Our Christmas Tree

This is actually our first Christmas tree. We weren't very interested in having a tree before we had kids. When Gabe was younger, the house we were in was very small didn't really accomodate a tree well. Made an already cramped living room more cramped. Right now we just have lights and the tree topper. We plan on taking Gabe to pick out some ornaments.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok, I pressed "enter" before I could finish my post! Anyway, here is what I cooked up. Hope everyone's holiday was good!

Brussels sprouts+garlic stir-fry

Turkey in the Crockpot. Meat fell off the bone.

Chocolate Hazelnut tart

Potato+parsnip w/carmelized onions

and blue cheese

Zach pic, NaBloPoMo

I took this pic of Zach last week and I thought he looked so much like Craig.

You're probably wondering, what the heck is NoBloPoMo? National Blog Posting Month. I am participating in this with my other blog. Basically, the goal is to post one post a day for the month of November. It's only day 6, but I haven't missed a day. Check in now and again throughout the month and leave a comment.

The letter "K" is rescued

The letter K was missing.

Gabe has an alphabet puzzle and at some point we couldn't find the letter K. We thought maybe it got lost in the move last year, but I distinctly remember marveling, when we packed it up, that none of the letters had gotten lost.

But the letter K was M.I.A.

So after all these months, about two weeks ago, Craig decided to check underneath the fridge and lo and behold…

Gabe was very happy to have the letter K back. He pretends to lose and find it again, too. I asked him today what words begin with letter K and he said, "Kite and kick."

Um...just stuff

It's been a while! Here is a link to the latest article I had published in Portland Family Magazine about unschooling. Had some friends over last night who are vegetarian, so I made a vegetable pot pie (a recipe I got from another friend who made it for us right after Zach was born). It was very tasty!

Gabe is going to a birthday party this coming weekend where the theme is, of course, Halloween. He is going to be a pirate. Zach will be a pumpkin (if he tolerates being in the costume). Two years ago, I was Lt. Uhura from Star Trek for Halloween, but this year I just bought some cat ears that blink.

I'll just post a few new photos of the boys.

At the LegoLand party at the

Children's Museum.

With his friend Ariella at the

Children's Museum.

Counting fish.

Big bro, little bro.

Summer visit with mom/bro

We didn't do much in terms of outings because Zach freaks out if he is stuck in the car seat for longer than 15 min. He has gotten a lot better lately, though. Here are a few pics:



An outdoor concert










Picking blueberries

Coloring Thomas trains

Gordon


Henry


All 8 steamies

End of Summer

It's been a very busy month; mom and brother visiting, working on a writing assignment (me) and of course still adjusting to two kiddos. Zach is four months now and was 14 pounds at his four month appt. in early August. Will post some pics shortly.

My assignment is due this week and I'll be writing about some of what I learned from the unschoolers I've talked to on my other blog. Hope everyone is having a nice summer.

Hagg Lake

Yesterday, we drove out to Hagg Lake, near Forest Grove, Oregon. You can go hiking, boating and swimming there. We'd never been there before, so we primarily went to check it out. It was really nice and Gabe had playing and wetting his feet in the water.















On the way back, we wanted to check out downtown Forest Grove, but by the time we got there the kids were asleep. So we headed home. But when we were about 5 miles from our house, Zach started crying and we had to stop like three times on Ore.-8. I now loathe this road, because there are too many stop lights and with a crying baby, every second seems like an hour. The next time we go, I think we will take Rt. 26 there instead.

Yup, I'm 34 today

Today is my birthday, yay! But I'm not doing anything today. Although I did have some Nutella on toast with coffee for breakfast. I'm actually getting addicted to Nutella; I've been tempted many times to take a spoonful and eat it. Craig is taking off Thursday and Friday. Tomorrow, I think I'll just get a small treat like a milkshake.

Have a great week!

Visiting Friends

The weekend before last some good friends of ours, John and Erin, that we met while living in Walla Walla visited us.



