Friday, December 2, 2011

Good Food

Barak is a pretty easy-going little guy. He plays on his own, with his siblings or with friends equally well. He likes to play rough and tumble "boy" games, but he is also happy to join his big sister for a tea party, dressed as Cinderella. But - the boy knows his own mind. He surprises me on a daily basis by knowing exactly what it is he wants.
For Thanksgiving we go to my parents house, where we spend the day stuffing ourselves with candy, cookies, fudge, and other snacks. Then we sit down to turkey, and ham, and stuffing, and mashed potatoes, and rolls, and deviled eggs, and fruit salad, and cranberry sauce, and, and, and....
I had the pleasure to sit next to little Barak at dinner, and help him fill his plate. Right away he let me know what he wanted. He was not so interested in potatoes or stuffing or any of that stuff. He pointed to the platter of meat and kept pointing, saying, "I want that! I want that!" Not a piece of turkey. Not a piece of ham. He wanted the drumstick. So we gave it to him.



And he was very happy.





Friday, November 11, 2011

Sebastian

Sebastian is three months old. He is trying desperately to sit up on his own, to stand, to walk, to run after his older siblings and get in on their wrestling matches. If I happen to catch his eye, he'll probably smile, and when tickled he nearly always laughs. (There is nothing like a baby laugh.) He loves to be cuddled, and he prefers to be rocked to sleep. He is a generous sleeper, and there are nights that he doesn't wake up at all until after his big brother starts yelling that it's morning. He's generally pretty relaxed and happy, but he hates to feel ignored or forgotten. He is completely, one hundred per cent, a lovable, wonderful, incredible little person.

There is an experience I never had the chance to record, and I feel it's an important one, something I don't want to forget. Labor and delivery for Sebastian was nothing out of the ordinary; there were no complications or extra risk factors. Nevertheless, giving birth is absolutely the hardest, most horrible thing I have ever done, and I hope to never be faced with anything more difficult. Sebastian is baby number three for me, but I found myself facing the same (though less intense) fear as with previous births. Right near the end I always find myself wondering if I am going to die. I know that sounds overly dramatic, but that's really what giving birth is like for me. Anyway, just as I came to that part of things, suddenly Sebastian was there. All purple, and gooey, and yelling, and squished looking. As the nurses thrust this mad little lump of a person at me, I had this incredible feeling. That's it? That's all I have to go through to get this tiny, perfect person? A few months of morning sickness and the pain of childbirth were nothing compared to this. Ten fingers, ten toes, and wide, unfocused eyes all cuddled up to my heart.I've never gotten a better deal in my life.




Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Late as usual

I have a ton of things I want to post about and lots of pictures to share, but I never seem able to grab a moment. So we'll start with Halloween. We were in a bit of a rush, so I got really bad pictures. Sorry.

This year we decided to make our Jack-o-lantern into a snowman.
As cute as the pumpkinman turned out, this one is much cuter, don't you think?
Super Why is Barak's favorite show on television, so it seemed like a good idea to make that his Halloween costume. He seemed excited about the idea, until the time came to actually put it on. He kept saying, "Later. I'll do it later." And of course Lizzy followed us around saying things like, "Don't worry, Barak. Mom won't stab you with the safety pin. It won't hurt." So helpful.

Lizzy wanted to be Angelina Ballerina. Even though I find that character annoying and bratty, I think Lizzy made a very cute ballerina mouse.

See those buckets they're holding? At the end of the night they were FULL of candy, and all of it was the good kind. We found the best neighborhood to trick-or-treat in. (Since we live on a street made up entirely of huge apartment complexes, I don't feel bad driving to someone else's neighborhood to knock on doors.)

Barak says

"What's that sticker doing there? I'm gonna bite it off!"


"I need rescued."


"To the power! To the GOAL!"


