Friends

So I don't think this will come to a surprise to many of you, especially if you are reading my blog and you know me, but my friends are really important to me.  I like to think this is one of the many traits I have inherited from my mother.  I love keeping in touch with friends and still have many close friends from high school and college that I talk to on a regular basis.  I love Facebook because it helps me to know what is going on with folks when life gets too hectic to meet for coffee or drinks as often as I'd like.  One lesson I hope to pass on to Trey is how valuable good friends are and how they really create the support system that a person needs to lead a happy and fulfilling life (especially if he is an only child).  Right now almost all of his friends are my friends' kids, and that is certainly not a bad thing.  I hope that as he grows older he chooses wisely, as I read in one of Malcolm Gladwell's essays that as children grow their peers have a bigger influence on them than their parents.

Trey and I have been going to swimming lessons with Mindy and Camille.  One day as we walked out of the locker room on our way to the park, they grabbed hands.  Mindy and I nearly melted with the cuteness of it.  Trey and Camille have been spending time together since they were 3-4 months old, but this summer feels like the first time that they have realized that they are friends and like each other.

The sweetest thing ever

I was really hoping to spend more time with Kathleen and her boys, Garland and Maclyn, this summer, but somehow our schedules have made that difficult.  It is a real bummer because summer is almost over, and I'm not sure Trey (26 months) and Maclyn (22 months) have learned yet that they are going to be really good friends.

For some reason I can not get these three boys to look at the camera at the same time.  Here is Maclyn, blond as ever, smiling for the camera.

Playing on the teeter totters at Peninsula Park

Getting wet, of course

Kathleen and Maclyn

This may be Trey and Maclyn's first official one-on-one interaction.  YAY!

One day after swimming, Mindy and I realized that Trey and Camille were dressed as twins.  This made their holding hands pictures even cuter!

Last weekend Sarah Long came up from Eugene with her kids, Anna and Curtis.  I went and hung out with them at Sarah Kopplin's house (I still can't figure out why I call Sarah Long by her maiden name and Sarah Kopplin by her married name - maybe it is because so many people in Portland who know Sarah Kopplin know her by her married name???) before we went out to dinner.  I love how Trey is getting older and starting to interact more with the kids.

Trey and Curtis at Hopworks 

Sarah Kopplin, Sarah Long, Curtis (4), Trey (2), me,
Anna (7), Kai (4), and Zander (7)

Hands down, one of my favorite things about summer is getting to spend more time with my friends.   While I'm starting to look forward to the routine and structure of the school year, I will definitely miss my summer playdates. 

Class of '92, the True Blue!

After our two trips (California and Black Butte), it feels like the last few weeks have been "real" summer.  We have had such great weather, so we have been outside a lot which is great for my boy.  We have finally started our daycare routine of Trey going to daycare on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I think it is great for him to keep some of his routine, and it is nice for me to have some time to myself.  I have tried to stay productive while he's at daycare with a dash of social outings.  So far I have worked on organizing the basement, filing and shredding paperwork, and done several errands i.e. oil change.  I am realizing that I don't have many daycare days left, and I haven't been nearly as productive as I'd hoped.  Oh well.  The downside of daycare is that Trey seems to be going through a separation/clinginess phase and he isn't loving daycare as much as he did before.  I think this is impacting his clinginess to me when we are home and some bedtime problems...or maybe it's just his age.  Who knows.

Here are some pics and stories from the past two weeks.  Enjoy!

Trey cooking me some dinner while Randy gets the grill prepped.  The cutest thing is that he likes to "cheers" and drink from the fake mustard and ketchup bottles.  

Trey's favorite thing at the zoo is the elephants. He talks about them the whole way to the zoo, and then he talks about them the whole time we are there until we see them.  Then, of course, as soon as we get to the elephants, he couldn't care less and wants to go do something else (lately the drums).  I think this was the closest Trey has ever been to an elephant, and all he wanted to do was leave.

Oh, and lately Trey has been in a stage where he resists changing out of his pjs.  I can get the pants off easily when I change his diaper, but the shirt is a different story.  I can't believe I let him wear this Cookie Monster shirt to the zoo.  I found it quite embarrassing.

Petting the goats for the first time.  Now, unfortunately, we have to stop at the petting zoo every time we go (not my favorite thing to do).

A few weeks ago, our friend Kris's friend Tommy came into town for a visit.  We always have a good time when he is here, and this trip was no exception.  Kris signed us up for the Urban Beer Hunt which was a sort of scavenger hunt around downtown and NW Portland.  Clues were texted to our phone and then we had to go all around town taking pictures of us at the places or doing the tasks.  John figured out that we traveled over 6 miles around town.  There are several pics which I posted on Facebook, but these are some of my favorites:  (the people are John, Kris, Tommy, Randy, and me)

Pre-Urban Beer Hunt

We started with brunch at Cafe Nell.  

Then I drove Trey to Julie's for the Urban Beer Hunt 

(want to make sure no one thinks we dragged Trey around with us all over town.  

We aren't THAT bad.)

Here are some of the tasks we had to complete:

Find the statue that Bud Clark posed with for the Expose Yourself to Art campaign (or something like that) and take a picture.

Go to the bar that had something to do with a happy bullpen and take a picture with us drinking the beer without using our hands.

Unscramble some letters to find the name of a bar (Slabtown) and then drink some beer that is given to you by someone else (Randy spilled beer all down my front).

Find the sign at Pioneer Square that points in all different directions and then do the same thing.

