22 Months!

At 22 months Wren is one busy little gal.  She says the funniest things (this Sunday she told me to "Shake your booty, Mama!" whoah!) and loves to be outside.  She's tested out bikes, been to the beach, started singing songs, become a little acrobat, been to the fair, started a new daycare, and much more!  Rather then gravitate toward the livestock at the local fair like we assumed, Wren was afraid of the animals - major tears!  Walking around the pigs was the most traumatic - one piggy squeal was all it took for Wren to learn "No like pigs".  Alternate "pigs" with "cows" and "goats" and you have a little mantra that we hear from Wren now.  Wren started a new daycare in Corvallis this summer to give us more flexibility with getting her to and from and things have been going well.  She has had to adjust to one nap starting at a fairly specific time, so we have some grouchy evenings with a tired girl, but overall Wren is very happy there.  Speaking of tired, we turned a corner somewhere over the last few weeks and now Wren is (mostly) sleeping all night uninterrupted (except the last two nights when she wanted her blanket off, on, off, on) and is actually sleeping in.  No, seriously.  We slept until 8:00 AM on Sunday.  It was amazing!  This week I have had to wake her up to get ready for daycare, so we are trying a little earlier bedtime to help with that.  Wren sings "Rain, Rain, go away" and "Happy Birthday" and will copy most sing-songy phrases we say.  She told me today that she wanted to sit in her baby chair (high chair) and when I told her she's not a baby she said "I am".  Wren is often in tantrum mode and we try to distract her with songs, looking out the window, anything we can think of.  Ask Wren what she dreamt about last night and she might tell you "Shelly" (former daycare provider) or "fishing".  Ask her how many fish she caught and some nights it was 3 and others as many as 9!!  Wren loves to count and point out objects in books.  A coworker of mine gifted Richard Scarry book with Goldbug on every page and Wren is a master at locating Goldbug.  She is a smarty pants and not afraid to show it.  Coming up soon - a trip to visit family in Nevada and turning 2 - look out!



One day soon!

South Beach State Park with Grandma T



Benton County Fair - this is as close as Wren got to the animals (except two bunnies she agreed to pet)

At Daddy's Frisbee game

It's hard to tell but she is truly hanging!

Reunion with her former daycare provider, Shelly, and her family

First dip in the Willamette River

Lots of blueberry picking this summer

Crazy monkeys!

Now that she is comfortable with the fountain she runs right for it!

Silly girls!

With my high school best friend Lacey and her daughter Callie meeting up in Portland!

Cherry tomato chomping at the farmer's market

Checking out the recently refurbished Dinosaur Bones at Avery Park.  Jay used to play on this structure when he was little!

Such a big girl!  I cropped the video to leave out a not-so-graceful exit from the swing....

Down on the farm

A few weeks ago we drove over the mountain to visit Gramma Sondy and Papa Barclay on their little farm in Central Oregon.  Wren had a great time wrangling chickens and collecting eggs and Jay and I enjoyed getting to sleep in (thank you, grandparents!!)!.  Not seeing daylight until 8:30 AM, two days in a row, was an absolute luxury.  We broke out the hand-me-down frog pool from cousin Karsyn so Wren could beat the heat.  She invited everyone into the pool with her and, of course, the one who willingly went first was none other than WaterBaby.  We battled quite a few mosquitos during our stay but fortunately they left Wren (and WaterBaby) alone.  

Missing you

We had the opportunity to memorialize Shep and donate to the Heartland Humane Society.  Shep's brick was recently installed and we took a trip out to visit.  We comment often about how difficult losing our little buddy has been.  9 months later and we still experience waves of grief and miss his presence in our lives and home.  

Reunion weekend!

The weekend I returned from my trip to Florida was a major reunion weekend!  Not only was I reunited with my sweet family but I was also visited by two of my college roommates (plus one spouse)!  This year marks 10 years since graduation (whoah!) so we got together in our college town (Hey! That's where I live!) to relive old times through stories and sometimes embarrassing pictures.  Val and Dave visited from Houston and Lyndsay drove down from Vancouver, BC.  I just stayed put - I'm so lucky!  Saturday we moseyed around town and went to Farmer's Market and toured our old stomping grounds - OSU campus.  We took a trip on Sunday to the coast for an ocean visit (not a good weather day for the beach) and lunch at the Rogue Brewery.  It was so great to see my pals and pick up right where we left off.  Isn't that the best!!  Everyone took off Memorial Day Monday for their respective homes and it was time for this ol' gal to catch up on some much needed sleep and time with my little Wren and Mr. Jay.  Travel + late night catching up sure wears ya down!

