Trip to Seattle and Halloween

It's been a week since the last update! We were in Seattle for a visit seeing family and friends and giving both sets of grandparents some Einar-time. Thanks to that grandparent Einar-time, Jared and I were even able to go on several outings on our own. Our first ever Einar-free outing since he was born was downtown for some coffee and to have our wills drafted. Do we know how to have fun, or what?

Einar had lots of new experiences in Seattle. He ate tofu and biter biscuits, went to the zoo with Dad and Poppa and Far-Mor, met up with his PEPS Group baby friends for a little bit of Halloween dress-up, and went for several walks around Greenlake. Jared posed Einar at the zoo in front of all of the predatory animals while he was dressed up as a frog. The picture that I've included is in front of the Komodo dragon. One of the most exciting things that he learned while in Seattle Gus (Great-Uncle Steve) taught him on Thursday night. He now gives high-fives to people. Last night while were waiting for everyone to board the airplane, Einar was watching all of the action and gave high-fives to about 7 people as they boarded. This morning he was high-fiving folks at the grocery store. He really has a lot of fun with this new interaction skill. We had a wonderful visit.

Today Einar and I set out this morning to find a pumpkin, but our first three stops were fruitless--don't wait till the 31st. We finally found one later this afternoon, but haven't managed to carve it yet. We did make cupcakes and took them reverse trick-or-treating to our neighbors Marilyn and Grant this evening after dinner. Einar is in bed now with a full sloshing stomach.

The link that I've included will lead you to the Mud Run Race site where you can see about the race and check out the results.

Eating ice cream with Mom

After an exhausting day of charming all the people that I saw, I kicked back on the sofa with my mom and ate some ice cream. It was an especially enjoyable experience because my dad made the yummy mint chip ice cream.
Love,
Einar
p.s. For all of you concerned about homemade ice cream, don't worry, Dad cooked the eggs and Mom wouldn't let me eat the chunks of Andes mints. She did however let me eat some of their pesto pasta last night with roasted red peppers---yum! The food just keeps getting better around here as long as they keep that rice cereal away from me.

10K Mud Run at Camp Pendleton

October 22nd--The day that I've been training for since June. It finally came and I almost chickened-out and didn't go to the race, but I knew that if I didn't go, than I'd regret not having tried. It was the perfect day for a 10K Mud Run--overcast and in the mid-60's. Not too hot and not too cold.

Einar, Jared, and I left the house this morning about 6:20 to head down towards the south end of Camp Pendleton with the 3499 other race contestants. Lots of people, but they also had it organized well with lots of Marines directing traffic and keeping folks moving. While we were waiting to get into the parking lot, I realized that I had not had my coffee or tea before we left! Oh well, the yummy french toast that Jared made would have to pull me through without the help of caffeine.

When we got there, I collected my t-shirt, taped on my shoes (everyone else was doing it so I decided to follow suit), and gave Einar and Jared one last big hug before heading over to the start/finish line. At 9am, the race started and we were off! They had a fire truck stationed about 100 yards past the start that was using it's hose to spray down all of the runners as we headed off on the 10K course. I ran for the first 30 minutes, then walked for 10 and then ran the rest of the way! I went through stretches of sand, mud, crossed two rivers, over some haybales, through tires, through large plastic conduit pipes, over 2 five foot walls with mud on both sides (with help from two guys that offered knees to get up and over!) Up some big long hills, and finally crawled through a 30-ft mud pit. It was great fun! The best part was knowing that I was able to do it. Everyone was having a good time and there were lots of people who walked a lot of the way and would have bursts of running, but it was great knowing that I could just keep going.

At the end of the day, the body is a bit stiffer, there is a blister on the bottom of my left foot, and I have a bag of really dirty clothes that I need to rinse out, but I'm also wearing my Mud Run T-shirt with pride tonight. Thank you everyone who helped me train this summer or who watched the little guy while I was working out. I couldn't have done it without your support!

Einar's First Halloween Bash

Today we headed out to Mission Viejo for a baby Halloween bash. I dressed him in a jack-o-lantern t-shirt and we joined about 60 other babies and youngsters. There were some great costumes! A three month old Princess Leia who didn't have enough hair for buns so she had a hat that looked like a wig. Octopi, monsters, dragons, cheerleaders, numerous pumpkins, fish, pilots, pirates, even ladybugs. Not much structure for the party, just getting together and eating some snacks. We had a good time and then came home for lunch and Einar just went down for a nap.

Solution for Tupperware Storage!

For those of you that have known me for awhile, you probably knew that I had a Tupperware storage problem. It began a few years back when I was having too much fun going to and hosting Tupperware parties. I can't deny that it's a great product, but when you start throwing surprise Tupperware parties for your uncle's birthday, you have a problem and probably don't need the extra Tupperware kicking around. When we moved down here, all of these fabulous containers were on the patio in two cardboard boxes waiting for a suitable home while my books were being destroyed by a gnawing 8-month-old in the bookshelf in the living room. Einar finds taking books off shelves and chewing on them fascinating. My clever husband finally figured out a solution--turn it into a Tupperware shelf! No more books, just easy-access to the Tupperware for both the cooks in the family and the little guy. It has provided Einar with hours of non-destructive entertainment already and is quite easy to clean up as well.

