The Terrible Tyler

Last week, my mother set out on a cross-country bike trip

(have I mentioned that she is nuts?)

Here is the group of women she will be riding with,

dipping their back tires into the Pacific Ocean.

Her last wish, before embarking on her journey,

was that I watch the Duke vs. UNC game on Sunday

("they are going to need extra positive energy")

because she wasn't convinced she would be able to find a television

in the high mountains of California.

I, personally, would have significantly different concerns if I was 

about to bike across the country, but regardless...

So Casey, Orin, and I donned our Duke apparel and headed off to 

a friend's house to watch the big game.

Because it was such an important game 

(the final game of the regular season)

I was careful to make sure that I was wearing 100% blue and white,

right down to the socks and shoes.

However, no matter how hard we cheered,

in the final minutes of the game,

Duke was dragged down into the wake of Terrible Tyler Hansbrough.

It was awful to witness.

Orin was so distraught, he wanted to call my mother right away

to let her know that we had failed her,

but I reassured him that there would been many opportunities

for redemption in the weeks to come,

Ah yes... March Madness is almost upon us.

Go Duke!

Exercise

The last couple of days, the weather has been unseasonably cold,

leaving me reluctant to go on my standard afternoon stroll

with Orin and his puppies.

Because we aren't walking, I needed to find another way 

for the troops to get their daily dose of exercise.

Luckily, Orin came up with the perfect solution:

Clear some space in the bedroom and let him chase the dogs around.

Orin loves this game, which he calls "run over the puppies"

When he manages to catch the dogs, he smashes them gleefully

with his exersaucer and giggles hysterically.

The dogs are typically less happy, 

but it apparently is better than laying around.

Here is a clip from this afternoon's session:

Guy Time

Lately, my schoolwork has been dragging me away from reality

more and more each day.

While I have been locked away deriving the concentration of 

lindane in aquatic invertebrates,

Orin has been spending some quality time doing "guy stuff" 

with his daddy and Uncle Steven.

Here is a quick recap of all the new things he has learned in the past week:

How to high-five:

How to ride a dirtbike:

How to ride a car:

How to plow into someone trying to take a picture

of him riding a car:

How to do the wave,

the menacing Fist-Pound,

and, last but not least, the Mafia Face.

But don't think all of these new skills came easily,

No. It was a lot of work.

So much, in fact...

Goodnight.

9 Months

Ever since Orin learned how to crawl on all fours,

he has been unstoppable.

He now easily cruises over to objects, pulls himself up,

and holds on bobbing, weaving and babbling until he 

a) loses interest and moves on, or

b) falls down

To help Orin enjoy his new skill set to the fullest,

Casey and I decided to get him a platform activity toy for his birthday.

The toy features a large array of brightly colored objects

all of which can be pressed with the result of some random 

song or factoid being sung by an overly enthusiastic woman.

As I write this she is singing "Green Circle! Green Circle!"

Orin adores it.

We also decided to get him a pair of leather slipper shoes

to help eliminate falls caused from his socks slipping

on the hardwood floors.

There were a large variety of patterns for the slipper shoes.

Casey made the final decision.

But today was not only made special because of Orin's birthday.

It is also the day that Uncle Alex sets out on the second,

and longest, segment of his Special Forces combat training. 

He will be out of contact for 5-7 weeks in some undisclosed part

of some undisclosed state doing some secret SF training operation.

This segment boasts a 70% attrition rate.

It is the last segment where soldiers can fail out of SF,

so today and tomorrow and all the days of the next month or so

try to remember to say some kind of 

manly sounding prayer for my brother.

He has certainly come a long way since 

his boot camp graduation 2 years ago...

And now, I am going to shamelessly post a large number of pictures 

of Orin without any descriptive tidbits

except to say that they were taken a few days ago when

the temperature reached 60 degrees and 

Orin and I decided to take in a little sun...

Goodnight.

Colds and Hats

Over the course of Aunt Andy's visit,

 Orin slowly recovered from his cold.

