2008, how I loved you so.

At a restaurant in Solvang New Year's Eve Day

Colten James, Mountain Man.

On Papa's back

Christmas Dinner

Christmas Morn

Okay, okay. I'm finally blogging. I haven't written anything since Thanksgiving, and it's been much too long of a break. I'm not sure where to begin, so I'll just start with Colten. He is now six months old! (Christmas is his half birthday, incidentally). He weighs well over 20 pounds now, has two bottom teeth poking up out of his gums, and can finally roll over by himself (sometimes). His first Christmas was great -- he got tons of clothes and a few good toys from Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma Hutchins. He especially likes things that make noise when you hit them on other things. I think he's going to be stoked on my piano when I finally get it to our new place (it's been at Tim's sister's for forever). Oh, and this is interesting: Tim and I think he may be left handed. He uses his left hand for reaching and grabbing and even sucking his thumb. So we'll see about that one. We're also just barely beginning to give him solid food here and there. I don't believe he actually needs it yet for nutrients - it's more just about getting him used to new tastes. He is just so much fun right now. He laughs hysterically at the strangest things (like when people sneeze), he flirts with strange women in retaurants, and he still prefers being held by me more than anything else. Today, New Years Eve, Tim and the baby and me took a drive out to the Santa Ynez Valley and walked around Solvang all afternoon. We decided it would be easier to wear Colten in his carrier rather than use the stroller, and he was stoked! Tim wore him for the first time on his back and Colten loved it. Tonight we're just hanging out around the house...we've attempted a fire in the fireplace but can't seem to keep it lit. It's nearly 9pm and people are already texting me Happy New Years messages like crazy. The baby's passed out on the couch, and I think Tim and I may play an exciting game of Scrabble here soon. I've got a number of good resolutions written out for 2009...they include things like maybe trying to plant a garden, going surfing sometimes, and spending more time in the backyard doing nothing. I've already got myself wildly over-committed for this next year. No need to make myself crazy trying to lose thirty pounds or anything as equally rash. Wow, I'm suddenly realizing how quickly 2008 went. I didn't do a whole lot...besides have a baby. And move. And I got to see some friends get married. And I guess we also did that whole aerospace certification thing for work. I also started tutoring again. And we went camping a few times. And I gained and then lost something like, I don't know, 70 pounds. So now that I think about it, maybe I did do a lot. And now that I'm really thinking about it, I'm sad to see 2008 go. What am I saying? 2008 has been the greatest year of my life. 2008 was the year that Colten came.

Big Sur, Pre-Thanksgiving, and the Firewood Fairy

Lots to write about!


First of all, we spent last weekend camping up in Big Sur in celebration of the birthdays of two of our friends. We have a "new" cabover camper that we picked up a few weeks back, and we got to use it for the very first time. We had SUCH a good time. Colten is a great little camper. He's pretty much always stoked to be outdoors. Being in the carseat for hours on end, however, is another story. We sort of try to plan our biggest driving stretches for when we know he'll be ready to nap. I ended up spending much of the car ride in the backseat attempting to entertain a four month old. On another note, it was the first time that we've experienced clear weather in Big Sur - and the coastline up there is absolutely breathtaking. We were also just super stoked on all the friends and friends of friends that we camped with. I'm continually impressed with how open and down-to-earth this group is.


Our other big news is that we hosted our third annual Pre-Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night (we actually skipped last year's, so can we still say third annual?). We literally had something like 40 people over for dinner. And I absolutely cannot believe how wonderfully it turned out! I'm so very happy to have such a diverse, amazing group (maybe I should say groups) of friends. There were three other new babies, so the front room turned into baby-landia. Then in the backyard we had four six-foot tables laid out end to end to make one long dining area, and chairs encircling the fireplace in the grass. Everyone brought food, which we squeezed onto the dining room and kitchen tables. I think I had to wait in line something like twenty minutes before I got to serve myself. When I finally got my food and walked outside, there were nearly thirty people all seated, eating at candlelit tables under the white twinkly lights in the avocado tree above. I really enjoy hosting parties, even though it means that I don't get to sit much and rarely end up talking to anyone for very long. It just cool to bring everyone together and to see how people I never would have imagined having anything in common turn out to have grown up in the same neighborhood or end up having mutal interests or even friends. After all that, I'm now feeling fully prepared to host "real" Thanksgiving dinner with family on Thursday. Compared to 40, 18 for dinner seems like nothing.


Just one more thing before I go. This morning I was thinking about how we really need firewood for our outdoor fireplace and how I should have thought to have people bring extra wood, and how I should ask family to bring wood on Thanksgiving because I hate spending money to buy crappy wood at the grocery store. So our gardener, Temo, shows up this morning, and I'm outside chatting it up and showing off the baby when he suddenly looks up and says, "hey, do you want some firewood?". It turns out he has a tree cutting business (as well as a yardcare business) and has lots of extra wood. So he's bringing me a cord of firewood this week. I love it when that happens. So anyways, I could really use some extra money...

