Big Boy Car Seat

I thought that Thor's infant car seat was good until he was 28 pounds--not sure where I got that number, but it was stuck in my head for some reason. Turns out it was only good until he was 22 pounds.  Hummmm, by the time I looked it up, it was 2 weeks past his one year check up where he weighed in at 22 lbs. 8 ozs. YIKES!

So we went and bought him a car seat that day.  But first I had to do tons of research on what was the safest and would last me the longest.

Gary was very particular about the carseat this time around.  In December, a friend Gary has known a long time was in a bad car accident.  He was driving his Navigator in morning traffic while it was foggy. Someone had blown a tire, PARKED their car in the middle of the interstate instead of moving it to the side, and left it there.  He saw it for barely a few seconds before he hit it going 65 mph--just fast enough to turn the wheel so it hit the front left corner of his truck.  The truck shoved his knee through his hip, shattering his leg and hip. His 6 year old twins were in the car. The firemen told him that the ONLY reason that the twins lived was that he insisted that they sit in huge 5 point harness booster seats. He was in the hospital for 4 months. The little girls walked away with bruises.

On the heels of that near disaster, we researched carseats A LOT. And we came up with the Evenflo Symphony 65 e3. It faces both rear and forward. We started it out facing forward and took Thor for a ride. It was the first time he could see out the windows while we drove.  This is him just sitting in the driveway:

He couldn't figure out what we were doing and treated it like we were joking around. And then we started driving... he got a littel nervous.

and then he looked out the window.

I wish I had taped it! He laughed his fool head off and clapped. Then he would stare out the window a while watching the other cars and then he would laugh his head off again.  He would start to jabber at us and point out the window. It was soo fun to watch him discover that we were really moving.  Unfortunately, the fascination with being in the new car seat only lasted so long....(hanger for our "vacation" post).

Solid Food!

So Thor really did decide not to eat any baby food.  Instead he skipped to eating table food that I cut up really small. He isn't a picky eater. His favorite foods are, fish (any kind) beef jerky, red grapes, blueberries, strawberries, broccolli, and spaghetti. He really isn't a carb eater (takes after his dad). He will eat goldfish crackers, but doesn't really eat a lot of bread and crackers.  From the time Sabre was a baby she would never eat any fruit, but she would ANYTHING that was a vegetable--brussel sprouts, kale, brocolli, asparagus, eggplant.  To this day she will try pretty much anything as long as it's not a furit. Thor loves fruits, vegetables and meat, but not carbs or sweets.  How on earth did I end up with TWO children that do not care for sweets very much??!!

Here is Thor enjoying homemade spaghetti, courtesy of John. (check out those teeth! six on top and two on bottom--his lower jaw needs to catch up!)

And here he is enjoying eggs and toast (which he will promptly throw on the floor for Max).

I don't know why pictures don't show it well, but he has fairly blonde hair.  As we were traveling around the country a few weeks ago (more on that later), every person commented on how blonde his hair was. Everyone thought it was a darker shade of brown from the pictures, but it's not. And the more he stays outside in the pool, the lighter it gets.

12 months old

This is what Thor looks like almost every time I see him these days, running full tilt towards some disaster (this time the road):

And hours later comes the dazed-put-me-to-bed-look:

I am loving every minute of Thor's life. At twelve months he loves to swim-he swims practically every day. He will stand on the steps and "dive" down to get toys (while he's chest deep in water, he keeps his feet on the step while dunking himself under to get the toys at his feet). It's the cutest thing to watch!!! He is so proud of himself. He holds onto your back while you swim underwater. He eats by himself (more on that later). And he climbs on everything! This month he has had more bumps and bruises than I can count. He is way more daring than Sabre ever was. If I told Sabre she could get hurt standing on the back of the couch, she probably wouldn't even sit on the couch (you never can be too careful)! Thor wants to get to the top of everything and then topples over trying to pull his toys up there too. He has decided he does not want to be in his beloved walker anymore--it's too slow for him--and definitely not in the jumper. He wants to RUN!

UNO: Thor's First Birthday

I can't take credit for coming up with the UNO party theme, but it sure was fun to execute.  This was the invite we sent out (I made it myself):

Online I had seen a lot of shirts for the birthday baby that other people made. I thought I would try to use the bleach method that Stacy and I used to make so many shirts for her boys. I scanned an UNO card, enlarged and printed it out, cut out the shape, traced it onto freezer paper, ironed the freezer paper onto the shirt and put straight bleach on the shirt inside the stencil. Usually, it bleaches the shirt white. Unfortunately, I always pick shirts that don't bleed. I left the bleach on for 45 minutes and this is as light as I could get the shirt to turn:

We made a banner too.  It has UNO cards stuck in with the letters and it's spray-painted glittery (because everything is better with glitter!):

We made cards for guests to fill out for Thor--guests fill in the blanks to give Thor advice for when he is older. We pinned the cards on a ribbon for people to fill them out during the party.

