Blink-Blink-Nothing!

My poor attempt at getting Jonah to smile at me.

Down time at home

The great thing about the summer is that both Erik and I don't have to work and we are able to take each day and do what we want with it... for the most part. A new baby and a two year old can be tiring, even if you get a full night's sleep. We have been taking full advantage of the short time we have left this summer to have down days where we just enjoy being together... and stay in our pjs all day.

Erik and Jonah enjoying a nap together-


If we take a picture of Jonah, Cairo NEEDS to have one taken of her, too. So here is Daddy with his babies-

Cairo talking to baby brother-

Cairo sharing her monkey with Jonah-

Anna and Maddie come for a visit

Cairo and Maddie on a walk to see the horses at the end of the street.
One of my bestest friends, Anna, and her cutie-pie, 8 month old daughter, Madeline, came to visit for a few days. We had a lot of fun while they were here. It is nice having friends at the same stage of life with kids about the same age. It makes it so much easier to relate and provides hours of new interesting conversation. Maddie was just full of smiles and working really hard at trying to crawl. While they were here Anna and I caught up with each other, the kids played, we went on walks around the neighborhood and the plaza, enjoyed Farmers Market, hung out in the backyard, and had friends over for s'mores.

The day before Anna came Erik turned a big box into a playhouse for Cairo. Here is Anna and Cairo enjoying the view out the window.

Not only did Anna and I get to catch up, but the friends we had over for s'mores and hung out with at Farmers Market were some of our old freshman year college friends. Boy how the times flies! There were five kids under the age of two in our small group... and many more to come in the upcoming years. The group dynamic among us is completely opposite of what it was 11 years ago. Eleven years ago we stayed up late, goofed around for hours, went on one adventure after another, and overall enjoyed being young and careless. Now, we had bedtimes to worry about, crabby babies to take care of, meal times to think about, and a fear of messing with our babies normal routines. Things have changes. I guess we're grown ups now. Bummer.

Cairo checking out Farmers Market-

Dancing to the music-

Checking out the produce-

Part of the old gang (plus kids and significant others) back together again!

Anna and Maddie, Steve and Deja, Katie and Lili

Maddie and Cairo checking Jonah out-



Bottoms up! Cairo has been doing this when she gets tired. Naptime.

Odds and Ends

Erik has spent a lot of time this summer working out in the backyard. Every once in a while he comes across something fun. Here are a few of the little critters he shared with Cairo and I.


We try to get down to Ferndale at few times a month to visit the family. Jonah tends to be asleep every time he visits his Great Grandma and Grandpa Tipple. On this occasion he woke up just as we were about to leave. He wasn't too happy to be awake.


Speaking of not being happy, here is Cairo being put down in her playpen, aka cage, for nap time.


A nice treat from our two year old has been little Jonah. He's a good sleeper and has decided that he wants to sleep through the night- 8-10 hours depending on the night. He is a noisy sleeper, so he and I have to sleep in separate rooms, but I am thankful, now, for a full night's sleep.



When Jonah is awake he is bright eyed. Just when you think he can't open his eyes any wider, he manages to. Sometimes, we think that he's asleep in bed or in his car seat because he is so quite; yet, when we peek in to check on him we are met with these wide, unblinking eyes.
Here is Jonah having tummy time and practicing holding his head up. What a big boy!

Little Toot

There is one thing Jonah is really, really good at- tooting. That boy can really rip them! What a man. There is one place, though, that one does NOT want to hear a baby passing gas... the bathtub. With Cairo we were lucky enough to not get any surprises when we gave her baths and so far the same goes with Jonah. However, the bath is so relaxing that sometimes one squeaks out. Luckily, this time there were no surprises to go with it, but it sure did speed up the cleaning process!

Playing at the Park

Summers in Aracta are either cloudy and cool or sunny and beautiful, but still cool. As long as it isn't hot, I am happy. Needless to say, I am happy all summer in Arcata.



