This August I decided I was done letting Tommy be mad at me for not teaching him how to ride a bike on two wheels. We took the training wheels off, went to the park, and had some riding lessons.
He started out understandably hesitant. It can be scary and difficult at first! Luckily, on his tiny bike he didn't have far to fall if it came to that.
Ben worked with Tommy for about 30-45 minutes. Little by little Tommy was able to balance more on his own. And then, like that, he was off and riding on his own! It was inspiring to watch him progress and learn. It brought a lump to my throat.
Within one month of learning to ride on his own he was riding on busy city streets alongside me on my cargo bike. He rocked SE Sunday Parkways and then started biking to his rock climbing camp the next day. Now he knows several routes to a handful of our favorite close-in hangouts and can bike with the pro's. He is cautious and safe and he has a blast riding on his own. I am loving hauling around 60 pounds less cargo, too!
You may have noticed that I haven't updated our blog for nearly one year. I intend to remedy this situation in the coming months. Through the magic of blogging and scheduling posts in the past I'll be able to update our lives over the past year without anyone ever knowing there was ever a gap. So stay tuned!
Life gets busy. I spent several months feeling very guilty that I wasn't updating the blog regularly. This is basically our family journal. To lose an entire year is heartbreaking. However, that guilt became apathy as I just kind of forgot about this blog and what it used to mean to me and my family.
The lack of posting on here is directly correlated to the amount of time I have spent on my other blog, The Science Kiddo. Last year I decided to get serious about making The Science Kiddo a real thing, and it has definitely paid off. I've had a couple of big breaks with huge blogs sharing my posts, guest posting on blogs that reach over 200K people each month, and, most recently, getting featured in a BuzzFeed article. Maintaining two blogs is difficult. It takes a lot of time. And while this blog is simple and unsophisticated compared to my professional blog, it is far more important to my family.
So there you go. There is my pledge. My goal is get entirely caught up on this year before we have our baby around Thanksgiving.
Oh yeah. I'm pregnant again. Little detail. The kids are out of their minds excited to have a baby sister, though Tommy does sometimes lie on the couch and lament, "I can't believe I'm going to have TWO little sisters. It's hard being the big brother." Poor kid :)
On Memorial Day we ate breakfast at Jam and then biked to Ben's work. We left our bikes there and walked up to the Rose Garden in Washington Park. We had a wonderful time wandering around enjoying the thousands of roses there. Lily especially loved dancing around the little fountains and pools and striking a pose at the end. After the Rose Garden we went back to Ben's work to eat snacks, play foosball, and nap on the couch. :)
We spent a day in June at the Enchanted Forest, an amusement park south of Portland. Since I am pregnant I couldn't go on any of the rides with the kids. Luckily we went with our amazing friend, Jennifer, who is more like an aunt to the kids than anything.
Lily is usually our adventurous child. She loves going on fast roller coasters and swinging high. Tommy doesn't typically like the adrenaline rush and prefers instead to keep his feet safely on the ground.
One of my proudest moments as a mom comes when I see my kids conquer their fears. After declining several invitations to ride other roller coasters my terrified-of-roller-coasters son decided that he desperately wanted to go on the log ride. You can see in the video how happy he was at the end.
He smiled himself to sleep that night thinking about how much fun he had and how proud of himself he was.
Lily recently inherited Tommy's old Spider Man pajamas. Whenever she wears them she feels like she has super powers against bad guys. Below is a video of Tommy and Lily fighting bad guys together. My favorite line is when Lily yells, "Trash can you!"
The morning of Tommy's birthday party at Playdate PDX we got our first ultrasound of the baby! We found out two pieces of good news:
I am one week further along than I thought! My due date got moved from December 9 to December 2. Yay for that!
Because I was further along we got to find out the gender. This was a wonderful surprise! I cried when the ultasound tech told us. It makes this pregnancy and this baby feel so much more real.
We are having another girl!
The kids are so excited, though I think Tommy was hoping for a brother. Everything on the ultasound looks perfect :)
This year Tommy got to celebrate his birthday on four different days. He had a party with his friends at Playdate PDX, we had a party at home, he got to open presents from us and from Grandma and Grandpa Chatterton on two different days, and then we went to Utah and he got to open more presents and celebrate with the Wards.
Tommy has had a very big year as a five-year-old! He has learned all those big kid things this year, like learning to read (he read 100 books before his birthday and was rewarded with a gigantic LEGO Police set), learning to tie his own shoes, and losing two teeth (the bottom ones in the center). He is making good strides to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels, too. He is one amazing kid!
Tommy loves to play with his sister and his friends. He loves to be active by swimming and playing soccer. He enjoys learning new things and building with LEGO. He says he wants to be an engineer when he grows up.
