Portland

I'm making up for not posting enough lately by posting a ridiculous amount of photos. We just got back from a nice little trip to Portland. Sean was out on the West Coast working for the week, so Lauren and I hopped on a plane on Friday and joined him in Portland for a long weekend. Our last family trip before we are officially a family of four. I'd never been to Portland, but Sean had been telling me for a long time that I would love it, and I did. Great city, amazing food, cool neighborhoods...I highly recommend. Most of the trip revolved around eating (I'm pregnant, y'all), but we also managed to hit the Portland Zoo, Multnomah Falls (Lauren BAWLED when we finally pulled her away) and do lots of shopping.

Lauren's favorite part, besides the waterfalls, was the goldfish they put in our room (the real kind, not the crackers) and pushing the elevator buttons. Oh, and it was a dog friendly hotel, so every trip to the lobby was an adventure. We learned that not everyone appreciates a toddler running up to their dog squealing. Who knew?

I was told we had to go to Voodoo Doughnuts, this little hole in the wall doughnut shop downtown. It was pretty funny, and of course I had to get the voodoo doughnut (see below). I should have named it "Lauren" after the temper tantrum she threw outside the store because she wanted to eat the doughnut immediately. Trust me, a throw yourself down on the sidewalk and pound it with fists and feet screaming tantrum is not pretty on a downtown city sidewalk when it's raining.

Above, a serene Lauren at breakfast at Bijou Cafe before the meltdown at Voodoo Doughnuts. She'd just had pancakes for Pete's sake!

Above and below is Bridal Veil Falls...there was this scenic highway that took you right by six or more waterfalls...absolutely gorgeous. Lauren had a great time waterfall spotting from her carseat.

The next three photos are from Multnomah Falls, the big one. Absolutely gorgeous. My favorite part of Portland might have been the moss. Not kidding. I had no idea, but I love moss.

Lauren sees my baby bump as less of a being that will rock her world, and more of a comfortable resting spot. Comfortable for her, mind you. Not for me. And not for her brother or sister, who lets me know that s/he doesn't care for the sitting, kicking and punching that Lauren often inflicts.

So this was a great lunch. Below, the menu from Pok Pok, an award-winning Thai restaurant in Portland (Ike's wings changed my life), and then after, just walk across the street to a parking lot full of food trucks (Portland is crawling with food trucks, in the best possible way) for some dessert. We ate like kings.

The rest of the photos are from the Portland Zoo. Lauren loved the monkeys, as usual, and the penguins (which we don't have in Kansas City).

All in all a really fantastic trip. Lauren even did great on the four hour plane rides to and from Portland. Not without some advance planning on our parts; turns out, much like her father, Lauren needs only snacks to be happy. She entertained the plane every time we went to the bathroom (did I mention that I'm pregnant? So that was about eight trips or so), smiling and waving as we went up and down the aisle.

She slept great in the hotel room, we had a bedroom that could be closed off so she slept in there in a pack 'n play with her noise machine, blankie and lovey and was perfectly happy. Oh, and we napped together on the big bed every afternoon. Every afternoon. For at least two hours a pop. Bless that child. That might have been my favorite part of the vacation. Scratch that, that WAS my favorite part of the vacation.

As of yesterday I'm six weeks out from my due date. I'm already bigger than I was with Lauren at the end of the pregnancy, and I'm starting to waddle. We are feeling the time crunch and now making lots of lists of things that we need to do before s/he arrives. Some priorities: pick out names (four of them, first and middle for both boy and girl) and buy bed for baby (Lauren is still in her crib, so we're going to try to buy some time with a bassinet). We'll probably make it. But in order to do so this baby needs to stay put for awhile. Wish us luck!