At the end of the year, they will be embarking on a long-term missions commitment to Indonesia. We had a lot of fun catching up and talking about their plans. Their main focus is Bible translation into indigenous languages (provided the people group is interested in learning about Christianity). If anyone is interested in giving them support, just let me know.

Here is Gabe with their oldest, Caedmon (he will be three in August). They also have a seven month old, Whitman.



My article on unschooling for Portland Family Magazine is due September 1. I've got five families of unschoolers from Oregon, Wa. State and Pennsylvania that will be getting back to me through email. Plus, I've spoken with Jan Hunt who has written many articles on unschooling, gentle discipline, attachment parenting, etc.

This weekend, one of Craig's friends, along with her daughter, from Poulsbo is coming for a visit (she now lives in Utah, but she comes to Oregon every summer). We might go to the Oregon Berry Festival or OMSI and a park to play.

Hope you guys on the East coast are braving the heat ok!

Pics of Zach today

Chicken marinade, dentist and Zach pic

Mango Lime Ginger Marinade

1 Mango, skinned and cubed
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. pepper
1 tbls. lime juice
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup soy sauce

Mix in a blender or food processor. I marinated 1.5 pounds of chicken thighs for 8 hours and that was more than enough time for all the flavors to infuse. Try this recipe, it was really good and easy.

Gabe had a good dental appt. The two problem teeth have not gotten worse. Here is a recent pic of Zach and Craig, but it was about two weeks ago, so he has gotten bigger since then.

Oh, another thing...

I have started writing more on my other blog, whose name I changed. If any of you don't know, I am pathologically obsessed with books. I can't afford to do this just now, but I have many times looked up from reading and wondered where the last 3 hours went. So, on my blog I started a book discussion on one of my favorite children's books, The Neverending Story. I am going to write a few posts on the themes I found in the story. How regular I will be with that is completely up for debate. :) But I will try.

Holiday weekend

This holiday weekend we spent as much time as possible outside. Saturday and Sunday, lots of time in the backyard and a trip to the park. Monday, we went to the zoo. One of the polar bears kept swinging his head left and right, while moving backwards and forwards (really, what the heck???). One of the chimps was either asleep or depressed. Philosophically, I don't like zoos. But as one person with no clout, I can't change anything, so I deal. Plus, part of your Oregon Zoo admission goes to conservation so that sort of makes me feel good.

Sort of.

This week, Gabe has a dental appointment and next week, I'm going to start taking the boys to these weekly events at a local amphitheater, very close to where we used to live. The first show we'll be seeing is Presto the Magician.

Today, I sent another query to Portland Family Magazine. I'm proposing an article about "unschooling". It's a style of homeschooling where there is never any kind of formal curriculum and kids learn everything through pursuing their own interests. They're interested in the article and I'm waiting to hear from them about timelines.

Speaking of writing, I realize I will be navigating the waters of juggling the care of two small children and doing the work related to freelance (emails, research, writing, interviewing, etc.). I breastfeed on demand, meaning, I do not time feedings (in fact, you're not supposed to time feedings, as it will decrease your milk supply). When they are hungry, you have stop what you're doing to nurse and you may be stuck nursing for 30 minutes or more since the only way to know they are getting enough is to allow them to drink until they are done. And since breastmilk is digested much quicker than formula, they could be hungry in two hours or less (from the time you started the feed).

So, it gets better as they get older. Then once they start solids, the weaning process begins!

Here are some pics today of Gabe. Have a great week, y'all!

Thomas in Hood River

Last weekend, we drove to Hood River, Ore. to attend the Day with Thomas event. The main attraction was riding in passenger train cars pulled by a life-sized Thomas the Train. There were also storytelling, meeting Sir Topham Hatt and several train sets under a canopy to play with. It was a bit of a madhouse, but Gabe had fun. And Zach did well on the trip there (we had to stop once) and back (stopped twice).








Not sure why I look constipated in this pic.






Second to Thomas, Gabe loves this character,
Cranky.


Some of our blueberries were ripe so Gabe and I picked some. They were very good.

