Keep in Touch

Pennsylvania 2011

2011-12-15T19:40:00.001-08:00

Here some pictures from our recent trip back east. We had a great time, thanks everybody.

Go Beavers!

2011-11-26T11:58:00.001-08:00

Pacific City Oct11

2011-10-31T15:28:00.000-07:00

Little Piano Man

2011-09-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

Big Brother

2011-09-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

Chase is adjusting to his new role as big brother. Since I’m still on Paterinty leave the adjustment has been relatively painless. We had one incident where Megan couldn’t move something for Chase because she was nursing Austin but she offered to move it with her foot. When she moved it Chase had a little break down and asked her to move it with her hands. She told him she couldn’t because she was holding Austin. Chase then reasoned that she could he help him if she put Austin down. So he cried out “Put the baby down Mommy”. Both Megan and Chase shared some tears that day.

That’s been the only incident we’ve had thus far. Often Chase is curious what Austin is doing and offers to lay down next to him because “That will be cute”, or so he tells me. You can judge for your self : )

He’s getting quite a bit of hair. Those curly locks will be cut in the next few days because starting to get quite a few tangles.

Austin Grows Up

2011-09-22T15:48:00.001-07:00

It’s always amazing to me how fast babies change. Besides being a full time Dad, Mom, Husband and Chef I’ve been trying to take pictures of Austin every day.

2 days old:

5 days old:

6 days old:

7 days old:

8 days old:

10 days old:

11 days old:

As you can see, we get plenty of photo opportunities. This kid knows how to sleep.

Sleep

2011-09-19T13:18:00.001-07:00

Welcome Austin

2011-09-11T21:01:00.003-07:00

Still Waiting!

2011-09-08T23:49:00.001-07:00

I feel so blessed that so many people have been asking how they can help once this overdue baby arrives. I will not be shy about taking you up on those offers! Since I'm just waiting for the big event, I thought I could make a list of how to help.

1) Pray! Right now, for a healthy delivery, strong baby, and for our family to trust God. When the baby arrives, for more health, rest, and for the love in our family to grow, for us to have kind words and compassion for one another as we take on the overwhelming task of caring for a newborn.

2) Come over and play with Chase! He is used to having just about all of Mommy's attention all the time. He will really need some playtime, extra love, and attention during this big adjustment. Call or text before coming to make sure it's a good time. Nap time is sacred - 1pm-4pm, so please let us all sleep then.

3) Can't make a Chase play date? Give him a little toy. That will entertain him and make him feel special. Right now he likes cars, airplanes, helicopters, racoons, snakes, books, and I think he would really like a spool of ribbon (he has this roll if stickers that he likes to unroll, throw around, and re-roll, but it keeps tearing). Think small and inexpensive. One of his favorite things is a used Matchbox car.

4) Meals. :o) For those if you who know about our no sweets thing, know also that we are spending August and September's dessert on anything that might show up for this ocassion! When Chase was born we got some amazing pies. :o)

5) Household chores - dishes, fold laundry, pick up floors, vacuum, mow lawn, water vegetable garden. Ask us what else at the moment.

6) Print some baby pictures and mail them to my parents.

Thanks!

We will post here when the baby arrives and we have the chance.

Playing

2011-08-28T13:22:00.001-07:00

Playing with Chase in the water.

Mom and Dad, next visit I want to remember to take you to the pizza place in Falls City, and the Starduster Cafe in Independece.

Preggy Pic

2011-08-28T13:19:00.001-07:00

My PA family was asking for belly pictures. Here I am last weekend in Falls City.

The 3rd Napper

2011-08-25T14:21:00.001-07:00

During much (most) of this pregnancy, I've been napping in the afternoon when Chase naps. Oliver does too. Here he is today.

Grandma & Pa's

2011-08-25T03:22:00.001-07:00

Bubbles from Grandma. What a happy guy.

Chase's Words

2011-08-15T20:58:00.001-07:00

Chase's bedtime prayer tonight:
Thank you for Grandma
Thank you for Pa
Thank you for Grandma Holben
Thank you for Pa Holben
Thank you for puters (computers)
Thank you for waterfalls
Jesus, AMEN!

Other Chase-isms
Meself instead of myself
Tricybicle for tricycle

Summer Fun

2011-08-14T11:43:00.001-07:00

While Chase slept, I discovered my double jogger arrived! NOW we're all ready for the new baby. :o)

Summer Fun

2011-08-14T11:40:00.001-07:00

Crashing after a morning packed with watering the marigold he planted for his mom, swim lesson with dad too, playing on the playground, dock, and splash pad, and then going out to Venti's for lunch!

Summer Fun

2011-08-14T11:39:00.001-07:00

My buddy Liam on the last swim lesson day.

Summer Fun

2011-08-14T11:37:00.001-07:00

With buddy Troy at the same park. Troy sure loves trains! There was even an engine at the park Friday morning.

Summer Fun

2011-08-14T11:35:00.001-07:00

Splash pad at Riverfront Park

Summer Fun

2011-08-14T11:34:00.001-07:00

On the dock at Riverfront Park

Summer Fun

2011-08-14T11:31:00.001-07:00

Last day of parent tot swim lessons was Friday. So much fun, even Andrew got to come a couple times during the work day.

Picture

2011-05-25T14:54:00.001-07:00

Silliness.

Picture

2011-05-25T14:52:00.001-07:00

Candy bar break during a "hike" with Mom, Pa, and Oliver. Andrew has this hiker on training.

Picture

2011-05-25T14:51:00.001-07:00

Together at last!

Grandma and Pa Visit from PA!

2011-05-25T14:15:00.001-07:00

Recent conversations

Pa: Hi Stinky!
Chase: No stinky. Just Chase.

About a picture of a chicken egg with chick legs poking through.
Chase: Egg running!
Me: How can an egg run?!
C: A have legs.
M: Why does the egg have legs?
C: Because... (long pause) ... a fire.
(First time I ever observed him answer a why question or use the word because.)

Chase wanted to go to the playground, but Andrew and I had things to do. I told Chase to ask Pa. Pa agreed.
Chase: Come on. I show you.

We are battling ants in our home. I often say, "get out of my house, ants!" and Chase has learned to say this too, although he likes the ants. Chase woke up one morning.
Chase: Hi Mommy!
Me: Good Morning Chase. Did you have any dreams?
C: (with a mischievous grin) Ants! Ants here! (Pointing at carpet) Ants here! (Pointing at wall) Ants here! (Pointing at door) Ants here! (Pointing at bed, all while watching for my reaction)

Chase: No no Oliver! No lickin' p*n*s! (With appropriate vowels, repeatedly, really loud, first thing in morning, waking Dad, and possibly both my parents. Oliver is our dog, with an embarrassing habbit.)

(Mis-)Pronunciations
Oatbeal (oatmeal)
Botmom (bottom)
Paggy (spaghetti, although he's already outgrown this one)
Megan (with a smirk, for Mommy... ok not exactly a pronouncement issue)
Busich (music)

Pictures to follow. Annoyingly one at a time as I post from my phone. :o)

Growing Family

2011-05-05T14:26:00.001-07:00

Baby Number 2 is due September 6th. We chose not to find out the gender until the birth. We have a couple girl names that we both like, but zero boy names. We didn't choose Chase until at least an hour after his birth. A few people commented that it would be funny if I labored on Labor Day, but Chase came a week before his due date, so my bet is on a late August baby.

I'd LOVE to hear your gender predictions. My parents have 3 grandsons, and no granddaughters. Andrew's parents have 4 grandsons and 3 granddaughters. Earlier in this pregnancy I guessed it was a girl since I had no heartburn, but constant heartburn with Chase. My mom had heartburn with my brother but none with the girls. However, since then I've had some heartburn. Obviously we'll all be thrilled with either gender, but Andrew's routing for a boy, I'm hoping for a girl, and yesterday Chase declared he wants a "green brother". Guess his favorite color... just like Uncle Dan. So what's your vote, boy or girl?! Any boy name suggestions?

Quick Picture

2011-05-05T14:11:00.001-07:00

Chase loves to play outside in any weather.

More Quick Pictures

2011-05-02T13:52:00.003-07:00

Warming up and drying off after a romp through big puddles, Feeding Boo, Pancakes!, Oliver helps with dishes too, Blanket fort

Moblie Post

2011-05-01T07:11:00.001-07:00

So we haven't been posting because we can't stand to pay increasing internet bills. We've been using our phones and holding out for a better monthly home internet price. So here are some phone pics from the last few months.

Biking, Easter egg painting, the latest DDR moves.

Chase, translated

2011-02-22T21:14:00.001-08:00

Two

2011-02-21T14:05:00.003-08:00

We got to celebrate Chase’s second for a few days last weekend. On Friday (11 Feb, his actual birthday) we had family celebration that included helium balloons, playground time and delicious desert. Chase also blew had his first chance to blow out candles and hit a home run…

On Saturday we started the day by going to the zoo. It was a lot of fun for all of us as we (Megan and I) enjoyed watching Chase experience the zoo for the first time.

I’m not sure what part was his favorite as there was so much to do, but he did enjoy the Sea Lions a lot. The chickens were also a hit…

Monkey time…

We spent about three hours at the zoo ( about 30-45 mins too long) then headed home to get ready for the birthday party.

Around five on Saturday some friends and family came over to celebrate with us. It was a very fun evening but Chase didn't quite do as good blowing out the candles, one for two ain’t bad.

