Itchy Scratchy

Our poor cat Edward. He has been scratching, scratching, scratching for weeks. All night long scratching that shook the bed and drove us crazy. I thought maybe it was a food allergy because what else could it be? But, surely a cat who NEVER leaves our bedroom ever could not possibly get fleas, so it can't be that. But, oh YES it is! Fleas!!!!! Our inside-only special needs cat somehow got himself a case of fleas. We got him some medicine at the vets and he gave us a look like "sheesh, took you guys long enough to figure it out! Humph!" He feels much better now and we are sleeping again so we are happier too.

Yet another reminder to me (along with the litterbox and the desperate midnight attempts for affection) of why he will be our last pet for a long, long time. Well, except the fish and Jason has to clean up after them so I can handle having them around.

La Leche League Conference in Chicago

say cheese (she never used to pose for the camera, now we get this silly grin)
in the kids play room
fuzzy photo under the sign at lunch
Maddy the red nosed toddler
mama slinging a sleeping Maddy

red nosed lunch ladies
totally focused on Nils Bergmann's discussion on kangaroo care for preemies
silly Maddy throwing her head back under the sign at lunch

clap clap clap - I love learning about breastfeeding! yay nursies!
look at my cool chair
my teeth hurt, thankfully grandma is right here to hold me
hard at work
with Kitty Franz

Whew! What a trip we had! Here are some photos of the fabulous time we had learning the latest and greatest about breastfeeding and parenting at the LLL International 50th conference in Chicago. My mom and I attended the 25th together years ago so it was a nice tradition to attend again as a family with a new generation included. Maddy had a blast, she couldn't have been happier with literally thousands of babies and toddlers to play with. She was perfectly well behaved in the sessions and (much to my delighted surprise) simply crashed out in the sling for several hours when she was tired. I think it was heaven for her to be surrounded by so many young families, and of course I enjoyed meeting like-minded mamas from all around the world. I was able to hear speakers like Kitty Franz, Dr. Sears, Ina May Gaskin, Peggy O'Mara, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, Dr. Nils Bergmann, Kathleen Kendall-Tackett and Nancy Mohrbacher. I also met (for the second time really) Chele Marmet who pioneered the Marmet technique for hand expression and the field of lactation consulting. So all of you who have ever been helped by a lactation consultant - this woman is the one who helped launch that profession a mere few decades ago. There were many other fascinating speakers and it is still all a blur that I am trying to process.... Maddy came home with a slight cold and one new 2 year molar (hence the hands shoved in the mouth for pretty much all our pictures). I came home with a bout of the stomach flu but we are all on the mend now and ready to get resettled and maybe even unpack a little. We can't wait for the next conference here in Oregon next year and another International Conference sometime in the future!

Destructo

Jason is finishing up putting in the new vanity, mirror, lights and cupboard in our main bathroom. Maddy discovered the packaging and went hog wild tearing it apart. She was covered in the pieces of styrofoam, all staticky and stuck to ever part of her body. I've heard styrofoam is the new trend in toddler accessories. And OF COURSE this was all five minutes after I finished vacuuming, oh well........ it was worth it! Our bathroom is now looking good, all in white fixtures and still with the Hawaiian theme. Gone are the fabulous 70's hanging lights, I know we will miss them..... such treasures that they were.

Auntie Lesley

Auntie Lesley came to visit last night while she was in town for business. She works for Bob's Red Mill. Yes, she gives us free stuff (like cookies and fresh baked bread -yum!). No, I won't get you any free stuff because she has to ship it and that gets expensive. Wink. Anyhoo, here are some pictures of the two of them playing with jewelry and bracelets and all things sparkly and pretty.

My parents happened to be here too, they stopped in to say hi on their way back up to Seattle from Philomath. The demolition on the old house has started so they needed to do a few last minute planning things with their builder and the county and basically check the place over. It is wild to think in a few months they will be in the same state and only 2 hours away. Much better than the current 3 and a half hour drive. Hooray!

4th of July

Isn't this swimsuit my mom bought Maddy just the cutest most patriotic thing ever? I just simply love it. We made the little headband for her with hair ponytail holders wrapped around a red band because I lost the festive one I found in the bargain bin at Target several weeks ago.

