2 miles

Slow day today. It was nice. I did a little work on the trench, it is about ready for gravel but we have some concrete to chip out of the way. Then I laid in the sun while Layden played outside with Tristan. I talked with Sarah a bit. Then Layden took a late nap, I ate lunch and worked on my thesis. Lynda and I took a 5 mileish walk. We had discussed driving down our dirt road to figure out the two mile mark. Then what do we walk past but a 2 mile marker. "2 miles" it says. I wonder where it has been hiding.
Tomorrow we head over to Olalla to celebrate my parent's 25th anniversary on the 1st. Me and Layden will get up early to meet the Olson's in Spokane and carpool. Oli will sleep in and drive the truck over so we can pick up a bed frame.
Layden gave me my first real kiss yesterday. There was a smacking noise and everything. He doesn't kiss very often but when he does it is so sweet (and damp). He is getting much better at being upright. If stairs aren't too tall he can walk up and down them quite successfully. He has also managed to attain a speed that could be referred to as running without falling on his face. He really enjoys following Tristan and Evan around imitating them if possible. Today I caught Tristan putting dandelion leaves in Layden's hair, but Layden had thrown dirt at him earlier so I figure they are even (or Sarah and I are even). They seem to enjoy playing with him too and will call "baby come over here" or they will just come play in our yard, which is very exciting right now. Piles of dirt, holes, pile of rocks, big stack of blocks, mud, what more could boys ask for?

Break

Yesterday our concrete blocks arrived. Ninety of them, 60 pounds each. I worked on the trench they will go in. Then I went into Pullman to meet with Dr. Kardong and I finally have material to work with for my thesis. Looks like it won't be too bad. I mostly dread the annotated bibliography, 25 sources, the actual data crunching won't be bad.
Today it was rainy/snowy so I took a break from working outside and nursed my poor sore arm/back muscles. I made custard, baked banana bread and tidied the house a bit. Altogether not an exciting day.
Layden is still incredibly cute. I love it when he first wakes up in the morning or from a nap and he is all cute and jabbery and not violent. He will talk and talk, I don't know what he is saying but it is darn cute. He smiles and plays with his feet and will let me cuddle up to him a bit. I have realized that at the end of the day (when we spend it inside) I have a hard time saying what exactly he did all day. Maybe tomorrow I will write it all down. I suspect that he mostly, nurses, sleeps and gets into stuff but I could be wrong.

Retaining walls

Today we made a trip down to Lewiston/Clarkston. We stopped by Costco and returned the battery charger that we bought so we could find the one we lost. We picked up some food, apples, bananas, kiwis, crackers, 2 lbs of Gouda. We stopped by a wholesaler place that was supposed to have cheap concrete blocks, not so. We stopped at a building supply place in Moscow (also in Colfax) and it was cheaper and they deliver. So it looks like tomorrow we will start building a retaining wall for our front yard. We (by we I mean mostly Oli) used the truck to the stumps out of our front yard. They finally marked the location of the gas line after pointing out that there was no phone line in the ground, the location of our water meter, and writing "no TV" on our yard. Sadly we managed to bend the tow hitch in the process. The rocks that are currently piled against our yard as a sorry excuse for a retaining wall will go to make some very attractive raised beds.
We talked with our neighbor, Joe, about working on a retaining wall in between our two houses. Right now we have a mudslide topped with slippery flag stones. We will probably wait a bit on that. It will be a lot of digging and right now the soil is a bit heavy. More exciting for me to tell that for you to read about I am sure.
Layden had his 15 Month check up today. He is 21 lbs 14 oz, 15th percentile weight, 75th height. The doctor was a little concerned by him not being on solids yet but she figures since he is energetic and doesn't have any anemia it probably isn't a problem now, we will wait and see how it goes, basically what we had decided. He is developing well in all other ways. He enjoyed the light she used for looking in his ears and eyes. He did not like the nurse, not at all. He didn't like her at all. He only had one shot though and he got over it pretty quick.