Happy! Happy! Oww!

2011-01-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

2010 Year in Pictures

2010-12-30T21:26:00.001-08:00

This year we started out on two feet…

We ate quite a bit…

We brushed our teeth at least once…

And cleaned up after ourselves…

We visited exotic places…

Sometimes we had the place to ourselves…

We smiled…

We played…

We visited beautiful places…

And saw beautiful people…

Sometimes we stayed home…

And sometimes we got on a boat…

We cleaned up after fall…

We stocked up for winter…

And played when it came…

This year was special…

Next year will be too…

Rocking Baby to Sleep

2010-12-16T13:59:00.002-08:00

When Chase was younger, say a year and more ago, I wanted so badly to sit in a rocking chair and rock him to sleep. That wasn't Chase's style. He wanted to be bounced, nursed, carried in a sling, and/or walked to sleep. Eventually we got to the point where we could do a little story/hug/song/prayer routine and just lay him down and he would fall asleep on his own. And now, Sunday naps are in the jogger. But never could I cuddle him in a rocking chair as he drifted off to sleep.

Well, just over 2 weeks ago, he started a panicked scream at nap time. After a few days of struggling, and then a few days of putting him in the back pack and wearing him until he was out, I was frustrated. Note, he did just fine at bedtime on his own (well, with his meow kitty). Crazy kid. On a whim, I tried rocking him in the chair. He fell asleep in 2 minutes. Since then, after stories before nap time, he says, "wock, wock, wock,.." for rock. He and I love rocking to sleep. My wish finally came true and I'm one happy mama.

Waffles!

2010-11-02T20:40:00.002-07:00

Sauvie Island

2010-10-30T21:33:00.001-07:00

We went to Sauvie Island today for a romp in the mud. We had a great time and even managed to miss most of the rain.

Here is the google map of the maze we completed…

View Larger Map

Below is Chase’s costume for this year. He wore it to a Halloween party near our house.

PA Visit

2010-09-29T15:05:00.011-07:00

Chase and I(Megan) went to Pennsylvania for 2 weeks in August to visit my parents. Chase got to meet his younger cousin Ethan, and be reunited with a whole bunch of other family. Here we are with Aunt Kate and her 2 now one-year-olds, Connor and Ethan.

Connor and Chase liked running together in my parents brand new sun room.
Chase and I were the first to track mud in there.

We visited my aunt Sharon a couple times. As usual, she was prepared with toys - rocking horse, puppy, bubbles, and more. We also did some finger painting at her place.

We went to the zoo with my parents and Kate's crew. Chase got up close and personal with some animals.

Chase and my dad are good buddies.

Some male bonding

As soon as Dan realized we were in Pennsylvania, he hopped in his convertible and made the four hour drive up to see us. Our parents took us to a kid-friendly science museum.
We went to our favorite duck creek.

Chase spent a lot of time playing on my parents' stairs.

Cuddling with Grandma H.

(They wouldn't both look at the camera at the same time.)

A family gathering.

We made our way to Central Pennsylvania to visit my best friends, Corynn and Tami, and their sons, Ryan and Fynn, as well as some family and possibly some family-to-be. ;o) Chase loved having free range on the farm, especially on a tractor.

Darren, Fynn, Felicity, and Ryan anticipating the rocket launch by Tami's boyfriend and kids.

The saloon and outhouse.
The bunk house where we slept.

We had an unforgettable time in Pennsylvania, but we were thrilled to be reunited with Daddy back at home.
We've had a few adventures since our PA visit, including a sailing trip. More on that to come.

Two Nights

2010-07-11T15:47:00.001-07:00

We went camping this past weekend at Beverly Beach. This trip consisted of two nights away, a first since Chase’s arrival.

There was ample beach time (Oregon beach time is unique)…

And lots of of just relaxing in the campsite…

We slept good, we played hard, what more could you ask for?

I can fly!

2010-06-30T09:07:00.003-07:00

Weekend Getaway

2010-06-02T21:46:00.002-07:00

We went on our first camping trip of the year two weeks ago. We considered going two nights but thought it better to start with just one. The whole idea started in my head when I found out the Oregon Trail Rally was starting on a Friday night near where I work. I figured, if we’re going to be out late anyway, why not go camping?

Friday

Gates at PIR opened at 3 pm and we got there around 4:30. The actual race wouldn’t begin until after 7 pm so we walked around and visited with the participants and watched as they made last minute adjustments.

While walking up and down the rows of cars, trailers and crew I spotted a unique last name that I recognized from a training class I went to. The last name belonged to a girl I met in Ohio and was really into racing at the time (2004). At that time she had attended some rallies but never drove or co-drove. Turns out, she now has a rally car and travels the west coast driving sideways! We spend quite a bit of time talking with her. She let Chase sit in her car.

After making a few rounds we found a shady spot (the weather was gorgeous) and relaxed until the racing began. Once it did, Chase was very interested in watching the cars. During one of the stages we stood so close we had to cover his ears whenever a car drove by. The whole event was fun for the whole family which was a relief.

At around 8:30 we started heading for the campground. We camped at Seaquest State Park in Washington about 45 miles west of Mt. Saint Helens. We were all asleep shortly after setting up our tents.

Chase slept in a tent inside a tent…

Saturday

One advantage to getting up early with Chase is you get to all the busy spots before other people have had breakfast. We ate breakfast, packed up the tent and were at the first view point at 7:45 am, and we moved pretty leisurely

First view point…

The other advantage is you get to take pictures in really good light…

We stopped at many of the viewpoints heading towards Mt Saint Helens. And also went on a few short walks. We ate our lunch near the Johnson Ridge Observatory which is at the end of HWY 504 and started our trip home shortly thereafter. We took our time getting back to Salem stopping at rest area and IKEA for at least an hour. The trip was a lot of fun and it was nice to have Sunday as a full rest day.

May

2010-05-29T20:38:00.001-07:00

Our little farmer:

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Chasin’

2010-05-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Muscle Beach

2010-05-12T19:00:00.002-07:00

We travelled south last month for my sister’s wedding and took a few days to see some sites around Los Angeles. Our first stop was the farmers market to get some good kid food. We knew that eating out a lot would be expensive, especially if Chase was being picky so we stocked up on fruits and vegetables that we knew he liked. As far as farmers market’s go this one was pretty terrible, but it accomplished what we needed ( they did have California strawberries for $.88/lb).

The first “touristy” thing we visited was the Getty Center. In our guidebook it was listed as kid friendly and free (admission was free, but parking was $15). Chase had a great time climbing up and down the stairs. The entrance had 50 or so stairs to climb so we didn’t actually go into the center for twenty minutes while he played on them. Once inside, Megan and I enjoyed the exhibits, gardens and pools. The tricky part was trying to get Chase to nap when there was so much action going on. One nice thing about the Center was that the had strollers for families, unfortunately even these couldn’t get Chase to fall to sleep.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

From the Getty Center we headed back towards Beverly Hills via Mulholland Drive. It is one of those iconic roads that you see in many movies. It has beautiful views of the valley and the ocean. Chase slept through the whole thing :)

On our second day in LA we headed west, to the beach. Parking is sparse near the beach but after looking for awhile we ended up parking right in front of Muscle Beach which happened to be one of the highlights to our visit. Very kid friendly. Very parent friendly. They had rings…

Tight ropes…

Segways…

Ok, that part wasn’t a highlight, but funny none the less. There were a few stereotypical ‘muscle dudes’ which was also fun to watch. Chase really enjoyed all the sun. We would stayed longer but were afraid of too much sun exposure for our little guy (we did lather him up every two hours).

Overall, our experience was really fun. Chase was happy most of the time and because we drove so much he also napped very well.

Favorite Olympic Moments

2010-02-28T20:57:00.002-08:00

Sadly, the Vancouver Olympics have come to and end. My favorite moments where:

1.) Watching Shaun White win Gold in the Men's Snowboard competition. As far as judged sports go, this was a slam dunk.

2.) The Women's Downhill. Lot's of crashes made this one good.

3.) Short Track Day One. When Apolo won Silver. Set the tone for the Olympics.

4.) USA v Canada. That was an amazing game. I don't know much about hockey and I watched more that day on TV then the rest of my life combined.

5.) The mime in the closing ceremonies. It's nice when people can laugh at themselves.

Eat Salem

2010-02-23T19:16:00.003-08:00

To say that Salem lacks in culinary choices would be an understatement. Espcially compared to Portland, which is renowed for its quality and variety. But there are quite a few bright spots. Due to a large Mexican population the Mexican food is authentic. And because it's proximity to the ocean, seafood restaurants can serve fresh dishes.

In late 2008, Megan and I started going out to a 'nice' restaurant once a month. Nice places to eat vary widely from person to person and from place to place. One way, for me, to rule out a restaurant as being nice is a chain. Olive Garden, Applebee's, Red Robin, all have their place but it's not the kind of place I look forward to going. The menu is very standard, the food is good but not unique, and the wait staff is very customer oriented but nothing special. To me, a nice restaurant is place where the food is the focus and it's a little different for some reason or another.

