Month: September 2013

Family Vay-Cay 2013

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com
 
 
 I’ve written about this before, but at least once a year we try to take a little family getaway with just the four of us.  Yes, we love our extended families and we love traveling with or visiting them, but it’s also nice to go somewhere with our little unit.  We try to balance between kid-friendly and not asking to much of the children travel-wise and indulging J and my sense of adventure.  We also like to throw a little bit of relaxation in there for everyone.  When I’m planning the trip it seems like a tall order – go someplace new and exciting, but keep the drive fairly short and accessible.  Activities for kids and families, but not just a Chuck E. Cheese free-for-all.  Relaxing and comfortable, but not to expensive. 

Fortunately for everyone (if I do say so myself), I’ve been doing this travel planning thing for quite a while now and enjoy the challenge.  I booked us a night at a yurt at a campground in Newport (a three-hour drive from Portland) and three nights in a beach house in Bandon (an additional two hour drive).  We’re familiar with Newport, but we’ve never stayed in a yurt before.  I thought the kids would get a kick out of it.  I also wanted to go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  We haven’t ever really spent any time in Bandon, so it gave J and I a chance to explore a new part of the state.  Besides, who doesn’t love the beach? 

We arrived in Newport to a torrential rain storm (not pictured).  I was extremely grateful that we were yurt camping and not tent camping.  

 The kids enjoyed the yurt too.  They thought it was just as cool as I hoped they would.

 

The aquarium was a huge hit (even bigger than the yurt).  Sammy LOVES fish tanks so I knew that he would especially enjoy fish tank after fish tanks.  He did.  He spent all of three hours going from tank to tank to tank, and back to the first tank again, pointing and saying “fishy!”  I stayed with him and let him explore at his own speed.  He spent several long minutes watching the jelly fish, the kelp forest, the sea lions, and the sharks.  Clare, on the other hand, bounded around saying “I want to see sharks!  Now I want to see sea otters!  Where’s the octopus?”  J followed her around, trying to keep up with her energy and trying to impart a little bit of marine biology.

 
 
 

After the aquarium, it was onto Bandon.  We found Bandon to be worth the drive – it was so fun!  It has a lovely little bay front boardwalk/downtown, lovely beaches and nice people.  We rented a very comfortable little beach front house, which made getting to the beach really easy. 

 

We spent most of the time running on the beach – Clare and J running in and out of the waves, Sam running from sticks and rocks to throw, me running after whoever needed their shoes and socks carried or their hands brushed off or offering to catch them as they climbed things.  We drove to new beaches, explored a light house, and went for a short hike. 

 

There were some lovely moments like this too.  Ahhhhhh… vacation.
 
We returned home with sand in our shoes, tan lines on our skin, and memories in our minds.  The kids did amazingly well with their longest car trip to date and we all felt reconnected to our initial family passion – traveling!

Sam at 22 months

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

I’ll give away the ending of the Sam at 22 Months post – he still loves dinosaurs.  He really loves dinosaurs.  He loves the dinosaur exhibit at the Children’s Museum, he loves to carry around his toy dinosaurs, he loves to wear dinosaur clothes – he’s a bit obsessed.  They are his thing and we all know it.

Of course Sam also loves animals, namely cats, dogs and elephants.  He points them out in all of the books, on TV shows, and if we see cats and dogs when we’re out and about.  Interestingly though he doesn’t really like the elephants at the zoo.  In fact they scare him and we usually have to leave the exhibit quickly, or stand as far back from the elephants as we possibly can with Sammy clinging to me desperately while still staying within sight distance of Clare to keep her from jumping the fence to try to get in the exhibit. 

Sammy’s latest developments include more complex sentences.  He’s started to string together 3 and 4 word statements like “Mama all done shower” and “more cheese please.”  He speaks paragraphs and soliloquies (and, as Grandma described it, with “punctuation, capitalization, and exclamation points”) but we only understand a portion of it.  He, however, understands just about all of what is said around him.  I gave a brief quote from The Tigger Movie at the dinner table one day, and the kids had seen the movie the day before, and Sammy got very excited and started talking about “tigger! bounce! pooh! bounce! bounce!”  If I mention the apple tree or some plant in the back yard Sam perks up and starts yelling “outside! Backyard! Go outside!” 

Other words that he says over and over:
“No!”  – No means no, No means yes, No means maybe… and anything else.  It’s his default answer to every question.
“Uh-Huh” and “mmm-Hmmmm” – He doesn’t say yes, yep, or OK.
“Sammy turn!” – This usually means Let me do it/Give it here/Stop helping me and let me be independent already!

He’s started identifying the quantity of two.  I gave him two pieces of toast one day and he looked at them and said “two toasts!”  It came as a shock to me that he knew what “two” meant.  He doesn’t understand other quantities but he will recite his numbers – he’s particularly fond of “fo five six!” 

As much as he’s developing verbally by leaps and bounds, he really amazes us with his physical development.  I think it comes from being a younger brother – he has to keep up with his big sister.  When she climbs up a ladder at the playground he follows, regardless of whether or not that ladder is 3 ft tall or 6 ft tall.  When she climbs up a slide, then he follows her.  If she swings across the monkey bars he stretches up as high as he can and hangs on the first bar.  Oh we spot him, and try to catch him before he tumbles down 3 (or 6) feet, but mostly we just try to catch up. 

Clare at 4

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com
 
Here’s a snapshot of our girl now that she’s settled comfortably into her fourth year.  While there are certainly moody days around our house, in general four has found our girl to be really delightful.  She’s usually very happy – skipping, jumping, leaping and hopping have replaced more pedestrian transportation.  She sings little songs, plays little games and is quite helpful around the house. 
 
 
Clare loves letters and is sososo close to reading.  She knows the sounds of the letters, identifies short words, and is beginning to sound words out with our help.  She’s also beginning to write and we’ll periodically come across her name written on various pieces of paper. 
 
 
A few weeks ago it was time for hair cuts.  Clare had been growing her hair out all summer in an attempt to make it long enough for a pony tail.  I told her that we were just going to cut her bangs short and leave the back long.  She shook her head and said “No. I want to cut it all short.  I want it to be short like Grandma’s hair.”  Huh, I didn’t expect that.  So we talked about how once it’s cut then she can’t put it in pony tails anymore.  I explained how long it would take to grow back long again, about how once hair has been cut it can’t be put back, etc.  It didn’t deter her at all.  We got to the kiddie salon and she picked out a picture of a cute little stacked bob.  She sat very patiently during the hair cut and when we were finished she declared that “I like it.  But it’s not as short as Grandma’s.”  No, but it actually looks a lot like Grandma T’s hair.  Either way, I think that she’s cute as a button.  The sassy little hair style completely suits  our sassy little girl.