Getting ready for take-off

excited about the birds in our backyard

Not quite there...but watch out, he's coming soon!

In fact, Timo took his 'first steps' on his own a couple weeks ago, but hasn't progressed much past 2 or 3 steps since then. Lots of holding on to our hands/legs/furniture to walk; lots of pushing stuff around; lots of fast crawling; lots of free-standing; and lots of getting frustrated and yelling and wanting to move around better! He's quite good at standing unassisted (and clapping & waving while doing so), and even standing up from sitting or kneeling.

This afternoon I tried to capture a few shots on my new phone (not the best camera; but Jim has the camera with him on his trip to Nepal) of our new 11 month-old in action in the backyard. During a phone conversation with Rachel, she reminded me that kids love to be outside to play with 1. Rocks, 2. Dirt, and 3. Water. We have #1 and #2 in abundance in our backyard, and we have spent a lot of time out there lately!

 

Here's Timo right after I watched him crawl over to get his car, then stand up (unassisted).

Boy, he loves to push his cars around!!

This little plastic trowel is the best $1.82 I ever spent at Target. Both kids love digging with it and carrying it around the yard and banging it on the rocks.

I'm not sure what this face is...but is it a Hawkins face or what?

That's a mouthful

Someone in our house loves to eat dirt...

Wish you were here, too, Adah Joy!! Then you could join in! We miss you. (I don't have a picture of Adah Joy in her own yard/garden 'helping' out - so this one taken in July at the lake (eating sand) will have to do.)

Look who is quite pleased with himself.

 

 

Oh, and someone in our house likes to help organize...
 

Happy 3rd to Gemma!

September 1st was Gemma's 3rd birthday!! And what a wonderful day it was!

The 1st was the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, so we really enjoyed have a long weekend together as a family and extending the birthday celebrations, as we love to do (like getting to see the hot-air balloons, from previous post). 

This year Gemma was very much looking forward to her birthday, and had requested cake (either pink or "ballet"), ice cream, balloons (but no balloon game, that is too loud and "a bit scared"), birthday hats, and lots of friends and cousins. We couldn't provide as many cousins & friends as last year's party when we were visiting Granddad and Nonna in Wheaton - but we did have two friends over and plenty of presents and cake to go around!

The night before her brithday, we let Gemma open one present (maybe this will be a new tradition?); she opened a gift bag of clothes sent from Nonna! (As you can see...Gemma loves to wear her leotards...)

Birthday breakfast! And Gemma got to open some presents from her Mom & Dad, and all her birthday cards sent from family. (Gemma selected & arranged her 'crown' headband - a necklace - as her birthday girl attire.)

On Sunday afternoon (after morning church), Gemma helped frost the chocolate cake. I mean, eat the frosting off the beater. (I'll be honest, we were uncertain about high-altitude baking for the first time - don't want the birthday cake to fall flat! - so we just did a box cake mix with some extra cocoa thrown in for richness.)

Friends arrive: Karen and Miriam! Amazingly, it turns out that they live just one neighborhood over from us!! Miriam (on the right, holding Timo, below) was a student of mine and a soccer player at BFA when we were there in '02-'04, and we were pretty close at that time. When we moved to Colorado Springs we didn't realize she was living here, so it was a total shock - and a joyful one - to find out that we are nearly neighbors. She and Karen were wonderful to have at the party and were very energetic with the kids and playing with Gemma's new toys. We are looking forward to many more times together (like some trail walks such as we have already done with Miriam and her dog, Bristol).

Opening presents! While sitting in her new Dora chair from Nonna!

the new jump-rope! A huge hit!

Meanwhile Timo delighted us all with pushing his little cart around the living room (and then yelling and banging it when he ran into a wall or couch). He is very proud.

 

Time for cake! And an attempt at a family pic. Hmm. Gemma did great this year and blew out her candles very precisely. (A big improvement over her 2nd birthday, when she didn't even know how to blow. Whoops.) Happy, happy, happy birthday to Gemma!

Our little lefty loves her cake!

Colorado Balloon Classic - first time!

NOW we are starting to feel like Colorado residents. Nothing like getting up early on a Saturday morning (the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and Gemma's 3rd birthday) with thousands of other folks and eating breakfast at the park while dozens of hot-air balloons take off! Absolutely beautiful and incredible.

Both kids were very interested and excited by all the activity. Spectators were allowed to mill around on with the staff and the hot air balloons, so at one point we were sitting right next to several balloons as they were firing up (pretty loud!). The event is held at Memorial Park in downtown Colorado Springs, which has nearly 200 acres of grounds (fields, small lake with boating and swimming, ice rink, Velodrome, trails and playgrounds).

 

The festival is held over three days, with festivities in the morning and evening. The balloons begin to be inflated and take off at 6 AM. There were thousands of people there to view this amazing scene! They also have an evening 'Balloon Glow' where the balloons fire up but stay on the ground - but it was too late in the evening for the kids. Maybe next year...

 

Oh, right, there's a range of mountains over there!!

Timo is working on his scrunchy grin.

Happy happy birthday birthday!

Our new birthday tradition, to match the number of years: 

Say that 35 times, as fast as you can: "Happy birthday! happy birthday! happy birthday! happy birthday! happy birthday! ..."

Well, no, not really. But it was still a celebratory bash! Jim arrived back from his 2 weeks in Cape Town on the evening of his birthday, Aug 26th. So we celebrated with birthday dinner and presents on the 27th (and a full day at home together even though it was a weekday, since Jim didn't have to return to work on his first day back). And of course we continued our real, long-standing tradition of "surprise birthday dinner" featuring new recipes.

(The dancer on the left was drawn, upon request by the featured girl, by Jim.)

