"Trey, where'd you go?"

Other common words heard around the Clark house these days:
"Trey, don't pull the lamp off the table."
"Trey, stop standing up in the bathtub."
"Trey, going off the bed headfirst is not a good idea."
"Trey, don't eat the dirt from under the rug."
"Trey, don't put your fingers in the fan."
Is this the beginning of the world of NO??

I could really get used to this thing called summer, especially with the nice weather we have been having!  I have been spending a lot of time on our deck, in the shade of our giant cherry tree, relaxing in my new lounge chair.  In fact, I am here right now while Randy is on his way home from fishing and Trey is napping.  I just finished a really great book called A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.  I thought instead of getting up to do chores or to get ready for having Julie, Tim, Kris and John over for dinner tonight, I'd get this blog post finished.

Last weekend was my first night away from Trey.  I spent the afternoon, evening, and morning with Sarah (Long) Johnson and Sarah (Brown) Kopplin having some girl time.  We had a great day on Saturday and went to get fabulous pedicures at Healthy Nails and Spa, had delicious sushi at Yoko's, and then went back to Sarah Kopplin's for some wine and a chick flick.  I think I was almost most excited about the morning when I didn't have any responsibility at all.  Even though I still woke at 5am, I was able to go back to sleep and then get up when I chose (around 6:45am - I am so old).  Then I went and sat on the patio and read my book until I was joined by the girls for some morning conversation.  Pretty perfect if you ask me!

Here are some happenings from the last week:

Aunt Julie took Trey swimming for his "lessons".  He did great until they had to put on lifejackets (for practice) and then he was difficult to console.  I even ran to put on my swimsuit, got in the water with him, and tried to make him happy, but it didn't work.  Maybe it's because the water was FREEZING.  Needless to say, we cut out of swimming a little early.  Aunt Julie is now 30 weeks pregnant, moving to a new house in Beaverton next week, and looking as cute as ever.  We CAN'T WAIT for Baby Boy McGuire to join us in early October!

This is at Book Babies at the library.  This picture is impressive to me because for those of you who know Trey as quiet, reticent, and "observant" (the nice way of saying shy and reserved), he actually crawled away from me TWICE during this storytime.  I was so proud of him for venturing off on his own and not even looking back for his mama. (He's the one in the olive colored pants and gray t-shirt with his back to me.)

I got my old childhood blocks out because Trey has started stacking blocks.  I think Randy was more interested in this new toy...

Here is Trey riding a trike at Swap n Play.  I watched him in disbelief that my baby has turned into a little boy right before my eyes.

We are relaxing out in my new lounge chair on the deck on a perfect summer evening.  I think this might have been the night where Randy was out fishing with Jason and Trey had slept a grand total of 30 minutes for the entire day.  He looks calm and peaceful, but, trust me, the end of the day was far from it.

Tango sure loves his brother...he especially loves him now that he gets food from him at all meals.  I loved that Tango jumped up on the couch yesterday to give Trey some love while he drank milk.

I really like having Trey out on the deck with me, but I don't particularly like him crawling around on it.  It has slivers, is dirty, and has a lot of droppings from the cherry tree.  This was my attempt to contain him Friday night.  It worked okay for a bit, but it sort of felt like I had him in a cage.

Saturday morning Randy, Trey, and I went to the Portland Farmers Market, one of my favorite things to do.  Randy waited in this crazy long line for Pine State Biscuits while Trey and I shopped for produce.  Then we enjoyed lunch on the grass and did some people watching.

I'm looking forward to the next week with two playdates at the zoo, a PT appointment where I'm hoping to learn some new tips and tricks, a night of helping Julie clean her house to get ready to move in on Sunday, a BBQ at a friend's house, traffic court (yuck), a coffee date with some moms and their babes, and a trip down to Eugene for my dad's birthday and a haircut.  Should be a busy week with a lot of fun things!  Stay tuned!

13 months old!

