Four Generations

This past weekend, Brian's family came into town to visit us and other extended family. Since Brian's grandpa recently moved here from San Diego, some of the family decided to travel back to Portland for a mini-family reuinion. It was really great to be able to get four generations of Georges together. And Tristan loved being able to see his G'ma & G'pa George again!

Snuggle time with G'ma George

Four Generations - Dad, Tristan, Great Grandpa & Grandpa

Daddy Daycare

Since we have to be creative with our childcare this year, there are days when Daddy brings Little Man with him to the office. Not sure how productive Dad is, but it looks like Tristan has a lot of fun!



This is what I saw when I picked Little Man up today. Dad had him all day since I had Back to School Night and needed to stay after school to get ready. Dad really set up shop for him!

Birthday Season

The season of birthdays is officially upon us. Every year, September 1st kicks off the beginning of another busy birthday season. There are fifteen (no joke!) good friends/family members' birthdays we celebrate within three months. Which means we basically have plans every weekend until Thanksgiving!
For Jenna & Erin's celebration this year, we went on the first annual Killingsworth/Overlook Pub Crawl. Tristan also got to tag along and was pretty excited to experience his first pub crawl. Even though he only made it to the first two, he still had a pretty good time!

Us ladies celebrating Jenna's 31st!

Unaware of the bigger and better bottles behind him. Someday, Little Man, someday.

Mommies' night out to celebrate Erin's 31st!

The traditional aunties pose with Mr. Man


We had to get a pic of the chunky monkey under the Monkey Bar! Too bad they wouldn't let the Little Man in. The wine bar allowed minors, but not a monkey bar. Go figure. This is where we had to turn around to make the long trek back to the car. In the rainstorm. Boo.

No, I did not just take a shower. We got caught in a ginormous rainstorm on the long walk back to the car. The ride home in the storm was even worse!

Happy 4 month Little Man!

Wow, our Little Man is now 4 months old! We are amazed each day at just how blessed we are to have him in our lives. He is such a happy, sweet-natured baby - we are always asking ourselves how we got so lucky!

Here are some of his 4 month milestones:
*As stated in a previous post, he is a Rollover Master! He can flip from back to front in just a few seconds. He even rolls over quite a few times in a row - I keep thinking I'm going to see him log rolling down the hall any day now!
*He really wants to scoot - he constantly kicks his legs and tries to grab objects just out of his reach. He's even moved a few inches on his activity mat several times to grab a nearby toy. Maybe he'll skip the crawling and go straight to the running!
*He loves interacting with people and often looks at you inquisitively. And then flashes an instant smile, just to let you know he loves being around you :)
*He has the cutest belly laugh and is super ticklish
*He loves to look at himself in the mirror. He's been doing this for a few months now, but now tries to reach out and touch the mystery baby.
*He LOVES his Jumperoo - you can hear him giggling and doing his ET talk all over the house while he's playing in it!
*He's discovered his feet and tries so hard to reach them to his mouth
*He often "sings" himself to sleep. I think this may be because I sing the same song to him every night before he goes to bed. As soon as I start, he chimes in. He likes to harmonize with me :)

Four month stats:
Weight - 16.75 lbs - 83% (yowzers!!)
Length - 25 in - 52%
Head - 17 in - 74%


Mini Duck Dude in his totally rad '80s warm-up suit

Going for a ride with his cousin Lincoln

Showing off his Running Man skills (too bad he wasn't wearing his bodacious track suit at the same time :)

Happy 2nd birthday Lincoln!

We celebrated Lincoln's second birthday after he returned from his camping weekend with Grama Candy & Papa. Of course I had to make our traditional (and very gourmet!) rainbow chip birthday cupcakes. They've now become a traditional among many of our friends, too!


He was equally excited about the #2 candle and was sad that it wasn't also made of rainbow chips. Sorry Linc, but your Aunt T isn't that Betty Crocker.

Aunt Bridg with her birthday boy and nephew!

Back to work I go :(

I knew the time was going to come when I had to say good bye to my sweet maternity/summer, but I just didn't want it to come to an end so soon. Luckily, I have the amazing opportunity to teach part-time this year, so going into work doesn't feel as treacherous as it may be if I were to have to leave my little man all day.

I am also excited to be able to teach first grade again - oh, how I've missed this age! It just so happened this year that both classes going into first and second grades do not have enough students to fill four classes. This means I am able to teach a small class of 14 in the morning, while my class joins the small class of 11 second graders in the afternoon. My job is to teach the foundational subjects - reading, writing, handwriting, spelling, religion and math - in the mornings. So far it has been the best of both worlds!

Since we only needed childcare for about 10 hours a week, we hired a nanny to come in Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Brian's schedule is much more flexible, so he's able to stay home until 9:30 each morning and all morning Tuesday and Thursday mornings until we do the "trade-off" at my school. It's so nice that Mr.T is able to spend a lot of time with both us and have one-on-one time with our nanny for the remainder of the time!

Since my class is combining with the second grade class this year, I had to move classrooms for the first time in my six years at All Saints! I was lucky enough to have generous teachers who helped me move everything at the end of the school year (since I was only in week four with little man and just had a c-section - not in any condition to be moving an entire room!!). But, as soon as August rolled around, I had to begin putting all these things away and create a whole new space to get ready for the school year before the students arrived on Day 1. Which means my summer/maternity ended much sooner than 3 months!! Trying to set up a classroom with a baby is definitely a challenge, but of course we (meaning my pint-size helper :) were able to pull it off just in time!


Yikes - how is this space going to be first grade ready by the first day???


My sweet distraction :) How can I get any work done when I have this cute face begging for me to play?


Showing me his rollover skills in the classroom.

A family affair - first grade is a perfect place to take a reading break!

Although the room is finished, I don't have any final pictures of it yet. Luckily, it all came together just in time for the first day. Will have to post pics soon!

Rollover Machine!

Lately Little Man has been a rollover machine! I'll put him on his back, turn around for literally four seconds and then turn back to see him laughing on his tummy! He's like the Rollover Houdini! Quick and mysterious with his rollover skills :)

Trying unsuccessfully to get a pic of him rolling over. It always ends up with a pic on his belly!


Showing his friend Amelia how rolling over works.