Where to begin????

This seems like a good picture to start out a summer post with.

I'm going to blame my lack of any post whatsoever in the last month on my sister. Yep, it is my little sisters fault. Never mind that she actually asked me to post so she would have something to read, brought my darling niece and nephew all the way from Minnesota to Oregon so I would have funny little stories about my children's interactions with them, and went with us to do all sorts of fun things that we probably wouldn't have made the time to do had she not been here, it is really all her fault. She just took up too much of my time so I didn't have time to upload any pictures. Now that she is safely home in Minnesota, *insert weeping and gnashing of teeth* I will take the time to upload a few pictures and tell you what we have been doing. (I should just change the date on the post and pretend I did this in mid-july. I'm sure no one is reading blogs right now anyway- so if you are just tuning in, on a rainy day in October, pretend I posted this a week after my previous post rather than a month, thank you.)

So jumping back one month- we went to Andrew's 20th high school reunion. Of all the people in his class I definitely married the right one! :)

The next day we took off with my parents and my sisters family and went to the Carl's beach house in Rockaway. It was so much fun, except of course for the stupid Oregon weather. We loved going Kayaking on the lake behind the house. We had a great time.

How cute is Eleison?

Grandpa withe Reagan- catching the 12 minutes of blue sky we saw.

Kayaking

We took a train ride on a steam train from Rockaway to Garabaldi. It was very fun!

Next up was Milton-Freewater. If I ever figure out how I will upload movies from our trip. Uncle Bob took the kids out on a swather which might have been the highlight of their time!

Our kids had so much fun with Zech and Eleison. Camden almost daily still tells me, "I miss my bwest friend Ehwason." They played so cute together. The only bad thing is how not fun it is when it is time for them to leave.

Honestly could some very smart person please improve transportation technology so there is a way to bring my extended family here for dinner tonight, have it cost about $3 to get them here, and return them home to their own beds tonight. That would be great, thanks. It certainly would be more useful than an ipad.Grandma and Reagan in the alfalfa field.

Oh and here is a little public service message. If your kids swim in grandma and grandpa's pool day after day there is a very good chance that *all* of them will end up with swimmers ear. Plan accordingly.

After a trip down the gorge, we unloaded at home for two days then packed back up and went back to the beach again. On the way we stopped in McMinnville and went to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum.

Then it was on to the beach. We went to the beach once the end of July and once the middle of August and didn't really see the sun at all. It was 95 degrees in Portland at the time and we were happy if it hit 65 at the beach. Between the weather and how much I don't like sand I may never go back to the beach again. Although I certainly have never gone to the Oregon coast for the actual beach part, it is all about the company! We spent our second beach trip in Lincoln City with Andrews parents for the first couple of days.

Grandma and Grandad took us to the aquarium in Newport. It was so fun- the kids loved all the animals. I didn't get a picture of it, but when we were in the shark tunnel there is a glass on the floor that you can see underneath and of course Camden's response was to lay down on the floor to see in. It was very cute.

For our last little beach fun the Strandbergs came to join us. Our kids are in heaven when they are around. What amazing teenagers to put up with the punishment our kids put them through.

We went on the Drift Creek Falls hike when we were in Lincoln City. This is such a great hike. The bridge is a suspension bridge and no picture of it can do it justice. You hike down to a beautiful waterfall. We did this hike two years ago (funny how two years ago I was doing a similar "catch up on everything" post) and Camden did not enjoy being held the whole time, in fact he screamed the whole time. I'm happy to say that this time went much better.

Okay. You are officially all caught up. I could have posted about 3,247 more summer pictures, but blogger was freaking out on me with just these. And really, if your still reading this I'm amazed. Hope your summer is as fun as ours!

A trip to the dentist really does deserve a blog post

Although I already did a facebook status update about our little family trip to the dentist, and although I haven't done a blog post about the significant things in our families lives receintly (you know, July 4th, the weather finally getting warm, my kids doing swimming lessons, basketball camp, tennis camp, my parents taking them to the Lion King, the fireworks tent, basically yadda, yadda, yadda) I'm going to actually do a blog post about the twice yearly family trip to the dentist. The important stuff. You know you could quit reading right now and save yourself...

Yesterday, July 8th, 3:00.

The plan is all 5 Pate family members that currently have teeth that protrude from their gums will go together to the dentist. Honestly, Dr. Monnes and his staff are beautiful people for making this happen. We begin by getting Reagan up from a nap to pop her and Camden in the car. Andrew was picking up Ainsley and Hudson from tennis camp at Cascade and just meeting us there. The plan was I would send their toothbrushes with him so they could brush their teeth at the club before showing up at the dentist. I forgot. I also forgot to brush my own teeth before I went. Oops.

