Vistors

Baby Hana (ko) (rhymes with Ghana-co) has been receiving visitors.
Here she was allowed to rest in her father's lap.
Grandparents are excited.
Mama thought she would be comfortable with a bed of warm laundry. Usually this would be the sort of thing I would propose, but we're just rolling with whatever Mama cooks up these days.Mr. Reliable, Professore Nicola Camerlenghi swung by on his way to Italy. Aunt Molly also got some lap time.Unfortunately, no documentation of DHawk wearing out grandparents, professores, and others with endless sports.

Bonus Hawk shot.

Sand Table

Ever since Leigh's birthday, Danny has been clamoring to play with Leigh's sand and water table, so we did.
Leigh enjoyed getting wet.
Danny found a worm.Mama got big. (36 weeks on Friday) Danny also spotted a salamander.

Spring, Hawk Style

Red Tailed Hawk, that is. A pair of hawks built a nest in our big tree two years ago, right when Leigh and Elizabeth were born. We could hear the squawking every morning. They came back this year, to their monster nest high up.

Circling.
Coming in for a landing.
Eating something in our backyard in 2008.
No birds, I just liked the early morning light on the nest. Imagine the view with your morning vole/mole/chipmunk!

Dan trip to Portland

Danny and Daddy flew out to Portland on Thursday. Mommy was, unfairly, left at home . . . on bedrest.

After an uneventful flight out, we hit the Oregon Zoo first thing in the morning. Danny moved through the habitats like he was on a time limit. It was tough to take pictures, but we got some good polar bear action. Maybe they liked how cold it was that morning.

We drove to Ida and Miki's house and Danny fell asleep.

I thought it was all jet lag, but it turned out he had a fever! I don't know how he made it through that freezing morning at the zoo like that, but he spent the next 20 hours in bed, watching Ice Age: Dawn of Dinosaurs. Some tylenol and motrin pepped him up the next day. We took a walk to the neighborhood creek with the cousins. He threw so many rocks his arm hurt.

Danny had an epic meltdown later that evening. DKV is not going to soon forget it. He seems to have recovered by Sunday, when we went to Mt Hood to try out skiing. Here is the intrepid Hawkins on skis for the first time. He asked for skis and "sticks"; we got them for him and off he went. He never asked how to ski, or what he was supposed to do; he just started going. Amazing. After going up a long uphill trail, he declared he was tired and I carried him back down to the car.

No meltdowns tonight, and I'm hoping for another good day tomorrow.

Documentation of one 24 hour period of Oregonians.
Here's Pete trying to hold it together after the shared bath. Miki is screaming somewhere in the background.
The next morning, Ida showed off her eating skills.Pete's so proud!Then, off to the petting zoo.Ida really likes goats, we hear.
"There's a buffalo in dere!"No buffalo!Ergo carrying for the babies.Ida getting naked, again.Ida and her baby Matthew. Her doll is missing half its hair and is pretty much abused on an hourly basis. Ashley's ice cream for lunch . . .
. . . and Pepe's apizza for dinner. That's how we do it here.

Ostriches and Buffaloes, Oh My!

The old PC kicked the bucket the other day, but now we're bigger, stronger, faster. Less death-rattle and unexplained blue screens. We'll get to the videos in a few days, but here are some photos of DHV tearing it up.

A dingy children's museum in West Hartford (across the street from a Whole Foods - yay, lunch!) provided entertainment with a yed-doh arh-mee cahr.
And some water.

Our petting zoo trip on Wednesday went pretty well. Janine and SHV brought him in brimming with confidence.
Lots of baby goats were nice.This sketchy ostrich had SHV freaked out.
The giant hairy bison didn't agree with the little guy so much.