Sunday, October 23, 2005
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Pumpkin Patch
Our Realtor threw another of her annual parties last Saturday. She got us all free admission to the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island (the best around) and gave everyone $10 in tokens to spend on whatever they wanted. We used $4 to ride the super-bumpy "cow train." Then, we used the rest to eat and buy produce. Kip bought all the ingredients for homemade salsa. He didn't think mine was very spicey, so he bought several peppers. His turned out to have quite a kick.
William enjoyed the day until he melted down, around 4:00. He fell asleep in the car on the way home.
The new car
We've had the car a week now. I've decided I love it. We drove it out to the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island (an island in the middle of the Willamette River, just outside of Portland) on the 15th. It was a fun trip and the car was wonderful. It's great to have so much room! Kip will be driving William out to the coast tomorrow for the Fathers and Sons campout and plans to give the DVD player its first use.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Feeling Sick
I have officially fallen to William’s cold. He’s been sick for what seems like forever. He started having problems sleeping last Monday. By Friday he had a runny nose. Sunday he was absolutely miserable. I wasn’t feeling too great that day either, but I was hoping that I wouldn’t suffer anything more than a runny nose and stuffy head. As it was, the official anniversary of my birth (October 9th – Sunday) was not the best day. William was grumpy and in pain. We loaded him up with all the medicines that are legal, but it seemed to bring little relief. All he did was cry and whine and beg to watch movies. I was exhausted but William refused to nap and, if he wasn’t napping, he had to have my full attention. Kip went to church since he had to teach that day, but he came home early to give me a break. I got a decent nap and enjoyed watching Kip suffer with William the rest of the day. It turned out to be an OK birthday. And it helped that we had gone out to eat the night before (got a babysitter and everything!) and had celebrated at Game Night on Friday.
So, Monday night I started feeling even worse. By Tuesday morning, I had decided that William was justified in his constant whining and difficulty sleeping if he felt as bad as I did. Of course, I still think he should have taken naps. During the day Tuesday I lost my voice. This made it difficult when I watched my friend’s 18-month-old (Isaac) for 2 ½ hours that afternoon. But we managed. During the night, I woke with an extremely soar throat. While still trying to find relief from that and get back to sleep, William woke up. He asked for juice and before I went to get it I tried to cover him up. Sometimes, this allows him to go back to sleep before I get the bottle to him. Last night, this caused him to explode into screams of rage that lasted for 5 solid minutes. I tried to say comforting things to him, but he couldn’t hear my whispers over his cries, so there was nothing I could do. I sat in the rocking chair in his room with a bottle until he calmed down enough to take it from me and drink it. Then, he went back to sleep without another complaint. Of course, his screaming woke Anna in the other room, so I got to stay up another 15 minutes feeding her and getting her back to bed. It was just enough time for me to finish the throat lozenge I was sucking on. Today, we’re wasting more time in front of the TV, but I just don’t have the energy to get William to do anything else. I keep wishing he would fall asleep and I could take a nap, too. Meanwhile, Anna is cooing and smiling in her bouncy seat or napping on the floor and seems to be doing well. I’m hoping she inherited her dad’s healthiness and won’t get sick at all.
So, Monday night I started feeling even worse. By Tuesday morning, I had decided that William was justified in his constant whining and difficulty sleeping if he felt as bad as I did. Of course, I still think he should have taken naps. During the day Tuesday I lost my voice. This made it difficult when I watched my friend’s 18-month-old (Isaac) for 2 ½ hours that afternoon. But we managed. During the night, I woke with an extremely soar throat. While still trying to find relief from that and get back to sleep, William woke up. He asked for juice and before I went to get it I tried to cover him up. Sometimes, this allows him to go back to sleep before I get the bottle to him. Last night, this caused him to explode into screams of rage that lasted for 5 solid minutes. I tried to say comforting things to him, but he couldn’t hear my whispers over his cries, so there was nothing I could do. I sat in the rocking chair in his room with a bottle until he calmed down enough to take it from me and drink it. Then, he went back to sleep without another complaint. Of course, his screaming woke Anna in the other room, so I got to stay up another 15 minutes feeding her and getting her back to bed. It was just enough time for me to finish the throat lozenge I was sucking on. Today, we’re wasting more time in front of the TV, but I just don’t have the energy to get William to do anything else. I keep wishing he would fall asleep and I could take a nap, too. Meanwhile, Anna is cooing and smiling in her bouncy seat or napping on the floor and seems to be doing well. I’m hoping she inherited her dad’s healthiness and won’t get sick at all.
Cars Cars Cars
Our car problems have been solved! On Friday (October 7) Kip got a call from our broker saying the Honda Odyssey we had ordered was in Portland. He would be able to get it to us the next week. Later, we both got calls saying that Penny was done and could be picked up any time.
The mechanic who fixed Penny gave us a great explanation of how he fixed her these two times she’s broken down. He says this is a problem with Nissans from time to time. Apparently, there’s a part that basically gets “gummed up” with oil and guck and eventually sticks, causing the car to be unable to start. It’s a $500 part, so before tearing the engine apart and replacing it and costing us a ton of money on a car that’s not worth a whole lot, he tries to release it from the outside. He described how this is done. He works at his shop with his son as assistant. So, the two of them take a hammer to the car. One of them turns the key over and over and the other bangs the hammer on the engine above the particular part. The mental image is priceless: some grease-covered mechanic fixing my car by pounding on it with a hammer until it is beaten into submission and starts working. Only a true, down-to-earth, grease-under-the-nails mechanic would have the dedication to do that. I think we’ve found our repair shop for life!
