Videos

The video of Mitchell getting his hair cut is way too big to upload. We'll send it out on disk. On the other hand, the video of Rich receiving his certificate is short and sweet.


Hugs and kisses.

360 days down, 5 days to go

Rich is only days away from crossing the finish line of his fellowship and we are jazzed. We've had some great distractions in the last 30 days giving us a reprieve from all the anticipation that makes the days seem longer.

Rich and I left Mitchell with Grandma, Grandpa and a bag full of marshmallows and made a trip to visit his BFF Steve in Orange County for a surprise birthday party. I won't tell you his age, you'll have to guess.














Here is what some of us party goers looked like when his age was revealed. "Man that's old!"














All weekend we had a chance to spend time with Steve's family and friends (the family you get to pick) and laughed and ate and laughed and ate and laughed and ate. It was a very special time, one that spawned inside jokes that will be repeated for years to come. For those of you that were there I will never think of public bathrooms the same again.

We returned home to a visit from Aunt Rosie with cookies in hand for the boy. We did not take a single picture as we were too busy playing.

The temperatures in Seattle have not been above 75 degrees in about nine months, which makes for some chilly days when the wind is blowing. Here Mitchell sports one of mommy's sweaters at the park on a June-uary day when mommy learns "just because it's sunny doesn't mean its warm".



















For Father's Day we met Grandma and Apaw (Grandpa Steve's handle) at the mall for Mitchell's first hair cut. I have several minutes of video but have tried three times to upload it with no success. I will keep trying.

The haircut was followed by a "Seattle picnic" indoors. Did we get a picture of Daddy and Grandpa? No. Why would we? Mitchell's the one that Father's Day is really about right? Here he is working on a new art medium during our picnic.














Mitchell can be messy, but he does not let his hygiene suffer. One of his favorite activities is brushing his teeth. He likes to do so upon waking, before breakfast, after breakfast, after playing, before snack, after snack, before story time, after story time...in fact if we let him I think he would brush his teeth all day.




















Rich was presented his certificate of completion for Fellowship during a ceremony at Salty's on Alki Beach. One of Rich's attendings had some nice things to say during the presentation of his certificate. I'm hoping to post the video soon.

And here we are with the Seattle skyline at our back, the Space Needle just over Rich's head, looking so relieved to only have five days of fellowship left!

Our little boy, our little monkey...

Here's a couple of recent photos where Mitch is truly smiling for the camera.



Now while he's cute all of the time, he's into and out of everything...

So much so that we needed to get creative to keep him in bed. Here's some added padding to the top of his crib to keep him from climbing out.


Next it's a padded room for mommy.

Much love.

And about everything else...

After the last post I realized that all I updated you on was Mitchell's size. Here's the scoop on all the other stuff.

Words: Mitchell can say ball and apple, though ball sounds more like "baw" and apple like "aw baw". Now everything is "baw" or "aw baw" when asked. A dog-" aw baw", a plane-"baw", and orange "baw". However, if you ask him if he sees a dog or plane or where the orange or a cloud is he will point right to the requested object. He might have said water the other day and it sounded like "aw wa" (spanish maybe?). I'm also pretty sure he said grandpa a week or so ago and it sounded like "aa pa".

Teeth: Of the sixteen teeth Mitch is suppose to sprout by the age of 19 months, he has about 13.5 of those.(He is 16 months old)

Body awareness: When asked where the following body parts are Mitch can point to them; eyes, ears, nose, teeth, tummy/belly, feet, toes, head, hair, mouth. He is able to climb up his highchair and into his crib when the front gate is down. He is almost able to climb out of the crib as well.(!) He is climbing ladders and sliding down slides.

Expressions: Mitch can blow kisses, wave hello/goodbye, waves goodbye to the park when we leave, and he has learned to shake his head "no" (oh goody!), and give kisses. He is an effective pointer relaying the desire to swing or walk over to see the ducks or wanting to go outside. Most often when he wants to go outside he will bring his shoes and/or his jacket to you, as well as your shoes and/or jacket.

