A day in the life of….Kyler

Kyler is at that stage where everything is fair game, he can open doors (as of this week) and open lids (even childproof ones-last week it was a bottle of Motrin) and open pretty much everything else. This makes my life very challenging and some days very exhausting. I have basically given up talking on the phone for more than a few quick minutes while he is awake but sometimes I answer a call if I need to or I change Audrey’s diaper or make food for the kids, etc. I do my best to keep track of him but can’t always keep up.

In weeks past we have found him, having pulled the dining chair to the counter, carefully taking each knife out of the block or spraying Spray’n’Wash all over my coffee maker, coffee beans, blender, stove top, flashlight and wall art or unrolling dental floss and making a trail all over the whole house or pouring 32 ounces of water on the living room carpet or writing with sharpie permanent marker on the counter or eating an entire pack of his sister’s gum or squeezing out a tube of Benadryl anti-itch cream onto my carpet….you get the picture? He doesn’t like his toys, he doesn’t even really seem to like his brother or sister’s toys, he just really wants to find his way into the things that are not meant for children-things he knows are off limits.

So today, I was fixing tuna in the kitchen, talking to my sister for literally less than 5 minutes about our weekend plans while holding Audrey and he was playing with the other two for a while, somewhere though he bailed on them and ever so silently went into my bedroom where Audrey sleeps and all her stuff is kept. He had climbed up onto her changing table and was sitting on top. Here is what I found besides one very guilty and diaper-cream covered face:

What is all that you say? Well, it is my very favorite baby care products, most of which I bought with baby gift money. Besides pouring out a bottle of Nystatin (for Audrey’s thrush) onto the carpet below, the tub on the top is Earth Mama, Angel Baby Nipple Cream (with of course a small tube of Aquafor stuffed into it by the culprit below). The second picture is a $30 tub of prescription cream, Burt’s Bee’s Dusting Powder (almost emptied all over Kyler’s whole body), saline nose drops which had been sprayed all over the window of my bedroom, also almost emptied and California Baby Calendula Cream which I adore for baby bottoms and boo-boo’s of every kind and then there is the nose sucker thing, I don’t even want to know what he was doing with that. His face was smeared with the calendula cream and dusted with powder. He ran away quickly while I grabbed some rags and a camera. Then, he felt guilty and angry about the situation this is where I found him after my quick clean up:

Then he threw a big fit at my feet and tried to bite my ankle (which I found slightly funny, truly because I thought I should be the one throwing the fit):

So there you have it, a little window into our day. Tonight I go to the store to get those doorknob covers that keep curious hands out (at least I sure hope they do).

-Karissa

Daddy’s latest adventures

On the summit of Mt. Hood 11,249ft.

What are you willing to lose a night’s sleep over? When Pen, Marshall, and I were trying to figure out how best to climb Mt. Hood AND not miss much time away from our families, we decided the best idea was to simply forget about the whole sleeping thing. So we met up around 9pm on Sunday, arrived at Mt. Hood at around 1:30AM and were on the trail by 2AM. After consuming quite a number of energy drinks, candy bars, and caffeinated beverages on the drive south, we must have been pretty amped up because we covered the first 3,000ft. of elevation gain in only 2 hours. We kept up the speedy pace until we reached the Hogsback a ridge formation 500ft shy of the summit. After a small break, we donned the helmets, ditched our trekking poles, and began to use our ice axes as we ascended about 500ft. of icy 45-50 degree slope. Once we reached the summit, we still needed to remove the crampons and scramble up the knife edge summit to the true summit where we enjoyed a bit of hackey-sack, took some pictures, and were amazed at how much smoke was in the air from all of the forrest fires we have been having. Five hours of climbing was certainly worth hanging out on the summit for about 45 minutes. We put all our gear back on and headed down the mountain to return to the car by 10:45. Five hours up, three hours down, and 9 hours total in the car. All in all it was great company, a fun climb, and believe it or not, Marshall was the only one to fall asleep on the way home.

-Chris

Everyday Beauty

In an effort to continue embracing this life that God’s given me and choose gratitude, I am making a mental effort to note the things in my days that are beauty to me…today.

At 3AM I woke Christopher up to help with Kyler as I had just put Audrey back to bed-I didn’t find out until the morning that he had been up till 2AM working on our broken dishwasher. He didn’t complain one bit, just got up and rocked Kyler back to sleep. Beauty is his gorgeous, long, bed head hair peppered with gray, super messy and super handsome.

