Daddy's new running partner

State Fair

Abby and I met up with my parents at the state fair today and had a great time! In the more recent past I have not really enjoyed the fair, nor have I even gone the last few years. But, having a little one makes it so much fun!

Abby loves her Grandpa!

She thoroughly enjoyed the petting zoo

There was a tent for babies and toddlers filled with fun toys

What fair experience is complete without ice cream? Abby takes after her mom in that she loves the stuff and I could hardly get the spoon away from her.

On our way back to the car we passed a big outdoor play place with giant balls!

You may not know that just east of Salem was a large KKK headquarters. Thankfully, this is all that remains of Oregon's dark history.

Work Retreat

The news on the work front is - I don't have to supervise anymore! I just cannot do it in 20 hours, at least not with a baby in tow. One of my coworkers will be taking over that piece of my job and this is such a relief. One of my last duties as a supervisor was organizing and leading a half-day retreat for our unit on Wednesday. I had lots of fun and Abby got to play in a park with Lincoln and eat cookies - she was in 15 month old heaven. The two of them found a stump with bugs which Abby then decided was a perfect chair. By the way, she is feeling much better now.

there were several birds' nests in the eaves of the picnic shelter and one of them had 3 little baby birds in it

the park didn't have fire pits, so I had the staff build a "fire" with sticks and construction paper flames

What do you think that little mind is pondering?

Welcome to the world, little one!

Last week Tara and Andy welcomed their beautiful little baby girl into the world. I've stolen some pictures from their blog - she looks so cute! I can't wait to go and meet our new little niece. That makes niece number 4, plus a daughter of our own - there are a lot of girls in this family!

The adorable Kristi Marie Porter

AKA “Sprout”

Born August 15, 2009 at 1:46pm

6 pounds, 15 ounces, 18 1/2 inches

proud papa

so cute!

loving on mommy already!

Our little bundle of joy turned 15 months today. She also had her doctor check-up - not a fun way to celebrate! She is perfectly healthy and showed off for the doctor. She is 31 1/4 inches and 19 lbs. 7in. That puts her in the 76th percentile for height and the 7th percentile for weight. Not sure where she gets her height from! She is also quite the little social butterfly - not sure where she gets that either. Maybe she is adopted. Then came the evil nurse who gave her 3 nasty shots. Her legs are really hurting her and we have been listening to her moan over the monitor for several hours now. I this may be a long night.

she still loves "reading"

Abby loves singing Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes, but only ever points to her head.

Having a rough time with the shots. After giving her both Tylenol and Motrin she snuggled with Daddy while watching a Baby Einstein DVD.

And So It Begins

Students started trickling in on Monday, and so we begin the transition back to life with lots of people. Tuesday kicked off with a malfunctioning fire alarm. It went off 3 times in the afternoon and surprisingly did not seem to really bother little Abby. Keep in mind these are commercial building alarms, not your little house smoke alarm and we have one in every room and even in our entry way. Apparently if you are standing in the door way you wouldn't hear the deafening blare coming from the bathroom 18 inches away or the one from the living room or the one from Abby's room just on the other side of the wall. So, after a little work from Campus Care we went on our merry way.
Andrew and Kathleen stopped by on their way from Sac Town to the wonderful world of Gresham and we enjoyed some hang out time and pizza. We put Abby to bed and then got ready to enjoy our last night together before the next 3 weeks of insanity. About 8:15 the alarm sounded again. I scooped Abby up from her crib and ran outside. Eugene had run over to PVG for a moment and I didn't have the number for security so I took refuge at the Horton's. In true Christie's bad luck with fire alarm fashion, the sprinklers came on right as I was crossing the path to Balyo, but at least I wasn't standing in front of a busy road in nothing but my bathrobe this time - remember that story?
Abby had fun playing with Max and Lexi while we waited for Josh to come rescue us from the blaring sirens. Poor Josh recently had surgery and had just taken meds that did not allow him to drive so his wife had to bundle up their newborn and bring him over - bless them! Realizing the alarm was going to keep sounding until a technician could come out the next day, Josh gave Eugene the shut-off key. We came home and got Abby back to sleep about 9:30pm and Eugene and I enjoyed a movie together. The alarm sounded again at midnight, 3:45am and 9:30am and then started getting much more frequent. Abby and I hid out at work all day. It was finally fixed around 4:30pm. Then it was off to Brenda's last night for the kickoff bar-b-q. Wow, the excitement just started and I'm already exhausted :)

Daddy's Little Helper

This whole child safety lock thing is getting a bit frustrating. The first kind we bought were too long, which we didn't discover until after installing and the door would not shut. So, then we tried the kind with the magnet lock. $20 and several more holes later we discovered our cabinet doors are too thick for the magnet to work. Grrrr. So now our only options left are the kind that go on the outside of the door - so ugly! Oh, well. Better an ugly cabinet than a poisoned baby.

How I clean my kitchen floor