Favorite book: Picture book that shows numbers, letters, shapes, opposites, alphabet,times of day and places.

Favorite toys: All of them. He has recently gotten very good at his shape puzzles. And he enjoys producing a new piece of art work now and then; his favorite media is crayon.

Favorite songs: The Alphabet, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Wellington's Victory, Barry White's My First, My Last, My Everything.

Favorite places: Bellevue Park, Grandma and Grandpa's house

Favorite foods: Cheese, apples, grapes, cream cheese and raisin bread sandwich, peas, beans, banana cookies, bananas

There's a glimpse into the mind of Mitchell. Some up coming plans include a trip to the Children's Museum with Grandma and Grandpa Steve, a visit from Grandpa Skip and Nans, a visit from Aunt Rosie, a trip to the dentist and a trip to the doctor for an 18 month follow up.

See you soon!

Bigger than a breadbox...

It is the middle of May and time for some more updates. Last we left Mitchell he was busy growing and changing. As far as size goes here we have a picture of Mitchell at about 1month old and one about 14 months later.


Or for another perspective he's about as tall as a cheetah's rump as you can see in this recent picture taken at the Living Desert during a visit to see Aunt Kristin and Uncle Matt.


Here Uncle Matt gets a Mitchell's eye view an exhibit.

And here's a look at the rest of us too.

For additional perspective...He's not quite big enough for a Fireman's suit, yet, but he is too big to be put in a Tinkertoy container as you can see in these pictures from our visit to the Seattle Children's Museum.


He's not quite big enough to make his own breakfast.

But he is big enough to make his own works of art.


We are getting near the end of our year in the Pacific Northwest. As much as Rich has enjoyed all that he's learned and all the experiences that fellowship has given him, he will happily tell you how few weeks he has to go. I am in my second week as a housewife having thrown off the shackles of retail pharmacy. Life is good.

Much love.

It is springtime in the Pacific Northwest and so it is now not just cold, but wet and cold. It is warm enough on some days for the plants to start blooming. Mitchell is blooming as well. Just this week alone he has learned to clap, play peek-a-boo with his hands, and how to spin around. He chooses not to use words to communicate; why should he when all he has to do is point and "Oooo" and mommy, daddy, grandma or grandpa is there to figure out what he wants. Mitchell will be 15 months old soon and so it seemed like a good time to post some more photos and video.

Here Mitchell plays a game of "Rock and Roll" with Daddy.

At a recent visit to the Woodland Park Zoo Mitchell climbed on the exhibits (and viewed penguins).

And at the park by Grandma and Grandpa's house he also tries to climb up the slide.

And here we make a brief stop to visit the Troll Under the Bridge in Fremont.

Now Mitch isn't just a climber. He's also a thinker too. Here he plays with keys, patiently trying each key to see if it will fit in a hole. He will do this for the longest time on some days, going from one hole to another and trying each key in turn.

Rich has one more week to go in his nineth month of fellowship. It's been a very busy month and we haven't seen much of him so we miss him. We had a nice visit with Grammy Jane a couple of weeks ago and we see Grandma Celeste and Grandpa Steve a lot so that helps. Next month we have a visit to Aunt Kristin and Uncle Matt's and maybe we'll get to feel cousin Brodie move!

Much love.

Finally an Update

Finally we made some time to upload some more firsts. Mitch celebrated his first Christmas Eve. You can see how excited he was when we told him about flying reindeer.

We loaded up to take a nice Christmas Eve family walk around the neighborhood.

And Mitch wanted to be nice and clean just in case he caught Santa sneaking around.

On Christmas morning he woke to see the playground Santa had left for him. Here he points at the stockings lovingly made by Grandma Jane.


Another first was his First Birthday! He celebrated it twice, once with the Grandpa Skip and Nans.

Grandpa Skip made Mitch feel like a big boy, giving him his first driving lesson.

And we got to hang out with Auntie Megan, Dave and Ian.

Then he celebrated a second time with Grandma Celeste and Grandpa Steve


More to follow...