grabbed the strap of my tank top. "Oh Mommy, " he said tentatively, closely inspecting my armpit, " I'm afraid you're getting...Man Hair!" My loud guffaw threw him into a fit of giggles. But truth be told, he really was very, very concerned, the poor lad.

Run Hit Wonder

Eric and I had a big outing without the kids this weekend! My folks babysat all three on Sunday morning while we participated in Nike's Run Hit Wonder with our friend Holly. It was great! My old army wound (a broken ankle from six years ago) has been bothering me lately, so we just walked the 5K race. It's just as well really, because there was a band every mile which made it fun to stop, look, and listen.


The event culminated with a finish line concert on the field of PGE Park by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Because we were one of the first 4,000 to sign up for the race (it ended up drawing over 10,000 people) we had "field access" to the show, which was fun. It was odd to hear such a hard rockin' band at 10:30 am. on a bright, sunny morning, surrounded by healthy running-types all clad in orange. But the show was great, especially since I'd forgotten how many good songs she has. Party-on Wayne!


Jack, Max, and Zöe had a great time with my parents. They went for ice cream, played in the park, bought a new game for the Playstation 2, stopped at McDonalds and set up a new Tiki-Soaker water toy in the backyard. No wonder the kids are always pushing us out the door when Nee and Obby come over to babysit. Now that I'm looking at the list of our activities as a side-by-side comparison, I think the kids had more fun hands-down. Sorry Joan.

Change is Good

This is just to let folks know that I've changed the settings on this blog regarding "Comments." It's now possible to leave a comment whether you have your own blogger account or not, by clicking on "anonymous." You can leave your comment and sign your name to it as you wish without a blogspot username. I absolutely LOVE comments, so please keep 'em coming!
And since I just can't bear to post without a photo, here's one of Zöe sitting on the glider in our backyard, curls and all.

The Sno-Cone Zone

Somehow we made it through six years of parenting without our kids indulging in such a simple, classic treat as the sno-cone. It's most certainly not that we are against sweets, ice cream, candy, or the like. Au contraire! More likely it's that our boys are pretty picky, even when it comes to "fun" foods. I recently begged Jack to try some Reese's Pieces because I knew he'd love them. I know, that was pretty stupid wasn't it? But I tell you, the kid is disturbingly suprising. He totally spit them out in disgust.


Thankfully, Zöe Dott is our prize-winning eater. There's nothing she won't try and very little she doesn't like. It's so much fun to giver her new foods and watch her investigate, sample, and attack with delight. Maybe I'm more mellow about choking/messes/etc. this third time around, maybe her personality is just a little more daring, or maybe it's a combination of both. At any rate, I guess for now we'll just have to settle for one out of three in the adventurous eating category.



Today after soccer all of our friends went over to the cute little sno-cone stand by the swimming pool at the park. I thought for sure my boys wouldn't be interested, but they were. Even after Jack learned that they didn't have chocolate flavor, he decided to try one anyway (strawberry and cherry mixed). He was very pleased with his experimentation, as was Max. Zöe was just happy to have something sweet and messy to dump upside down onto her shirt. I'm sure we'll be having one again tomorrow. Now we just need to work on getting the boys to try a hamburger, macaroni and cheese, or a turkey sandwich. Maybe if we put it in a cone?

Bend it Like Beckham

It's been all about soccer around here for a few weeks now. Jack completed two weeks of an all-day soccer camp, and this week he and Max are participating in back-to-back classes at the park. They are both really into it!


At the moment, however, we only own one pair of shinguards and one pair of cleats. So we do a major switcheroo of sweaty foot gear from one kid to the next in the few minutes between their classes. Poor Max gets the sweaty seconds. I guess if Max is going to play in the fall, we'll need to get him his own gear!







Zöe has been getting out there too, kicking the ball around with the big boys. She has no qualms about toddling out onto the field in the middle of practice to try and kick the ball, which usually causes a cacauphony of giggling from the serious, big-kid players.



This Saturday is a big Portland Timbers match vs. Sunderland AFC of the English Premier League. Nike hid 50 soccer balls around downtown Portland yesterday morning, each worth two free tickets to Saturday's game. I loaded up the kids before soccer class and we scouted around a bit, but were unsuccessful in our searching. It was very exciting, though, and I must say it felt a tiny bit Willie Wonka-ish. Although clearly I'd rather have a Golden Ticket to Wonka's Chocolate Factory over stupid old free soccer tickets any day. As we evidently have neither, we'll have to be happy with the Dairy Queen ice cream we had on our way home from the park. Fair enough.

Birds Behaving Badly

We have visitors in town for the next several days. Grandma Barbara (Eric's mom) and her fiancé Cannon are visiting from Cincinnati. So we took them to the Oregon Zoo yesterday to ride the cool train and see some animals.

Our very first stop was Lorikeet Landing which is always Eric's favorite. You buy a small cup of nectar, step into the aviary, and within seconds you become a human landing zone for the hungry lorikeets. It totally gives me the creeps, but the kids get a kick out of watching dad covered with birds. Yesterday, however, the birds were on some serious crack. One bird unloaded what seemed like a cup full of pee right onto Max. This is the kid with the dramatic flair, who remembers every tragic, scary, embarassing, sad or frightening event that has ever happened to him in his four and a half years of life. He crumbled into tears, ran out of the aviary, and has promised us all that he will never go in there again for all of eternity. Another bird tried to make a nest in grandma Barbara's hair, and a third one ate a hole in Cannon's straw hat. There were peckings, poopings, and pluckings practically every step of the way. People were perplexed and partaking in loads of anitbacterial wash as they fled, screaming from the place.

At least all was made better in the evening when we had a lovely engagement party for Barbara and Cannon at my parents house. Lashings of champagne, cake and ice cream with fresh raspberries, soothed our lorikeet-rattled nerves. All is now right with the world.

Vintage Vandals

Zöe Dott and I had a Big Night Out yesterday evening. We went to the opening of Vintage Vandals at Savage Art Resources. It was great! My mom did an amazing painting for the show, and there were so many fun pieces to look at that we had a great time. Zöe was the only kid there and she was loving the attention. She was a spectacular stair-climbing, twirling girl!

Me and my kids

This is from our day at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. Going left to right are Zöe, me, Jack, and Max.