And my pinata! Bekkie and Gavin helped a lot with the pinata. I have to add that Bekkie thought I was crazy for wanting to make it. I made these a lot at school when I was a little kid growing up in rural California (ie farmland with migrant Mexican workers). We celebrated Cinco de Mayo every year in elementary school by making pinatas and eating homemade churros (yum!). So I just couldn't bring myself to pay $14 for a star (NOT in line with my theme) pinata.  But I forgot how long it takes.  We spent a good 6 hours making it.

But I loved the way it turned out and the ficus tree was perfect for hanging it:

After Thor's turn hitting it, the kids each took whacks at it until it broke.
And then there was the cake. It's not as pretty as it was inside my mind, but whoa nelly is it tasty!!!

It has four layers--red, yellow, blue, and green, representing the four UNO colors of course!! And yes, those are M&Ms around it.

Thoe was getting tired by this point. He thought the cake was ok--but he did NOT like the cold icecream.

What a cute baby!!!
He kindof got the hang of opening presents. But he wanted to stop and play with everything before he was done opening all of them.

All in all we had a great time.  Thanks everyone that came and celebrated with us!

My Family Comes to Visit

For Thor's first birthday, my mom, two of my sisters, two nephews, my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law all came to visit. We had a full house!

My sister Bekkie helped me to plan Thor's birthday party. Here we are:

We ran all over! We made a pinata, a banner, a card game, and baked the cake.

I didn't just work them, though. The first day they all went to the Phoenix Zoo.

 Apparently, the only pictures they took with my camera were of Gavin and Thor. I have enough pictures of the animals at the Phoenix Zoo throughout the years, but I wish I had more of everyone else. It is so rare that anyone comes to visit me. Thor liked having lots of people around. He became a ham.

After Thor's party, my mom and Bekkie went to the cabin to open it for the season. It was too short a visit.

Thor's Swimming Lessons

Thor has been taking swimming lessons since he was 3 months old. Here is a short clip of what he is learning:

He does a glide to the wall, grabs on and is supposed to do monkey hands to the steps. Sometimes he gets confused and tries to climb out instead. He really likes going swimming.

Antioch College and Grinell Mill Bed and Breakfast

At the end of April, Sabre and I flew to Dayton, Ohio, rented a car and drove to Yellow Springs, Ohio to visit Antioch College.  It was a strange little town--very liberal, especially to two people living in conservative Arizona.  It was cold, but very beautiful. We stayed at Grinell Mill Bed and Breakfast, a renovated flour mill that was part museum and part bed and breakfast.  It was very relaxing. The campus was small, but beautiful.

Just to give you perspective on how big the trees are leading up to the great hall, that is Sabre with her arms not quite halfway around it. The pictures make the scenery look deceptively small.

What was the most interesting to me is that the college has its own garden and farm on the campus.  Students are expected to help out on it and the organic vegetables, eggs, chickens, etc are served in the dining hall. They are very big into organic food in Ohio--probably because they have farms every 10 feet.  But man was the food good! Each restaurant in Yellow Springs would advertise where their produce, dairy, and meat came from each day.

Sabre was most impressed that they had a raptor sanctuary in the 1000 acre preserve owned by the college.  We went there for a presentation and to see a hawk they had nursed back to health released into the wild.

Here are some of the raptors we saw. I would go back to visit--the food and bed and breakfast were fabulous! We will see if Sabre gets accepted in the fall. If she does, it is with a 4 year, full-ride scholarship.

Bronson's Eagle Project

So I am VERY behind in my posts! Bronson's Eagle Project took place on May 12, 2012. The principal of his school, Hugh Hallman, is also the mayor of Tempe. The City is trying to renovate the Hayden Flour Mill on Mill Ave. 

The Hayden ferry was the first Tempe landmark, followed closely by the flour mill that sprung up next to it. Although it has burned down a number of times, it has always been built back in the same spot. But for years it has just been run down. The City is turning it into a park and museum. The park surrounding the mill needed gabbion walls built. So when Bronson talked to the mayor about an Eagle Scout project, he recommended building the gabbions.

A gabbion wall is a wall made from river rocks carefully placed in a wire form, like this:

So Bronson recruited over forty people to come on a hot Saturday morning and build walls with huge mounds of river rock.

Let me tell you, it is harder than it looks! To do it right, you have to place the rocks in like they were puzzle pieces. The flat sides of the rocks need to be against the wire facing out and there can't be any holes or the rocks will settle wrong and collapse parts of the wall.  The boys from his troop worked really hard alongside their parents and Bronson's other friends and family. They finished the entire first tier of the wall, which was 10 four foot by four foot cubes. That is a lot of rock!

This is Bronson with Bill Tonneson, the landscape architect that is donating his time to renovate the mill.

Even the mayor came to check out the project.

Everyone involved with the project was very impressed with Bronson's and the Boy Scouts' work.  Channel 3 came out and interviewed Bronson.  He was very honest and very Bronson.