What have we been up to?

The nights have been really nice around here and Jared has been coming home from work around 4 so we've had time to play after dinner. Recently we all walked down to the golf course and ran into friends who were also enjoying the evening and playing ball. Einar and his friend Trevor both were having fun just being flat on the grass. Both of them also run away from the ball when it is thrown their way. Both are also almost 3 1/2.
This is a new sporty look for Jared. The guys at work have already suggested a new nickname for Soren. They think that "Joey" would be a good once since he spends so much time in his pouch.

Though it was three days in the works, we finally accomplished the bicycle ride that I've been promising Einar and we had a marvelous time. The bike and trailer were already in the car this morning when we woke up since we had tried to take this bike ride on Saturday afternoon but had trouble with my tires. So after buying new tubes on Sunday after church and getting a lesson in tube replacement from Jared before going to bed, everything was ready to go for our adventure this morning. We had breakfast at a little cafe not too far from us that the neighbors had recommended (Einar had pancakes) and headed to Dana Point to unload the bike and trailer and start our outing.

The trail runs along the trickle of a drying river bed that attracts all sorts of birds. It was clear and warm, but we had enough sunscreen on to keep from getting burned and Soren was all covered up as well. I'm not sure how far it goes, but we rode it into San Juan Capistrano to a park that is only accessible by the trail so we hadn't been there before. At the park, Einar took a break from trailer squish and ran around and did lots of climbing up slides. He wants to go on another long bike ride tomorrow.
For Father's Day we took a picnic dinner to Sunset park and Jared was teaching Einar how to rock climb--definitely terrified the kid, I wish I'd been able to get the angle that captured his expression. Jared, however was thrilled.

This is the angle that I see Soren most of the time. This photo actually captures him sucking his thumb and not his entire fist!

Einar and his friend Nathan that we don't get to see often had lunch together on Friday. Though we don't see much of him, it seems that Einar and Nathan have a lot in common. They both like pink and princesses (Nathan had his mom buy him a pair of pink Dora flip-flops last week), neither of them like the show Super Why anymore because the Hansel and Gretal episode scared them, and they really have fun together.

Comparison Pictures...

Wow has Einar grown since October! I saw the picture of him that Mike took on Monday in his pink shirt and he looks so much like a kid and far from the toddler that he looked like in the other shot with Jared on the ship 8 months ago. I posted them both so that you can see the change easily. All three of the guys were playing trucks yesterday morning. Soren was driving the trash truck. Soren also likes to hang out and suck on his fists. He doesn't seem to have a preference for left or right, but the fists win out over fingers or thumbs any day.

Daddy is Home!

Jared's deployment is finally over! We picked him up on Monday afternoon along with his cousin Mike, who had accompanied him on the Tiger cruise that the ship offered from Hawaii to Camp Pendleton. Once we got so close to the end, it was so exciting that Einar found it really hard to fall asleep last weekend. After all of our preparations and talking about it finally happening, he had trouble waiting, especially on Monday morning. He helped me paint a great banner to welcome Jared home with (we painted it so well that our street out front now has paint on it that had soaked through our sheet).

Jared is now enjoying 4 days off before he heads back to work on Monday. He's cooking up a storm with a new food processor that he got for his birthday, making lemon meringue pie and a strawberry layer cake. We've also eaten Chinese food and are planning on going to see Indiana Jones tomorrow evening.

These pictures are from the homecoming on base on Monday as well as the Tiger cruise. Mike took all of them, so thank you guest photographer! You can see the helicopters on the USS Tarawa as well as the Harrier Jets that were onboard. They even let Mike sit in the cockpit and pretend to fly. Instead of docking in San Diego and letting the Marines off there, they disembarked on their landing crafts onto the beach in Del Mar and then took a bus back to San Mateo where Jared works normally.

Cleaning up our acts...

Yesterday was baby bath day at our house and I had some good help from Einar. It was his idea for bath time while we were waiting for our dinner to arrive.* He is in charge of washing Soren's feet while I get the head, arms, and body. Soren really likes his baths and probably wishes that we would bathe him more frequently. Let's just say that he is in no danger of having his skin washed off from too many baths! After Soren was out of the water, Einar washed his baby. His baby is filled with styrofoam pellets and is totally washable.

