News flash: Kickamabombo sighted in Portland hills!

The dreaded (or is that beloved?) Kickamabombo has been sighted in the NW hills of Portland this week, confounding the naysayers with his ability to leap tall...or wait, maybe he eats an entire plate of...well, golly, we're not really sure who or what Kickamabombo is, actually.

But one thing we do know for sure, he's been sighted. And he's apparently completely freaking hilarious.



It all started in the bathtub night before last. Evelyn was chattering away and blurted out something that sounded a lot like "Kickamabombo" to me. So I repeated it back to her at which point she started cracking up and, well, she's hardly stopped since. Sometimes she's Kickamabombo, sometimes she's looking for Kickamabombo, sometimes Kickamabombo is riding the Zoo Train, etc. Here she is hunting Kickamabombo on the bed (the underwear necklaces apparently help with the tracking):





We'll continue following the movements of this elusive creature here at McBacon Central. If you spot Kickamabombo, do not attempt to engage! He could be dangerous. Or sticky. Perhaps he possesses uncanny powers of persuasion. We have no idea really, so exercise due caution!

-- Mike

Happenings About Here

Hallo! Long time no chat. Where did the end of 2008 go? November obviously swept in with some majorly-welcomed change that really and truly restored hope to this house.


Crisp, dry fall weather held on nicely for most of November, and Evelyn got lots of visits to the local park with Nataliia. The back deck remained nice for a diversion.


We had lots of events in November, from Mike's birthday to other kids' birthdays and fun outings. Check out the photographic goodies on Flickr. Mike treated the family in style for Thanksgiving, which was a relatively homey affair but delightful nonetheless.


December has been even more lively so far. We really can't get enough of Zoo Lights, the Portland Zoo extravaganza. It's a poor and very family-oriented person's Burning Man! ;)




We went once for the annual Au Pair meeting, and then again because we had to miss the Zoo Train due to excessively-long lines. We didn't mind! A chance to strafe the dragon....


December brought tree-trimming! This activity is just a joy, especially with Mike's patented light-wrapping skills. And Evelyn helped this year!


Generally, Evelyn's a bundle of energy and good times. She's definitely having her moody spells and growing ever more willful. But that's as it should be, really! She's graduated from her high chair into a booster seat, which means she's even closer at the table. She now uses fork usually and knife sometimes. Still eats great, trying almost everything and enthusiastic at most meal times. (How'd we get so lucky?) And her naps remain very consistent, about 2 hours a day, plus a night-time sleep of a solid 10-11 hours. It appears that she's got her mother's sleeping proclivities.

At play time, more puzzles and problem-solving has come online. She is an ace at matching games and getting good at memory (which we even play on the iPhone occasionally, check out Jirbo Match.) She likes to complete mazes (with Daddy or Mama driving the crayon) as well as connect-the-dots. We force her to count things all the time and she's getting super-competent up to 6 and decent up to 10, with a tendency to skip items.

Evelyn's also fanatical about hearing family stories lately. There are a whole range of daily happening and a couple explanations and one-point-five fictions that have taken on legendary status:

• The Startle Car
• The Gardeners
• Train (Daddy version & Nataliia version)
  
• Daddy Takes Out the Garbage
• Daddy's Haircut
• Diaper at Grandma Leeth's
• Talk About Fisherman
• Daddy & Evelyn Ride the Hot Air Balloon
• Detour

I will not enlighten you with their content for they are far more interesting in the abstract. Interestingly, most involve scared feelings, parental mistakes, and just-in-time recovery of the treasured item.

Perhaps the most common thing that happens every day is Evelyn saying "Big Kitty talk." It's an invitation for her best furry friend to join the conversation, adding something from the banal "Miao miao" to the profound "I love you, Evelyn". BK also does a variety of flips, bounds, nods and zooms with great entertainment value. She goes with us everywhere, although Evelyn's fine to leave her in the car when we mention how we don't want all the other kids being jealous and trying to play with her. I was quite proud this weekend that Evelyn let BK have a much-needed pass through the washing machine. We all knew it would be traumatic because every night we have to tell Evelyn that no, BK doesn't want to go into the bath with her because cats don't like water. Well, um, oh, except for quarterly baths!

Charging full steam ahead!


We're also thrilled to look forward to a grand-parental Doug visit to Portland next weekend and then a proper visit en famille to Wheaton as well as a New Year's with friends back here in Portland. Best wishes to you and yours! Send us your stories....