Inspired by this tale, Kip took a hammer to Penny on Saturday. Why pay someone to repair the dent from rear-ending that Jeep the day before Anna was born? He popped the hood and pounded on it until he’d gotten a lot of the dent out and fixed it so it is no longer bowed. I don’t know that there’s much we can do with the perfect black circle carved into our white bumper by the Jeep’s exhaust pipe, but Penny definitely looks better.
So we got the Odyssey yesterday. It’s super-nice and really big. I feel a little out of place in it. I spent hours yesterday just reviewing the “quick-start guide.” I don’t know exactly when I’ll have time to get to the owner’s manual. We all went out to lunch after getting it, then I drove it home and tried to fit it in the garage. There wasn’t room. The strollers and baby toys we store at the back of the garage made it so that the thing didn’t fit. I ended up parking diagonally after moving a bunch of stuff to the side. We’ll have to work on that later…
The mechanic who fixed Penny gave us a great explanation of how he fixed her these two times she’s broken down. He says this is a problem with Nissans from time to time. Apparently, there’s a part that basically gets “gummed up” with oil and guck and eventually sticks, causing the car to be unable to start. It’s a $500 part, so before tearing the engine apart and replacing it and costing us a ton of money on a car that’s not worth a whole lot, he tries to release it from the outside. He described how this is done. He works at his shop with his son as assistant. So, the two of them take a hammer to the car. One of them turns the key over and over and the other bangs the hammer on the engine above the particular part. The mental image is priceless: some grease-covered mechanic fixing my car by pounding on it with a hammer until it is beaten into submission and starts working. Only a true, down-to-earth, grease-under-the-nails mechanic would have the dedication to do that. I think we’ve found our repair shop for life!
Inspired by this tale, Kip took a hammer to Penny on Saturday. Why pay someone to repair the dent from rear-ending that Jeep the day before Anna was born? He popped the hood and pounded on it until he’d gotten a lot of the dent out and fixed it so it is no longer bowed. I don’t know that there’s much we can do with the perfect black circle carved into our white bumper by the Jeep’s exhaust pipe, but Penny definitely looks better.
So we got the Odyssey yesterday. It’s super-nice and really big. I feel a little out of place in it. I spent hours yesterday just reviewing the “quick-start guide.” I don’t know exactly when I’ll have time to get to the owner’s manual. We all went out to lunch after getting it, then I drove it home and tried to fit it in the garage. There wasn’t room. The strollers and baby toys we store at the back of the garage made it so that the thing didn’t fit. I ended up parking diagonally after moving a bunch of stuff to the side. We’ll have to work on that later…
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Car Trouble
Time is still passing and we're all doing well. Anna is smiling and making cute baby girl noises now. She's sleeping better, too. She goes down for the night around 10pm and stays down until 2 or 3am and then gets up once more at 6 or 7am and goes down again for a few more hours. William is doing well, also, although he seems to have a cold right now and has had a hard time sleeping for a few nights in a row.
Meanwhile, we're still waiting on our Honda minivan. We decided soon after Anna came along that it would be super nice to have something other than a Nissan Sentra to put our two car seats into. We decided to take the plunge and go for a brand new Honda Odyssey. We chose Honda for the resale value and reliability and decided to go with new because of the warranty options. We even decided to get the leather interior and entertainment system because they'll just be nice to have, and if we're going for broke, we might as well go all the way. At first we requested a 2005. Our broker suggested waiting three weeks and getting an '06 because the warranty would be better and the price not much higher. I didn't mind waiting. But it didn't come three weeks later. The broker gave us a new date - Monday October 3rd (2 more weeks away). In honor of that date's arrival, my car broke down. I loaded William and Anna into Penny Monday morning prepared to spend the day playing at Rachel's and lunching with old coworkers and Penny wouldn't start. We've been forced to share Kip's car since then and it's been a challenge for me. For some reason, the car seats fit slightly better in the back seat of my '95 Sentra than in Kip's '94 Sentra, so driving Kip's with the kids in it is uncomfortable for me and miserable for Kip. Maybe this is just the universe's way of making us REALLY appreciate the minivan when we finally get it. Meanwhile, I've been having to get up and get everyone out the door to drive Kip to work if I want to do anything during the day, which I generally do (primary presidency meetings, dentist appointments, Anna's 2 month checkup). We haven't been very good about it and Kip's been getting to work a little on the late side. Tomorrow I'm letting him drive himself and we'll just be homebodies for a day. At least we can walk to Heidi's house if we need a break.
Kip had his coworker Chirayu help him tow Penny to the repair guy that fixed her last time. I feel sorry for the poor guy (Chirayu). Towing a Nissan Sentra with another Nissan Sentra down 5 miles of dark small-town streets is a little unnerving. This time at least Kip remembered to take along the walkie-talkies. Chirayu was able to tell him to keep it slow, but that did mean that the journey was a long one. I'm hoping to hear from the repair shop tomorrow that it's the same thing that happened before and that it can be fixed easily.
Here's the story of what happened before. A month before William was born I climbed into my car to head to work. Penny started and immediately died. She refused to start again. We had her towed to a nearby repair shop. They told us that her engine was shot and would have to be replaced for thousands of dollars (slightly more than she was worth even at that time) or that they would buy her off us for slightly less than that. We thought they sounded fishy, so we decided to get a second opinion. They charged us $100 for the towing and diagnostic and released her back to us.