Summer is in full swing, and I definitely feel like I'm in the groove...Trey wakes up at 5:30am most mornings and by 8am I have usually done the dishes, done laundry, vacuumed, fed Trey breakfast, eaten breakfast myself, caught up on really important news on the Today Show, checked my email, checked Facebook, played with Trey, and accomplished a few other random chores before Trey even goes down for his first nap.  Between naps usually includes a walk, errands, or sometimes a coffee or lunch date.  After the second nap is usually when we have playdates with my friends.  While I have fully acknowledged that I don't have it in me to be a full time stay at home mom, I am enjoying my summer routine.

We had Trey's one year doctor appointment last week and when she said, "Do you have any concerns you'd like to talk about?"  I said, "Ummm, yes, NAPS!"  I don't know if Trey is getting readjusted to being home full time (although one would think he'd adjust by now), going through a growth spurt, recovering from our trip to California (although we've been home for almost a month), or teething, but he has been fighting the nap like crazy.  It can make for some really difficult days.  Today was the first day in what feels like forever that he took both naps in his crib without any crying.  Amazing what a difference that makes in my mental health during the day.

Trey has been on the move and currently is not really interested in any of his toys.  All he wants to do is crawl from one end of the house to the other, pull himself up on furniture, and stand at a variety of spots around the house.  His newest interest is to try and climb from the couch, chair, or bed to the side table and pull anything and everything off of the table.  I told him today I'm okay with him pulling off the coasters and books, but the lamps need to stay.

Trey finally discovered the bottle caps.  

I can't believe it took him this long. 

Helping Mama "organize" the tupperware is one of his new favorite activities.  

Sarah Long came up last week to visit with her son, Curtis. Trey and I spent the day over at Sarah Kopplin's with the two of them, Zander, and Kai (Sarah Kopplin's sons).  It is such fun to spend time with two of my favorite people and our children.  I can't believe we are this old.  

Zander (6.5 years), Curtis (3 years), and Trey (13 months)

Randy has rediscovered his float tube and has been using it the summer.  And not only for fishing...

Trey likes it too...

One of the things I am loving about Trey right now is that he is starting to establish his preferences and make his opinions known.  This, of course, is a positive AND a negative.  One of Trey's favorite things is the dog's water dish.  Last Friday when we had the Withycombes over for dinner, Trey discovered the outside water dish and I let him go to town.  Needless to say, when I finally picked him up, he was absolutely soaked.  

My boss Lee Ann gave me this wonderful Elmo basket for Trey.  I don't know what it is about Elmo and babies, but he can't get enough.  I think it's the eyes.  Sarah calls Elmo "baby crack".  She might be right.

I have really grown to love vegetable gardening and over the past six years have found a lot of joy in it. However, the past two years I have become a total slacker.  I was shocked when I went out to the garden after book club on Wednesday night and discovered that there are actually tomatoes on my plants.  Shocked.  

I'm trying to take advantage of my full time mom status and do things with Trey during the day that we won't be able to do when I'm working.  On Monday we went to the zoo.  Since we have a membership, I was able to just be there for a short time.  We saw the giraffe, the hippos, the tiger, the lion, the zebra, and the elephant.  What I loved was while I was showing Trey the hippos, he was completely fixated by the bolt on the windowsill, and while I was trying to get him to look at the giraffe, all he wanted was to get in the pond.  

On Tuesday Trey and I went on an adventure and went to the beach sans Randy.  We went to stay with our friends Adam and Jenny and their two girls.  When I came home I told Randy that I don't realize how much he does to help until he's not there.  It was exhausting.  (Although I find myself using the word "exhausted" or "exhausting" a lot this summer whether Randy is around or not.)  Trey had a great time on the beach, and the weather was absolutely fabulous.  I think my favorite parts of our short trip were watching Trey on the beach and enjoying gin and tonics with Adam after Trey went to bed.  

My sweet boy is so happy on the beach.  Funny thing is that the other two times I brought him down to the beach, he wasn't nearly as thrilled.  Go figure.  

Here is a short video of Trey crawling on the sand.  He loved digging into the wet sand and finding little pebbles.  I was really impressed that none of it went in his mouth.  

