my sister the soon to be sailor

Rowan and I made an impromptu visit to Portland on Monday to hang out with Krystle on her last day as a civilian. We abandoned Logan for a night but I'm glad we got to do it :)

Here we are outside her recruiters' office

The day before Logan went off to basic training mom, Cherise and I took him to starbucks and hung out then took him to his hotel. I thought it would be fun to create a tradition so here we are in the Barnes and Noble starbucks with Cameron. Below is a silly moment in front of her hotel, one of the last silly moments Krystle will have... for a few weeks at least.

The morning of her swearing in Rowan and I went with Mom and Dad to spend some time with her at MEPS. Rowan liked the game room best. He's was sitting at the only game that didn't have to do with shooting. Who would've thought that a military processing station would have so many first person shooters eh? nutty.

Green for visitor, white for enlistee.

It was interesting to sit in the waiting room and observe the soon to be sailors, soldiers, and airmen knowing a bit of the world they're going into. I had to just shake my head at a few of them, they seemed to be the type that were the bees knees in high school and I suspected may be in for a rude awakening once they got to boot camp or basic training. I think that's probably what happens to most kids when the first join the military. Especially the younger ones.

I think Krystle will do absolutely wonderful. I'm glad she's finally there and doing it :) I can't wait to hear how she's doing. I hope I get a chance to write to her soon.

Poor little guy

This is Rowan this morning in his new kung fu panda jammies. The night before last he had a bit of a high temperature (about 100-101) not too bad so I just gave him some watered down juice and put him to bed. Yesterday morning he still felt warm and he was acting a bit fussier and tired than normal. I took his temperature at lunchtime and it was 102.2 under his arm which is actually about 103.

I called the advice nurse at madigan and she directed me to a walk-in clinic in Lacey because there weren't any walk-in appointments at our regular doctor. The clinic was nice, everyone was helpful and we were seen quickly. Rowan had a temp of 102 when we got there and when the doctor looked in his ears she discovered that he has a double ear infection. So now he's on a low dose amoxocilin for the next ten days which he likes :) I think it's berry flavored.


He's doing pretty well considering his ailment. He's playing toys and crawling around. The only signs today that he isn't 100% are a warm forehead and a bit more fussiness and sleepiness than normal. He woke up at 7 this morning then took a nap at 8:30 until about 10:40 (normally his morning nap is about 45 minutes) I'm glad that he isn't totally miserable. I hope he's all better soon.

ha HA take that confusing laptop!

I still haven't gotten my pictures onto this new laptop but thanks to Courtney's camera I have pictures from the last week of my baby doing what he does best, being cute :D







Gotta love that toothy smile, dirt-covered face, and smiley eyes. I certainly do.

boo mosquitos... hooray new laptop!

I don't like mosquitos. I keep having weird reactions to bites. It used to be that I'd get a bite and there would be an itchy but relatively ignorable little round bump. Now if I get a bite it grows and may spread into a shape more like antarctica or australia, gets warm to the touch and swells like a bruise for a few days. It's so weird! Granted the less I scratch the more it behaves and remains small and round but they still tend to be a bit warm and swell... maybe it's because I had a baby. Pregnancy is craaazy.

In other news we got a new laptop! It's white and light, it has all it's keys and best of all it turns on! Our other four or five year old lappy called it quits the other day. We'd been living with it's lack of lefthand ctrl, function, righthand alt, and loose Q keys for a while (courtesy of our old cat Chaos and our new son Rowan) and conceded to having it plugged in all the time or face a ten minute battery life. For what we needed it worked fine, we could edit and store plenty of pictures and browse the internet just fine. Unfortunately as I said it croaked. The couple days ago Logan was internetting and it just turned itself off for good. So we shopped and compared and researched and yesterday we purchased a fancypants new sony laptop. I still have to figure out exactly how to put pictures on but when I do I will show you a few from the first half of our NZ adventure. Because I found the card :) Until then avoid mosquitos.





You should probably avoid mosquitos after that as well.

Let's just change the rule to always avoid mosquitos.

New Zealand

Hooray! Logan found the cord! Unfortunately NOW I've misplaced the sd card with the first half of the trip on it. Though maybe that isn't that unfortunate because there are about 500 pictures on the first half and twice as much on the second. With only two thirds to pick from it was a lot easier to give you a small sample of our wonderul New Zealand adventure. Enjoy!

