Visual Confirmation of Teeth

We officially have evidence of two adorable bottom teeth!  Cordelia is very excited to have nice chompers and will bite anything that comes within reach.  Scaredy Squirrel would be terrified as she now joins the list of biters along with bunnies, beavers, walruses, piranhas, and of course, Godzilla. 

We're Finally Back!

Sequoia and Cordelia 11/08/11

 Oh dear, we have been away for awhile!  I've really missed updating the blog, but now I'm back at home and I finally have time to work on it again.  Yaay!

Smiley Cordelia

Well, a lot has changed since the last update.  We welcomed our little Cordelia Rose on November 7, 2011.  She is a wonderful mellow and happy baby.  It is hard to believe that she is already 5 months old.  She loves to play with her panda toys and her Sophie giraffe.  She loves to drool (she's working on some serious teething).  She has mastered rolling and pivoting, yet the meany floor just won't let her crawl anywhere, so she'll yell at it in frustration, but she loves to try.  Most of all, Cordelia loves her big sissy.

Tree Climbing Sequoia

 Sequoia has grown so much over the past two years!  She has become a wonderfully goofy and sweet little girl as well as the awesomest big sister.  She is still a fearless climber, as demonstrated left.  She is curious about everything about the world around her.  She loves reading, coloring, and playing imagination games.  It is amazing getting to watch her grow and learn even more as she gets ready to start Kindergarten this fall.

Sequoia has also changed her mind a few times about what she want to be when she grows up.  She has recently decided that she no longer wants to be a goat feeder, but instead, a doctor.  Her favorite colors have also changed from the long loved pink and purple to pink and lime green.  She has recently requested that I sew her a green and pink princess dress.  She's really helping me embrace being the domestic goddess.

Dan at the Seattle Firefighter Stair Climb 2012

Dan is officially a firefighter/paramedic (recruit)!  He is currently in Fire Academy with Springfield Fire and Life Safety here in Oregon.  It is brutal, but he is awesome!  It is his dream job, so we couldn't be happier. 

He has also completed the Scott's Firefighter Stair Climb in Seattle twice (69 flights in full gear and breathing mask...no big deal =P).  We have a great time making it a family trip and have had the chance to visit with Laura, Mike, Addie, and Willa both years.

The Girls at Portland's Children's Museum

 I am making the transition from working full time at the pharmacy to being a stay-at-home mommy again!  I've started the Great Spring Cleaning Project, and Sequoia has been very helpful.  I've also been able to enjoy daily cooking and baking and am looking forward to setting up my sewing machine and learning how to use it!  I'm rather addicted to Pinterest, and find so many great projects, cleaning tips, and yummy baking recipes.  I have a very long wishlist of activities for us.  I just love being able to be home with my two wonderful girls!

We seem to settling nicely into 2012 up here in Oregon.  I'm looking forward to all our great adventures ahead of us this year and am so excited to be able to share them with all of you again!

XOXO
Katie

Columbia State Park Family Photo March 2012

Sequoia (aka Princess Buzz Lightyear) and her Summer Adventures

This summer has been very busy, but we've been able to squeeze in some fun here and there.


Sequoia started swimming lessons this year and is now in the second summer session. We did the first session with her in the parent/child class (the polar bears), and is now in the independent 3 year old class (the tadpoles). She swims twice a week and she loves it.






She is also becoming quite the puzzle master. She now has three puzzles (Disney Princesses, My Little Ponies, and Dora the Explorer) that are 24 pieces each, and she can do them all independently. I have always loved puzzles and I love that she loves them too!



We've also enjoyed a trip to Faerie Worlds--and we will definitely be going back in future years. It's much smaller than our beloved Celtic Faire, but it fit into that missing piece of our year. I took Sequoia the first night while Dan was away at a fire training event. We listened to great music (Brother was there--which I first heard about 10 years ago), enjoyed yummy food, looked at the fun costumes, and got Sequoia her first pair of fancy fairy wings (from the same vendor I got mine from about 11 years ago!) We brought Dan back with us on Sunday and enjoyed another wonderful day.

Here are some more pictures to enjoy from our summertime adventures =)

Further Adventures of Sequoia

Finally, a long awaited update! Sequoia has been taking us on wonderful adventures like ice skating (pictured left), train track building, Lego building, and excursions about town. She has also proudly begun her training in video game mastery. She has been playing Zelda on the the DS--she only stays in the main town, but she has already figured out how to control Link for walking in and out of buildings, throwing rocks and pots, talking to citizens, jumping into water, and how to continue (this happens often as she loves making Link jump into the water repeatedly).

She starts the next level of gymnastics later this week and it will be her first parent-free class. Very exciting!