One such place is Venti's Cafe. We ate there this evening and it was splendid. It has a fairly small dining room and bar in the basement. They pride themselves on serving a "True Pint", 16oz of beer in a 20 oz glass. I guess that's a pretty big deal to some people. The unique thing about Venti's is their menu. It's hardly what I would consider a cafe (no burgers or potato fries) and though the signature dish is Chicken Teriyaki I would call it Chinese Food. They simply serve what they now how to make very good. The ingredients are top notch and the entrés are very well balanced. The flavor alone qualifies it as a nice restaurant. If you get to go there, I highly recommend the sweet potato fries.

If anybody knows of some hidden gems in Salem please let us know in the comments.

Happy Birthday Chaser

2010-02-16T18:24:00.004-08:00

Chase celebrated his first birthday last week. We shared the time with family and friends. He was very accommodating in eating his first birthday cake. While eating his cake you can see in a video below the paparazzi getting in their shots.

Original Video

Original Video

DDR

2010-01-28T19:39:00.005-08:00

If you liked Dancing Baby from December, you'll love the Dance Dance Revolution baby from 2010!

Original Video

And another...

Original Video

Raise the roof little man!

Or maybe a baby pushing a car, complete with sound effects...

Original Video

Hobbies

2010-01-26T07:10:00.002-08:00

Hello, I'm Captain Random. I don't have a lot of free time. What I do have is a lot of time in a car, commuting to work. During this time I think about the normal stuff (dinner, weekend plans, etc) but I also dream about what I should do with my free time or what my dream career would be. I call myself Capt. Random because these ideas come every day and they seem to be vastly different. I'll get home and tell Megan about them, convinced that that is how I will spend the next 3 or 12 months. The next day the process will start over again. I've been accused of having Adult ADD, an accusation I wear like a badge of honor. A few weeks ago I started writing them down as soon as I got to a computer.

Below are my ideas from the past few weeks:

Writing
Write story about kids who do white collar crimes on the playground. One example would be to view the cafeteria as the open market. Kids would trade their lunch items, Hostess for Little Debbie, Dinasour fruit snacks for Pudding etc. But one kid gets left out of the trade because his parents don't buy him packaged goodness. To remedy this he fabricates an idea that his Mom is going to bring in a large cake for his upcoming Birthday. Using this story he trades his cake futures for Snack Packs and Bite Size Snickers, screwing up the balance of the market, creating a bubble that explodes in his face.

Comedy about a guy who decides to run the local race that in the past four years has been won by Africans. The locals get really excited, he was a high school athelete. He finds out that he's not nearly fast enough so he takes tons of steriods. The steriods have serious/funny side effects (huge head, man boobs) and right before the race he finds out there will be random drug screening because of a few other races where runners were doping.

Write a comedy about a group of friends set in post-apocalyptic North America. There are a lot of movies about the end of the world but I want to see what happens after the dust settles and, I want it to be funny. The genre has been played enough that there should be some common themes. Kind of like Shawn of the Dead did for Zombies.

Write a story about a guy who gets revenge for someone killing his family. Learns how to steal, fake id, shoot gun, drive getaway car etc via Internet articles, some of which were written by the killers. I like a good revenge movie.

Computer

Learn WPF and make an interface kind of like Pivot, from Microsoft.

I think the next frontier for computing will be the car. I don't have the time or expertise to design a full system but I have a lot of ideas about what would make a good one. This idea boils down to buying a carputer design and marketing it. I really like Ford Sync.

Other

Fix up old Subaru Outback with turbo engine. Recently I worked on my car for quite a few hours and really enjoyed it. As we now have a child we need space so we can put a lot of junk in our trunk. I think you could have a pretty cool 1998 Outback with the power train from a car like mine.

Male Nurse. I think I would enjoy being a nurse, a doctor is too much school. I don't think I'd be good at being a female nurse.

Note: At one point I wanted to keep some of them secret so no one would "steal" them but now realize that if someone did I would be happy. This is because I actually want to read a story like the above ones mentioned.

Zippers

2010-01-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

If I could pass on only one piece of information for raising a baby - up to 10 months old - it would be zippers. Avoid snaps, buttons, Velcro and elastic at all costs. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to snap 17 buttons on a screaming, crying baby on 4 hours of sleep. I can vouch that the quality of your life will improve in direct proportion to the number of zippered garments your child wears whereas the rest of this post has no basis outside the previous 10 months of experience with my unique child.

The advice you get from others - including me - is useless and invaluable. It's useless because they've told you something that worked for them, for their baby, on that particular occasion and does not apply in a bazillion other cases. It's invaluable because you might be the bazillionth case. For this reason you need to seek out information from others. The more advice you get the more likely you will be able to apply it. Many times advice can easily - sometimes rightly - be perceived as critisim. Don't take it as criticism.

Parenting is not a twelve hour job. You do not have the right to a full nights sleep.

In parenting, consistency is important but rationality is paramount. Try Ferbering, Babywise, Dr. Sears, etc. Don't bet all of your chips on anyone of them. Be flexible enough to abandon your strategy and start over. Pick and choose the parts that work for your child.

Babies haven't learned consistency. Just because they ate every two hours for three months doesn't mean that today they won't want to eat every 45 minutes.

Your child is going through a growth spurt. It ends when they are twenty.

The first 24 hours are magical. The baby sleeps for most of them and hasn't learned true hunger. Savor all 24 of them.

Get out as much as you did before your baby was born. Go shopping, to dinner, on hikes, and visit your friends. It's twice as much effort and half as much fun but still very worthwhile. Make sure not to overdue it.

Your kid is the cutest. No matter what they looked like when they were born. Keep taking pictures. You'll have 1582 pictures from the first three weeks and 50 from the the next three months and it'll be work to get those. After the first four months they don't change as rapidly so get in those daily shots.

Your baby is smarter than you think. They learn from watching you. They are trying to learn the routine. Read to your child. As long as they aren't crying they enjoy it. Even if they don't pay attention to you, pay attention to them. Let them play. Parents and other adults teach children by interacting with them and, most of all, allowing them to play.

2009 Year in Pictures

2010-01-04T19:49:00.011-08:00

2009 was a quite the year in for Megan and I. Having a child is by far the biggest challenge I've had. To say my life will never be the same would be an understatement. Most times in life, change is gradual. Not with a baby, one night you get 9 hours of sleep and the next (300+) you don't. But I'm getting ahead of the story...

Starting in December 2008, 2009 was a rather wintery year for the Willamette Valley...

Megan loved being pregnant (except she couldn't eat pizza (heart burn) and couldn't sleep on her back or stomach)...

Seems very long ago...

On February 11th Chase was born. Here is the first picture I have of him. He was blue when he was born...

After the initial scare, mother and baby where very healthy...

And we brought home a beautiful baby boy...

We stayed home a lot those first few months. It was much less stressful than going out...

Chase spent much of his first year in either a sling, a backpack or a frontpack. Not that he was awake for much of it...

Our little baby slowly showed us his personality...

Sometimes he looks like me...

Other times Megan...

We had our first house guests (looks like Oliver wants to fly away)...

It's no wonder that Chase dances whenever he hear music...

Finally some outside time...

After a pretty stressful plane ride we go to visit Pennsylvania. They had a very nice reception for us...
At one point Chase was in the 80th percentile for weight. He was chunky. Here he his next to his best bud Troy, three months older...

In July he even spent a night in the woods...

He did a lot of sleep packing (that's backpacking while sleeping). Opal Creek...

Hart's Cove, Oregon beach...

At some point, he got really good at smiling. One might even say he was addicted to it...

He also got good at blank stares...

One form of non-baby recreation I had was gardening. I would say it was a success (except the squash, the tomatoes took them over)...

For Chase's second plane ride we went to California. It was the first time he was with all his cousins (from my side)...

We stretched out the hiking season well into October. We were well prepared for the colder weather thanks to this puffer we received as a gift...

(No caption needed)

Once mobile he kept us on our toes. We purposefully didn't try to baby proof our house too much. He was quick to show us the areas we needed to pay special attention too...

Oliver and Chase have learned to get along pretty well. Especially with now that Mom and Dad watch their every interaction. They definitly had some good moments...

Chase fit the stereotype of liking the packing of the present more that the actual presents he got for Christmas...

We finished out the year with some skiing and sledding in Central Oregon. Chase enjoyed the action. Mom and Dad would have preferred to stay home and just do day trips...

Here's to 2010 and bathing with other people!

Baby's First Christmas

2009-12-24T14:00:00.005-08:00

Dancing Baby

2009-12-18T18:07:00.001-08:00

Original Video

Just so we remember...

2009-12-17T15:36:00.003-08:00

On the Wednesday night church service before Thanksgiving, Chase was especially sleepy and cuddled with us, even wrapped his arms around us. Since then, he's been more affectionate than he has in the past. Particularly when he wakes up (he likes to be held and nuzzled) or when he's overwhelmed (he comes for a reassuring hug).

Chase loves water and anything that has to do with water. In addition to his pool time each Tuesday, he still goes nuts over a cup of water, or a wet wash cloth. Most parents have to fuss to wipe their baby's face, but not us. Chase dives right into it and likes to suck on it.

And Chase got his 5th tooth today (or maybe last night).

First Step!

2009-12-12T11:18:00.003-08:00

This morning Chase took his hands off the chair and took very small step towards the Christmas tree. At which point he could have both hands on the Christmas tree. And tried to eat a glass ornament.

Jitter

2009-12-12T11:12:00.002-08:00

I recently got a Moka. It makes 6 cups of espresso. I don't really love coffee but enjoy a latte from time to time.

