Salmon and Scoopers

 Lia had yesterday off from school and so we decided to go up to Issaquah to spend the day with the grandparents.  We drove first to the fish hatchery in town where we met grandma to take a gander at the salmon that are currently swimming "home" to lay their eggs.  The kids had a great time watching all of the salmon in the river and swimming up the ladder.  They are always so impressive looking close up through the ladder windows.  We then went back to the grandparent's house for lunch and Logan's and Ella's afternoon naps.  While the babies were sleeping, I went back downtown with my dad to see his rental houses for the first time that he has been building for the past many months.  While we were there, the cement truck pulled up to pour the sidewalk in front of the houses.  Between the two, parked scoopers on his lot AND the cement mixer, I just knew that Logan would go bananas seeing all of this.  So, we raced home, woke him up, grabbed Lia and Ella too, and the five of us headed back down to take a look at all of this little, boy fun.  As we had imagined, Logan was over the moon to see the cement truck up close and both he and Lia loved sitting in the real, live scoopers.  It was so cute to watch him during all of this!  Oh, what a day for a two-year old!

My kiddos and me on the bridge overlooking the creek and fish ladder.

Some of the many salmon trying to navigate their way up the river.

Lia and Logan looking through the window while the big salmon swam by them.

Grandpa and the children watching the cement pour down into the sidewalk frames.

Logan jumped up on grandpa's shoulders for a better view of the action.

Grandpa and Logan getting a close-up look.

Here is the happiest boy on the planet sitting inside his first scooper ever!

Check him out!  Logan looks so small compared to this thing!

Lia having a go.

Lia trying out the smaller, blue one.

Siblings at play.

6 Months Old!

Our baby girl turned half a year old today!  Wow.  In some ways, the time has flown since she was born and in other ways it seems like our life pre-Ella was forever ago.  Ella is just the cutest baby.  She loves any attention and will give the biggest, cutest smiles and giggles to anyone who gives her the time of day.  She is also the most physically active baby that the Hartland household has ever seen.  As of a few days ago, she is crawling 100% the "normal" way (no more scooting along on her belly) and she can travel from one room to another in record speed.  I will turn my head for a few seconds after putting Ella down on the floor and when I look back, she's gone!  It's quite the funny thing.  Ella is also sitting like a champ.  She figured out how to sit hands free last week and has never looked back since then.  She now happily plays on the floor with whatever toy she finds.  And the biggest surprise of them all happened two nights ago when Lia shouted at me to come into the family room because Ella had just pulled herself up to her feet using the couch!  What?!  I couldn't believe it when I saw hers standing there with my own eyes.  It's just crazy.  If she keeps this up, Ella will for sure be walking full-time by her first birthday.  Heaven help us and our Christmas tree.  She also discovered her tongue recently and blows raspberries all the time.  It's so cute.  She also is interested in touching EVERYTHING and reaches for anything that is within arm's reach whether it's a toy or a package of wet wipes or my dinner plate.  Ella just started eating rice cereal and "drinking" water out of a sippy cup a few days ago.  She is still trying to get the hang of it, but we'll keep at it!  She is taking a morning and afternoon and sometimes evening nap each day and is now going down for bed around 8 p.m. (hooray) and sleeping 12-13 hours a night.  I do have to make many pacifier runs a night, but I will take this any day over nursing in the middle of the night!  So, life is starting to get a little bit easier in the baby department which I am so grateful for.  That's our little Ella Avalon in a nutshell... 

Ella's First Solid Food

Well, we finally did it.  We broke open the rice cereal tonight and attempted to feed Ella her first solid food (if you can call it that).  Ron was the one holding the spoon since this was his first chance to feed her.  The kids swarmed around the baby like the doting, older siblings that they are and I filmed the whole affair with the video camera.  Ella did pretty well for the first two minutes taking multiple spoonfuls with a quizzical look on her face and then I think she cracked from all the pressure and broke out into tears!  The poor, little thing.  We quickly shut down the operation and will resume tomorrow.  Oh, the growing pains of a five and a half month old...

First Week of Detox Down!

Yesterday marks one week of being in ya-ya detox.  Yep, that's right.  We pulled the pacifier from Logan's loving arms (or should I say lips) last Tuesday night after a 2.5 year relationship.  I will admit that as a mother, I dread this day.  I had no idea that I would grow to rely on a pacifier as much as my children do...but the sucker makes them run to bed for every nap time and bed time AND it helps them fall asleep in a relatively short amount of time.  It keeps us happy and on schedule which are two things I love having in my household.  But, just like Lia, Logan's teeth started to get really crooked and so I sadly agreed to pull the plug after months of Ron's insistence.  After several days of building up this moment for Logan, we presented him with a large box wrapped in construction-themed wrapping paper with a big, red bow on top at bedtime after he discovered that his ya ya was broken (we cut the tip off).  He quickly opened the box to find a stuffed scooper and two beautifully illustrated children's books about dump trucks, scoopers, bulldozers, etc. at nighttime.  He happily accepted his gifts and immediately asked papa to read his new books and requested that he be put to bed with his new, stuffed scooper.  In some ways the detox has been going well since that dreaded night due to the fact that Logan has NEVER cried nor thrown a tantrum for his broken ya ya which is amazing considering how much this boy cries every day.  The build up along with the presents and a non functioning pacifier have all helped him to take this event in stride...but the amount of time it has taken him to fall asleep for his naps and night time has been stretched out dearly.  On average, it takes Logan anywhere from one hour to one and a half hours to fall asleep whenever we put him down.  So, the schedule has gotten thrown way off, but we are powering through it with the hopes that our old schedule will return and that he doesn't suddenly outgrow his daily nap.  Until then, I will just be brave and hold onto the dream that we won't have to pay for braces one day...

