From Archer's Library

Even before Archer came around, Sarah and I have always enjoyed children's books. I particularly seek out interesting illustrators that I haven't seen before. I've been wanting to post some of the more interesting books we've found over the years, so here's a start and hopefully I'll update on a regular basis.

This first one is "Arm in Arm" written and illustrated by Remy Charlip. Remy is an interesting guy, and from what I could find is still alive in the bay area. He was a choreographer, teacher, theater director and designer of sets and costumes.

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Nap time at Grandma's

4th of July Festivities in Longview wear a little guy out.

First (half) day of daycare

We took Archer for a trial run at daycare today. It wasn't as hard to leave him as I expected, but that's probably because he was asleep in his carseat when we left him. :)

When I picked him up after 3.5 hours, he had drank 2 oz. from a bottle and had taken 2 short naps. He was asleep in a crib when I got there. With other babies crying and playing nearby. And Death Cab playing loud-ish on their stereo. I can't believe they got him to nap in the crib!

The gals at his daycare today were super friendly. When I came in to pick him up they told me he how cute he was and that he'd been doing great. Just the kind of stuff a mommy wants to hear. His report for day 1:

"Archer had a good 1st day. He had fun playing in the birdy bouncey! Lots of smiles."

I feel really good leaving him in their hands. Hopefully we continue down this road!

He goes back tomorrow for another half day, then starting Wednesday he and I are both back to daycare and work full-time!

Asleep in the crib!


Comments from Miss Jessica

Just when we've gotten the hang of things...

my maternity leave comes to an end. :)

Yesterday was the last Friday of my maternity leave. Archer and I went to Target for the second time this week, and for possibly the first time ever, we made it there and back without any crying! The secret? Archer's new Gentle Giraffe with Soothing Sounds, a gift from our friend Jesse.

When I was figuring out how this new toy worked, I read some reviews online where parents said how it was a miracle for car rides. It really worked! His favorite sound is the one that plays safari sounds and had some drum beats...

Photographic evidence of successful car and shopping trip...

Before leaving:


After returning:

Mommy Group

Archer and I started attending a weekly mom group while I was on my maternity leave. I'm going to miss seeing these ladies and their sweet babies each week! Hopefully we can continue to meet up on the weekends.

Last week I walked to the group, a nice 30-minute walk. It was a beautiful sunny day. Archer would get fussy when the sun got in his eyes. But I learned a new trick -- find shade under a tree and park under it for a moment where he could see the leaves. He LOVES looking at leaves right now and would stop fussing instantly and focus on them. It was nice to have the leaves to keep him entertained for most of the walk.

Here's a picture of Archer walking home from our group last week, sound asleep in his stroller.


And here's a picture of the babies from the group this week. Archer is in the foreground turning his body clockwise, which is another new thing he's doing this week. He's getting stronger every day!

Sweater & Hat by Grandma!

Grandma Caroline knit these for Archer before he was born and he now fits into them! Just in time for the Spring showers we're having this week.

Bavarian Baby

We took a trip up to Leavenworth, WA. If you've never heard of Leavenworth, it's a mock Bavarian village in central Washington. The story of how Leavenworth became what it is today is an interesting one. In the early 1900s, Leavenworth had a large sawmill and was headquarters for the Great North Railroad. The railroad relocated in the 1920s and the economy went downhill. It pretty much stayed that way until the 1960s, when they decided to turn the town into a German village as a way of saving the community.

We only stayed one night, but that was enough to make us realize we need to go back!

Our hotel:

The scenery:

Half pint:

A Month of Firsts - Road Trips, Babysitting and Flights

Yikes, no posts for the whole month of April...and we're halfway through May! April was a busy month, I'll try to recap...

We drove out to Bend for a few days in mid-April. Archer did great on the car ride there and slept most of the way. He was a little more fussy on the drive back... Hated the car seat. That is pretty typical these days. If you can get him to sleep in it, all is good. But if he's not tired, and he has to be strapped in his car seat, he is not a happy boy.

Next up was Archer's first night with a sitter. We went to Jason's cousin Kerry's wedding at Timberline and Uncle Mavrick watched him in his hotel room while we were at the wedding. He drank 3 bottles and was sound asleep when we returned. Couldn't have asked for a better sitter for our first time away from him. And yes, there was LOTS of texting checking in...sorry Mav! ;)

And finally, trip number three in April, the big one -- first flight to visit Grandma Caroline and Grandpa Louie in Edwardsville. Archer and I traveled solo and it went much better than I expected. Everyone was helpful on our flights. On the return flights there were empty seats so we used Archer's car seat part of the time instead of him sitting in my lap the whole time. He slept most of the flights.

In fact, the only hiccups we had involved diaper changing... On our layover in Seattle I decided to put a new diaper on him before they were starting to board. I'm in the handicap/baby changing stall juggling all the diaper accessories and right as I'm about to get the new diaper on, he pees and poops at the same time ALL OVER his outfit, the new diaper, our changing pad... We finally get that all taken care of (luckily I did this a half hour before boarding - it took almost that long!), and get on the plane. Just as we are pulling out on the tarmac he poops AGAIN and I can feel it up the back of his onesie. This rarely happens, so why now?! I didn't want to gross the guy out next to me, so I tried to hide it with his blanket. :) I wait until we are up in the air and the fasten seat belt signs are off, and we do another diaper/outfit change in the tiny airplane bathroom. Glad we traveled with 3 extra outfits!!

We had a great time during our visit with Grandma and Grandpa... It was sunny most of the trip. We spent an afternoon at the Botanical Garden in St. Louis, and spent lots of time hanging around the house and watching Grandma take care of her own botanical garden. Archer got to meet lots of family friends. And I got to eat at Steak N Shake!

Below are some photos from our travels.

Archer on our Bend trip:


This is how Archer looked most of the flights:


At the Botanical Garden with Grandma:



Getting coffee at Sacred Grounds. Archer didn't get any, can you tell?


Asleep in the living room:


Smiling at Grandpa:


One last pic before leaving Grandma and Grandpa's:

Springtime Sniffles

We've had a few colds in our house lately. Nothing too bad for Archer and I, but poor Jason got a full on sinus infection.

Archer's sniffles Saturday night gave me a chance to test out one of our newest baby gadgets...the Nosefrida snotsucker! Made in Sweden, it's a nasal aspirator that involves sucking the snot from your baby's nose through a tube. Sounds gross, right? It's actually not so bad -- there's a filter that prevents the snot from going into your mouth, and it's cool that it's transparent so you can actually see that you are sucking some snot out. All in all the Nosefrida seemed to work quite well.

Here's a product photo showing how it works:


I'll spare you any photos of Archer getting his snot sucked out, and instead share this cute photo of Archer's first (brief) nap in his crib Saturday afternoon.

Over The River and Through The Woods...

...to Grandmother's house we went. Archer took his first trip up to my Mom's house where I grew up in Longview, Washington. It's only a 45 minute drive from Portland so I'm sure we'll be making the drive quite a bit more now so my Mom can get her Grandson fix.

We took advantage of being in a fairly uncharted thrift store region for us and hit up a couple stores and found some great books to add to Archer's library. We'll post some of our finds soon!