Sequoia's New Car

After our beautiful blue wagon was totaled (Dan was rear-ended) this week (everyone is perfectly fine) we got to have the interesting experience that is car shopping. We did a lot of research online, checked KBB, Edmunds, and Consumer Reports, and had many advisory phone calls.



The traveling from lot to lot was exhausting and Sequoia really didn't care for it (except for the one place that had a little playroom and the one place that had giant balloons). We looked at about nine cars and test drove about five. We ended up going back and making an offer on the very first one that we test drove. I knew that we had decided on the right car when they had a mechanic take the car to replace the defroster light bulb and Sequoia started yelling at him through the window: "Hey! That's my car! Come back with my car!"

It is definitely very different from our wagon, but we really like it. I absolutely love it! It is very fun and easy to drive. Sequoia likes it because the back seat is up pretty high so she can see really well out the windows. We just ordered a stick figure family bumper sticker, so we just have to pick up a new UO sticker and a Oregon Zoo decal. We're not sure if we want to replace our coexist bumper sticker since the fire chief thinks that the SUV was just trying to coexist with our car, and we don't want to encourage that behavior with the new rig. We're looking forward to trying it out on our California Christmas trip! So here's Sequoia's new car, which she is generously allowing Dan and I to use to drive her around to her various destinations.

It has been awhile...

Hello all and sorry that we haven't updated Sequoia's blog in awhile! It has been kind of crazy up here in Oregon. Dan has just finished up Fire Academy and is now an official volunteer firefighter!! I've been working many evenings in the pharmacy and getting home kind of late. Sequoia is just as cute and wonderful as ever (as seen above). So now that I have a moment, let me fill you all in on the latest and greatest Sequoia adventures.

Sequoia has been attending a gymnastics class every week (thank you grandma and papa!) and she absolutely loves it. She is very good at doing somersaults and walking across the balance beam. She loves the trampoline and knows a bunch of great stretches that go with fun narrations. On top of all that fun, she gets animal stamps and glitter lotion at the end of each lesson which she thinks is just the best!

Sequoia has also become very into make-believe play lately. She loves dressing up and she loves playing with her dolly and baby. She has been carrying her baby around the house constantly for the past week. Sequoia likes to "hold her like a baby." She has also been pretend vacuuming. She has been begging to do some baking this week, so I think we'll work on making some cookies tomorrow. Daddy found the train set (shown below) at a local toy and hobby shop, and it fit with some pieces that we already had. This has been a big hit in our living room. (I'm not sure if Sequoia or Dan likes it more).

We have also been doing weekly arts and crafts while Daddy is out at the fire station. This week we made a hand and foot turkey to decorate the window along with a set of pilgrims and a turkey which Sequoia colored all by herself. She finally has the patience to do some coloring and is quickly picking up the concept. We also made a Thanksgiving/Christmas countdown garland which she gets to remove one ring per day for the countdown. She thinks it's really fun--she doesn't quite agree that she should only remove one ring per day, but we're working on it.

Lastly, I must say I love the show "Word World." I must say that it (along with all of our library runs and reading) has really gotten Sequoia into language. She loves to point out what letter starts a word when she hears it (sometimes on new words which floors me every time). Being hooked on phonics is really working for her!

That's all for now. I know I've left out a ton of stuff, but hopefully I'll have time to start updating this more and we'll catch up a bit better. Oh yes, leaf and puddle stomping is also a favorite activity right now--and in Eugene there are a lot of large piles of leaves and big puddles!

Here are a couple of links for the picture galleries from October and November. Enjoy!

Oregon Zoo Again!

Way back at the end of June we drove up for one of our zoo trips. We had a blast! Sequoia was very interested in all the animals this time. Her favorite animals were the tigers and a chipmunk that was sitting along the path. Here are some highlights of our trip:

• We asked Sequoia what sound she thought the zebras made. She started jumping up and down yelling, "A cow! A cow! A cow!" It was hilarious.
• We were looking at some of the nocturnal animals when a guy (20-something) was startled by the large snake in one of the exhibits. Upon which he let out a string of profanities. Sequoia turned to him, shaking her finger, and shouted, "How dare you!!" We were rolling with laughter.
• We ate dinner at our usual place, the Sphaghetti Factory. During dinner, Sequoia figured out how to drink out of a straw! This was very exciting because we never showed her how when sucking was an instinct, so we had to try to explain it abstractly. Explaining that it was like kissing seemed to be the key.
• At the end of dinner, Dan asked if she went to the zoo today. Sequoia replied with, "Yes, go to zoo! Okay!" and then started marching for the door expecting to go to the zoo again. I guess we have a date to go again sometime this summer.

Here are some more pictures (mostly of us looking at things).

Weekend Adventures

We had a great adventure-filled weekend! Our long weekends that we have right now are giving us the wonderful opportunity to take mini-summer vacations. We decided to check out Cottage Grove on Friday since it sounded like a fun touristy small town with cool covered bridges. On the way out of town, we stopped by AAA and picked up a bunch of brochures and maps for Oregon. These turned out to be a gold mine of cool activities for future adventures. This is definitely something we're going to do every year so we can keep track of events and festivals in the area.


Cottage Grove was a fun place. We saw a good deal of their fire fighting force, as they were collecting donations along the main street. There was one with a large mustache that I think Dan will need for attending the Academy. We walked along Main Street and perused the small shops. We also walked through the very old timey covered bridge built in 1987. Dan and I were telling stories to Sequoia about how we remembered having to ford the river there before the bridge was finished.