Now, one of my absolute favorite moments of the day is first thing in the morning when Trey is lying next to me in bed drinking his bottle.  When we are at home, I'm often in a rush to get up and vacuum, get my coffee started, etc. but when we are away (or sometimes at home) I love the cuddlefest.  On Wednesday morning, when Trey woke up and started making his noises in the pack n play, I leaned over the top from the bed and said good morning to him.  You should have seen his eyes open wide with shock that I was in the room.  It was awesome.  Then after he ate, we cuddled and giggled and he was so sweet.  Just reminds me how lucky I am to have such a loving boy who loves his mama.  

This was after attempt #3 to put Trey on the sand and he wanted no part of it.  We went up to the sidewalk and I sat on the bench with Trey in my lap drinking from his bottle.  He was so relaxed and mellow and cuddled into me.  I sat there and thought, "Yes, naps are hard.  Yes, he's fussy and whiny.  Yes, you wish Randy was here.  But, Kristin, just sit here and enjoy the damn beach and ocean and sun and love of your son."  Sometimes a reality check is a good thing.

Summer fun

Finally, it feels like I am in my summer routine.  After we got back from California, it took a few days to get Trey back to a napping routine which made Mama a little nutso.  But we seem to be in the groove again and are able to enjoy our summer days.  There are a lot of pictures in this post, but if you are like my husband, that's all you look at anyways...

One of Trey's new delights in life is to have the windows down in the back of the car.  He giggles and waves his arms and smiles the hugest smiles...it might be one of my new delights in life too.

It is hysterical to watch Randy eat breakfast in the mornings.  He has two willing helpers ready to pitch in at any time.

Here are a few pictures from our CA trip that I didn't get downloaded for the official CA post.  One day we went hiking with Doug and Carmen.  We were turned away from the waterfall we wanted to hike because of a full parking lot, so we continued to drive up the windy, windy, windy road to find a short hike with some nice views.  

Here are a few pictures of what Randy has been doing this summer.  If he isn't working some long hours at the Primate Center or playing with his son, he is on the river.  

On fourth of July weekend, we went hiking/walking through Washington Park.  Afterwards, we met Kris and John at the new Hopworks by our house.  I am delighted to find that they have outdoor seating and are only 2.5 miles away.  Yahoo!!

Oh, and this walk is an attempt at one of the hill walks from my book.  We didn't make it very far into the walk in part because my husband doesn't have a lot of patience for my reading of guidebooks on our hikes.  Go figure.

After a quick stop at the Swap n Play, Randy, Trey, and I enjoyed an afternoon at Breakside, our local haunt.

So, if you read my blog, you may remember that I am trying to do all of the hill walks in Portland Hill Walks this summer.  I have quickly learned that these walks are not stroller friendly.  I haven't tried to use our new hiking backpack by myself, but if I want to achieve this goal, I will need to do that.  This picture is from the St. Johns walk I did last week.  I only had to take Trey out of his stroller once to lift the stroller over a gate.  Big improvement over last time.  And I also think that I need to either a) read the entire walk description before I go or b) listen more closely to what the author says because when she said "Walking alone, especially for women, is not a good idea," I should have paid attention.  Someday one of these hill walks will be enjoyable.

Here is Trey with Dominic, Sarah Falcon's son, at the Swap n Play.  If it sounds like I spend a lot of time there, it's because I do.

Yesterday we took Trey to his first swimming lesson.  As you can tell from the pictures, he loved it!

Later in the afternoon on Saturday, we went to the Mississippi Street Fair with Kris.  It was packed!  Luckily, we were able to stop and rest in the shade at Muddy's which is owned by my friend Dyer.  The banana bread I got for Trey was DELICIOUS, and Randy said that the sandwich he ate had some of the best egg salad on it that he'd ever had.  

Neil was doing a tasting of Imbue at Pastaworks.  

This is his vermouth that he makes and it is fantastic.  

Look for it in your local wine stores, New Seasons, liquor stores, etc.

Relaxing at Muddy's

The day ended with some short ribs from Gartner's and a great summer dinner on the deck with Kris and John.  You can't get much better than that!  

Today Randy is fishing with Adam, and my dad and Sandy are coming up for a visit.  Should be another great summer day!