Lauren Has Somewhere To Be

Just a short video Sean took this weekend of Lauren on a mission in a Lowes hardware store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4IImVMuDXA

Minneapolis

So I know everyone thinks we're crazy, but we did another six hour trek to Minneapolis to go to Ikea recently. I'm having a hard time remembering everything we went for now, although we spent a lot of time and way too much money there. The big purchase was a play kitchen for Lauren, and we ended up getting a lot of other little things for her there as well (some stools, a little table and chairs, an easel). Because our house is a) small and b) open floorplan, I insisted that any play kitchen that was going to be in view from the front door, living room, kitchen and dining room not be a pastel or primary color plastic monstrosity. I can be difficult.

So off we went to Minneapolis on a Friday morning for a long weekend. We stayed downtown (at the hotel we last stayed at with Miller, sniff) and although it wasn't exactly a real vacation, it was nice to get out of Kansas City for awhile. Lauren mostly tolerated the fact that we spent six hours in a row in Ikea. There were a few tantrums, but after letting her lay on the floor kicking and screaming in the food line at the cafeteria, instructing patrons behind us to "please just step over her and pretend like she's not there," receiving some knowing, understanding looks and some "you might be the worst parent we've ever seen" looks (those were from non kid-havers, I guarantee you. I'm now the person who, after receiving a look like that, thinks smugly "you have absolutely no clue. See you in five years."), we made it through mostly unscathed. We might have loaded the cart up with sheepskin throws and put her down for a nap in there. You do what you have to do.


Lauren LOVED staying in a hotel. Sean taught her how to jump on the bed (because why not?), which she loved, both before and after she fell off the bed and hit the floor pretty hard (right after the photo above was taken). Yes, we did sing "no more monkeys jumping on the bed" after the fall, but continued to jump on the bed anyway. Because you only live once. Lauren also loved room service, because there was no high chair in the room, so we just all sat on the bed and ate picnic-style.

We did run into some sleeping issues because the crib they sent up to the room was tiny and the mattress was so waterproof and crackly that Lauren just wasn't havin' it. So we rigged up a system where we pushed some chairs up against a loveseat so Lauren couldn't fall off. Which worked for part of the night, but then she ended up in the bed with us the rest of the night. To top it off it was daylight savings time change weekend, so her sleep schedule was thrown into a complete tizzy and we haven't recovered since. Sean and I repeat to each other every day, like a mantra, "at some point in the future there will be a day when we feel rested again." We don't especially care that it might be in 20 years, we just need to know that it will happen again. In the meantime we know enough to appreciate the fact that cuddling and playing with Laur in the wee hours of the morning won't last forever, so we are making the best of it.

No trip to Minneapolis is complete without a trip to the Mall of America. OK, it would be totally complete without a trip to the Mall of America. But we went anyway, because it has an aquarium and we thought Lauren would like it. She did, I think. I think she was more interested in the roller coaster in the middle of the mall, though. And by interested I mean fascinated and frightened.








After the aquarium and lunch at the mall on Sunday we headed back down south with a full car. Thanks to a portable DVD player and the 1970s animated movie "Charlotte's Web" purchased at a Cracker Barrel on the way up (Baby Einstein just wasn't cutting it), the drive up and down went pretty smoothly. Very successful weekend.

Lauren at 20 Months

Just some random snaps of one Ms. Lauren Rebecca Power over the last couple of months. She is talking a lot more, and understands so much. There are moments of frustration when she's trying to communicate and we just don't quite get it, but we're learning Lauren. Her favorite topic of conversation is still Stella. Where is Stella? There is Stella. I see Stella! Stella, back. Stella, no. Stella, not nice. Stella is sitting. That kind of stuff. There are very sweet tender moments between Lauren and Stella, like when Lauren lays down with her on the floor, or walks over to give her a kiss. Then Lauren throws a sippy cup at Stella's head, pulls her tails or ears, hits her for no apparent reason...we're working on it. To Stella's credit, she just takes it.



