Big Brother and Little Sister

Here she is! It was awfully clear that she is a girl, so I guess our imaginings of a house full of boys is just an imagining. But now that I have come to terms with pink, I'm really looking forward to dolls, dresses, bows, and bikes with pink and purple streamers. I am not quite ready for discussions about periods, bras, boyfriends, and all of that. Yikes. One thing at a time.

Here is a super sweet video of Edgar taking some initiative to get to know his baby sister. I LOVE it!

Visiting with Friends

Not long ago, we had a couple of socially packed days as we had some friends stay with us over the weekend (it was a former missionary-who had served in our ward when we were ward missionaries--and his wife). He and his 6-month pregnant wife joined Alex, me (4 months pregnant) and Edgar for a mini-Silver Falls hike.

The total hike is about 10 miles and you see 10 waterfalls. We did about 5 miles and saw 7 waterfalls. Pretty darn good if you ask me!

Ed did fantastic. We have found that the "jogging stroller" is well suited for hikes. As long as the paths aren't too narrow (and as long as you have 2 people to lift it over obstacles), it is a great alternative to backpacking a toddler who can't hike on his own.

We had a fun time throwing rocks into streams, looking at "Dow-Uh-Ohs" (His word: "Dow" = water).

I was particularly grateful that our friend David offered to carry Edgar up the stairs with Alex. Yikes! Edgar acted like a little petulant prince demanding "up! up!" as they ascended.

The falls were beautiful. It was really fun when Edgar realized the water was falling and going "Crash! Boom!" It totally cracked him up! What funny things that water is doing!

The next day Alex's best friend from growing up was in town. (His name is Alex. When they are together, my Alex is called Axle. It takes some getting use to). They currently live in Arizona and we don't see them very often. They have 3 super cute boys and we had a great time cooking on the fire in the backyard and playing.

(I think Edgar got some fuzz in his mouth while trying to eat cookie crumbs off the floor. His face was priceless!)

(This is a pretty terrible picture, but one of the only ones we took of the grown-ups. Hmmm.)

All in all we had a really great time seeing friends. Thanks Alex and Dawn for dropping by! Hopefully it won't be another...what...3 years (?) between visits!

King Me!

Learning from experiences with Baby #1, we decided that upgrading our bed to a King was a must before the arrival of Baby #2. When our platform bed arrived, Edgar was eager to use his tools to help dad (=

I believe "Edgar, TOOL!" and "Daddy TOOL!" were pretty much all he said that day.

He was a big help.
When the mattress finally arrived, Edgar was really excited to jump on the "bi-ig bed"

And, what follows is way too many pictures of my boy being silly on the new bed. But, the pictures are really for grandmas and grandpas, and I know you guys don't mind lots of pictures, right?

Ready....go!

His favorite game on the bed: "Aaaahhhhhhh.......BOOM!"
Rolling rolling rolling...

Crawling around on the bed toward mama, Edgar is saying "getchu!"

More somersaults!

What's more fun having a huge bed all to yourself? Having a huge bed all to yourself with 2 big beach balls!

Plus also, a little tiring.

Okay mama, that's enough pictures!

GRarRR!

Being so silly. Love this cute boy!

Perfect Day

We had the most perfect day at the coast yesterday (= We had all sorts of grown-up responsible things we could have done, but we decided to just go have fun. It was a good choice. The day started a bit cloudy and cool, so we hit Newport, OR first to see the sea lions. Edgar loved them.

We decided to try out one of the tourist traps we have so far avoided in Newport. We "walked with the butterflies." It was 10 bucks well spent! What a fun day of discovery for Edgar!

He wanted to give the butterfly a nose kiss (=

Got one!
You can put your finger by their feet, and they climb on. Edgar was very gentle. Mostly. I'm pretty sure no butterfly died because of him.

Here he is saying, proudly, "Edgar! Edgar!" Because he had gotten to hold the butterfly on his very own finger.

Alex also enjoyed communing with the butterflies.
Then, it was on to the beach! We spent the afternoon at Nye Beach in Newport. We found the perfect little valley between sand dunes to set up our blanket and toys. It was warm, sunny, not windy...PERFECT (and mostly unheard of at the Oregon Coast!).

We had too much fun to take many pictures. Needless to say, there was a lot of climbing up and sliding down the sand dunes--and of course digging in and eating of the sand. We went down to the water and Edgar was quite nervous...until he saw two people running down the beach on the wet sand. He got SO excited! He said, "Edgar run-run-run!" And, he did. He ran and ran and ran down that beach! He only wanted to go north (on account of the bright sun in his eyes), so we went quite a ways before we could coax him back. By the end he was even running into the receding waves a little, popping bubbles in the sea foam, laughing a lot, and asking for "more more more."

What a perfect day.