Weir Autumning

i appear to be about a couple months behind, but better late than never!  our fall was full of going back to school, maisie starting school, introducing the kids to bowling, harvesting the fruits of our summer labor, jazzersizing, an apple festival, rain adventures, fun with friends, a stateman-like halloween, a balmy trip to the beach, a quick trip to the moon, and an election party.  phew, no wonder i am behind.  enjoy the show:

A Day at the Rail Yards

Conductors from Weirhaus on Vimeo.

weir swing states

Happy Halloween!

Elliot could tell you all of our states & the electoral votes of both Nevada & New Hampshire.
Maisie likes to call her state "New Hampshirt."
On that note & being the consummate teacher, here is a little lesson on electoral votes:  

Virginia = 13

Ohio = 18

New Hampshire = 4

Nevada* = 6 

*At the time of wearing, Nevada was still a toss up.  However by the time of this posting, the New York Times has it leaning Democratic.  (We can only hope our costumes have a similar effect on the outcome of our other swing states)

** Update:  Sure enough, our costumes appear to have been the extra push needed to swing all 4 states toward the Democrats.

weir baking cookies!

Each year on October 13th, I bake cookies with the kids to celebrate my dad's birthday.  Though they never got to meet him, they know that he was a very loving man who gave big bear hugs, sang songs, and loved to eat chocolate chip cookies.  

 Aproned up and ready to go!

 Elliot takes the job very seriously.  Don't even think about snagging a chocolate chip!  

Or more likely, don't even think about telling Mummy I already took one!

Elliot likes to lick the "soggy" (his words, not mine) chocolate chips out before eating the cookie. 

 Maisie apparently eats treats so infrequently that she looks at it with great confusion.

Any confusion was quickly resolved and warn delicious chocolate chip cookies were enjoyed by all.  

We love and miss you Dad!

weir summering 2012

we dress seasonally, try to eat seasonally, and now, will blog seasonally.  hey, i'm trying to be honest here and not promise things i know i wont be able to follow through with.  to kick off this new blogging approach, we have summer 2012!  these adventures include, but are not limited to, a road trip to southern california to see family and friends, family hikes in oregon, blueberry picking (60 lbs. picked!), an extended family gathering (more info. below), and the PDX adult soapbox derby.  good times were had by all, despite the fact that elliot finally lost the nap and both children were eventually pretty lost without the routines and rhythms of our typical life.  we powered through however, with puzzles, lots of family togetherness, blueberries, and harvesting the bounty of our yard.

in the middle of the pictures you may notice an increase in family pictures, as we hosted a 13 person family reunion of sorts at the beginning of august.  my cousin kevin is the fastest tree climber in michigan, and he came out to portland this summer to compete in the international arborist competition.  this being a fantastic excuse for the whole family to join in the fun, my mother susie, aunt janet and uncle sam, cousin robin and her family and kevin's fiancé all came out for a great oregon adventure.

we spent the first week at rogue brewery's hop 'n' bed in independence, oregon on the banks of the willamette river.  in the heart of the willamette valley we were able to enjoy fresh picked fruit, very local beer, dips in the river, the state capitol, a day trip to the coast, and fresh crab.  when on the hop farm the free range chickens, turkeys, and on-site pigs kept the 4 kids under age 4 very entertained.

once back in portland for the competition, we settled in at the expanded weirhaus halsey compound for 4 days of pure portland:  bob's red mill (multiple bob sightings included), family bike riding, laurelhurst park (for the competition at which kevin took home a 3rd place win for his "tree rescue"), food carts, public transportation, vague sightings of mt. hood & st. helen's, public water fountains, local artisanal ice cream, and biscuits.  a portland good time!

weir going to school

rest assured dear children, the rhythms and routines of normalcy are back (thank god!).  elliot actually woke us up this morning, fully dressed and ready to go at 6:45 am.  

elliot returns for his 3rd year in his montessori school

maisie heads off to her first day of full-time preschool 

Pacific Northwesterner's hibiscus, the dogwood flower.

Weir Getting Haircuts  ...Well, everyone except me.

Elliot was the lucky one to actually get a professional cut, thanks to the nice folks at Bishops Barbershop.  Along for the party was his haircutting buddy, Ava and Maisie.

 Always the champ, Elliot sat very patiently while he received his very hip haircut.  I believe the stylist called it the "teardrop," I like to call it the "flock of seagulls."

Check out that asymmetry.  Nothing but the coolest cut for this fella.

A big haircutting success for both of them, they left feeling lighter and more free.

Maisie was the next up, as Mummy really needed to take care of her mullet.  For 2 years we have been waiting for Maisie's hair on top to catch up with her mullet, and I think after this final cut, she may have achieved normalcy.  Yipee!

The final, and most exciting round goes to Stuart.  While I don't have a "before" shot, I thought this one was pretty close.

As you can imagine, Stu was rather eager to cut it all off, so he went to extremes... 

using his beard cutter to shave his head.