Today the guys hung out for awhile while I went out to the library to get my new library card, Starbucks for a latte, and to the area community centers to find out what kind of things are available around here. They had a good morning and were still out getting lattes themselves when I got home. I'm including some pictures of the clouds that we've had the past few days too. We've had lots of rain accompanied by thunder and lightning storms. I actually had to wear a coat a few times this week!

Yesterday we decided to travel to Seattle next week to visit everyone. Christmas just seemed too far away and we want to see Einar's new cousin before she gets too big (So hurry up and get born, little Sammy!). We'll see you soon!

Meeting other Moms and babies in Mission Viejo

This morning Einar and I met up with about 30 other moms and their respective babies at a weekly group hosted by the South Orange County Family Resources Center. It's up in Mission Viejo, just about 8 miles north and it is in the same shopping center as our favorite Carne Asade Burrito place and Starbucks. The babies range in age from newborns to 10 months. At 10 months you can go to the 10-18 month old group. It was a bit hectic with all of those people, but we did get to meet a few others and are going to go on a walk around Lake Mission Viejo next week. I guess Lake Mission Viejo is about the size of Greenlake from what I could gather. Maybe I'll find a good rollerblading place too! It was a bit of excitement for the little guy so afterwards we came straight home and he went to bed. He's still asleep and I'm going to come up with a grocery list so that we can walk down to the pharmacy and grocery to finish off our errands. Tonight I think I'll make fondue for Jared. It's his last day of work for a couple of weeks!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Wow, has it already been 3 years since we got married? Today we celebrated our anniversary by going out to eat at one of the downtown Italian restaurants with Einar. It was delicious and of course Einar was on his best behavior charming both waitstaff and other customers alike. It helped that he took a 2 hour nap before we went. Jared is taking a short evening nap now so that we can watch Good Eats at 10 with Alton Brown. Whoever did the programing for today must have known that it was a special day for us because they programmed the waffle and pancake episodes for tonight--two of Jared's favorite breakfast foods.

The other pictures are of Einar trying some new foods--plain yogurt and marionberry applesauce. Neither one of those are favorites as you can see. This afternoon I got similar responses to cream of wheat, regular applesauce, and tropical fruit. After those disastrous attempts, I gave in and gave him his favorites, prunes and baby yogurt. All smiles with those two things.

Now it's time for Einar to get ready for bed. He's playing with a caribeener right now and tiring of it. He came home from dinner all hyped-up so we are winding down a bit. Now it's time for a pj change and some milk before bed.

We went to the pool this evening and had a "whale" of a time splashing around. The pool up above us seemed warmer than the other one and we met a couple of our neighbors too. They were taking a break from the Angels baseball game. Jared is practicing putting Einar to bed as I write this tonight. The two of them just came upstairs and visited me again and the little guy was full of smiles. He's been eating like a champ the last few days. I'm going to employ feeding tactics using something larger than babyfood jar sized servings soon since he's been downing 10-12 oz in a 3 hour window on some days! His favorites are yogurt and a mix of sweet potatoes and guava that went down real well the other day. Well, I'm certainly ready for some shut-eye tonight. Good night all! ---Karla

Easy Does it Saturday at Home

Today was a day to charge batteries both our own and the ones in the camera. Jared and Einar got some pretty good sleep last night, but I had some insomniac trouble between the hours of 11 and 2am. Once Einar and I woke up and Jared had come home from his early morning run, we had a quick cereal breakfast and Einar and I went to the Dana Point Farmers Market to get some veggies and give Dad some time to glue ribbons on his uniform. When we got home, it was nap time and the rest of the day was just hanging around the house. We did all take showers before a dinner of Eggplant Parmesan and I don't think that we'll be going anywhere now that it is dark. There was consideration of going to the pool this afternoon, but it was only about 70 degrees and even though it would be fun to go try out Einar's new pool toy that came in the mail yesterday from Poppa and Farmor, it was too chilly since he is still getting over his cough and cold. Wet babies get chilly fast. Tomorrow I promise some pictures!

Einar is STILL Sleeping!

Good morning!

Einar is still sleeping this morning so I have some time to create this blog to keep everyone up on our activities here in San Clemente. Jared and I were talking about it last night and thought this might be a good way to let folks know what we're doing and to share pictures. We know that you all want to keep up on what Einar is up to these days! Hey, maybe we'll all learn something about "blogging" too.

These are a few of the most recent pictures. Einar preparing for his bath, Einar and Jared watching "Good Eats" on TV (it's on every evening at 7pm!), and Einar in his Canada Pants--don't worry, I didn't let him go out in public looking like that.