Jason worked a bunch of doubles the week of the 4th, so Maddy and I headed up to Seattle to hang out with my parents. My Mom has sort of started the sorting process in preparation for their retirement move down to Oregon, so I wanted to help with that. Those of you who know my compulsive side know how much I LOVE to clean, sort, throw out and organize. So my Mom let me go to town on my old bedroom. I hauled back a bookcase, several boxes of kid books from my teacher days, my boxed/sealed wedding dress and a cowgirl hat for Maddy to dress up in that I had on during my senior pictures. Plus we sorted a bunch of random stuff for garage sales, throw away, etc.... it felt very cathartic! Our house feels so crowded and cluttered, but since I live with a packrat and we are planning to have more kids, I don't feel like I can do much about my own space. Downsizing someone else's clutter will have to do it for me for now I guess.

We went to see the fireworks at Juanita Beach in Kirkland and could see about five different fireworks displays from various venues around the sound. Maddy really liked the pretty-pretty's up in the sky. Then the next night we lit off a bunch of old fireworks Jason and I bough the first year we were married and never lit off because he got called in to work. And he has worked every single 4th since so we figured we'd use them before they caught our house on fire or something one of these hot days. Maddy liked watching us do the sparklers, I felt she is too little to hold them, she'd probably try to eat it or something. Maybe next year. She liked the fountains and had absolutely no use for the groundflowers. I wish I had some of those black snakes, I always liked those when I was little. Maybe next year!

La Leche League Dance Party

Come join us for a celebration of breastfeeding and families at the first ever La Leche League Dance Party! We are throwing a dance party and want you to bring your whole family and all your friends! Check out the site for more information, it will be family friendly (of course) and an affordable and memorable event. www.llldanceparty.com

La Leche League of Portland invites you to a Family Dance Party Sunday August 5th from 2pm-5pm at the North Star Ballroom 635 N. Killingsworth Ct, Portland, OR (Map/Directions) Tickets are $7 each (kids under 12 are free) in advance, $8 at the door.

You don't have to be involved in LLL to attend, you just have to bring your kids and be ready to shake your groove thing!

(Meg, You *KNOW* you are dying to see Larry and Jason out there doing their thang.... it is a good thing our babies will be too young to remember it. HA!)

It's a GIRL

Well, according to Aunt Rho and her mom Sandie, we are expecting a girl! They performed the ring test on my belly and pronounced that we are going to meet little Karis Anne in November.... the ring predicted Maddy would be a girl, but Rho got the two mixed up and thought the round and round meant boy (it means girl) so we had to laugh when we realized she had led us astray for all those months. Just kidding, Rho, you're the best and we love you even if you get confused sometimes. haha. But it was right with Maddy all along so we'll see!!!!

Oh, we had our ultrasound done last week and everything looks great. What a nice reassurance to us that our baby is healthy and very very very very active in there. It is quite the contrast to see an active ultrasound baby because Maddy slept soundly through the entire one we had done with her at 20 weeks. The tech said she couldn't tell whether it was a boy or girl (we just wanted to know if she knew, not for her to tell us), so we are glad we weren't dying to find out or we would have been disappointed. Hooray, we are over halfway there!

Sunriver Vacation June 2007

digging thundereggs with mom

with dad at the pool
with dad at the pool ready to test the waters
rock hound in training
look at this one!!

eating peas

hike at Paulina Falls and Lake with dadhike (proof mom exists!!)
kiss kiss at the pool

go that way daddy!there's mommy, daddy look!
go that way! (I'm a little bit bossy)
dad the rockhound
dad at the top of the slide
dad at the bottom of the slide
We decided to journey to Sunriver for our summer vacation this year. We rented a great house and had a blast biking (yes we did get helmets, these pic's are on our way to rent them the first day we were there), swimming, hiking, and exploring the area. Jason used to be an in-house resident at the fire station there when he was in college so it was revisiting an old stomping ground for him. On the way home we stopped outside Madras to dig for thundereggs, we found quite a few and discovered that we are actually pretty good rockhounds. We were sad to come home and hope to go back next year (with TWO babies!!!!).