"You ruined my world."
(This last one was because I threw away his balloon.)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

House Hunting

Today we are going to put in an offer for a house. I am trying not to be too excited. We've already written offers on five other houses. The people from the first house we offered on ignored us, and we let the contract expire in order to pursue a different house that we really wanted. The second house refused our offer and then accepted a lower offer from someone else within a week. (This one still hurts.) The third house rejected our rather low offer. The fourth house rejected our reasonable offer, and this morning the fifth house rejected what I thought was a good offer. Today's offer is going to be a strong one.
At least, I hope that's how the seller sees it.
Because this house has apple trees in the backyard.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Lizzy's prayer at lunch today

"Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for this day. Thank you for this food. Earlier when we were playing picnic, Bear wanted to say a prayer, so he said a real prayer, but it wasn't real food. We were just playing picnic. I just wanted to tell you that. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A Sunday Tradition

Lizzy in 2007Barak in 2009

Sebastian in 2011

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Summertime




Our poor third child doesn't get nearly as many pictures taken of him as his siblings did. It certainly is not because we love him less, though! Just check out this baby love:




Barak pretty much thinks it's his job in life to make sure Sebastian never goes more than five minutes without being kissed, and Lizzy loves to hold him. No, the lack of pictures is not due to a lack of love. We've just been busy doing the summer thing. You know, eating Popsicles outside,
going on picnics, and generally having a good time. On one such day of summer fun, we decided to head into Salem, where we rode the carousel. Lizzy wanted to ride the covered wagon, like Ma and Pa. Barak, however, was less impressed. When we tried to get him on the carousel, he made this face:

so we let Lizzy ride it twice, because we had already gotten two tickets. She LOVED it.


And Sebastian just slept through the whole experience.





Friday, August 5, 2011

Hello, Sebastian.

Sebastian Berk Washburn was born Wednesday, August 3 at 1:45 pm. He weighed 9 lbs 13 oz and is 22 inches long. The nurses were very impressed by his manly little chest and they said he looked like Superman. He sure did love the warming lamp. Never have I seen a newborn quite so relaxed.

Barak and Lizzy were happy that he was born early enough in the day that they could come visit him. They were even able to help Daddy give him his first bath.Both older siblings are very pleased with their new brother. They love him very much and have been so good and helpful. They like to hold him and give him kisses, and they want to be a part of his every action. It's good to be a family of five.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Playing Ma

I don't feel interesting enough to post. Mostly I wander around the house wondering when I can get my next nap.

Lizzy, on the other hand, is very entertaining. For the past few months we have been reading the series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Today we finished The Long Winter. Ever since we started she has been a little bit obsessed with the characters. She constantly wants to play "Laura and Mary," which mostly is just acting out scenes from the book. I'll be honest, I find the game a little dull.

Recently, however, she has invented a new twist. She now likes to play "When Ma meets Lizzy." I get to play the part of Ma, while she is of course Lizzy. I am then instructed to exclaim over all the things I don't understand and ask a lot of questions about how Lizzy lives and what life is like in these times.

Seriously, I think Lizzy is extremely clever. She really enjoys explaining things such as what a car is, how a light switch works, and that there are no blizzards in Oregon. She came up with a great way to compare and contrast our time with the time of the Ingalls family. She's learning, I'm learning, and the game is actually fun.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Memorial Day


On our honeymoon, Isaac and I drove across the Astoria bridge and all along Highway 101 from Astoria to Newport. Since then, we have made trips along that same highway from Newport to Florence. We thought it would be really fun to drive out to Florence and then follow 101 all the way to the California border, thus being able to claim that we have travelled the entire Oregon coast, stopping at many various beaches along the way. For Memorial Day that's just what we did, but we extended our trip a little farther south, in order to visit the California Redwoods. Despite a little bit of rain, we had a great time.

Before we left, Isaac showed the kids how to make Hobo dinners. (Sorry if that's not a PC term. That's what he calls them, and I am too brain dead at the moment to think of anything else.)

The kids really enjoyed heaping carrots and potatoes on top of little hamburger patties and then wrapping them in foil.


I'll admit that I was a little skeptical about how they would turn out, but I have truly never enjoyed cooked carrots more. The potatoes were also very, very good. My husband can be a very good cook.

That's Barak behind the giant cup of cocoa.


I remember as a kid going to Sunset Bay, down by Bandon. It was always one of my favorite beaches, though we almost never went there. It was just too far away from where I grew up and plenty of lovely beaches were much closer. I was determined to stop there on this trip, but as we got closer, I began to wonder if it was really such a special beach, or if maybe I just had a really good time there once as a kid. None of my pictures do it justice. It really is a small, but amazing beach.




