funk, weekend adventure, and a reminder

Well I must really be out of it because I didn't even notice that I'd been hijacked. Life has felt hard these days and I'm exhausted, like I've got a dark cloud over my head and I can't seem to keep my eyes open exhausted. We had a busy weekend, mostly because I felt that I could shake the cloud if I constantly did stuff. It didn't work but was a good distraction. Here's some evidence that my children could use a little downtime.

We started the weekend off right with a trip to Mcormick's & Shmicks happy hour. If you have one of these near you, go tonight. It is amazing. I actually took a picture of my turkey wrap with marionberry spread because it was that good. And only $1.95! Ben and I started going in Chicago and were thrilled to find out we had one near us out here. It is something we always enjoy. Especially outside during an unexpected and thoroughly appreciated heat wave.

Then we decided to take the kids up to the Mt. Hood national forest for a hike. It was right along a river and we saw these huge salmon headed upstream. The kids did great and it was beautiful.

Nothing like fried chicken to complete a healthy day in the outdoors

These fish must have been over 3 feet long!

So I went to the first day of my women's bible study today and realized that I have so much to be thankful for. There are women who have lost so much and I am just experiencing some uninvited hormones. My children are healthy and my husband has a job and we have enough money to provide for our family and God is good. All the time. I can't stop thinking about the passage in Exodus where God is leading his children out of Egypt. They are so close to escaping and then He tells them to turn back and go to this land between the desert and the sea. He takes them to this place where they are out of options. All the people, of course, freak out and get mad and don't understand why God would put them in this terrible situation. God says that his plan is to gain glory for himself so they will all know that he is God. We know that God can change our situation but sometimes he doesn't and it pisses us off. I love what Moses says in 14:14: "The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still." I can't help but cry every time I read that. God will fight for me when I feel desperate and alone and sad. I just need to trust Him and be still.

Ben in Real Life: Guest Blog

Today we almost pressed our own cider at some kind of roadside pioneer festival. Alas, they were out of apples, so we just bought a jug for $6. Good times!

Weaning overshare part 2

So I think it's been about a week since Ian and my breasts have parted ways. First there were temper tantrums and unexplained crying episodes, then there were the sleepless nights and clinginess. And then came a trip to home depot to pick out paint samples for the living room. Oh you thought I was talking about Ian? No, Ian is the same sweet boy he always is, drinking his bottle happily and only boob lunging one time. I, however am a complete mess. You'd think I would have seen this coming but what could I have done anyway. I think I could move past this if my body wasn't constantly reminding me of my decision. I am so sore that I can't even hold Ian without shrieking every time he brushes against me. I know I need to go buy cabbage leaves and drink sage tea but I barely have time to put a bra on in the morning, let alone stuff it with vegetables. And the paint I chose for the living room? Poppyseed. I know what you're thinking. "Rebekah, that's just another word for black." And maybe it is but it doesn't matter anyway because Ben vetoed it and we settled on black orchid. Which really just turned out purple. I wanted black. But apparantly I'm not allowed to make anymore home decorating decisions until I've stopped spontaneously crying for at least a week.

You know it's time to hire a cleaning lady when...

ALL of your son's clothes look like this after being let loose around the house for an hour.

Now even inanimate objects are telling me that my house is a mess.

ballerina

Weaning overshare

Well I knew this day would come. This morning I took Ian out of his crib and started nursing. He hung around for about 30 seconds before giving me "the look." Some of you may know what I'm talking about. This look says, "uh mom, I love you I really do, and your boobs are great but you and I both know that this is really just for show and I'm only getting about an ounce of milk a day from you, (pause to smile sweetly and then suck thumb) I mean this is really nice of you to try and drag this out as long as possible but why don't we just nip this in the bud and go downstairs, make me a bottle and we'll be done with it, ok?" I could reason that maybe I'll prevent one or two future ear infections if I keep trying. I could argue with him and tell him that he's probably my last baby and this has been an amazing bonding experience. But it won't make a difference and I should just be thanking him for hanging in there for this long, and bringing me through swimsuit season and one last hurrah as a "near" C cup. The last time I did this my doctor prescribed me antidepressants, so let's hope I handle it a little better with this one.

Reason #57...

...why I love my husband:

He comes home from work after a long day and takes Ava to ballet class. Then after dinner, he decides the grass needs to be mowed. So he packs up the kids and takes them outside so I can watch Wheel of Fortune in peace. In my defense, I did make him a chocolate milkshake and take him to bed with me at 9pm. :)

home

Well I have finally dragged myself away from my parent's house. Ben had a guys weekend down in Newport beach and I'm not ashamed to say that I felt completely incapable of taking care of my children for 2 days. So I spent the weekend with my parents which somehow turned into 4 days because I didn't feel like coming home and cleaning my kitchen. But now we're back and the kitchen is clean and even though we all have a cough and runny noses it does feel good to be here. Unfortunately our littlest Hsieh member has learned how to crawl and has discovered my secret hideout.

