Nature boy

I've discovered that Benjamin is a real outdoorsman... there is nothing he loves better than just playing outside in the grass. He can entertain himself indefinitely by simply examining stalks of grass, or meticulously plucking the petals off of a flower (think "loves me, loves me not..."), or comparing two pinecones, looking for differences (or signs of edibility, which, of course, leads to "Oh! Ewww, stop, no-- Benjamin, we don't EAT pinecones, they're yucky!")




Fortunately, I can entertain myself for some length of time by capturing these moments on camera.. but unfortunately for Ben, my camera's battery runs out before his does, and I'm usually ready to go back inside within an hour or so.





Oh, well, there's always the next day... and the next, and the next, and the next!

Just a few random pictures of Ben in the car...



His feet are so cute!







SO done with the paparazzi!


Anyway, yesterday, it was incredibly warm, somewhere in the high 80's to low 90's, I think (in case anyone missed it, I'm sorry, it was beautiful!)

Daniel decided he wanted to go fishing at MHCC-- more to get outside than really do much fishing, I think. Obviously, bringing a toddler (and a wife?) doomed it to be much shorter, not to mention louder, than your average fishing trip. But it was fun, letting Ben run around while Daniel fished for a while. Benjamin was fascinated by the gravel on the path. He kept bending down to pick up handfuls, and then either throwing them back on the ground... or dropping them in the diaper bag. That was fun to clean out... I think there are probably still several in there. Oh well.

I showed him how to blow the fluff (petals? No... what exactly IS that stuff?) off of the dandelions. He gave a valiant effort... but ended up kissing them instead, which of course resulted in a very fuzzy-mouthed little boy, as we had just shared a small cup of ice cream, much of which was still all over his lips.





I love this one... click it and look at the large version. The string of drool from his chin is clearer that way ;D

Multnomah Falls: trip #1 of the summer

We went on our first hike this summer with Daniel's family a week or so ago, it was so nice! Ugh, even the easy hikes are tough when you're carrying 20+ extra pounds, though! I think Daniel and I had an equally hard time on the uphill hike, though-- he had all 30 lbs of Benjamin on his back in the hiking backpack.


Daniel and Ben taking a break on a little bridge along the trail.





David sitting on a tree overhanging the trail. I took the picture wrong, it doesn't show the 15-ish feet above the trail that the branch is.

There were lots of beautiful Trilliums along the side of the path the whole way-- and then there was this one, standing tall (well, as tall as a 3-4 inch tall flower can stand, anyway), smack dab in the middle of the mud of the trail.



Just a nice view of the trail ahead...

Aww... the little family. Don't ask what Daniel was scowling for, no idea. I think he was just trying to ruin each and every picture. This one was the best out of the 15 or so Diane took!

Contractions already??

These are two slips of notepaper I used to keep track of the Braxton Hicks contractions I was having the other night (the numbers in parentheses are how long a few of them lasted). Yes, they were literally 2-3 minutes apart for over three hours (I didn't start writing them down until they'd been going for over a half hour, and I stopped writing quite a while before they actually went away. (Oh, and the super sloppy section is when I asked Daniel to write them down for me ;)

It did eventually stop-- obviously, or you'd all have been invited to see the new baby by now!-- but then the next morning they were back, 5 minutes apart for several hours. Ugh... I think my body thinks that it's ready for delivery-- and I can't say I blame it! I'm only 34 weeks (and two days), but I feel like I've been pregnant for a year!

But I did think this was kind of strange... I called my midwife and left a message, and she still hasn't even called me back! I was surprised, even though I didn't feel like I was actually in labor, I would have thought that my midwife would have viewed a 34-week pregnant woman having contractions two minutes apart for three hours as at least somewhat urgent. Guess not, though.

Anyway, I guess it's still possible for Great-Grandma Martin (GiGi) to be here for the birth, if that keeps happening!

Benjamin wanted to add the finishing touch to a birthday card I made the other day, so I let him help out... I think he got more marker on himself than on the card, though!

Also, I think we need to get a set of crayons... markers aren't so great with this toddler, I think!

He wasn't so thrilled when I took the marker away...