We took advantage of one such beautiful and sunny day and met friends at Redwood Park. Katie and Baby Lili, along with Katie's sister-in-law, Jane Marie, and nephew, Ian, came to the park to enjoy this beautiful day with us. Ian and Cairo enjoyed running on the expansive grass area and playing on the playground, while Lili and Jonah hung out on the blanket and enjoyed the fresh air(of course, they had sunhats on). Us adults all enjoyed the sunshine and the entertainment and 2 year and 1 1/2 year old provided.


Katie and Lili-
Erik and Jonah-
Where'd the babies go?


After the park, Cario, Jonah, and I headed up to Katie's place for dinner. While we were there Ian and Cairo played some more. They also managed to collide head on at full speed as they ran across the living room. Ian ended up with a nice bump on his forehead and Cairo got a BIG FAT lip with lots of blood. My favorite. Luckily, there were no loose or broken teeth and the blood was coming from a scrape on the inside of her lip. Cairo did a great job sucking on ice and by the next day her lip looked much better.

Playing in the kitchen

This summer, while away in Japan visiting family and friends, Cousin Mei left her kitchen for Cairo to play with. Every day Cairo is whipping up a new and interesting meal. One of her favorite meals is mustard soup. It is amazing what Cairo can make with her imagination. Even though there is no real food there, she does a great job at pretending it is. If she drops a bowl with "food" in it, she says "my clean mess," picks up the invisible, pretend food, grabs a towel and wipes off the surface, and then, sometimes, rinses the food in the sink.

This kitchen, with its various nooks and crannies, provides multiple places for Cairo to put things. For example, you can often find her current sippy cup in the cupboard and her baby doll in the oven. Yikes! If you can't find the phone, just look on the side of the kitchen and she has put it away there.

I hope that someday Cairo enjoys cooking real food as much as she enjoys cooking her pretend food.

Blueberry Picking

Jill, Erik, the babies, and I all headed out past Redwood Valley for a morning of berry picking. Blueberry picking in the summer is one of our favorite things to do. We especially LOVE to eat them. This year Cairo got to take a much more active roll in the picking of blueberries... w few in the bucket, a few in the mouth, a few in the bucket, a few in the mouth. She did a really great job at picking only the blue ones. Jonah had a great day out in the sun as well. He was attached to Erik in the Baby Bjorn and just hung out. :o)

Now, we have a few large ziplock bags of blueberries just waiting for us to enjoy in the freezer!

Jonah at 5 weeks

Jonah may be five weeks, but he looks older than that to me. His size, compared to Cairo at this age, is drastically different. We are guessing that Jonah is pushing 13 pounds, something Cairo didn't reach until she was 4 months old! Plus, he still has this dark head full of hair, sticking straight up in the center, unassisted. Where Cairo was long-legged a lean, he is short-legged and tubby. Cairo had huge, high cheeks. His are chubby, low cheeks, almost jowls.


So far, Jonah has given us a few smiles and made a few cooing sounds. Mostly, though, he grunts and squeaks. He has big eyes that just stare, unblinking at whatever has caught his attention. Commonly, he stares wide-eyed at the pictures on the wall behind our couch. He seems to be a pretty serious little guy. He commonly furrows his brow, as though he is deep in thought or put out with the current situation. He is pretty laid-back and can easily sleep through loud noises- such as Cairo. He is getting pretty strong. Sometimes he arches his back and makes it almost impossible to hold him.


Jonah is still a good boy, but he is definitely starting to make his preferences be known. His most vocal preference is the I-want-my-mommy one- he is definitely a boob man. He likes to stay toasty warm and spread out when he's asleep. Lately, he hasn't been so keen on his daddy, preferring, instead, to cuddle close with mom.


He isn't crabby very often, but he does have his moments.

Boo-boo lip-


We still haven't established much of a routine, though he is getting a bath around 8:30 pm each day. Every time I think a pattern is starting, he changes everything. I am really looking forward to having things a bit more set during the night. He has been sleeping 4 and, very occasionally, 5 hour stretches during one part of the night. Then, he's wide awake and wants to cuddle for an hour or two before going back to sleep for a couple more hours. I sure do miss solid sleep. Luckily, I know that a full night's sleep will be back in a few more months.

A rare binky moment-