Duck Bread

Layden is starting to have a lot of fun playing with the neighbor's boys, I had fun talking with their mom and enjoying their little sister, 6 months old. Layden really likes all the toy tools they have. They really like it when he starts yelling, they think it is funny. Now when we go outside he heads straight over there, better than him heading down the hill.
Today Layden and I headed into Pullman to visit Lisa. On the way we stopped at the park. Layden thought the ducks were pretty neat but the pond was much more interesting. He kept wanting to walk in it, not realizing that it was far to deep for that. We saw a little girl, her mom, her aunt and her dog, a big soft puppy. Then we went and looked at the farm animals. Two pigs, a couple goats, some horses and llamas. These were really interesting too but I had to keep his fingers on this side of the fence. Goats and pigs can be a little nibbly. Then we met a 21 year old girl, just married in Dec. She had a pug puppy and a cute little ball of fluff, Pomeranian/whatever. So cute. The puppies really liked Layden. She wanted to know if labor is painful :). We were chatting and I looked over, Layden was chewing on something, bread, duck bread. Luckily it was bread I had thrown on the ground just a little bit earlier. Still gross.

Expo

Today we headed over to Moscow for the home and garden expo. We wandered around a bit, I had some free candy, picked up some buisness cards and watched the end of the Cougar basketball game. Sadly we lost in double overtime. One of the hardware stores had a booth, with a whole lot of Makita power tools set up, Layden thought it was the best booth of all. Then we went to the Arboretum. Layden had fun wandering down the path on his own. Then a couple came down the path in the other direction, Layden turned around and followed them around, little stalker.
Last night we had Magnus and Lisa over for dinner. I made pizza and Lisa made apple crisp. Yummies. Layden was being very cute, sitting on Magnus' lap to have a story read. This is the same person who, when he saw him for the first time he burst into tears. I guess that was just a fluke.

Headbanger

As you all know Layden enjoys a bit of dancing now and then. Well, when we were in the car on the way home from Husum we taught him to dance in his carseat by nodding his head. Today he did it again for a couple of songs. He is way hard core. See, I do teach him stuff.

Leak

Yesterday I finished off organizing the garage, it is now in a semblence of order. I would have swept some leaves out but the back door won't open and the leaves blow right back in under the door. I tried out the outdoor faucet in the backyard yesterday and surprise, surprise there is a leak. I turned the faucet off and I could still here the noise of water running through the pipe, then water started pouring out of the small roof thingy over the porch. Goody. Oli was unimpressed. I made bread again yesterday and once again forgot the salt. I need to put signs up in the kitchen saying "Salt", maybe some one knows a nice proverb with salt in it?
Then Lynda and I went for a walk out the dirt road by the river. 4.6 miles total. We tried out the stroller whose wheel Oli fixed, it hasn't gone flat yet which is a good sign.
This morning I woke up to the smell of burnt something or other. Oli was heating up a slice of bread and he thought it was set for 12 seconds but it was set closer to 12 minutes. After about seven minutes the plate was scorched and the bread burnt and the house smelly.

