Jumping in Mud Puddles

Today was a beautiful day, and seemed even more so because it came right after several weeks of nonstop rain and snow. In the late afternoon, we decided to take a walk to enjoy the last bit of the day's sunshine.

Sometimes on these walks, Anders will walk between us and hold our hands. He then wants us to "jump" him, which is basically lifting him into the air by his hands as he jumps. We did this several times on this walk. But as we were "jumping" him over a big mud puddle, his right mitten - through which I was holding on to his right hand - slipped off. So instead of jumping over the puddle, he landed right in the middle.

Since he was already dirty at that point, he had fun jumping, running, and walking through the puddles for the next 15 minutes.

Thank goodness for bright lighting that enabled high enough shutter speeds to freeze the action! These remind me a bit of Doc Edgerton's famous stop motion photography. Of course, he was doing it 60 years ago and a lot more scientifically than we did.

At the end of it all, Anders just stopped and said simply: "Now we need to get me some dry pants." Indeed.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

School Photo at Three Years Old

It's school photo time again for Anders! Technically, he's still not in school, but "Uncle" Jeff was able to fit him in.

The difference between the photos from this year and last year is pretty dramatic. I know that we shouldn't be surprised by that; after all, he is 50% older now than he was a year ago. But there's really no denying it now: he's growing up.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

3 November 2011

Wooden Space Needle

Anders has a set of those wooden tower blocks, as just about every child in America did. He can be pretty creative with them and often surprises us. One day he created this scene and then told us that it was the Space Needle.

Not bad!

- Mike, Corinne and Anders

Let's Look It Up

This is definitely a sign of our times...

Anders had built something with his Tinkertoys. (Remember those?) When Corinne walked in, she asked him what it was that he had built.

Without missing a beat, Anders responded: "I don't know. Let's find out. Let's look it up. Where's my phone?"

He then proceeded to pull out his toy flip-phone, push some buttons, then say "Oh, it's a spinning wheel."

I can't imagine where he learned that.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Fluffy Ears

Recently the three of us walked out to our garden to pick some flowers for a bouquet. Most of the flowers were still in full bloom, but Anders particularly liked how "fluffy" the zinnias were.

It didn't take too much encouragement to get him to pose for some "fluffy" photos with his flowers. (I use the term "pose" loosely.)

Fluffy Ears...

...Fluffy Eyes...

...Fluffy Nose!

A modern take on Three Wise Monkeys, perhaps?

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Anders is 3!

It's hard to believe, but Anders turned three years old today! Apparently three is when cheesy smiles and "mugging" for the camera begin.

Happy Birthday!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Disappeared

Anders: "Where's Mom?"
Dad: "She disappeared."

Anders looks intently at Dad.

Anders: "She doesn't have a beard. You have a beard. Mom doesn't have a beard."

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Quotes from Anders

Kids are endlessly entertaining. Here is just a sampling of some of the things Anders has said.

Mike: You are an eating machine.
Anders: I'm eating a pea. I am not eating the washing machine. I'm just eating a pea.

Corinne: Are you excited that friends are visiting?
Anders: Yes
Mike: Are you excited to put on shoes?
Anders: Yes ... pause ... No! Exciting for friends! Not exciting for shoes!

Anders: I burped.
Corinne: Polite boys say, "Excuse Me".
Anders: I don't want to excuse me. Some boys say, "Excuse me." Some boys say, "I burped."

- Corinne, Mike and Anders

First School Picture

Anders hasn't started school yet (he's only two), but he does have his first school photo!

The photo was taken by "Uncle Jeff," Debbie's brother, who has the school picture contract at the White Salmon schools. There's something about a school photo that is so unmistakable!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Pumpkin Patch

Another year, another trip to the pumpkin patch for Halloween. At two, Anders was able to better appreciate what was happening than during his first pumpkin patch visit. He spent most of his time running through the fields as fast as he could. (Amazingly enough, he only fell a few times.)

Occasionally he would stop and point to a pumpkin that he wanted to take home. But it wouldn't take long for him to change his mind and take off running again.

He did slow down long enough to walk through the corn "maze."

I'm sure that with each new year, he'll enjoy the holidays a little more. And so will we!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

23 October 2010

Yard Sale Find

Each week throughout the summer, Trout Lake has a Saturday Market. Held in the Grange building, the market features local crafts, baked goods (homemade cinnamon rolls with huckleberries!), and over the past few years the selection of locally grown fruits and vegetables has grown as well. We have tried to go to every market we can, and Anders enjoys the trip as well.

On this particular weekend, when we arrived in downtown the streets were packed with cars. We quickly realized that it was the weekend of the annual Trout Lake Rummage Sale. The proceeds from the sale benefit the Trout Lake Community Foundation who sponsors scholarships for local graduates. They raise an incredible amount of money from the event, on the order of $15,000! So after our walk through the market we continued on over to the rummage sale area.