I don't know how Kip chose this other repair place. It certainly wasn't by location. But the guy there suspected right away that what had happened was a rare, Sentra-only, oil-related problem. He gave me an oil change and did something I recall as soaking some parts of the engine in fresh oil and the car started just fine a day later. He counseled us to change the oil every 2 months instead of 3-whenever we got around to it. I was good about it for a year or so.
So, I'm hoping this is the same problem as before and that our little Penny can be revived and back on the road before the end of the week. Or, we could actually get the minivan we've been waiting for. But I think Penny getting repaired is more likely to happen first.
Meanwhile, we're still waiting on our Honda minivan. We decided soon after Anna came along that it would be super nice to have something other than a Nissan Sentra to put our two car seats into. We decided to take the plunge and go for a brand new Honda Odyssey. We chose Honda for the resale value and reliability and decided to go with new because of the warranty options. We even decided to get the leather interior and entertainment system because they'll just be nice to have, and if we're going for broke, we might as well go all the way. At first we requested a 2005. Our broker suggested waiting three weeks and getting an '06 because the warranty would be better and the price not much higher. I didn't mind waiting. But it didn't come three weeks later. The broker gave us a new date - Monday October 3rd (2 more weeks away). In honor of that date's arrival, my car broke down. I loaded William and Anna into Penny Monday morning prepared to spend the day playing at Rachel's and lunching with old coworkers and Penny wouldn't start. We've been forced to share Kip's car since then and it's been a challenge for me. For some reason, the car seats fit slightly better in the back seat of my '95 Sentra than in Kip's '94 Sentra, so driving Kip's with the kids in it is uncomfortable for me and miserable for Kip. Maybe this is just the universe's way of making us REALLY appreciate the minivan when we finally get it. Meanwhile, I've been having to get up and get everyone out the door to drive Kip to work if I want to do anything during the day, which I generally do (primary presidency meetings, dentist appointments, Anna's 2 month checkup). We haven't been very good about it and Kip's been getting to work a little on the late side. Tomorrow I'm letting him drive himself and we'll just be homebodies for a day. At least we can walk to Heidi's house if we need a break.
Kip had his coworker Chirayu help him tow Penny to the repair guy that fixed her last time. I feel sorry for the poor guy (Chirayu). Towing a Nissan Sentra with another Nissan Sentra down 5 miles of dark small-town streets is a little unnerving. This time at least Kip remembered to take along the walkie-talkies. Chirayu was able to tell him to keep it slow, but that did mean that the journey was a long one. I'm hoping to hear from the repair shop tomorrow that it's the same thing that happened before and that it can be fixed easily.
Here's the story of what happened before. A month before William was born I climbed into my car to head to work. Penny started and immediately died. She refused to start again. We had her towed to a nearby repair shop. They told us that her engine was shot and would have to be replaced for thousands of dollars (slightly more than she was worth even at that time) or that they would buy her off us for slightly less than that. We thought they sounded fishy, so we decided to get a second opinion. They charged us $100 for the towing and diagnostic and released her back to us.
I don't know how Kip chose this other repair place. It certainly wasn't by location. But the guy there suspected right away that what had happened was a rare, Sentra-only, oil-related problem. He gave me an oil change and did something I recall as soaking some parts of the engine in fresh oil and the car started just fine a day later. He counseled us to change the oil every 2 months instead of 3-whenever we got around to it. I was good about it for a year or so.
So, I'm hoping this is the same problem as before and that our little Penny can be revived and back on the road before the end of the week. Or, we could actually get the minivan we've been waiting for. But I think Penny getting repaired is more likely to happen first.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Anna's Blessing - Sunday
On Sunday we all got dressed up and headed to church. With 8 adults and 3 children in our little three-bedroom house, you can bet it was a little crazy. Luckily, church starts at 1:00, so we had time to get everything done…well, mostly. We made it to church early enough to get soft seats, but we didn’t manage to get a photo of the whole family together with Anna in her blessing dress.
The blessing went well. Kip is still getting teased about how much height Anna got from Kip bouncing her while saying the blessing. The Bishop says the distance traveled by the bouncing baby is proportional to the length of the father’s arms from elbow to wrists. Kip’s got a lot of length there. His brothers said they could hardly keep their hands on her she went up so high on the upswing. In any case, the blessing was perfect. Anna was promised all the right things from health and testimony to being a good mother herself one day. A nice sister in the ward even wrote out a lot of what was said so I could keep it in her file.
Everyone left us on Monday. It was sad to see them go and I missed them a lot. Our house was suddenly a lot quieter and poor William was suddenly a lot lonelier.
The blessing went well. Kip is still getting teased about how much height Anna got from Kip bouncing her while saying the blessing. The Bishop says the distance traveled by the bouncing baby is proportional to the length of the father’s arms from elbow to wrists. Kip’s got a lot of length there. His brothers said they could hardly keep their hands on her she went up so high on the upswing. In any case, the blessing was perfect. Anna was promised all the right things from health and testimony to being a good mother herself one day. A nice sister in the ward even wrote out a lot of what was said so I could keep it in her file.
Everyone left us on Monday. It was sad to see them go and I missed them a lot. Our house was suddenly a lot quieter and poor William was suddenly a lot lonelier.
