So if I do this once a month is that satisfactory? It's getting more and more difficult to find a spare minute to type without Adelle trying to stomp on the keyboard. That's right: Stomp. With her feet. Because seeing my hands on the keys has lead her to believe that the one thing she needs to put on this keyboard is her feet. Go figure.

Fall has arrived has given me another reason to appreciate the schedule of a stay at home mom. There's not a lot to love since I work where I live and the hours are rough. (yes, I was awake at 2 am trying to find a binky in the dark.) However it is a portable job and on the rare occasion the sun chooses to shine I am not stuck behind a desk or with my face pressed against the glass of the nearest available window. Adelle and I take walks everyday (rain or shine as a matter of fact) and we've been enjoying the carpet of colorful leaves and all the wild and wacky mushrooms that are growing around here.



I've also become addicted to baking bread. Luckily, as my waistline implies, I also love to eat bread. I recently visited my sister Ann in Utah. She's living in a super swanky place with the kitchen pictured below. The focus here is obviously on the fact that Adelle loved to run around this kitchen and chase Ann - something she won't do for anyone else. But I loved that Adelle was busy and I could bake bread. It's a little more difficult at home but that's why we have a singing teapot. Or at the very least Yo Gabba Gabba. A bizarre kids television show that amuses me and Adelle loves almost as much as her daddy.




Adelle yammers and babbles a lot now in addition to saying words like: hi, hey, yeah-yeah, dog, ball, uh-oh, yay, and dada. Dada being the most important word as we learned on Sunday when she cried and led Jordan around by the hand while calling out, "DA DA!" over and over. All the while Jordan was reassuring her, "yes, Adelle. I'm right here." I was in another room on the phone and when she finally found me she was so happy to see me (for once!) She stopped crying immediately. I guess my name is dada, too.


oh, and also "Ba-ba-ba" which is what she says when she wants us to sing "Barbra Ann" by the Beach Boys. She absolutely loves that song. I told you she had her own taste in music.

I'm not a fan of "kids music." Everything seems like groups of auto-tuned kids singing or adults behaving in ways that embarrass me and is all so phony that I get bugged. I do have a CD called "For the Kids" that I really enjoy. But as a general rule Adelle is stuck with the kind of music I like to listen to. Recently I discovered she has her own taste in music. I was reading someone's blog where they posted a video of their daughter dancing to "Viva la Vida" and laughed when I noticed Adelle was really enjoying it as well. I got a kick out of the fact that pretty much any time of day I could go to youtube and play the music video and she would drop her toys so she could rock out to this song. Eventually Jordan and I decided to do a little experiment. The next time Adelle was being fussy he grabbed the video camera and this is the result.

We made it just to the lower falls and back. Just over 3.5 miles round trip. Some of it was pretty well sloped! Can't really call it steep... but it made for a good work out. (Thanks Kristen for the recommendation... it was perfect!)

I think the pictures speak for themselves but one thing worth mentioning is that we were able to take our little dog Silas. That guy is such a trooper. It was a lot of work for a dog that spends the majority of his day napping. He (like us) was a little sore and stiff the next day and it showed!


I got a great book from my mother-in-law detailing more family friendly hikes in the area. We're hoping to make it a regular activity for our family. Maybe there are some benefits to living in the drizzly Pacific Northwest after all...



Oh yeah. there's a picture of my once-dark-purple-and-now-faded-to-hot-pink-hair. For those that have been asking...

Hey! Guess what? I managed to keep things going around here for a whole year! So far Adelle has not been irreversibly ruined, maimed, or forced to eat peas. But I confess, I did try to force her to eat a cupcake. It required lots of force and ended in tears. What the heck! It was her birthday and people had traveled to see her, and bought her presents, and sang to her and helped her blow out the candle! .... and I had stayed up the night before to make the stupid cupcakes. (Jordan even helped!) She is still my Sweet Potato Baby and is interested in little else. In fact, she is unwilling to eat anything that is not the same texture as watered-down pureed sweet potatoes. So that one little grain of soft and over-cooked rice that's in her sweet potatoes will induce a screaming fit of epic proportions. She will actually eat around it and spit out the rice. and then scream at you.