On Saturday, we drove out towards Florence for a beautiful walk through a ferny forest along a stream with lots of waterfalls. Sweet Creek was such a beautiful place! We took a ton of pictures and we hope you enjoy them too! Sequoia did great walking the mile out to the main falls. Dan carried her back as she was a little tired. Definitely a great adventure!


Here are a few more recent pictures of Sequoia.

New Sequoia Videos Plus a Little Extra

Sequoia Plays Piano (2/4/09)

Sequoia Practices Throwing (3/10/09)

Sequoia and Her Friend Squirrel (4/2/09)

Sequoia Sings the ABCs (6/4/09)

Sequoia also said something the other day that we just had to share with everyone. I wish we had gotten it on camera, but no such luck. So here goes the retelling:

Dan took Sequoia over to the park to play the other day. She saw a little boy (who was a little younger than her) playing. Then she said, "I love boy!" Then she sat down and said, "Sit and watch boy!" We were hoping this moment would wait to happen for at least another 10 years, but she apparently has taken after her daddy. I can already see her walking around with a list of all her "boyfriends" in Kindergarten (his was a list of "girlfriends", but that can be overlooked for comical purposes).

Sequoia Bakes a Pie

Sequoia baked a pie today in her oven. It was made with her ingredients of choice, crayons and yarn scraps. Once she had the oven ready and the pie mixed, she placed the pie in the oven. Then she realized she had forgotten something!



She took the pie out of the oven and dug through her animal puzzles until she found what she was looking for. She held the green parrot aloft and exclaimed "Pie bird!" She then placed it in the middle of her pie. Then said, "All set." After the pie baked for a few seconds, we all enjoyed her delicious, fabulous, and marvelous pie!

New Most Favoritist Picture

She is too adorable in this picture! Here are some more new pictures (she took some of them all by herself).

The Amazing Sequoia

Sequoia has been having so much fun dressing up and wearing as many hats and "hats" as possible. She is very into accessorizing right now. Most days she is running around the house wearing at least two hats and carrying at least two purses (I think she gets this from Dan).

We just had her 2-year check-up with the pediatrician, and she is doing great! She is now 25 pounds (25th percentile), 33.5 inches (40th percentile), and has a head circumference of 19 inches (70th percentile). We are very proud that she did so well with the doctor. She was fine during most of the check-up, and upon receiving a sticker, quickly got over the trauma of her shots (which she won't have any more until she's about four and a half years old).

To add to her amazing grocery stacking from a week ago, we have a series of block stacking as previewed here. We still have no idea how she was keeping them balanced with the tower over her head, but she was doing a great job with it. Her record so far is 20 blocks before the tower fell! She's going to make a great ninja one day.

Enjoy these fun new pictures of little Sequoia!

Sequoia's 2nd Birthday

Sequoia had a wonderful extended birthday celebration. For the actual day, Sequoia dressed up in her new pretty brown dress and we headed out to the Mall. She played at the play-area and was queen of the slide and the car. After a good amount of exercise we got a hot fudge sundae with mint chocolate chip and double chocolate ice cream. Sequoia believed the sundae made her feel like number one (as pictured below).

Sequoia has also enjoyed showing off her stacking skills while helping put the groceries away. She has also coined the fashion statement of dolly dresses being used as flashy hats. As for her current proof of genius, (we're allowed to call it that because we are her doting parents) she applied her recently learned concept of walking downhill, and created the word uphill to describe walking up a slope. As she had not heard the word uphill before, we find her word creation and concept application absolutely amazing and wonderful.

Enjoy these new pictures of our big toddler and her wonderful adventures!

Fun Dress-up Time

Oh my we've been away from the blog for a while! We are back with new Sequoia pictures and news. There is a Christmas post in the works too =)

So what's new with the world of Sequoia? The most notable thing is that she is a full-on toddler now. No more baby stuff for her. It is amazing looking at the pictures of her from Thanksgiving and comparing them to now--she is such a big girl! She looks adorable in ponytails, but they don't last long. She just likes having her hair up like Addie for 5 seconds at a time, 10 seconds on patient days.

She is all about dressing up lately. She wears her silky fairy skirt just about every day. We get many compliments when we are out and about. She also likes dressing up in her pirate costume (she says "arr"), and her various knit garments ("special Grandma dress," "special Mommy blanket").

She also loves playing with her new table and chairs, which she has vigorously personalized with crayon. Her oven is another favorite. She is not so much into pretending to cook things in it, but she enjoys dropping various stuffed animals through the range and getting them back out through the oven door. She also has been making a bunch of new music on her little piano. She likes to sing la-la-la while she plays--definitely a future band child.

Here is a list of new common Sequoia sayings:
I like it! I love it!
I love you.
Yum! Smells good.
I did it!
Climb up top. Careful! Fall down.
So...on the bottom?

Sequoia happy. Good morning.

No thank you.
Come here (insert noun)
Bye bye, later, right back.
Oh nice! (the inflection on this one is awesome)

On top of all of this wonderful stuff, Sequoia is also starting potty practice time. Our bathroom looks so strange without the kitty/baby gate. She even has special Elmo panties. We've been having a good start, and we're being very low-key about it.

There is probably a whole lot more that I can't think of right now...oh well. Here are the latest pictures. Check out the one where she is holding her dinosaur's hand...too cute!