Anna's Blessing - Saturday
On Friday night Grandma, Aunt Tasha, and Uncle Cory arrived. So, on Saturday we took everyone to breakfast at Tom’s Pancake House (the best breakfast in Beaverton) and then headed out to Tillamook. We toured the cheese factory and then played at the beach in Oceanside. It was a nice day on the beach. It was cool – in the 60s – and the water was cold, but we enjoyed it. William ran out into the waves and nearly got bowled over. For some reason this didn’t make him happy this time. I’m guessing it’s because the water was too cold. After that first mishap, he refused to go near the water at all for a while, which is very uncharacteristic of him. Then, he would only go with someone who could guarantee that he wouldn’t get wet. But he enjoyed himself dumping buckets of water Daddy brought him into the sand. Anna did fine sitting in Cory and Ang’s stroller for a while, then we resorted to the rented minivan to feed her and let her relax out of the cold.
Anna's Blessing - Friday
On Thursday night, September 22nd, the first visitors for Anna’s blessing arrived. They were Ang and Jovin, Chad and Angie. They got in at 11pm and after catching up on the latest news and setting up beds, we all bedded down about midnight. We had a lazy morning Friday and at 10:30 Kip, William, Chad and Angie headed off to the Gorge to do some hiking. They hiked Eagle Creek to the first set of falls, which are popular swimming holes in the heat of summer. William had a lot of fun, but got pretty tired.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Progress
Anna and William are both making a lot of progress lately. I thought I’d write some of the latest things they’ve learned.
Anna has learned how to smile! When I go to get her out of her crib after a nap (as long as I don’t wait until she’s screaming at my neglect) she’ll smile at me with a big open mouth and coo and gurgle until I pick her up. Of course, if I spend too much time enjoying the smile and pleasant noises, they turn to cries of anger and frustration, but sometimes it’s worth it just to get as much out of the smiley girl as I can. She is also starting to try to suck on her hands. She hasn’t figured out yet how to separate the thumb, but she sometimes calms herself by sucking her hand for a little while when I can’t get to her and she wants to eat. Unfortunately, it never lasts very long.
William is making more and more progress on his speech. One of his latest favorite things is to talk about something being “too hard.” He’ll say “it’s too hard to” do this or that, whatever it is that he’s doing. But then he goes ahead and does it anyway. “It’s too hard to climb up,” he says as I take him up the hill at the park. But he doesn’t stop walking. “It’s too hard to eat this apple.” But he still eats it – core and all. (I gave him an apple yesterday morning. I offered to cut it for him, but he decided to just bite into it. When he realized that that was an effective way to eat it, he refused to give it back. I left him eating it while I made waffles and didn’t think anything of it. Later, he came to me with a face covered with apple juice and apple bits and asked to be wiped off. I asked him where he left the rest of the apple and went looking in the family room expecting to find the core sitting abandoned somewhere. Silly me. How would a 2 year-old know not to eat the core of his very first whole apple? There was no sign of the apple. William had eaten it, stem and all.)
William’s also learning the names of more and more animals. He loves to watch the Baby Einstein videos, especially all the animal ones, and I think that’s where he learned the majority of their names. And he’s getting better and better at making sentences. He was playing with his Sesame Street shape sorter the other day and pointed to one of the pictures on it and told me “Cookie Monster’s holding a pig.” I was impressed. I can’t wait for Anna to start being able to interact with him instead of just opening her eyes wide in terror when she hears his cry of “Baby ANNA!” that usually precedes him slapping at her face or stomach.
Anna has learned how to smile! When I go to get her out of her crib after a nap (as long as I don’t wait until she’s screaming at my neglect) she’ll smile at me with a big open mouth and coo and gurgle until I pick her up. Of course, if I spend too much time enjoying the smile and pleasant noises, they turn to cries of anger and frustration, but sometimes it’s worth it just to get as much out of the smiley girl as I can. She is also starting to try to suck on her hands. She hasn’t figured out yet how to separate the thumb, but she sometimes calms herself by sucking her hand for a little while when I can’t get to her and she wants to eat. Unfortunately, it never lasts very long.
William is making more and more progress on his speech. One of his latest favorite things is to talk about something being “too hard.” He’ll say “it’s too hard to” do this or that, whatever it is that he’s doing. But then he goes ahead and does it anyway. “It’s too hard to climb up,” he says as I take him up the hill at the park. But he doesn’t stop walking. “It’s too hard to eat this apple.” But he still eats it – core and all. (I gave him an apple yesterday morning. I offered to cut it for him, but he decided to just bite into it. When he realized that that was an effective way to eat it, he refused to give it back. I left him eating it while I made waffles and didn’t think anything of it. Later, he came to me with a face covered with apple juice and apple bits and asked to be wiped off. I asked him where he left the rest of the apple and went looking in the family room expecting to find the core sitting abandoned somewhere. Silly me. How would a 2 year-old know not to eat the core of his very first whole apple? There was no sign of the apple. William had eaten it, stem and all.)
William’s also learning the names of more and more animals. He loves to watch the Baby Einstein videos, especially all the animal ones, and I think that’s where he learned the majority of their names. And he’s getting better and better at making sentences. He was playing with his Sesame Street shape sorter the other day and pointed to one of the pictures on it and told me “Cookie Monster’s holding a pig.” I was impressed. I can’t wait for Anna to start being able to interact with him instead of just opening her eyes wide in terror when she hears his cry of “Baby ANNA!” that usually precedes him slapping at her face or stomach.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Camping with the Kids
This weekend was our long-awaited trip to the Yurts of Champoeg (pronounced sham-poo-ee) State Park. A Yurt is an Oregon thing. It’s a round wood frame building with canvas walls and a teepee style roof. The center of the roof is a plastic dome that can be raised and lowered for ventilation and the walls have three screened window openings that are covered with canvas flaps that can be rolled up and tied out of the way. There is electricity – one power outlet and a set of lights – and a heater. Each Yurt is furnished with a futon and a bunk bed where the bottom bunk is a double and the top is a single. There is also a table and two chairs. As far as camping goes, I think Yurts are the best. They are like tents, but you can stand up all the way and you have beds and – best of all in mid September – HEAT! It was really very comfortable.