The pictures from her birthday are unremarkable. She doesn't get her usual naps on Sundays and was a little cranky. But let me assure you that she LOVES her birthday presents and the songs that they sing over and over every time you push their buttons. It's so funny to watch her dance while her little pink teapot sings, "Time to share a pot of tea some for you some for me let's take turns and always say please and thank you!" (this is to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down.)

In other news...


that's right. It's back. The squinch face. A while back Adelle had a stuffy nose and I guess in an effort to clear her sinuses was huffing and puffing with her face squinched and I laughed because it looked hilarious. Now Adelle runs around huffing and puffing like this when she's excited and wants to be funny. She likes to do it with her forehead against mine. Trust me when I tell you it's even funnier close up.

Here's a parting shot of Adelle at our Sulzen Family reunion in Flagstaff. My sister Karen did such a great job planning everything and I was especially glad she included so much time in water. Adelle is a water baby! check out the evidence below...


Here's a pic of all the clan at the reunion playing super fun party games!

we've had a great summer!

Went to see Gillian Welch for Jordan's birthday. We had the opportunity just after we got married... but I had to work. sheesh. The Man. Always trying to keep me from seeing Gillian Welch concerts. She doesn't play much these days and I was determined not to miss this. I'll tell you what, the years of anticipation were not in vain. And Gillian and Dave did not disappoint. If you ever get the opportunity don't let it pass you by. It was an incredible show.

It reminded me that about this time last year Jordan and I were in the same field checking out a Low concert. Another group we will see any time it's possible to do so. (and I recommend you do the same.)


Of course, last year I was still pregnant.


It's caused me to reflect on what a wild year this has been. Especially since the year before seemed slow...Adelle's birthday is coming up and I can't believe how much faster the months fly by when my day isn't centered around trying not to puke.

I only hope I can continue to calendar my life around such great artists and events and that next year this time we're back in Marymoor Park having our socks rocked.

written 7/12/09

pictures of Adelle's birthday etc to follow shortly... patience. patience.

We (the men) went fishing in Mexico. It was kind of slow but my brother Chandler managed to reel in this marlin, which is easily the biggest I have ever seen that wasn't behind glass. He was a good sport so we threw him back. The fish, I mean. Chan is still with us.















The thing about fishing is this: People complain that we are hurting or traumatizing the fish, but I feel that it is a pretty fair trade - the fish gets a free lunch, we get a picture and everybody gets to go home and tell their buddies about the epic struggle they endured. No hard feelings. Sometimes we eat the fish, but in that case I only imagine that he derives enormous pleasure from being delicious.

This was the only fish that we caught all day, except for my nephew Jackson who caught one of the live bait fish with his bare hands and was, in turn, almost caught by a pelican.

-Jordan

I have been to Mexico 4 times now. (Thank you, Sherri!) And the previous three times each involved a general crisping, and once a complete charring, of my skin by the sun. If some reports are to be believed, I'll get skin cancer and die one day from all the sun I got in Mexico on that one trip alone. I got so much sun on those trips it actually managed to ruin everyday of the trip after. Being irresponsible ruined 3 perfectly good trips to Mexico.
Sneaky sun! Hanging right there in sky. And everywhere I go in Mexico it's right overhead. Which of course is disconcerting for me especially now that I'm a Seattlite. We're used to the sun lurking behind several protective layers of the "gray wall."
I will go so far as to say that sun poisoning is as bad as morning sickness. It doesn't last as long, but it comes with the side effect of pain every time you so much as breathe too deeply and the nausea is every bit as intense. But look! I return from Mexico with barely any sun at all. I kept a fog of sunscreen around me so thick that I managed to be out and about in the Mexican sun for hours without getting more than the slightest hint of a tan. You gotta admit that's impressive. And makes for a WAY better vacation. I mean, there was so much to do! I had to enjoy every day I was in Mexico! I mean, between the perfect location on the Marina, the private hot tub on our patio just 10 steps from the pool, the warm clear almost wave-less water at the beach, the submarine trip, the parasailing, burying Kelsey in the sand, the glass factory, did I mention the perfect-for-floating water at the beach? It was pretty much non-stop enjoyment from the minute we got there. Uninterrupted by the sun's best efforts to saturate me with radiation.

Take that, sun.