Seriously, how often do you get to just see a seal (or is it a seal lion?) lazing about in the sand?


D is for Daddy.



We stayed the first night at Bullards Beach. Barak really liked sitting by the campfire... as long as there was no actual fire. The smoke was too much in his eyes and made him cry.

Saturday and Sunday night we were in California, checking out enormous trees. Isaac thought there were a couple of places that would be perfect for an Ewok village. We spent Monday driving back. Overall we had a really great time, and I am already looking forward to our next adventure. As a side note, I think next time we go tent camping and I am seven months pregnant, I will give in and get an air mattress.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Camping at Silver Falls

Two weeks ago, most of my family met up at Silver Falls State Park. We rented three cabins and spent the weekend sitting around the campfire, eating good food, and goofing around. We missed the out-of-state members of our family, but we still managed to have a great time.
I started off taking a lot of pictures, but I didn't manage to get a single shot of the waterfalls before my camera batteries died. I guess you'll just have to imagine how beautiful and full they were this time of year.
Isaac and I arrived with the kids first, so right away we put them to work hauling wood.
After that, Isaac hauled the kids around for awhile. Can you see the expression on Barak's face? He loved the ride.The kids had a truly great time, for several reasons. Even though I thought she was too young to sleep up there, Lizzy had a chance to at least check out the view from the top bunk. (She has been asking us to get bunk beds for about a year now.)

Lizzy, Barak, and Aunt Amy

All of the aunties are greatly loved, but Barak has a special place in his heart for my sister Cheryl. He followed her around all weekend, and when she managed to get out of his sight for even a moment, he would demand, "Where Shayzo?"And let's face it, it's hard not to have a good time when you get to poke a stream with a stick. Anne, Barak, and Lizzy all got some good jabs in.Even Helen found a stick she could manage.Clearly, Isaac didn't think a stick would give him enough information about the stream's water quality, so he had to use one of his children. Lizzy didn't mind at all.Barak has not stopped asking for Grandpa since we got home. The two of them bonded over walking sticks.Here's the one my dad gave Barak.Somehow, we took a hike right during lunch / nap time. Bear was mesmerized by South Falls, but also falling asleep on his feet. Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves a lot, and I think this has become a family tradition. Maybe next year we can convince those on the East Coast to come join us. We'll even let you poke the stream.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Just hanging out

In the Washburn home, there are plenty of tantrums. Some of them are even thrown by the children. I find myself with mountains of laundry, dirty dishes constantly piled in the sink, and an inability to be on time for ANYTHING. On the other hand, there is so much good going on, that all of the above is rather insignificant (most days).


There is a lot of sibling love here. I hope my children are always this close. Sure, one of them tends to be a little bossy and the other one thinks it's funny to knock over block towers, but for the most part, they play together very well. Their affection for one another is obvious.
I also love how much they enjoy reading. One day I noticed how quiet they were being as I cleaned up the breakfast dishes and discovered this:And let's not forget the love we all feel for the daddy of the house. Poor guy can't even take a decent nap on the couch. We live in a great place, too. Sure, we're still living the apartment life, but I like it here. We were sitting outside on our patio one evening, and along came two ducks for a visit. They were pretty sure we had some food for them, so they were not at all shy about walking right up to us. I think that's awesome.I think some of the best moments in life come when we are just hanging out. The kids are always doing things to make Isaac and I laugh. Lately, Barak has developed a wicked little laugh that makes us think of mad scientists and mischief. I tried to get him to do it on camera, and was not successful. Next time, maybe.







And finally, I love the little songs this child continuously makes up. Is there any doubt she's a daddy's-girl?


Easter

I just uploaded the pictures from my camera, so let's pretend Easter wasn't a month ago. Unfortunately, the kids were in non-stop motion, so most of my pictures turned out blurry. (I'll blame the kids instead of my photography. :))


Aunt Amy helps Barak find some eggs.

Quite a lot of eggs.


Little stinker knew I was trying to get a decent picture.


I love this smile.