Our Yurt trip was planned early in the year by Rachel. She invited us and the Roses to join her in the trip and reserved our Yurts for us. Since that time the Roses moved to Virginia and Rachel and Josh had scheduling conflicts and couldn’t go. We canceled one Yurt and invited the Binghams to use the other one. Luckily, they were available. So, Friday afternoon, we packed up our cars (their one car and both Killpack cars – there was too much to fit in one Nissan Sentra with two adults and two kids in car seats.) and headed for Champoeg. We got there about 7pm, unloaded the cars and settled in.
Our first activity that night was to break in Kip’s dutch oven. He filled it up with grease; we mixed up some dough and had fry bread. It was really good. Then, we headed into the Yurts, turned up the heat, and settled in for the night. Even with both Sentras, we hadn’t had enough room to bring Anna’s play pen, so I decided to make up the futon as a bed for her to share with me. Kip slept diagonally from corner to corner of the bottom, double-bed bunk and William slept on the top bunk. It worked out OK. I kept Anna on the top back corner of the bed bundled in a blanket with a warm hat on. When she needed to eat, I fed her either there in bed or on one of the chairs close to the heater.
Saturday morning we made another Dutch oven creation. Kip cooked sausage in the oven, then took it out and cooked hash browns in the fat. Finally, he topped the hash browns with eggs and the crumbled sausage. It was delicious! Plus, it wasn’t done until 10:30, so we were all starving by that time. Unfortunately, the yellow jackets were starving, too, and were not at all disturbed by our attempts to keep them away. They wanted our food and they would do anything to get it. I think lack of sleep may have made me a little irrational and I got a little touchy about them. Luckily, that afternoon we had a small thunder storm and the rain drove the yellow jackets away so they weren’t as annoying the rest of our stay.
While we were getting going that morning, William disappeared. Kip wandered off to find him and realized that William had discovered a blackberry patch. The poor boy was standing at its edge trying in vain to reach the tempting black fruit and nearly toppling into the ditch in front of the bush. Kip picked him some berries and brought him back. William begged and begged for more, so Heidi and I headed back to the bushes with him. The strip of blackberries ran the length of the yurt area – probably about 75 yards. The best berries were all up higher than most of us could reach. They were even a stretch for Kip. And as we picked we frequently got tangled in the loose branches that reached out from the main bush like arms intended to trap the unwatchful. While I picked, William got himself completely ensnared. When I went to free him, I found myself pinned in, too. But the berries were good and we managed to pick quite a few. William wanted to eat them all, but we tried to keep him under control.
So, after being home from Israel for over 2 months and longing for the cool weather and rains of autumn, they finally arrived on the weekend of our campout. On Thursday it was in the 80s. On Friday it was in the 60s. Saturday, it rained all afternoon. We canceled the walk through the woods we had planned and moved into the Yurt to play games. William and Isaac (18 months) played with the toy cars we had brought. They did OK except that Isaac tried to interact with William and he found that threatening. Of course, sometime that interaction did involve taking William’s toy, but William reacted just as unhappily if Isaac attempted to give him a toy instead. But our card game went well and we had plenty of snack food, so the afternoon was a pleasant one.
The rain stopped around 5:00 and we headed back out to give the kids room to let off energy and to start dinner. Kip made us a Dutch oven BBQ chicken dinner and we ate it with potatoes baked in the coals of the fire. It was great. We had a calm dinner and then cleaned up and put the kids to bed. Of course, I managed to miss all the cleaning up by slipping off into the Yurt to nurse Anna by the heater. I really felt bad about that…That night we (the parents) ate smores by the fire and talked until late about fun things like school and playing the flute.
Sunday morning we all got up and cleaned up our Yurts (I helped this time) and packed up to head home. We picked a bowl of blackberries to take with us so we can celebrate our return with a Dutch oven blackberry cobbler tonight. We got home Sunday just in time to shower, put on church clothes and head to church.
Our Yurt trip was planned early in the year by Rachel. She invited us and the Roses to join her in the trip and reserved our Yurts for us. Since that time the Roses moved to Virginia and Rachel and Josh had scheduling conflicts and couldn’t go. We canceled one Yurt and invited the Binghams to use the other one. Luckily, they were available. So, Friday afternoon, we packed up our cars (their one car and both Killpack cars – there was too much to fit in one Nissan Sentra with two adults and two kids in car seats.) and headed for Champoeg. We got there about 7pm, unloaded the cars and settled in.
Our first activity that night was to break in Kip’s dutch oven. He filled it up with grease; we mixed up some dough and had fry bread. It was really good. Then, we headed into the Yurts, turned up the heat, and settled in for the night. Even with both Sentras, we hadn’t had enough room to bring Anna’s play pen, so I decided to make up the futon as a bed for her to share with me. Kip slept diagonally from corner to corner of the bottom, double-bed bunk and William slept on the top bunk. It worked out OK. I kept Anna on the top back corner of the bed bundled in a blanket with a warm hat on. When she needed to eat, I fed her either there in bed or on one of the chairs close to the heater.