This morning I split it's contents with Megan and we're both very buzzed. Turns out 3 shots of espresso can do that to you.

No Title

2009-12-10T19:32:00.007-08:00

Winter has hit Oregon with a swift kick in the booty. Our kick came yesterday when we had a pipe burst. Thankfully, it was part of the sprinkler system which has its own shutoff valve. Also, thanks to my dad and neighbor who helped me pry off the cover to the street shutoff for the house. Since we were able to shutoff the sprinkler system we won't have to worry about the water until spring, when it will be warmer to deal with.

As of tomorrow Chase will be ten months old. There are currently three teeth in his mouth, I kinda miss the toothless grin. He's a super sweet heart, always sharing a smile with me. Since he loves to laugh, he pretend laughs all the time. This can sound a bit like a cough and a grunt which makes me laugh prompting him to pretend laugh harder. It's one of the many games we play. Getting him to laugh for real is quite a challenge. I haven't yet been able to do it consistently. The best time to get him to right around bed time. Playing with him around bed time is like playing with fire though, as soon as you quit playing he'll probably start crying.

Today Megan dressed him in an outfit that was a gift. I thought it made him look like a girl, Megan said "It will let him crawl better and keep him warm." In the evening as I was holding Chase a girl made a comment "She looks like the Gerber baby." At least he is still cute.

Tomorrow is also Megan's last day at work. She's going to become Chase's full time Mamma. I'm really glad we can make this happen for our family. People always ask us if we're having another kid, we do plan too but there won't be one in the next nine months.

That's all for now. Here's a picture of Chase on Halloween...

Outdoor Fun

2009-11-28T15:49:00.002-08:00

In addition to all our holiday and birthday (Troy's) fun, we've managed to get outside to enjoy Andrew's vacation days. On Friday, we went up to HooDoo for some skiing. Andrew and I took turns skiing and playing with Chase in the lodge. So much fun, I'm so happy to be skiing again. Today we went to Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. We had sunny mild weather and saw 18 deer and thousands of geese. Chase slept on Andrew's back in the baby backpack as we walked.

The Decision to Stay Home

2009-11-17T13:36:00.004-08:00

Well, after a great deal of deliberating and praying, the decision has been made! I will become a full-time mommy on December 12th (so long as I get my grades in on the 11th). The math department, and Chase's sitter have been informed, so it's very final. Why? I want to be with Chase, and I think it's best for him!

We're going to sell the Saturn, so we'll have 1 car and 1 motorcycle. Andrew will usually take a vehicle to work, so I plan to take the bus to get to the gym (Kroc Center) and a mom's group (church), and possibly for groceries. I hope to walk (with Chase in the baby backpack) to a few playdates in the neighborhood (the furthest is 2 miles).

Just a few short years ago I was completely immersed in math and research - totally career oriented. I could not have imagined wanting to be a stay-at-home-mom. So really why? It's been fun and interesting to hear what questions people have about this decision. So what are you going to do all day? Is your schedule too much for you to balance work and parenting? Are you pregnant? Are you trying to get pregnant? What about money?

Note, I had to defend my decision to go back to work as well! So, I'd like to encourage other moms and families just to figure out what's best for your family. :o)

So after Chase was born, I certainly didn't want to leave him and go back to work. But, I thought there was a strong possibility that once I went back to work and got into that routine, that I'd enjoy the time away and together all the more. And there was no way to find out, but to try it. We did try it. I still do love to teach, but I found I just want to be with Chase. I spend my days at school counting the minutes until I can pick up Chase. He's only 9-months old once!

I'm not pregnant, nor do we plan to have more kids very soon. Let's get this family caught up on sleep before we add to it! Chase still nurses once each night.

As for money, it came down to me working now so we could have more family time later. Well there are few garantees in life, so we're taking family time now.

Chase's sitter, Kasyn, is absolutely amazing. Chase has great care and lots of love during the 4 days (7 hours per day) when I'm away. He gets tons of attention and interaction with her and the other kids. He learns a lot there, imitates the older kids, and has fun. We are even planning a regular playdate when I am finished working. So quality childcare is not the issue.

How about the schedule? Well, working and parenting is crazy. But, after the first few weeks of adjusting, it's not all that much crazier than being home with Chase. And anyone who's spent a good deal of time with young kids knows being home is no vacation. Sometimes, working is easier than being home. Even during his naps, I'm doing housework (not so easy when he's awake... how does my sister manage 2 babies?!), there's always plenty to do. You don't exactly get time to yourself. Still, it is much more enjoyable to be home with Chase, rather than away from him and at work. What am I going to do all day? If you mean this when you ask this, you haven't spent a day with a baby (or you have a poor memory). I'll try to do a "24 hours" post in the future. Some othere mommies have asked me this, and I think they mean, won't you go crazy all day alone with your kid?! Yes, I think I would. That's why it's going to be so important for us to go to the Kroc Center (swimming!), mom's group, Kasyn's playdate, and a couple other regular playdates with neighbors, and I assume grandparents. On top of that we're going to cram in housework, yardwork, learning to walk/talk/read/sing/color/potty/share/count/etc.

I'm really looking forward to this time with our baby, and I'm so grateful that Andrew is giving us this time together. :o)

Friend or Foe?

2009-10-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

First Tooth!

2009-10-25T19:06:00.003-07:00

Chase's first tooth came in today. It's on the bottom in the front. He's been drooling quite a bit lately and we thought we felt one in the back about a week ago but the first visible one is in the front.

Cloth Diapers

2009-10-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

Some time in the fall of 2008 we decided to use cloth diapers for our first child. We had various reasons for this the mains ones, in order of importance, are environmental, economic, and sustainability. We have all different types of cloth diapers.

Prefolds: these are the type that most people, us included, use as burp rags. They are 24"x18" and the middle third is thicker than the outside thirds. You wrap you baby in them and then cover them. These are the least expensive but also take the most work. You have to wrap the baby, fasten them and then cover them. These cost less than a dollar each and the covers are $9-$12 each.

All in ones: We were at a second hand baby clothes store asking if they had any cloth diapers and another customer volunteered that she had a few that she wasn't using anymore and gave them to us. The have a cloth section sewed to a nylon cover and usually a flap that folds in for easy drying. These are much easier to put on than the prefolds. They cost about $15-$20 each. We have about 5 of them.

Pocket diapers. These have a nylon cover with polypro lining. The lining has an opening that allows you insert an absorption cloth. These are as easy to put on as a All in one but you have to take them apart after washing to get them to dry. We have 15 of these. They cost $17 each.

Here I'd like to compare our experience with cloth and paper diapers.

Environmental:

Disposable diapers are made out of plastic and paper and are not disposable at all. They sit in land fills for a long period of time or are burnt and pollute the air. Cloth diapers, ours are actually nylon, polyester and cotton, are not perfect. Their production energy cost is substantial but the main problem is the amount of water that is used when cleaning them. We have a front loading washer that when run on the fastest cycle probably uses about 15 gallons of water. The electricy cost is fairly negliable, our electric bill didn't go up when we started doing them (308 kWh, 309 kWh and 296 kWh for Jan, Feb and March of 2009), but our water bill didn't either. Originally I thought that cloth diapers where near perfect but there is quite a bit of research saying that they have as much environmental impact as their paper cousins. In practice however I think the assumptions they took are skewed (one such research project was funded by Procter and Gamble which has a large portion of the $3.2 billion dollar paper diaper market).For one, we always air dry the diapers. They easily dry in six hours. Second, the water usage is for top loading washers, these use forty gallons of water or more per load. In addition the diapers we got supposedly fit 8-35 pound babies so we won't have to buy new ones every 6 to 9 months as some of the studies assume.

Winner: Cloth

Economics:

The upfront cost of cloth diapers is steep. Especially if you have a large hospital bill to pay. We spent about $250 on these diapers and had 5 or 6 given to us. But over time they easily pay for themselves. The cheapest I've seen paper diapers go for is $.14 each. When Chase was first born he went through 12-16 diapers a day ( I know, I washed them). At that price in eight weeks we would have spent as much as $125. Now he goes through 6-8 per day but even at that amount after 8 months we would have spent $260. Cloth diapers don't last forever. They have velcro closures that will wear out someday but after eight months they look good as new. We will really come ahead if we can use them for our next child.

Winner: Cloth

Convience:

This is why most people use paper diapers. It is easier and quicker to go to the store and pick up package of diapers then to wash them and hang them to dry. We use paper diapers anytime we travel. Anything longer than one overnight, we don't want to be carry around soiled diapers. Cleaning diapers takes me about 10 minutes every other night. Although until Chase was about 4 months old this was every night. The main time that it's inconvenient is when we're gone all day and get home to dirty diapers that need to be washed. For this reason we always have a package of paper diapers in the house. Paper diapers aren't perfect either. You do run out them and when you do you can't just wash them and go to bed.

Winner: Paper

Absorption:

When Chase was younger this would have been a hands down victory for cloth. The paper diapers always left him with poo on his back. Now that he's older I'd say they both do.

Winner: Draw

Since we did invest the money (and are very happy we did) I'm going to stop while cloth is winning :) Actually I have lots more to say but am not sure anyone will be interested. If you have any questions leave a comment and I'd be happy to answer it. I'm also going to plug the kind of diapers we like best. If you are going to get some cloth diapers don't bother getting all different kinds and seeing what you like. Get the Bum Genius 3.0. It's the best. And get them from Wee Bunz in Corvallis Oregon they have free shipping!

