surgery and smiles

The first week of school was pretty exciting for all of us here on Malibu Way. Liam went to his first day of fifth grade with a temporary cast and had surgery on his wrist later that afternoon.

Lucy went to her first day of school ever, thumb and all.

And sweet Milo started fourth grade with his signature smile intact.

Liam broke his wrist at his birthday party two days before school started. Joel took four boys to Oaks Amusement Park in Portland and Liam ended the day falling on his roller skates. Joel fashioned a temporary sling with Liam's shirt and the boys still managed to have a fun drive home and pizza before I took him to urgent care for the evening.

Turned out, he had broken it pretty badly. The fracture is in the growth plate (bad news) and part of the joint was knocked aside (worse news). He had to have surgery to reset the bones and insert a four inch pin into his wrist.

Surgery was more intense then we had anticipated. It didn't take long, but watching your child hooked up to myriad wires and electrodes, and then wheeled away into an operating room is a little unsettling. Awakening from the general anesthesia was rough, and he was on narcotics for the pain for a few days.
Instead of going to school for the rest of the week he sat in the sun on the patio and listened to Harry Potter for the seventeenth time.
But he's going to be fine (and with a few deep breaths, so am I). He went to school this week and is managing his homework easily with one arm. No soccer, no trampolining, no biking, no two-touch at recess - but we're pretty sure his arm will heal easily, and he's already chosen the spot in his room where he will keep the pin when it comes out next month.

summertime

Finally here, summertime has taken us all a bit by surprise. It hit us with a heatwave first thing, forcing us to find ways to keep our cool. Lucy has spent most of the summer to date, naked ("nakkie!"), in and out of various bodies of water. The boys have discovered a passion for a card game called Magic (think pokemon meets dungeons and dragons), so have spent many hot afternoons downstairs with their decks. But they also join us for trips to the pool, the creek, the park, the frozen yogurt shop...

Some pictures of our summertime, so far:

Nonny invested in a giant kiddie pool that keeps Lucy and Sylvia (and the dogs) happy

Fall Creek on the fourth of july

Liam

Lucy and Meredith

Lucy and Jun at Sweet Cheeks winery in the country, where we've been spending our Friday nights

No explanation needed...

graduation

My little brothers graduated from high school this month. It was a little surreal. I sat on the hillside above the bandshell in Ashland's Lithia Park, watching my brothers in their red gowns graduate from my high school. Seventeen years later. Half my lifetime ago I took that same joyful walk down the path by the fountain, to take my seat for one of life's crystalline moments. Watching my brothers in that moment I was moved for many reasons, not just for my own nostalgia. My brothers overcame a lot during the past four years to get to this place, and to say I'm proud of them doesn't quite do justice to the feeling.

My family spent the weekend all together in our hometown. We brought our grandma down from Eugene, and Shep came too. We celebrated with my brothers, spent time with their girlfriends, saw family friends, and went on walks and rides in Nathan's 1956 jeep. We went out for ice cream, and just hung out together.

And then it was done. They threw their hats in the air, gave us all hugs, and walked off with their friends to stay up all night at the Senior party.

The day afterwards we went to Standing Stone for dinner because our mom used to love to sit there on the patio some weekday afternoons with her boys, my brothers. She would drink a pint of dark beer and they would eat french fries. We made a toast in her name, raising our glasses to her, and how proud she too would be of these sweet, smart boys who we have collectively raised.

rhododendrons and baby goats

It rained all spring. All spring.

We were the third stop on our good friends Kirsten and Ryan's rainy PNW roadtrip last month. Highlights of their visit included a soggy walk through the rhododendron garden at Hendricks Park...

...feeding baby goats at Lone Pine Farm during a brief moment of sunshine...
...the Camas Ridge Elementary School end of year carnival (maybe it convinced the Smiths not to have kids), waffles at Off the Waffle, and an aerobed in our livingroom for three days (we didn't mind, but I'm sure they were glad to get back to the privacy of their tent). The rain really thwarted our efforts to get them to move further west, but we had a great time anyway.

long weekend

It was a long lazy weekend here in Eugene.

Milo decided to spend memorial day weekend in Sunriver with his best friend Miles' family. It was the longest he had been away from all of us.

I let him pack by himself, and the only shoes he took for a sunny warm weekend were his bogg boots. (This photo sent via text, accompanied by a comment about his fashion sense...)

We missed Milo, but it was nice to spend time with our bookend children. We went for a lot of walks, did a lot of gardening, and watched a lot of movies after Lucy went to bed (Sherlock Holmes, which was almost over-stylized but immensely entertaining; The Invention of Lying, which I cannot recommend because I fell asleep in the first 10 minutes; and Iron Man 2, which Liam and Joel loved and I missed out on due to Lucy's nap schedule...)
I leave you with this picture of our "sprinting monster" as we shall call her for the time being. Lucy has entered a new realm of feisty of late. She is trying out having a mind of her own, which includes sprinting away from us at every opportunity: down the sidewalk, into the street, out of her room during a diaper change...

And...we're back!

When I signed into this blog today it told me: "last import March 4." Today is May 3 - almost two months have passed since we've posted anything here. And yes, folks, it has been quite a couple of months.

Today though, we are happy and full of gratitude. Joel just returned from a long weekend on John's Island in the San Juans, visiting his old summer camp, Camp Nor'Wester. We celebrated my grandma's 87th birthday on the 1st. I got some good news from work today (my company has been weathering the recession's backlash affecting states' budgets - but things are looking up!). The kids are happy and healthy, and our bathroom remodel is finished!

Spring has finally arrived here in the Pacific Northwest. Trees are green and flowers are blooming everywhere. It has been hard won this year - we weathered many cold, blustery months to get here. Some pictures from our springtime...

Easter

Elijah and Liam

Sleepover morning pancakes - Elijah, Liam, Miles, Milo

Skateboarding in the park

Lucy about to slide down the "whee"

Swinging boys

Feisty girl

Liam in the Oregon Senate - 4th grade field trip to the capitol

We send happy thoughts out to all our family and friends, hoping you are having a wonderful springtime too. Stay tuned for more adventures...

a mile a minute

It's how fast she runs. How fast she talks, plays, and makes messes. It's how fast she grows.

Lucy had her 18 month checkup recently. She's 27 pounds, 33 inches, and now in the 95th percentile for everything. She spent the entire appointment naked, climbing all over the tiny exam room - up on the table, down from the table, on the scale, using the drawers as toeholds, grabbing kleenex to wipe her nose, demanding paper cups of water ("wa wa"), and doing her best to impress and charm Dr. Marks. I think he was a little overwhelmed actually.

She has started talking, and true to form, holds nothing back. A month ago the girl had about 12 words, which she had acquired gradually. In the past few weeks a day hasn't gone by without something new. When she can't say a word, she makes one up. Liam has become La La; the cat has become Meowmeow (as in "meowmeow OUT" when she finds the cat snoozing in her bed).
Sometimes it feels like in her haste to keep up, she is leaving us all in the dust. Sometimes I wish she would slow down and let me catch my breath. But at the end of the day, I love it. I love her smarts and her coordination, and her confidence and determination. I hope she can retain those qualities when faced with playground politics, princess archetypes, and boys who don't call.