This morning at the park, Kyler-ever wanting to be a big boy-had a face full of satisfaction as he swung on the big swing instead of the baby one. Beauty is the delight in his huge brown eyes.

As I snuggled Caleb in bed at naptime today, he was trying to describe what the M & M candy in his mouth tasted like:

“Mom, it tastes so good, it tastes like…I just don’t know. It tastes like sweet and crunchy and yummy. I just don’t know how it tastes. It’s like….(long pause)….it tastes just like you mama.”

Beauty is that to a four year old that I’ve struggled so much to parent the last couple weeks, M & M’s taste like me, how wonderful is that?

When I picked Rylee up from VBS today, she scooped Audrey out of my arms and sat down on the floor in the classroom holding her. In an instant, the chaos of the room calmed and every little girl who’d been running in different directions sat down in a perfect circle around Rylee, 6 of them, and delighted in every detail that is Audrey-hands, fingers, hair fuzz, nose, her pink outfit. Beauty is the intoxicating nature of a new baby and it is the treasure of a sister for my firstborn.

Although our dishwasher now needs replacing and our fridge went out this week also so we have a free fridge from a friend in our driveway where all our food is currently being stored-beauty is the way God always provides for us in the most amazing ways.

-Karissa

Happy 2nd Birthday Kyler

July 6th was Kyler’s birthday and it turned out to be a great day.  The weather was sunny and clear which made the planned day at the beach especially enjoyable.  We headed up to Edmonds to the ferry dock for some beach combing fun.  Karissa had discovered that this year was having some reccord low tides so we figured it would be a good time for discovering sea life.  So after lunch, the tide was going out so we went discovering.  Between our rock turning over expert Auntie Stephie and our adventurous neighbors we found some pretty amazing things.  Whether it was giant costco cupcakes, gladiator crabs, anenomies, starfish, or just hanging out with our dear friends, there was much fun to be had.  Here is a sampling of the day:

Kyler had a great time, especially with the cupcakes.  At the end of the day I looked over at Karissa and said, it feels like Kyler has been two for a long time.  He is such a joy to have around, he lights up the room bringing laughter and smiles wherever he goes.  We love you Kyler!

-Chris

The food of summer

Since the year I was born, nearly every year I’ve picked berries at Harvold’s Berry Farm in Carnation. This year the strawberries were super late with all our cold weather, but summer is finally here. We had a wonderful time plucking berries and filling our baskets with 22 pounds of bright red berries. The only thing better than this is picking raspberries, we can’t wait!

Our garden, also slow to grow this year with the cold (almost all our seedlings died in late April just after they were planted because they were covered with SNOW-it was tragic), is finally helping fill our table with yummy things.

Kyler is becoming quite adept at eating cherries, taking care to smash them first to remove the pit all by himself.

-Karissa

Totally TWO!

I am feeling quite fragmented tonight, having Caleb and Christopher gone camping since Sunday and Rylee at my mom’s for a sleepover this evening. It is strange how simple life with only two kids seems when once I thought two kids was surely going to send me to the crazy house…..I suppose now the only difference is that this IS the crazy house and I’ve learned to adore it.

Kyler turns 2 on Sunday. Here is our conversation that took place on the deck tonight:

(Kyler holding a football)
Me: “Kyler, what kind of ball is that?”
Kyler: “Mine, mine ball.”

(Kyler kicks the ball and gets his new green ball)
Me: “Kyler, is that a green ball?”
Kyler: “No, mine…mine.”

(He loses the green ball and picks up Maggie’s fetch ball)
Me: “Who’s ball is that? Is it Maggie’s?” (knowing he’s just mastered saying our dog’s name)
Kyler: “No-mine, no Maggie, mine.”

(I’m getting quite amused and he finds a bright pink ball)
Me: “Is that Rylee’s ball?”
Kyler: “No, mine.”

I thought I’d get him on the last one since every pink or purple thing he sees he quickly deems as belonging to “Lylee”-his name for his sister-but not tonight. Tonight Kyler enjoyed life alone where he did not need to defend his domain or try to keep up with anyone, everything belonged to him. It was fun for a couple hours but my heart aches for us to all be together again, soon.

Karissa