Five Months

Dear Silvie,

You turned five months old during our vacation to Indiana where you met and charmed you grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. The week before we left for Indiana (at four months three weeks) you solidified your sitting skills. One day I plunked you down in the middle of our bed and instead of toppling over as I expected, you just stayed upright. And you’ve pretty much stayed upright ever since. You are quite pleased to sit and even happier if some hands reach down that you can grab hold of and pull yourself into a standing position. You’re also experimenting with lunging forward out of a seated position into a crawling position so you can reach objects out of arm’s reach. You can’t really figure out how to move forward or backward but you can rotate 360 degrees rather handily.

While we were in Indiana we stayed at Grandpa Ben and Grandma Rose’s house. Aunt Kris and Kalvary, Glory and Malachi were also visiting. You loved watching your older cousins frolic and play. You were not quite so fond when one of them would decide to get really close to you and love on you a little too intensely. Bubba (Malachi) liked to walk up to you when you were sitting and stick his tummy right in your face. We really can’t figure out what that was supposed to signify, but you and Bubba seemed to have an understanding.

One day Malachi was cranky because he was teething, and apparently you decided to copy him. You fussed and whimpered for a whole day, and in the evening I could feel one of your bottom front teeth all sharp and fresh and shiny. Now you’re working on the other bottom front tooth and three teeth on the top. So far what seems to work best are cucumber spears out of the frig that you chomp and chomp on. We’ve also been dosing you up with baby Tylenol when you seem to be the most in pain.

Other than teething, you still are a pretty sunny little person. Grandpa Ben said, “I wondered how you managed to take so many smiley pictures of her, but now that I’ve met her I understand—she smiles all the time”.

While in Indiana you started to express a real interest in food. Possibly this is because all we did in Indiana was EAT–fresh corn on the cob, luscious tomatoes, and lots of down home cooking. Anyhow, we started you out on some rice cereal and some pureed pears. At first you were unimpressed and spit out much more than you swallowed. However once we got home to Portland, and I went back to work, you decided that eating cereal from Papa during the day is an acceptable food option. He reports that you sing and laugh with your mouth full. I suppose we’ll have to work on table manners at some point in the future!

I’m sure there is more I should write but my head is mush so I’m going to bed where I will lay down beside you and listen to your sweet baby snores.

Love,
Your Mama

Fuzz Top

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Originally uploaded by ndmiller

Off to Hoosier Land

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Originally uploaded by ndmiller

Here Silvie demonstrates that she can sit up by herself. She’s also showing her solemn side more these days and spends time contemplating the world around her.

Tomorrow Silvie and Deb fly across the country so Silvie can meet the rest of her family. Pray for a safe journey and an easy-going baby traveler.

Silvie Goes to the Coast

I generally try to avoid commenting on the weather.  We humans have such a small range of temperature in which we’re comfortable in.  Too often we end up complaining about the weather which is a complete waste of time since there is nothing you can do about it.  But the weather we’ve been having the last couple of days deserves commenting upon.  Tuesday it was 106.  Wednesday it was 105.  We have had 13 days of 90 degree + weather this July.  It is not unusual to have a week or two of hot weather in July or August here in Portland.  We do have a Mediterranean climate, after all, with a rainy season and a dry season (even though Portlanders actively perpetuate the myth that all it does is rain here so you wouldn’t want to live here).  But it is not this hot for this long.  We are shattering weather records daily.

Hot weather is tough for me to deal with but in the past I’ve hunkered down in an air conditioned coffee shop with a good book or taken myself to a matinee.  Not so easy with a four-month-old.  One day we went to the mall.  Another day we hung out in a friend’s air conditioned living room.   We’ve been sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the basement at night and we’ve been surviving.  But by Wednesday Silvie and I both needed to get out town to the coast.  So we talked our friends Stacey and Stephanie into going with us (it didn’t take much), threw the Chariot in the car, and headed west.

I checked the weather before we headed out.  It was predicted to be 106 in Portland for the day and 89 on the coast.  It was right about Portland, but dead wrong about the coast.  We stepped out of the car in Manzanita, shook out our legs, and promptly got goosebumps.  In our shorts and t-shirts, we were sorely underdressed for the 66 degree, misty, socked-in coast.  All Silvie was wearing was a onesie.  We considered buying some sweatshirts but we just didn’t want to spend the money.  I did buy Silvie some pants and Smartwool socks though so she wouldn’t be too chilly.  It was really a shock to the system to drop 40 degrees that quickly!

After clam chowder and fish and chips for lunch, we took Silvie down for her first view of the ocean.  Because it was so socked-in we couldn’t see more than about 300 feet out.  Silvie was unimpressed by the ocean but quite enthralled with sand.  She ran it through her fingers, smooshed her feet around in it and tasted it.  She played quite happily in the sand for about 20 minutes before she rubbed her eyes with her sandy little hands.  That was the end of it for her.  She was not thrilled to get sand in her eyes!

We returned to Portland much cooler.  Today it was 96 and I am not complaining!  It felt so much better.  What a difference ten degrees makes!