Weekend activities continue to be a challenge. We love spending so much time with Lauren, but if we're being honest sometimes we run out of things to do and it becomes a struggle. It doesn't help that she's been waking up at least once during the night and then for good in the morning between 5 and 6. The pictures above and below are from one of our weekend attempts to both do something fun and ensure a long afternoon nap. There's this place called Monkey Business about fifteen minutes away, and it's basically just a bunch of jungle gyms and things for the kiddos to climb on. Oh, and there's a coffee shop for the moms and dads. Not bad. Lauren loved it. Unfortunately, she became so proficient that she taught herself the skills necessary to crawl out of her crib (see photo above). So far she's only done it once at home, but our crib days might be drawing to a close (which we wouldn't complain about, we've got another monkey coming in right behind her, you know).

The picture below is a photo I snapped before we took her to school the day of her Xmas program. This was the day that Sean and I looked at each other and realized that we no longer had a baby, and instead had a little girl. Which is soooooo cliche, I know that, but seriously, that's a little girl there, and it happened overnight (more cliches).

The photo below kind of sums up Lauren. Part of her is only a year old (binky, playing around on a little ladybug scooter) and the other part of her is around 20 (skinny jeans, that "I've had about enough of you, Mom" look). She continues to be our serious baby a lot of the time, but has started to be really playful, too. She loves to be chased around the kitchen island, to have Sean spin her around until she's so dizzy she can't stand up, and to run away giggling when it's time to put her coat on. She likes to talk about "Mama's baby" and is very curious about the whole thing. At the end of the day she goes from her regular room into the baby room for the last 15 minutes or so and her teacher tells me that she's wonderful with the little babies and is going to be a great help when our baby comes. Fingers crossed. We're trying to soak up this last little bit of Lauren only time before our lives really change forever. Again.

Union Station Dinosaurs Unearthed (or, How to Scare the Daylights Out of Your Toddler)

The Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit at Union Station is winding to a close, so we decided that should be our Saturday activity. My firm sponsored the exhibit, so Lauren and I had already been to a private showing awhile ago, but Sean couldn't attend (read: today's trip was for Sean, not Lauren). When we went several months ago Lauren thought it was pretty cool and wasn't all that scared. This time, different story. It was a madhouse, so I think part of it had to do with the fact that when we went last time there weren't very many people. Also, Lauren is getting older and more aware of what is and isn't scary. Although we drive by Union Station every day on the way home and she finds the huge dinosaur out front advertising the exhibit very amusing. I suppose it's a little less intimidating when we're zooming by in a car.

In Laur's defense, they did move and growl.

This gives you an idea of the size of the exhibits...notice Laur's death grip on Sean.

Here her grip loosens, but she's still hanging on.

Finally by the end she relaxed enough to enjoy and point.

Afterwards to lighten the mood we let Laur run around Union Station and burn off some steam. Read: we were banking on wearing her out so that she would fall asleep on the way home. While we try to be "green," we figure that the fact that we each live less than a mile from our respective workplaces, and that Laur's school is less than a mile away from our house as well, gives us the right to occasionally burn some unnecessary fuel in order to secure a 45 minute car nap from the Monkey on the weekends.

She must do the stairs by herself. She's a big girl, folks.

Is that baby (big girl) adorable, or what?

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderfully mellow Christmas at the Power House, and it was even white (not really white, but white nonetheless)! We woke up Christmas morning with just Sean, me, Lauren, Aunt Arie and Stella and opened presents after we had some Eggs Benedict for breakfast.

Lauren quickly learned how to make an obligatory "surprised" face.

She was a fan of her xylophone stocking stuffer.

Hanging an ornament from Aunt Arie.

Stella was exhausted.

I'm sad to say that I forgot to take photos of our Christmas celebration with The Powers. Sean's mom Alinda, dad Colin, sister Shannon and niece Holly arrived in Kansas City from St. Louis around 4 and we had a big dinner and then opened presents. I think I was too busy running around cooking, but I did get a picture of the prime rib (roast beast) that I made for dinner because it was my first attempt at prime rib and I was really proud of myself.

Christmas this year was lovely. Lauren was more into opening presents, although she did get a little tired of it after awhile. We had great food, great company, and were very thankful to be with family.