Note: Pictures are in very random order....but you get the idea! 

 

Of course we had to go to Farmer's Market to play with our buddy Geneva

The fountain was finally turned on with the nice weather

Our group standing in the Memorial Union Quad, captured on the webcam for eternity!

Goofy grown ups!

WINDY!

 

If Wren follows in our footsteps she might be standing by this statue as a student in about 17 years

Fun on campus with rope!

Lyndsay taught us how to make little Rhino horns out of plants!

 

 

Time away

I learned in February, while we were in Hawaii actually, that I would be attending a work conference in Florida over the week before Memorial Day.  We considered traveling as a family, but with the length of time it took Wren to adjust to the different time zone in Hawaii, and with how challenging flying was, we decided not to go that route.  My sister had recently moved to Las Vegas and I had yet to visit and meet my new nephew, Landon, so I decided to tack on a trip to see them since I would already be away from home.  I knew the trip would happen, but I blocked it from my mind until the week before when my co-workers started asking if I was looking forward to a week long conference on medical records software....  

I flew out on Friday morning for Vegas and left Wren and Jay for a whole week!  Grandma Sondy visited through Monday to help out (Jay had his hands full as Wren had stomach trouble all weekend) and Grandma Brynn watched Wren two days that week to save Jay from driving back and forth twice a day all week to daycare (50 minutes round trip).  

I had a great time visiting family and meeting little Landon - hard to believe Wren was ever that little! - and flew out Sunday night (ok, Monday morning at 1:30 AM - note: avoid Spirit Airlines!) for Fort Lauderdale.  The week was long for me and it was hard to be away from my family. I even had a breakdown Tuesday night and researched earlier flights home!  My family missed me, too, and when I flew in on Friday afternoon I drove straight to daycare to get my girl.  I envisioned an amazing reunion where Wren wouldn't stop hugging me.  Instead she went about her usual routine of putting on her shoes and grabbing her milk, but I knew she was excited about my return!  Jay and Wren had a good week of bonding though there were extra tantrums and some rough nights of troubled sleep.  

It took a few days to adjust back to the right time zone but it was so good to get back to our normal routine!  

How Wren spent her week without me:

Exploring the OSU campus

Being a good consumer at the Farmer's Market

Burning energy with Geneva!

She's starting to say POPCORN!

How I spent my time away:

On The Strip

Shmoozing with wax celebrities

Snuggling with Landon

Playing with Karsyn

Holding a baby kangaroo

Kissing snakes

Hey there!

Bear Cat - his name is Frito because he smells like corn chips.  Yes.  Really.

Sneaking out of conference sessions to go to the beach

18 months!!!

Believe it or not (it's hard for us to sometimes!) our little Wren girl is 18 months old!  (Well, almost 19 by the time I'm getting around to this post!) This girl is amazing every day. The things she says and does make us smile and laugh! 
At her 18 month check up Wren weighed 27 pounds, 2 ounces (93rd %) and is 33.5" tall (99th %).  She's getting a little leaner but she still has that healthy belly we love so much! 
Wren now has 15 teeth (canines!).  She has recently been introduced to pizza and is a big fan!  She loves popcorn, though she calls it "maki" (that's my guess on spelling) see video below.  She scurries about with her little run and gets into everything!  She locked me out of the house one day - though thankfully I had my keys in my pocket - so we have had to Wren-proof the garage door.  She loves being outside and can now get herself, though not gracefully, into her bike trailer and ask to go to the park.
We are very excited to share that on Sunday, April 28th, Wren used her potty for the first time!  All of our talk about the potty paid off!  We jumped and cheered and congratulated Wren for being such a big girl to use her potty.  No repeats yet!
Wren has been enjoying                                        Digging in the backyard

Making crafts at daycare

Playing in the bird bath

Rolling in our luscious grass

 Climbing up

 Climbing down

 Shopping!

Sliding!

Reinventing the somersault

And eating/renaming popcorn!