 There was a lot of hair, and it was no easy process.  Stu would liken it to clearing a jungle.

Thankfully it all worked out and he too is lighter and brighter as a result.  

(Despite the little chunk he took out on the side)

"mouth hurt"

Maisie would want you all to know that she accidentally bit through her tongue a few weeks back.  Despite Elliot seeing 3 specialists before the age of 2, Maisie didn't make her first trip the emergency room till she was 26 months. 

Elliot was equally traumatized by the event, given the large amount of blood that flowed from Maisie's mouth and onto my sweater.  I had so much blood on my sweater that he didn't even want to sit next to me in the car.  Standing on the sidelines was his preferred mode of coping.  

Though she is all healed up now, the trauma is still very fresh in her mind, as several times a day she reminds us that her mouth hurts.  The following is a tame version of the original wound, as it was taken a week after the incident, but you may want to shield your eyes none the less.

Spring is here?

 

Well, based on these pictures you sure would think so.  Contrary to photographic evidence, Spring has yet to fully arrive here in the Northwest.  However that does not stop us from getting out into the yard at every possible moment.  With a trip to wine country, the farmer's market, and our own backyard, we have been busy swinging, running, planting, and biking.  With all of this outdoor time, they have also needed lots of sleep, and I admit that I have developed a bit of photo habit in regards to their sleeping - they are just too cute!

Happy  4th  Birthday  Elliot!

maisie @ 2 yr.

I thought Maisie (and her hair) deserved a post all to herself. Given our weekend in the yard, I couldn't help but post this shot of our happy little dirt-eating, curly haired, beauty.

Weir finally sleeping (sort of)

Just as Stuart and I were finally sleeping uninterrupted nights on a somewhat regular basis (after 4 years), things just seemed too easy. To spice things up and bring some challenge to our otherwise mundane lives, we preemptively moved Maisie out of her crib and into Elliot's bed, then gave Elliot a new low bunk bed. Wahoo! (or at least one would think)

Maisie knew just what to do, as though she had been dreaming of a bed all her life (she probably had been). One of her favorite things to do is play "nap" in her new big girl bed. Normally we welcome such fantasy play, if it not for her active resistance to the real thing.

Despite Elliot's initial enthusiasm for his new bunk bed, he really just wanted to sleep with Maisie in her bed (something he had been asking to do since she was only months old). They now sleep this way most nights.

My adorable, rosey-cheeked, little darlings - the beauty of sharing a room. If only it didn't take them 2 hours to do this - the ugly side of having to share a room. To be fair, they have gotten it down to just over an hour.

With Maisie unable to resist the excitement of getting out bed on her own, she is waking at 5:15 most days, and getting her rest wherever she can.

Weir cookin' now

Despite several cooking adventures with Mummy (usually making something sweet no less) I was apparently no competition for the master weirhaus chef, Stuart.

With Stuart making cooking look so fun, Elliot was practically begging (well, actually he was) to help him in the kitchen. He didn't need to ask Stuart twice (though Mummy has asked countless times), and Daddy put him right to work.

With the season opener this week, Elliot helped celebrate by making Sweedish meatballs on Wednesday, Asian rice soup w/ pork balls on Thursday, and it wouldn't be Passover without some matzos ball soup on Saturday. Phew, he found that his dice rolling practice came in handy when trying to roll all those balls.

Maisie is not one to be complacently left out of the action, so when it came time for Easter muffin making on Easter Eve, she was in... into the flower that is. Also not one to patiently await further instructions, she just turned on the mixer and was ready to go, as was the flower also ready to go...everywhere!

Thankfully Maisie was easily distracted by the delicious flour and happily left the kitchen.

In the spirit of my predecessor, I couldn't resist including this photo outtake.

Weir Back!

Despite the extended blog absence, we are alive and well here at the Weirhaus. Regardless of Stuart’s overwhelming success as blog master, he has resigned his post, leaving the blog to either fall further into disrepair or for me to take over the reigns. After prodding from friends (thanks Helen), pleading from geographically distant family and friends, and overwhelming inspiration from my kids, I have decided to take it.

While I promise to provide somewhat regular pictures and attempts at witty and entertaining commentary, I have some disclaimers:

1) 1) I by no means fancy myself a writer or editor (those are both Stuart’s department). Therefore I ask that you forgive and not judge my inevitable numerous misspellings, grammatical errors, and typos.

2) 2) I have a habit of playing off of our name (demonstrated above), so prepare yourself for my lame sense of humor.

3) 3) I will likely be using a similar format to our friends’ (everybody loves Rabold) blog, as they have a nice and simple format that I think I can manage to maintain. (I just want to give credit where credit is due.)

4) 4) I will try my darndest to maintain this blog on a regular basis (a post or 2 a month maybe?) but I’m not making any promises.

Now of course for the moment you have all been waiting for, drum roll please. May the massive onslaught of pictures from the last 20 months begin!