Today we slept in late (around 9:45), ate breakfast, and painted a welcome home banner for Jared. I'll post a picture of that after he gets home on Monday (!!!!!!!!) so I don't ruin the surprise for him. Naptime turned into "quiet time" for Mr. Napskipper, but didn't make the evening any easier. Einar went into meltdown during dinner and had to go to bed early and without stories. All of his books also had to be removed from his room since I had promised earlier in the week that if he ripped apart another book, they would be taken away. He can still read, but only when he's in a room with someone else. I'll have to figure out a way for him to get them back.

Kathleen made us carnitas and rice and beans for dinner--delicious!

Nine More Days!

Jared's deployment is almost over! We're counting down the days now that Einar can fit them all onto his two hands. He's also looking forward to making a banner for the homecoming.

No new pictures this morning, sorry. Just a cranky three year old who was sent back to bed this morning and asked to come back and join us when he can be nice and listen. He slept pretty well last night, but I think we still might be doing some catch-up. I hope he actually falls asleep down there, but that's probably just wishful thinking on my part.

Soren is taking his morning snooze now despite Einar's best efforts to wake him. Little guy has been having some great awake time (at 2am last night) and lots more smiles. He's even been "talking" a bit more when he has our attention.

Yesterday Einar spent the morning at "school" on base. It is a daycare that has drop-in hourly care available if they have room. He was a bit nervous when I dropped him off, but when I came back to pick him up after lunch he told me that he'd had a great day. The rest of the day I would continue to get snip-its about what he'd done at school. They sang train songs, read a bunny book and then hopped like rabbits, and ate pancakes for breakfast with white milk. I still don't know what they ate for lunch except for chocolate milk that had a submarine on the carton.

Well, I'm going to go downstairs and check on Einar. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

Blog Time has never been so hard to find!

I did it! I actually am sitting at the computer without a baby slung on my chest and a 3-year old asking to check out the pictures on the screen. I've even downloaded some pictures from the last two weeks and can now fill you all in on our activities. They descriptions won't be too detailed, but at least you will know that we haven't gone into the witness protection program without a trace.

I've included a great variety of photos tonight from Einar making Aebleskiver with Farmor for Mothers' Day to riding in a teacup at Disneyland with Jennifer Knipp on Monday of this week. For the most part we've been hanging out pretty close to the house with the biggest excitement being the airport runs to shuttle folks back and forth and going to the grocery store to stock up on provisions. I even made it to Costco yesterday with Soren while Einar stayed home with Jennifer and colored. We've also been swimming and were visited by my Auntie Arlene, her friend Janice and my cousin Tami on Sunday afternoon. Einar has been practicing his scissor skills on paper and is now being forced to spend some more time on his listening skills. Soren is growing fast and is determined not to let me nap in the afternoon (he's being helped along by his big brother) since he won't sleep anywhere but in the sling during the day. I'm getting tired just writing about all of this! We're doing well and counting the days till Jared returns--Twelve!

Staying home in the OC

Last weekend we went to San Onofre beach to attend the vow renewal ceremony of Justin and Kathleen. They celebrated their 10th anniversary this year and threw a big party on the beach in honor of those ten years and the lifetime ahead.

Before Poppa and Farmor came to town on Tuesday, I decided that I needed some photos of Soren wearing some of his awesome baby hats. I love babies wearing hats, but it's too darn warm most of the time for such an extensive hat wardrobe--wearing a fuzzy wool hat when it's 85 degrees outside only tends to cook the kid. So I set him up for a hat-wearing photo shoot. In the process, I also got some good photos of him being mad and crying. It's cooled down a little now so we'll see if we can't get him in a few of these before his head grows anymore.
We've been staying near home this past week even though the grandparents are in town because Eianr came down with a good case of coxsackie virus, or hand foot and mouth disease. He had a fever on Monday and Tuesday, but then seemed much better. It wasn't until after we went to church on Wednesday night and came home that he started complaining about a sore throat and had a really rough night sleeping. In the morning I looked into his mouth and saw the sores and took him to the doctor. It goes away by itself and only needs some Tylenol for the pain, but it still takes time.

In the meantime, Einar has been making rockets with Farmor that are fueled with Alkaseltzer tablets and we've also flown kites and gone for walks. Soren has enjoyed having Poppa around to walk him all over the upstairs when Mommy is eating or going to the bathroom.