California

2009-09-23T19:56:00.004-07:00

The fam headed south this past weekend to see family, specifically my nephew who was graduating from Marine Corps boot camp. Chase did really well on the plane again which was relief. Here he is with his cousins (except the one who did the graduating)...

We've taken to trying the cry it out or Ferber method after a few weeks of nearly sleepless nights. The first night was actually wonderful. We were dreading it all day long but he only got up a few times that night. We didn't just leave him in his crib until he quit crying, rather we went in to comfort him, without picking him up, every few minutes. The time between comforting gradually increases. By the third night we didn't have to go in at all when he first went to sleep. We've also decided that it's okay for him to eat once a night. So far he's gotten up at least once every night but it has been a lot better. We'll see how he adjusts after going on the trip. We were a little more lax with him while on vacation. Last night he got up five or six times but he went right back to sleep when Megan put his pacifier back in.

Summer is still in full effect here in Oregon. I think the temperature yesterday was 90. Chase get's lots of outside time in the evenings when it's like this...

We leave our windows open all night to let the house cool so in the mornings it's cold enough for a sleeper...

So far Oliver hasn't ever been annoyed with Chase. It may happen but so far they're good buddies...

He spent a lot of his summer like this...

Music to my ears...

Original Video

Family Update

2009-08-28T16:23:00.019-07:00

Chase is 6 1/2 months old now. He's a really happy baby, and always makes us smile. Just so we remember, here's what he's up to lately:

Eating: He's still breastfed and not so great with a bottle, although he can do it when need be. He started solids a few days before his 6-month birthday. He now eats rice, barley, squash, avocado, and banana. Avocado seems to be his favorite. He loves to drink water, from sippy cups and especially from a regular grown up cup. We make all his food. The barley and brown rice we just add extra water and puree, the squash we steam and puree. Then portions we won't use in a few days go in ice cube trays until they freeze, and then the cubs to a freezer bag, and we just pop them out and warm them up as we need them. A recent discovery is that solid foods result in solid turds. We're still getting used to this, and it takes both parents and a bath to clean him and his diaper up. Recently, we were giggling as we watched his face and listened to him toot. A few minutes later we were shocked as we cleaned up, "What if he does this when we're out somewhere?!" "I just don't know," said the bewildered parents.

We started him on solids mainly because he showed so much interest. No Chase, you can't have ice cream just yet.
And here is Andrew giving Chase his first taste of something (rice) other than milk.

Sleeping: He naps twice a day, from about 8:30-10 and 12:30-2/2:30. He used to be a good sleeper at night, but not for the last month or two. We're working really hard to fix that. He just wakes up and needs help going back to sleep quite often. Some nights he sleeps through the night (I'd guess about once per week), but most often he's up a lot, sometimes every hour. We're working on a lot of things, but the main ones are sticking to our routine (you mean we have to be home by 7pm and for all his naps on a Saturday?!), and putting him down before he's asleep (he's only good at falling asleep in our arms, which is a challenge the 5th time in the night). This morning we celebrated because he slept 4 hours in a row, something he first did at 4 or 5 weeks of age! I must mention that right now he's sleeping in his teddy bear sleeper and is just heart-melting. He's just so lovable it makes the lack of sleep bearable. He's finally seemed to outgrow swaddling over the last few weeks.

Playing: He's just a happy little guy. At the moment, he loves to sit up on his own and play with cloth blocks (well, suck on them, just like everything else). He's starting to get into stuff now, like grab the pen when I write, grabbing our plates, patting the keyboard if we type near him. Over the weekend, we set him in a bed of stones, and he picked up handfuls of them, and we were surprised that he didn't put them in his mouth, like everything else he gets ahold of. How did he know he shouldn't eat stones? He's rolled and rolled (2 months ago he earned the nickname "the Human Steam Roller" from his cousin Noah), but he's bored with that now, and would much rather sit. He loves story time and laundry time (folding clothes is great fun!). He's mesmorized when I play the keyboard, and he loved when my dad played guitar for him. He enjoys all his grandparents, aunts, and uncles, but you should see his face when Grandma B starts cooing and talking to him. And Andrew can get him giggling and laughing like no one else. There's tickling and tossing and the happiest noises you've ever heard.

Talking?!: He babbles and coos, and yes, you can laugh at us, but Dad and I believe he says words. Twice now, he's looked at Andrew and said, "Dada." Two syllables, not even dadadadada... like he often does. He says, "Nummnummnumm" when he wants to nurse (more like a noise than a word, but certainly communication). Around 5 am this morning, Chase decided it was playtime. As to not encourage playing at night, I lay down next to him in the dark with my back to him and pretended to be asleep. He did all he could to get my attention (or maybe I was just the only thing he could play with), he patted my back, shrieked, and then he said, "Mama, HHIIIIIII!!!" It took everything I had to show no reaction, but I stopped breathing and my heart may have skipped a beat or two. I would have thought it a coincidence (and yes, you can keep laughing at me), but we say hi, dada, numnum, and mama to him in context quite a bit. And yesterday I said HHIIIII to him all day long.

Chase isn't the only one in the family!

Oliver is just as cute and fun as ever.

Andrew's enjoying his vegetable garden. He's really done all the building, digging, planting, watering, and other tending. We've had beans, tomatoes, basil, and more. We also have some humungous squash, but... we also joined a CSA (community supported agriculture), and we get weekly deliveries of veggies (salad greens, garlic, eggplant, peas, beans, beets, kale, swiss chard, all kinds of stuff). They have a ridiculous amount of squash, so much they have to throw some out, so we're just letting our garden squash get as big as it can on the plant, since we have no use for it. Andrew collected all the basil and made lots of pesto and froze it so we can enjoy it all year long. We're also enjoying all kind of berries. I've helped a little, but Andrew's been good about picking blackberries. Then he freezes them and can have them all year too. Jen helped me make some of the strawberries into jam. Andrew's also been riding his bike with Scott (they're training for the Peach of a Century!), and doing some work on his Subaru (replaced the busted mirror, peeling hood scoop, changed spark pulgs). He was even nice to me when I backed it into our fence a couple days ago (minimal damage).

Here are some of the vegetables.

I've been working on notes for when I go back to teach (28 September). We found a nice lady a few blocks away who will take care of Chase while I'm away. I know she'll love him, be attentive, and take great care of him, but I'm going to be so heartbroken to be away from him. The longest I've been apart from him so far has been less than 3 hours. I will work 4 days per week (Tuesdays off), and all my classes and office hours are between 8am-2pm. Because I'm doing so much preparation over the summer (during Chase's naps), I shouldn't have to do too much more work outside of those hours. I will do some grading on Tuesdays during his naps, but that should be most of it. Also, both of his naps are during the hours when I work, so that helps minimize the playtime I miss. I think it will be hard at first, but good for our family after a few weeks. Please pray for us!

My sister, Kate, and her husband are expecting a new baby in just 2 weeks! They'll have 2 boys less than a year old. Pray for them!

My mom recently said goodbye to her guinea pig, Squeak. He lived a good life and got lots of love and attention, including hand feedings for quite a while.

Through one of Sachiko's friends, I met another family with a 9-month-old son. Here we are walking at Bush Park.
Here's some hiking fun with cousins. Eric, Sachiko and family visited Salem. They whole family and Grandma and Grandpa Boes went hiking with us. Chase seems to enjoy being in the backpack.

We also went hiking with the Bradleys at Hearts Cove. Just beautiful. Wow Tiffanie, what a leap! Uh, oh - Scott and Megan still have to make it, with babies on their backs!

Here was one of the views. We could here and see sea lions.

Cutie

2009-08-10T21:25:00.003-07:00

Amazing Baby

2009-07-30T10:47:00.002-07:00

I'm holding our amazing baby boy. His surgery went well today. He was cheerful beforehand, even though he wasn't allowed to eat, and is waking up sweetly as the anesthesia wears off now. We love our baby so very much, and are grateful for everyone's prayers and support.

Baby Backpacking

2009-07-20T21:25:00.004-07:00

I guess you wouldn't call what Chase did backpacking. He really went sleep packing, but he's really good at it.

We headed to Marion Lake last Saturday for some camping with friends. The weather was really great and so was the company. Oliver was self sufficent this time around, he carried his own food, bowl, and tennis ball.

He was really great on the hike, although his lack of awarness of his pack earned him the nickname wide load. More than once that pack almost tripped me as he would jog by.

If it weren't for the mosquitos we would have had a good campsite too.

At least we had a great view. Megan and I are a new and overly protective parents when it comes to bug spray, so we didn't use any. This wasn't a huge problem until about an hour before sunset. Then the litte parasites came out for dinner so we retreated to our tent. Baby's first bug bite isn't something you get real proud of, but it's still a first.

Being a great roller isn't always an advantage. Sometimes you get a mouth full of dirt.

I managed to get a couple sunset pics before getting eaten alive.

Happy family...

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

2009-07-13T20:21:00.002-07:00

Chase is addicted to rolling. He can't stop himself. When we put him down he immediatly rolls onto his left side then suspends himself there for awhile. About half the time he then rolls onto his back and the other half onto his stomache. When he was three weeks old he would occasionally roll from his belly to his back but this was an accident and it has become very infrequent. Consequently Mom and Dad have to roll him back to his back after three or four minuets on his front.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

East Coast Swing

2009-07-06T21:20:00.004-07:00

For his first plane ride Chase chose the red-eye from Portland to Newark. It was a good choice, he slept four out of the six hours we were in the air. The bad part was that his parents and grandparents were dead tired the next day. But we all survived.

