Monday, November 2, 2009

Month in Review: October 2009

Another month has rolled by, and so much has happened. (You know there's a lot going on when I don't post anything about it, because there's no time.) Korie and I had our third anniversary. Inen has taken his first steps and is now walking. (Watch out!) We cooked for the Art Retreat again and spent some good time in Newport. My parents sold their house and bought one out here. (Praise Jesus!) And instead of posting these things to the blog I have been reading.
Brandon's sanity: 1. Brandon's blog: 0.

Oh well. At least you get to see the pictures now, right?

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Month in Review: September 2009

It's time again for another slide show of the last month's goings-on. Can you believe Inen is 13 months already? Wow.

I hope y'all enjoy the slide show below. Check out the captions (as if I need to tell you). When you get to the end, take a good look at the last picture, and see if you can come up with a good caption for it. If so, leave your idea in the comments section below.

Have a good October, and enjoy the pictures!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Inen's first Trip to the Zoo!

Today (Monday, Sept. 14) Korie and I took Inen on his first trip to the zoo. This milestone trip in a child's life was all the fun and excitement we could have hoped for, with perfect weather to boot! Thank You, God, for the great weather; and thank you, Oregon Zoo, for the great wildlife experience with our son.



Some experiences of note:

When we were looking at the leopard, Korie was telling Inen what it was and he said "leopard" right back!


At the lorikeet aviary, Inen enjoyed the colorful birds, particularly as they landed on Korie's head while she was holding him (twice). This was my personal favorite part of the trip. No family members were pooped on at this exhibit.




Inen got to see pygmy goats butting heads:


We also got to see the new lion exhibit...


... where Inen made his own lion face...


... and did a lion deed of daring:


After having lunch and seeing a number of other animals, we got to see one of the elephants before Inen finally tuckered out from all the excitement.


He just missed seeing Samudra, the baby elephant born right around the same time he was.


Korie and I saw bears, primates, native northwest critters, and a few other animals before the day was out.


Inen had a good long nap after several hours of animal antics, and we all had a very fun day!



If you'd like to see a slide show of the day, here it is:

Friday, September 11, 2009

Inen's first Birthday!!!

Inen turned one year old this August! So exciting!!! We survived the first year! And so we celebrated. Here's the evidence:

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Inen's first (full) August

Sorry I'm late again. We've all been ill of late... at least that's my excuse. Regardless, here is the monthly slide show of the life of Inen. This one is particularly noteworthy, however, as it is the culmination of his first year. Yay! Following this one we will have a slideshow of his first birthday party, so stay tuned! For now, tide yourselves over with a heaping helping of slides from August:

Monday, August 31, 2009

Inen's Allergies, Part 2

A while ago I promised that I would give an account of what we found out from the appointment with the allergist. So here is what went down:

At the allergist appointment we ended up not drawing blood for a RAST test, but instead the doctor recommended just doing a simple skin prick test for the biggest concerns. When we told him about Inen's previous two reactions, he concluded that the second one had to have been the cashews. They did not do skin tests for the cashews or peanuts, figuring that those are definite known allergies, and not wanting to cause a severe reaction by administering the test. What they tested for was cats, dogs, dust, wheat, soy, sesame, citrus, milk, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, and tomatoes.



So what this test, past experiences, and the previous RAST test tell us that Inen is allergic to

  • milk protein (casein)

  • eggs

  • peanuts

  • cashews

  • pecans

  • and walnuts


is slightly sensitive to

  • almonds


and is not allergic to

  • cats

  • dogs

  • dust

  • wheat

  • soy

  • sesame

  • citrus

  • tomatoes

  • and hazelnuts.


We are very relieved and thankful to find that he is not allergic to wheat, soy, or sesame (yay! he can have tahini!); and especially that he is not allergic to hazelnuts. That is the one nut that we have in abundance in our area, so we can get them from the farms and know that they were not processed with any other nut. It's also good to know that while he has allergies, they are limited, and the things he can still eat make his diet very very do-able. Praise God!

We are still going to look into a full panel of foods just so that we aren't having to do trial and error so often. There are still allergies that can pop up that we haven't tested for, so it will be good to know. In fact, we may have found a new one on Saturday while preparing for his birthday party: chocolate. We'll keep y'all updated if we find anything out about that.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Inen's first Birthday!

Today Inen turned one year old.

Can you believe it? I can't. It seems like it's gone by so fast, while at the same time, it seems like it's been a lifetime. So much changes so quickly about this boy. And of course, for you faithful readers, the Inen in this post will seem like a very big change indeed, since I haven't been posting updates for the last (oh, goodness... am I that delinquent?) three months. So I had to be on top of this one, even if it meant losing precious, valuable sleep. Here's a recap of Inen's first birthday. (Remember, I'm losing sleep for this post. Savor it.)

Inen got up not too terribly early this morning. Just before 5 AM. Korie managed to get him to go back to sleep until 5:45. That was his gift to us.


After he was up, we did our normal routine of getting everyone ready for the day, and getting breakfast. After Korie headed off to work, it was time to head to the coffee shop.



We played with toys, read books, talked to people, and then headed out as nap time approached. From there we stopped at Tim's place to see his new Scottish terrier puppy, Bonnie. Inen was absolutely thrilled.





Once home, Inen took a nap while I got stuff done. When he got up we did some more reading and playing until Korie got home for lunch. (Yay!!!) Always a happy time for Inen. After Korie went back to work and he was fed, we headed out for groceries. We stopped at the community garden for some corn, and then to Freddy's for the rest. Once home, it was time for another short nap before heading off to Grandma Kathleen's house.

Here's a story. We got to Grandma's, and while Inen eyed the toys, Grandma and Daddy talked. Suddenly, there's Inen wanting Dad to pick him up. I picked him up, and what does he do? He points to the door, says "door," and then looks at me and waves, saying "Bye-bye!" Sheesh! I can take a hint! So I left him contented with Grandma Kathleen.

Meanwhile, I works on getting the grill going and dinner started. Inen got home with Korie, and soon Grandpa Mike and Grandma Kathleen arrived. We all had a good dinner, Inen having loads of fun making a particularly large mess of his. After dinner Inen got to see the gift that the Jones Grandparents goot for him: a fabulous green frog rocking chair.




We wrapped up the evening with many huggs, kisses, and the usual bath and bed time routine. And off to sleep went our amazing little one-year-old boy.

It was a good day. It has been a great year.
Here's to many more.