Haircut

Oscar's bangs were in his eyes...and had been for weeks, now. I took my time thinking about getting those little baby locks cut off, his original hair, the tips that were the first wisps on his tiny newborn head. I would get a little teary thinking about it, but not too bad. And I thought it would be better to mourn in advance than to make a big weepy show of it at the salon or after.

So we headed to Americuts on Saturday for his appointment with Debbie, the owner. Here's how it went.

Checking out the joint.

In our capes, checking out Debbie the hairdresser (and owner of Americuts).

The first cut.

Taking some off the top.

Getting the hang of it.

Clutching the iPuppy that Debbie had for Oscar play with.

Oscar seemed to enjoy getting his haircut.

Mama and baby are happy with the results.

Papa and baby are happy, too.

Time for a celebratory ride in the big boy firetruck chair.

Oscar got a certificate and some of his locks for the baby book.

Oscar crawls!

Oscar's been scooting around backwards and in counter-clockwise circles for weeks now, and he's recently started pulling himself forward with his forearm, one scoot at a time. But this weekend he really went for it, and he was so excited!

If you listen carefully, you can hear a little toot escape, I'm sure from all the exertion.

It's definitely time to babyproof!

Oscar eats "real" food

Oscar started eating rice cereal about 6 weeks ago or so. Here's a video clip of that milestone.



He started eating jars of organic baby food a couple weeks ago. We started with peas. Here's that video clip.



I've missed updating my blog, but can't make any promises about how often I'll be able to. Thanks for checking back!

Rollin' along

Tummy time at Gramma's in August.

Tummy to back
Oscar rolled from his tummy to his back on Sunday morning. He wasn't even trying, he was just playing on his play mat and ! just like that, he was on his back, looking at me with juicy spit bubbles on his lips.

I felt several things all at once: protective (I thought the sudden change might have startled him), proud, excited, relieved I'd been looking right at him, sad that Adam wasn't home to witness it...I felt like swooping him up in joy (and comfort) and at the same time I felt like playing it cool, like I didn't want to further startle him or just generally have a first-time parent freak-out. So I kind of did all those things in the next moment. I said something like, "Wow, look at you, Oscar, rolling over from your tummy to your back, what a big boy you are!" as I calmly dabbed the spit bubbles away with a burp cloth. The next second, though, I had grabbed him up and was hugging him to me, just loving him and being happy with the moment.

Keeping an eye on Gramma. And the camera.

Back to tummy
Tonight, Oscar was laying on his back and ! just like that, rolled over onto his tummy. What the?! I thought it would be a while longer before he could roll from back to tummy. I thought he'd be practicing his tummy-to-back roll first. I also thought the back-to-tummy roll would require much more effort. He did it without any at all. As soon as he was on his tummy, he was kicking his legs like a frog and he was grunting with frustration. He still doesn't love being on his tummy. I eventually helped him roll back onto his back. He continued to throw a leg over and turn onto his left side, but he didn't roll completely over again. Yet.

Metal baby

Rock on, little man.

Willow Creek Railroad

Journey, Adam and Oscar waiting for one of the trains to take off.

We made our second visit this summer to Willow Creek Railroad, this really cool place that's part of Antique Powerland.

Oscar contemplates a life ridin' the rails.

Beth reserved the place for a 3-hour party a couple Sundays ago and several of us showed up to picnic and take our little ones on the trains. The day turned out sunny and warm; a lovely time was had by all. Thank you, Beth, for organizing such a fun family outing!

Beth and a tuckered-out Eli.

Oregon State Fair

Getting dressed for the fair in a onesie with tractors and cows!

We went to the state fair tonight and had a fantastic time. It was perfect. Saw the cows, piglets, sheep, draft horses and my favorite, the poultry barn; looked at some farm equipment (saw this crazy, tall and narrow thing that turned out to be a crop sprayer, for row crops); saw some textiles and vegetables (again, got to see my favorite, the oddities and entries for "cutest vegetable"), decorated cakes, including our friend Marion's, fine art, calligraphy (a kind calligrapher gentleman wrote Oscar's name on some poster board for us, for free!), voted for Peoples Choice in the kids division and amateur art; ate fried food while listening to a Johnny Cash cover artist, who was pretty good.

Oscar watches me eat a hand-dipped pronto pup and brick o' fries for dinner. Mmm, fair food.

Here's my favorite part: We were sitting on a bench outside the Jackman-Long Building (art exhibits). I'd just finished nursing Oscar and Adam was burping him. A couple of women were sitting across the path from us. When they saw us preparing to leave, one of them came over and told us that she raised two children and her friend had raised "Oh, seven or eight," and that they both thought we were the nicest family they'd seen all day. I thanked them and told them that meant a lot to me and that, in fact, it had made my fair experience. I got teary as we walked away and told Adam how I remembered strangers making similar comments to our family when I was a kid and what an impression that made on me. Thinking about it now, how willing are you to go up to a perfect stranger and give them your opinion, no matter how well-intended and kind, about their family? I've done it a couple times in my life and it's always paid off with more kind words and big smiles.Here we are in front of the big tomato.