The fam visited Megan's relatives during the week of the Forth of July. It was a very relaxing trip for me and also nice to get to spend so much time with my son.

Chase got to meet a lot of his family for the first time. Aunts, uncles, great uncles, great aunts...

Including his cousin Conner...

Chase isn't very good at sharing...

He also learned some music appreciation...

Flying with a baby was not nearly as bad as I had feared. In fact there are some bonuses. The first of which is that you get to board the plane early. This is a huge advantage because we never check any bags, we got first access to the overhead bins. The second is that it gave Megan and I an excuse to walk up and down the aisle burping and entertaining Chase. The downsides is how cramped it was. Fortunately we sat next to some very gracious people who gave lots of compliments about the behavior of our child. It's really nice to hear, even though we didn't have anything to do with it.

Driving in the car has been the biggest struggle so far. Chase doesn't really like to be in a car seat for more that twenty minutes. We're not sure if he gets car sick or if he's just cranky. We tried to time all of our car trips around his naps. The key to travelling this way is flexibility. We rarely told anyone that we would be meeting them at a certain time. Mostly though we tried to have people come to Meg's parents house.

All in all it was a very good trip. Now it's back to work :(

Can Oliver come out and play?

2009-06-05T11:57:00.005-07:00

Of course we adore our dog, but he's become quite popular around the neighborhood as well. In addition to his human admirers, he has a number of doggy friends. A dog named Molly lives next door and frequently prances onto our deck and checks at our screen door for Oliver. If we miss her, Oliver whines to let us know he wants to go play. We open the door, and off they go.

You would think this is an anomaly, but, he has other doggy friends as well. There's a pair of boxers that play on the track. Their owner waves up to our house, we let Oliver out, one of the boxers comes up to our yard to coax Oliver down to the track, and they're off.

Although our dog is not the smartest, he does recognize familiar dogs from ones he hasn't met. From our house to across the track, he can tell the difference. He whines when he sees a playmate, and often barks or growls when he sees an unfamiliar one. (Andrew's not so sure of this, but I'm home all day and observe it regularly.)

Another great thing is that Oliver comes when we call. And on the rare occasion that fails, he always responds to the whistle, which is followed by a treat.

As for the rest of the family, Chase continues to grow, and Andrew continues to get older. :o)

Chase has doubled in size since birth (7 pounds 15 ounces). He clocked in at 16 pounds 5 ounces yesterday. He's a great eater. Imagine if you doubled in size in less than 4 months!

Andrew's birthday was yesterday. So Chase stayed with his aunt & uncle, and Andrew chose a yummy sushi place for dinner.

Here are some Chase pictures:

He's no musical prodigy, at least we haven't seen the signs yet, but he loves the sounds the keyboard makes.

High Chair

2009-05-24T18:48:00.003-07:00

He's not quite ready for food but loves to sit up...

Vowels are fun!

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Hiking and Swimming

2009-05-14T17:12:00.005-07:00

Last Friday, I met up with 3 other moms and their babies at Silver Falls and we did a hike. I didn't realize what a spectacle we'd make, but it was nice to get lots of Mother's Day wishes from other hikers.

The following day, Andrew, Chase, and I went swimming. Chase is too young to really appreciate it; the outing was more for me. I had a great time.

Andrew and I had some playtime too. Andrew got to go down the water slide, and I went off the diving board.

He Smiles!

2009-05-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Monster Cookie Ride

2009-05-02T21:50:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday (26 April 2009) I did another bicycle ride sponsored by the Salem Bicycle Club. I also rode to and from the event start so all told I did about 70 miles. My freind Scott and averaged a little over 18 mph during the ride. The event had three stops which was actually one too many. We only stopped at the last one to use the restroom. The event cost $20 and I'm pretty sure I ate $20 worth of cookies.

Baby Raising Update

2009-05-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

Chase's personality has started to show through in his third month of life. He smiles often and will react to us quite a bit. He also likes it when someone talks to him, espcially baby talk, I guess it's best when they speak his language. In the past week or so he has also started using less diapers. We have 16 cloth diapers and he used to use about 16 in a day but that has slowed down to 12-14 now.

He is also growing. At his two month appointment (10 April) he weighed 12 lbs 9 oz, was 23 inches long and had a head diameter of 40 cm (what's with the metric?). Ten days ago he weighed 13 lbs 6 oz. The 0-3 month clothes are to small and many of the 6 month clothes he fits into great. It's kinda sad that he's growing out of his clothes only because I have some favorites. I like clothes that fit snug and have zippers. Every once and a while I'll put him in some different type clothes but mostly I like him in sleepers with nothing else on except a diaper. Now that his head is less wobbly I also like it when he wears overalls. It's like wearing a handle.

Megan worked hard to get him on a schedule starting around two months. It has paid off. For the past two weeks he has only gotten up once and even slept through the night once! He feeds about every 30-45 minutes in the evening and she will swaddle him between 8 and 9. The hardest part is getting him to actually fall asleep. He won't fall asleep on his own. He won't fall asleep in your arms if you sitting still. He won't even fall asleep if you're rocking him in a chair. The only way he falls asleep is if you are walking around or bouncing on large exercise ball. Once he's asleep for 10 minutes (somtimes more) he can be layed down in his crib.

The only problem we're having is that he has an abscess on his butt, right by his pooper. We are going to go to OHSU next week to have them look at it and possibly remove it. Please keep this in your thoughts and prayers.

Holding Chase

2009-04-30T18:54:00.004-07:00

We love when other people hold Chase. Our arms like the break and we like showing off our baby.

Grandpa B...

Grandma B...

Cousin Jordan...

Chase had better get used to this backpack. I have a feeling he'll get a lot of seat time in it...
Mama B gets to hold him lots. You can tell by his double chin that he's gaining weight very well...

About Housing and Mortgages

2009-04-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

When we purchased a house last year I was introduced to the scam that is "closing costs". I had heard this term thrown around before in sentences like "Well after closing costs your payments will only be XXX dollars!" or "The buyer doesn't have to worry about closing costs" we even had one mortgage broker who told us that we shouldn't buy a house from someone who won't pay the closing costs. I'm still not sure what people mean when they say "closing costs" except that it is a generic term for every miscellaneous fee associated with buying a house except the purchase price and taxes. These can include Realtor fees, title fees, credit check fees, etc...We even had a fee for paperwork (after all they have to document the fees!). The main fee though is the one for the loan. This is what mortgage broker's call points (sorry, points are bad, think of it like golf) banks get paid off of interest but mortgage brokers get paid off of points. Depending on the interest rate, bank and how shady your mortgage broker is points end up being 1%-4% of the loan amount. All told we paid about 4.5% of the value of our home in closing costs. This does NOT include the 6% the seller paid in realtor fees. These are fairly small percentages but they add up to a lot of money. For example let's say you buy a home for $190,000 (the average sale price in Salem, OR). You think "Well I saved up $10,000 so I'll have 5% equity in my home lucky me!" Nope. That's not the case.

Price: $190,000
Closing costs: $8,550
Property Taxes: $2,310 (1.22% in my county and must be paid at the time of sale)
Total: $200,860
Loan amount: $190,860

Yep, you now owe more on your house than you paid for it! Contgratulations!

Wanna be angrier? Think about how much the realtor's are getting.

Price: $190,000
Realtor Fees: $11,400

So, your home (the biggest purchase you'll ever make) could have been bought for $178,600 and you would have owed $168,600 but instead you owe $190,860! That's twenty grand more thanks to all the leeches.

Bills: Before we bought a house we had no idea how much the bills would add up too. We asked a few people and they all had wildly different answers. This is mostly because of consumption and region. Here are ours but they will almost certainly be different than yours.

Electric: 26.375
Gas: 106.26 (average over December, January, February and March, will hopefully go down)
Cell Phone: 60 (two of them, more when Megan get's chatty)
Garbage: 17
Water: 50
Internet: 20 (will go up after 12 months)

Family Visit

2009-04-13T19:30:00.003-07:00

Megan's parents (Larry and Sandy) and brother (Dan) visited us in the Great Northwest about two weeks ago. They got to sample quite a bit of Oregon on their visit.Their visit included Silver Creek Falls, Portland, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Pacific City, and even the Spruce Goose! While they were here we also had a birthday party for Chase...

We sang all of the Holben birthday songs (there are three)...

I realized that I haven't posted a picture of Megan recently so here she is...

(This picture was taken two days after the fam left. It was absolutely beautiful and we could see all of the mountains. Should have stayed longer!)

He's adorable

2009-04-03T22:56:00.006-07:00

Sorry, but he is...

Okay, I'm not actually sorry...

What do you think of the new template?

If I were my boss...

2009-03-24T22:48:00.002-07:00

I would not fire me. This may sound funny but for the first time since graduating from college my answer has changed to "would not fire me" from "would fire me". When we were in Micronesia I was useful and probably would not have fired myself but at the same time there were other instructors who could have taught my classes or they could have closed the class I was teaching because only 3 people would show up. And when I started my current job I may not have fired myself because even though I didn't contribute much I was still learning. Even though I told myself this I still had that feeling in my gut.