--Liz

Right again

"Mannequins! I'll count them: one, two three!"

-- Mike

Correct on all counts

"Exit! Zoo! The arrow shows us to go."

-- Mike

One moment, three pix

-- Mike

Is this thing on?

Just looking for an excuse to upload some iPhone photos. Let's take 'er for a spin...





















Cheers!

-- Mike

Love

Flubber!

Two trips to the OMSI kid's area in mid-October and early November.









In other news, stuffed bunny rabbit "Ten Forty-Eight" was rechristened "Sixty Eight". No explanation for the change was provided.

Cheers!

-- Mike

A story and a picture (unrelated)

Evelyn's Xmas story:

"One day there was a Grinch: Saturday! One day there was a Grinch: Wednesday! Heh heh. Heh. I'm chuckling."

And here's the last ever picture taken on my old cell phone, since replaced with my shiny new birthday iPhone:



Digging the ice cream at Baskin Robbins (31 flavors but only one that matters: Chocolatethankyouverymuch!)

-- Mike

Fall Fun

Giving Big Kitty a leaf bath, late October.











Cheers!

-- Mike

Today's Evelynisms

So Mike and I were just sitting around McBacon central after an intense conversation about fear, hope and art, which naturally led to discussing Evelyn. And we simply had to record some things she said today for posterity.

On her way to the library in the car: "I'm almost tall. I'm almost tall enough to touch the sky." (Oh, yeah.)

On her way to the park listening to Phish's Sample in a Jar: "This song rocks!" (Repeat for duration of song.)

On her way home from the park: "Moon! Moon Moon Moon!" (Did we ever mention her middle name was almost Luna?)

Playing after dinner with her parents, who realized that a stuffed rabbit gift from Nataliia had never been named and asked Evelyn what the rabbit should be called: "Ten forty-eight".

Whoa, cowboy! Hold on tight, it's gonna be a fun ride.

Hugs,
Liz

It's soup!

We are all about soup lately. Train soup:



Toy soup:





Dot soup:



Yummy!

-- Mike

Verbal Pyrotechnics, part 3

Last of these, I expect.

• 9/27 The band is playing music. I'm talking about it.
• 9/29 That light is not burned out. I'm looking at it. I'm looking for burned out bulbs.
• 9/29 I like candies very much. Candies are yummy and tasty.
• 11/1 I pooted. Just like daddy!
  
• 11/4 I'm going to rock to Phish!
• 11/5 I'm jamming on Big Kitty. I'm doing music. Meow! Meow! Meow!
  

As you can see, at the end of September we stopped noting things she said based on how long or grammatically well-formed they were. She can speak in complete sentences at will now and her grammar is pretty darn good. She still blurts out the odd fragment ("that one!" when she wants to know what something is comes to mind immediately, as does "Evelyn want some!"). But then, don't we all? Occasionally we'll correct something she says but she picks up the correction right away.

What I've noticed is that short phrases she learned months ago she'll still use verbatim whereas new phrases she's saying for the first time tend to be expressed more fully. This parallels the early development of her vocabulary since she continued to mispronounce her first words even months later when her pronunciation of new words had become quite accurate (about the only remaining vestige of this is "bada" for blanket and it's a choice on her part. She knows the word blanket but often prefers bada).

What's missing from the list above are examples of her humor and creativity which have really been keeping things lively lately. I've been meaning to write about this for a while now:

Sometime in September the book Old Hat New Hat became a favorite. If you don't know, it's the story of a young bear wearing an old hat who goes to the milliner to buy a new one. He tries on a whole parade of new hats but none of them is quite right: "too lumpy" "too pointy" "too fancy" & etc. On the inside of the front and back cover are some pictures of additional hats not featured in the story and Evelyn wanted to know about them, so Liz and I improvised: "too pimpy" "too musketeer" "too bulbous" and so on. Evelyn especially liked "too rasta."

This in turn lead to a family in-joke where we'd put stuff on our heads and say - for example - "too cuppy" or "too pillowy." OK, that's the set-up. So I was driving with Evelyn one evening and she put her book on her head and said "too booky." Then she just started riffing on everything she saw: "Too car-y! Too tree-y! Too bus-y! Too sky-y!" We were both laughing and then she said "too hatty!" which I just thought was hysterical.

So that was pretty cool but then a few minutes later the following exchange occured:

Evelyn: I see something in the trees!
Dad: You do? What is it?
Evelyn: Mama!
Dad: You see mama in the trees? What's she doing?
Evelyn: Mama-ing!

