Oregon Trail

We took the opportunity Memorial Day weekend to travel West to Ashland, Oregon to visit Kaija's grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. Natalie did a great job on the 8 hour trip - we were lucky enough to snag an extra seat on the first leg so she could sit in her car seat and then on the second leg we had a very friendly woman across the aisle that kept Natalie entertained. When we arrived Aunt Rita and Uncle Bill were there to greet us!



Sunday was family reunion day! In addition to spending time with Kaija's Oma and Opa, we had cousins come from Seattle (Kirsten, Mark and Sonja) and Portland (Sara). The weather wasn't very cooperative, but we had a wonderful time catching up, watching the girls play and celebrating Josh's 33rd birthday!

On Monday the sun decided to come out, so we went to Lithia Park for a walk and a visit to the duck pond and the playground! Afterwards, we stopped by a local winery where Natalie promptly decided it was time to nap. Aunt Rita and Uncle Bill took turns sitting in the car so Kaija and Josh got to enjoy the wine tasting!

Monday morning we went out to breakfast and were lucky enough to meet a local children's author. He stopped by our table to comment on what a happy baby Natalie was and a couple minutes later came back with a signed copy of his latest book! That afternoon Rita and Bill watched Natalie while Kaija and Josh visited with Oma and Opa at their lovely retirement community, Mountain Meadows.

The trip back Tuesday started out with some excitement as Rita and Bill's house lost power in the middle of the night. Thank goodness we had packed the night before and make our 6AM flight in plenty of time! Natalie also managed to pick up a cold and cough during the trip, so she slept alot of the flight back. We had a wonderful time (although way too short!) and hope to make it back to Ashland very soon!

Stair Master...

Natalie has started her leg workouts as she is now fully capable of climbing up and, to a lesser stint, down our steps. She actually makes very quick work of this exercise as she climbed 12 steps in 30 seconds. Not bad for the first time ever climbing. Oh well, so much for not having to worry about a gate for the upstairs. Here is some video of her new feat.

In other news, we helped celebrate our good friend Sydney's first birthday this past weekend. We had a great time playing and catching up with all of our friends.

We are also heading out to Oregon to visit with some of Kaija's family. This will be the first time Natalie has gotten to meet her Great Oma and Opa. Our family is really looking forward to the trip except for the time zone issue. Hopefully we'll be able to stay on schedule-

Dadda...

Natalie has been saying dadda for awhile now. But now dadda has meaning. Whereas before she called everything dadda she now knows that when she wants Josh's attention she says dadda repeatedly until Josh looks at her. As soon as he does she starts laughing. Very cute and momma is jealous-

They grow up so quick...

Natalie has started the transition to the big girl daycare room. The transition started early this week and, so far, the results are great. Except one thing, Natalie will not take a bottle from the new teachers...only her old teachers. Hopefully this will change as she gets more comfortable. Maybe we'll have an easier time than expected with the "don't accept anything from strangers" life lesson. As Josh has picked her up she looks very happy and enjoys the new toys.

Playdate...

Natalie had her second play-date with Lexi on Saturday. The girls seemed to have a really fun time together as they maneuvered throughout our house. Lexi is about 5 months older than Natalie so we are hoping that Natalie watched with envy as Lexi was able to walk around the house. At times it seemed as if Lexi had a leash on Natalie. Everywhere Lexi walked Natalie was right behind crawling.


Here is a video of Natalie walking with her Lion as we waited for Lexi to show up. As you can see, Natalie loves to wave as she walks...Josh is already trying to teach her to keep both hands on the toy as she walks although it will probably take learning the hard way for it to sink in.

Mom's Day...

Happy Mother's Day to everyone. Kaija woke up to a couple of cards and an appointment at the local spa for a pedicure and manicure. For all of the hard work she has put in the past 10 months this was the least dad and Natalie could do.

Natalie has also started a new game in the household. This game is one that mom and dad enjoy playing for the most part. We call it the 'Thank You' game. Natalie will extend her hand to give us a toy after which she waits until we say THANK YOU. After we say those words she expects the toy back and then she extends her arm again...you get the idea.

Two more teeth have appeared. On Friday Kaija noticed that Natalies two upper teeth have popped through. Hopefully this will lead to her eating some solid table food.

One fine day...

Since Natalie is crawling we have decided to expand our playground activities from the swing and the slide. The local playground has a crawling tunnel in between two slides. Natalie seemed very confused as to what she was supposed to do so she basically sat still and people watched through the airplane-type windows. Here are some pictures of her day.

Dont confuse pink eye with Ping i's...

Natalie has been out with pink eye for the past couple of days. In bad parent fashion we self-diagnosed Natalie with allergies to pollen like her dad (same signs--watery eyes with some discharge). Needless to say, we were wrong. We even took her to one of her buddies 1st birthday party on Sunday. So far it appears that the pink eye has not spread to any of her friends. There is some good news within all of this...Natalie doesn't seem to have allergies to pollen.

In other news, we have started to give Natalie her baths in the big-girl bath tub. It was long overdue as she had long outgrown her infant tub. After seeing how much more she enjoys the big-girl tub we wish we had changed over to this long ago. She enjoys scooting around in the tub and splashing around.

Lions for lambs...

Forget crawling!! Natalie has found the next great form of mobility...walking. Grandma and Grandpa J purchased the walking lion and every day since Natalie has become more and more comfortable walking behind the lion. Although, we must admit, her favorite part of the lion is his nose which plays music every time you push it in. In fact, Natalie will sit in front of the lion and just continuously press in the nose for, seemingly, hours at a time. Here are a few pictures of Natalie in action...as you can see Natalie has figured out how to walk and wave at the same time.

Sound of Music...

Natalie started her music class at Gymboree and, so far, is having a really fun time. We are hoping she is more musically gifted than her mom and dad. Basically the kids sit in a circle and play different instruments while the instructor and moms sing songs. The class provides an opportunity to practice with different instruments as well as a few props. So far Natalie's favorite appears to be the rattles and the scarf. To keep the class fun a new theme is selected every third week. The theme for the first couple of weeks was Irish Folk music which moved into Broadway for the past couple of weeks. Next up, Reggae. If only Natalie had long enough hair for dreadlocks. Fortunately, Natalie has had both sets of grandparents come up to watch their American Idol in action.