I came up with this phrase when I was in the military. My performance ratings were above average so I always got the impression that my boss would not have fired me. After completing my service commitment I was offered a job as a civilian so by my boss was willing to put his money where his mouth was. But I still couldn't help like feeling like a liability. Sure, I was useful and brought some expertise to my work group but basically I went to graduate school, went to PT and surfed google maps. I also published a paper and went to conferences but most of the time I felt as though I didn't contribute as much as I was being compensated for.

In this economy - or any economy for that matter - you should never feel too confident but it is nice to feel like an asset.

Jealous?

2009-03-15T20:29:00.003-07:00

Oliver is my good buddy. We play together tons and a lot of this playing is wrestling on the floor. Whenever I get on the floor he immediately gets excited. The jealousy happens whenever I get on the floor to play with Chase. Usually I'll scold him or pet him and he knows it not play time. Sometimes he'll walk away but usually he'll lay down near us, sometimes even between us...

And another...

And a Chase video too...

Original Video

Another Week

2009-03-08T10:03:00.003-07:00

Believe it or not Chase is three days away from his one month birthday. It sure has flown by for us. This past week was marred by a nasty diaper rash. The doctor prescribed us some anti-fungal cream that we are supposed to apply every time we change his diaper. His bum is really sensitive so sometimes when we pick him up he'll let out a nasty scream that we're pretty sure is because of the rash. It seems to be getting a little better so hopefully we're on the downhill slope.

We definitely notice Chase's growth. Megan goes to a nursing support class at the hospital about once a week and Chase get's weighed every time. On Friday when they got there he weighted nine pounds six ounces and after she fed him he weight nine pounds ten ounces! What a great eater we have!

This is how he spends a lot of his day...

I took these pictures to help us remember how small he was...

He seems to really like getting rubbed...

Swaddling

2009-02-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

It always amazes me how calm Chase is if he get swaddled. His arms really scare him. They scratch him. He's jammed a finger in his eye on more than one occasion. The only thing he likes about them that sometimes his fingers find their way into his mouth, then he'll suck away like there is no tomorrow. But when he's swaddled his arms and legs are on lock down and he is a much calmer baby.

Here are Andrew's swaddling secrets.

1.) Use two blankets.
2.) The first blanket should be big.
3.) The first blanket should also be relatively thin and of a flannel type material.
4.) Arms are the key. Wrap them tight like a straight jacket.
5.) Keep all the blankets away from the face as much as possible.
6.) Hat's can help but can also be hard to put on a newborn.

See for yourself...

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Snow in Salem

2009-02-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

This winter has been great in Salem, if you love snow ( I do!).

Oliver does too...

Also, we've decided to give cloth diapers a try. We'll keep you posted on our results.

Doctors appointment

2009-02-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

Chase, Megan and I went to Chase's doctor's appointment last Wednesday. He now weighs eight pounds eleven ounces and is 21 inches long. So he's gained nearly a pound in two weeks and grown 2.5 inches! I know for a fact that he did not grow 2.5 inches in two weeks. When he was born they barely stretched him out to get his measurement so he was probably almost 21 inches at birth.

Two weeks

2009-02-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

Well we made it another week with our new housemate. Nothing too exciting to report on. He still eats alot. He still sleeps alot...

He is awake from time to time...

Sometimes I wonder what he's going to look like. He looks different in different light conditions. Here I think he looks alot like me...

Say hi Chase...

Say hi Chase from andrew boes on Vimeo.

One Week Old

2009-02-18T20:20:00.005-08:00

Well, Chase is one week old. Megan and I are very happy parents and thus far have yet to to be anything but totally smitten with our child, although he is developing quite a set of lungs so I'm sure that will change. Megan is doing very well feeding and so far Chase has had a great appetite. Earlier today I realized that she probably hasn't slept for more than 2.5 hours in one sleep session for more than 8 days. I do my best to make sure that all she has to do is eat and feed but I'm still amazed at how well she is doing given that little amount of sleep. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Getting sleepy...

Sleepier...

Asleep...

Because I have to go back to work eventually I decided to make some food that we could freeze. One of those foods was potstickers...

Here is a video of Chase with the hiccups...

(note: if someone would like a higher resolution picture to print please let me know and I'll send you one. The ones I post here have been modified to display on a website and are not really suitable for printing.)

Welcome Home Chase!

2009-02-15T17:16:00.004-08:00

We got home around 1300 on Friday and both of us were glad to be home. Megan was glad for all of the time she got to spend at the hospital. The nurses coming and going all of the time got annoying but it was nice to be able ask questions at almost anytime. She is especially thankful for one of the lactation specialists that helped her learn how to nurse. She says that if it wasn't for this lady she might not be able to breast feed.

So far our plan of attack is that I do all of the housework and Megan is only supposed to feed, eat, sleep and clean herself. That has worked relatively well thus far. She changes the diapers at night too, unless she really needs a break. I get quite a bit of sleep, especially for a father of a four day old.

Since Chase is four days old we were told that we have to go to the doctors for his four day checkup. Let me just say that it was a complete waste of time (I have many more negative thoughts about medical businesses (yes, they are businesses) but we'll save those for another post). Chase is back to his birth weight so that means that he is nursing very well.

That's all I have to say but I do have a few good pictures to share with you.

Oliver meets Chase...

Mommy's Little Valentine...

Can he see the dog?

Grandma, Grandpa, Chase, and Oliver...

Cute as a button...

(note: I don't actually think buttons are anywhere near this cute)

Details

2009-02-12T17:27:00.001-08:00

Tuesday, 10 February started like many other days in an Oregon winter. Foggy and wet. There was a dusting of snow on the ground and when Megan walked Oliver she wore some warm clothing. I woke and cooked us both a bowl of oatmeal with a sliced up apple while Megan caught a few more moments of sleep. After breakfast Megan asked me if my phone had a full charge because she had a pretty rough night with some cramps and she thought (hoped anyway) that our baby might come a few days early.
I left for work excited at this prospect. During the day megan and communicated a few times through varius means (txt, email, and chat) but her hopes for an early baby were never as high as when I had left for work. At one point she told me she was excited because the cramps we getting a little intense but after she walked the dog they all but went away. When I got home that night (1900) Megan had prepared one of my favorite dinners and asked me to right down the times when she had a small cramp. At first I enthusiastically wrote them down but, like many other things in my life, quickly lost interest. My ADD tendencies may have played a part but I really lost interest when she told me this could last for hours, days or even weeks. After dinner we watched the last episode of The Office from season four on Netflix.com and downloaded the first episode of season five. I remember the evening being very relaxing. Oliver and I got back from our walk around 2230 and every body was in bed shortly thereafter.

Megan got up around 2300 with cramps to find a more comfortable place to lie down. She very peacefully woke me up at 2330 and told me that she was pretty sure that "it's time". I slowly got out of bed and helped her get all the hospital stuff together. Our original plan was to stay at home until the last possible moment. The idea being that it would be less stressful at home because we wouldn't have all the medical people around us all the time. Also, megan wasn't sure she wanted to use any kind of pain medication and thought that if we were home it would be less of a temptation and also easier to keep her mind off the pain.

Turns out we didn't know anything. Nothing we did let us take our mind off the pain. Megan would have a few moments to relax but when she was having a contraction was hysterical with pain. We tried some breathing techniques with very limited success. I grew more stressed out with every moment that went by. We abandoned our isolationist strategy and at around 0130 I loaded the car.

Bags. Dog. Wife. Shoes on. Shoes off. Water. Shoes on. Ignition.

We stealthly dropped oliver off at my parents and were in triage by 0200. The nurse checked to see how far along she was and found that she was dialated 3 cm. Because she had vomitted a few times and she wanted the possibly of a quick epidural they decided to put Megan on an IV. One point five hours and eighty billion contractions later she decided an epidural was the way to go. We had heard many horror stories about it taking a long time for the anithesiologist to come. sometimes taking so long that the baby came out first. This was not our experince. When the nurse asked if we wanted one Megan had one no less than fifteen minutes later. At this time she was dialated 5 cm. The epidural was in at 0345 and at by 0400 Megan was VERY comfortable. She would later say that the pain wasn't the part that caught her off guard but rather she didn't feel like she got a break between contractions. In her mind there was going to beunbearable pain for a minute or two with a few minutes of relative calm between. After the epidural she was able sleep between contractions. Now that's relative calm.

I slept straight from 0415 to 0715. Megan will have to update you on what happened during this time, although, she slept through a good portion of it too. I woke up and heard that she was 10 cm and was about to begin pushing. When she began pushing, sometime around 0730, the midwife asked me to help hold her leg in a certain position. It only took about 30 seconds before I knew that I would not be able to help in this capacity. After getting a little further from all the action I realized that I would not be able to help in any capacity and that if I didn't move futher away I would only hurt the situation by passing out.

Chase was born at 0746 and sometime between 0730 and then I could tell that there was a slight problem. First I heard someone say neecu and knew that it was an acronym, NICU, that stood for neonatal intensive care unit. These are the people that prospective parents never want to see. They are called on when there are problems. The second sign was that put a special monitor on Chases as of yet unborn head. We learned in our parenting class that they "sometimes" need to this. To me "sometimes" only happened when there was an apparent problem. The third and final sign I picked up on was that Megan shifted her position her birthing position several times while pushing. note that none of the signs were from the medical personal, they had a calm demeanor and were very professional.