Fun times!

OK, what's a blog post without pics? First up, here are Evelyn and Sassy enjoying the back deck at the end of September:





Here's Evelyn drawing smiley faces in late August:



Rocking out to Phish (her favorite songs at the moment are Stash and Sample In A Jar):



Playing hide-n-seek at the park. Where's Evelyn?



There she is!



Cheers,

-- Mike

Happy (belated) Halloween!

We've been dealing with some fear and contrariness issues lately. They're much better this week but were still in the air as Halloween approached. With a certain amount of trickery and cajoling we managed to get a reluctant Evelyn out to the big pumpkin patch farm on Sauvie Island...where she proceeded to have a fine time once she got past insisting that she didn't want any part of it. We took a hayride, ate some yummy barbeque and came home with some dandy pumpkins.

Then, with some trickery and cajoling we got Evelyn to help a bit with jack-o-lantern carving...and she proceeded to have a fine time once she got past insisting that she didn't want any part of it.



The white pumpkin we called a "ghost pumpkin." I believe I overheard someone referring to them that way at the farm and we ran with it because Evelyn has had a lot of fun lately putting her bada over her head and pretending to be a ghost (she likes it when mom & dad act scared of the ghost and playing with these themes actually seems to be helping a bit with her fears).

We didn't have high expectations for trick-or-treating or even wearing a costume on Halloween. Evelyn seemed to like the idea of being a ghost but was otherwise lukewarm. But with a little trickery and cajoling we got her to try on her doggie costume from last year and go knock on a neighbor's door...and (wouldn't you know it) she proceeded to have a fine time once she got past insisting that she didn't want any part of it.

Here she is rummaging through the costume bin:



She was a trick-or-treat champ once she got going and would have happily stayed out through dinnertime if I hadn't pulled the plug. She's still talking about it so it really made an impression.

Liz took a bunch of pix which will make their way onto Flickr in due time.

Cheers, and boo!

-- Mike

Outings

Not much to say this time, just want to share some photos I've taken during some outings with Evelyn. Liz traveled a fair bit for her last gig so Bean and I got to spend some time together visiting our favorite haunts.

First up: the ever-popular Airplane Park. Since the Tahoe trip two of Evelyn's favorite games have been "Go To Chris And Tanya's House" and "Hi Pilot!" The latter can be played anywhere but is particularly satisfying in the cockpit of the big blue plane.



Zoo train!







Fire Engine rent-a-stroller at the mall. These things are in racks like the Smarte Carte at the airport but fortunately for my wallet Evelyn is perfectly happy to play in them while they're still on the rack.





Driving the Ole Black Steam Train outside the kid's museum:





We stopped by Toys-"R"-Us to replenish our supply of Play-Doh and Evelyn got acquainted with Bob The Builder.



Evelyn and I went to visit with K and her mom for a play-date at "Fountain Park." On the way in to lunch the girls spontaneously decided to hold hands. Somewhere on the far side of the galaxy something unspeakably anti-cute must have transpired at that moment to keep nature's books in balance because this was an over-the-top cute-splosion.




Later that same day we went to Airplane Park where Evelyn wanted to play a new game called "I'm going on an adventure!" This involved saying good-bye to daddy (who was not allowed to move from his post by the park entrance) and running off to the airplane. A poignant moment for me.



It's been half a year now since Evelyn's changes started coming so fast that we lost the ability to keep up with them here on the blog. So there are a lot of things we haven't written about. She threw a major meltdown tantrum shortly before her birthday and then followed up the next few days with a lot of whining. We put our zero-tolerance plan into effect promptly, the upshot being that Evelyn got her first (and second, and third...) timeouts. As has always been the case so far (knock on wood!) it took her a couple of days to work through whatever was bugging her and then she got it under control. Anyway, that's all to set up this next set of pix which I took at the kid museum right in the thick of all this stuff. She sure doesn't look unhappy, does she? The mood swings were truly a wonder to behold...



















Evelyn's first rainbow was a real doozy! It was a complete, double arch we spotted on the way home from the airport (we and everyone else! There were cars pulled over by the side of the road so the drivers could get out and take pictures). To tell the truth, I think I was a lot more excited about it than she was. She was way more jazzed about the 8 (count 'em!) Big Trains we saw on the way there and back.



Finally, Check this out. A bunch of great pix in the last batch Liz uploaded, but I really love this one.

-- Mike