Saturday morning we made another Dutch oven creation. Kip cooked sausage in the oven, then took it out and cooked hash browns in the fat. Finally, he topped the hash browns with eggs and the crumbled sausage. It was delicious! Plus, it wasn’t done until 10:30, so we were all starving by that time. Unfortunately, the yellow jackets were starving, too, and were not at all disturbed by our attempts to keep them away. They wanted our food and they would do anything to get it. I think lack of sleep may have made me a little irrational and I got a little touchy about them. Luckily, that afternoon we had a small thunder storm and the rain drove the yellow jackets away so they weren’t as annoying the rest of our stay.
While we were getting going that morning, William disappeared. Kip wandered off to find him and realized that William had discovered a blackberry patch. The poor boy was standing at its edge trying in vain to reach the tempting black fruit and nearly toppling into the ditch in front of the bush. Kip picked him some berries and brought him back. William begged and begged for more, so Heidi and I headed back to the bushes with him. The strip of blackberries ran the length of the yurt area – probably about 75 yards. The best berries were all up higher than most of us could reach. They were even a stretch for Kip. And as we picked we frequently got tangled in the loose branches that reached out from the main bush like arms intended to trap the unwatchful. While I picked, William got himself completely ensnared. When I went to free him, I found myself pinned in, too. But the berries were good and we managed to pick quite a few. William wanted to eat them all, but we tried to keep him under control.
So, after being home from Israel for over 2 months and longing for the cool weather and rains of autumn, they finally arrived on the weekend of our campout. On Thursday it was in the 80s. On Friday it was in the 60s. Saturday, it rained all afternoon. We canceled the walk through the woods we had planned and moved into the Yurt to play games. William and Isaac (18 months) played with the toy cars we had brought. They did OK except that Isaac tried to interact with William and he found that threatening. Of course, sometime that interaction did involve taking William’s toy, but William reacted just as unhappily if Isaac attempted to give him a toy instead. But our card game went well and we had plenty of snack food, so the afternoon was a pleasant one.
The rain stopped around 5:00 and we headed back out to give the kids room to let off energy and to start dinner. Kip made us a Dutch oven BBQ chicken dinner and we ate it with potatoes baked in the coals of the fire. It was great. We had a calm dinner and then cleaned up and put the kids to bed. Of course, I managed to miss all the cleaning up by slipping off into the Yurt to nurse Anna by the heater. I really felt bad about that…That night we (the parents) ate smores by the fire and talked until late about fun things like school and playing the flute.
Sunday morning we all got up and cleaned up our Yurts (I helped this time) and packed up to head home. We picked a bowl of blackberries to take with us so we can celebrate our return with a Dutch oven blackberry cobbler tonight. We got home Sunday just in time to shower, put on church clothes and head to church.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Anna's 1 month old!
Anna is now one month old. It’s been a month of adjustments. William really seems to like her, although he struggles with the amount of attention she gets. When he looks at her, he can’t help laughing and calling her ‘baby Anna’ in a high-pitched, happy voice. He gets very enthusiastic about it and frequently slaps her in his excitement. We have to keep reminding him not to touch her face and not to hit her. There are suddenly a lot more things for him not to do. I feel bad for him sometimes. He gets a lot of negative feedback. I have to try to remember to throw in the positives whenever I can or follow up the ‘no’s with a suggestion of something he can do with his sister.
One day I had Anna on the floor in William’s room and was talking to him about the things he could do that Anna couldn’t do yet. I told him that she couldn’t eat anything but milk yet and someday he would have to teach her to eat goldfish (the cracker kind) and everything. He took a goldfish from his baggie and reached toward her. “Baby, open mouth,” he said and then tried to push it in. It was really cute.
When Anna cries, William likes to alert me. “Baby cry,” he says. I ask him why she’s crying and we list some of the possible reasons. Generally, though I think it’s just because she wants to be held. Anna’s quite a snuggler. Her favorite position is upright against my shoulder, where she frequently spits up all over me. After eating, I always lift her onto my shoulder to burp her and she tends to fall asleep while there. Then, I take her to her bed and put her down. Sometimes she goes back to sleep. Sometimes she doesn’t.
Anna’s very strong already. From her first doctor’s appointment people were commenting on her ability to track things with her eyes and head. She’s very good at holding her head up when I have her on my shoulder and she’s already making attempts at rolling over. I’m guessing she won’t take as long to get mobile as William did, but it may just be survival instinct that gets her going, what with William hitting her (not in a mean way) every time he sees her lying on the sofa.
One day I had Anna on the floor in William’s room and was talking to him about the things he could do that Anna couldn’t do yet. I told him that she couldn’t eat anything but milk yet and someday he would have to teach her to eat goldfish (the cracker kind) and everything. He took a goldfish from his baggie and reached toward her. “Baby, open mouth,” he said and then tried to push it in. It was really cute.
When Anna cries, William likes to alert me. “Baby cry,” he says. I ask him why she’s crying and we list some of the possible reasons. Generally, though I think it’s just because she wants to be held. Anna’s quite a snuggler. Her favorite position is upright against my shoulder, where she frequently spits up all over me. After eating, I always lift her onto my shoulder to burp her and she tends to fall asleep while there. Then, I take her to her bed and put her down. Sometimes she goes back to sleep. Sometimes she doesn’t.