We wandered around for a bit, but once Anders found the toy section he was pretty much permanently planted there playing with the array of used (and abused) toys on display. One of the toys that he discovered was a "vintage" Fisher Price circus train set. Many of you will probably recognize this train set; both Corinne and I had it when we were kids. He really digs trains and spent a good portion of his time at the toy section playing with these particular pieces. This particular set was missing the engine, so we had decided that we wouldn't buy it. But when we announced to Anders that we were going to leave, he scrambled to pick up all of the train cars and try to carry them away with him. How can you say no to that?

Corinne was less excited about the other item that he picked up and wouldn't put down: a half broken, white Matchbox van with red and blue flames and monster truck wheels. Oh well. The whole pile plus a few books only cost us $1 anyway. We'll just find the engine on eBay - for a lot more than $1, I'm sure.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

September 4, 2010

Ethan's 3rd Birthday

Anders recently attended the 3rd birthday party for Ethan. The party was actually held outside in a local park - Toll Bridge Park in Parkdale, OR. We're considering stealing that idea since it makes cleanup (both before and after) a whole lot easier!

Anders hasn't had soda before. In fact, he hasn't really even had juice that much since we've tried to steer him towards water and milk instead. But we figured that a birthday party seemed like the right place for him to "live it up". I figured that he probably wouldn't like the Izze Sodas that Corinne and I were drinking; as a kid I remember disliking anything that had any sort of carbonation in it. But apparently it isn't genetic.

There were also juice boxes there which were for the kids. But interestingly, the Izze's Sodas had less sugar than the juice boxes! Anders did eventually switch to juice and managed to guzzle down at least two over the course of the party.

Ethan's birthday cake was actually constructed of individual cupcakes. Amy found a silicone cupcake kit that came with instructions for arranging individual cupcake molds on a baking sheet in various patterns. After baking the cupcakes would blend together on the top so that they could be frosted as one, but they still separated into cupcakes in the end. Pretty clever! And tasty.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Full Time Grandma

Well, we have finally gotten another family member to move to the Gorge! After following the Insitu job postings over the last several years, Donna is now the Executive Assistant for Insitu's VP of Sales and Marketing. It all happened pretty fast, too. She noticed the posting on a Tuesday and submitted her resume; HR responded on Wednesday and scheduled an on-site interview for Thursday. By the middle of the following week, she had her accepted offer in hand and would start just two weeks later.

With a total count now at three, we may have retaken the lead on "largest family representation" at Insitu. We held that same count from 2004 to early 2007 when Leif was still at Insitu as well, but we dropped to two when he left to pursue his artistic dreams. (Of course now we don't represent the almost 10% of the company that we did when we first started.)

Donna is staying in our guest room until she can find a place of her own, which is just fine with us and more than fine for Anders. He now has a full-time, live-in grandma! It actually works out great for us to have another person around the house to help out with Anders.

One of Anders's favorite things to do lately is "make blocks," which is to build something out of his Mega-Bloks. He isn't using modern building practices yet, but three out of four times the construction stays intact - that is, until the "elves" dismantle it overnight and put it back into the bin.

Another recent activity involved bringing out grandma's "jewels" from her jewelry box. Anders really enjoyed going through the box and pulling out each one.

- Mike, Corinne, Grandma Donna and Anders Rocket

12 August 2010

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is what happens when Anders wakes up from his nap before Mom has finished baking for the potluck.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Photos from a Summer Walk

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

24 June 2010

Spring Walk

During a recent walk, Corinne brought our her Digital SLR (the "fancy" camera) and took some artsy shots of spring's arrival.

Meanwhile, Dad and Anders walked around looking for dandelions.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

21 May 21, 2010

First Trip to the Library

Anders is a book-hound. He wants to read books all of the time, sometimes a little too often for Mom and Dad, in fact. So we figured that he would go absolutely crazy at the library.

But for some reason, on his first visit to our local library he spent the majority of his time climbing on the furniture, looking at the computer, and playing with the toys in the kids section. Go figure.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

18 May 2010

Happy Mother's Day 2010

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

9 May 2010

Teenager Already?

(This is an 'archival' post from May 2010.)

Anders has had "selective hearing" for some time now, choosing to pretend that he doesn't hear what his parents are saying. But now it has progressed one step further; he actively expresses that he isn't listening.

"I'm not listening, I'm not listening"

Why do I have the feeling that we can look forward to this for the next, oh, 16 years or so?

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: May 1, 2010

Two Moose

When it became clear that Anders had chosen his stuffed moose as a comfort item, we bought a second one as a backup. Since then, we have periodically switched them, and we always had a spare at home in case one didn't make it back from daycare or was temporarily misplaced.

But recently, Anders's universe almost collapsed upon itself when he discovered that there actually ARE two moose. It was unintentional, of course, but somehow he ended up with two moose in his hands at once. He had a huge smile on his face, and that night he slept with both moose in his crib with him.

I don't think the significance of having two has really dawned on him (come to think of it, what IS the significance?) He's still perfectly happy having only one, so I guess there was no harm done.

- Mike, Corinne, Anders Rocket, Moose #1 and Moose #2