Logan and Rowan exploring a path off of a rest area

Playing on a jeep at the Wellington zoo

Enjoying the tv cart in the hotel room in Wellington

Father and son acting tough for the camera

Rowan and uncle Ty walking to Te Papa (the national museum)

Happy boys near Waiouru

Checkin out a big bug with great uncle Steve

Family potrait at the beach

Cutie in headphones

That was a good joke mom!

12 hour flights fly when you're sound asleep

Home again :)

As I said it was a great trip :) maybe when I find the card with the first half I'll post a few more pictures. We'll see.

Rowan was a bit late for his 9 month check-up but he didn't need any shots so it wasn't a big deal. He had a bit of a runny nose when we went but other than that he's healthy and happy :) he weighs 23lbs 13oz (10.8kg) and is 30.5in (77.47cm) long.

lost lost lost

I can't find the cord! I have a cord that connects my camera to my computer so that I can transfer pictures. Unfortunately my cord eludes me. So I'll just stick to text.

Since we've been home Rowan has started to crawl! He would move himself around in sort of an army crawl, dragging himself along the ground but before last week he hadn't crawled on his hands and knees. Well now he does and he is enjoying being able to move himself faster and further than ever. He also likes to "cruise" which is holding onto furniture and sidestepping to move around the room. He even sidestepped while leaning on the wall! It reminded me of spiderman. He is so cute.

Last weekend we went to Cherise and Kiel's wedding. It was looooovely and my boys did really good. Logan drove through the night after work to be there and took care of Rowan while I did the bridesmaid thing. Even though Rowan wasn't feeling 100% (he had a little cold) he was a champ and behaved then slept. He handled driving home well also. I know I was pretty tired of travelling. Don't get me wrong, I am SO glad that we could all be there for Cherise's wedding and we had a wonderful time. But after flying halfway across the world and driving all over the north island of NZ driving the last leg home (a six hour drive across Washington) was nearly the last straw. I was so happy that we cleaned up the house before we left because it was really nice just to come home and relax.

This week we've just been taking it easy. The newly wed Wadners got to hang out for a bit which was super fun. I'm glad that Kiel gets to be our sister-in-law ;) welcome to the wider Hilman clan buddy!

In other news I have decided to find as many different finger foods for my little guy that I can. When his cold was in full swing he just wanted to breastfeed. He's eating more food now but seems pretty unimpressed by baby food. However cheerios, puffs and peas are apparently great. So starting today I'm going to be on a search for good finger foods for a growly almost 10 month old who likes to feed himself. (I say growly because he likes to make a growling noise. It's not angry at all, I think he just wants to be a dinosaur or a bear or something. It's really cute)
Any advice on finding good foods for growing boys would be warmly accepted :D I'll try to find that cord soon so I can show off how big and accomplished and cute my baby is getting to be.

home again home again

Yes that's right we're home! We arrived home to the U.S. yesterday evening and spent the night at my parents' house in Portland. We handed out some gifts and watched the opening ceremonies of the olympics (pretty much my favorite part) and they didn't disappoint :) With the exception of the parade of nations. The camera looooved the U.S. team, granted we are in the U.S. watching U.S. media but after waiting through 188 countries to see the New Zealand team I was not at all impressed when they got a whole ten seconds of air time. I believe the announcer said, "Next is New Zealand... and as the kiwis walk in we go to break" yeah... dumb television timing. Anyway, we went to bed a bit late and got up the same but it was alright. Our alarm clock is a bit off of his normal schedule, and by "a bit" I mean it's totally gone. It'll probably be a few days until we're straightened out. Which is fine :)

I think I took about 1200 pictures and probably over half of them on the second half of the trip after we thought we forgot the charger for the video camera. We found it on our last day in the country hiding in the bottom of my suitcase. The best parts that were missed because of my lack of picture taking were Logan's aunt and uncle's house in Napier and the army museum in Waiouru. Sorry guys... but that's how it goes sometimes. I guess we'll just HAVE to go back ;) shucks. I'd post pictures now but Rowan is so tired he's sort of whining and crying at the same time and he giggles everytime I look at him. I'm pretty sure this is the baby version of three in the morning tired. Poor little guy, I know he's tired but it's so funny I can't help but laugh a little.