Five Years in Portland!

We can’t let July go by without noting that it marks our 5 year anniversary of moving to Oregon and also our 5 year anniversary for this blog.

Here’s the first photo we took of ourselves in Oregon.  We had just survived 3 days of driving a Penske truck full of all our earthly possessions across the country from Indiana.  We were so excited to have finally crossed the state line.

For a trip down memory lane, here’s…

—our first blog entry

—our first apartment in Sellwood

—a blog entry about getting our jobs here in Portland

We’ve had a few changes in the past five years–a house to renovate, two dogs, four chickens, and a baby.  But can I just say that my original enthusiasm about living in Portland remains unabated?!   I feel truly blessed to live here.

Here’s to five more!

Biker Baby

We’ve been slowly introducing Silvie to our favorite sport, cycling.  Before she was even born she had the cycling cap.  Then she started watching the Tour de France with Nate every morning before he went to work.

We were prepping her for her first real ride on Sunday.  Our favorite Craigslist purchase this summer has been the Chariot.  This bike trailer/stroller/jogger is Silvie’s sweet ride for the next couple of years.  She seems to like it.  She loves being out and about and sometimes she “talks” while she rides.  When she gets tired she just bends over into the most impossible upside-down U of a shape and takes a nap.

Sunday Parkways is a Portland event in which the city shuts down a 6 or 7 mile loop of roads in one part of town to traffic and opens it up to cyclists, walkers, and joggers.  The route usually connects 3 or 4 city parks where entertainment, vendors and different organizations set up booths.  It’s a fun way to get to know a different neighborhood.  This Sunday the route was in Northeast Portland.  We rode up there with our friend Stacey.   Round trip was around 15 miles and Silvie did great the whole time.   Hopefully, an early introduction means she’ll be a fan of cycling too.

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If you live in Portland, may we recommend the next Sunday Parkway on August 16, right here in our own Southeast. Unfortunately, Nate and I will have to miss it as we’ll be out of town.

Calendar Girl, 4 Months Old

Four Months

Dear Silvie–

Oh, bug!  You are so fun to watch as you grow your own opinions about the world.  You’ve decided that you LOVE the dogs.  Whenever you hear one of them walk into the room you crane your neck until you see it and then you break into  your toothless grin and chortle.  Sometimes you coo and talk to them.  Keegan’s really not that into you.  Mostly she acts as if you don’t exist, but you think she is so funny–especially when she plays fetch with Papa.

Abraham likes you because your face tastes like spoiled milk and slobber…two of his favorite flavors.  He licks you vigorously several times a day.  When you see him coming you get the biggest grin on your face and close your eyes as you prepare for the assault.  You never seem scared or upset at him for licking you.   In return, he lets you “pet” him and poke and prod him until he gets sick of it and moves away.  Fortunately, he’s been gentle with you so far and he’ll always be able to get away from you.

Berry Sweet

You have recently decided that lying down is no longer for you.  You insist that you should be upright at all times.  We have all sorts of ways to accomplish this and still try to get some work done around you.  You have a swing, a bumbo chair, a boppy pillow, an ergo baby carrier, and two strollers.  When we do need to lay you down, you do “crunches”.  Seriously.  You lift your head and shoulders off the ground and grunt.  You’ve got some abs for a baby!  You can hold your crunches for 30 seconds or more.  You clearly will be so much happier when you can sit up on your own.

Crunches

Overall you have maintained a pleasant personality.  You do cry (even though our friends claim you don’t), but your cries are nearly always directly related to a need.  Once your need has been met you go back to your sweet self.  You love meeting people, especially all the grandmas and grandpas that make a fuss over you at the grocery store and the post office (in our unscientific poll, people over 50 are most likely to make googly eyes at babies).  There are hints that some rockier times may be ahead.  You’ve already expressed a little separation anxiety a few times when being separated from me.   And you’ve commenced with some heavy-duty drooling and chomping that indicate that teething is just around the corner.  But for right now, we’ll just enjoy you, sweetie bug.

Love,

Your mama

P.S. Can I have my boobs back soon, please?

4th of July

This may have been the most perfect 4th of July yet.  I’m not a huge fan of the holiday and it was an unusually-hot 95 degrees so my inclination would have been to hunker down in the cool basement and watch some mindless television.  But my friend Carolyn was getting married.  So, rather than curl up on the dog couch, we loaded up the car and headed to Hood River.

What’s a baby to wear when it’s ferociously hot and sunny?  Well, rock star sunglasses and giant sunhat, of course!  She was adorably cute and went out of her way to charm as many people as possible with her toothless grin.  She made it into the Official Wedding Photographer’s pictures a couple of time and we shot a couple (or twenty) of her too.

The setting was on a bluff overlooking the Gorge at a private residence.  The wedding was elegant and surprisingly comfortable in the dappled shade with a breeze.  The dinner featuring lamb and salmon was fabulous.   The company (teacher friends) was engaging.  The evening ended with sparklers and a fireworks display below us on the river.  A perfect ending to a beautiful day.

chillin’