Had he not spent so much time pampering himself,

the cold might have lingered longer,

but he was quite a diligent nurse. 

While Andy stayed with us, she spent her free time 

knitting hats for the whole family

(she is pictured here in the hat she made for me)

Orin's was created from the yarn left over from mine and Casey's.

At first, Orin thought that his hat was great.

But when we told him it had been woven from leftovers,

he threw a tantrum and vowed never to wear the hat,

or matching scarf, ever again. 

I caught his disgust on video.

But by the end of the visit, Orin forgave Aunt Andy

and moved on to more pressing issues,

like trying to catch his kitty.

And in baby updates:

Orin's top two teeth are coming in.

You can see all four if you look closely at this picture.

Andina

The first few days of Aunt Andy's visit

we just hung around the house, 

allowing time for me to recuperate from my cold

and letting Andy readjust to life back in the first world

(she has been living in Haiti for the last year and a half).

But yesterday was so beautiful, 

we knew we had to get out of the house,

so I took her to my favorite hiking spot right across 

the Washington line.

Today, another beautiful day called us outdoors,

this time to visit the Japanese Gardens.

It was Casey's first time at the Gardens and, as usual,

he showed his enthusiasm for the experience by doing wheelies. 

Even though it is the middle of February, the Gardens were beautiful

with broken stone walkways, waterfalls,

and bamboo fountains.

After the Gardens we headed to our favorite restaurant 

in the city for some Peruvian Tapas.

Orin was so excited about the new food, 

it was hard to keep him contained.

Occasionally, when I would take too long to get him a bite,

he would resort to eating the table.

I was always one second too late 

to catch this particular act on camera

but, as you can imagine, it was quite amusing. 

Orin had chicken, bread, sweet potato, avocado...
and maybe a few too many habanero-infused martinis

because we had barely enough time to savor dessert

before he started babbling about not getting a fair

share of the octopus dish and we had to leave.

Until next time.

When I will remember to order two desserts.

The Worst Trip Ever

Last week, Colleen, Cody, and baby Rowan 

flew out to Oregon to visit us.

It was their first time seeing Portland and 

while it should have been great

it was instead a complete and total disaster.

Everything that could have gone wrong did. 

To start, they were supposed to come out on 

Thursday and stay 6 days,

but at the last minute Cody had a work conference 

and they had to move their flight to Saturday. 

On Saturday morning they missed their plane and arrived 8 hours late.

The next day, the beautiful weather we had been having 

gave way to grey skies, rain, and snow.

Undeterred, the boys set out for their first day of fishing. 

Needless to say, they caught nothing. 

And the next day when they went out again: still nothing.

But this time, when they went to leave, they realized

the van was out of gas, and

had to call Uncle Steven to come bail them out.

Back at home, things were worse. 

Everyone was sick. 

Rowan spiked a temperature of 104 and had 

to go to the emergency room two days in a row.

Orin also had an emergency doctor's appointment.

The few pictures I have from the visit were taken

 during a short interval when

the babies stopped crying long enough,

and Colleen and I had taken enough cold medicine,

that we could all act like things were going well.

Here is Rowan, fishing for Orin.

Rowan was a determined fisherman. 

But, alas, I don't think he was ready to hook

a 20 pounder.

Even though the trip was a complete failure,

Colleen and Cody have promised to return some day

for the tour of the city that never happened, 

the hike in the Gorge that never happened,

the meal out at the great Portland restaurant that never happened, 

and a view of Mt Hood and Mt. St. Helens, 

neither of which emerged from behind the clouds the entire visit. 

After I dropped them off at the airport in the wee hours

of the morning, I went back to bed.

When I woke up, I drove back to the airport,

this time to pick up another visitor:

Auntie Andy.

Driving north on I-205 the sun was shining and I saw both

Mt Hood and Mt St. Helens clearly in the distance.

I took it as a sign that the bad luck spell was over.

And so far, it looks like I was right.

But more on Andy's visit later,

for now, I am still shaking this cold and so I am off to bed.