Husum

Well we had a busy weekend visiting with the family. Friday we drove down to Husum to visit Oli's parents and my parents drove down also so my dad could get some oak from Frank. Layden had a lot of fun getting spoiled.
Joy and Frank have a fireplace so this weekend we learned "hot". We started when the stove was just warm and Joy animatedly acted out burning herself on the stove and saying "hot!" "ouch!". Then she had Layden touch the stove and said "hot!". This really upset Layden for some reason (really the stove was just warm. After that I think he wasn't so sure about Joy sense concerning hot things. Whenever she would stand in front of it he would push her away and say hot. He would also walk right up to it, point at it and say hot, the pokers were also hot. Very cute but he would still get a bit close at times though he wouldn't touch it.
Layden had a very musical weekend. He really enjoyed playing the recorder, drum and piano. He seems to be fairly musically inclined, or at least he enjoys making noise. Joy says she is going to make him a little tom tom sometime. I am sure he will love it. It combines two of his favorites, hitting things and making noise.
Joy has very, very many furs piled up in her bedroom right now. She is so good with her hands. A couple of merino sheep skins made a good cushion for the hide-a-bed which is not so comfortable as it once was, just like every other hide-a-bed. She also has a cougar hide that was sitting on her bed. Layden was on the bed and he petted the head with one finger and said kitty. Then he lifted the head and looked underneath. I think he decided there was something seriously wrong with that kitty, parts missing.
On Saturday, Mom and I drove over to Portland so we could go to Fabric Depot, 40% off weekend. I had only been there once before to pick out fabric for my wedding dress. They have so very very much fabric. Mom wanted to get some wholesale, bolt fabric but they were out so she had to settle for 15ish different quilting fabrics. They had very many cute fabrics and it turns out mom and I have pretty similar tastes. Luckily I am not a quilter so the store wasn't terribly tempting. I want to make (watch my mom make) myself a nice light skirt for the summer. They had lots of options but it turns out I am very picky. Eventually I found batik cotton that was nice, green with a leafy pattern. So sometime I will have to visit mom, or maybe get her to visit me so she can make it, I mean help me make it. We had a good time spending mom's money. Layden stayed home with Joy and the boys and it sounds like they had a good time too. Dad is feeling a bit under the weather though, which is too bad.
Mom and Dad stayed at the Inn of the White Salmon. It is a bed and breakfasty inn, decorated Victorian. Apparently the "European" breakfast is really good. Pastries, fruit, cheese cakes, eggs... We got waffles with strawberries and ice cream and mom brought kuchen so I am not too jealous.
We drove home today and stopped by Oli's Uncle Bob (Joy's brother) and Aunt Diane's in Hermiston. We had a good visit and break from the car. Layden enjoyed stretching his legs and got enough exercise for a second nap. We got to look at a couple of Model T's (1919 and 1923) one with burl steering wheel and spokes. There was also a HUGE truck, an older Dodge Power Wagon not really BIG by today's standards but it just has a really big, grrr, type feel to it. For sale by the way and in good condition. They also have 50's red car, sadly I don't remember what kind. My favorite was a rare early 60's black Valiant with red interior, recently repainted and restored, original interior. It was Oli's grandma's apparently his grandpa kept it in top condition for his wife to drive if he died, then she died first.
Back home again. Waiting until Layden is ready to crash again. The cat was happen to have us home for some company again and there were plenty of bills waitin.

Checking out the hotties.

I was reading dooce's Month 37 post today with Layden on my lap. Usually he is preoccupied with hitting the keyboard, yelling baby profanities, and resetting my homepage but today when I scrolled down to the first picture of Leta he got quiet, then pointed at her picture, babbling happily. Leta has an admirer. He sat still on my lap only moving to point at each successive picture and babble happily. I tried to explain that she was too old for him and anyway long-distance relationships rarely work out. I don't think he was convinced. Oh well. He's young, his attention span is short, I am sure he will bounce back from the disappointment.

New Bed!

Sorry there have been so few posts recently. Oli had a four day weekend and I was busy spending time with him. We got the downstairs bedroom all sorted out and organized, now we can actually get at and find the stuff we have stored down there, mostly anyway. We decided the time was right to get a new bed, now I don't have to sleep on the crack where the two twin mattresses meet! It is a memory foam mattress from Costco that came vacuum-packed, so while it aired out and expanded in the bedroom we slept on the old beds in the living room. Today I hauled the full size matress and boxspring downstairs, one of the twins into Layden's room and one downstairs. That constituted my work out for the day.
The weather has been sunny and downright balmy. Sunday Oli and I enjoyed a walk along the river and Lynda and I took one yesterday. Layden hasn't been sleeping well so neither have so I am quite tired and am going to call it quits.

New Videos

I put some new videos online.
Oli is feeling a bit under the weather today, just in time for his 4 days off. Nothing much else new.

March Schedule