When Chase came out I didn't need any subtle signs. He was as blue as a smurf! Immediately after coming out of Megan they put him on her and scrubed all of the slime off of him. While doing this he didn't seem to be moving at all, but it was hard to tell because of the four hands and half as many cloths doing the cleanup. After what seemed like five minutes (but was probably only twenty seconds) the midwife picked him up to bring him to the NICU people. After only one step Chase let out slight peep. She paused. Nothing. Again she started heading away from Megan and I. Another peep only this time not as small. It was almost a chirp. For the first time since Chase was born I saw our midwife, nicknamed Happy, smile. Her smile, though encouraging, did not cheer me up nearly as much as the full blown cry that Chase blurted out only moments later. I was the pround parent of a beautiful baby boy.

(I wrote most of this post from our hospial room with Chase asleep on my chest. :o) )

Another Video and more pics

2009-02-11T19:45:00.001-08:00

Grandma and Chase...
Chase and Troy...
Troy is a little over two months old in this pic.

Here is our beautiful boy...

Introducing Chase from andrew boes on Vimeo.

Seven Pounds

2009-02-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

We welcomed our baby boy Chase Andrew into the world this morning at 0746. He weighted 7 lbs. 15 oz and was 18.5 inches long. Megan is doing excellent, much better than either of us had previously thought. For now I'll dispense with the info and show you a pic...

And some videos...

Notice the goofy shape of his head. Lot's of math brains I guess :)

For those of you that are interested if you click on the first video it will take you to the video's webpage. Below the lower right hand corner there is a hyperlink that says "watch in high quality" this will allow you to see much higher quality version of the same video. It may take a bit longer to load but I think it's worth it.

More pics and info will be coming!

Belly Pictures

2009-02-02T16:11:00.006-08:00

Here's the baby, due in 2.5 weeks.

Andrew's amazed at the dramatic differences in my tummy. So here's me sucking it in:

And puffing it out:

I'm still here!

2009-01-16T10:46:00.004-08:00

Just an update:

We finally got internet!

Baby is due in less than 5 weeks, on 19 Feb. We never chose to find out the gender, and there's no more ultrasounds left, so it will be a fun surprise for us. I'm feeling really good and fairly energetic. Andrew seems to be doing well too. :o)

I'm not going back to work until the fall. I've been tutoring some math students. Mostly home-schooled students. I like it.

I spend a lot more time at home. Surprisingly, I still feel pretty busy. I'm glad Oliver isn't home alone as much as he used to be. He's a good buddy. I've been working on organizing each room in the house. The next to work on is the room where Mom & Dad will be staying when they visit in March! Our friends gave us their queen mattress for my parents, but Dan will have to make due in the office on an air mattress. :o)

Andrew got me a keyboard for Christmas. I've been having a lot of fun developing the musical side of myself. I'm on page 142 of my beginner book. I've been keeping up with my exercise class and doing some walking. I'm in training for labor, and thinking of it as this huge upcoming sporting event/physical challenge. I'm even hoping to have someone braid my pigtails like we used to do fore soccer/rugby games when the time arrives. I feel (and am) pretty big - hopefully I'll have some pictures for you soon!

Andrew and I are hoping to go on a little trip very soon. He'll ski with some buddies, and I'll play in the snow with Oliver (I'm super-excited that we found a dog-friendly place). I've maxed out my skiing time, but did get a little bit in this season.

Merry Christmas Oliver

2008-12-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

Aunt Sharon sent us a very nice house warming gift and Oliver really likes it. What's funny is that he almost immediatly claimed it as his space.

Oliver has been growing in a thicker coat for the winter and as a result has been shedding. I mused that instead of vacuuming all of his hair off the carpet and furniture we should just vacuum Oliver. After I said the joke a light bulb appeared over my head.

Oliver's face says it all...
We probably won't be trying that again.

No Knead Bread

2008-12-07T17:37:00.005-08:00

I found this recipe about two years ago and always wanted to try it. Until two weeks ago I wasn't sure it was worth the price of admission. The bread must be baked at 450 degrees in a 6-8 Qt pot that had a lid.

I love bread, especially fresh bread. In college I found a bread machine at a garage sale for $5 and made quite a few loafs with it. The problem with the machine is that for one it's loud and annoying and second, the shape of the loaf was circular so all of your sandwiches, toast, etc... had to be circular. The shape also made it hard to cut without smashing it. To remedy the shape problem, I started taking the dough out before the baking cycle, shaping it myself and then baking it in the oven. This ended up being quite a bit more work and the luxury of machine automation was now gone. The one thing my bread machine kneaded, oven baked bread lacked was was an excellent, crispy crust. ( I tried spraying water in the oven every fifteen minutes but never had a noticeable effect.)

The recipe is extremely simple, mix water, flour, salt and yeast then 24 hours later bake it for 60 minutes. Time does the work for you. Indecently it actually takes less of my time to prepare than the bread machine bread. Here are two things I've learned after making a half dozen loafs. First, regular flour will work but bread flour rises much more and produces a loaf that is about 30% bigger. Second, don't use tap water. The chlorine in the water gives the bread a very slight chemical taste (I always had this taste in bread machine bread but didn't figure out it was the water.) I use distilled water from the grocery store.

The bread from the no knead recipe is nothing short of exquisite. The crust crackles to reveal a delicious crumb...

I also made a pie...

Helicopter

2008-12-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

Megan and I live right next to Christmas tree farm. The farm, which has been bustling for the past few weeks, uses a helicopter to move trees from the field to the trucks. We've really enjoyed watching them work, the helicopter doesn't stop moving for a second. It puts the trees into the truck and heads back to the field in one fluid motion. In fact, the only time we saw it hovering at all is when they hook the cable up to a new bunch of trees.

Here is the view from our home...

The helicopter bringing in a bundle of trees...

Dropping the trees into the trucks...

Hiking, Backpacking and Moutain Biking

2008-11-22T15:17:00.008-08:00

I love getting out in the fall, as the days get short and crisp they seem much more precious and energizing. The past few months we've done a pretty good job of getting outdoors once or twice a month. In September, I went mountain biking on the Mckensie River Trail with my friend Scott. This trail is legendary amoung mountain bikers across the country for a very good reason. It's 33 miles of dirt single track. No fire roads, no double track, no gravel, just dirt. The only downside to the trail is that it's one way. So we rode 15 miles one way, then turned around and rode back.

----------

Megan and I went for a hike on Cascade Head near Lincoln City, on the Oregon Coast. This is a short hike with very nice views of the beach. We took Oliver and Molly, my parents dog, with us.

Here is a picture of Molly and Oliver in the back seat of the car...

On the trail...

Looking south...

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We also went backpacking on 25 October. The weather was cool but we had the place to ourselves in the evening and morning. We chose Pamelia Lake since it was less that three miles to the campsite and very little elevation gain.

We took a side trip to the point where Milk Creek intersects the Pacific Crest Trail...

Here we are warming and stoking the fire...

As you can see Megan and I are wearing alot of clothing due to the colder temps. To keep warm, Oliver dug a shallow bed for himself and curled very tight...

He was scared of the fire.

Ultasound

2008-11-22T15:09:00.004-08:00

Profile...

Aparently this baby thinks a little to highly of itself...

Preggy Meggy

2008-11-22T12:12:00.001-08:00

Here she is at 23 weeks...

And here she is at 27 weeks...

It Snows on Mars?!

2008-11-12T16:43:00.004-08:00

I was listening to NPR the other day, and this was really big news to me.

They think it snows on Mars! Now gravitational force there is about 38% of ours, so this could make for some really boring (slow) or exciting skiing (how many back flips can you do?!). Now that would be a ski resort you could brag about having visited.

Not very many posts lately - work and no regular internet at home! All is well. Baby Boes is growing just fine, and feels like he/she's doing skiing back flips in my tummy.

Smartphone Apps

2008-10-23T11:42:00.002-07:00

I've been toying around with the idea of making a program for either the iPhone or Gphone (Android) or both. Every time I come up with an idea though I always think that nobody would use it or find that someone has already built a similar app, usually far superior to my idea. Developing on this platform is interesting to me because a smartphone is the convergence of nearly every electronic gadget that you own. Computer, MP3 player, GPS, TV, calculator, watch,... all of these functions can be performed by one device. The main problem being that it is a jack of all trades master of none (I guess it is master of mobility). For example, your not going to write your dissertation on an iPhone and the calculator on the Gphone isn't going to graph 3D equations like your TI-89 but the you could in fact perform both of these on a smartphone.

Mobile applications are by far the most interesting market to me. Sometimes they seem like magic. Take for example Wikitude. This app uses the phones gps and Wikipedia to find interesting things around you. Using the phones camera you can create an augmented reality that points at the location. Have you ever been looking for a museum or store only to find out you were right next to it all along? Wikitude to the rescue! From the website...

The truly compelling feature is the augmented reality cam view, users may hold the phone’s camera against a spectacular mountain range and see the names and heights displayed as overlay mapped with the mountains in the camera. Users may look out of an airplane window to see what is down there. Users may walk through a city like Seville, Spain, holding the phone’s camera against a building and Wikitude tells what it is.

Click here to look at the demo.

The question I have is will people buy these types of applications and how much will they pay for them.

Assuming your phone does the basic things like calling, calender, email, etc... If you could have any application on a phone what would it be? What do want that nobody is making?