I really should go though. So, pictures later. The trip was great. Rowan did great the whole time. And now we're going to bed.

Who needs July? really...

Hello :) Happy Rylan's birthday everyone! I hope I didn't scare anyone by my little July boycott. I just went a little crazy and ignored the blog for a while.

We're actually in New Zealand at the moment :D It's great. We've been here for about five days and we'll be here about a week longer. This is the first time I've been online. It's been a good trip, a bit stormy from time to time but not terrible. We had some sun this morning and yesterday so that was nice. I'm trying to get my camera connected to Logan's uncle's computer but I don't know if it is going to work or not.... bummer. We went to Rissington where Logan grew up and visited a lovely couple that have known Logan since he was a baby. They have a cat named Skittles and I took a few shots of him in honor of Rylan's birthday today. Or "honour" as they spell it here ;) bugger bugger bugger... this camera is not working.

Ah well, pictures or not today is August 1st in Portland, Oregon (august 2nd here in Napier, New Zealand) and so let it be known far and wide that 28 years ago today t'was born my brother Rylan in the land of the beaver, nike and starbucks (the NW) and let the joyous proclamation resound through the nations and across the ocean

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYLAN!!

(and for anyone who happens to be past midnight on the first)

HAPPY BOXING RYLAN'S BIRTHDAY!

Huzzah! The pictures finally worked!!! Here are some kiwi cats :)

This orange cat belongs to the maori family who live next door to Logan's second cousin Dave.

The black and white one is the cat I mentioned previously named Skittles

And thirdly is Logan's aunt and uncle's cat Charlie who would I suppose could be more aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Blogpost :)

Once again from the roving Godsiffs and the cats we've encountered

Happy birthday Rylan!

hooray baby pool!

Yup, we got him a little pool and it's sooooooooo cute!

Pooling is very serious business. You can tell by his face ;)

Or maybe it's not.... :)

you never can tell with pools...

I know, I know this one is blurry but it's just SO darn CUTE!
Does anyone else have this trouble with digital cameras on the automatic setting? I pointed straight at my intended subject and it focused on the thing behind him!

grrrr... ah well, he's cute anyway.

Boxing Father's Day

This is pretty much belated so.... happy boxing father's day everyone!

I don't have pictures of Rowan with all the men in his life but on behalf of my little guy I'd like to give a shout out to the big guns. He is one blessed bubby to have such godly, wise and amazing men in his wee life. So many much love to dad, grandad and grandpa from Rowan and a big thank you from me for being great. I thank God everytime I think of you guys and the amazing gift my baby boy has been given in getting such a father and grandfathers as you.
You are sooo best.

you know what they say....

Absence makes the heart grow fonder :) So hopefully in the absence of Rowan pictures everyone's heart will have grown very fond of his little face. We've been having a pretty good 7th month:

trying new foods (this look was a response to fruit puffs),

hangin' out,

makin' faces,

and readin' good books (our favorite is Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy).

Last but not least....

let it be known the word warrior survives! Cameron is the artist and this wordy little fellow is well liked :) Though I heard that a word or two was swapped recently for a simply expressed desire for warmer weather. A noble cause to be sure, I think we could all go for a bit of that.

two hundred and two dalmaaaatiaaans!

This is my 202nd post :) It is Logan's 24th birthday. It's the 6th day of June. Yay numbers!

batty batty batty.....


I am tired and the part of my brain responsible for long, glorious and magnificent blog entries has apparently taken some strong sleeping pills as I cannot wake her up. Rowan is also asleep and I will be shortly also also. Logan says thanks to everyone who thought about him today on his birthday :) Perhaps I, that is my currently slumbering fancy blogger self, will be awake, alert, and enthusiastic enough tomorrow to get on and post a couple recent pictures. Let us hope ;) Goodnight everyone.

I did iiiiit!

I finally got a picture of them! Check 'em out!
Twoooo toooop TEETH!! :D

Before you look at the pictures just know that I was weeding under the apple tree that's why it looks bad.

better late than never

As promised though a day later than expected, here are some pictures! This is a small sample of the many pictures I took on Rowan's exersaucer backyard extravaganza!!

I still can't get a good picture of those top teeth but those bottom two are so darn cute I don't really mind.
How could you really? He's just so darn cute!

Does he have his dad's eyebrows or what? I love that studying look.

