Catching Up - Again

Friends and family, I have heard your pleas, your complains, your not-so-subtle remarks that the blog has not been sufficiently updated. Things have been about as busy as could be expected, but as I heal from my surgery, I haven't been spending much time on the computer, and the time I do spend on the computer, I've devoted to planning the 2 camps I'm helping run in a few weeks.

We've had all kinds of excitement. We celebrated the 4th of July with Grandma and Grandpa and went to a small town parade. Sophia loved it, especially when she discovered they were throwing out candy. We weren't going to keep her up until dark for the fireworks, so Paul spent $6 on some fireworks that we set off at about 8. That seemed to make her happy. It also pleased some of the neighbors who were too frugal to buy fireworks and got the benefit of ours.

We spent about 2 weeks dealing with lice and it was not fun. Sophia was very good and patient about the whole thing and we were proud of her. She was especially good the night we tried the mayonnaise treatment. Apparently leaving mayo on the hair for 2 hours suffocates the lice and while we were skeptical, after trying it we became believers. We found no more live lice and very few eggs after we did that. We have one additional piece of advice for any of you whose children get lice: don't bother with the plastic combs, they don't work at all, get the really fine-toothed metal ones. Or, better yet, don't get lice.

Paul was gone overnight for work and I was not yet up to taking care of Sophia by myself, so my friend Laura came to stay. Laura has recently moved back to Oregon after living in Idaho for a while and we are so excited that she's close by! Sophia took to her right away, which is unusual for Sophia, and had lots of fun playing, learning about the guitar and riding the carousel with Laura.

Then, as if July hadn't already been exciting enough, Aunt Amy came to visit! She rode the Seattle to Portland bike ride and also had some time to visit us, and meet Lindsey for the first time. Pictures of Amy with Lindsey are here. Since it had only been a few weeks since we'd seen Amy, Sophia was quite comfortable with her. Amy is as active as Sophia is, so we could just relax and let the two of them tear around. Amy tried to teach Sophia to play the French Horn, but it's slow going. Amy left behind a mouthpiece, which Sophia practices on every few days. They had lots of fun playing in the water at the park, and Sophia taught Amy the finer points of rolling down hills.

For dinner, Sophia had corn on the cob for the first time.

In other food news, we have 2 blueberry plants in our back yard and are harvesting a lot of berries. Sophia has become quite good at knowing which are ripe and which are not. Recently she helped me make blueberry pancakes and diligently put each blueberry into the batter individually. It took forever, but she would not be hurried.

Finally, last weekend we went to the Salem Art Fair, which is generally my favorite thing about Salem but this year seemed to lack some oomph. They've changed how vendors get into the fair and I think that has made more folks with art, paintings and photos, and less handcrafts which I enjoy more. Sophia, however, enjoyed the children's area and we got this ladybug painted on her cheek. We also listened to several stories at the Library's story tent. So it was an afternoon well spent.

I think this catches us up on most of the happenings, and more importantly, most of the recent photos. I'll try to do better, but with camp coming I don't know how much time I'll have.

Shorn

We've had some adventures the past few weeks: recovering from surgery, adventures with Grandpa & Grandma and 4th of July, and lice, lots of lice.

But absolutely none of it compares with the haircut Paul got today.

Post edited 07-09-09 12:19 am:

Sophia has the lice from daycare. Neither Paul nor I do and I'm not entirely sure why Paul shaved his head. He's always wanted to and I think dealing with Sophia's lice gave him an excuse.