Lots of Sweet Potatoes!

Can you tell who is enjoying sweet potatoes? Soren just started eating them last night, but tonight he sat down and ate one bowl (1 oz) and then I had to refill it! I think that he's just been waiting for tasty real food. We are going to have to feed him real food more than once a day now too since he likes it so much. Maybe he'll finally start to bulk up a bit. I'll keep you posted.

Guest Photographer: Einar Bjorklund Ogle

Jared, as seen through the camera lens by Einar.
Karla, as seen through the camera lens by Einar.
Soren, as seen through the cameral lens by Einar. He eagerly identified this shot as "Soren!"
I had to include this shot even though Einar did not take it. Here he is posing with a humongous rabbit. It is larger than many Southern Californian dogs. We went to a birthday party on Sunday and a 4H girl brought all of these animals to share with the kids. It was really quite fun and we all learned something about animals. I guess you have to learn how to walk your chickens for show and there is even a metal stick called a chicken walker. Jared handed Einar the camera to take a picture of all of the animals in their cages since he was having trouble sitting down with the rest of the kids towards then end of the presentation. I quite enjoyed his perspective....
multi-colored Guinea Pig
This is the chicken named "Ricky" that could walk and pose.
I think this is the silky chicken.
Monster rabbit.
Chinchilla eating dried papaya.
Party-goers.
African spiny tortoises.
Pot-belly pig named Puggly.
Pygmy Goat.
Tan Guinea Pig.

NEWS FLASH: Soren Eats His First Food!

On Thursday I took Soren to the Dr. for his follow-up appointment and weigh-in. He had gained 5 ounces, but still is not on the chart again. The Dr. wasn't too worried about him since he is gaining weight and in all other respects is a healthy, happy baby. She did, however, want him to start eating rice cereal and get some solids going.

That night after dinner Jared fed Soren his first bites of rice cereal that had been mixed with some tasty breastmilk. Most of it ended up on his over-sized bib and he's really good at pursing his lips when the spoon comes near. It takes a lot of practice to make a tongue swallow something that isn't liquid so we'll be encouraging him to practice daily. Next is sweet potatoes.....

Yesterday I celebrated my 34th birthday! It was a really good day. We got to sleep in until 8am and after some fruit and toast, we picked up some breakfast burritos (egg, bean, cheese and potato) at Pedro's Tacos and I took the boys to North Beach to play in the water and sand with some friends. The plan was to do special San Clemente things that I won't get to do on my birthday next year when we are back in Washington State. The water was pretty warm and Einar got very wet. Afterwards we went home for some yummy turkey spaghetti that Jared had made the night before (are you catching on to the lack of cooking being done on my birthday?) and some chocolate cupcakes that Kathleen baked for me that morning. Then we lounged around the house till Jared came home and Soren woke up from his nap. At my car wash they give free car washes on your birthday so I didn't want to miss out on that so we then took my filthy (it had been camping and to the beach) Mazda 5 to the car wash. Since it was still fairly early we went to Disneyland to spend the evening. It was so much fun! We got inside just as the parade was starting, stayed through the fireworks, and closed the place down! Einar fell asleep in the car before we'd even left the lot and we got home at 12:30am. Today we slept in.

First Day of School for Einar

This shot was taken at 6:30 tonight. Einar was still passed out after falling asleep around 2:45pm! I think Mrs. Brown wore him out this morning in his first day of preschool. He is now awake again, but still kind of waking up and watching the news now with Jared.

This is how the day started....wake-up at 7am without an alarm clock, waffle and banana breakfast, getting dressed without too much trouble, and hopping in the car without a scene and fastening his own seatbelt--I think he was excited to be going to school. On Tuesday all four of us went to his class for meet-the-teacher day so we had already seen the classroom, met Mrs. Brown and picked up his red bucket. The red bucket will be going each day back and forth with Einar to school and we'll find his art work and papers in it when it comes home.

At school, but still in the parking lot, an eager Einar poses with his red bucket. All the bucket has in it now is a change of clothes in a ziplock bag.

Right before he enters the classroom, I insist on a quick photo in front of the door. I also mangaged to weasel a quick kiss from him before he rushed in to join the rest of the kids. No looking back for Einar! Soren and I then made our way back to the car and headed back home. Once home, Soren ate more and took a nap while I cleaned the bathroom and did some laundry.

After the thrill of pick-up there was a brief meltdown when I wanted him to stop long enough for a picture before we went home, but he recovered quickly.

And here we are after class is over. He had goldfish and juice for snacks, listened to two Clifford stories and a Bible story, sang a pig song, played on the playground, and that's all I was able to get out of him. Tonight he's chosen spaghetti and mint chocolate chip ice cream for dinner and he get's to eat off of the red plate.....This just in, the Three Little Pig song has now been identified as the Hokey Pokey.