So, I put Reagan in her car seat and hand her the little pringle like container that has Gerber "banana puffs" inside. She has had cherrios and these little puffs a handful of times now and really likes them, I break each one in half and give them to her one at a time. I am nothing if not vigilant when it comes to choking hazards. I was impressed as we were driving to the dentist at how quiet she was, and Camden fell asleep on the way so it was a lovely little drive. I should have known, when I park and open her door she has managed to get the lid off the puffs and has dumped the entire container out on herself in her carseat. She is shoving handfulls of the puffs in her mouth and has wet saliva soaked puffs smashed all over and in her hair. Awesome. So much for the choking hazard thing. Bonus, now I know I don't have to break them in half for her anymore. I take her out of her car seat, pick up as many as I can and salvage them back in the container, shake the rest out onto the rock parking lot ground. Your welcome birds.

I have to tutor at 4:30 so I ask when we go in if I could be the first one to be taken back. I'm assuming that means they will take me, then a kid or two and then I will leave while Andrew and any remaining children have their turn. I take Reagan back with me, my plan being I would just give her puffs one at a time while I was getting my teeth cleaned and that would keep her occupied. She of course has had all the fun she wants with the puffs and instantly is not okay with just sitting there. So I begin my cleaning with her on my lap. I'm holding her tummy and back with both hands and she is sitting just above my knees. I'm trying to keep her facing away from me and as far down as I can reach, because she is obsessed with trying to get the little paper bib I have on. It must be exciting to see someone else wearing a bib. Now, my hygienist is a very sweet woman, but I must tease her a little here because she kept saying to me, "hold on tight, you don't want her to fall on the floor." Really? You think that would be a bad idea? Okay- if you really think so, I'll try and keep that from happening.

Now, just as she has started the lovely scraping (did I mention I forgot to brush my teeth?) I hear them bringing Andrew back, and then I hear Ainsley coming back too. Wait!!! There were only three open chairs. Are you getting what that means? Despite having a sharp object in my mouth I knew what it meant. The three members of the family that can take care of the other three members will all be lying down, staring at the ceiling, with instruments in their mouths unable to tell the other members things like, "DON'T TOUCH THAT DRILL, AND NO!!! DON'T USE THE X-RAY MACHINE!"

I actually have to give the boys credit. They did a lovely job. Although at first I totally panicked. First they hung around Andrew's chair, for about 2 minutes, before moving over to mine. So I was holding Reagan and of course Camden had to climb up on me too. She was trying so hard to get to the shiny sharp objects and my bib and Camden was trying to count my teeth. When we talk to him about going to the dentist we tell him that the dentist has to count his teeth so he has to make a big alligator mouth. So he kept telling me that I was making a good alligator mouth so he would count my teeth so Dr. "Mommis" wouldn't have to. He repeatedly asked the hygienist to move out of his way, she was totally interrupting his important business. As this was going on Hudson was standing over me asking me questions, "Mom, when are we going to be done? Can Colby come over when we get home? What did I get Alec for his birthday present? When I go to Alec's party tonight will I miss dinner at the Strandbergs? Could I have dinner at Alec's house and at the Strandbergs? Can I have cake at Alec's party and still have the dessert you made for tonight?" You get the idea. Of course I couldn't answer any of these questions, and yet he continued asking them, over and over and over. At this point with all this going on at least the hygienist quit telling me to not let Reagan fall on the floor. I'm thinking at this point she was probably wishing she could fall on the floor.

I'm not sure I've ever had such a fast cleaning. She actually didn't even floss my top teeth. I also don't think the fluoride was in long enough, but it was good enough because Reagan finally succeeded at grabbing something and it was the tube that connects the little sucker thing that you hold in your mouth while you have the fluoride trays in your mouth. So I just had the tube, but no sucking was going on. It was a miracle I didn't throw up because one of the leftovers from 4 pregnancies is that I can no longer tolerate anything in my mouth that isn't food without gagging. It sounds like a silly thing, but you know how you put a comb in your mouth when you are putting a pony tail in a little girls hair, or a hanger between your teeth if your hanging something up and buttoning it also? Can't do those things anymore without gagging. Oh, you shouldn't put things like that in your mouth you say? Well, whatever. I can't do it anymore and the comb thing is especially frustrating. So all that to say the flouride trays without the sucker thing just about did me in.

Finally I was done, Ainsley was finished and so the boys both took our places. Andrew was just about finished so I took the girls home so I could tutor and left Andrew there with the boys in the chairs. As I left Camden was asking if they could make the chair go up and down and up and down.

As I have sat down to write this I realize I never actually even asked Andrew how the boys did. For all I know they have ten cavities each. What I do know from their visit is that one of them brought home a whoopee (how do you spell that?) cushion that they are fighting over every chance they get. But the thing is, we get to check "dentist" off our list for the next 6 months.

Tennis

Continuing to jump back in time...now to May and Barlow tennis. For the 7th year in a row Andrew coached the Barlow boys to the league championships. They did the best at state they have ever done this year. The picture of Ainsley is from when she sold concessions at the game. She loved it.

