playing with new camera

Some fresh flowers. I still haven't figured out how to pick the accent color but it is a pretty cool feature all the same.

In the Drawer

Scott left out to New York today he will be there until the 15th. Chance and I are still in Portland and will be staying here until the 7th when we will fly back home and mess around until Scott gets home. Grandma G. was working in the kitchen this evening when she looked down and saw that Chance had climbed inside the drawer at the botom of the stove. We had been letting him pull out the pan lids and things that were in there for the last few days so he could make beautiful drumming music with them but now it seems he has found a new use for the drawer. It was funny to see him in there just sitting pretty wondering what all the fuss was about. It has gotten a little colder here and the wind has picked up over the last couple of days but it is still pretty mild for what I think of as a Northern Winter and that is a good thing for me.

River Cruise

Happy New Years Eve!! Today we went on a river cruise on the Willamette River which runs through downtown Portland. The name of the boat we traveled on is The Portland Spirit.We were seated at a table on a climate controlled deck as the cruise included lunch. It was pretty chilly out today so it was good that the main deck where we were most of the time was heated. They provided a highchair for Chance which he did not care much to sit in for long. He would not be held down for this cruise there was too much to see so we spent the cruise taking turns walking around the boat with him and letting him crawl around where there was no one working so he did not get in the way. We went passed little fishing boats and house boats and under bridges and even passed by a submarine. It was a lot of fun. We braved the weather to go out on the upper deck where Scott and I took a few pictures of the scenery you can see those pictures and the rest from the cruise if you click on the 'New Pictures' link to the right and then click into the 'Portland Dec/Jan 02-08 Trip' album. Chance likes people so much he wanted to crawl around and say hi to everyone. He did crawl over and make friends with the piano player who liked him very much. He also made friends with our waitress by trying to steal the pens out of her apron while she took our order. He also braved the cold to go up to visit the Wheel House and meet the Captain. We also visited the smallest floating gift shop on the Willamette River where we could not help ourselves and bought the little hat in the last picture. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed watching all the interesting things as we motored by them.

Cookies and Kitties

Chance has been having a lot of fun here in Portland as have the rest of us. He has lots of new things to see and do and he gets lots of extra special attention from Grandma and Grandpa. He spends his days playing with his new toys which he got for Christmas. He chases the dog and the cat around the house and then crawls around to get lots of loveys from everyone. Today Scott and I left Chance with Grandma and Grandpa while we went out for Sushi at a fun little restaurant where the sushi went by on a conveyor belt. It was fun because I had never been to one of those types of restaurants before. After we ate we took a drive around the city before returning to the house. In the first picture Chance is eating some holiday cookies with Grandpa and in the second picture Chance can be seen trying to get through the baby gate to play with Pandi the cat.

Teeth, teeth and more teeth.

Chance was acting really cranky the last couple of days and we thought it was just from the time change and the traveling and being in a new place but turns out that is not the case. Chance has sprouted two new teeth! The two front top teeth are now poking out of his little gums. I have been trying to get a good picture of his new teeth but so far have not been lucky. This upside down picture was captured in an effort to get a good teeth pic. He is so funny. He has also learned 'gentle' When he would bang on something he was not supposed to I have been petting it and saying "gentle" yesterday I caught him banging on something he shouldn't be and so I told him to stop and that he needed to be gentle. So he stopped banging and petted it jsut like I had showed him. He is such a good boy.

Climbing Stairs

So Scott's Mom's house is three floors tall and since we do not have any stairs at our house to teach him to climb properly I have been working with Chance to learn how to climb the stairs while we are here. It only took one time to show him how to go up and two times to teach him how to go down correctly. He still is not 100 percent with going down and I would not let him go by himself but today with me right behind him he went all the way form the second floor ot the first floor by himself. I am really supprised about how fast he caught on to going down but I am happy that he is so smart. He was self motivating when he went down by himself the first time. He would

take his pasifier out of his mouth and toss it down on the next step then climb down and then toss his pacifier down to the next step again. This time he was tossing the 'V' down in front of him.

Chance with a White Christmas

After Chance woke up from his nap it was still snowing so we took him out to look around and take a few pictures. It was cold but not as cold as I thought it would be for snow. Chance did not seem to care one way or the other about the snow. He noticed there was something different but as far as he is concerned this is jsut another new thing he has never seen but everyone else seems to know all about. There was enough snow to write him name on the car and let Chance to put some in Chance's hand which he just thought was cold and threw it down. All in all it was fun and I am glad that he woke up while there was still snow. Soon after we came inside it stopped snowing and by the time the sun went down the snow was gone.

A White Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!! It is snowing!! We woke up this morning and opened presents then just after we put Chance down for his morning nap Scott's Mom looked out the window and exclaimed "It is Snowing!" We put on our coats and went out to enjoy it. It is snowing just enough to cover the ground. I am a little sad that Chance is asleep but it is still snowing so maybe it will still be when he wakes up. It hasn't snowed on Christmas day in Portland since 1937 so this is a real treat. This is the first time I have ever seen snow on Christmas.

New Camera

I got a new camera for Christmas. Scott let me open it a little early so I could use it

to capture all of our Christams festivities planned for tonight and tomorrow. We made the flight to Portland, OR yesterdeay and will be staying here through the end of the year. These are just a couple pictures we took with the camera today and will post more later. I love it, It makes the pictures look so much clearer. I can't wait to learn all the cool things that the new camera can do.

Happy Birthday Chance!!

Today is Chance's first birthday! We had a very long and eventful day. Starting early at 9am our power went out. It turns out that the wire which comes form the pole at the street to our house was still a temperary wire that they put up after Katrina and with the bad winds we had over the weekend and then the rain we had yesterday it wasn't holding up so well. The wire was sparking and smoking and the power was going in and out so we turned the power off at the house. It wasn't until after 7pm that we got our power turned back on. We were lucky that the weather was mild and we had planned Chance's party early enough in the day that we did not need light also that we had baked the cake the night before. So everything went off without a hitch. My Mom drove up on Wednesday so she was here for the party and then we had four other moms and children over for the party. We just let the kids play while we talked then we had cake. This was truly a fun experience for us all. Chance loved the cake. He picked it up in his little hands and just pushed the whole piece into his mouth until it was all gone and all over him. We had party favors and party hats which Chance actually worn for a while. I think he had a good time with the friends from our playgroup. After the party we had to give Chance a bath he was so dirty from the cake. Once he had his bath we opened his birthday presents. He never really got into opening presents. He loved all the things inside but only helped a little to open them. Another issue is he wanted to play with all the presents and then completely lost interest in opening them. I guess that isn't a bad thing though. Hanukkah would be a great thing one present per day plenty of time to play with your new gift before being bothered to open another one. So after the sun started to go down we brought out candles and since we are leave Sunday for Portland and my Mom is driving home tomorrow we decided to open our Christmas gifts tonight as well. We ordered in dinner and brought out blankets to stay warm then opened the rest of the presents. Chance got lots of great things as did me and Scott as well as Grammy. It was really kind of neat opening the presents my candle light. The electric man arrived just in time to turn the heat on for sleeping. He replaced the old wire in about 20 minutes and we had power again. Chance was up way past his bed time opening presents and then playing with all of his new toys. I think he had a really nice birthday and certainly a memorable one for the rest of us. Thank you to everyone who sent him gifts we appreciate everything.