Amigos

Noella is learning to be a social butterfly. Her schedule was packed this memorial weekend. 

Her friend Davina (or "Bia" as N lovingly calls her) 

"Bia, out?" (meaning, Davina do you want to come in?)

Noella was so tickled to have a friend over. She kept running over to her, trying to tell her about things around her house. When she saw a bird out the window, she ran over to her friend, got right in her face and said "Bia, peep-peep-peep!" (meaning, Davina, I just saw a bird out there, you gotta check it out). She said it over and over just to make sure the message got across. Of course, it didn't.

Playdate at the Waterfront Park. IT IS ALMOST JUNE PEOPLE!

Meeting of the minds....

Noella and Liam

Noella and Gavin

It is so fun to see her excited to interact with others. What a fun time!

Noella - isms

Thought I should write these down before she's 18 and I forget the funny things she used to say when she was one and a half. Adam and I find ourselves talking like her constantly and I hate that I have to write it out, because it's so much funnier with the rising inflection after every single word (that she repeats 832 times).

Here are some good Noella-isms we especially like:

1. Bobby-jee = Butterfly
2. Mah-moo-mah = motorcycle
3. Boobie = Pirate Booty Snack
4. On-yong = orange
5. Dah-boo-dah = W (how do you even spell that letter?)
6. Zeb-boh = Zeb (which she has now coined the nickname for him "Zebber")
7. Rub-rub-rub = lotion/soap/wiping of the hands
8. Weh-dabby (or red debbies as we like to parody the term) = raspberry
9. Dobby, dobby, dobby = no clue what this means, but she says it all the time
10. She now likes to refer to us as "duh mommy" and "duh daddy"

Here she is with the "beh-dee-bahls" (aka vegetables)

She also looks like a dead head at a Grateful Dead concert when she does the hand motions to itsy-bitsy spider. God, I love her.

Thinking About Making These....

http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/05/rhubarb-streusel-muffins/


Just bought some fresh rhubarb from the farm up the street from us. I need something else to do with it than make pie. This seemed like a healthier and yummy alternative....

One Year Ago Today.....

I like looking back at the exact day last year and see how far we've come. Noella seems very surprised to say the least. She's still our favorite little pint, and that's saying a lot, living out here in the microbrew capital of the world. 

Adam and I have our first grown up date tonight. We've definitely had nights out away from NoJo, but this is the first time we will pay someone we don't know that well to sit in our house alone while Noella sleeps. It's going to feel very weird, but long overdue and well worth it. 

Horsethief Butte: Toddler Rock Climbing 101

Today we ventured to the lovely hiking/climbing area just east of here on the Washington side: Horsethief Butte. We mainly hiked around and let Noella get out her climbing crazies. It was rainy all morning and early afternoon. I decided, no - DEMANDED! we get out of the house, because she was trying to climb on anything that didn't move. This included our king sized bed, kitchen tables, coffee tables, computer chairs, laundry baskets, activity tables.... you name it. So -- why not take her to a designated rock climbing area?  Our thought process was kind of like "What, you want to climb? Try these sharp, steep rocks!" Get 'em started early:

Oooh, Moss....

 

Pretty Portrait of the Balsam Root Flowers

Tired Puppy.

Turned out to be a pretty good family excursion! 

Go Speed Racer

She's moving pretty fast these days. Both on foot and on her bike. I don't know where the time has gone, or where my baby girl disappeared too....

Scrappy

I wonder why Noella has been getting so many bumps and scrapes lately....?

 

You Know You Live in the Pacific Northwest When.....

This is your ensemble in mid-May:

Let's get to work here!

This really needs some raking...

She wasn't interested in helping me pull weeds. 

Complete with a snotty nose!

Spring is Somewhere Around Here....

Okay, so these pictures aren't that pretty, but I wanted to show you that we've been able to get back into gardening a bit. We were lucky enough to score two raised beds in our community garden at the end of the Mosier Creek property. We will soon have way too many greens to eat all at once on our own. Why did we do that? In the next bed over is our tomatoes and peppers that we just put in. Now, if it would just warm up. 

Noella dusting off her hands after working hard in the garden

Kate, spinach, lettuce (radishes and beet seedlings not shown)

Comfort Zone

So, with spring comes me usually trying to train for something. This usually is a half marathon, hopefully on a trail instead of the road. This training is usually the same old boring beginner Hal Higdon training schedule that I've done for the past 7 years. Not this year. Oh no! I've stepped up my game -- this half marathon running gal is doing the Intermediate Hal Higdon training program. I'm so daring. I know - it took me 7 years to try something different, but I'm glad I did. It is a little more running, some days with the notion to run faster than you really want to. But all that aside, I feel like I am benefiting from it. And so, the point of all this is that I think it IS true that if you push yourself slightly outside of your comfort zone, you will reap some benefits. Noella seems like she's pretty good at pushing outside of her comfort zone. I think she is training for being generally crazy.

Part of the aforementioned training program has me running some shorter races in between. The first was a 5K in Stevenson, WA. And, truth be told, it was the fastest I've ever run 3.1 miles. I think it was something like 22 minutes and something.

In Stevenson, there is a neat little museum to which the race's proceeds went to. Here is Noella in front of the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center, near the "tuh-tuh" (Totem Pole).

 This weekend is a "Run Mama Run" 10K in Mt. Tabor Park. It's supposed to rain. Of course. Why is spring dragging it's feet out here? Doesn't it know summer is almost here?