But I'm in denial about it and the amount of work it's going to require to keep the tiniest little crumbs from finding their way into his mouth. Not to mention that the front of his onesies are now black from dragging himself across the hardwood floors. Anyway we have a full week ahead of us with playdates and the start of ballet class (oh the cuteness is off the charts) so more updates to come.

More flubber adventures

Hey crazy mama, why are you standing on the kitchen table stapling our strainer to the ceiling?

It took about an hour for it to make it to this state.

This was about 10 hours later and starting to get a little gross as it hardened

Next time I'm going to do 2 colors and staple it higher to the ceiling for a more dramatic effect

4pm

...and trying desperately not to call Ben and beg him to come home. Has it really only been 4 days?

OMSI

We made it to our yearly visit to the museum of science and industry on Sunday and had a great time. We went with our friends from church and the girls had so much fun. They had a reptile exhibit and they got to pet bearded dragons, giant turtles, and snakes. They have $2 days every month and I'm hoping we can make it more than once a year.

Family hike

We took advantage of our long weekend and decided to hike to the top of Multnomah falls. We tried to hike it last year but Ava quit about half way through. This time she wanted to quit half way through but we bribed her with fried chicken and fruit snacks if she kept going. Although we had to endure A LOT of whining, it was worth it to get to the top. She loved the maze of rocks and fallen trees over the river and Ian was just happy to be fed.

Cozy in his backpack

Hiding in a cave

The pose

Look I can see our car!

The top of the falls

We made it!

Mom there's a waterfall on my head

Rewarded with a sno cone

Hi/Lo

I haven't really wanted to admit it but summer is quickly coming to a close around these parts. Ben is back to work and 'shudder' I actually needed a sweater when I left the house yesterday. It has been a really good summer and I thought I'd write down my highlights thus far.

*berry picking

*swimming in the lake with Ava

*watching Ian get loving from friends and family in Chicago

*Pedicure's with Jenni at Woodfield

*Watermelon and lemonade with the in-laws

*sleeping in

*Impromptu Weezer concert in New York

*s'mores, s'mores, s'mores

*jetski's with Christy

*Disneyland

*Ava bonding with her cousins

*dinner with Amy & Patrick

*lounging on the boat with the Stapp's

*weekly farmstands

*naps on the porch swing

*watching Ava haul out her gear to the yard for her annual campout with Daddy

In the interest of full disclosure there have been some serious lows as well. Probably the lowest point of the summer was on our trip down to San Diego. We were on hour 10 of our 12 hour day and everyone was hungry and cranky and we stopped for dinner at this strip mall. It was so shady there were security guards walking around the sidewalks. We went into this chinese "restaurant" and ordered some food from a "buffet." It looked bad and smelled bad and frankly I feared for my children's safety. I ordered food from the "subway" next door and am still not sure what they gave me as no one spoke English. Suddenly Ava declared that she had to go potty but unfortunately none of the "restaurants" had bathrooms. Really, isn't subway required to have a bathroom?! So we had to run down the street to the starbucks as Ava's holding her self and yelling, "it's diarrhea mommy, hurry!" We did manage to make it in time and then the whole family spent the last 2 hours of our trip in tears (ok except for Ben). Luckily :) Ben was so amused by the situation that he pulled out the camera to document our family moment.

I love the sign in the window.

So there it is. I am looking forward to a few things this fall, like the return of new Modern Family episodes, cozy days with the fire going, and the holiday's. But mostly I'll be counting down the days until Ben is home with me full time and tank tops and flip flops are the uniform of the day.

Ian update: 8 1/2 months

Using his 30th percentile body weight to hold up his 90th percentile head

The constant stream of drool

Seriously mom, can you at least wait until I have a diaper on

Ian. He is a sweet boy. He really wants to crawl so that he can get over to me and eat my face. Unfortunately all he can do is flail his arms and roll over. He loves to eat and will scream until you put food in his mouth. I think he's more like Ben and doesn't like food as much as he doesn't want to be hungry. Right now his current favorites are sweet potatoes, mangoes, carrots, avocados, and yogurt. He never smiles when he's eating. He's still nursing but not very much and I'm just hoping we can last a couple more months. He drools so much that I have to change his clothes every 3 hours. This is with a bib on. He has two teeth on the bottom and two coming in the top. It's pretty cute. Ava didn't get a single tooth until after her first birthday so it's weird that he has teeth so early. He's slept through the night since he was 5 weeks old, except on vacation, and takes great naps. I don't know how I would survive if he wasn't a good sleeper. I was not a very coherent person on vacation with the sleep deprivation. Ian loves his big sister and they've started to play together which gets me every time. Ava has never hit him or sat on him or attempted to feed him to the cat (all of which I expected). She helps me with him constantly and entertains him when I need to get something done. So far he's been great with strangers and other family members but he's most definitely a mama's boy. When I pick him up he makes this happy squealing noise and he follows me around the room. He hates it when I'm not within arms reach because, like I said, he wants to pull my head in and eat my face. I think we're at that sweet spot before crawling and I'm enjoying it while I can. I know once he's mobile I'm going to have a squealing, drooling, mischievous, face eater at my feet and things are going to get very messy.