Master over all he sees the prince surveys his domain.



I love this picture! Rowan and the tree have the same slant :)

I titled this one sweet boy because when I first saw it big
on the computer I said, "Aaawww sweet boy!"

For anyone who didn't have the time or patience to get all the way through my previous mound o' text post devoid of any pictures to help you along ;) Rowan's latest "stats" from his six month check up are that he is 21lbs 3ozs and 28 inches tall. He ran a bit of a fever the night of his appointment because of his vaccinations and one of the shot sites was just a bit red and swollen.

Everything is fine now and apart from a little bump on the head from hitting the corner of the ottoman he's fit as a fiddle :D Thanks for all your love and prayers I hope we get a chance to see everyone soon.

Update

It seems like I could go on for hours about what's been going on lately but I'm going to attempt to reign it into a reasonable size post. We'll see just how long long it'll take me to juggle typing this out and taking care of Rowan. Wish me luck!

Last Wednesday I went to Portland for a week long mother's day visit to spent some nice quality time with the fam. Mother's day was lovely! I got a balloon, a card, a red rose and some earrings from Rowan (with a bit of help from gramma and grandpa) We went to church and then out to lunch. All the moms at church got roses that were long stemmed and beauteous. It was a good day :)

I spent a couple more fun filled days in P-town then drove back home on Thursday morning. Upon returning home I learned an obvious and valuable lesson. A lawn requiring a bit of a trim will need no less of a trimming when left for a week, no friends it will need much more. So after getting over the sight of a third acre of very long grass I got my son in his exersaucer and the weed whacker out of the shed. However I'm not very good at weed whacking and for fear of flooding the engine ended up abandoning it for the mower. I decided that if I just got the front looking good I could deal with the back yard later. Well after mowing for a couple minutes I ran out of gas. At that point was was frustrated so I took a brake. Later in the day my friend Aniela came over and helped me out by mowing the lawn while I did dishes. It was very nice and beneficial to us both since she wanted to work out a bit anyway ;)

The next day Rowan had his six month check up. I don't think I've mentioned yet that he recently got his FOURTH tooth :D he's got two in the bottom center and two on the top not in the center but to the right and left. I think it looks a bit like a hockey player. He's is 21 lbs 3 ozs and 28 inches tall :) growing like a well watered weed. He got a clean bill o' health and three shots at the doc. He's been a bit clingy and fussy since his shots and has a mild fever from them. Not anything of serious concern just about 99 or so.

So today I have a nice looking front yard, a wild looking back jungle, an unhappy chappy and (I almost forgot to mention) a swarm of wasps making a home in one of my trees out front. I called a pest control service that is eco, pet and kid friendly but the soonest they can be out here is Wednesday. So I don't think I'll be taming the jungle until after that because I'm quite scared of stirring up the wasps with big noises. I think that today is a good day to hide out inside with fans going and the heat shut out so my little buggy can be more comfortable.

And there you have it. It may not seem brief but believe me there are many much details I didn't go into. If you're asking where the pictures of Rowan are don't worry I'll post some tomorrow or Monday :)

fun times

Whew! It's tougher than I expected to blog with a growing boy. But I love being a mom! I love playing with Rowan and watching him learn and explore and discover, it's so fun. He's not crawling yet but he definitely likes to be active and playing with (chewing on) most everything. Including most recently the apple tree in the back yard and Max's toy cat (see picture below). The apple tree was my fault, I took him into the backyard for an adventure and when I was letting him look at the apple tree I figured it wouldn't hurt him to chew on a branch because the worst thing hat could happen is he'd get a little dirt in his mouth. Well I forgot about the little blossoms starting to come out and he got a couple in his mouth. I freaked out just for a second and then swept my finger through his mouth and got the little flowers and leaves out. He wasn't phased at all and just looked confused when I was getting the tree bits out of his mouth. So nothing bad happened but I did berate myself a little for it. All in all I think we're doing pretty darn good :) Rowan is very sociable, we met a boy in the store the day Rowan turned six months who was one year and his name was Owen :) fun times...

so check out all the cute pictures and happy Rowan's six monthaversary everyone!

It's been quite a month

Rowan is growing big and strong!























He's got two teeth and as you can see he's very happy about them.















One of his favorite games these days is tug o' war with Max.
















He's persistent that's for sure.















Oh!