Remodeling (and apples...)

Fran, Erin, and I visited a new apple orchard this year on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Many other families had the same idea, so the people watching was easier than the apple picking. We had a great time for the second year in a row. More orchard pics to come...



It's been awhile since we posted, so I threw in some random pictures to give you a sense of our fall goings-on. This one struck me as funny, a turtle race (like the sign says)! I'm not sure how their turtle did but with a polygon for a starting line, who knows? That was at the Camp Odayin 5K in September.



The backyard is a favorite of Erin's. We put in a swingset and slide earlier this year and now there are piles and piles of leaves. With a raspberry patch a few steps away, how can you lose? Grandma Jan has been hard at work on the gardens and landscaping in preparation for putting our duplex on the market this upcoming spring-- thank you!! We've been living here about 8 years and it will be tough to leave.



Back to the apple orchard... here's Erin the goat whisperer.






Erin seemed really interested in this little kid train pulled by a big tractor at the orchard. We waited in line for ~45 minutes for a ride, got her settled in to car #4, and then as the tractor started up we get a look of pure panic. Despite our best reassurance, she wanted out. We'll have to try again next year in Seattle.



Back home, Erin has really started asserting her will on the day-to-day routine. She always has an opinion about wardrobe, and the cooler it gets outside, the harder it seems to keep the clothes on inside. Here's a blue skirt and winter boots. Papa Joe got her this wooden dog on a string when she was just a baby. She rediscovered it the other day, named it Chewy, and they have been inseparable since.



For all you mandatory CPS reporters, this is NOT where Erin sleeps! Before we read books at night, Erin likes to take a turn brushing her teeth in the "boat" in the living room. Duncan likes to supervise. Fran's a wonderfully consistent parent and over the past year we've got a nice bedtime routine and a little girl who sleeps well.

With Grandma Jan doing a great job in the yard, Fran and I finally tackled a DIY bathroom remodel. The first few days were a blur of trip after trip to the hardware store, dust, putting personal hygiene on the back burner, and wearing funny glasses.




As we started gutting the bathroom, we found lathe & plaster behind the plastic tub surround.


Frances is a tiling machine. We saved many quiet jobs like laying tile until after Erin was asleep, as her bed is right on the other side of the bathroom wall.




We picked a "classic" looking floor tile pattern, and I think it turned out really well. The pedestal sink below replaces a wood vanity and makes the small room seem a little roomier. Fran had the idea of adding wainscot which we'll keep white. Next up is sanding the walls, painting, new lighting, and a new medicine cabinet. The plumbing was the most challenging part, so far no leaks! A big thanks to Grandpa Deanie for his advice and help along the way.

Travels

We spent a big part of August away from home, and we're finally getting settled back into our routine. Fran and I had 10 days of vacation earlier this month-- we spent several days in Denver at the wedding of our friend Lucy and then headed out to Portland.



Denver was a lot of fun. This is Kendall, our good friend Jules' baby girl. Erin got a big kick out of her, and did a nice job sharing mom and dad's lap.



We joined Fran's sister Jan and her husband Nick on a hut-to-hut mountain bike trip around Mount Hood. Well, my trip was simply a "hut" because I got sick and bailed after the first night. How disappointing! Fran, Jan, and Nick made it all 4 nights for the second year in a row. The weather was beautiful and the scenery even better. There were some very long and steep climbs (that we don't have in Minnesota!) and though I haven't said it to her face, I think Fran looks pretty tough on a mountain bike (see pic #2 below).










OK, I made a couple photos before my early exit... this one is looking over the Columbia River on the first morning.


Next, we made a couple quick trips up north the following week as my grandpa passed away. He was 89 years old and we'll sure miss him. Erin loves to talk about the "cabino" and "great grandpa Bumpa" which still goes a long way to cheer us up. Here she is playing on the beach with Laura.




On the homefront, Erin was happy to get back to her friends at daycare. Fran and I had a weekend off work together yesterday and today, which was nice. Erin's getting more imaginative in her games at home. Lately, she likes to go on "trips" (to the porch). She'll walk thru the kitchen, wave to us, and say "bye bye, I'm going to Chicago" and shut the porch door behind her and giggle. This has evolved into her packing a bag, dressing up (sometimes in a pair of Fran's high heels), and substituting other destinations into the mix (Portland, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Germany- where Grandpa Dean just got back from). I'd love to see her mental map of exactly where these places are located!



Simple activities are OK too. Here we are coloring on a poster under Duncan's watchful eye. The summer has really flown by. We're looking forward to Erin's first trip to the state fair sometime this week.

What happened to June?

It's been awhile since we updated, thought it was about time Dad took a turn! Like many of our friends and family, we've had a busy summer here at the duplex. Erin's been at daycare for ~6 weeks now and, for the most part, is doing great. She had some separation angst for a couple weeks but now has settled into the weekday routine of "school". As we expected, the colds and fevers have come fast and furious. We made our first ER visit after her eye swelled up amidst a cold. Thankfully that has gone away.