Hanging out while Mom prepares dinner

Sweet potato fries with crunchy spices: sea salt, cumin, coriander, and brown sugar

Spinach salad (plus feta, blueberries, sunflower seeds, croutons) with tahini dressing

Gemma helped bring bread to the table

Steelhead fillet (with black grapes on the side)

And here's birthday Jim with his dessert! (once the kids were in bed) Icebox strawberry pie with pretzel crust!

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Jaja - oh Jaja! - Departs

After a full three weeks together - from the road trip to Colorado, to moving into our new house, to seeing Jim off to South Africa for his first trip with his new job (wow, that was a lot of prepositions) - Jaja said good-bye and returned to Durham. What will we do without her around? We've all gotten so used to being close by during these months in Durham, sharing groceries and recipes and yard sale finds and walks and songs and swings at the park. (And Gemma really enjoyed having Jaja sleep in her bedroom in Colorado Springs!) It was wonderful to be together while settling into a new place, knowing that Mom can now picture our new home and town. But of course it is always hard to say good-bye, not knowing when we will see each other again!

*since Jim took the camera on his trip to Cape Town, we didn't get to take any pictures during the last half of Mom's stay. Just this one snapped before she headed off to the airport! Suffice to say, there was a lot of shopping and organizing and park-playing and even a bit of exploring around town (including another trip to Garden of the Gods for a picnic lunch).

Arrival to the Springs!

We left Memphis and headed west, travelling with Mom (who arrived in Memphis driving our 2nd car, and then journeyed with us the rest of the way) through Arkansas and Oklahoma and Kansas on Day 1. A brief overnight in Wichita (at a pool with a hotel of course), then on through Kansas and into eastern Colorado. Gradually our elevation rose as we crossed the plains, until we saw the Rockies in the distance; suddenly the miles went by quickly and the mountains loomed up in front of us, and then we arrived in our new town - at 6,000 ft!! Anyone thirsty and light-headed and squinting in the bright sun? Yep, this will take some getting used to. But, wow, it's amazing to walk out in the morning and greet the mountains! "There's Pike's Peak!" Gemma likes to announce whenever we see it.

The road trip went very well, and the kids ended up doing great, sleeping and singing and eating and playing without too much protesting, though there were definitely rough moments. It helped to stop at rest areas and stretch our legs and eat a picnic lunch; and it helped that Gemma had a little LeapFrog 'my first laptop', as well as other little wrapped presents to open throughout the day (a tradition taken from the Gieser side). She spent countless hours playing the Leapfrog games and music. Winner! Timo was his generally amiable self, dozing and snacking and playing. (He did have some major throw-up during our overnight in Wichita due to too many goldfish crackers, but he slept well and was fine afterwards. He hasn't eaten them since.)

We arrived in Colorado Springs on Wed 31st July, quite fried and frazzled and very relieved - and extremely happy to be staying the first five nights with our friends Don and Cyd Storrs (friends from BFA days). Unfortunately life was busy and we didn't take any pictures while at their house! But we were so grateful to start off our time in this town by being with friends. Their house is just a couple of miles from our new (rental) house, so initially we were able to unload the moving truck and get beds set up before we started to sleep at our place. That was a huge help, with the little kids to consider. Plus, Gemma and Timo were in love with Scampi, the Storrs' dog.

The day after we arrived, we drove over to the house to walk through and get acclimated and consider how we would set things up once we unloaded the moving truck. Admittedly, we didn't bring that much furniture - but we ended up having a lot of success at yard sales and on craigslist the first days in town, so all of that furniture was brought over to the house before we officially moved in, too.

Welcome! Here's the place! ...a little yard in front, with a tree and a tiny front porch. And a double garage! Awesome, and extremely important with the crazy weather around here. We've already been through two hailstorms and see why it is critical to have your car in the garage during storms. Not to mention - this is the first single-family house we have lived in (in 12 years of marriage), and the first time we have had a garage - wow!

A view of the back patio, and the side rocky area. We are adjusting to the popular use of rocks for landscaping (instead of grass) around here. Some people have their entire yards (front and back) landscaped with rocks. Hmm. Less to water, which is key in this arid place. In fact the kids enjoy the rocks. Gemma immediately chose one area that she calls her "rock bed", and Timo has taken to grabbing two rocks and banging them together. And sucking on them to see how they taste.

We have since gotten a patio table, 4 chairs, and an umbrella. It is SO, so wonderful to have a backyard!!!! With a shady place to play and eat meals!!! As as stay-at-home mom, the backyard has been a huge bonus already. Things getting crazy in the afternoon? Time to prepare supper? No problem. Kids, go play outside! 

More pictures of the backyard coming soon.
 

here's Timo crawling around the living room (and into the door that leads to the master bedroom)

First order of business: weeding! Lots of that to do in our yard, since we are responsible for it as the renters. We've also had to get a lawnmower. (Fortunately we got a decent push-mower for $10 at a yard sale.)
 

On our first Sunday, we took a Sabbath from unpacking and shopping and generally feeling stressed out, and went over to Garden of the Gods for a stroll and picnic lunch. Beautiful! (And thus began Gemma's fascination with rattlesnacks, when she saw a caution sign about them. The first book she wanted to get at the library - once we got our new cards - was one on rattlesnakes; and her new favorite game is pretending to be a rattlesnake, crawling around the living room and taking bites out of people and furniture. That is, when she can squeeze in this game between all her ballet dancing!)

Unpacking and setting up house, continued... It was amazing to stay at the Storrs' house until we were a bit more settled, and it was truly amazing beyond amazing that Mom/Jaja was with us to help!! (Thanks, Dad, for letting her stay so long!)
 

Our first meal, on the eve of our first night sleeping at the house

Hmm, now where did I put the peeler?

Happy Timo, happy to bang and play with whatever he can find.

"Jaja, first I'm going to comb your hair."