A Step-by-Step Guide: Volume 3

How to pick out a Christmas Tree

Step 1: Look adorable.

Step 2: Show Mommy and Daddy where the trees are.  Walk through a lot of mud.

Step 3: Yell at Mommy while she picks out a tree. 

Step 4: Do some more yelling, but this time, yell at the noisy migrating geese. Do some pointing at the geese too.

 Step 5: Supervise Daddy while he cuts down the tree Mommy picked out.  Say to him, "what doing?"

Step 6: More supervision, but this time, make sure Daddy doesn't fall off the tire while he puts the tree on the car.  Say things like, "woah" and "tee!"

 Step 7:  Pose for an adorable family self-portrait.  Yell at some more geese.

Step 8:  Go home and surprise everyone while you stay out of the way and seem uninterested while the tree is decorated.  

The New Kate Dictionary

Little K has been talking up a storm these days.  She's all "puppy" this and "baby" that.  "Oh no" and "uh oh" are used at surprisingly appropriate times. So is "woah." Mommy is me and Daddy is B, but "mama" means she wants to read the llama book and we aren't quite sure what "too dada" means yet.  "Wawa" is water and she can also clearly say soup, doing, bingo, book, elk, football and milk.  Hmm, can you tell I'm a proud mom?

One word that we can decipher loud and clear is "ungol."  Uncle.  She will see photos of Craig and Scott and will point at them and kiss the photo and say over and over, "ungol, ungol, ungol."  She even pointed at the TV the other day when she saw a guy with long hair and kissed an ad for Ralph Lauren in one of my magazines. 

Who knew those Olson uncles made such an impression?

Attention Olson aunties: don't worry ladies, Kate is working hard to learn Brook and Bridget. We are so close. Right now, Brook comes out as book and Bridget is halfway there with an adorable "Brie."

Reason #402

Why Portland is awesome, reason #402: Director Park.

Director Park, in downtown Portland, used to be a crummy old parking lot.  Now, it has an outdoor coffee shop, wading fountain and this fun chess set which provided a solid thirty minutes of glee for Kate. Seriously, can this town get any cooler?

Friendsgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with a low-key dinner at our place for some good friends. Jason, Elizabeth, Tanner and Brittany are all from North Carolina and far away from their families this time of year.  It was so great to welcome them into our little Portland family with some good food and good laughs.

Funny thing though, we didn't take any photos.  Boo.  We did, however, snap a few shots at the annual REI Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving morning.

Kate Movie Tuesday

Our little dancing queen. We were grabbing some pizza after a fun trip to IKEA a couple of weekends ago. Stay tuned at the end for a new piece of Kate's vocabulary.

A change of pace

It was about this time last year that I returned to work after three awesome months of maternity leave. And, when I say work, I not only mean working at REI, but also working at home.  Yes, I'm going to call being at home with Little K "work" because it is.  Or rather, was.

Our schedule used to be crazy. Since B and I both work in retail, we had irregular hours that didn't jive with daycare hours and since we both work in retail, we didn't have paychecks that jived with daycare costs.  So, we adjusted our schedules, took turns staying at home with Kate and never, ever saw each other.  In other words, work.

However, in the past couple of months, two super-awesome-absolutely-wonderful things have happened.  First, our good friend Gail started an in-home daycare.  Someone we know and love who wants to watch Kate for us for a reasonable fee?  Score.  Yes, sign us up.  Kate has been attending A Child's Dream Daycare & Playhouse since August and loves it.  She goes two days a week and B and I were able to adjust our work schedules once again so we had a wee bit more family time.  Things were looking up.

Then, at the beginning of November, B was able to leave his retail job because he picked up some more consistent photography work.  Score #2 for the Hoybooks.  We still take Kate to daycare so B can edit photos from home uninterrupted, but we actually have time together as a family.  Weekend days together as a family.  The entire Thanksgiving weekend together as a family.  

We are thoroughly enjoying this new change of pace.

Oh, Oregon, you kill me.

Since the rains returned to Portland on October 12th, we have received over 13 inches of rain. That is nearly 200 percent of normal.  It did not rain on only six days in that time.

In other news, Mt. Hood Meadows only has a 27 inch base.