Anna’s very strong already. From her first doctor’s appointment people were commenting on her ability to track things with her eyes and head. She’s very good at holding her head up when I have her on my shoulder and she’s already making attempts at rolling over. I’m guessing she won’t take as long to get mobile as William did, but it may just be survival instinct that gets her going, what with William hitting her (not in a mean way) every time he sees her lying on the sofa.
Monday, August 08, 2005
It's a girl!
Anna Carmel Killpack was born 8 pounds even yesterday at 5pm! She is healthy and hungry. Mama is doing great also! Check out the cuties below.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
The Return
Well, we’ve been home for a while and I thought it might be time to catch up on the return trip update. We flew out of Israel on Friday, the 1st of July. Our flight was at 5pm, so we had the morning to finish packing and check out with the landlady. Then, we loaded the car (shocked that we were able to pack a Subaru Impreza with 5 stuffed duffle bags, a stroller, three carry-on bags, two adults and a toddler in car seat), and drove to Bowden’s for a farewell lunch. We went from there to the airport, leaving at 12:30. The drive is about an hour and after dropping off the rental car and going through all the check-in and security, we made it to our plane just in time to board.
The airport in Israel is pretty tough on security. You first go through a preliminary bag-screening/passport check line where you wait and wait and eventually someone comes and takes your passports and looks at you suspiciously. Kip had a special letter from Intel informing the airport that he was there from Intel and supposed to leave that day. They took it away, as well as all our passports and made me worry for a little while. Then, they came back and asked the traditional questions about who packed our luggage and if strangers gave us things. We answered those satisfactorily and were allowed to send our bags through the x-ray machines. One was flagged for manual search (I think they do that to everyone), so that was the next stop. The ladies looked through the bag pretty lightly. Some of them were totally emptying people’s bags and searching everything inside, so I was relieved that they just opened ours and pointed to a few things and then let us go.
Next, we got in the British Air check-in line. It was a long line and I’d been standing too long already, so William and I went to a vacant check-in spot and I sat on the luggage scale while William ran back and forth between a big ceiling-supporting column and me. He would hit the column and laugh and run back to me, only running into people every now and then. When Kip got up to the front, William and I joined him and checked in. After finishing, we started to walk away, but our checker girl ran after us and asked me how far along I was. I told her 35 weeks and she looked concerned. So, I pulled out the note I’d gotten from my doctor the day before saying I was fine to travel. She took it to her supervisor who shook her head “no, no, no” and Kip and I started to look concerned. It turned out they just weren’t aware of the travel-while-pregnant policy and had to look it up, but we spent a few minutes really worrying that we would have to stay in Israel another 2-3 months and have a baby there and I REALLY wanted to go home. Finally, they brought back over the note, having made a copy for their file, and sent us on our way.
The flight from Israel to London was fairly uneventful for us. There was another woman who went into some sort of medical trauma and the flight attendants asked people not to use the rear restrooms, but I was fine. William got a little stir crazy and the woman in front of us gave me significantly dirty looks several times. I thought she ought to be happy that she wasn’t sitting in front of an Israeli family because the prevailing child-rearing attitude there seems to be one of non-intervention. About 2 hours into the flight, I decided that Kip had been inspired to give us a lay-over night in London because the thought of getting on another plane that evening made me sick. All I wanted to was stretch out on a soft bed and not have anyone glaring at me or pushing their knees into my back.
The night in London was great. We rode the bus to our hotel, not far from the airport, and snuggled into our beds. In the morning, I took advantage of the large bathtub while Kip and William explored the bus and subway system around the airport. They had a blast. When they got back we all took a nap and then headed to the airport for our long long flight.
Check-in this time was easy. We already had our boarding passes and only had one back to check, so we got to go through a short line and then on into the airport. We got a nice lunch and then went to our plane.
William did great on the flight. We bought him a model double-decker bus at the airport and pulled it out about an hour into the flight. He spent the next two hours driving it all around in our set of seats. It was the best toy purchase I think I’ve ever made. Then, he fell asleep and slept about 6 of the 9 hours we were on that flight. Kip and I got to watch a lot of the movies. I chose two light-hearted love-comedies (I can’t handle anything intense when pregnant and especially not when pregnant and uncomfortable on an airplane seat) and Kip watched some action/drama shows. Then, when I couldn’t handle any more movies/TV, I read my book and slept a little bit. And, of course, I made frequent trips to the bathrooms or just stood up and stretched my legs. I was really impressed with the fact that my ankles never really swelled up and I can still wear my wedding ring. With William, I had to take it off long before this point in the pregnancy.
Anyway, we landed in Denver at 6:30 and had 2 hours to get through customs and out to the domestic terminal to catch our next flight. We nearly didn’t make it. Customs went just fine, but we were at the end of the line and it didn’t move very fast. Unlike in London, where they let us through an alternate passport check line (the one for locals instead of foreigners), in Denver they made no exceptions for the largely-pregnant and obviously-uncomfortable. Everything has to be fair in this country. It kind of bothered me. So, we waited and waited and finally got our passports looked at and sent on to collect our bags. That part went pretty fast. We found all our bags, rolled them to the right spot, loaded them on another conveyer and sent them away. Then, the girl at the conveyer counter pointed us in the direction to our connecting flight. We went up and through security again. This time, they made us all take off our shoes. I had forgotten about that part of flying. They didn’t ask us to do it in London or even in Israel. Why would Denver have to be so picky? Especially with a pregnant lady who can hardly reach her feet. It made me mad at the American flight system yet again. But maybe I was only so hard on them because I’d already been traveling too long. So, we made it through the security check and onto the subway to the other terminals and rushed out to our gate only to have the doors closed right as we got there. They had just given our seats to some standby travelers. We weren’t happy. So, they called back the people they had just put on the flight and let us get one instead.