UK mom passes out drunk while nursing baby

This mom allegedly got drunk, laid down to nurse her baby and when she woke, the baby was dead. I read about it here.

What I found interesting were the ending paragraphs of the story; admonishment after admonishment about the dangers of sleeping with your baby, but absolutely nothing about the dangers of being drunk enough to pass out while taking care of your child. She didn't simply fall asleep, she passed out from being drunk. Or, the dangers of drinking that much alcohol and nursing so soon after. The investigation could not find any evidence that smothering killed the baby, so perhaps alcohol poisoning is the culprit? According to Kellymom, alcohol leaves breast milk in the same manner as it leaves your blood, so when you feel sober, you can safely nurse. If she drank almost an entire bottle of wine, her milk alcohol levels were probably through the roof.

I just didn't like the way they blamed co-sleeping, when clearly the mom being drunk, and not able to respond to whatever became wrong with baby, was the main issue here.

Much better now

Gabe is much better. We ended up taking him to the pediatric urgent care on Wednesday just to get his lungs checked out. We didn't know how congested he was and his cough still sounded funny. So, his lungs were clear, but he did have some mild laryngitis. That has since gone away. Whatever bug he got, passed over the rest of us. Fortunately, breastfed babies are notorious for being the only ones in a household to not get sick when colds/viruses are being passed around, so I wasn't super worried about Zach getting sick.

In the mornings, I have been doing very short school-related activities with Gabe. We bought a preschool workbook that has basic concepts and skills for his age (colors, shapes, writing, opposites, etc.). He does very well tracing a straight dotted line from left to right and can recognize two and three letter words. We also got some Leap Frog videos on letters and numbers that he loves.

In the fall, I'd like to take Gabe to the library more regularly for books. One of my friends, Amy, gave him a cool library bag for his birthday that we're going to get a lot of use out of. I love the library (and bookstores, too!) and want to pass that love of books onto to both Gabe and Zach. I also want to find as many preschool-aged activities as possible to participate in, too, because we're not putting him in preschool.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and Happy Father's Day!

The fever is back

Last night, Gabe's fever came back. Ugh. He has been running a low-grade fever ever since, plus the snotty nose. Otherwise, today he is acting fine; playing (although a little less gregarious) eating and drinking normally. He hasn't gotten really good rest since he got sick on Sunday, so part of his problem is being tired. I think his body needs rest to help fight off whatever virus he has. Right now, as I type, he is napping (Zach is sleep, too) on the couch with his Thomas pillow/sheets. He was watching his Thomas movie, too. I think he will be okay, but again, we'll keep an eye on him.

For those that read the emails from this blog and don't click on the Brewster Buzz link at the end of the email, I changed the look of the actual blog. I think the theme I had isn't even offered anymore by Blogger, which made me feel very lost and behind the times. I want to update regularly, so I'm going to try to write one post a week, versus 2-3 manic blogs in one day (um, like yesterday). In addition to what is happening with us, I will post on just whatever is on our minds about the things we're interested in. If you have no clue what our interests are, you'll find out soon, lol. I'm also still considering changing over to Wordpress, but that probably won't be for a while.

I will post an update on how Gabe is doing later in the week.

Loving Day!

I know, I know the third post today, but how the heck did I miss Loving Day?? I am really off my journalist/blogging game. Although, I did just have a baby. Loving Day was Sunday; in fact, there was a Loving Day event in Eugene, Ore. that would have been nice to go to.

So, Loving Day is the annual celebration of when the 1967 Supreme Court Justice decision to allow interracial couples to marry. One of the biggest Loving Day events is the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival in Los Angeles. It is co-organized by author (and Portlander) Heidi W. Durrow, author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, her debut novel. She is very inspiriting; I interviewed her a couple of years ago and met her for the first time last October at Wordstock.

Craig and I talked about going to Mixed Roots. It would be a great way for us to meet other interracial families (and anything with film and books, I am there). Maybe next year?

Gabe's 3rd birthday party pics

We had the party at Munchkin Playland. It was really fun.