*sigh*

Hoybooks

Wayne Country Club, September 2012
On a side note, whose blond child is this?

Kate Movie Saturday

Little Lady

Apparently, the shoe obsession starts early.

Halloween Scrooge

I'm not sure when it happened, but it has. I've turned into Halloween Scrooge.  I'm sorry, I know its like "the most fun holiday ever", but I just can't get into it.  I haven't always been this way.  When I was a kid, Halloween was the greatest.  My dad and I would go to the Girl Scout Father-Daughter Halloween Party every year and we had the best costumes--Paul Bunyan and a tree, a baker and a sack of flour, a pair of dice, Father Time and Baby New Year.  God, we were awesome.

Perhaps all my Halloween cheer was used up.  I got nothin' left.  So, I wasn't very surprised to discover that I'm raising a mini Halloween Scrooge.  Kate was definitely not into it.  The "pum" was awesome, but the adorable monkey costume? Not so much.

We are such Halloween Scrooges that after we put Kate to bed around 7:30, I put a bowl of candy on our porch with a note that said, "Our baby is sleeping. Don't ring the doorbell, or else.  Take a treat."

Bah-humbug!

Chagall's Little Apprentice

It rained buckets this weekend.  Positively buckets.  We took this as the perfect opportunity to check out the Portland Children's Museum.  

It was "meh", mostly because most of the exhibits were too big for Kate, but we took full advantage of a traveling exhibit focused on the art of Marc Chagall. Chagall's paintings are colorful and whimsical-- perfect for little ones--and the exhibit included lots of hands-on exploration of his work.  It also included a paint station and we watched as our little artist created her first masterpiece.

The Pum Patch

Here's the thing about the pumpkin patch--it's outdoors. The whole thing.  Here's the other thing about the pumpkin patch--if you want to go in Portland, you will probably have to go in the rain.

But, if you decide to go spontaneously on a Monday night, the clouds will miraculously part as you pull into the parking lot and you'll have a gorgeous evening.

Yeah, so the noisy migrating geese? WAY more interesting than the pumpkins.

 Oh, and Kate pointed at all the pumpkins and said "pum!" At least its a good start.

The makings of a memory

One thing that has really stuck with me as a new parent is this strange desire to recreate some of my favorite childhood memories for Kate. As summer turned to fall, I was struck with this insanely vivid memory of playing in the leaves in our front yard.  We had a huge maple tree over the driveway and we would rake up the leaves in a big pile and then jump off the deck or out of the treehouse into them. It was great fun.

So, naturally, I wanted Kate to have a good romp in the leaves this fall.  Except we don't have a big maple tree, or a treehouse, or a front deck.  We do, however, have a small patch of grass and few maple trees across the street.  After hauling a few buckets full of leaves, we ended up with a giddy little girl making her own memories.

Rain

The rain returned to Portland yesterday. While we will still get a few sunny days this fall, we can pretty much say good-bye to that bright shining orb until June (if we're going to keep it real). However, that won't stop us from getting outside.  After all, there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.

Kate Movie Friday

Our very messy, but very independent eater.

Kate Movie Wednesday

At the park with Daddy.

Parkin' it

Fall is quickly settling in here in the Northwest and we all know that our sunny, Chinook summer days are numbered.  Kate has been logging as many park hours as she can handle.

Mid-week Escape

Both B and I had the day off today. We didn't actually realize this until we got up this morning and the conversation went a little like this:
Me: "When do you have to work?"
B: "I don't work today, when do you have to work?"
Me: "I have the day off."
B: "You do?"
Me: "Yeah, let's go hiking!"
Seriously, it is mind-bending how in touch we are with one another's schedules.

So, we flawlessly executed a textbook Hoybook Alpine Start and made big plans to take Kate up to Mt. Hood and Timberline Lodge for her first hike along the Timberline Trail.  Those plans, however, were quickly aborted when we arrived to sunny skies at Timberline, but wind gusts in the 40's.  Yikes.  We drove back down to Government Camp and headed for the calm shores of Trillium Lake.

We finished the two mile trek around the lake in about an hour, threw some rocks at some ducks in the water, had a Jeep picnic and drove back to Portland. It was a great mid-week mountain escape with my two favorite people.

Hanging out at home