Lily was feeling a little bad that it wasn't her birthday so Tommy came up with some ideas all on his own to help her feel better. He said that she could help him open his presents and that she would get the first piece of cake. He even gave her the stuffed animal the Playdate PDX gave to him. Lily was completely satisfied with this arrangement. It warmed my Mama heart that he would give to her even on his birthday. He is the best big brother to his little sisters.
Happy Birthday, Tommy! We love you!
Hugh, Wyatt, Tommy, and Clara.
Asher, Lily, and Niamh
Lily with Pinky and Tommy with City Kitty.
Birthday dinner at Subway on the way home from Playdate PDX.
A couple of weekends ago we spent some time at a friend's beach
house in Florence, Oregon. We were expecting a relaxing weekend on
the beach. Ya know, sand toys, bubbles, a good book, maybe dabbling
in the water. Suntans and swimming suits. Beach stuff. Like San Diego
and Maui, right? Wrong. What we got instead was a fantastically
surprising adventure.
I have heard that the Oregon coast can be cold and windy. I am
here to tell you that, yes, indeed the Oregon coast can be cold and
windy. Extremely so.
Shortly after we pulled into the beautiful beach house we set out
for the beach. We loaded up four beach chairs, buckets, sand toys,
and a couple of beach towels onto our arms and shoulders. It was
early May, so we figured we would leave our swimming suits behind
because we probably wouldn't be getting into the water this
time. We were foolhardy. Any of the residents who saw us set off
toward the beach loaded down as we were must have shaken their heads
and felt sorry for us.
The Hobbit Trail
The walk to the beach was an adventure in itself. We walked to the
end of a road to find a path that descended into a swampy region
where the nearby Siuslaw River empties into the Pacific Ocean. This
path was aptly named the Hobbit Trail. Before we knew it we were
walking on a board walk through a 6-foot high tunnel that had been
carved from the swamp trees. It was dense and dark and narrow. It was
awesome.
The Hobbit Trail then opened up 20-foot high sand dunes. Suddenly
we went from swamp to Tattooine. The path was nearly too steep for
our three-year-old to climb up, even on all fours. Ben and I carried
all our stuff, including now kids' shoes. The wind picked up with
each step we took toward the ocean. We went up and down sand dunes a
few times before it finally opened up to miles of flat, sandy beach.
"We made it!" we shouted. As we stepped out from the
protection of the dunes the wind ripped into us like I have never
felt before. We estimate the winds were coming in around 45 mph at
that point. I held onto my three-year-old's hand, fearful she would
get carried away with the wind. At one point I dropped a beach chair
that was folded up and it started bouncing down the beach like a
plastic bag. The wind drove the sand into my ankles like a thousand
tiny hammers. We all walked sideways toward the water to shield our
faces from the wind and mouthfuls of flying sand.
Ben was determined to get to the water. He was smiling and
laughing like a madman. He LOVED the adventure we were on. I wasn't
so sure. The wind kept getting stronger and stronger. I couldn't
imagine having any kind of fun in that kind of weather. We finally
decided to turn back to the dunes where it was still windy, but less
so. Ben eventually went back to the ocean on his own to touch it once
before we left.
The kids were amazing. I didn't hear one word of complaint from
either one of them. If anything, I was the party pooper of the group.
While Ben and the kids played in the sand and dug an epic hole (one
that all three of them could fit into) I huddled under a beach towel
for warmth and tried to wear a smile.
The Sand Dunes
The next morning we woke up to perfectly sunny and calm weather.
We rushed out of the house to enjoy it before the wind rolled in
again. This time we drove down the street a bit to a different,
bigger set of sand dunes. We bought toboggans and had a blast
sledding down the dunes, running back up, jumping off, rolling down,
racing up, sliding down. We spent a couple of good hours playing
before the wind kicked up again and it got cold and sand-in-the-face
again.
There is nothing quite like letting go of all adult inhibitions
and just playing like a kid. Just letting it all out, holding nothing
back. I find that I am often too serious in my life. I don't stop to
play. I enjoy my life and I love watching my kids play, but the times
that I actually run, jump, roll, slide, and laugh like a kid are
rare. If nothing else, this trip gave all of us the opportunity to do
so, even if just for a few hours here and there.
So if you are planning to visit Florence, Oregon anytime soon, be
sure to check the weather before you go. And if it is a windy time of
year, wake up early and get to the dunes before the wind picks up in
the afternoon. Remember to let go of your inhibitions and laugh and
roll around until you find sand in all the strangest areas of your
clothes and body!
This year we belonged to a fabulous group of homeschooling families who met together weekly for activities. At the end of the "school year" we held this fun talent show. This is the Chatterton Family performance: "Reindeer are Better than People." Notice how Tommy is hiding his face throughout the entire song.
