La...La...La...La...

Ava (after turning off Sesame Street): "Mommy, I think somebody needs to tell Elmo about Jesus."

Me: "Why honey?"

Ava: "Because he thinks this is his world."

Ian update: 18 months

Well since this is the only baby book I keep for Ian, it's probably time to record a few of his greatest hits. After visiting the doctor we found out that he is in the 95th percentile for his height, confirming that neither Ben or I are his real parents.

Unfortunately his head size is also in the 95th percentile, which explains his tendency to fall every time he walks on an uneven surface. His current favorite foods are chinese noodles, frozen peas, scrambled eggs, and pasta. Other than that he just doesn't really like the whole eating process. If he had his way he would have an 8 ounce bottle every half an hour and call it good. Unfortunately the doctor scared me into at least cutting out half of his milk intake by calling milk, "the unknown poison." or maybe it was the "silent poison." I only remember the very serious look on her face and my glaring looks at Ben to hide the diaper bag as there were three bottles poking out the top.

Anyway, Ian is the sweetest boy ever and insists on waiving hello AND goodbye to every stranger we encounter. He is such a little snuggle puppy and when I lay him down at night he makes kissing noises continually until I close the door. Oh, it gets me every time.

He is a boy of few words but seems to communicate just fine. I've had to wait a long time for him to say Mama, which he just started doing two weeks ago, but it was worth it. He yells, "Dadeeeeee!" and then he cocks his said to the side, smiles coyly, and in this very soft voice says, "MaMa."

He is obsessed with books and music and has started throwing very convincing tantrums until he gets his way. I have to sing to him if I want to get his diaper changed, get him dressed, get him into his carseat, get him to eat... you get the picture. Kids CD's in the car are the only way we get from point A to point B without a screamfest.

Ok, maybe that part isn't so great but he is my love, love, love and he is so fun to watch as he grabs his rake and follows Daddy out into the garden to "work." Or as he sits in his little chair and reads to himself or backs his little butt into your lap to be close to you. I am one smitten Mama with this little boy and can't even conceive of having another one, lest he doesn't feel like the center of my world that he is. Ian James Theodore Hsieh lights up my days, even the hard one's when my clothes are soaked with his drool and he follows me everywhere like a little puppy.

Butterfly faces

Yesterday Ben went on a bike ride with some friends and I was floundering for somewhere to take the kids. Finally, I put them in their homeless child-wear and headed to the strawberry field to put them to work have some fun! On the way we stopped at the library to drop off some books and they were having a free concert in the park. I thought this sounded wonderful and figured a man dressed as a giant dog wearing boxer shorts surely meant a good time would be had by all. I was wrong. Ian loved the orchestra but decided to express his enjoyment by walking over to other peoples blankets to beg for food. This normally would be seen as cute if he hadn't been dressed to audition for the part of Oliver in the broadway show. Ava wanted to express her enjoyment through dance but could not be contained to our little space and nearly trampled a lovely pair of senior citizens. At which point I discreetly (ha!) packed up our food, blanket, two lawn chairs, the diaper bag and my screaming and whining children and backed our little hineys to the car.

Anyway, all this to say that Ava asked if she could get her face painted and given her outfit and my desire to seem like a fit parent, lest any police officers got suspicious, said yes. Although it was expensive, I'd say her enjoyment for the next 24 hours at looking like a real butterfly made the $6 worth it. And I learned a valuable lesson... to keep an extra set of clothes in the car at all times.

Chez Hsieh...

Cute right?! I think I've found a name for my future restaurant endeavors. The shades are up! Night, day and a little chandelier for your viewing pleasure. I love, love, love them and now insist that Ben serve me cafe au lait and crepes at the table every morning for breakfast. Don't worry, I leave him a good tip. :)

The Fourth in quotes

"Please gather around for the first annual Fourth of July Seder."

"I wish Mom wouldn't have taken out the candy from my Tinkerbell Pez."

"Why am I putting duckies into this net?"

"Whoo Hoo! Caramel popcorn as big as me!"

"Mmmm...My Mama smells good."

"I know I'm adorable but could somebody please change my diaper and my drool soaked shirt?"

"Hello Could you direct me to the nearest modeling agency?"

"Do you think anyone would notice if we made a run for it?"

"Where's the on switch?"

"Can someone please get me down from here?"

Happy Fourth of July!

More Recap, Family Adventures and tomorrow's Monday

Hello July! This summer is flying by. Tomorrow we're headed to my parents to celebrate the fourth 'small town' style and hopefully Ian will hang in there for some late night fireworks. I've made my obligatory flag cake and consumed nearly half of it. We've taken advantage of some gorgeous weather to trek up the columbia river and hike a few waterfall trails. And we're slowly getting the house ready for family visits part four. It has been full but good. This is the first summer we've stayed put...ever, and I'm loving the gardening and the summer cooking and the sleeping in and just enjoying the beauty that is Oregon in the summer.

We had a great time visiting with Tia while she was here and can't believe how much we managed to fit in during her 10 day visit. Here are the highlights:

We started with a picnic at our favorite park downtown where a nice man made the kids balloon art. I'm calling it art because seriously, when Ava asked him to make her Ariel and he agreed, I thought he was joking. It was a sad affair however, when she woke up each morning and whimpered to me that Ariel's bra was shrinking and she'd lost another fin. I love how Ian's spider man is over 6 feet long. We could barely fit it in the car.

Then we moved on to Oaks Park. During the winter they have a preschool skate and during the summer it's all rides for $6. I love, love, love this. Ian was finally big enough to go on the rides and he even went on the roller coaster. At the end they have milk and cookies with chipper the chipmunk, and the cutest dance party you've ever seen. I had to drag Ian off the dance floor as he was signing more to chipper.

Family race!

Us girls love the Lavender Blue Tea House. It's becoming quite the tradition before fun events.

Like going to see Mary Poppins!

Posing by the waterfall. Could she be any cuter?!

Lots of family hikes

These are the cliffs where scenes from Twilight were filmed. We all did a re-enactment of our favorite scenes. My dad was Edward and my mom was Bella. Unfortunately I did not get any of this recorded.... :)

Post wipeout.

My sexy husband rescuing Ian at another water park

We wore that boy out every day

Visiting the air and space museum which has a new waterpark. Unfortunately I was too busy trying to prevent Ava from drowning herself in the pool to take any pictures.

Finally we celebrated Tia's birthday. Only my sister would request cupcakes like these for her party. It was my first endeaver from the Hello! Cupcake cookbook and actually kind of fun.

We love Tia! Thanks for more family memories.

Home Decorating

As I've said before, interior design is not my strong suit. At least fifty percent of our walls are bare and I cringe at most of those that I have decorated. I feel completely clueless most of the time and am amazed at people who have an eye for design. Anyway, I've been wanting to put up roman shades in our main living space and after deciding that we couldn't afford anything store bought, we finally found someone on craigslist who was within our budget. And by budget, I mean the money Ben's parents gave us for our birthdays. And let me tell you how excited Ben was to get curtains for a gift.

So, I spent about four days at every fabric store in a 25 mile radius and left in tears on more than one occasion. I finally came home and found this online fabric store that ships and returns everything for free. It was half the price of any of the stores I went to and much better material. I don't know how this place stays in business as I ordered 30 pounds of fabric and only ended up spending $40. It finally came and the one I thought I liked the least ended up being my favorite. I think our space is going to look very french once it's all done and I hope it's beyond my wildest dreams because we'll never be able to afford shades again. Here's the samples we had to choose from.

She is supposed to be done in a week and then I'll post the finish project. So excited to actually be excited about a home decorating project!