Erin seems to be a quick study at daycare. She came home one of the first days with a song listing all the days of the week. She understood which were "schooldays" and which she gets to stay home with mom & dad (or better yet grandpa & grandma!). This revelation led to some amusing morning rituals-- several weeks ago she would wake up and say "not a schoolday... it's Sunday... yup!" (of course it was Wednesday). We got a kick out of the emphatic "yup!" at the end of these proclamations after she'd gone over this idea a second time in her head.



Grandma & Grandpa's house remains a special place... where else do you get to share a Chipotle burrito with dad, bite for bite? My folks are weaning themselves off of full-time child care slowly, as they offered to pick up the little one from daycare several days each week.



Another of Erin's favorite places is the backyard. We watch the tomato plants in our vegetable garden get taller and taller. The new hits are our blueberry bushes and the raspberry patch. These inevitably get harvested in the "two for me, one for the bucket" approach.





Laura and Tom had the family over to celebrate Father's day. The only thing better than the weather was the food. Erin got a kick out of Laura's golden retriever Riley, and vice versa. Tom's camping hammock was a hit too! (below).





The curls are still definitely in effect. This trait comes from the Lee side of the family tree.



Erin now has a "big girl bed" and still does a great job of staying there the whole nap or overnight. Below, her tiptoe out of bed seems to have been interrupted by... well... sleep!





The other big news in June was my fellowship match-- this time next year we'll be in Seattle! I matched in pulmonary/critical care at UW, which is a 3 year program and will run July 2011 to 2014. The reality of actually having to sell a house and move in the next 10 months is setting in, we're going to have a busy year.

Fran is well into the swing of her new duties as a Pediatric chief resident this year. She's based out of HCMC until the new year. It's been fun grabbing lunch or coffee sometimes, this has been the most we've seen each other without Erin around in 2 years!



Fran and I have enjoyed our new ballgirl when we go to the courts. The way our game is going, she's going to have a lot of running to do.

Big girl Erin

Since Erin's birthday we're rapidly heading towards being a "big girl." According to Erin, "big girls" go to school, ride bikes or trikes, put their pee or poop in the potty and sleep in big girl beds. By the end of this week hopefully she'll have done all of these things.

Erin starts "school" on Tuesday. We went for a visit last week and she did great. She didn't cling to us at all and wanted to join in with the other kids and seems interested in what everyone was doing. She loved the little kid bathroom and spied on a few kids using the potty. She did comment that one of the kids used "a lot of toilet paper." I guess it doesn't take that much to impress her. They take the kids to try to use the toilet every few hours and I'm hoping that watching her peers do this will inspire her. I doubt that she'll refuse to try (like she does at home) when all the other kids are doing it. That will be excellent.

The teachers want to put her in a class with the older kids (mostly kids closer to and a little older than 3) because she is so big and seems more mature than the younger kids. The next youngest kid in her class is just over 2 and a half. I'm a little hesitant, but I really think that she'll do great. We decided to go ahead with the older kid class and we'll reevaluate in another week or so.

Erin has also started riding her trike almost every day. When Matt and I are both able to go for walks, one of us will walk the dogs and the other pushes her along on the trike. I have to say that the push/steer bar is the key to enjoying a toddler with a trike. Nice work Matt.

She has also decided that she loves the bike trailer. We are thrilled and since the weather has been so nice, we've been able to take her for a bunch of rides. We've kept the rides fairly short, but are venturing a bit farther each time. She likes to talk about wearing her bike helmet and the "big bumps" that she goes over in the trailer. We took her today to meet Nate, Tina and Aleia at the park. She managed to fall asleep in the trailer on the way there and back. It still amazes me how kids can fall asleep in the most uncomfortable positions.

And last but not least, we decided it was time to take the side off of her crib. I still feel like a fool, messing with a good thing. But, she had managed to climb out once and bonk her head and it has to happen at some point. We debated whether to wait until things had settled down after starting school, but I think that she's going to be so tired with school that she might just conk out. We'll see. So tonight the side came off, she talked a lot about how it was a big girl bed now and how big girls stay in their beds. She took a book to bed, sang and talked for about 20 minutes and now it is silent. Could it really be that easy?

I feel like a big girl now too. I had my last day as a resident on Friday and now move on to being a chief next week. Wow. It feels very surreal. I never really thought that I would actually finish. I'm trying to hold my new status over Matt, but unfortunately he still knows more than I do, so it's not as satisfying as I thought it would be. Oh well.

The Cabino

The stars aligned and Erin, Matt, Laura, Jan, Dean and I all got to go to the cabin last weekend. It was great and Erin had a great time playing in the water and riding the pontoon boat. Unfortunately Saturday was really stormy, but Sunday was perfect and we stayed through the day to get a chance to play outside as much as possible.

We also got the chance to go see our friends Katie, Jon, Sarah and John and their little girl Mia for dinner this week. It was great to see everyone and Erin had had fun playing with Mia. Katie brought out an ice cream making ball after dinner and the girls took turns rolling it down the hill and chasing after it. She also thought the fruits of their labor were pretty tasty.