Sitting and Crawling!

Although Ella's crawling and semi-sitting started a few weeks ago, she has really taken off in the past several days.  She has officially figured out how to crawl in the traditional way AND she is now totally sitting on her own without having to lean back on one hand.  Although she still scoots along the floor using the commando style crawl most of the time, Ella will now pop up on all fours and crawl for a few feet before going back down on the floor.  As a result, we will find her 10 to 15 feet away from where we first put her just a few minutes earlier!  And it is now the cutest thing to see her get up from crawling to sit and play with a toy for a few minutes before laying back down on the floor.  This child is not even six months old yet, so it is such a surprise to see Ella being so mobile when her brother and sister were no where near as advanced at this age.  I guess there is something to be said about the third child getting left in the dust...it forces them to catch up with the older siblings making them mobile at such a younger age!

Ella showing off her new sitting position.  "Look, mom!  No hands!" :-)

Down on all fours and getting ready to go.

And she's off!  Crawling across the living room floor.

I just had to include this picture of Ella's original style of sitting that she still using on occasion.  I just love how she leans back on one hand like she is posing for me!  So cute!

20th High School Reunion

Well the long awaited weekend of my 20th high school reunion finally arrived!  It is so hard to believe that twenty years has past since I wrapped up my high school career.  So much water has gone under the bridge since then, yet I still look back at my high school experience with such fondness.  I had a fabulous group of friends, was taught by some wonderful teachers, and enjoyed many extracurricular activities.  Although I had some serious reservations about going to this reunion, I am grateful for my dear friend, Kristina, who twisted my arm and informed me many months ago that I didn't have a choice and that I was going.  And I want to thank my wonderful and devoted parents who watched my baby for me that night and personally drove Ella out to Seattle and met me in a parking lot across the street from the reunion so that I could nurse her before she went to bed for the night.  Now that is devotion!

We started the reunion festivities a day early by meeting at The Boarding House restaurant in Gilman Village for lunch on Friday.  Both Sarah and Kristina had flown in for the event and it was so much fun visiting with everyone--especially Sarah who I haven't seen in 14 years!

After lunch, the four of us made the five minute drive to visit our alma mater--Issaquah High School.  Although the school we attended was torn down a few years ago and replaced by this fancy, modern building it was just fun to be back on those hallowed grounds.  Since they have a closed campus policy, we weren't allowed to  wander around the school, but we spent some hilarious minutes in the main office pouring over their staff picture board.  We giggled like high school girls again while we were in there!

After saying goodbye to Ron, Lia, and Logan, I drove up to my parents' house in Issaquah with Ella on Saturday afternoon.  Kristina met me there and we actually got ready together like it was prom night all over again.  To make the experience complete, we even had my mom take a few pictures of us in front of their house before leaving.  Classic.

We arrived at the Palace Ballroom on 5th Avenue in downtown Seattle right before the reunion started at 7 p.m. and stayed until they shut the place down at midnight!  It was one of the funnest nights I have had in loooong time.  It was so good to see so many friends from the past and reminisce about the good ol' days and get caught up on life.  Here I am with three of my long, lost buddies--Jeff, Ross, and Bridget.  I have known Jeff since I was three years old, I went to three high school dances with Ross, and Bridget and I were in three high school musicals together.  Talk about a theme of three!

This is my favorite picture of the night--posing with most of the ladies from my group of girlfriends that came together during my sophomore year of high school.  We had soooo much fun together during those three years of high school in class, on the weekends, and in musicals, choir, and student government.  Such wonderful memories!  From left to right:  Sarah, Nicole, Bridget, Kristina, Kellie, me, and Jessica.  

Joking around with Nicole and Heather.  Nicole was my lab partner in chemistry during our junior year of high school.  She was both smart and hilarious and made for some good times in Radmer's 6th period class!

Another group shot with some of the ladies.

Jess, Kristina, and me with Heather photo bombing behind us!

When Kellie was saying goodbye to me, she put her name tag on my dress.  As the evening wore on, more and more people copied her.  By the end of the night, I was covered in name tags.  It was kind of funny...especially when we ended up at the bar/restaurant across the street after the reunion ended. 

Our good friend, Tyson, who we all lost touched with a few years after high school was bartending at the restaurant across the street from the reunion.  Since he didn't take the night off to join us, we all ended up over there to see him at the end of the night.  He was one of my closest friends my senior year of high school and it was so good to see him again after all these years and get caught up on his life.  Here is Tyson with Jeff and me.  Oh, what a night!

Twenty Years Ago...

this picture was taken.

And last night this picture was taken.  Oh how the time has flown!

  Everyone from my group of close girlfriends in high school was at my 20th high school reunion in Seattle last night minus Lizzy and Lindsay who sadly didn't fly in for the event.  It was so much fun to see everyone...I actually felt 18 years old all over again.  I laughed and laughed and laughed all evening long until we were kicked out at midnight.  It was the funnest I have had in a long time.  It made me remember why I loved high school so much--I just had the greatest friends!  

My real reunion post to come tomorrow...