First Halloween

We can't keep his fingers out of his mouth these days

All the moms and babies

Colten had a great first Halloween. We met my Mamatoto group (a mothers' circle) at the Lane Farms pumpkin patch out in Goleta. There's not much for little babies to do at a pumpkin patch, so we mainly just propped them up against pumpkins and took lots of pictures. It was actually really fun. In the afternoon Tim and I took Colten in his stroller and walked Linden Ave in Carp, where all the local businesses were handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. We saw lots of little Harry Potters, a couple of UPS boxes, and a dirty laundry basket, my personal favorite. When we got home, we lit a fire in the fireplace (yay!), watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and handed out candy to kids (and one strange old lady) who came to the door. We had a good number of trick-or-treaters come by -- better than I expected. My favorite costume was a highschool kid dressed as a member of the Black Panthers.

This morning it's raining outside, so I got another fire going and am just hanging around the house with Colten. I love rainy-day schedule!

Colten's Room

I've been working on Colten's room the past few days, and I'm finally happy enough with it to share pictures. I still need window coverings of some sort, but other than that, I'm pretty stoked with how it's turned out. Just today I added the little fish decals to the walls (thanks Aunt Sandi!).

Silly hair, a long week, and a good dinner

(The picture is of boss-man Mike with Colten while I'm working at the beach!)

So Colten has the most ridiculous hair right now. RIDICULOUS. His head keeps growing and his hair just can't keep up. The result is really long hair in the front middle and sides, with a sort of bald looking patch right in the center. I think I'm going to have to trim around his ears to make the ridiculousness stop. So sad. I keep saying I'm going to do it, but I keep not doing it. Tomorrow...

Anyways. We just got back from too many days up at El Capitan Canyon, working for the Adventure Company. I wanted to work this trip so badly, but it ended up being so much more work than one small person can handle. It wasn't the Adventure Co. part that was so difficult...it was that combined with not being able to see Colten all day, not being able to pump for hours, then trying to pump leaned up against a tree off a trail somewhere, then trying to squeeze in nursing Colten in the few minutes I had between working, cooking, eating and cleaning; then sitting in a dark cabin and trying to pump again for the next day while watching my baby and my husband sleep. I'm still tired from it.

Tonight our friends John and Toni came over for dinner. They brought salmon...and it was goood. I made persimmon bread for the first time, and it was just ok. A little too sweet, maybe. But now I know. Someone a few houses down from us has a persimmon tree, so I'll try again real soon.

Colten is good, good, good. He really is great. Tomorrow he'll be four months old!! Yikes! how did that happen?! He's getting really big and very active. He hasn't quite figured out how to roll over yet, but he started working on it for the first time today. He's babbling more and more, and he enjoys batting at things and chewing on anything that comes within reach. I don't have any new pictures at the moment, so I'll have to take some tomorrow and add them later.

Guess that's all for now. I'll be sure to write when he finally figures out how to roll.

I...CAN'T...TAKE...the CRYING!!

I just got Colten down for the night...I hope. I don't know why, but every once in a great while he has these crazy evenings (or afternoons. Or sometimes middle-of-the-nights) where he just cries like a maniac for no apparent reason. It really doesn't happen very often at all, but for some reason he's been doing it all evening. Tim's dad is in the hospital up in Bakersfield right now, so we've been doing a lot of driving back and forth this week. Colten has been SO good when we're up there. And in the car, too. Maybe he's finally just had enough. Well, he'll be with Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow -- I've got to help Tim at the shop. He is suddenly so very busy. He's taken on some of the jobs his dad had left open, and then his own work is picking up as well. It's good, just hard right now because we're so up in the air as far as his dad's situation...we're really just waiting for the next phone call. I'm supposed to work this coming week, and feel awful because I had to tell my boss that I can't commit now...even though I'd already commited. He understands...I just feel bad about it. Everyone's stressed and upset. Maybe that's affecting Colten as well.

Other than that, though, Colten is great. We had some great photos taken of him the other day by my friend Dara's friend, Meg Fish (http://www.megfishphotography.com/). I'm pretty sure now that Colten is the cutest baby ever made. I just checked, and he, Tim and Strider are snoring away in bed together. I'm sure the cat will join us later as well. I'm super tired too, so I guess I'll go.

The Three Month Update

I'm writing another post today since the first didn't have much meat to it.

Colten is three months old now, and doing so very, very good. He just gets cuter and more active and alert every single day. Right now he's really into chewing on his fists and he's babbling more than ever. He smiles and laughs a lot, which is fun. He's still pretty easy to take places, thanks to our slings and baby wrap (which are the greatest things ever). As he's getting heavier we've actually started using the stroller a little more, but nothing calms him down like being worn by one of us.

The three of us went to a wedding over the weekend, and Colten was a hit! I can finally say that babies do make everything more fun. Until now, having the baby has just made everything more difficult. Still good...just difficult. But this weekend he was fun.

I'm including some pictures of us from an Adventure Company trip I worked at the end of September. We spent two nights in El Capitan Canyon running a trip for a school group, and Tim, Colten and I got our own cabin to stay in. Stoked! So Tim played superdad and watched the baby ALL day for three days straight. They were long days for me (being away from the baby), but I got to see Colten in the afternoons, and there's some photos of me wearing him while I cooked dinner for 80 highschoolers.