Field day (more catch-up)

Deep Creek managed to find one nice day this spring to have field day. Reagan and I got to stop by and watch the kids. It was so fun. Hudson was amazed by the water bottle they gave him with his name on it... so cute. Have I ever mentioned how amazing the view is from the school playground? Not a bad place to hang out.

Canoe Field Trip (catch-up post)

So before I get behind on summer pictures- I'll try and catch up with a couple things that were fun in the last month or so that I haven't posted anything. Andrew got to go on a field trip with Ainsley. They went on a HUGE canoe on the Willamette river. It looked like so much fun. I call that I get to go the next time one of our kids does this field trip, Andrew says that he is doing it again and I can do OMSI and the Children's Museum. I don't think so. They spent all day and despite getting rained on (because you know, it is spring 2010 and all it has done is rain) they had an amazing time. They went into the locks at Oregon City and went up to the water fall. They saw sea lions, and went over onto an island to have lunch and play Native American games. I'm totally going next time.

Camden Conversations

Our third child is an adventure every day minute. You never know what he is going to need to talk about. Here are some recent conversations:

(very agitated) "The sun IS NOT fire mom, there is no fire in it. Fire is red, the sun is yellow. There is no fire in the sun mom." (how does he know what color the sun is? We haven't really seen it this year.)

(again agitated) "I want Mountain Hood to wake up and not be sleeping, I want it to explode. I want to see it 'rupt. Mom, WAKE IT UP!"

(in the car) "We are going to wrong way mom!" me: where are we going Camden? "I don't know where we are going, but this isn't how you get there."

Baby toys

If I had digital pictures from when Ainsley was a baby I would insert them here. Use your imagination and picture a little baby girl, laying on the floor playing with little pink bunnies, rubber ducky teething toys, and baby Einstein peek-a-boo mirrors. Now look at the baby who has two older brothers. That is a shield of some sort that she has pulled on her tummy, and a soccer blanket she has wiggled her way onto.

And yes, that is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask she is playing with. We are all about developmentally appropriate toys around here.

Let the messes begin

Here it is, "The First Bite."

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to two different people that I hadn't started feeding Reagan baby food yet. She was sleeping through the night and if you have ever seen her thighs, arms, cheeks, or even her little feet, you would know she is hardly malnourished. And the thing is, feeding a baby takes lots of time. It is not like I'm wandering around aimlessly looking for things to fill my time with, so I was going with the far end of the "start solid foods between 4 and 6 months" guideline.

Of course she promptly started waking up at 4:00 in the morning with a growling tummy.

So a few days shy of turning 6 months old it was time to break out the baby food. Hudson was happy to help. She loved the food (I mashed up avocado) but she couldn't figure out how to swallow it. So rather than swallow it, she figured out all sorts of other places to put the avocado.

By the time we were done, it was everywhere. How cute are those little green slime covered feet?

I have some mixed emotions about my last baby starting food. (I think many things the last baby does will elicit mixed emotions.) On the one hand it means other people can care for the little bottle rejecting princess in my absence. On the other, that first bite is the beginning of her breaking up with me. And even when covered in green slime, she is too cute to want to let go of her.

***Edited to add: I fed her a couple of times for two days, then got busy and didn't feed her again for 4 or 5. Oops. But we are back to baby food again about once a day. The fun thing is last summer and early fall I spend lots of time with my vita-mix and made then froze lots of baby food for her. Funny that I'm starting to pull out squash from the freezer that I grew, harvested, cooked, and mashed for a baby I hadn't met yet. I have lots of pears, peaches, squash, pumpkin, carrots, and who knows what else that we grew or bought from Thompson farms (on our street) in the freezer ready to feed her that is actually older than her.

May the force be with you (because that's the only Star Wars phrase I know)

Hi my name is Tiffany and I don't like science fiction. In fact, I've never seen an entire Star Wars movie, which I believe is the gateway drug to science fiction, and all things nerdy. Consequently I have not been super excited about my kids liking Star Wars stuff.

However, their father has managed to sneak it past me and they have a full set of Star Wars garbage and we even own the movies. The conclusion I have come to in observing many different parents is that lots of people feel okay about letting their kids play with S.W. stuff because it doesn't feel like they are fighting with weapons, but these same parents won't let their kids have fake guns.

We have chosen to be okay with fake guns, because my boys can make a gun out of a peanut butter sandwich. I have to tell you, in the kids minds there is no difference between S.W. weapons and G.I. Joe weapons. And the thing is, if my boys were out there right now with fake guns, there wouldn't be nearly as many injuries as there are when the are swinging plastic sticks at each other. On another note, but stay with me-it is related, as I mentioned before I buy Valentine's after the 14th each year for the next year. Hudson is so excited because he got G.I. Joe valentine's, completely embracing the love theme of Valentine's Day don't you think?

Grandparent Football Game

My parents may have raised two girls, but they had no problem playing football outside last weekend with my boys- and Ainsley. Petty cute.