Sequoia has also helped redecorate the apartment. Her bedroom is now all set up for her (her bed is back in our room, but she's sleeping in it and not our bed, so it is progress). She also is great at falling asleep on her own now (as long as Baby is with her). Baby is her constant companion now-a-days.



We also redecorated her play area in the living room. We have bins for each type of toy and a book shelf for all of her books. It keeps everything organized and she knows where everything goes, so she actually can keep her area all nice and neat.

We are also starting to look into preschools for the summer. She asks if she can go to school like Daddy just about every day now.

Here are all the pictures from our latest adventures!

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!

Snow Days

We are enjoying this unusual amount of Christmas holiday snow. We had somewhere between 3 and 4 inches of snow Monday morning. Dan really wanted to make a snowman, but unfortunately the snow was a little too powdery. Snowballs just turn to snow spray. We layered up in all our knit winterwear and played in the snow at the park. Sequoia really enjoyed it. She liked it even more when we got back home and she got to have some warm hot chocolate.

It is sunny today, but very cold. It is in the 20s and will get into the low teens or even single digits tonight--plus more snow and freezing rain on the way. Hopefully it doesn't delay our holiday plans too much. Meanwhile, enjoy these wintry photos!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a success this year--we actually ate on time! Dan's turkey was fantastic, I found a stuffing recipe that is definitely a keeper, and Margaret's pies were divine as usual.













Sequoia wasn't too interested in the turkey feast since she was on her eating nothing but cereal, fruit, and cheese phase. Dan also kept us all entertained with many balloon animals and a special Thanksgiving wreath. After a day of Sequoia play and eating lots of food, the three of us fell promptly asleep around 8 pm.


We had a great Thanksgiving this year, and a great preview to how wonderful the Christmas holiday will be with Sequoia this year. Last year Sequoia slept through many of the holiday festivities, and when she was awake she was still learning how to walk. This year is going to be so much fun! Sequoia is now talking up a storm and she loves playing and running around. We are also looking forward to getting together with Sequoia's cousin Addie so the two toddlers can play together.
Here are lots more pictures from Mark and Margaret's (Papa and Gamma) Thanksgiving visit.

Reading with Daddy

Sequoia has been having a ton of fun with her Daddy. He has been making her balloon animals every day, and she loves the funny voices he uses to read her books. She now thinks all cows are Scottish. She knows most of her library books by heart and likes to say a lot of the words with us. Sequoia can now count up to fourteen, but she likes to skip seven and eight (she thinks it's funny). She also has started showing a big interest in letters. She likes us to write out letters for her and spell out words for her on her blocks. She also likes surrounding herself with all her animal toys and bears and having tea parties. She has named one of her bears Teddy (the cream one in the pictures) and carries him and her Dolly around everywhere. Such a fun girl!

Check out these new pictures of Sequoia playing with balloon animals, reading books, having a tea party and showing off her puddle-stomping boots!

Happy Halloween!

We had a spooktacular Halloween! Sequoia helped us carve her first pumpkin. She thought the goopy insides were neat and liked squishing it between her hands. She then went through two costume changes before the day was over. First, since she had seen Daddy dressed like a pirate (a Bookaneer to be exact), she wanted to dress up like a pirate too. We both think that her pirate picture is awesome--you can see features of both of us all blended together, even more than usual. Later that night, she got all dressed up in her fairy costume so she could match Mommy's woodland sprite costume. She helped hand out candy to trick-or-treaters and then visited with all the costumed math peoples. She was also thrilled to see baby Natalie! We all had a great night, and Sequoia was even in bed at a reasonable hour--even after creating a patty-cake song distraction and sneaking a handful of candy corn and swindling half a Kit Kat from her pal Dan Wang.

We hope you all had a great Halloween too! Enjoy these cute Sequoia pictures =)

Sequoia's Great Adventures

Sequoia has taken us on some great adventures this past month. She makes sure that we get our physical activity in by leading us on daily walks to either the park or the mall. She is definitely queen of the castle at the mall's play area. She loves the slide and has figured out many different ways to slide down in order to keep it interesting. We've also had some great Sesame Street finds at the various second-hand stores in the area. I'm not sure how much fun she has while we're there (Mommy has a blast), but she likes the goodies we find. On top of all this local fun, we've also managed another zoo trip recently. Sequoia had a great time, and even managed to swindle an Oreo cookie from some nice grandparents while we were walking around. We've definitely been enjoying this very outgoing and opinionated little one, or as Sequoia would say, we're 'totally' having fun!

Here's some new pictures with some of Sequoia's new outfits and a hat I just knit for her (well it still needs edging, but finished enough...)