Three hours later, we were in Portland. Our neighbor gave us a ride home and, at 11pm, we were finally there. It was wonderful to be back. William was wide awake, having slept the majority of both flights from London, so we went to Winco and bought food to restock our empty kitchen. We got some funny looks for being there with a toddler at midnight, but I was a little too out of it to care much. It was just good to be home.
The airport in Israel is pretty tough on security. You first go through a preliminary bag-screening/passport check line where you wait and wait and eventually someone comes and takes your passports and looks at you suspiciously. Kip had a special letter from Intel informing the airport that he was there from Intel and supposed to leave that day. They took it away, as well as all our passports and made me worry for a little while. Then, they came back and asked the traditional questions about who packed our luggage and if strangers gave us things. We answered those satisfactorily and were allowed to send our bags through the x-ray machines. One was flagged for manual search (I think they do that to everyone), so that was the next stop. The ladies looked through the bag pretty lightly. Some of them were totally emptying people’s bags and searching everything inside, so I was relieved that they just opened ours and pointed to a few things and then let us go.
Next, we got in the British Air check-in line. It was a long line and I’d been standing too long already, so William and I went to a vacant check-in spot and I sat on the luggage scale while William ran back and forth between a big ceiling-supporting column and me. He would hit the column and laugh and run back to me, only running into people every now and then. When Kip got up to the front, William and I joined him and checked in. After finishing, we started to walk away, but our checker girl ran after us and asked me how far along I was. I told her 35 weeks and she looked concerned. So, I pulled out the note I’d gotten from my doctor the day before saying I was fine to travel. She took it to her supervisor who shook her head “no, no, no” and Kip and I started to look concerned. It turned out they just weren’t aware of the travel-while-pregnant policy and had to look it up, but we spent a few minutes really worrying that we would have to stay in Israel another 2-3 months and have a baby there and I REALLY wanted to go home. Finally, they brought back over the note, having made a copy for their file, and sent us on our way.
The flight from Israel to London was fairly uneventful for us. There was another woman who went into some sort of medical trauma and the flight attendants asked people not to use the rear restrooms, but I was fine. William got a little stir crazy and the woman in front of us gave me significantly dirty looks several times. I thought she ought to be happy that she wasn’t sitting in front of an Israeli family because the prevailing child-rearing attitude there seems to be one of non-intervention. About 2 hours into the flight, I decided that Kip had been inspired to give us a lay-over night in London because the thought of getting on another plane that evening made me sick. All I wanted to was stretch out on a soft bed and not have anyone glaring at me or pushing their knees into my back.
The night in London was great. We rode the bus to our hotel, not far from the airport, and snuggled into our beds. In the morning, I took advantage of the large bathtub while Kip and William explored the bus and subway system around the airport. They had a blast. When they got back we all took a nap and then headed to the airport for our long long flight.
Check-in this time was easy. We already had our boarding passes and only had one back to check, so we got to go through a short line and then on into the airport. We got a nice lunch and then went to our plane.
William did great on the flight. We bought him a model double-decker bus at the airport and pulled it out about an hour into the flight. He spent the next two hours driving it all around in our set of seats. It was the best toy purchase I think I’ve ever made. Then, he fell asleep and slept about 6 of the 9 hours we were on that flight. Kip and I got to watch a lot of the movies. I chose two light-hearted love-comedies (I can’t handle anything intense when pregnant and especially not when pregnant and uncomfortable on an airplane seat) and Kip watched some action/drama shows. Then, when I couldn’t handle any more movies/TV, I read my book and slept a little bit. And, of course, I made frequent trips to the bathrooms or just stood up and stretched my legs. I was really impressed with the fact that my ankles never really swelled up and I can still wear my wedding ring. With William, I had to take it off long before this point in the pregnancy.
Anyway, we landed in Denver at 6:30 and had 2 hours to get through customs and out to the domestic terminal to catch our next flight. We nearly didn’t make it. Customs went just fine, but we were at the end of the line and it didn’t move very fast. Unlike in London, where they let us through an alternate passport check line (the one for locals instead of foreigners), in Denver they made no exceptions for the largely-pregnant and obviously-uncomfortable. Everything has to be fair in this country. It kind of bothered me. So, we waited and waited and finally got our passports looked at and sent on to collect our bags. That part went pretty fast. We found all our bags, rolled them to the right spot, loaded them on another conveyer and sent them away. Then, the girl at the conveyer counter pointed us in the direction to our connecting flight. We went up and through security again. This time, they made us all take off our shoes. I had forgotten about that part of flying. They didn’t ask us to do it in London or even in Israel. Why would Denver have to be so picky? Especially with a pregnant lady who can hardly reach her feet. It made me mad at the American flight system yet again. But maybe I was only so hard on them because I’d already been traveling too long. So, we made it through the security check and onto the subway to the other terminals and rushed out to our gate only to have the doors closed right as we got there. They had just given our seats to some standby travelers. We weren’t happy. So, they called back the people they had just put on the flight and let us get one instead.
Three hours later, we were in Portland. Our neighbor gave us a ride home and, at 11pm, we were finally there. It was wonderful to be back. William was wide awake, having slept the majority of both flights from London, so we went to Winco and bought food to restock our empty kitchen. We got some funny looks for being there with a toddler at midnight, but I was a little too out of it to care much. It was just good to be home.
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