After the Beer Hunt (in which we COULD have placed in the top ten if we could have found a Portland police officer and had them pose with us doing a fake sobriety test - unbelievably we could not find a cop along our entire 6+ mile trek), we went back to Kris and John's for a barbecue and beer croquet.  Randy and I decided to spend the night with Trey so that we could a) not drive home and b) have brunch with our friends in the morning.

Beer croquet.  There were a lot of rules.  One of which was you could not put down your beer OR your mallet at any time.  Also, if you were distracted and caused delay of game you had to drink.  I told the group that I may need an exception if I had to parent, but Trey was a trooper and we had a great time.

Making sure I didn't get penalized (have to drink) for putting down my beer or mallet AND I was able to hold Trey at the same time.  By the way, he's getting heavy.

Bloody Mary bar (aka the real reason we wanted to stay for brunch)

Trey really loved John's guitar.  Once he discovered it, it was difficult to get him away from it.

One benefit of summer is that every day is a little different.  We have been doing a lot of fun things and it is great to have some down time.

Another trip to the zoo, this time with Randy.  Trey has a thing for these drums.  He likes to play them, but he seems equally content just to sit here with them.

Trey's first train ride

He loved every minute of it.

Here's a photo of our tomato garden.  My experiment of planting them a little late to hopefully miss the last cold spell we always seem to have in May has failed miserably, and we don't have a lot of fruit on the plants.  Next year I vow to not make the same mistake.  

Pretty flowers on our delicata squash plant 

My cute nephew who just turned 10 months old 

Trey is a terrible napper for me, so one day last week I took the opportunity to walk to the library to pick up my hold (great book called Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger) so he could fall asleep in the stroller.  It worked much better than listening to him scream in his crib, but he didn't sleep for very long.  Someday this nap bullshit will change.  Someday.

I stopped in Peninsula Park to sit in the shade and read while Trey napped.   

Yes, ANOTHER trip to the zoo.  Here are Trey and Camille checking out the awesome seals.

Trey playing the drums 

This is a random picture, but it is a classic one of Trey.  He loves to play with his "guys" (Sesame Street figures) and we have done it so much that now Trey talks for the characters and has them go in the little rooms of the Sesame Street house.  I love sitting and listening to him have one guy say "Hi Ernie" and then Ernie says hi back.  He also does a great Cookie Monster voice.  So fun.

So the event of the summer was my 20 year high school reunion.  I have spent the last 8 months or so planning it with six other people.  It has been SO MUCH FUN and I am so glad that I was part of the committee.  Getting together about once a month with the girls to "plan" was really fabulous.  Our "meetings" also consisted of a fair amount of gabbing, gossiping, catching up, and wine drinking.  All in all, I think we put on a really great event, and we have been getting a lot of great feedback.  We had the main event at Oswego Hills Winery on Friday night.  It was a long day and a late night for me, and I wouldn't change a thing.  Saturday we did a happy hour at Stickmen Brewery which is on Oswego Lake and sitting out on the patio with old friends looking out at the lake was perfect.  I could have done without the 99 degree weather which didn't mix well with my state of being from the day/night before, but it was fun to see people again and hang out with Randy, Nyree, and Jason.  Sunday we had a family picnic at Waluga Park.  I was hoping to take Trey and Randy with me, but Trey really needed to come home and nap.  Probably worked out for the best.  

Jon and Luke recreated our sign from our senior year.  I am pretty sure the original sign hung in our senior commons all year.  

The entrance to our event

The check in table 

Desserts and Pacer blue and yellow flowers, of course

The patio with our centerpieces 

 Me and Nikki

Hanging out on the patio

For the life of me I can't figure out who I am talking to.

It was really great to see everyone, but I think the person I was the most excited to see was Luke.  I haven't seen him in years, and it was so awesome that he and his family travelled from Florida for the event.  Here Luke is with me, Nyree, Kelly, and Kerri...four of my closest friends from high school.

Near the end of the night (can you tell?) 

in the photo booth with Nyree, Kelly, and Kerri.  

I have known Nyree since 9th grade, Kelly since 7th, and Kerri since 1st.  

I cannot tell you how blessed I am to still have these three women in my life. 

Our awesome class

August 5th (today) is my dad's birthday, so we went to breakfast at Julie's house.  I was so lucky that my dad and Sandy came up for the weekend to watch Trey most of the day on Friday while I set up for the reunion and then several hours on Saturday while Randy and I were at happy hour and then at a friend's house.

Dad and Sandy with the two boys 

My goal was to get Trey out of his Blue's Clues shirt (so ghetto) 

and his rain boots (so inappropriate for the hot weather) 

before we went to the picnic.

Luckily he got in the wading pool (and fell over) so he got soaked.  This was the perfect chance for me to change him before the picnic, but of course he never made it to the event.

I think my dad had a lot of fun spending so much time with Trey this weekend.  I know Trey did because as soon as he woke this morning he started asking for Grandpa.

This afternoon we went to Blue Lake Park with Julie and Tim so the boys could play in the water fountain.  Here is Trey cooling off.

 Julie, Grady, and Trey

Love this picture of my boy...contemplative and wet

We stripped him for the ride home, and then he spilled his drink on the car seat, so here he is hot and wet trying to keep the sun out of his eyes and his legs off his drink.

I feel like I have had a lot of deep parenting thoughts over the past few weeks, but after this long, hot, and fabulous reunion weekend I cannot think of a one.  Trey and I will be alone this next week because his daycare is closed, so I imagine I will have plenty to say as it goes along.  My hopes for the week are that my nap boot camp actually happens and I don't wimp out, and that Trey actually eats something for me.  It's going to be a long week for him if he doesn't nap and continues on his mommy hunger strike.  Wish me luck!